153 down, 34 to Go

I love blogging. I love reading other people's blogs and I love staying connected. There are sometimes when I read other blogs that I think my blog is so boring, and all I do is talk about my classroom. But when I really started thinking about it, people write about their passions. Currently in my life I don't have a husband; I don't have a child; I don't even have a dog. Currently in my life my passion is my career. This will be the only time in my life that I can devote 100% of myself to my students. So within all of this, I've come to the conclusion that I'm ok with the fact that I only write about my classroom.

 

Here is my newest project - my TAKS review unit!! I bribed Caroline to paint a racetrack for me with the Rangers "T" in the middle to create my TAKS Dot Race! I really wanted to challenge my accelerated students to be engaged during our TAKS review. I know my kids are smart and we're aiming for commended rather than just passing the test, so I knew they'd need a little more motivation than just good grades. So, I emailed  someone in PR for the Rangers and got them to send me whatever they could! If my students can complete 3 laps/12 packets/240 problems/writing 60 of their own problems all in two school weeks they will we receive a Ranger sticker!! That probably sounds like nothing, but they were so excited when I told them about everything today. They will receive a reward for each lap they complete: Lap 1 - candy, Lap 2 - homework pass, Lap 3 - sticker, homework pass #2, and candy! I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

 This weekend I was the faculty sponsor for my Math Team's state competition in San Antonio. These are seriously the best kids in the entire school. Friday night was a crazy night of silence; they completed practice tests for almost 2 hours. Then this was them in the hotel lobby Saturday morning playing scrabble!! It really was a fun experience getting to hang out with them outside of a school setting. It was a long weekend where I spent 10 hours on Saturday in one room grading, but it was still fun. If you have about an hour I can fill you in on more details like parking tickets, broken legs, car fires, coaley/cooleyville tx, elevators, new volume song, and bowling. The good thing is all of our students are back at home! 

The best part of the entire weekend though was getting to see my family in Waco! One thing I've discovered through high school and college is that there are not quite as many families who are as close as mine! Lunch at Food for Thought in Waco made my whole week!