March 3 - Are you a House of Cards fan?

I will admit it.
I came home from work Friday and began watching House of Cards, Season 3 on Netflix.
I watched more on Saturday.
I finished the binge on Sunday. 13 episodes.
I won't give anything away here (in case you are still watching).

I will admit, I like watching a soap opera without commercial interruptions.
I will admit that not much else got done this past weekend other than me watching a long story.
I especially like stories set in Washington, DC, as I live in Arlington, across the Potomac River from the White House. The opening of the show has GREAT images of our capital city!
I don't like Frank Underwood. I would NOT want Frank Underwood to know me.
I wouldn't want to work with him. Ever.
Yet, I do like watching him and his decisions.
I'm still wondering if I like Claire. Am I at all like Claire as a wife? Do I want to be? or not? Ever.
House of Cards reminds me of my fascinated with The Godfather Trilogy.
I am just as hooked on this series.

I will say that I have lingered with the characters and their actions in Season 3 lots since Sunday.
Why did they do that?
Why did they change? Did they change?
Are men and women wired differently?
Do they have different motivations? 

At the end of a read-aloud, I ask my students, "What do you think the author wanted us to learn?"
I do think the makers of House of Cards want me to learn....but I still am pondering exactly what!

In the meantime, whether you are a fan of House of Cards or not, I recommend watching this episode of Sesame Street:    Sesame House of Cards Parody 
It is VERY, VERY CLEVER!!

And if you virtually want to discuss your reactions to Season 3 with someone, email me at sally.donnelly11@gmail.com!!

March 2 - Dr. Seuss B-Day!!

For me, Fox in Socks is the Dr. Seuss book that comes to mind every March 2nd. It was requested over and over and over again by my daughters when they were little. At least, The Tweetle Beetle Battle always had to be read before lights out each night.

"Let’s have a little talk about tweetle beetles…

What do you know about tweetle beetles? Well…

When tweetle beetles fight, it’s called a tweetle beetle battle.

And when they battle in a puddle, it’s a tweetle beetle puddle battle.

AND when tweetle beetles battle with paddles in a puddle, 

they call it a tweetle beetle puddle paddle battle.

AND…

When beetles battle beetles in a puddle paddle battle and the beetle battle puddle is a puddle in a bottle…

…they call this a tweetle beetle bottle puddle paddle battle muddle.

AND…

When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle’s on a poodle and the poodle’s eating noodles…

…they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle bottle paddle battle.

AND… 

Now wait a minute, Mr. Socks Fox!

When a fox is in the bottle where the tweetle beetles battle with their paddles in a puddle on a noodle-eating poodle, THIS is what they call…

 …a tweetle beetle noodle poodle bottled paddled muddled duddled fuddled wuddled fox in socks, sir! 

Fox in socks, our game is done, sir.

Thank you for a lot of fun, sir."

"Again," they would chant as I finished that funny tongue twister and close the book. Most nights, I would agree. Other times, I was too tired. Sometimes I would purposefully let pages stick together so we'd get to the end of the book very quick.

But I could never skip any part of the Tweedle, Beetle Battle because they knew it by heart and it had to be heard in its entirety. How much fun it is to read nonsense words and hear rhyming words and have your tongue tied up!

Today, my oldest is in grad school in Chicago and my youngest is in France working as a teaching assistant. And I am a 5th grade teacher. I couldn't find my very worn copy of Fox in Sock last night so I downloaded it to my kindle to share with my 5th graders today.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss.
You published Fox in Socks in 1965 (when I was just 2 years old).
Today you would be 111 years old.
And your words live on!!

What's your Dr. Seuss memory?

March 1 - The Campanile

 

Finally. I’d been waiting in line and now it was my turn to pay the fee to ride the elevator to the top. I handed my credit card to the cashier who nodded back and forth and said a bunch of Italian words, which I assumed meant, “We only take cash”. So I reached into my wallet and pulled out one ten Euro bill and one twenty Euro bill. “Mom, it is 32 Euros - 8 each,” Anne, my daughter, pointed out.  Quickly I reached back into my wallet again and found a 2 Euro coin and handed it to the lady so my family of four could ride the elevator. We were at the San Marco Bell Tower called a Campanile in Venice, Italy on a brisk, sunny December morning. After a 2-minute ride, the elevator door opened and I exited, stepping onto the observation deck, a narrow four-sided walkway already filled with tourist crowding around the open window spaces. I patiently waited to move to an opening to see this city from above. 

