Success

My profession is one in which there is rarely tangible evidence of success from the outside. I give out the grades, and, besides the many times I get to see lightbulbs go on for kids, hard-data success is rare. But today I got results for our school for last year's MAP. Communication Arts is such a huge deal for 3rd grade, so I spend most of the year (I've already started this year) doing test prep of some sort. Generally it's boring, repetitive, formulaic practice... a regression to "drill and kill." But it's nice to know when that has paid off, when it has had some kind of impact. My poor 3rd graders stress and worry, and spend an entire week testing, and I hate doing it to them. But today CPS released preliminary MAP scores for the district, and Midway was the 4th highest elementary school in communication arts. We had 71% of our kids at proficient or advanced (2 highest levels). I was so excited when I saw that; I know that it's all 3 grades (3-5) put together, but if our average is that high, none of the grades can be very low! So today was a day that I felt like I had really taught something, and I am so proud of the kids. Of course, in 8 years (by 2014) we have to up that percentage of kids to 100% at proficient or advanced, but I'm kind of hoping this legislation goes by the wayside (or I stop teaching) between now and then! So I'm letting tomorrow take care of itself, and patting myself on the back for doing something right!

Closet Crisis

HELP!
I left for the day and my closet vomited itself all over my bed... wait... maybe that was from my closet crisis this morning. Every person (or at least every female person) knows about those mornings when everything in her closet sucks. Every single piece of clothing you own is too small, too big, too short, not the right color, and, of course, makes you look fat. So you try on outfit after outfit, getting more irritated and later to work with every outfit that doesn't work, until by the end of it you decide to call in sick (is ugly-clothesitis a disease?) or go to work in a burlap sack. Well, I (clearly) had that kind of morning this morning. Poor Josh, I don't act girly very often; I don't spend hours getting ready or fixing my hair in the morning... most mornings I don't even spend one hour. So when I morph into high-maintenance mode he's totally unprepared to handle it. I mean, every morning there is the requisite question ("Does this look ok?"), to which he usually responds "It looks fine" without turning his head. Unfortunately, this morning, that just didn't cut it. I must have tried on 15 different things, and asked him "How about this?" at least 43 times. By the end he was barely speaking to me. When I came downstairs in an outfit totally opposite from the one I'd started with (start: black capris, blue tank top, black sandals; end: green pants, red top, brown slides) he was smart enough to not say a word, and tried his best to hide snorts of derisive laughter. But, when all was said and done, he mostly understood, and called me beautiful several times throughout the day. So here's hoping that by tomorrow my clothes have returned to their normal size, because I can't be late to school twice in one week, and I don't know if my marriage could survive another morning like this one! :)

Old Dog, New Tricks

Onery as my dog may be, she is a pretty smart dog. And, not to be oudone by her cousin, Sarge, she told me that she could learn "high-five," too. So I taught her last night, and decided that I needed a picture to put on the blog. I think it was easier teaching her the trick then it was getting a picture of it. I love the first picture, where she's looking at Josh like, "Geez, Dad, how many times do I have to do this before you get it right?!" But, finally, success! And I'm reminded again of how smart she is, because I didn't even have to teach her, and she started differentiating between left hand (right paw) and right hand (left paw) high-fives. Sometimes it's fun to have a smart, energetic dog. Sometimes it's not so fun, like when she decides that her "job" for the day is to eat your wicker lawn furniture... but I guess we gotta take the good with the bad! :) 

Visits

Well, Jess and Mike came in for a visit this past week. I wish they could have come the week before, when I didn't have to work, but we still had fun. Saturday morning Jess and Ruth came over with Sarge to play with Sarge's cousin, Isa. Unfortunately, Sarge's cousin Isa is a poorly behaved canine, so they didn't get much playing done. Isa rolled Sarge on his back about 4 times, and we finally said enough is enough! So she had to go to her kennel in the house while Sarge got to play outside. Which he found his new favorite toy, a soccer ball! He even managed to pick it up in his mouth, although he couldn't hold it for long. It was quite entertaining because he would "talk" to the soccer ball as he rolled it around with his mouth. Sarge is such a well-behaved dog. I'm pretty jealous that I didn't have Isa as a puppy, becaues I think she could be such a wonderful dog and while she's still a wonderful dog, she just isn't so well-behaved, particularly around other dogs. We did take both dogs for a walk around the neighborhood, and that was fun. Clearly, we wore Sarge out... unfortunately for Sarge, his cousin Truman didn't want to play with him. I've never seen Truman get as big as he was while Sarge was here! The funny part was that if they were both downstairs Sarge would be sleeping, and totally ignorant of Truman, and then Truman would meow and Sarge would be up in a flash. If Truman had just kept quiet, he would have been fine!

Well, despite how it sounds, the humans did actually get some time to visit as well. We had a great time Saturday night at the MHBC Youth Putt-Putt night. We took 19 kids and the whole Price/Looten family to Perche Creek. Mom, Dad, Jess, and I played a round of putt-putt poorly, but we had a lot of fun. Sometimes we kept it on the correct hole. I did learn that Charlie is a giant putt-putt cheater when he came and took over for Jess on the "back nine." Dad, of course, won, but nobody's scores were scores to be proud of! I know I have some great pictures, but they're on Ruth's camera phone, so I'll have to post them if she ever figures out how to email them to me (HINT, HINT). Afterwards we went out for ice cream (Thanks, Mike) and just talked until Dad couldn't hold his eyes open anymore! We had a good visit, and I can't wait until Thanksgiving, when at least Jess will be back... Mike, stay as safe as you can! We love you both! 

