Thursday, September 1, 2011

Three Things Thursday

1. Wednesday I finally took a run down to see the big hole in the road. Well, I was too late. They were already hard at work repairing the road.  I met a couple of other people going to take pictures who were also surprised at how fast the repairs were happening.  A little unneeded info - I had to pee badly. I thought since I was on a closed road it should be no problem.  But I met a few walkers and decided to wait. Then I decided there was no more waiting and just went!  Right after I finished a car came by! Man I almost got caught.  There were Road Closed signs in 3 places and this car was going as far as it could. Eventually you come to  a huge pile of dirt that won't let cars go by anymore.  I assume this car was getting as close as it could. After all not everyone is in the kind of shape where they can run to it and go even farther because it is not enough of a run.

So I took some pictures. Just realize where the dirt is there was no road.




2. My high school reunion was a ton of fun, more than I expected.  People looked very different than I remembered but a fair amount of time has passed since I last saw many of them.  My friend from NYC still came in spite of Irene and she got out of town just in time the next day!  

3. On Wednesday I had yet another First Day of School.  You would think by now it would be old hat but the first day of school is still a special thing.  This year was a bit different as I have some of the students again that I taught last year.  It is also a class with a 2 to 1 boy girl ratio.  We have switched to multi age this year and the jury is still out on that one.  But we are also doing a bit of departmentalizing. Instead of teaching everything I am not teaching reading and I am teaching math twice a day. I LOVE IT!  It is hard to be an expert at everything and put adequate time into planning so many things.  This  is one thing off my plate.  I can put more quality time into planning my math lessons and I can refine it after I teach it the first time.  I took a lot of time before school started to organize how I was going to make the two classes work and keep things separate.  So far the time spent has paid off. I am already changing some things to make it go more smoothly.  I love knowing all of the third graders and I already knew most of the fourth graders.  It is all about those connections you make with the kiddos.  I love having more teachers to share ideas with for the other areas. We are also doing a science  unit together and doing different sections. I for instance will teach the habitat of the forest floor to all 4 classes  at different times rather than teach four different habitats.  Less planning and more of an expert!  Works for me.  I miss my old partner as she has moved to kindergarten and we worked really well together.  I love the size of my class.  It is quite small!  So I am feeling like I have gotten off to a good start!  Yeah!

Plus.....one of my students brought me  - not an apple -but a dozen fresh eggs today.  They have 17 chickens and made it sound like I might get eggs rather frequently!  Can you say fresh eggs beat apples any day of the week!





23 comments:

Amy @ Juice Boxes + Crayolas said...

OH MY GOSH. I would be ecstatic if a student brought me fresh eggs!!! How awesome!

Michael said...

Wow that's a serious wash out. Crazy what water can do. Glad they are getting to work on it already...that is fast!


Love that your student brought you eggs. That's pretty cool indeed!

Hope you have a great year this year, sounds like it's starting off pretty good!

Molly said...

I can't get over all of your pictures from the storm, yikes.

Yay for eggs! Fresh ones to boot!

Have a great school year...have you thought of your halloween costume yet?? : )

Lindsay said...

crazy road pics!! that's a lot of dirt (/lots of missing road).

fresh eggs!!! that kid deserves to skip a grade. no wait, then you might not get any more eggs. guess he'll have to be flunked ;)

Ana-Maria RunTriLive said...

I went to school in Romania, and we had different teachers for every subject.

Teamarcia said...

How awesome are fresh eggs? Great!
Wow your devastation pics are chilling. So sorry Vermont got hit so hard. Glad you and your are ok!
Heres to a wonderful new school year.
Yes, April PT conferences are booked. Insanity.

Kandi said...

Crazy to see roads washed away. Glad they are repairing things quickly.
Fresh eggs sound tasty.

LookingUpAgain said...

Congrats on heading back to school and having a successful first day.

Fresh eggs = awesome student gift! I collect electrical insulators and had a student bring me one one day. I still keep it on my desk and think of him all the time!

Char said...

A dozen fresh eggs plus a couple of apples and you could have some really nice apple and cinnamon muffins.

Sarah K said...

The pictures I've seen from Vermont just make me so sad. I can't believe how hard you all got hit. :(
And I also love the first day of school. I went back to set up today...preservice on Tuesday, kids on Thursday. I doubt any of my little Brooklynites will have fresh eggs for me though. Enjoy!

MCM Mama said...

I'd love to get fresh eggs, considering we go through more than a dozen a week here.

J starts 4th this year - should be interesting...

Average Woman Runner said...

Sounds like a good start to the year! So cool that you're co-teaching a science unit. I have fantasies about leaving my scientist day job and becoming a science teacher...but it's just a fantasy :) I just feel like we all need more SCIENCE in our lives!!!

Jill said...

Fresh eggs would ROCK!! I think one day I want to have chickens so that I can have them all the time! High school teachers don't get anything...you're lucky to teach elementary school :). First day of school is always so much fun, everyone is on their best behavior...in high school, that lasts exactly one day!! ;) Have a fantastic year!!

Anonymous said...

I remember the days of fresh eggs - walking out to the chicken coop early on a summer morning at my Grandparents farm. Memories.

Christi said...

Congrats on your first day! I hope the year goes very well.

Fran said...

I had to laugh at the fact that you were almost caught after your pee. If you did it here and got caught you would have gotten a ticket, it's against the law here to pee in nature.

Your new schoolyear sounds like it's going to be an interesting one. And so sweet that you got fresh eggs.

Jenn said...

WOW-crazy pictures. Just looking through some of your past posts!!!

My kids are so excited for the first day of school. They just went to meet their teachers. It surely is about those connections you make with the kiddos. MY 8 year old rough and tumble son will give his 1st grade teacher a bear hug in the grocery store. She left her mark on him big time.

FRESH eggs!!!! Awesome!

Amy said...

Just finding time to catch up with your posts now that we are back to normal routine and I am so glad you made it through Irene okay - but terrible for those who didn't - those pictures are frightening.
I'm glad you are enjoying your class. When I was in 4th grade, I was in a mixed 4th/5th class and that was one of my favorite years (and teacher)! But it must be a lot of work for the teacher...

Marlene said...

Sounds like it will be a good school year for you! Bonus on the fresh eggs!

Glad they are working on getting the roads repaired for you!

Tricia said...

fresh eggs are super awesome


ok, so when I met Emily I totally got giggly and said "I love your mom" and then instantly felt like a big dork. :)

Kate Geisen said...

I love the idea of only teaching part of the subjects, though I'd be all about the reading and NOT the math! :) I know what you mean about refining the lesson, though. I'm teaching my VERY small class in smaller groups, so there's always something new or smoother in the second half of the lesson.

The road (or what's left of it) picture is amazing. The amount of power that water has...

The thing I'm dreading most about winter is the loss of leaves and, thus, "bathroom" privacy.

The Jesse said...

wow, they got to work FAST on getting the road repaired! maybe the road workers in VT need to give the road workers in Cali a lesson on speediness because it takes forever to get any type of road construction done in this state!!!

Ewa said...

Fast road repair, fresh eggs - life is good, isn't it?
I like the idea of multi age classrooms. I will be curious to find out how it goes. In our homeschool community most classes are multi-age but obviously the setting is different. Hurray for small class size!
(and how come your post did not display in my reader and I had to look for it?)