“Wow! What a view,” I thought as I stepped up to an open window. Terra-cotta roofs extended as far as my eye could see. Each building seemed glued to the next, a blanket of stucco walls dotted with shuttered windows. For the next 20 minutes, I moved from opening to opening. At times, I had to wait for other tourists to move on before I could look and take my picture, but it was always worth the wait. Then I scooted forward and snapped pictures with my iPhone. Around me I heard conversations but most, I couldn’t understand. They sounded German, French. Japanese, and Italian. So many, like me, had come to see this dense city of ornate Palazzos and large stone churches on the Adriatic Sea. 

Once, while waiting for another tourist to move away from the windowed opening, I noticed a plaque on the wall written in Italian. The first two words were Galileo Galilei. The remaining words were all in Italian so I couldn’t read it, except for the numbers 1-6-0-9. I knew the name - Galileo was a famous Italian astronomer who proved that the Earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around. Then suddenly, it hit me. I must be standing at the very spot that Galileo also stood but in the year 1609. As I snapped a picture of the plaque with my iPhone, I thought to myself, “I bet he had his telescope with him!”*

As I descended on the elevator, I thought again about the plaque. Galileo was here in 1609 and now I am here in 2014, over 400 years later. I knew I would love visiting Venice. Now I realized that many people, both ordinary, like me and famous, like Galileo, have been visiting this beautiful city for many, many, many years. “What an amazing city this is!” I thought to myself.

*After my trip to Venice, I read the picture book biography called I, Galileo by Bonnie Christensen. On one of the pages, it states:
      "Rumors were circulating through Venice of a new Dutch gadget - a spyglass capable of magnifying distant objects. I seized upon the idea and immediately began designing, calculating, and grinding lenses for a far superior instrument. Within a matter of weeks, I held in my hands the world's first truly scientific telescope.
      The doge and senators of Venice eagerly climbed to the top of the bell tower for a chance to look through my telescope. Through it they saw tiny ships on the horizon - ships that would not be visible to even the sharpest eyes for hours. They were astounded by my new creation."

My House...a memoir

For over a month, I carried boxes, one at a time, to the house across the street and piled them into the dining room space.  We are temporarily renting this house so our current house (shown in photo above) can be torn-down and rebuilt. In June, the movers arrived and moved all the furniture. We began to sleep across the street as the old house stood, awaiting its total removal.

Last week, I returned to make sure nothing was left behind. My footsteps echoed loudly. I snapped pictures with my camera of each empty room. I remembered moving to Arlington when Bridgit was in 4^th grade and Anne in 1^st. Now Anne graduates college this May. Thinking back, so many meals in the dining room, so many chocolate chip cookies baked in the kitchen, so many Christmas tress glowed in the living room. All four of us, on a morning schedule, allowed for adequate use of the one bathroom. As I snap the last picture, I thought to myself, “This really is a good home”. But as Brian said in the certified letter to the neighbors alerting them to the tear-down and new construction, “After more than 80 years of service, our home at 5218 North 12^th Street has reached the end of its functional life.  Rather than subject it to the indignity of additions and alterations, we have decided that replacement is the most responsible option.” So down it will come.

Before, I used to focus on all the negatives of this house – no central A/C in the summer, drafty windows in the winter, no space to invite friends over to entertain. All these things will be remedied in our newly designed 21^st century energy-efficient house. But now, looking back, I realize that those six rooms served our family so well for so many years.

OLW - responsiveness on 2/12

"The kids need to get into groups of 6 and I'll pass out the scripts and then each group will perform..." a student quickly rambled, stating the steps in the Homeroom Activity she planned for the day.

