slice #31

31 days of slicing.
31 days of blogging.
31 days of commenting.
31 days of noticing.
31 days of writing.

I can't believe it's over!  There were several days that I thought I wouldn't make it through the entire month.  It was harder than I thought it would be, but I've learned so much.  I've learned that I can consistently maintain a blog, if I just put my mind to it.  I've discovered several new blogs that I enjoy reading & can't wait to check back in on them.  I'm also looking forward to continue slicing, linking up, reading, & commenting on Tuesdays.  I'm also looking forward to taking some time to look back through all 31 of my slices.

To my fellow slicers, thank you!  Thank you for reading & commenting on my posts.  Sometimes it is hard to write & publish for all to see... you made it easier!

slice #30

Today finally felt like spring outside!  My husband & I took the opportunity of a rare Saturday free (he plays in a band & is booked most Saturdays) to head over the mountains & visit Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina.  My grandparents give us season passes every year for Christmas, so we  love to go & explore different aspects of the property.  Today we didn't make it in time to visit the house & the gardens weren't in bloom.  We did get to visit The Biltmore Legacy & see the exhibit highlighting the Vanderbilt's travel & collections for the first time.  I'm always amazed at the artifacts on exhibit about their lives.  Today we saw the prayer book Edith Vanderbilt is believed to have carried in their wedding, the rickshaw Cornelia Vanderbilt was carried into her debut party in, the massive Louis Vuitton trunk Edith used for traveling, one of the Harley-Davidson motorcycles used on the estate, & one of George Vanderbilt's travel journals.  Talk about objects that tell stories!!  I even learned that the Vanderbilts were originally booked to sail on the Titanic!  I'm so grateful that we are given this gift every year that allows us to spend time at such a beautiful place!
http://www.biltmore.com/
And, wow, it's hard to believe tomorrow is the last day of the challenge!

slice #29

Another acrostic poem for my daily slice:

Crafterdays are days spent
Relaxing & creating with my kindred friend.
As defined, kindred is similar, in kind, related,
Family.
The friend one can tell anything & have an
Entire conversation with without speaking a single word. A
Rarity for those who find them.  One you
Dawdle days
Away with & be perfectly content with the nothingness.  One
You don't remember not being your friend.  She seems to have always been.

I spent my day with my kindred friend & it was the perfect way to start spring break!

slice #28

First of all, thanks for all the prayers & well-wishes for my grandmother!  She is doing "absolutely great" according to her doctors!

I am officially on SPRING BREAK!!!  There was a definite buzz running through school today.  Anticipation, excitement, chaos.  I am a travel bug & usually have a trip lined up for break, but this year I decided to stay home.  I hope to get several projects accopmlished & just take it easy.

It's hard to believe the month-long slice challenge is almost over!  It's been hard, but I'm glad I stuck with it!

slice #26

Today called for an after-school nap.  I love naps & always have.  In fact, I refer to one of the extra bedrooms at my grandparents' house as my napping room.  They keep the vent & door closed, so the room is always a little chillier than the rest of the house.  The bed is extra cozy & the quilts extra thick.  Chilly room plus cozy blankets plus squishy mattress equals perfect combo for a perfect nap.  I, unfortunately, wasn't at their house today & had to make due with my own bed.  Sometimes the urge for a nap hits me in the afternoon, but sometimes (like today) I can tell as soon as the day begins that a nap is in my future.  I was home by 4:00, which is very unusual & probably asleep by 4:15.  I didn't stir until my husband came home & woke me up about 7:00!  I feel recharged & refreshed!  Hopefully that will carry over into tomorrow & I'll be ready to power through the last 3 days before spring break!!!

slice #25

Highlights of my day in 25 words for the 25 slice:

friendly chat

during my morning commute

reading the part of a book that

makes them gasp & question

CCSS study group

sharing ideas & concerns

slice #24

Last week was the first day of spring.  Today it has been cold & rainy & tonight we have snow in our forecast.  Snow!  I'm so past wanting snow.  I want sunshine, blue skies, & warm temperatures.  My husband & I had a conversation about this today & started listing some of the things we look forward to in summer.
* treats from snow shacks... snow cones/shave ice
* drive-in movies... definetely a favorite
* picnic suppers at the lake
* back road drives in our 1963 Corvair convertible
* Brown Mountain lights http://www.westernncattractions.com/brown-mountain-lights/
* Elkmont fireflies (one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in nature!!) http://www.nps.gov/grsm/naturescience/fireflies.htm

