Going to the Fair

Remember little Raven Symoné from The Cosby Show? My daughter loves watching her in reruns of that show.

She also loves to watch her in her all grown up show That's so Raven.

We just found our that Raven will be coming to sing at the Stanislaus County Fair in July...FOR FREE!!! Guess we will be there!

:-)

A Record I Wish We Hadn't Broken

Today we hit 106 degrees. It was awful. I only let my students out to go to the bathroom and to go to lunch.

When I drove home, It took 10 minutes for the car to actually bring cool air in!

It is only May...we are in for a hot one.

More here.

Test Anxiety

We are on day 2 of state testing and so far have had three "throw up" incidents. The kids are so stressed out that they are responding physically.

Have you ever wondered about what happens to a test that has been vomited on? You can't throw it away! The test has to be bagged up and returned to the state! Before that though, our lucky test coordinator (vp) has to transfer the bubbled in items to a new test document. I am so glad that I do not have that job!

Crazy!

Relief!

I have been suffering from seasonal allergies since early March. Some days have been ok and some have been bad. This week has been just rotten. I have been dizzy, have had non stop headaches and pain behind my eyes. I take Singulair and Claritin but I haven't seen too much of a change. Yesterday when it felt as if my eyes might pop out of my head I called the Dr. for something new. I was told to try two over the counter meds. One was eye drops called Naphcon. The other was Mucinex. What a change! I can think, I have little head pain and I can sit around and enjoy my students at school and my daughter at home...imagine that! I went a little nuts when I saw the price on the Mucinex box but it is worth every single penny. I almost feel normal...wow!

Addicted to CNN Politics

Every caucus or primary vote day I am glued to CNN either online or on tv. I can't get enough of the coverage. Today is an especially exciting day of news coverage with the close race in Indiana.

Am I the only one who suffers from this addiction? Enquiring minds want to know...

Teacher Appreciation Day

Today is National Teacher Appreciation Day. I didn't get an official present or card but I did get lots of great effort from my students and lots of smiles, hugs and even a "Ms. V. you are beautiful!" That is enough for me!

I actually forgot that today was Teacher Appreciation Day. Sabina wanted to do something for her teacher and I told her it was tomorrow. She came home upset because we messed up on the day. I told her to go ahead and just give her present to her teacher tomorrow. What is the present? A cute little bag of teacher note cards from the $1 store and Sabina's favorite truffles from See's Candies. The best part, in my opinion, is the card that she wrote. Here is the message:

Happy Teacher's Day!!!
I am glad to have you as my teacher this year. I will miss you next year when I am in fifth grade.
I really think that you are the best teacher I've had in my entire life (and I don't say that about everybody!)
Thanks,
Sabina

Happy Teacher's Day to all of my fellow teachers!!!

Meme 2008

Tag!

Chuchería, posted this meme recently. Here is my installment.

The rules:

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.

Here we go...

1) What was I doing 10 years ago? I was pretty pregnant and hoping for an early delivery. I didn't get the early delivery date but I did get a beautiful baby out of it!

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order): I am posting tomorrow's list since it is already past nine...YIKES!

1. Finish Progress Reports.
2. Work on a materials order for next year.
3. Cut up fruit and veggies so they are easy to grab for snacks.
4. Praise all of my students for acing the multiplication test I gave today - over half scored 100%!
5. Play Howrse. (I will have to post about that addiction later...)

3) Snacks I enjoy: Dried cranberries from Trader Joe's, Quaker Rice cakes - cheddar cheese, jicama, Swedish Fish - I LOVE THOSE FISH!

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire: Hmm... pay everything off for everyone in the family, give lots to charity and buy homes in:

El Valle de Antón

and in Playa Blanca in Panama.

That way I would be able to enjoy my two favorite places in Panama. That would be the life!

I would like to say that I would keep my job and help others, blah, blah, blah....but that is not really the case. If I could I would love to have the time to spend with the ones I love the most and not have to sacrifice time with them for a job. I would of course, want to to good things for others but I would love not to be tied down to a schedule for a long period of time.

