Updates

It's amazing that I have created a routine to write daily for one of my classes this term, yet I still am averaging about 1 blog post a week because writing typically means working on one of my many homework assignments or papers.....ok, it's more sad than amazing.... I am so looking forward to being in Germany this summer with so much less on my plate! So, here is the latest:

• Hubs told me today that I am going to get a surprise in the mail soon because he is so proud of all my hard work this year. I heart surprises!

• Hubs also told me that he booked our trip to London and we will be there for my birthday in June! I heart my sweet husband and I can't wait to go to London!

• I applied to teach a professional development class within my district. There were several courses listed that they were looking to find teachers for and one on the list was culturally responsive teaching. I am focusing on culturally responsive instruction for most of my doctoral work and my hope is to teach at the university level some day, so I am really excited at the idea of teaching other teachers in my district on a topic that I am really passionate about. I am not sure what the competition will be like to get the position, but there will be interviews two weeks from now.

•  I met with my advisers last week about my core paper and although I still have some work to do, they said I am making good progress so we went ahead and scheduled my defense date! I am set to defend on June 16th, which is the last day of school for everyone but half day Kinder. This weekend I am doing a practice presentation for my cohort which is a great opportunity to get their feedback since almost everyone in the group has already successfully defended. Then I have two weeks to turn in the final draft of my paper and two more weeks after that to refine my presentation. I am taking 1/2 day off tomorrow to work on my presentation and then I am taking the other 1/2 off the day of the presentation. We get one "floating holiday" per year, so that is what I am using mine for. I wish I could use it for something a bit more fun, but it is what it is.

• My kiddos are doing great and I just love them. We are working on reading a lot of non-fiction books and doing some four square writing this week about sea animals just like Kelly did. Some of the kids are impressing me so much with what they can write! It's amazing. I do have several kiddos that are copying words straight from the book, so I am encouraging them to write additional sentences in their own words to add more details to the facts they have copied. This exercise is a struggle for some, but overall I am really happy with how well they are getting information from the non-fiction books. I was lucky to find some fairly simple non-fiction books that are great for beginning readers, but even the more complex ones are working for them. I feel like I am at the library every other day, but that helps them stay engaged with the books in the classroom library.

•  We are also studying butterflies right now, so we have live caterpillars in the classroom that have been busy turning into the pupa stage this week. The kids are so excited to go over and look at the container each day when they arrive. It is just so great for them to be exposed to this process of change and see it right before their eyes. I love how excited they are and how much they are learning just from looking at/reading the butterfly books that I got from the library. 

•  There are less than 40 days until I am back in Germany with hubs! I am actually arriving on his birthday, which is awesome and I am so excited to feel married again!

• I got a latte every single day last week because it was Teacher Appreciation Week and I thought that I deserved a little self appreciation. I also got flowers, chocolates, a candle, Starbucks gift cards (hence all the lattes), a plant, cookies and several very sweet notes and cards from students and their families. I heart teacher appreciation week!