first post of 2013

Is it really possible that we are now in the seventh month of 2013 and you haven't heard a peep out of me? I know. It really IS possible since I've gone and done just that.  I have been off for most of this past school year.  I had more say over what my students were going to be learning (not to mention the class next door to us) and I had such lofty goals for my kids this year. We ended with about half of my students reading and writing at or above grade level. As for the other half, about 8 of that half was SO close to being on grade level! I hope all my students continue to be successful in the coming year. I am going to miss them. They were the best group of kids I've had in a long time.
The upcoming school year will bring with it many changes (and I'm not just talking students). We will be adding specialties (spanish, art, pe with a REAL pe teacher!! etc). We have extended our school day. There will now be a 'wall' of some sorts separating my class from my neighbor (which is actually a good thing). Had I known it was going to look so nice, I would've opted for a wall last year! Oh we will be going with a school-wide theme this year as opposed to my room being the Kindergarten room, it will be called something else.  I will have another new partner. In fact, we will be having a whole bunch of new teachers this year due to all the specialties and the staff changes that occurred this past school year.
There has been knitting..

 commando for the hubs

 eiffel cowl for me

 parseltongue hat for me aka sss

 pretty lil thing for myself

 flames (she has yet to find a good home)

 trouble, a cowl for my sister,

 sunshine, a cowl for a good friend,

and infinity & beyond, for the aforementioned good friend.

I also finally finished my goldie scarf. I got to the point where I didn't have anything else to work on so I picked it back up again. It's already finished. I just haven't taken a photo of it yet. Currently I am working on a shawl for my teacher assistant. Here it is so far:

I will most likely run out of yarn but it's okay. I have a plan.
There has been some reading. I've actually ready 10 books this year so far but according to Goodreads, I am one book behind. Sigh..
 And now here are some shots of things during the 2012-2013 school year since I spent a greater part of my time at school!

 star lantern (This was the prototype for a project the hubs, my student teacher, teacher asst, and I worked on with a group of K-3rd grade students.

One of the points on the star lantern led to the making of this steel candle flame.  There's another one that sits atop a huge candle.

 The biggest banana slug I've ever seen...

 A gigantor mushroom

 An icy day in February..check out that swirl pattern!

 A Robot Family

A dragon

In the Spring, we partnered with our 2nd and 3rd grade buddies and did some up-cycle art with a ton of reyclables. 

It was a VERY busy year and I'm hoping that the upcoming year doesn't take over my life as much as this one did! And though I'm not as present as I once was in the blog world, I am constantly thinking up blog posts in my head!!

finished knits of 2012

How is it I only completed 21 projects this year?? I didn't blog all that much this year either but out of 24 students, 22 know most of their uppercase and lowercase letters by now and 20 students know at least 20 of their letter sounds!
These are not in any particular order of creation.  1. Henslowe  2. Moss Grid Hand Towel 3. Bow Scarf  4. Sorpresa Blanket 5. Heartache Cowl 6. Baby Bolero 7. Color Affection Shawl 8. Courtyard #1  9. Abra Alba Wrist Warmers 10. Stripe Study Shawl 11. Hedda Slouchy 12. Ebbtide Shawl 13. Elvar 14. Hidden Path Socks 15. Colorblock Handwarmers 16. Chosen Path Shawl 17. Abra Alba Wrist Warmers 18. Cabled Button Toque 19. Pebble  20. Type 'N Swipe Mittens 21. Courtyard #3
 I realized that I don't have many hats so my goal this year is to change that!  I am also going to cast on for my very own slouchy. :) Oh yeah, if you noticed that courtyard #2 is missing that is because I ran out of yarn. Phooey.

I owe you one

It has been a hectic few months. Wow! I uploaded some pics from my camera a lil while ago (my first step in getting ready to do a blog post) and there were pics of my class before school even began. I'm so ashamed. Here is what my class looked like about a week before school was going to start.

Do you see the floor?? I decided that I was going to sort all my picture books this school year.

I was feeling very inspired this school year and decided that I didn't like white window sills. I wanted painted ones. Both windows are observation windows and the kids know that people can see them. They can see the people too! The above window is near the block section.

