A Little of This and A Little of That...

I CAN NOT stop crying as I watch the news.  It is devastating to watch people lose everything and is a huge reminder of how fragile and temporary this life is.   I am not in a position to go volunteer, or donate large sums of money,  but I was thrilled to find this way to help other teachers that have been affected by Hurricane Sandy.  Please click on the button above to find out more!

After watching all the sad stories I feel almost guilty saying I had a great day.  But great days are a blesssing  and today was great.   I was expecting kids all wired up from candy breakfasts,  but it was not like that at all.   They came in pumped up and ready to learn.   It was awesome.   I LOVE my class this year so much.    I can not tell you how awesome they are. 

We started a new learning site today - BrainChild.com.   Have you heard of it?  Our district purchased it.   It seems pretty cool,  but it didn't have the appeal that a lot of other sites had for my class.  Kids get on,  take a pretest on a skill (ie context clues) and get a score.   If they do well, they move to the next skill,  if not they listen to a video tutorial lesson,  do some practice questions and try again.   I have access to all of their scores and tries etc.   I liked it a lot,  but it wasn't really FUN... so I don't know how long it will keep their attention.   It has NO bells and whistles.   But it will be useful for me in terms of assessment (as long as I can coax them to work on the site). 

My sweet team and I started making plans for Veterans Day.  (I love that I work with people who get so excited about service projects!)   Last year we sent 6 huge boxes of supplies and candy to Afghanistan to a group of soldiers.  Our kids had such a great time doing it and felt SOOO good about themselves,  we knew it was something we would have to do every year.  One of the soldiers even came to visit us last year when he was home and brought us an American flag that was flown over their home in Afghanistan!    This year we decided to keep it a little closer to home and called the Dallas Veterans Association Hospital.    They gave us a list of materials that they could use, so we whipped up a list and will be sending it home tomorrow.   I am excited to see what comes in and how much we can put together.   I also finished a little Veterans Day Mini-Unit you can pick up at TpT.   It includes the letter that we used (in a more generic form). 

Have an incredible Friday!