The weekend cont'd...

Well, it definetly feels like spring has arrived....The weekend has been so warm and sunny, it's given me the 'canardlies'...something my grandpa always says when he 'can hardly' wait for something. So, I've got the canardlies for outdoor spring activities....biking, running, beach volleyball, hiking, gardening and yes...even lawn mowing! And I haven't even begun to talk online about my freakish lawn mowing obsession!! We'll get into that another time though! Oh, and in case you were wondering about the flower shot...don't worry, we're not THAT much into spring yet! This was taken from our hibiscus plant in our sunroom!! I only wish we could grow those beauties outside around here!!

Some good news to report...the fish are still alive!! Yes, they have made it through the long, arctic winter! Actually, lucky for them it was a warm winter or else I'm pretty sure they would not be with us. My dad cleaned out their home this weekend, so they have fresh water and a nice waterfall, and maybe now they will actually be able to see where they are swimming!! My mom is all excited now....I've heard her talking to them again.....which is a whole other story too!!


I wanted to share a few exerpts from my students on why they feel I should not give them homework (this past weekend!)

Dear Miss Martens,

..... I believe we shouldn't have homework because it is easter and we need to think where the easter eggs are not on math ......we don't want to get a paper cut .....I really want to play with my friends and eat loads and loads of candy .....I won't be able to do my homework because it is a religious holiday and I will probably be sick, and you don't want a sick student having to do homework.......I shouldn't have to do it becuase I will just lose it anyway so it's just a waste of your time!......I'll bet YOU don't like homework on holidays! (pretty good point!).......I believe we need a break from homework...plus I am using my lucky pen to write this letter and I didn't smudge it or make any mistakes!! (so cute!) ....Easter is a time to spend with family and to have lots of fun.....I need to sleep in and then watch T.V., it is what I do!.....if we have homework, we can't be active and we will become fat from just sitting......and my personal favourite...you are the best student teacher and are so kind (this one's got the right idea!!)

Anyways, thought some of those were cute. Just in case you were wondering, they still had homework this weekend. Not much, but the teacher always reserves the right to change her mind!!!

Happy Easter Everyone!

Well, Easter 2006 has now come upon us. I hope that everyone has a great weekend of relaxing, catching up with family and most importantly, remembering the sacrifice that was made on our behalf in order that we may experience life and relationship with God. I pray that my heart would be opened fresh again to the grace and mercy given to me so that I will express it others around me.
This weekend has felt refreshing to me in several ways. Not only is it a mental break from teaching and children talking to me every minute of the day, but its been great to be spiritually and emotionally refreshed as well. The weather has been beautifully sunny and warm, which naturally brings a whole new sense of motivation as well. Brad and I enjoyed a great day of cruising in his Morgan and we were able to stop in a visit some friends we've been wanting to catch up with. Both of us totally enjoying catching up with friends and that too brings refreshment for me. Isn't it great when you can drop in spontaneously on some friends you haven't seen in a couple months and instantly connect again, have lunch and chat like you haven't been apart? I love it.
Tomorrow morning is our Easter service and I am helping to lead a children's choir. I am quite excited about this actually since I would love to get into teaching music, so this has been a great learning experience for me. The kids are going to be so cute. I am going to play my guitar for them while they sing and I think we'll have some bongo's in there too. Should be good.
I am officially past the halfway mark in my teaching block...only 3 more weeks to go...and they are going to fly by. We are going to have so many interuptions from plays to concerts to track and field, that I am questioning whether or not I will be able to complete my unit on Ancient Egypt. I did a really neat thing with the kids this past week...I had them write letters to students in Namibia where my friend Cara has been teaching english. Cara had her students write letters to my students a while back when we first planned to do the exchange. So i finally told my students about it once I received them in the mail. They were sooooo excited about it. They could hardly sit still when I told them that I had letters in my hand from Namibia for them. So anyways, they each wrote back their own letter and I'm going to mail them off ASAP. I even took a short video of all the kids to email to the students. Very fun!!!
On Thursday, I had the kids do a little exercise in letter writing by asking them to write me a letter convincing me they shouldn't have homework on the Easter weekend. The purpose was to teach them about persuasive letter writing. Anyways, I'll post some excerpts later, but their arguements were quite funny. And they totally enjoyed the activity....even though they didn't convince me!!
Welll, that's all for this fine Saturday evening. Happy Easter everyone!!