Feature Blog

Ok, so this is a "Featured Blog" on Blogger right now, and it's so cute I couldn't resist putting it on mine, too! :)

http://cathcat.blogspot.com/

Enjoy... makes me want another kitten!

Back to School, Back to School

Well, I know everyone has been wondering... the first (and second) day of school went just fine. My class shrunk from the 24 or 25 kids it was at the end of their 2nd grade year to just 21, which is wonderful. I had no idea where I was going to put 24 or 25 bodies; 21 I can handle! There don't seem to be any out of the ordinary issues with this class. The boys all have a lot of personality, so I actually know all of their names already (never a good sign); I'm still working on a few of the girls. So far we have mostly done the typical beginning of the year stuff, but I am actually excited about some of the long-term plans I have made in reading and writing (not my favorite subjects to teach, which is ironic considering what a reader I am, and that I seem to like writing, at least on here). Anyway, I start off every year with great intentions to be stricter and tougher and more consistent; this year is no different. Whether I stick with them or not remains to be seen! Either way, I feel much more at ease in my classroom and much more confident in my abilities as a teacher. It is frustrating having a new teaching partner; she is very nice, but she is not very comfortable with technology, and that is a huge focus for our school. It's especially important to 2nd and 3rd grades, since we have the Tech Enhanced Classrooms (that means we have 7 or 8 kid computers). Oh well, I guess she'll learn quickly! I've been trying not to push too much at her because I know she is overwhelmed. It hasn't been that long, I remember that first year when you don't know anything about how the district works. Anyway, the start seems to indicate a good year for me, so here's hoping and praying that it keeps up!

*If anyone's interested, here's my classroom website. It's not too interesting right now, but there'll be kid stuff up there later!* www.columbia.k12.mo.us/mwe/llooten

Wasted Money

After all of the money we spent on toys for our wonderful pets, what do they like to play with? Curling ribbon, baskets, empty soda bottles and newspapers... should have just saved all the money and gone "shopping" in the dumpster! :)

The Classics Never Die, Part II

So, last Sunday Dave was sick and needed someone to cover Sunday night service. Since Josh already had a lesson planned for the youth, we decided that the adults would join the youth for Sunday night. And, we decided to truly make it the adults joining the youth, so we did our typical youth Sunday night service, complete with game! We did choose a classic game, Red Light/Green Light. The sad thing is, all of the adults knew what Red Light/Green Light was, but no one younger than Josh and I had ever heard of it. So, apparently, somewhere between Charlie and I the game went out of style. Well, we brought it back into style in a very rousing fashion! We played Red Light/Green Light with 40 people, some youth, some adults. And we learned a lot... like Leland is a big cheater (he kept grabbing people's ankles) and Danette is VERY competitive! Later we even learned that she's a Game Nazi like Mike! No one would have ever suspected! However, it was a blast, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. It was nice to have the adults with us, actually... I think it was good for them to see what a Sunday night is like. I am really proud of what we (or what God, through us) have done. It's exciting to see youth really get into Sunday nights, it's exciting to see Charlie and James take charge of their respective parts and become leaders. It all makes me excited to see where God takes us over the next several years! 

Summer Storms

Well, our plans for last night were to go home, eat swiss cheese fondue and watch a movie. Everything was going according to plan, the movie was started and the fondue was awesome. But then it started storming. A good summer storm, too, with lots of lightning and thunder. Which, of course, made the dog lose her mind! I actually thought she was going to come through the sliding glass door a couple of times! When we finished eating we brought her in and let her sit on her rug while we continued our movie. Not too long after that, however, and everything died. No power at all... it came back on, then immediately went back off again. So we decided to sit on the porch and watch the storm for awhile. There was some pretty amazing lightning, so it was interesting to watch, and some of our neighbors were driving by and stopped to talk (they were driving because they wanted to listen to the Daniel Boone World Series baseball game), but eventually it got dark outside and in, so we had to find something else to do. We hunted all over the house and lit every candle we could find and brought them all downstairs. Not sure what to do, we decided to try to play a board game. Our choices were limited, since most of our games require either a large group (Imaginiff, Catch Phrase, Cranium) or power (Scene It) but we decided to break out Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit. And, despite the fact that I got my cheese totally kicked by Josh, we had a really great time. The power even came back on before we were finished, but we kept playing by candlelight anyway. So a messed up evening became one of the most fun and relaxing ones we've had in a long time! Funny how things work that way... Unfortunately, I haven't looked outside yet, but I get the feeling our backyard has become a mud volleyball court, and our dog has been replaced by a mudball with legs... oh well, we needed the rain!

 

Never Long Enough

Well, it had to happen eventually, and today was the day! :) Summer ended and I had to go back to school today. The kids come next week. Today we had a short meeting, then we actually had most of the day to work, which is a refreshing change. Usually the district keeps us busy with meetings. My room was clean and (mostly) put back together, which is a miracle in and of itself! It looks great, because the ceiling tiles are all new and clean, and they really brighten up the whole room. More importantly, it feels great, because now I have air conditioning!! Yay! Tomorrow we have meetings all day at RB High, and then Monday we have a half day in our rooms again. That is going to be a crazy day, because there's still lots to do, and we have Open House that afternoon, starting at 4:30, so my room has to look presentable! My teaching partner is new this year. She has several years of experience, just not with CPS. I was helping her today and it reminded me of how much I don't miss being a new teacher. Even if it's just new to the district, it's a big deal! Linda asked if I would be her mentor, if the district decided she needed one, and I thought "Wow, this is the first year I haven't had a mentor of my own!" But since she has so many years of experience on her own, I doubt they'll make her have an official one... and I knew I'd be an "unofficial" helper anyway. Anyway, it was a pretty good first day back, but summer is still never long enough!