slice #22

Friday!!!!!  Finally.  Today was an excellent Friday.  A Friday deserving of a top ten list.
1 - No school!  If teachers had all their professional development hours completed they had the day off.
2 - I slept until 9:30 & then stayed in bed taking my time waking up.  It was lovely.
3 - I went straight from the bed to the couch to catch up on some TV shows.
4 - I'm working on a super cute cross-stitch project & made lots of progress today.
5 - I talked to one of my dearest friends on the phone for over an hour!  I'm not a big phone talker, but I always have long conversations with this friend.  She doesn't live here so we always have lots to catch up on!
6 - I met up with 3 friends for a GNO for the first time in months!
7 - We saw Safe Haven, which we have been wanting to see since way before it came out.  I love it when plans actually come together & everyone finally has some free time.
8- After dinner we basically had the upstairs part of the restaurant to ourselves, and before we knew it over 2 hours had gone by!  
9 - When I checked the mail there was a book I'd ordered waiting for me.
10 - Tomorrow is Saturday... another day of freedom!!
Happy weekend, slicers!

post #21

I had parent-teacher conferences from 2:30 - 5:30 tonight.  I always find it interesting to see which parents will attend.  The answer tonight was not many!  I had one mom show up.  We had a nice chat, though.  My favorite part of the conversation was when she told me about how excited her son had been about the "dog race stuff"... the Iditarod.  She told me he came home every afternoon talking about it & had her checking the current standings every hour on the hour.  He would tell her which mushers had dropped dogs & how to read the chart to figure that out.  He explained about how & when they would take a rest break.  This is also the same student that told me on Monday that he "just couldn't talk about it" because it was over & he missed it.  Conversations like that make me even more thankful for what I get to do in my classroom everyday!

slice #20

I'm keeping detention kids this week after school. Today I took that time to browse through one of my old writer's notebooks. I love going back through old ones & rediscovering what I'd written.  Today I came across two poems I wrote for spring:

peeking

flowers
green
buds
sun
sky
all of nature is peeking
on the verge of a new season

blink

Spring's beauty seems the quickest
One blink & pale color peeps from the ground
Another blink brings vibrant reds & purples
The next brings strong summer greens
None of the lingering months-long madness
          of winter dreariness

Happy Spring, slicers!

slice #19

Today has been a long day.  Longer than any in recent memory. Here's what it looked like:

• Finished up assessment conferences with my sixth graders
• Attended a grade level meeting
• Administered a writing assessment to my 5th graders
• Continued reading Mr. Terupt with my 5th graders (best part of the day!!)
• Helped out with two more grade level meetings
• Got materials together for a faculty meeting
• Attended faculty meeting while also keeping an eye in detention kids
• Went to my workout (another favorite of the day)
• Had a hair appointment (that was a good part, too! I love my hair girl!)
• Came home, ate supper, sat down to write at 9:00 pm

I'm tired!

slice #18

 

Do you ever have those days when you wonder if anything you say is getting across to your students?  You ask them about words & concepts you've worked on for months,only to be met with blank stares.  Sometimes it seems like most days are like that.  But, then a day like today comes along & you know they are getting it.  My 5th graders made my day & here is why:

• Today they were finishing up a couple of items from our Iditarod tracking.  One of them hung his head, shaking it, & said, "Mrs. Blackburn, I just don't think I can talk about it today.  I really miss the Iditarod & wish it wasn't already over.  It was just so much fun!!" 
• I add 5 new words to our word wall every week & every 3 weeks move them above the alphabet letters.  Each batch is on a different color of paper... new color every 3 weeks.  Today we started a new batch.  One of my boys came in looked at the wall, smiled, & said "I couldn't wait to get in here today to see what color our new words were.  You pick good colors for us."
• I'm reading Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea to them after lunch.  I'm not going to give details of what they said to avoid revealing any spoilers, but their conversations about this book were unbelievable.  They're getting it.

slice #17

I'm loving all the lists I've read that other slicers have shared... I'm all about making lists!  I have a list in one of my writer's notebooks that is "100 things that make me happy."  When I share it with my students the first few weeks of school I let them each choose a number, I read that item, & then tell them a little more about it.  I wanted to share some of my happy things for today's slice, but couldn't decide which ones to write about.  But then, we had Japanese for lunch, I loved my fortune, & decided to write about that. This evening I dug my fortune slip out of my purse, sat down to write, & the "lucky" numbers were showing from the back of the fortune.  Hello, Happy List numbers!  So here are six things that make me happy:

2: Toasted marshmallow & peanut butter sandwiches - my favorite food to eat from a campfire!!  Have you ever tried them?  Better than marshmallow creme & pb!
7: The color pink - when I was little, & really loved pink, my grandmother would make up stories for me about the little girl who loved pink & everything she had or came in contact with was pink. 
9: Bracelets - I always have at least one bracelet on my arm.  To me they are just a fun accessory & I have quite a collection to prove that!  I have bracelets from my travels & that people have given me.  I have one that I made using the vintage beads from one of my great-grandmother's necklaces & one that is a Wizard of Oz storyband stamped into a silver bangle.  The more unique, the better!
13: Black & white beach photographs:  one of my hobbies is photography & there is something beautiful to me about black & white prints, especially beach scenes.
15: Angel food cake - yum.  I remember my grandmother baking them & putting the cake pan upside down on an old Coke bottle she used just for that purpose.  In fact, I bet if I looked long enough in her kitchen I could still find it!
31: Stockings on Christmas morning  - Santa still brings stockings for me, my sister, & our husbands!  He is an excellent shopper & has trained his elves very well!

