I know this in only my second Slice of Life post, so please forgive me for bending the rules a bit already. While I’ve had about a thousand different ideas I could write about, I’ve settled on simply sharing a annotated list of the jam-packed Tuesday ’round these parts.
- 1:00am – still awake and having too much fun toying with Glogster to visually represent the key points for this week’s lesson. Nothing like adding last-minute technology of which I know nothing about!
- 1:30am – decide to finally call it a “night” and catch a few hours of sleep.
- 4:56 – silence my alarm! Even though I’m a word-girl, I love my new wake time – doesn’t it just sound good? Too bad I didn’t go to bed at 1:23!
- 5:15 – I actually rise to greet the day, albeit groggily.
- 5:20-6:58 – the general blur and chaos that involves waking, dressing, feeding, clothing, teeth-brushing, packing, loading, unloading and kissing good-bye two amazing kids. Oh, and myself! (It goes without saying that I couldn’t being to accomplish this without my Mr.)
- 7:10 – arrive at school where I print the color copies I’d emailed to myself last night, put the day’s agenda and writing invitation on the board, change the date, hang said sign on the door reminding seventh graders to meet in the lab for our first Tech Tuesday, check email, open announcements, have seating chart up and ready to submit within the first few minutes of class.
- 7:35 – 8:35 – greet first hour in the computer lab! All went quite well, and I learned that I WAY over-planned what we could accomplish in one hour! Looks like we’ve got our plans for next week already too!
- 8:39-9:39 – meet second hour back in the classroom! Students do an ah-mazing job with their writing invitation! Great discussion about textual space, strategies to handle unknown words in a text, predicting possible questions that may be asked about a reading selection. Remembered that the Glogster was still open on my computer at home (still not sure if I can save it and come back to edit?) so sadly, I couldn’t share that with them today!
- 9:43-10:43 – welcome third hour back in the lab! Made minor tweaks based on how things went first hour, still made it as far in the plan. Stood on the desk to “fix” the projector, and tabled the blogging video to close class since there was suddenly no volume. Gotta love the technology! 🙂
- 10:47-11:30 – uber-productive planning period!
- 11:45 – pick up kids from pre-school
- 12:05 – meet old friends at the park for a picnic lunch!
- 2:00 – deliver a meal to my wonderful friend Emily who recently welcomed home her third baby!
- 2:30 – return to school for our first staff meeting! One additional benefit of teaching middle school – several willing and able babysitters! Our kids LOVE hanging out with them in my room! It helps that they get to watch The Fox and the Hound.
- 3:30 – make a quick trip to the store to replenish the empty diaper bag! Yikes!
- 3:50 – send kids home with Mr. while I go shoot school pictures of a friend’s kiddos!
- 5:00 – walk to Emily’s to visit and meet her new little man. Take a few (dozen) pictures!
- 6:15 – thank my amazing colleague, friend and running partner (our half-marathon is one month from Friday!) Amber for the ride home! It’s no fun being a single-vehicle family right now! since we’re down to one vehicle
- 7:00 – find two squeaky-clean kiddos hiding under a blanket! Snuggle, giggle, tickle and read stories before some much-needed snuggle time!
- 8:00 – grab a quick bite to eat, put my feet up and settle in for some reading, writing and relaxing.
Here’s to a days filled with excitement, challenge and blessings! I plan to return to the regularly scheduled narrative-style Slice of Life Story next Tuesday! 🙂
I did one of those “writes” last year – it really is fascinating to log what we do everyday – it’s phenomenal and putting it in writing celebrates it. So in the words that have become cliche – but say it all anyway – you go, Girl!