Limericks anyone?

So my third week of teaching is almost complete. Our exciting poetry unit is coming to an end tomorrow with our big poetry cafe. The kids will have an 'open mic' to share their poems accompanied with hot chocolate, snacks and music. I sort of mentioned, when I was hyping it up, that there might be a 'special guest' coming as well. I didn't think much of it, but the kids asked me about it today and so i kept the secret. The thing is...I got nothing!! One girl even came to me and said.."I think I know who the special guest is....Robert Munsch!!!" As if!! It was quite funny. So now I'm racking my brain trying to think of what I can do to impress the kids. All i got so far is a hairy brown wig, some HUGE glasses and a disco flavoured jacket and shirt!!!!
Anyways, I'm sure I can pull of something!!!
I wanted to share this limerick that one kid in my class wrote. He was totally into limericks and was writing them left and right. He's pretty bright so here's what he came up with on his own....

There once was a number called 1 zillion
Who was proud to be bigger than 1 billion
Then he said 'achoo'
'Cause he was off to Peru
To visit his cousin 1 million.

Hope that makes you chuckle!!!

Still alive....

Okay, so I know its not like me to not have posted in almost 3 weeks, but things have been unusually busy around here. So many things have been going on. One major change is that I have now successfully completed my time as a student (sitting in a class) at Brock. Since my last teaching placement for 7 weeks is going to be pretty intense, we had March Break off to get some planning done...and this was my intent for the entire week. However, plans changed a little and well, the pictures below will likely provide some explaination.....





So, as you might of guessed, Brad and I decided to take a spontaneous trip down to Florida where my parents had been for the past couple weeks. We found a great deal on a flight down on Wednesday night so we enjoyed 2 1/2 days of glorious Florida sunshine, before driving back with my parents. We made sure to maximize our days by hanging out by the pool, walking around the resort, playing a little beach volleyball, checking out Disney Boardwalk and some of their AMAZING resorts, and of course, playing a little mini golf. We actually took tons of video clips on our trip, and I was all pumped to show some, but I can't get DropShots to upload them. Hopefully I can figure it out soon, so stayed tuned. But anyways, it was such a great time to just relax before the intense 7 weeks of teaching.
And speaking of which, I have also now successfully made it through 2 weeks of teaching. My students are awesome and they seem to enjoy my teaching which definetly is a boost in confidence. This past week we covered dividing decimals, started into our unit on electricity and worked on our badminton skills. I also introduced a unit on poetry, which the kids are actually loving. I am requiring them to each read a poem of their choice outloud infront of the class and they are eagerly coming to be days before they need to with the poem they picked and even asking to read more and write more than they need to. It's great to see. I think the powerpoint presentations are probably influencing the excitement in the lessons a little bit...something they wouldn't normally be exposed to in class. It's crazy...as if I am teching poetry!! What do i know about poetry or electricity for that matter! But there I am, talking to a bunch of kids like I know what I'm talking about. The concepts are pretty easy to understand at this level, but its weird to now be in this position... where I am responsible for the knowledge that these kids will be exposed to. Its a huge responsibility, but I am up for it. I am also excited about helping out with the girls basketball team. I kind of got thrown into it since I happend to mention that I played in highschool and all of the sudden, they wanted me to take over. But sometimes its good to be thrown into stuff, becuase that's when you learn the best...and the fastest! We actually won our first game the day I was in charge and the other coaches couldn't be there!

One thing I have realized this week is that I need to learn to be more stern with the kids. For the past few years, my interaction with kids has mostly been in a relational role....focusing on building friendship and mentoring them. This has mostly been through my involvement with the youth centre. Although those experiences have been so great for me, I have to take my focus on buidling relationships with my students to a whole different level where I need to have authority and leadership and responsibility over them. I can feel myself wanting to 'just become friends' with the kids, especially now that I have older students than my last placement, but I know that this can be dangerous as a teacher and classroom management could become disasterous. But, its all part of the learning process and I am looking forward to strengthening my skills as a teacher and role model. I feel so blessed to be at my home school teaching. I told the kids just yesterday actually that I was a student at Vineland school and they thought it was pretty cool. In fact, I think I was in the same classroom for grade 5.

So lots of exciting stuff ahead in the next 5 weeks. Its going by so fast already. The days are just packed full and my mind just overwhelmed, but at the end of each day, I come home feeling so pumped about the next! It must be a good sign!