Slice of Life is hosted by Two Writing Teachers on Tuesdays. For the month of March, I am participating in the March Challenge by posting a slice daily.
This year, I am trying to increase my awareness of the many good things that happen, which are frequently overlooked by me. To help me, I am joining Ruth Ayres' Celebrate This Week.
Here's what I am thankful for this week...
1. Back to work - I miss the lazy schedule of last week. The first week back to work after a break always seems crazier than normal. It was a good week and I am celebrating that I made it through the week.
2. Comprehension Lessons - For the next 6 to 8 weeks, I will be piloting a series of comprehension lessons in a couple of 1st and 2nd grade classes. I started by working with a fabulous first grade teacher at one site. Her class is a lot of fun and we made an immediate connection. I start with the other classes in the next week or two.
3. Earthquakes - Well I am not really celebrating an earthquake, more like celebrating that everyone and everything is alright. This was the second or third one that we had recently. Not really a fan of earthquakes and like when I just sleep through them. However, the one last night was a little longer than we have had in awhile.
4. Math Field Day - I am going to celebrate this one a bit early. It is happening this morning (Saturday) and I will be helping with registration and some other logistics this year.
So, what are you celebrating this week?
Update on 3/30/14 - Some of you have asked about Math Field Day. Here is a post that I added to Facebook that I thought I would share here as well...
This has been my 8th year at Math Field Day for our District. My heart always broke as I watched teams of student receive no medals and other teams sweep their category. The results were always teams of kids who would burst into tears and think they sucked at math and never wanted to try again. Though I think there is a place for competition and winners and losers, I was pretty sure that wasn't the message we wanted to send to students about math or learning, but I could never figure out how to make it more equitable.
Thanks to some changes in logistics, process and scoring there will be more winners and more recognition of hard work. Nothing is ever perfect and someone will inevitably not like the new system, but if it will result in less tears and more opportunities to build a love of math and a confidence in learning then for this I celebrate.
