Big plans

Tomorrow is a day off of school and I have some big plans! Well, at least in my mind. I have a lady coming over to help clean the kitchen--deep cleaning to get all the icky stuff out from under the stove and off the floors that I don't want to do. I also plan to finish up the 2nd quilt for the dinner at the Veteran's Hall which is tomorrow night. I will post pictures of those tomorrow as well. I have some grading to do, but that is low on the list :) And I hope to get to play with some quilt blocks. I was sent some string blocks and they have been calling my name for some time now. I think there are enough blocks in there to make 4 tops and those are quick and easy to put together. I also have about 10 quilts that need binding and of course lots and lots of quilt tops that need backings picked out and sewn. So many choices, such a short vacation.

Then, it is a full week of school and we get a full week off for Thanksgiving. The school district decided that so many students were taking those extra couple of days, they might as well give us all the whole week and make us start 2 days earlier since they were losing so much money.

I met the new teacher today and she is really nice. I hope this mentoring thing is going to be good for both of us. I think I can learn a thing or two about art from her and she can learn a thing or two about the politics of teaching from me. Nod your head, smile and go back to your room and teach. If people think you are doing what they want you to be doing, they pretty much leave you alone. Just don't get caught with the phonics books. That was the best advice I got when I first started teaching!

I started when 'whole language' was the 'in' thing and phonics books were almost burned! If you were caught with those in your rooms, you were in big trouble. But all of the older teachers had them hidden in their rooms. And they gave them to me too (I started by teaching 1st grade). I knew it was wrong to have them, but I also didn't want the other teachers not to like me. The older teachers knew that kids learned to read by learning phonics. Here I was a new teacher, coming out of a teaching credential program that said, 'don't teach them phonics, they will learn to read, just by being read to often enough.' Boy, did we mess up a whole group of kids. Probably about 5 years worth of kids never learned to read because of 'whole language'. But, the older teachers knew better. Nod your head, smile and do what you are going to do in your own room. Just don't get caught with the phonics books.