Photostory Friday :)

Pics of Taylor and Nat's last BFF meeting before Taylor and her mommy & daddy move far, far away. :(

Taylor and her gorgeous Eyes!

BFF's!! I love how they are polar opposites in the looks..brown eyes, blue eys, brown hair, blonde hair, olive skin, pale skin, curly hair, straight hair!

Janet & Natalie and Amber & Taylor (BFF's and the NEXT generation :))

Taylor giving Natalie "bye bye kisses"

Sweet thing! She's getting soooo BIG!

The "brat pack" of ducks at our park. They are the misfits. Maybe the other ducks are predjudice? The white duck has some kind of wierd thing going on with it's head. The feathers are all messed up. It always makes me laugh!

Nat touching her first fish! GROSS!

Looking at the ducks!

Wordless Wednesday

Teaching Tip Tuesdays

I miss teaching soooooo much, so I thought I'd share a few of my "tips of the trade". Maybe I'll do this every week, maybe not... :)

Grading Slips

I have always had issues with grade books and grading in general. While searching online one day, I came across a GREAT website! Class with Sanders This is where I got the phenomenal idea for my grading slips!

Grading slips are a class roster/grade book for EACH assignment. There is a place for the title of the assignment, what type of assignment, and grades (and other stuff). You have a template for each class. Every time the class turns in an assignment, you staple a grading slip to the top. You grade each assignment and write the grade on the slip. The roster can be in any order you like, but i prefer alphabetical by last name because that's how most grading programs are. I give my students "numbers" and they write them in the top right hand corner of their papers. When I grade, I just look at that number and it coincides with the number on the grading slip. (Also...their names are under the staple...so it helps a little from me being biased....hey...you know we all do it sometimes).

When it's time for assignments to be turned in, I have one student ( a reliable one...or someone who needs to feel special) put the papers in numerical order. They hand it to me with a sticky telling me which numbers are missing. I staple the grading sheet to the top & quickly ask those kids who didn't turn the assignment in where it is. This made it all SOOO worthwhile!!! Instant knowledge of where the late assignments were!!

For each class I have a manila folder for each 6 weeks (1st Period 1st 6 weeks...so on). I group the "like" grading slips together and staple them on top of each other when I'm done grading (along with me using a highlighter to put a check mark over the slip when I've inputted it). I usually have these groups:

1. Daily Journals 2. Homework 3. Tests 4. Projects 5. Classwork

When I have parent conferences, it's easy to take that class's folder with me, rather than a grade book. The grading slip also has a space for comments. This is where I write, "Late", "Excellent", "tardy"...whatever...

I also have a color system. If they were absent that day, I highlight yellow. If they didn't turn it in, orange. If it's late, I write "late" in red next to it (it was already highlighted orange).

Here you can see examples and Mrs. Sander's explanation of the grading slip!! My friend Jen & I use these and they have made our life so simple!

Burned

Today I was making lunch on the stove. After it was done, I moved the skillet to the back burner. I went to wash my hands and all of a sudden I heard Cole YELLING, "MOMMA, MOMMA!" I thought he was mad at natalie. THEN he started yanking the back of my pants. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty upset with him! When I turned around I saw tears in his eyes & he held up his hand for me to see...a burn on his fingers! His right index finger and middle finger had gotten burned on the skillet! I don't know WHY he touched it, we've gone over how hot the stove is since he was tiny! Anyway...here are some pictures!

The burn...(white spots on fingers)

Here he is running cold water on it. This made it feel MUCH better!

In fact, it felt so much better that he stayed at the sink running cool water over it for about 20 minutes!

Finally, after Daddy brought home some First Aid spray, we let it dry and put band aids on it! Of course, Super Duper Magic Red Apple Juice, made it feel all better!

Photos

For Mimi & Suzanne & anyone else without facebook.

Sibling love

Natalie in her shoes ready to race brother!

Watching the rain.


Pretty natalie ann

Forgiveness

I found a friend on Facebook and I remembered how we weren't friends at one time...

It was high school. I was...a sophomore, I think? Anyway...we were ARCH ENEMIES! It was over a boy. She said things about me...i said things about her...everyone knew (at the time) that we HATED each other.

For Lent, our Sunday School teacher urged us to give up something NOT material. I thought & thought, and her name came to mind. I thought about how me hating her took up sooo much of my time! I thought about how much i hated her day and night, I wrote about it in my journals, I talked about it to friends & family...I mean...for hating her...I sure did obsess over her! I decided to give it up.

One day in the hallway...it was during class...no one else was there, I saw her. I took a deep breath & walked up to her. "Hey...for lent...I want to give up hating you. I don't deserve you as a friend, but I want to call a truce...maybe we can be friends one day??? I'm sorry for being such a b-word to you." She just stood there mouth open & she shook my hand when I offered it. We weren't friends over night, but slowly we started being friendly. We never were best friends, but I'll never forget that on my 16th birthday she gave me a James Avery ring with a heart & cross on it. I still have it today!

I'm so thankful for her forgiving me for so many reasons...
I don't remember who did who wrong...what I do remember is the feeling of a WEIGHT being lifted off my chest. All that time I had spent HATING her...was filled with other things. GOOD things!
From that moment on, I realized that forgiving was so euphoric. Moving on with life rather than carrying the burden of hatred made me so much happier. I live by that today.

So...here's to the girl that forgave me when I didn't deserve it...and the wonderful things that forgiving her taught me!

happenings

We just got back from Lubbock yesterday.

We had PLANNED on leaving the kids with my mom & dad & going to Austin to: have fun on 6th street (friday night) and float the guadalupe river saturday.

Thursday, Justin had a meeting in Lubbock, so we headed to Lubbock Wednesday. That night, we got word that a "tornado" went through Childress. Turns out...it was NOT a tornado, but straight line winds in excess off 100 mph! The electricity went out and we just KNEW we were going to have to head home. It ended up coming back on & Justin's store was just finem, as was our house!

Friday, JP & I headed to Austin. It took longer than we thought (over 6 hours), but the hotel was nice and we were excited. We started the night at PF Changs. WONDERFUL. I always love the crispy honey chicken. We then went out in the rain to 6th street. Needless to say...we spent Saturday at my Aunt Suzanne's house rather than the river. It was fun catching up though! Poor Justin. I feel like I totally ruined his vacation.

We are now spending the day cleaning up our yard (debris from 6 full grown pecan trees!).

I just read "The Shack". It's truly a life changing book. It's about a man's relationship with God and how it evolves after heartbreak. I highly recommend it!