Hmm….did I actually make it?  Yep.  I think I did.  The first two of my graduate level classes under my belt.  Only about 10 or so more to go.  Things went much better than expected.  If you knew my personality, you would know that I worry.  About everything.  I analyze, and over-analyze before and after any event.  It drives me crazy.  It keeps me awake at night.  I guess the only good attribute that I have about the whole worrying thing is I don’t worry or think about it when I’m doing it.  I just do it.  But then, as I said, later I’ll think about how I could have done it differently.  This pertains to pretty much anything of importance in my life.  Relationships, career, kids, and now, school.  So when I realized that I’d actually be going back to school, I got a little worried about keeping up with everything.  So much so that my nightmares of college days returned of forgetting to do homework, missing class, not being able to find my class (I know, the classrooms aren’t physical here, but these are dreams), and trying to make excuses to the professors as to why my work wasn’t done and how I am going to make it up.  I still actually am having school nightmares every once and a while, though not as often as before class started.  Needless to say, I was super worried.  But the good news, I pulled it off without a hitch.  I was even always able to find my way to my classroom. J

I got so much more out of these first two classes than I ever expected.  I was able to create and plan for so many practical things that I can use in my classroom.  I learned about different things that I never knew existed.  I feel so much more prepared to even teach than I did before I started taking these classes.  Already in the first week of school, I find myself going about teaching in a whole different way.  I’m not thinking about how I can use technology in the classroom, instead I’m thinking about the best way the students can learn whatever it is I’m trying to teach them and how the technology I have available can help me.

I am really looking forward to the rest of the classes that I am going to be taking.  I can only hope that they are as relevant and useful as the two classes that I took this semester.

Well, I am feeling a little more than overwhelmed now.  This was my first full week back to school and it was tough.  Trying to wind down classes online while wind up classes in school was a surreal experience.  It just didn’t fit together.  I got to school every day about 7:30 after dropping off my kids, and then left around 5 to pick them up.  Took them home, started dinner while waiting for my husband to get home, and then 3 of the 5 days this week went back to work til about 8:00 to work on some more stuff.  Trying to finish up final assignments for my graduate classes made everything a little difficult.  I’m one who can’t sleep too well with a lot of unfinished tasks, so sleep has been few and far between.  I decided I better buckle down and get with it today so I don’t have so much hanging over my head.  I don’t think I will be having to stay late next week. I have some good lesson plans written out and I think my room is all in order.  But wow, it is REALLY hard to come home from a day of thinking and being “on” (I refer to teaching as acting a lot because I’m always trying to have this upbeat attitude about the stuff I’m teaching) that when I come home, I am so drained, I don’t think I have one cell left in my brain that is willing to put forth any effort.  I need to try harder, though, because the next semester of classes will be starting soon.  I think I can.  I think I can.  Choo! Choo!

I’m having a hard time deciding how to structure my math this year.  I know this – I don’t want to follow the format of the text book this year.  It just doesn’t seem to go into enough thought, pacing, or even hit on all of the standards.  So what is the right order?  Measurement first?  Number operations?  But then what can I combine to save time and allow my class to go deeper into some subjects.  I want thought-provoking lessons.  Now I just need to THINK of how to do that.  I have a million ideas in my head.  I just need to sit down, write them out, and see if it’s feasible or not.

Holy moly!  I just completed the hardest assignment I’ve had yet in my classes this summer.  A little background knowledge: the closest I’ve ever gotten to html is copying a pasting codes off the internet into my profile on myspace to make it look cool.  I’ve never actually paid attention to them.  So for the past few days I’ve been reading about, playing around with, and finally attempting html codes.  Some of the stuff is pretty straightforward.  Every page starts the same, formatting of special text effects is the same  and such.  I didn’t have too hard of a time with that.  But I didn’t realize how frustrating it can be to create a document in notepad, hoping all the while that you have all the codes right and that it is going to look like what it’s supposed to when it’s done.  So, I finished that and saved all of the related files in a nice little folder.  Then came the tricky part.  Logging on remotely to the Lesley University server.  Our professor gave us a link to a downloadable FTP client.  I was getting excited, everything seemed to be working, and then when I went to open it up, bam!  Nope, not gonna let me.  Something’s not working.  Uninstall.  Try again.  Nope.  Uninstall.  Try again with a little twist (type in my email address even though his instructions said we didn’t have to).  Nope.  Shoot.  I tried one more time to no avail.  That’s okay, he also gave some instructions on using windows explorer as an FTP client.  The link had some pretty nice instructions, but of course, I was still slightly confused.  I finally got the folder of all of my webpage elements on their server, but things just weren’t looking right.  The pictures weren’t working, and I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t get the URL address right.  Darn it!  I tried so many different things and nothing seemed to work.  I had to email the professor.  This is the first time I had to ask for help.  Humbling.  Silly me, I wasn’t supposed to copy the whole folder over, I was just supposed to transfer the files over.  The folder thing was bogging it down.  Well, it worked!  And the pictures worked.  I still had to tweak a few things like adding many line breaks after each image.  I got the right URL and everything seems to look good.  I’ll post the link here if anyone wants to check it out.  I know it looks very basic, but realize that I created all of that in notepad using just codes and text.  Boy, I guess I never realized what all goes into the coding for the web.  I’m proud of it even if you think it looks like a seven year old did it.

http://www.lesley.edu/faculty/mwoolums/students/mw080218/html.htm

I’m not sure how long the link will last.  There’s only about three weeks left of class, so I’m guessing until then.