This is the new kitchen/dramatic play area.  Last year, this was also the kitchen but the dress up was over by where the blocks are (at least near to there). I wanted everything together this year.  The hubs also painted the back wall which is where the kids paint.  For the past two years, there has been an accumulation of paint splatter. I did not want to look at that any longer. My idea was to paint the wall black. I got vetoed and we went with a dark blue instead. More pictures to come. I think the rest are on the hubs' computer. Below is a shot of a math activity I had my kids do the day before the last day of school before winter vacation began.  They made cookies.

There has been a bit of knitting while I have been in the throes of my teaching this year. I think this year I have completed the least amount of projects ever. So sad. I am nowhere near completing my 12 shawls in 2012 either. Oh well. I'm thinking for next year, I am going to do hats instead of shawls! Here's what I've made in the last few months:

abra alba wristwarmers part 1,

abra alma wristwarmers part 2,

colorblock handwarmers,

someone was having a baby and the future grandma asked me to make a little sweater since the lil bundle was expected in November (too bad I kept forgetting to give it to her when it was finished!),

I picked out this yarn for my boss, (the one we dog and house sit for), and here's what I came up with. Though this is the hat still in its unblocked state.

Let's see what else have I been up to? I've been reading about as much as I have been knitting. I am 2 books shy of completing my Goodreads goal of reading 25 books this year. I knew I should've left it at 20! Oh well.

I leave you with my gingerbread house that I started working on while at school and had to take home (along with ALL that candy!) to complete. It's missing windows..but at least I've got a roof, a pathway, and a door. I realized that the 2 red figures must be the hubs and I and the green one is probably my sister. :)

More to come once I get the rest of the pictures from the hubs computer!
There have been inspiring sculptures at my school over the last few months and it is partly due to the new friends the hubs and I have made.

finally breaking my silence

Wow. School started and it has been a roller coaster ever since.  Note to self: I need to suggest that we not do home visits at the beginning of the school year like we did this year (which I was against in the first place!) and maybe we need to revisit having conferences in October. It was great having them so early because there wasn't any pressure but we need to consider our sanity during this time of year.  The first three and a half months of school are always the craziest at my school and this year has not been a disappointment.  Though I have to say that I am happier than I've ever been.  We're doing new things and it's really having a positive effect on the kids. They have made amazing growth since school first began.  Plus I have a fantastic group of children this year.  Their parents are awesome too! 
During mid-October, I also got a student teacher. Did I mention this already? She was supposed to have started right when the school year began but unforeseen circumstances occurred.  I didn't expect to see her ever again but then she just appeared one day in my classroom!  Things are going okay with her.  She just began her solo (which means that she is the teacher in charge) and yeah.  I have been trying to not be in the classroom with her so much because I want her to exert her authority over the class but she would rather have me in the class with her.  Also, I can't watch someone do things incorrectly, particularly when it is my own classroom.  So in my mind, I've got things to do and places to go!
Today was day 2 and a MAJOR faux pas was committed.  I have already complained about it to several people.  I can't believe she did what she did.  I know you want to know. She left my class unattended! Well, technically.  It was during Free Choice time, and granted I was there, my aide was there, a parent volunteer, and the sub was over in the other class we share the space with BUT she didn't tell anybody that she was leaving the room. I noticed after about 10 or so minutes.  When my aide appeared, I asked if she had seen her and she said no.  I decided to search for her.  She ended up being in the teacher lounge prepping some stuff for an activity that she didn't even do today.  I was SO pissed. I still am!  I told her that she just LEFT the classroom and she responded sarcastically to me!  She could not even SEE why I was so irritated by what she had done.  Maybe she wasn't taught common decency. I don't know. 
When we returned to the classroom, I had to leave. I couldn't stand being in the same room with her because I was so upset that she didn't get it.  I grabbed my laptop, told her I was going to print some things and then headed for the office.  THEY couldn't believe what she had done. Oh my word! She didn't redeem herself either.  The rest of the day was sort of downhill.  Imagine a Kindergartner sniffing a watch that she cut out of a magazine to decide if it smelled, good, bad, or dangerous. Sigh...She will be the teacher in charge until December 7th.  So that's the current school front.  I can't wait for December 8th!!
I haven't been reading too much until a couple days ago. I picked up a fun book called Where'd  You Go, Bernadette.  It was just the book I needed.
In terms of knitting, there has been some but I am so, so behind on my goal to make 12 shawls in 2012. I only have five completed shawls!! I have two on the needles right now but am at an impasse with one of them.  I'll be casting on for a third as soon as my friend's yarn arrives and she gives it to me.  I've made a bunch of new mitts, a little baby bolero and that's about it. :(
With each passing year, school seems to take over more and more of my life!

