End of March

What's this? March is almost over? And it's only Tuesday? National Boards-the end is in sight. Need to revise a little, find a few pieces of evidence, buy a case for the DVD, assemble according to instructions, and mail the thing. Hope to do that soon. Testing all kids in April. Not that we haven't been testing the poor things all year. We haven't had time to teach for all the days spent testing. Who will stop the madness? Give us TIME TO TEACH! Taking Dad to VA next Tuesday to give Mom a two week break. JARC on Thursday. YM Festival on Saturday. Oh, my. I'll have to write and revise this weekend.

Boston TESOL

This week has been a blur. We got in on Wednesday after a delay in Washington and a plane change. Can you tell how tired I was when the kids' art work went up? What crazy person puts half up in orderly rows and the other half in a zigzag mess. I thought I would fall down stapling the top row, I was so tired. Teachers are mostly good folks. They wrote comments to the kids. I think the kids will feel very special when they read the notes. On the other hand, some klepto took one of the note pads I put out for people to write notes on. What's wrong with you people? My friend Sarah saw a teacher grab stacks of books and cram them into her bag when there were other teachers waiting to take free samples, too.
I wish I could have seen more of Boston. We took a trolley tour but didn't have time to get off and walk to each historic site. Plus, it was extremely cold and windy. Maybe we can come back in the summer. Lots of history here. And museums. You know how I love museums. I'm going to sleep on the plane home. That's the only way I'll be ready for school Monday.

Writing done-maybe

Well, I think I have finished writing for my national board renewal. It wasn't as hard as I thought at the beginning. Next step is to let some others read it and let me know what may need revision. Oh, yeah, and get all the different pieces of evidence together. Deciding what to use, like the photo of our trip to the zoo. Probably not. But the main part is written and it isn't due til the end of April. Now I can get on with other projects. I think writing this blog has helped me get in the right frame of mind for writing.
Reading another Simon Brett mystery. I really like his two middle aged main characters.

Red Bud Trees

Trees are blooming here. Everywhere I look the ornamental pears are full of beautiful white blossoms. But I love the red bud trees. There must be hundreds of white pear trees showing off all over the place. I have seen only four red bud trees this year. When they are at the edge of the woods it looks like someone left a lacy, red scarf draped in the trees. When I was about nine someone helped me plant a red bud twig in our front yard. I have loved them ever since.

Quilting and reading

Found the cure for not being able to quilt. Read about quilting! I'm reading The Quilter's Homecoming by Jennifer Chiaverini. I didn't think I would like it, since I'm such a mystery fan, but I'm really getting into the story. I'm going to check out her other books and look for the quilt pattern books when I'm finished with writing for National Boards.
I just read another new (to me) mystery writer, Simon Brett. The book was set in a village in England with characters about my age. I'll look for more of his books, too.
Testing this week-ugh! It's not fun for the teachers but it's worse for the kids. I'm glad I'm not a student.

Take me away

Don't know what exactly ticked me off but people were really getting on my nerves today. I think I need to get more sleep or something.
This month's Reading Teacher has a couple of really good articles-sharing quality. I liked the one about first grade teachers encouraging students to talk about the books they read with a set of prompts on a spinner. Couldn't help it. I made copies and gave to other teacher in our meeting yesterday.
Circling back to being ticked off. My grumpy mood started yesterday in the meeting when I was interupted twice. Once to take a phone call that could have waited and another time by a perfectly nice 'clueless' person who wanted some English worksheets to take on a mission trip. Worksheets? For what age learner? On what content? Not a clue.
In the evening I got a call from a sweet mom wanting to know where her kids were. At five o'clock. School was out at 2:15. I put them on the wrong bus. I feel very bad about that. But the back story is this mom calls almost every day with a different after school plan for her kids. It would be easier if I just let them stay after school with me.
And continuing on the Janice screwed up list-just realized I had someone else's missing purchase order items. We both ordered from National Geographic. When the orders came in, I was called to pick the boxes up. I assumed it was all mine and took it to school, wrote my name all over everything in permanent marker. Now she is wondering what happened to her order and asked me, as lead teacher, to look into it. Oops! Mea Culpa.
I really need a day off.