There’s only about three weeks of classes for this semester and I am finding it more and more difficult to stay focused.  I have to drag myself to the computer, and when I am on it, I am getting easily distracted by other things.  I’m not sure of the cause.  It could be that there’s only two weeks until I’m due back at school to teach.  I want to get all I can out of my last two weeks of freedom!  There’s places to see!  Things to do!  Plus, I want to make sure I’m fully prepared for the coming year.  I really want to map out my math for the year, but have been waiting on the consultant our school hired to email me what we came up with as essential standards.  Maybe I’m having hard time staying focused because the classes aren’t “new” anymore.  I like new things and new challenges, and I’m feeling myself doing a lot of the same things with just a little bit of a twist than the previous time.  But I don’t think that is it because some of the new things that I have done I can hear myself groan about.  I don’t know.  What I do know is that this is my first semester of six semesters total, so I need to buckle down now and keep myself on track.

I just finished a two day math conference given by Rachel McAnallen.  Some of the things I really agreed with, and others I had to question just a little.  She proposes a whole different way of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.  I understand the idea.  Instead of teaching kids to start on the right of a math problem, add that column, carry, then add the next column, she is suggesting to add the numbers just as that, numbers.  So, say you had 15+25+37.  There are so many ways you could add them that would be much easier than just 5+5+7=17, write the seven carry the 1, 1+1+2+3=7, so the answer is 77.  Instead, you could start with the actual 10’s column and add them like the numbers they are. 10+20+30=60, 5+5=10, +7, 60+10+7=77.  And she’s not proposing that you have to stick to just that method either.  She is suggesting that the students are aware of number sense and can add the numbers any way that is easy to them, but knowing that the numbers are numbers and not turning them back and forth into digits. Like first we say 15 is 15, then we say it’s a five that you add to one column, then call the 10 a 1 instead of 10.  We are taking away their number sense by changing the values of numbers.  We could use that concept with division or anything else.  For example, I really liked it in subtraction, because she talked about thinking of subtraction as money.  For example 45-12.  Instead of 5-2=3 and so on, you would say if I had 45 dollars and was spending 12, what would my change be.  I would find the amount that I could easily subtract 12 from and add the rest.  So, I would break 45 into 20+25. 20-12 is 8.  8+25 is 33.  Or I could break it up to 45=15+30.  15-12=3. 3+30=33.  She stressed that the method really isn’t that important.  What is important is that you respect the decimal point.  So if the number is 45, you know that the decimal point is after the 5 and don’t suddenly start calling that number a 4 and 5 like you do when adding and subtracting in columns.  So I see the benefit.  I could do a lot of math this way much quicker, and in my head. (but of course she did stress to make sure the students justify their answers).  I did see something that I didn’t like, though.  When it came to dividing.  Part of it was still good.  She talked about finding “friends” of numbers. So say you had 79/4.  Rather than doing the traditional: does four go into 7? (just disrespected the decimal point), you should find a friendly number of four, like 80. so 79/4=80/4-1/4.  80/4=20.  So now I have 20/4-1/4, so now I have 19 ¾.  Another example: 49/4.  49=40+8+1. so 49/4=10+2+1 or 12+1, so my answer is 12 ¼ or 12.25.  I thought this is great if the answer comes out neat, but I asked her what happens if you get a remainder of something that you don’t know what it is as a decimal, but need to put the answer as a decimal.  She wasn’t super clear on this.  She basically said that as a mathematician, you need to know when to use your head, the computer, paper, or a calculator.  I didn’t like that answer so much, and avoid using the calculator at all possible costs, so I feel like I would still have to teach them the traditional way of “going in to, multiplying, subtracting, and bringing down.”  We’ll see. 

She did show us a really cool thing with fractions, though, that I would like to share.  Most rational numbers have some sort of pattern in their numbers.  For example, sevenths. 1/7=.142857 repeating.  The next highest number in that set of numbers is 2, so 2/7=285714 repeating.  If you just think of that set of numbers as a loop, or circle and then know the order lowest to highest, so 3/7 = .428571 repeating.  And so on.  We did spend some time finding patterns in all sets of fractions like that.  So I think that could be fun to learn for some kids, but might be way over some other’s heads.

