adventures of a new mom juggling work and family

Whew!!! A week off is supposed to be relaxing... but i feel as though i did more than i usually do when i'm at work... I began the week off by enjoying our 3 year wedding anniversary.. we enjoyed a nice, quiet dinner at spanish pavilion right in town,.. my mother had the baby so i got to enjoy a glass or two :) of sangria.... what a great restaurant... unfortunately the town is trying to buy it because of redevelopment.... I thought redevelopment would mean good things for the town... but in the past few years i've definitely seen an abuse of eminent domain in town... (we nearly lost our house to eminent domain- they wanted to replace our house with a parking lot for the school a couple of doors down the street-- are you kidding me???)
Then began the busy week at home where I tried to catch up on everything I had let go for the past few weeks... laundry-of course
Then I celebrated my 31st birthday by spending the day shopping and having a quiet dinner ordered in... it was definitely peaceful :)
By the time Saturday rolled around I was ready to go out and celebrate- I was supposed to go with one of my friends to a Japanese steakhouse but she cancelled cause her face was swollen- she doesn't even know how it happened- she ended up coming over and we got a chance to just hang out (life's sooo busy now that it seems as though we never get to just 'hang out' anymore)

I guess I misread the assignment for the previous week and forgot to write about how I use technology in my life....SORRRY..
well technology --- it's definitely a big part of my life at home... I use the internet to monitor and pay bills, I use the internet to shop and to review what I should buy for my daughter (I read ALOT of customer reviews before investing money in big purchases for her such as car seats and strollers)...I constantly use my email to help keep me in touch with relatives halfway across the world... it's sooo much cheaper than calling and now sharing photos through email helps my aunts, uncles, and cousins see my daughter instantly as opposed to before when I used to mail things and it would take a while for them to receive it..
Over the past year I have definitely become more technology savvy ... i have become more comfortable using the computer for other things other than just word processing...

But at school it's a different story.... i guess my biggest problem is being able to monitor what sites the students are on... i feel as though even when i assign them to a particular site they tend to go off and visit another site ... i feel as though I have to constantly look over their shoulders to keep them on the site... I guess with more use perhaps I'll get more comfortable (hopefully )

After signing on and creating an account with myspace i realized that it takes alot of time and effort to actually customize these pages... It took me quite a bit to learn how to add colors and a song and even some pictures (it took me a while but I did it--- Hooray!!!) ... I have to applaud all those kids who have these real fancy looking myspace sites... they are definitely more creative than me... I guess myspace is a creative outlet for kids....

what shocked me a few days later after creating my account was that i was soon contacted by a girl i went to high school with and haven't spoken to since we were seniors....i guess myspace is good to help people locate you

This past summer I got hooked on this show on reruns and now this is how I spend my thursday nights... and this week's episode was definitely riveting.... can't wait to see what will happen to meredith....and then the question of the night...who would miss me if i was gone? everyone seemed to be wondering the same thing-- it's as if they were questioning the significance of their own lives (don't we all do that sometimes?)

He must have heard my prayers....hooray...a snow day!!!!!

if today is any indication of how my kids are going to perform on the NJASK then I am in TROUBLE.....
They can't even complete a practice test without talking... how are they going to focus come the real test...

Detention is a joke... i told one girl she had detention for being late and she proceeded to 'TELL' me she wasn't coming because she had to get her hair done... ARE you freakin kidding me????? Who tells the teacher that????
Talk about fuming..... I feel like ALL I DO IS BABYSIT--- they don't listen, they don't sit quiet, they don't even complete their work...(but when it's time for report cards they want extra credit)..... they don't care about their grades or their behavior....
this is definitely the first year I don't enjoy my students- they are just not a good bunch of kids.... i don't understand my students.. the work i give them isn't difficult it's on their level.... none of them should be frustrated but they are.....they come to school to have social hour not to learn...

