Summer school is almost over already! I've been meaning to post pictures of the classroom, but haven't had a chance. It's been a lot of fun. I've had 12 to 18 kids on most days. Last year, the most I ever had was NINE! I have the same type of theme each year, but it's amazing how different each year is because of the different students. I can't believe it's almost over. The last day will be next Thursday, July 2nd.
That very evening Vince and I will be going to his parents' farm for the weekend. I'm, as usual, looking forward to that. I didn't think I was going to be able to go since I normally work Saturdays at Wal-Mart. In April, I had asked for the 4th off and was denied. On our way home from the farm Memorial Day, DBF and I were talking about it and it hit me! The only way I could get the day off was if I wasn't available on Saturdays in July. Hmmm....I thought about it for a day or two and gave it a shot. So I changed my availabilty to Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in July and hurried up and turned it in. Well, the lady in personel accidently changed it for the last half of June too. OOPS, when I saw that I was scheduled Monday and Wednesdays during the school day I told them that I was under contract to teach summer school. They were very nice about it and took me off the schedule. I'm not scheduled to work at all until July 6th! I'll lose a couple days pay because of it, but at this point, my sanity is worth more than $120! It was so nice to have a regular two day weekend this past week!
I'm taking another class so I can keep my Kentucky teacher's certifcation. It just started last week and I already feel behind! It's only a five week course. There are two books that we have to read, which means about 60 pages of DULL reading per week. Plus, review five articles, journal entries each week about our text, discussion board entries each week. It's not a hard class, just time consuming. It will be over on July 17th. Just in time for me to help with my church's Vacation Bible School the next week!
Maybe after all that is over with, I can post more on here and organize my coupons better. I was going through some the other day and realized that I let a couple great coupons expire because I didn't clip them and put them in my little accordian file. I do have two new large accordian files that I can put whole inserts in. I haven't been clipping the coupons as much since I am usually busy Sunday afternoons. I hope that I can get everything accomplished by the time the regular school year starts on August 3rd!
Showing posts with label summer school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer school. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Not Enough Time in The Day
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
The photo above is from lolcats. It looks like my cat, Midnight, but he'd have his paw over the pacifier. ETA: Sorry that part of the pic is cut off, I don't know how to resize it.
Easter weekend was GREAT! DBF and I went to his parents' farm for the weekend. On Saturday they took us (his sister and 2 y/o niece too) to the Newport Aquarium. It was fo much fun. I got a lot of great pictures to use with summer school. I'll post either later this week or next week.
The class I'm taking is almost over. Then I have to get ready for summer school! I haven't felt like doing much at all this past week. Hopefully, this next week will be better.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Life's Full of Ups and Downs
Well, I broke down Thursday and bought a new computer. My old one was six years old and had a lot of problems even before it konked out Wednesday. I had an assignment to compelete online and couldn't do it at the local library, work or at DBF's. So I bought a eMachine from Wal-Mart. It wasn't really what I was looking for (I wanted more memory), but it was better than what I had and didn't cost a fortune. Luckily, it was only $298 for the tower (I didn't need a new monitor). My associate discount is 10%. I also bought Ginger 10 more cans of Purina One dog food because I had 10 FREE coupons. After my discount, the dog food and computer were $287.xx! I put it on the credit card, but thankfully I can pay the bill in full (out of the EF) when it ocmes in. I may be able to deduct part of the expense off my taxes next year since I need it for my class.
The computer is working great---except for one thing. I can't get onto the GC board! In fact I can't get into any of the moneycentral sites. I get this message: "An error occurred on the server when processing the URL. Please contact the system administrator." Does anyone have any idea why? Or how to fix it? It worked Thursday night when I first hooked the computer up because I bookmarked it to Google. I'm going through withdrawals!!
Tomorrow will be another expense....the dentist. I finally decided to get my upper left wisdom tooth removed. All my wisdom teeth came in when I was a teenager. This one has been chipping away for several years, but thank God, it doesn't hurt. However, I thought it's best to get rid of it before it starts to hurt. Hopefully, my dentist can remove it and I won't have to go to a dental surgeon. I have no dental insurance and I don't want to spend $1000+ on it.
I still need to post pictures of my Valentine's presents from DBF. Thank God I keep on my pictures on my media card! I accidently gave DBF one extra present---my cold! I've had it for nearly two weeks and he came down with it last week. Well, he can't say that I don't share!
Oh, good news---finally! I will be teaching summer school again! Four weeks of fun with pre-schoolers and I get paid nicely for it. Therefore, I won't have to work full time at Wal-Mart for eight weeks. I might pick up a day or two in July, but I doubt it.
The computer is working great---except for one thing. I can't get onto the GC board! In fact I can't get into any of the moneycentral sites. I get this message: "An error occurred on the server when processing the URL. Please contact the system administrator." Does anyone have any idea why? Or how to fix it? It worked Thursday night when I first hooked the computer up because I bookmarked it to Google. I'm going through withdrawals!!
