School Inservice Days

Today I had the privilege of a school inservice day. Most of the time these days are long and boring. However this year each teacher belongs to a community of practice. Of course I joined the technology community of practice (CoP).

We, the technology CoP, meet several times during the year to play with technology tools we are or would like to implement into our classroom. It totally rocks! But there is too much stuff out there and I have way too much fun playing around with the new stuff. I want to implement it all into my classroom but realize I have to slow down and start small first.

Today I played around with Toondoo, Kerpoof, Edublogs, and NetVibes. NetVibes is a place to store all your RSS feeds from your favorite blogs, newspapers, weather sites, etc. Now I can login to NetVibes and it automatically will keep refreshing all of my listed sites to check for any new information. Any time you all update your blogs - I get the update on NetVibes.

Toondoo and Kerpoof are cartoon making sites. I am going to use this to create spelling comic strips this week in class. We will see how it goes. I had fun playing around with it!

Edublogs is a blogging site, like blogger, that is more safe for students. I have the opportunity to set up my class with their own blogs if I wish. We won't go that far yet. But I have linked my new class blog, The Sixth Grade Experience from Room 313, for you all to see and enjoy. Please don't post comments as my students will see it. :)

As you can see I did a lot of playing around on the computer today!

Hunter and Grandma Dar Time

Hunter has been enjoying time with Grandma Dar. In late September he came to help Grandma Dar in her garden and also fix up some areas of the fence.

Hunter is such a good digger. Hopefully he isn't working on something else (if you know what I mean).

Hunter is trying to pull out a nail he hammered into the fence.

Yummy green pepper!

This past weekend, the Peterson family, Grandma Dar, and Rosemary Dahl ventured to a pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect pumpkin to carve. As you can see by Hunter's cheezy grin he is excited to be there.


Grandma Dar doesn't have anyone at home to carve pumpkins with her anymore. But Hunter is more than willing to fill that void.

Look he found his perfect pumpkin!

Camp St. Croix

On October 15, Team Globetrotters left South View Middle School at 9:00 AM eager for the annual trip to Camp St. Croix. The 6th grade students were very excited for the 3 day, 2 night adventure. The teachers were a little nervous about the weather.

Camp St. Croix is a YMCA camp located minutes from Hudson, Wisconsin. It is nestled in the corn fields and forests of western Wisconsin overlooking the St. Croix river. During our time at camp, we enjoy several team-building activities. We explore together on a river walk - looking at cool shells, bird nests, and rock formations. The kids also learn to work together through various initiatives. Students also get a chance to try their skills at orienteering and rock climbing. We end each night with a night hike and a campfire.

Thankfully the weather was very cooperative. It sprinkled on Monday for most of the day. It poured on Tuesday for only a few hours. It didn't stop us (at least until the lightning came). We were all soaked but had a blast running in the mud. The rest of Tuesday and Wednesday was beautiful as the sun finally came out.

Camp was great this year and I finally made it to the top of the climbing tower!

School Days

The first week of school has come and gone. The start of year three has gone well so far. The room is set-up, lesson plans are roughly sketched out, and the shopping for school clothes has been completed (yes, even teachers must go school shopping).

It is an adjustment this year as we have three new teams of teachers as well as adding Reading to my set of curriculum. However I am excited with how our team works together. Team Globetrotters is going to be a fun team!

It is also my first year being in a district for back-to-back years. So starting at South View again, it has been nice to have last year's students pop into my room. The 7th grade health and Spanish room s are right next to my classroom so I have had several students stop in to say hi. Seeing those students and having them want to come talk to me has definitely been the highlight of the past week.

Here are some pictures of the pre-room set-up before anxious sixth graders come in and make it their home for the year.

That's a Huge B*!&@!

So the story starts with me going to the doctor on Tuesday. It was just a yearly physical, no big deal. Except that it was my first time at a new clinic. I now doctor with Edina Family Physicians. I changed clinics from Northfield to Edina because of moving and my insurance requires me to indicate a primary clinic. Okay, enough of the boring stuff.

A little nervous to have a new doctor and clinic, I was not excited for the visit. But all of the nervousness quickly changed. I was called back and the first thing they did was find my weight and height. Well, guess what I am now 5'8"!! I just had tennis shoes on and nothing else to boost my height. I grew 2 inches from my last doctor's appointment!


So Charlie and I figured if I continue to grow 2 inches a year, I will be 6 feet tall by age 27. Just think how tall I will be when I am 50! I will have to shop at Big and Tall or Mankato Tent and Awning. Charlie replied that when people see me, they will shout, "Look at that huge b#$*@!"

This will be me walking down the streets of Richfield. Hopefully I won't morph into an Asian man as I continue to grow either.

At my current growing rate, this is what Charlie and I will look like when I am 40 years old. Only I will be the height of this man and Charlie will be the height of this woman.