Stir Crazy

Yeah, that is me. Today marks FIVE days of cancelled school due to the super cold temperatures of the "Polar Vortex". I am going nuts with no work.

Sunday we took the kids to Edinborough Park to burn off some energy, I put up our play tent and put on a fireplace video in an attempt to make things interesting. We've had puzzles, games, painting and playdough as well as what seems like hundreds of hours of television.

I've organized our paperwork, done as much of our taxes as I can do while I wait for my awesome district to send my w2, registered us for summer camping, and deep cleaned the kitchen. I'm dying to get back to work, but I'm also feeling so out of the groove.

Because I was at a training on Friday I haven't seen my students since last Wednesday. And that was the day the power went out!

It's a snap!

Relia learned to snap this week. She is super proud because this is something she really wanted to learn and she kept at it until she did.
She also knows that her mom didn't learn to snap until she was in 7th grade. So now she is snapping all the time. -It is getting  little annoying, but I'm still proud of her.

Yet another day

Another day Minneapolis Schools are closed due to cold. I cannot believe it. -Even though I think it is the right thing, I'm not even happy to have a day off. It is just too much. I need to keep my kids moving. This on top of a CRAZY afternoon yesterday where we lost power for an hour. Middle of the day. We had to have lunches sent over from somewhere in the district so in 5th grade that meant our afternoon was shot.

So kids are stuck inside. It is even too cold to play in the office for very long, and FP is sick.

What else can I do?

Sigh. They say they are changing my job. From working in classrooms to pulling groups of students. Not all the time, but I've been told tow different numbers, 1 hour and a third of my day. The data people in my district will choose the kids. Kids that they think are close to passing the state test.

There is no way that this is a decision motivated by best practices and research. This is a political move to try to manipulate the numbers. It is good for the chosen kids but it is seems penny wise and pound foolish.

There there are the logistics that those on high don't have to consider.

-Which class do I leave?
-What other things will these kids be missing when I pull them from their regular class? Classes don't all teach the same thing at the same time.
-Where do I pull them to? We don't have any rooms just sitting empty in our building.
-Will we have to walk a mile to get there? Our building takes up an entire city block, and my office is nowhere near the most of the targeted kids classes.
-If I'm supposed to work with kids at 3 different grade levels do I see them each for 15 minutes (considering travel time)?

I know I can do good things with this, but not the most good for the most students.

This is also happening with the math specialist at Relia's school. I'm selfishly praying they don't pull him from her class.


This system is ick. We will never get better when we change course every 5 minutes. We have so many needs, we can't just focus on one, so our "focus" is everything. We will make "everything" better. So nothing gets better. Not system-wide.

Gah!

It must be a million times better in the corporate world right? (wink)

Too much!

We are at the point where Leo is adding more words than we can possibly keep up with.
Today he was watching a TV show and hey were singing about dancing and he just starts singing along with the word "dance". He can name many body parts, and tell us what some animals say. He's even saying thank you without being prompted.
I am so amazed by the language development process. It's fascinating to see how each child develops different paths along the same journey. 

Damn cold

Feels like -42? Can you even feel negative 42?!
On Friday the Governor cancelled school for Monday. Thank goodness it got called more than 12 hours before. Some time for the grapevine to work. You'd be surprised how many kids we still show up on snow days. We hunkered down today. Ate a lot of snacks, watched a LOT of movies and I cleaned some places that may never have been cleaned since I moved in. Not sure how we'll make it to Wednesday without our own "The Shining" moments. Thinking we'll have to accelerate the basement toy rotation tomorrow.

Felix on ice

FP spent the day in Austin, so it was just the kids and me today. Seeing as, at 12 degrees, today was the warmest we have had or will have for a good long while, I decided to take the big ones skating. We dropped Leo off with my mom and headed to Centennial Lakes. Felix was apprehensive, saying, "I'm just gonna walk on my skates, cause I don't know how to skate yet." and "my feet are too wobbly to walk" once he had his skates on. But he did great. He was fascinated by the dark spots on the ice and that was his man motivation for movement, to "test all the bubbles." He did well with the trainer and said he wants to go again but that skating is "tricky".

 



I was crabby when we arrived and I discovered that I'd forgotten to put my skates in the car. But that turned out to be a blessing because when I have my skates on I want to skate, and it gets a little frustrating when I'm tied to my little newbie skater. No skates = no frustration

And why are there no photos of Relia? Because the girl took off as soon as we hit the ice. She encouraged Felix for about a minute and then went off on her own. I'm so proud and can't wait for the two of us to go off together.

Christmas Leo

He may not have gotten to see Santa, but I did get this adorable photo:

Happy New Year!

FP had to work for a little while, so the kids and I had pizza and wore our traditional new year's eve paper hats.

Then there were fireworks when Daddy came down.



After the first few, Leo was so excited, he wouldn't stop bouncing.
Snuggled up together on the couch with their special "We behaved decently while photos were taken"/New Year's treats.

(Felix suffered a slinky injury earlier in the day. But after pictures, thank goodness.)