Tomorrow will be another expense....the dentist. I finally decided to get my upper left wisdom tooth removed. All my wisdom teeth came in when I was a teenager. This one has been chipping away for several years, but thank God, it doesn't hurt. However, I thought it's best to get rid of it before it starts to hurt. Hopefully, my dentist can remove it and I won't have to go to a dental surgeon. I have no dental insurance and I don't want to spend $1000+ on it.
I still need to post pictures of my Valentine's presents from DBF. Thank God I keep on my pictures on my media card! I accidently gave DBF one extra present---my cold! I've had it for nearly two weeks and he came down with it last week. Well, he can't say that I don't share!
Oh, good news---finally! I will be teaching summer school again! Four weeks of fun with pre-schoolers and I get paid nicely for it. Therefore, I won't have to work full time at Wal-Mart for eight weeks. I might pick up a day or two in July, but I doubt it.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Summer School....
Summer school ended yesterday, but I haven't had a chance before to post about it....so here goes!
I was prepared to have 15 students---10 who were 5 or 6 years old and 5 that were 3 to 4 years old. Well, the most I had at any one time was 7 students! And they were 3 to 5 years old. Therefore, I had to revamp my plans....I lowered my academic expectations and worked more on social skills and small/gross motor skills.
I still did my ocean unit, but I focused more on being able to identifying the animal or plant and not memorizing facts about it. With a small group, I was able to take them into the teachers' small office and look the animals up on the computer. By doing this, my students were about to see several pictures of each animal and even videos of walruses wrestling with each other! Those were things that I hadn't planned on showing them and couldn't have shown them as well with a large group of students.
My small class was also able to ride bikes at recess. We had one trike at school and my assistant brought her daughter's 3 bikes. So on days when we only had 3 or 4 kids they got to practice their bike-riding skills. This was very useful for two students in particular. One little boy didn't know how to pedal (he's 3 1/2 and developmentally delayed). And a 4 year old girl had trouble balancing even with a trike. They enjoyed it and improved their motor skills as well.
Another thing that we got to do with a small group was walk to the park near the Ohio River. I had permission from each student's parents to go on "walking field trips". Our little playground (used to be a parking lot) has no equipment other than 2 basketball goals and a funnel ball so going to the park was a real treat. The park has a slide, swings (even 2 for the little guys), monkey bars and teeter-totters not to mention grass to run in and a view of the river. They LOVED it! They played together better down there than anywhere else. Plus, they got to see boats and barges. We saw three barges and three boats in one day! It was a new experience to some of them.
Our local field trips included the library, the post office, the animal shelter and the fire station. I'm glad we got to go to each of them, but the animal shelter and the fire station were my favorites (and the kids' too I think).
The trip to the animal shelter was an adventure! We went to the park right after lunch because it's about 1/4 of the way to the shelter. I had a wagon so the kids could take turns riding, plus we could put our donations in it instead of carrying them. Too bad I forgot to take a picture of what we donated! Anyway the shelter was quite a walk, but we had an air conditioned building waiting for us......or so I thought. We arrive at 12:50 for our 1:00 tour...but the doors are locked and there's a sign saying they'll be back between 1:00 and 2:00! So, hoping they'd be there soon, we go back to a grassy patch behind the shelter to sit in the shade. I call the school's custodian (thank God for cell phones!) to bring us some drinks. We start rolling the ball back and for (we were going to donate it to the dogs). We get drinks and FINALLY Tiffany shows up to give us a tour! It's a no kill shelter I learn....GREAT! Tiffany shows us around. They have a kitchen, a room to bathe the animals, seperate rooms for male and female cats, the kitten room. Then we see where all the dogs are kept. It's a very nice faciility. She lets the kids pet two kittens and a puppy. The puppy was a black and white lab/golden retriever mix. Tiffany told us that he needed a name and that we could name him. The kids voted to name him "Snickers". We didn't make it back to school until 30 minutes before dismissal, but it was fun.
Yesterday for our last day, we went to the fire station. One man who works there has a son in my class. I was just as interested as the kids! I didn't know all the tools they used such as the tool to poke a hole in your roof. It was really neat! The kids got the opportunity to try to pick up a bag of the fireproof gear they wear. I could barely pick it up! I don't see how they can move with it on! The firemen let the kids spray one of the hoses. The summer school math class (1st - 5th graders) went to so I got pics of my nieces with it. Before we left each student got a plastic fire hat, a plastic bag w/ fire prevention tips and a bag of cotton candy.
We ended our summer school with a special guest----Spiderman! My preacher's son Daniel is 24 and has Down Syndrome. I'm good friends with his mom, Mary. She works for the same school district and was my assistant for part of the month. She mention the other day that Daniel has costumes of Batman, Spiderman, etc. And she said he'd dress up for the last day if that was okay with me. I said sure because the boys all love Spiderman. They had a ball! Each of them got a picture taken with him....all except the three year old...he was scared! Poor little guy loves Spiderman, but seeing him in person was too much.
All in all, I'm really pleased with how the month went. I had fun, but I'm glad for the next month off!
