Birthday Blues

First, let me tell you. Do not have a birthday on Monday. It has all the disadvantages of Monday plus getting a year older. And this year I'm an odd year that I can't think of any fun math problem to tell people as a hint. Last year I was 5 dozen. So I guess this year I can be 5 dozen plus one. Doesn't matter. I am so old now, no one even asks how old I am.

Several people did wish me a happy birthday and I had text messages wishing me a happy day. My lovely daughter remembered and gave me some dangly bronze leaf earrings. I shouldn't be blue today. I think it is a lack of sleep-see above problem with Monday birthday.

I am about to go to yoga class and hopefully my mood will get better. Then dinner at a nice restaurant. Note to self. Wear something loose to the restaurant. Tight pants just make me feel fatter.

Spider Lily Sighting

When I went to get the mail, I saw my first spider lily of the fall. It was hiding under the morning glory vines. My birthday is less than two weeks away. What did I tell you? Spider lilies = my birthday is near.
I finished another Phryne Fisher mystery. Now I have read all of the books by Kerry Greenwood in the public library. Guess it is time to treat myself to an early birthday present and buy some for my nook.
Once again I am struggling to finish an article for the EEIS newsletter. I really want to run it. The subject is my favorite one to talk about. But I just can't sit down and finish it. I H.A.T.E. to write pieces with citations. I really should give credit to the researchers who prove my point of view. But I HATE digging up all the info for footnotes.
I am enjoying going to yoga twice a week. On the other hand, I now have long days Monday thru Thursday. I need more down time than that. Maybe next week will work better. PTA, workshops, errands for mom, and I feel stretched to the limit.

September is here!

September is the start of my year because it's my birth month. And school starts, or did when I was a kid, in September. Look for spider lilies to bloom soon. They are my favorite fall flowers. Redbuds mean spring to me and spider lilies are fall. I love flowers and plants and was quite a little gardener as a child. Now I just enjoy as a member of the audience.

This has been a very odd beginning of school. I was sick a couple of days the first week of school. Then we had two days off because of hurricane Isaac. Now a long holiday weekend. Have I gotten anything productive done? No. Do I have stuff I should be doing? Yes. But instead I have been reading a new mystery by Kerry Greenwood. The public library has only three books by this author and I have checked all of them out. Really like this Australian author and wish more of her books were available at the library. I may have to breakdown and buy some for my nook.

Of course I need to write an article for the EEIS Newsletter. We are very short of articles for this edition and as editor I should have something to fill the space. I have an idea rolling around in my head, just getting it in a readable form is the problem. Next week is going to be very busy. Maybe that will motivate me to write something tomorrow. We'll see.

Home Sick

I'm sitting here at home instead of school because I can't get rid of this stomach bug. I never know what to eat, so I'm trying water and saltines today. Yesterday I tried going to work and made it through the day but felt awful when I got home.
Anyway, all that whining to get to this-I don't have anything good to read. I finished the second Phryne Fisher mystery a couple of days ago and don't have anything new to read. Don't feel like sewing so I'm just sitting here watching reruns.
But I am feeling better. Maybe saltines are the answer.

Cruising down Highway 1

"Nobody wants to look at vacation pictures," one of Martin's co-workers once told him. So I won't bore you with all the photos we took on vacation but we were very pleased with this one of both of us in front of Hearst Castle.

This year we made it to a part of California we had not visited before. We flew to San Francisco and stayed a little south of town in a small motel in Pacifica. It had a lovely view of the rocky coastline and the drive into town was easy. The day we arrived we decided to ride the train/subway into downtown. We had no clue how to navigate the fee system but a very helpful BART worker showed us how to buy round-trip tickets. We walked around a very touristy area and ate dinner at a fusion/asian place in a high rise mall. Then we rode back to Pacifica. The BART tickets cost so much we decided that paying to park would be just as economical.

The next day we drove in and parked at Pier 39. We found a double decker tour bus that would show us the highlights of the area. We sat on the upper level around town and across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was foggy and chilly that morning. I was glad I had on a jacket and scarf.

Well, I won't give a blow by blow account of the week. I will just list the highlights: Muir Woods, Napa Valley, Sausilito, twisty Highway 1, Monterey Aquarium, Hearst Castle, Getty Malibu, and Garrison Keillor at the Hollywood Bowl. It was a memorable trip. As always it was also good to get back home.

Reading Results

Once again I have found that ELLs' reading comprehension has increased through extended reading time. My students read or listened to recorded books for at least 60 minutes per day for 4 weeks. Most students made six months gain in comprehension in less than a month. The other activity that seemed to help was to complete an EZ Cloze paragraph each day. This took about 15 minutes. After completing a paragraph at their seats, they moved to the carpet to highlight and check answers. Using a highlighter was fun and kept them from changing their answers. They chose a title for each paragraph which helped with main idea. I think this activity helped them understand how cloze paragraphs work, too.

I shared their improved reading levels with them after lunch today. We talked about how reading more helped them read better. Now if only we could spend more time reading at school instead of un-ending test prep junk.

Weekend Reading

My weekend reading assignment is to make a CD of a book for next week in summer school. The kids are clamoring to read TIGER, a fictional book about the five ancestors of Kung Fu. I have read it before and it is exciting and funny. The kids will love listening to it. I just need to find enough quiet time to record it.

In the non-quiet time I am going to finish reading CHILDREN OF THE LAMP. It is a very engaging and well written children's book about djinn. The title page says it is book one, so there must be a series. I'll have to check the library.

And speaking of the library, we went to the main library as part of our summer school field trip yesterday. There was a program and free stuff for the kids. Next year I am going to get the library schedule earlier so we can plan to attend more of the library programs. They are free and maybe the kids will get their parents to take them to some of the activities after summer school is over.

After the kids finish the next round of literature circles, I think we will use our reading time to read the ten books in the book bags. We'll see if that works out.