Classroom Blog

I decided to start a new blog for my classroom. I don’t think I’m ready to set up blogs for each student, but I want to get them blogging. So, I sat down tonight and spent some time looking at the teacher blogs I have found. I knew that I wanted to start blogging with my students on the first day, so it was mandatory that I figure out how to do it. I don’t want it to be complicated. So, I decided to just set up a blog for our classroom. I will have a student sit at my desk each day and blog during class. I want the blog to be a communication tool. I want parents to be able to see what is going on in class. I want students to have fun writing about what we are doing in class. It is going to be very simple. We may decide to make changes later, but for now it is a simple blog. I knew that I had started a blog on blogger a few years ago when my friend Sandy first started talking to me about blogs. I went to blogger.com and after several failed log in attempts was able to find my long lost blog. No big surprise, it only had one post. I erased it and quickly made changes to get it ready for the first day of school. I love that you can write a post and save it as a draft until you are ready for it to appear. I can type up my daily posts when I write my lesson plans and then just publish one each day. This blogging thing is going to be easier than I ever thought it could be.

Well, it is getting late and I do have in-service tomorrow and a lot of planning to do. So, I must get to bed. Please check out my classroom blog though at www.room140.blogspot.com and let me know what you think. I’ll add links later. 

Classroom

Classroom, originally uploaded by aredden.

Here is another view. You can see the chaos everywhere. I’m leaving the back wall bare. In the past, I have allowed students to post examples of figurative language on it. This year, I am going to call it a graffiti wall for the first month. I got the idea from Rick Wormeli’s book Meet Me in the Middle. He told his students they could write anything they wanted “as long as it would be acceptable to their parents and grandparents, would not violate any school policies, and would not be derogatorey to anyone.” I really enjoyed reading the things his students had written. I’m going to steal a few of their comments to get our wall started.

“The most evidence of there being intelligent life out there is that they haven’t visited us.”

“Always be a first-rate version of yourself instead of a second-rate version of someone else.”–Judy Garland.

I’ll post pictures when I get it done.

Classroom

Classroom, originally uploaded by aredden.

I can’t believe there is only one full day left before the kids arrive. I am obviously not ready. I have so much work to get done physically and mentally.

I am planning to send someone to the computer on day 1 to blog about what is going on. So, really blogging is part of my preparation.

Birthday Dinner

Birthday Dinner

Originally uploaded by aredden.

When I saw the article about this new Greek restaurant in the local paper, I wanted to try it out. It sounded wonderful, and I was sure it would be. My high school sweetheart who was skinny as a rail married a Greek girl and quickly gained all the weight he had tried to gain since junior high. I figured Greek food must be good. My husband, Bill, being the less adventurous one wouldn’t dare go near it. On my birthday though, I got to choose the restaurant, and he offered to even take me to “that Greek place.” I have to admit, I had my doubts when we pulled in at 6:00 pm to find an empty parking lot. I really wanted to go across the street to Cracker Barrel, but I knew this would be my only opportunity to get Bill into this place. We headed inside where we found a hostess sitting down on the job. This seemed odd to me. The atmosphere was somewhat appealling though. Not too fancy, but nicer than most locally owned places. The waitress was nice, and the tea was good. It all went downhill when my salad arrived though. My lettuce did not meet my standards, and the lasagna was just okay. I’m glad we went because I won’t have to wonder what I am missing any more, but I don’t think we will be going back.

You Don’t Have to be Old

Rocking Chairs

Originally uploaded by aredden.

For my birthday this year, I asked Bill to get me two white rocking chairs for the front porch. He said I just wanted us to be old. Surely he didn’t mean this. I can’t imagine why he thinks I’ll look old when I sit on the front porch in my white rocker knitting or reading. My friends and family have enjoyed teasing me, but I’ll be the one enjoying the relaxing afternoons on my front porch. Maybe some of them will join me from time to time.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Making Changes

There are so many great blogs out there, I’ve come to realize that mine is a bit subpar.  I want to improve it, but don’t really know where to start.  I’ve changed my header picture.  Isn’t that the cutest little hand?  I took that picture of Will on our camping trip to Mammoth Cave last summer.  He is writing in his camping journal.  I thought it was appropriate.  If you look really close, you can see that he doesn’t really know how to write but that doesn’t keep him from writing and enjoying it.  He is a lot like me.  I don’t really know how to blog, but that doesn’t keep me from blogging and enjoying it. One thing I noticed about the blogs that catch my attention is that they all have great photos on them.  So, I went and opened a flickr account. I uploaded a few pictures from my computer, but I’m looking forward to carrying my camera around with me to get some attention grabbing photos.  I have to figure out how to insert pictures into my posts though.  Let me just give it a try here. 
Wow. I figured it out.

 Now, If I could just think of a clever title …….

Could I replace D.O.L.(daily oral language) with this?

I’m out in the blogosphere again today and I run across this nifty little item. 

Celebrity English  Learn grammar and vocabulary from the stars!

I can’t wait to cruise through the site and find things to use with my students.  Man, if I had found this last year I probably could have gotten Zack’s attention with some Jessica Simpson grammar.  I gotta get away from this computer and get some housework done. 

I released my first book today!

Something really good happened today.  I had a few minutes to spare so I decided to browse around the blogosphere.  The first blog I clicked on was I’m Not Always Wrong where I found the post Knitting Tote or She Sews Too.   The word knitting caught my attention so, I decided to read a little.  I found myself leaving a comment (I had to put my two cents worth in on her fabric dilemma).  Then I noticed the word books on the left side of the screen, and you all know that I couldn’t resist clicking on it.  I just had to read more about this blogger who knits, sews, and apparantly reads.  I had no idea that clicking on the word books would be the catalyst to a late night visit to the local park, but it was.  As soon as I read:

Book Crossing – basically you join, get a identifying number to put in your book and thenk you leave it somewhere in public for someone else to find it and when they do they are supposed to go to the site and either add comments or just say they found it and pass it on.  You can also see how many books have been “released” in your area. 

I knew that I was in for some fun.  I went straight to www.bookcrossing.com and registered.   I found a book on  my shelf that was practically begging to be released and registered it.  I filled out the form and prepared the book to be released at the city park on my way to Mom’s house tomorrow.  The excitement got to me though and I ended up at the park tonight.  I wrote a note on the front cover and left the book on my favorite bench.  I can’t wait to see what happens to it. 

On a night even demons howl for their mothers, Josh stood on the edge of the highway, thumbing a ride.

Is that a great first line or what? It makes me ask a few questions.  Do demons have mothers?   What is so bad that demons would be scared?  Why in the heck is Josh out on a night like this?  What is he doing thumbing a ride in the first place? 

This first line is from Sang Spell by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.  You’ll have to read it to find out what happens to hitchhiking Josh on this scary night.