I was prepared to have 15 students---10 who were 5 or 6 years old and 5 that were 3 to 4 years old. Well, the most I had at any one time was 7 students! And they were 3 to 5 years old. Therefore, I had to revamp my plans....I lowered my academic expectations and worked more on social skills and small/gross motor skills.
I still did my ocean unit, but I focused more on being able to identifying the animal or plant and not memorizing facts about it. With a small group, I was able to take them into the teachers' small office and look the animals up on the computer. By doing this, my students were about to see several pictures of each animal and even videos of walruses wrestling with each other! Those were things that I hadn't planned on showing them and couldn't have shown them as well with a large group of students.
My small class was also able to ride bikes at recess. We had one trike at school and my assistant brought her daughter's 3 bikes. So on days when we only had 3 or 4 kids they got to practice their bike-riding skills. This was very useful for two students in particular. One little boy didn't know how to pedal (he's 3 1/2 and developmentally delayed). And a 4 year old girl had trouble balancing even with a trike. They enjoyed it and improved their motor skills as well.
Another thing that we got to do with a small group was walk to the park near the Ohio River. I had permission from each student's parents to go on "walking field trips". Our little playground (used to be a parking lot) has no equipment other than 2 basketball goals and a funnel ball so going to the park was a real treat. The park has a slide, swings (even 2 for the little guys), monkey bars and teeter-totters not to mention grass to run in and a view of the river. They LOVED it! They played together better down there than anywhere else. Plus, they got to see boats and barges. We saw three barges and three boats in one day! It was a new experience to some of them.
Our local field trips included the library, the post office, the animal shelter and the fire station. I'm glad we got to go to each of them, but the animal shelter and the fire station were my favorites (and the kids' too I think).
The trip to the animal shelter was an adventure! We went to the park right after lunch because it's about 1/4 of the way to the shelter. I had a wagon so the kids could take turns riding, plus we could put our donations in it instead of carrying them. Too bad I forgot to take a picture of what we donated! Anyway the shelter was quite a walk, but we had an air conditioned building waiting for us......or so I thought. We arrive at 12:50 for our 1:00 tour...but the doors are locked and there's a sign saying they'll be back between 1:00 and 2:00! So, hoping they'd be there soon, we go back to a grassy patch behind the shelter to sit in the shade. I call the school's custodian (thank God for cell phones!) to bring us some drinks. We start rolling the ball back and for (we were going to donate it to the dogs). We get drinks and FINALLY Tiffany shows up to give us a tour! It's a no kill shelter I learn....GREAT! Tiffany shows us around. They have a kitchen, a room to bathe the animals, seperate rooms for male and female cats, the kitten room. Then we see where all the dogs are kept. It's a very nice faciility. She lets the kids pet two kittens and a puppy. The puppy was a black and white lab/golden retriever mix. Tiffany told us that he needed a name and that we could name him. The kids voted to name him "Snickers". We didn't make it back to school until 30 minutes before dismissal, but it was fun.
Yesterday for our last day, we went to the fire station. One man who works there has a son in my class. I was just as interested as the kids! I didn't know all the tools they used such as the tool to poke a hole in your roof. It was really neat! The kids got the opportunity to try to pick up a bag of the fireproof gear they wear. I could barely pick it up! I don't see how they can move with it on! The firemen let the kids spray one of the hoses. The summer school math class (1st - 5th graders) went to so I got pics of my nieces with it. Before we left each student got a plastic fire hat, a plastic bag w/ fire prevention tips and a bag of cotton candy.
We ended our summer school with a special guest----Spiderman! My preacher's son Daniel is 24 and has Down Syndrome. I'm good friends with his mom, Mary. She works for the same school district and was my assistant for part of the month. She mention the other day that Daniel has costumes of Batman, Spiderman, etc. And she said he'd dress up for the last day if that was okay with me. I said sure because the boys all love Spiderman. They had a ball! Each of them got a picture taken with him....all except the three year old...he was scared! Poor little guy loves Spiderman, but seeing him in person was too much.
All in all, I'm really pleased with how the month went. I had fun, but I'm glad for the next month off!
Friday, April 4, 2008
Teaching Pre-K Summer School
This summer, I have the privilege once again to TEACH pre-school for four weeks. I started at this school district in August 2006 as a pre-k assistant after not being able to find another special education teaching position. Last summer, I was given the opportunity to teach four out of the six weeks of summer school. This time, however, it will only last four weeks and I'm in charge the whole time!
It was so much fun, but it's also a lot of work. There is so much preparation needed to teach and entertain twelve to sixteen 3, 4, and 5 year olds!! I am going to continue using the ocean theme I began last summer (it's much easier if you have a theme to go by!). The picture at the top is what I recently purchased to use this summer. It will be added to what I purchased for last year. At a teach supply store in a nearby town, I found most of the items at 50% off! The entire basket of supplies cost a total of $81.49 with tax. As you can see in the bottom picture, three books alone normally cost $69.97! All the books, at regular price would have been $92.95 before tax!! Not only did I find a good deal, I also will keep my receipts so that I can deduct them from my taxes next year.
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