Hit the ground runnin'

link

Well, I have just completed the first full week with my new students and so far so good. I have a smaller class than I've had in the last couple of years at my school (but I'm not complaining!). :)  I went back to work on the 6th and the hubs, my assistant, and I completely and totally changed the look of my room. I haven't taken any decent 'after' shots but I intend to do that soon.  It looks really good. In fact, one of my moms from last year commented on how much nicer the class looks this year. I guess it took me three years to finally feel like it was my own space. 

Both of the trainings I had to endure were awesome but it is a lot of 'newish' things to implement. The great thing about the reading training is everything was in line with what I wanted to do this year anyway! We have yet to fully implement the math piece since there aren't enough hours in a day to accomplish everything! This year we are more about laying the ground work for a strong sense of number.  If you're a teacher, you've been hearing the word subitize for a while now. I first heard it last fall.  If you're a parent, it's something you should know about too!

Home visits began this first full week of school and it has been crazy. I am going to request that rather than starting the first full week of school, maybe we can wait a month into school.  Administration wanted to try something different this year rather than have the teachers wait until October to do them. I am still on the fence about how I feel about doing them now but I can say that it has been tough. 

There has been no knitting and no reading for pleasure around these parts! My sister flew into town the day before school began so we've spent a bit of time together. She has mostly hung out with the hubs!  She left this afternoon to go back home.  I think the next time she'll be back in town is around Christmas.

Just thought I'd check in!

uninspired

 link

Well. I haven't enjoyed a book in a number of weeks.  I cast on for something new but I don't even think I like it anymore.  I go back to work on Monday and I've got all these things that I need to get accomplished. Maybe all my inspiration can no longer be found in my hobbies. It seems to have migrated into my classroom. I have painting to do (trim and a wall in my room), chalkboard walls to create, books to sort by genres, and I have to figure out what the heck I'm going to do on the very first day! Maybe after all that has been accomplished, I'll be able to read for pleasure again..and possibly find just the right knitting project. Instead I have been listening/watching the Olympics and I have been watching more Dawson's Creek reruns on Netflix. :)

Versatile Blogger Award

It has been a while since I have received an award for my blog. So thank you, Danielle!  I discovered her wonderful blog during the month of April while I was doing the Blogging through A to Z.
The rules for the Versatile Blogger Award are:
Create a post for the Versatile Blogger Award. (check)
Add the Versatile Blogger Award. (almost check)
In the same post, thank the blogger who gave you the award and put a link back to their blog (check!)
Nominate 5 fellow bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award and inform each nominated blogger by posting a comment on each blog (almost check)
In the same post, share 7 completely random pieces of information about yourself.
In the same post, include this set of rules.  (check)

Okay, so here are the random facts (hopefully they're new ones!).

1.  I will be a godmother for the first time ever!
2.  I didn't ever play any organized sports as a child.
3.  I will only eat avocado in sushi (because I can't scrape it out) and sometimes in burritos if I forget to ask for no avocado.
4.  When school is out, I like to stay up really super late (try until 3 AM sometimes!).
5.  Miraculously,  I can readjust to getting up early again pretty easily.
6.  I like balancing my checkbook.
7.  I sleep with earplugs.

Now here are my nominees:
1.  Work, Knit Study
2.  Crazy Knitting Fool
3.  Knit & Purl Mama
4.  The Life of a Catholic School Teacher