Flat Stanley Update

Our Flat Stanley's have all been sent out. Many friends and family members volunteered to host our story book character. THANKS!

I am going off track in a few days so I will see if I can make a new website to track Flat Stanley's travels. In the meantime, check out Shelli's FLICKR to see Flat Stanley in Brooklyn and Guusje's blog to see Flat Stanley's amazing adventures with her. He has been getting around!

Here are some other places on Flat Stanley's itinerary:

Outside of the U.S.
Mongolia
The Cayman Islands
Panama
Japan
England
Greece
Fiji
Germany
Australia

In the U.S.
All over California
New York
Texas
Michigan
Illinois
Florida
Ohio
and more... (I just can't remember them all right now!)

I've Been Robbed (Again!)

Remember when this happened? Here is more on that event.

Well, it happened again. I walked in my room this morning to find that my newest computer was stolen. Interestingly enough, all of the cables were left behind as well as the printer, older computer, laptop, document camera and projector. The only other missing items are some CD's from my ELD program and my Core reading program.

The school will be replacing my old computer and CD's. As for who robbed us, I don't know but it looks very shady. My windows have metal rods in the frame to keep people from opening the flimsy windows from the outside. They can only be opened from the inside. Guess what? The rods were out. The alarm didn't go off either. That means that the theft was an inside job. The only other people who have access to my room are the night custodians otherwise known as Team Cleaning. This group of people changes from day to day. There are always different people in and out of the room. Too suspicious for me...

What to do?

Happy Birthday Little Brother!

Aaron 20 some years ago....

Appreciation

Two weeks ago was National Custodian's Day. To celebrate that day, my class, and the rest of the second grade classes wrote a letter to our custodian, Mr. Bobb. I made up a template where the kids could draw a picture as well as write about 5-6 lines about our custodian. When all of the letters were done, I bound them into a book and the kids presented it to Mr. Bobb that afternoon.

This week Mr. Bobb found me and told me how much he appreciated the book. He said that he took it home and read it with his wife and they had the most wonderful time reading the letters. These were his comments:

"The kids wrote such hard words. They weren't spelled correctly but they really tried their best to write really hard words like appreciate." (spelled uprishayt)

"The letters made me feel so good. They gave me great hope for the future."

"I told my wife that when I die, I want these letters read at my funeral."

Mr. Bobb was so moved by the book. I am glad that the kids were able to express their gratitude for our wonderful custodian. I am also touched that he found the book to be so meaningful.

Why?

Around 1:30 this afternoon one of my students told me that one of our classmates would be moving on Monday. I went over to talk to the boy in question and he didn't want to talk in front of his friends. I then walked outside with him and asked him and he burst into uncontrollable tears and grabbed on to me and said "I don't want to move Ms. V." After he and I both wiped our tears away I left him, and the class with my student teacher and I went to the office to investigate. The secretary checked her inbox and found a memo from a secretary at a school across town and sure enough, this young man was leaving and today would be his last day.

By the time I made it back to class we had about 30 minutes left with our soon to be gone friend. Right before the kids went home I told the class and asked them to say some nice things about him. I also assured him that we would write and I would try to visit him at his new school. He smiled. When the bell rang, he just hung out for a while and then when I told him that I would walk him to the after school program he started bawling again. He was so sad! He cried, I cried, my student teacher cried. What a mess. When I took him to the after school program, I had to tell them what the deal was and they too started to cry.

Why on earth would a parent move a child and not tell the teacher? The one and only time I saw this mother was earlier this year when her son broke his arm and she came to pick him up. That is it! I have had no other communication with her. Her son is such a fabulously wonderful, sweet and caring young man. He at least deserved the chance for a proper good bye from all of his friends and teachers. I am going to miss him greatly. I hope that his new teacher will see appreciate him as much as we do.

You Tube Blogging

Two of the blogs I read posted great You Tube clips. I had to post them as well!
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One Semester of Spanish Love Song:

I saw this over on Chuchería and had to post it as well!

SO FUNNY!!!



The Mom: (Via Shelli at Hydrangeas Are Pretty)

Flat Stanley Host Families Wanted!

Hello all!

My class is doing a Flat Stanley Project. We read the Flat Stanley book and are now writing to "host families" for Flat Stanley. The host families would need to receive Stanley and then write about their adventures with them. When Flat Stanley's visit is over with the host families, he can be sent back to our class for a geography lesson. So far, we have the following places covered in the U.S: California: Riverside, Laguna Beach, La Verne; Texas: Houston, Fort Worth, New York: New York; Massachusetts: Holbrook; Arkansas: Midway. We also have a few Flat Stanley's traveling to Panama City, Panama, the United Kingdom and possibly Japan.

We have a few more spots left. Would you be able to help us out? It would be great if we could cover all of the continents!

Let me know!!!