Website now up and active!

WOO-HOO! I finally have a website about my classroom. It is still in the beginning stages so be patient, but I will be updating it weekly. I am hoping to keep all important news flowing through this site as well so you can copy it to your favorites or use an RSS feed to get the newest information. I hope you enjoy it and feel free to send me any information that you would like to see or have questions about. WHEW! This project was a little stressful, but well worth it. I can't wait to send it to my friends as well! Have a great week everyone and I will post a WebQuest (I hope)by October! I am on Cloud 9 today!!!

Isn't amazing what a few days can do. I guess I was just having a little "moment" and now all is good in the world. I did get a new student today so I am not eligible for a teacher's assistant. I also have my class ready to go on the computer for Fasttmath so I can start them next week after we go over some rules on using the classroom computer.
I even have a new system for our preliminary tests that we use in the beginning of the year. I also had time to get my Skype set up and I am glad I did because my microphone is not working correctly so I will need to get that taken care of.
I just have a few more papers to grade and then I can sleep and get ready for more of the same tomorrow. Thanks for all my wonderful friends that are so patient with me! See you all soon!

HELP!!!

I feel like I am standing in quicksand and someone gave me cement boots to wear for the day! With the start of school finally under my belt, I am now sitting down to catch up on my HUGE list of things to do and I don't see how I can get it done. On top of everything else, my traveling husband is not home this weekend to "babysit" for me so I have to stop every 5 minutes to tend to my motherly duties. Let's add to that the fact that for some reason NONE of my Lesley emails and even other emails appear to be coming to my in box. Then I realize that no matter what I pick for my Webquest assignment, my students can't read it. I even have students that panicked this past week because I asked them to just write their alphabet. So now I am behind on everything and I get to start my week off with 3 different meetings regarding children in my classroom. OK, so maybe I am whining a bit, but really. I have not been watching TV or reading a good book or any of the other things that I would like to because I just can't seem to catch up. I guess it is weeks like this that make me wish that I had In-Laws to help out. They say that writing out your frustrations really helps I will let you know if this one helped later this week!

Two days down, 178 to go!

Whew! Hard to believe that it has only been two days of school so far. I think that this is going to be a banner year for communication with parents through email. I am hoping that once the enrollments slow down and we know which kids are going to be in our rooms I can set up a Yahoo Group mailing list and even a Website that is for my class. I am eager to get working on my website in two weeks, but I still need to concentrate on our Chapter presentation. I am working up a presentation side and hopefully it will go along with my partners tremendous examples that she has created. I will have to use my east coast talking skills to get it down to 10 minutes! (JK)

Class is going well. I have to say with all of the stress of starting the year and working on my Master's I feel a bit of relief when I get to sit at the computer and work on a project or tweek what I have already done. I seems to relax my somewhat. I guess whatever gets me through the day!

I have been using a lot of my new found skills from last class to ease up my documentation load for all of my special needs children. I think this will also help me when I have to go to meetings about them and have specific times and dates. It really is so much better then the old clipboard and hand writing everything.
By the way, isn't it great how this document is constantly saving what you type? Got to love that feature! Catch everyone later! Susan

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Wow! Sorry for not keeping this as up to date as I was hoping to. We found out about two weeks ago that we would have 3-4 hours to get our rooms ready for the first day of school. That might be ok for High school teachers (sorry my High School teacher friends), but having an inviting room with lots of color and aids on the walls means everything in the Elementary. So I have been working very hard to get that done so that I can greet my parents tomorrow as if my room always looks this perfect!
I have been trying to keep touch with all that we are to do in our Internet class. I think I have come up with an idea on something I can use in my class for my Webcast, but I do have to run it by our instructor since it will really be a whole class effort (mostly because my little kiddos can't read).
I am actually looking forward to our next class so that I can work on my website again. Lots of ideas, but I am not sure they will work until I give them a try.
Finally, only 5 days until my daughter is officially a student. I am not happy about that, but I guess life has to march on. We even had to buy a new camera for the occasion. Can anyone say, "Only child"! Take care my friends and I will see you hopefully, sooner rather than later!

How much we've taken in...

I realized this week that we have learned a tremendous amount in our Internet class. While I was talking with some friends and I told them about Blogging and Websites that I had started to creat they were actually impressed and a bit envious. These are things that I think a lot of people want to know how to do, but don't know how to get started.

The part that I really like about this past weekend's class was learning more about my classmates. Sometimes we go through professional development classes so fast and then rush back to school to try them, we don't get to know the people in our classes and they are really a great resource. I know that I have called upon Leah to help me out during my summer school and I think I have asked for help during class from everyone at least once so I am thankful that we did take the time to do that little into on Saturday morning.

The electonic email list is helpful, but most of us had already established a group setting on our own emails, but it was a nice feature for future use.

Learning about Delicious.com will be a big help. A year ago I was changing schools and I had to get all of my sites off of my computer because I know that I would not have it anymore to refer back to my teaching sites. With this account I will always have my favorite places to go to on the Web.

Finally, Flickr! This will be fun to get into as a teacher and a mother. I can't wait to learn how to use it to teach and to show off my family. More to come on that when Cindy and I do our little presentation.

Final thought: With all of the budget cuts that our district is going to have to make let's start to think about how to turn curriculum money into technology purchases. Or how to lobby for cheaper prices for schools. Otherwise the have nots (education) will continue "having not!"

A day of fun and rest!

Ok, so after staying up late and getting my SurveyMonkey finished and sent
I am feeling a bit better about getting some more things done. Then after I
woke up I could feel the anxiety begin to creep in. So, I took a day of rest.
Now I am ready to work some more. I guess we (teachers) all have a lot on
our mind this time of year. I am trying to also enjoy some last moments
of summer with my daughter. She starts kindergarten this year and then
BOOM, she will be a senior so I have to get all the little girl time in I can.
She always seems to cheer me up.

Not as Overwhelmed

Well, today was my day of rest. As much as you can rest when you have a 5 year old.

In the Beginning...

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? That may be somewhat true, but this old dog is trying to get her Master's in Technology. How old is this dog? Well, when I went for my Bachelors my computer classes were about Fortran and another one that excapes me at the moment. Each day I am learning more and more about what I have been missing out on in the Technology field and I do feel like I am catching up (all be it, very slowly)!



I am a First Grade Teacher in a subburb of Kansas City, Missouri called Independence. I have many years in the inner city and I am now enjoying a different experience in Independence. I hope to have lots of links and ideas to contribute and accept from anyone that would like to contribute or borrow.



A good teacher teaches, but a Great teacher learns!