PRAYING FOR A SNOW DAY...
IF YOU'RE LISTENING GOD- LET IT SNOW ENOUGH THAT SCHOOL IS CANCELLED TOMORROW!!!!!

I feel like I don't have enough time for anything... is it i'm not a good mom or perhaps i don't manage my time right... it seems as though there's always something that's got to get done and no time to do it... Laundry.. dishes... cleaning... straightening up.... calls to parents.... .lesson plans.. dinnner.... or just spending time with friends....when I don't get everything done - i feel like what's wrong with me .... everyone else can manage why can't I? It's getting better...but when will it just seem to flow????

The first chapter of this book deals with how reading has changed and referred to now as 'literacy'...( remember when we were reading teachers??? now we are Literacy teachers....) I always believed the term literacy to be around (considering I am a child of the 80s) but through the reading I realized that it wasn't until there was a reading crisis did this term come to the forefront.... Illiterate began being used because Schools were not preparing students to be productive citizens within their communities...according to the reading another thing to come out from this 'literacy crisis' is the infamous NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND..... reading and everything related to reading and writing took on new terms.... but nothing really changed besides the names.....
The second chapter speaks of how our interpretation of the world has evolved...the chapter speaks of newcomers to technology as those who over 35... I'm not quite 35 but yet I feel as though I should be doing more with the technology available... shouldn't I still be considered a newcomer to this technology????
The chapter also refers to Amazon.com which I have only skimmed through... I guess I'm old fashioned but I still prefer to go to the bookstore to purchase my books and hopefully that love will be passed down to my daughter...Buying a book through Amazon.com just doesn't seem the same... I enjoy the time I spend reading the backs of books and perhaps stumbling across a book I would otherwise not find... is that even possible on Amazon???
How technology has evolved!!! the chapter also refers to sites in which there is much more reader input than ever before... reader opinions are considered an important tool in these sites... supposedly they help the consumer...
I'm just hoping I will soon be comfortable using the technology for so much more within my classroom : )

another week is just about over...the kids get their report cards tomorrow...isn't it funny how all during the cycle they didn't give a crap about their grades then suddenly last week they wanted to know if they could do 'extra credit'....EXTRA CREDIT???? are you kidding me???? if they had just completed all of their work during the cycle they wouldn't have to ask for extra credit... i don't give extra credit cause i'm not giving myself extra work at the end of the cycle....now they have to suffer the consequences for the grades they earned....but will there even be consequences?????

Can it get any colder... I felt bad taking the baby out in this weather... couldn't we just take the day off and stay on the couch and watch movies all day....

Growing up in the 80's is definitely different than today. we had an Apple IIe (I think) in the house with no internet (internet? what was internet back then?) so what did we use the computer for? word processing and some real simplistic games.... and who can forget atari??? spending all that time playing games didn't corrupt us all... we all turned out alright
a lot of my students come from media rich homes (game systems, tvs,computers...) and spend too much time with all this media but yet After reading this article, I realized that some of my students may not have access to a lot of the technologies we talk about... a computer may not be available at home...or if it is, it may not have internet access... i need to be able to provide all of my students with the same technology experience while they are at school so I need to find richer ways to include technology within my 6th grade language arts class so that all of my students can experience the same technologies

Yet in the second article, we see children succeeding in using technology... creativity and imagination both being used... Imagine if I could get my sixth grade students to perform at the level these children were using the online world of Middle Earth... these children were writing poetry, interacting, roleplaying, they were engaged from the moment they got on ... WOW!!! Perhaps I need to find something similar to get my students engaged in using technology in the same way... That would definitely be put to good use in my class...

l'il J got her shots today...oh the crankies have started... hopefully she'll feel better after some tylenol (maybe mommy will too :)

Well we can all breathe a little easier now... CAPA's gone ... Hurray!!!! all that planning and preparation for a 10-15 minute visit???? Are you kidding... what kind of judgement can you make based on such a short time in someone's class?