Updates

1.  Sam finished his first week of DYS training.  He will spend this week shadowing various teachers at five different facilities in the NE area.  His hours won't be quite as good as they were this past week with him working only 15 minutes away, but they will still get him home earlier than a commute from Boston.

2.  Over spring vacation, I worked on perfecting a lemon drop martini at home.  It took a few tries, but I got it.  I haven't made one since, because really who has the time, but at least I can.

3.  I finished reading Plainsong.  It was a book that my grandmother had checked out of the library and I thought it looked good.  It was ok, not great.

4.  Right now I am reading Malcolm Gladwell's Blink.  I'm really liking it and his take on our perceptions.

5.  I finished Season 6 of Mad Men in two days.  It was released last weekend on Netflix.  I didn't think it was very good and I think it is time for the series to end.  Apparently, the producers agree, because Season 7 will be the final season.  I'm going to watch Season 7 with Jenny as it airs each week.

6.  Call the Midwife has started up again.  I don't love it, but I definitely like it.  I think if I concentrated on watching it a bit more while it is playing, I would like it more.  I always seem to be folding mountains of laundry or doing computer work while it is on.

7.  I am doing well with my apprenticeship hours, up to about 50 at this point so I'm on track to finish in two years which is my goal.  I will be attending two faculty meetings this week there.

8.  I attended the Blackstone Valley Education Foundation Forum last week after school.  It was neat to see all of the schools represented and how the BVCC is working with schools, but it was geared primarily to the high school student range, so not very beneficial for me.

9.  Lucy went on a field trip to Mechanic's Hall last week where she listened to a special concert performed for students.  She enjoyed dressing up and getting to leave school.  This weekend she went to a birthday sleepover with 11 girls.  I could never do such a thing as a parent, but she had a great time alternating between the hot tub and the trampoline.

10.  The weather is finally nice.  We had all the windows open today and the kids spent a few hours in the woods working on a fort they are building.  All they have left to do "is put down the pine needle carpet".  Amelia also spent over an hour riding her bike at Rocketland with Sam.  She came down dressed in her Red Sox sweatshirt and baseball cap this morning.  She was barely indoors today.

11.  The OT came to observe Toby this week during PE class.  She noticed his hyper-flexibility.  He sits in a W shape on the ground with his legs bent in back of him, etc.  She thinks he is weak and needs to build up his muscles.  The academic observation takes place tomorrow.  He has been having Barton tutoring twice a week for about two months now and I've noticed a big improvement in his spelling.  He is more confident with spelling words and is working on remembering the various spelling rules he has learned.

12.  We enjoyed going to see Toby's artwork in Art in the Valley on Friday night.  We especially enjoyed Lowell and Barbara coming for a visit!

13.  April 2 was my class' Read-In Day.  We came in our pajamas to school and brought our favorite blankets and bedding, along with books, and spent the whole day reading.  It was a lot of fun.  I made it halfway through Blink on that day.  Now to figure out how we could have a day like that weekly!

14.  I was in charge of April Fool's Day at the school.  I planned for the elementary teachers to switch classrooms at 8:10 in the morning and tell the new class that they were going to be their teacher for the rest of the year.  At 8:20 our principal was going to announce "April Fool's" over the intercom.  At 8:10 I headed out of my class and went down the hall to the Kindergarten class that I was supposed to be "teaching".  There were no students in there!  I assumed that the teacher was playing a trick on me and had hidden them, so I looked in various closets, etc. in the room.  Nothing.  I decided they must be next door in the Preschool room, so I looked in there, but the Preschool teacher was just reading to her class on the rug.  I looked around the classroom some more and looked outside (based on a teacher's suggestion) and then went back into the Preschool room.  I was looking out there windows (thinking the teacher might have hid them outside around the building) when finally the Preschool teacher said, "They are right here!"  They were the children on the rug.  I didn't recognize them because the Kindergarten teacher had them dress up for Book Character Day so no one looked like themselves.  The Kindergarten teacher had planned it with the parents and was very excited about tricking me.  It was the first time I've ever been tricked on April Fool's Day and it was great!  I won't mention the DD coffee I was given that was actually cold chocolate milk or the fake cockroach that was put on top of a box of munchkins.  It was quite a day!

15.  Lucy starts a quilting class after school this week and I start teaching a "Games Galore" class after school on Wednesdays.

16.  In very exciting news it has been worked out that I will be a 3rd grade teacher next year, continuing my Active Learning classroom and keeping the same 2nd grade students that I have now.  Rachel J.  is going to do an Active Learning classroom in 2nd grade, so the program is expanding!  We are meeting this week with our principal to set up the parent meeting and finalize things.