This Week OFF From School

Spring break is coming to an end (sadly) so here is what I managed to get done on my week off from school.

1) Library.  I visited the library to pick up a book that I had requested a while ago.  I had actually been reading it at one of the schools I frequent so I finally just took it out of the library to finish (although as it stands currently I still have not finished it).

2)  Cleaning.  We had people over Wednesday evening for a Bible study and a friend spent the night in our spare bedroom too... so I just tidied things up and did some laundry for all our visitors.

3)  Painting.  My lovely husband installed some doors on the main floor a while ago and I finally painted over all the nail holes (and spots where the paint chipped a bit during installation).

4)  Appointments.  What better time to schedule all your appointments than on your time off?  I actually only had one which was nice as I talked to someone else that had scheduled about 3.

5)  Baking.  I didn't need to do much as we still have baking coming out of our ears from when we helped to put on a dessert fundraiser a couple of weeks ago.  But I did restock my banana muffin supply because sometimes if I'm rushed, or switching schools on my lunch, or just not sure of the staff room dynamics at a certain school I'll grab a couple of muffins (I freeze them) for my lunch.

6)  Writing.  My goal was to get 10 new blog posts written over the week (I usually am writing a month in advance... this is #9 so I've got one  more to write either today or tomorrow to reach my goal).

7)  Gym.  This was my last week of having a gym membership.  After this week I switched to going for long walks or runs as the weather slowly improves so I had to take advantage of my last week with my membership.

8)  Movie.  I watched My Sisters Keeper (and other tv shows) but watching this movie reminded me that I should re read the novel because I couldn't remember how the novel ended.

9)  Banking.  I had to go to the bank to take our some American funds because...

10)  USA.  A friend and I went on a quick one night stay to the nearest US city to us (which is about 3 hours away).  Just to get away for a night and do some shopping.  Unfortunately the Canadian dollar is terrible at the moment so we didn't actually do all that much shopping.  What did I buy?  A large bag of tootsie rolls (stayed tuned for Monday's post as to what those are all about), some peanut butter oatmeal, a couple of items of clothing, and a bunch of pillows.  The most impressive store?  Hobby Lobby... despite not buying anything there (only because they didn't have 3 of a particular shelf that I wanted) I didn't realize how big it was or how much they sold there... it is definitely WAY bigger than our Michaels stores here in Canada!

And there you have it... my week off. 

On Monday it's back to work for this substitute teacher.  I get to be in the same classroom for the first 3 days back!

Day's Off

I don't actually have all that many days off (especially during the winter months when illness' are prevalent).  But when I do have a day off I definitely take full advantage of it!

Walk.  If the weather is decent I'll go for a walk.  Sometimes that walk will bring me somewhere to shop (or browse) and sometimes it's just a walk in the community.

Bake.  I don't bake cookies all that often because when I do I tend to make a double batch that will last awhile.  A day off is the perfect time to get some baking done though (some of our favourite cookies are coconut chocolate chip, and chocolate peanut butter)

Work Out.  For 6 months of the year (the cooler months) I get a gym pass.  If I have a day off I'll take the opportunity to go to the gym during the day instead of the evening.

Work.  Sometimes on my day off I work... on my blog.  I like to be at least a couple of weeks ahead in my posts to help me stay on track of posting regularly.  This doesn't always happen... sometimes nothing exciting happens to me for a whole month at work and I'm really lacking for content and other times I'm flooded with post ideas and can be a month ahead of myself.  On a day off I'll typically write at least a couple of posts.

Read.  I was on some extensive book request lists from the library for a while but lately I've been reading a lot more.  A day off is the perfect time to make myself a coffee and pick up that book during the day.

Chores.  I suppose if there was any a day to get ahead (or ahem, catch up) on any chores a day off would be the day.

Friends.  It doesn't happen often when a friend has the same day off as myself (especially with it being during the week) but every so often our work schedules will line up just right and we can enjoy some time together!

Watch TV.  I mean this list would be a lie if I didn't include this one because it definitely happens and I think it's definitely allowed on a day off.

Relax.  Above all, I don't have to go to work... so I'll sleep in a bit and make sure my day isn't stressful or fast paced... I can take things slow today!

This week is spring break where I am so of course I'm busy working my way through this list.

This Week At School

It was a busy last week of school before spring break or me!  Full days turned into half days which turned back into full days and I ended up working every single day this week in the end!

Monday was the day after St Patrick's Day so I read my students "How to Catch a Leprechaun" and then they did a writing activity on how they would go about catching a leprechaun.  I couldn't actually find the exact activity they did online but if you google "How to catch a leprechaun writing activity" a bunch will come up!

The next 3 days I spent at the school with only 9 kids.  We now say it's like I'm their 3rd teacher (after he 1.5 that already teach there, the EA, and the secretary).  They were busy making houses to test out different kinds of insulation.  The plan was that on Friday (when I was not there) that they were going to put a cup of hot water in each of their houses and place them outside.  Every 20 minutes or so they would go out and see what the temperature of their water was.  What were they using for insulation?  Largely shredded paper but also towels and Styrofoam.  One group even spray painted their house black which I thought was smart.  

After spring break they are going to be putting together a little indoor greenhouse to grow some fruits and veggies so we started to do some research as to what seeds do well growing in pots and have shorter growing times.  When I had left on Thursday they had decided on cucumbers, strawberries, tomatoes, and lettuce

Being that it was the week before spring break 2 of the schools I went to had spirit week this week... so one of the days was twin day (which I knew about ahead of time but obviously wouldn't have been able to coordinate with someone to twin with them), then there was jersey day so my husband lent me his and I wore a Washington Capitals jersey to school, then we had read and feed which didn't require dressing up and instead I had them read from about 10:30-12:00 (which surprisingly went over really well with a lot of them).  The feed part was they got to snack on fruits and veggies while reading.  I also brought them some cookies because I had a bunch leftover from a dessert fundraiser I helped with the previous weekend (I had told them that they had to be good in order to get one at the end of the day otherwise as punishment they would have to watch me eat them all - needless to say they each got 2 cookies at the end of the day).  And finally we had school colours day so I wore blue to work.

Friday I only worked the afternoon which was likely actually the easier time to work (and not only because it's the shorter half of the day).  They had stations that each class went around the school to earn points for their grade group.  At the end they totalled up all points for each grade and that grade won some sort of prize.  I was in charge of the cup stacking room which just had 3 groups working together to make a stack of cups as tall as they could using cups and wooden sticks within 15 minutes.  The tallest we got was 37 inches which was actually quite impressive.

Since next week is spring break I'll only be posting twice instead of my usual 3 times as I'll be too busy enjoying my spring break (hopefully).

How we Remember

Spring break is this coming week where I live which means it could potentially be the perfect time to switch some things up in your classroom.

A while ago I saw this posted in a teacher's classroom

And I'm just wondering how are we as teacher's are using these in the way we teach?

I'll be the first to admit, my students have very few opportunities to teach others what they are learning and it's got me thinking... how could I change that?

If students are learning a new and tricky concept their homework could be to go home and teach it to their parents (because lets be honest, things have changed since we all went to school!)

I never got around to doing it but one of the goals when I used the math journals was to have one student share their learning the following day with the class.

But what are some other ideas we have?

Let's discuss and start thinking of some changes we can implement tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year!