remember field trip #2?

Did I mention it was back on? Probably not because I just found out on Wednesday. We went today. It was nothing short of a miracle that we got every single form back in time, considering they went home Thursday afternoon.

It was cold and rainy at the Arboretum, but we had an excellent time playing, climbing, and searching for garden gnomes.

My favorite part of the day was seeing my misbehaving energizer bunnies happy and exhausted. J gave me a big toothy grin as she climbed all over everything, and I did not need to speak to her once all day.

and the winner is...

The Food Restaurant!

Our restaurant is officially open for business. We are easing into all of the different things that you can do: wear an apron, take orders, serve food, eat food, read a menu, and write a menu.

The best was a couple days ago when J said, "I want a hamburger. Write that down. Hamburger. H-A-M-B. Hamburger."

naming

Today I took suggestions for the name of the restaurant so we can vote. Some of my favorites:

• Food Restaurant
• Buffalo
• Rainforest Cafe
• Smashburger

reason #546 education is messed up

It's never actually about the children.

In my experience thus far, teaching is about meeting deadlines and impressing adults. According to the teacher incentive program at my school I am a good teacher if:

• I meet lesson plan deadlines
• I meet unit plan deadlines
• I take attendance everyday by 8:30am
• I do not call in sick, ever.

The other day, grow-ups came into my room. Important grow-ups. And the feedback I got? Went something like this:

"You do not have enough charts on the wall."

"You're right, I could definitely create more charts. The challenges are 1.) They cannot read, so I struggle to make them really meaningful, and 2.) I don't have a lot of wall space and I worry about putting them up high because they can't see them and therefore don't actually use them."

"Well, it's important that you have them so that when observers are in the room they can look around and see what is happening in the class."

If they would like to know what is happening in the class so badly, we have an empty seat. They can join us.

p.s. who says bribery is a bad idea?

Yesterday, a grandmother came up to me and said something like, "How do I get this prize that M keeps talking about? She literally has not given me a minute of peace in two days?"

M was behind her, smirking.

rearranging

Yesterday, after a lot of agonizing with a manila folder, I threw caution to the wind and rearranged my room. Because I had planned everything out beforehand it only took about a half an hour.

On the far left side, you can see a table and some stools. That is the skeleton of my "applied literacy center," which will be fully up and running by the end of the week. Today, we will start by brainstorming what kinds of things are in a restaurant over the course of a read-aloud. I am so excited!

fluff

We are going to start adding fluff to the LoIC on Monday, because 4 students can write their name like first graders! That means that students can:

• write their first and last name
• spell their full name correctly
• use upper and lowercase appropriately in their name

I find it appropriate that the cloud is about to get more pronounced as we move into November.