The afternoons were spent more on geometry and I had a ton of fun with those.  There is so much you could teach the students while just making a cube with them out of paper.  She gave great instructions as well as handouts for things that you can do and say in class.  I didn’t realize all of the terms that you could be teaching them while allowing them to work with their hands!  We also did some geometry with paper plates.  I actually made a triangular pyramid just by folding the paper plate in certain ways.  It was really fun, and something that I am going to explore much more.

I’m not sure if many other school districts have the same problem as the one in our great town, but this money issue seems to be never ending.  I don’t actually teach in the school district that I am mentioning, instead I teach at a school on the outskirts of Billings.  The article in today’s paper is talking about this school district planning on asking voters for 30-40 million dollars in bonds to renovate current schools, maintain some fallen schools, and possibly building a new school.  I shouldn’t have been, but I was honestly surprised to see that they would be asking for more money.  They just had a failed levy of $817,000, and it’s been all over the paper how they are going to have to increase class size and cut around $3.8 million.  I’m not sure how the $817,000 levy would have even made a dent in the needed $3.8 million, but I guess they felt they could try.  This article discusses the failed levy just a couple months ago.  What’s even more interesting is that just a short year ago, this article explains a $4.3 million levy passing.  What a difference a year makes.  Here’s my major source of concern: if they can’t even afford enough teachers right now, (they just had to cut teaching positions), how are they going to hire enough teachers for another school?  I don’t claim to be an expert, and obviously, as a teacher, I support education and the funding of it, but I’m starting to think that this school district needs to figure out where all the misspent money is going and how they can manage it better than to ask for a levy and bond every chance they get.

Isn’t this supposed to be summer?  I have been so busy, but I must say I do feel like I am accomplishing some great things.  First and foremost, I’m working towards my master’s degree.  That in itself makes me happy.  As I was writing down the dates that I needed a babysitter for my kids, I realized that I have something going on all but one of the weeks until school starts on August 20th.  From math workshops to AIMSweb training, to “volunteer” staff meetings at school, this summer is wrapping up.  I can’t believe that, because it feels like it just started, or maybe I was waiting for it to get started and now it’s over. 

But I am doing a lot.  Two classes, two kids, coordinating our school’s adult ed. program, planning for the coming year, etc….  I think I need to remind myself that although I haven’t really had any relax time, I have certainly accomplished a lot.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been afraid of spiders.  Deathly.  I couldn’t even go near the smallest spiders.  And if I was forced to kill them myself (brothers weren’t around), I would cry and shake the whole time and for at least a half an hour afterwards.  I’m not sure where the fear stems from, but when I had my first child 3 years ago, I knew that I didn’t want them going through life with that same fear.  So, anytime we saw a bug or spider, we’d “investigate” it and think it was really cool.  Putting on that façade was pretty tough for me.  To not jump when that was my initial instinct, and instead actually get CLOSER was to say the least, difficult.  But I did it.  Now, my two kids (ages 3 and 2) love spiders and bugs.  They play with them and I’ve had to tell them that they need to keep them outside and not bring them in the house.  The only things they are afraid of are mosquitoes and flies.  Ayden has been bitten a few times, so he doesn’t like mosquitoes  at all.  They also seemed to get weirded out when the flies make that buzzing noise as they hit the window over and over.  But other than that, they totally dig those creepy crawly things.  The crazy thing about it all is that I am actually finding myself less afraid.  I don’t freak out when I have to kill one.  There are still a few jitters in me, but usually only if I’m caught off guard.  I used to have a “spiders must die” attitude, but my new addition to that is, “spiders must die if they enter my house.”  For now, (as long as my kids don’t come across with them and play with them like Hugo the Abominable Snowman (I will name him George, and I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him…), the little spiders and insects are safe outside.  And for now, I feel like I’m conquering a fear that I never thought possible.

Well, I’m trying.  I’m trying to make sure I take care of myself too.  I actually got a treadmill for $20.00 at a garage sale.  wahoo!  I’m trying to average 3 miles a day.  Not much, I know but I decided it was an attainable goal that I can build on.  The only problem is that I’m so slow, and it takes me awhile.  If only I would run more instead of walk, I could get done much sooner to get other things done around the house, or maybe even some homework.  So I’m making some progress.  Not much, but a little at a time.

I wanted to do so much more this summer in preparation for next year.  But I feel like it’s already flying by, and I haven’t done half of what I wanted.

The main thing I want to do before school is map out my math classes.  I never seem to get to where I need to be before the state testing.  (I know, bad to have that as my goal, but I have to make sure they are prepaored before they actually take it).  And then 3 weeks before the testing, I am trying to cram a bunch of stuff in and I’m afraid they don’t get any of it.  So I need to cut something back, I’m just not sure what.  But I can’t map it out yet, because we just worked this past school year with a couple of other schools to say, “what should the kids specifically know at the end of each grade level?”  And then we created some small assessments to know where to place the kids when we do our flexible grouping.  So I’m waiting to get the standards that we created as a team to map it out, because I think they are more complete than the ones that we have in place right now.  I must get on that.  It will help my year go that much smoother.