In my mind, I was reminded that another class was joining us to see how the kids in my room were planning the Homeroom Activity. I was reminded that this activity should be just 20 minutes, as we still needed to have time for small group work. I was thinking this sounded way too complicated and I thought it should be less complicated.

"It sounds like this might take too long. Should we save it for another day when we might have more time?" I gently stated.

"But I worked really hard on it last night," she pleaded.

I contemplated my response. On the one hand, as the teacher, I do have the power to have the final say. Yet, on the other hand, as a teacher in a Responsive Classroom school, my responses need to take in account all in the community. This child was tasked with the job of leading our Homeroom Activity - an activity with the goal of adding a bit of fun into our day.

So I took a breath and calmly stated, "Ok, let's give it a try. How can I help?"

35 minutes later, everyone had laughed.
35 minutes later, everyone had had a fun break.

35 minutes later, I was glad I responded the way I did.

Sometimes, as a teacher, my response needs to be "OK, let's give it a try" and then get out of the way.

OLW - responsiveness

As the 2015 year begins, I want to focus on my response to things. I want to spend time actively learning how to better respond to:
~ 10 year old boys
~ colleagues, thoughtful, arrogant, and/or ignorant
~ the drama of school and family situations
~ the lack of kindness shown by strangers I pass during the day
~ anyone causing me angst

As this year ends, I realize more and more, I get very bothered by others. And I respond by either just walking away and not saying or doing anything OR by yelling (as in the case of 10 year old boys who do much to drive me crazy by Friday afternoon - yes, I am a 5th grade teacher). By keeping the word RESPONSIVENESS front and center, I hope to read more and observe more and try more about ways to respond to others.

One of the definitions of RESPONSIVE is related to machinery - "the ability of a machine or system to adjust quickly to suddenly alterned external conditions, as of speed, load, or temperature and to resume stable operation without undue delay." Synonyms listed include openness, acceptance, broad-minded, observance, receptiveness, tolerant, understanding, aware, kind-hearted, sensible, warm.

My goal of keeping RESPONSIVENESS as a focus is that my responses will be positive and that quickly I can adjust to resume operation without too much delay. Presently, I respond by being annoyed. I respond by thinking an hour later about what I could have said. I respond by turning inward and letting it go and maybe tolerating too much.

Professionally, I plan to read more about Responsive Classroom. I plan to reflect weekly on my own responses. I plan to also be accepting of the speed (whether slow or quick) of my growth.

I know this is an area I CAN be better at through practice and constant reflection. I openly accept RESPONSIVENESS as my OLW for the 2015 year.

SOL Tuesday, April 15, 2014

On Monday I wrote the below for an application I was completing.

Essay #1: Describe a recent interaction that made a difference in a student's day. 

Mia’s 4^th grade hand went up and I walked to her desk. She had just completed her online Unit 7 math assessment. It was 26 questions on measurement and elapsed time. I asked her to press “Check Status” and the screen showed that all 26 questions were answered. I asked her if she was ready to submit. With a nervous look, she said, “Yes.” After pressing submit, the screen read, “You answered 26 out of 26 questions correctly.” She about jumped out of her seat. The biggest smile came across her face.

Let’s rewind back seven months. I met Mia, her mom and dad during the Open House the Thursday before school started. The dad hung around to chat with me once the crowd started to disperse. “I just want you to know that Mia failed her Math SOL test last year and we don’t want that to happen again.” I thanked him for sharing his concern with me about Mia and that I would do all I could to help her in math this year.

As the months progressed, I kept a close watch on Mia. I noticed immediately that she had no confidence in her math ability. I started with where she was and helped to move her forward. I got manipulatives and math fact charts, read math books, and asked a district’s math specialist to come watch me teach to give me more ideas. At the end of the first quarter, I could see that one period of math a day was not enough time to make up the holes in Mia’s and a few other students math knowledge. I offered a before school Math Club on Mondays and Wednesdays. Mia never missed Math Club. Slowly, she started to gain confidence. She started to have a sense of math. She started to raise her hand in class.

Her smile the moment she saw that she answered all right on a math assessment showed me I made a difference in Mia’s day. At that moment, she smiled as a confident mathematician!