So, there you have it six things that make me happy & six lucky numbers for your use! Oh, the fortune on the front is, "We must always have old memories and young hopes."  Yes, we must!

slice #16

 

Saturdays are for:

relaxing

catching up

visiting

sleeping in

 

Today my Saturday was all of those things!  I especially loved the sleeping in part.  Some weeks it seems like Saturday, the one day I actually can sleep in, is the day I wake up bright & early.  Not today!  I had a quiet morning catching up on some TV shows, reading, & working on some projects around the house.  It has been a pretty perfect day.  But, I think the best part was that more signs of spring are showing up everyday!

 

slice #15

 

Slice #15.  Wow.  It's almost half over!  This has been fun, inspiring, educational, & hard!  There have been several nights when it's been a struggle to sit down & write, but I'm so glad I've stuck with it.  The challenge has forced me to take time every single day to stop, consider, & reflect on what has happened.  I've enjoyed that & want to continue it once March is over.

 

This is not the post I had in mind when I sat down (finally!) to write tonight, but it is what was on my mind.  Good night fellow slicers... see you tomorrow!

slice #14



Thursday

There was a difference outside today that boosted my

Happiness meter.  I saw flowers pushing their way

Up through the earth.  Spring break is just around the corner &
Relaxation is my only plan.  The air was still chilly, but

Sunshine ruled the afternoon.  My

Drive to work allowed me to see the sun

Arrive & meet the day.

Yes, there was a difference outside today.

slice #13

My school system is participating in writing pilot program offered by our state department this year.  The pilot focuses on exposing students to, not only a variety of genres, but also writing to a "stimulus" & responding with "evidence from the text."  One of our favorite phrases this year, right?  Today the 6th grade teachers had the "opportunity" to attend a training related to the pilot program.  The training for this pilot program consists of watching videos that explain the four-point trait dominant rubric, then reading 2 sample essays for each point within each trait, scoring sample papers, & finally scoring the writing of your own students.  That process happens for each trait.  All four of them.  It's a little tedious.  Did I mention it is an all-day training?  There are some benefits.  We get access to several prompts & sample essays that we are able to use with our students.

But, do you know what today was?  The final day of the Iditarod.  The day my 5th graders have been so anxious for.  The day all their hard work over the past two weeks has led to.  The day they got to see what the final standing of their musher will turn out to be.  And I wasn't there to share in their final day of excitement.  I have a full-time assistant, so I know they got to see how it all ended, but I wanted to be there with them.  I didn't want to listen to a video tell me how to score writing.  I wanted to be with my sweet 5th graders.  I kept checking the updated standings all afternoon & wondering what the kids were thinking about the final rankings. 

I always like to find the positive, even on days like today.  The positive of this is that my students will get to fill me in on the outcomes tomorrow morning.  I'll sit back, listen to their chatter, soak it in, & be happy.

slice #12

I started a work-out program today offered through my school system.  The group meets in one of the elementary school gyms twice a week for circuit training.  The trainer said we would probably be sore tomorrow & definitely be sore Thursday.  I'm sore now!!  I jump-roped today for the first time in, oh, I can't even remember.  But, it was fun!  I got to spend time with teachers from different schools that I don't see that often, & I'd forgotten how great a stress reliever working out can be.

Here are my hopes for this program:

• I hope I can walk without a limp tomorrow
• I hope the session on Thursday will not add to the soreness
• I hope this will lead me to a healthier lifestyle
• I hope my journey to wellness continues past the end of the program

slice #11

Let's see. I still have laundry to do, messes to put away, & a photo collage wall to finish. And yet, I've decided to start a cross-stitch project. The last time I cross-stitched was in a junior high home ec class, & other than an adorable pattern I'm not quite sure why I've decided to add a new project to my list. It has been relaxing, though!

slice #10

Today felt like spring!!  It was gorgeous. I'm ready for warm weather. I decided for today's slice to write a found poem using my first nine slices.

we are traveling
amaze me

spring-like air
huddled together
quieting the earth

enjoy each other & reconnect
catch up, precious time
settle back in

I'm enjoying my time with you, fellow slicers!