5) Three of my bad habits:

1. overeating
2. piling up clean clothing - I would much rather clean toilets than fold.
3. procrastinating on the gym workouts


6) 5 places I have lived:

1. Santiago, Chile
2. Buenos Aires, Argentina
3. Bakersfield, California
4. Pocrí de Aguadulce, Panamá
5. Turlock, California

7) 5 jobs I have had:

1. Vet lab assistant - I was 14 and helped the neighbors in their lab. It was cool. They paid me in cat food for my kitten!
2. Sales person and manager- Miller's Outpost
3. Gym Associate: Checked People in to the gym, sold memberships and from time to time would set them up on a weight training program...WHAT A JOKE that job was...HA!
4. Graveyard shift at a group home - group counselor when I was there in the day
5. S.E.D. Teacher (severely emotionally disturbed)

8) 6 peeps I wanna know more about:

1) YOU
2) YOU
3) YOU
4) YOU
5) YOU
and...
6) YOU!!!!

The River Game

I found this game over at Latinopundit's blog. It has been driving me nuts!!!

If you try it...good luck! The rules are posted over on his blog.

It took me 3 days to figure it out!!!

Hooray For the Internet!

For the past 5 years or so I have been trying to find a long lost friend of mine that I met when I lived in Chile. We went to school together when I was in 6th and 7th grade. We stayed in contact for sometime after I left by writing to each other. I don't know when we stopped writing to each other and fell out of contact.

About 5 years ago I looked on our former school's website and found an update on her and an e-mail address. Sadly, the e-mail bounced back. A couple years later, I tried again but with the same luck. Yesterday, I went back to the site and found an updated e-mail address. Guess what? This time it worked! I got a response from her yesterday. How cool is that???

I am happy to be back in contact with my long lost friend!

Travel Booked

Tonight we booked our summer travel. Mom and dad are off to Spain. Later on, Sabi and Mom are off to Baltimore. After that, Sabi, Mom and I are off to Panama.
Fun!

El Potrillo Cumple 37

In honor of Alejandro Fernandez's birthday today I am posting two videos. The first one was filmed today,in Venezuela, at an A.F. concert. A.F. was surprised in the middle of the concert by being sung to by the audience as well as being sung to by his children on video. I was suprised to see him wearing pants that were so tight! :-)




The second video is one of my favorites that he sings with Gloria Estefan.

Please Parents...Talk With Your Kids!

Last week my aunt gave me a book on puberty in young girls to read with Sabi. I hadn't taken the time to sit down with her yet and read through it. This morning, Sabi discovered the book and asked me about it. I told her that she could go ahead and read it if she wanted to. She grabbed it up and was reading in intently on the way to school. We had a short discussion on what she read this morning. She was kind of embarrassed about the book was clearly happy to have the book to answer some questions. I think it made it easier to ask me questions too since she could use a quote from the book to talk about. We will continue to work through the book.

I am so happy to be able to comfortably discuss the topic of puberty with Sabi. I was worried that she would be to shy to talk about it but she is really quite comfortable with me. I hope that we can always be so open with this and other topics.

* * * * *

On my way to lunch today, I told my student teacher the above story and she too agreed with me about how nice it is to have open communication. She then went on to say that if parents don't have these conversations, there will be many confused kids not to mention the risks of teenage pregnancy etc.

Not less than 5 minutes later we ran into a former student of mine. She is now about 14 or 15 years old. I didn't have to ask her why she wasn't in school. It was painfully clear...6 and 1/2 months clear. She is pregnant and has dropped out of school and will most likely not return.

Crazy!

Reader Appreciation Day

Happy Reader Appreciation Day!

Dear Readers of MsAbcMom,

Thank you for the following:

* Making me smile

* Making me laugh

* Making me sigh

* Making me cry (sometimes)

* Including me in your lives (via blog posts)

* Uplifting my spirits

* Making me feel loved and important

* Providing me with new friends/acquaintances

* Inspiring me to write

Thank you for visiting...please come again! :-)

p.s. Thanks to The Other Mother for this cool idea!

Great Challah Recipe

I found a great recipe for challah online. I followed the recipe for the ingredients but changed a bit in the process. Check it out.

Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:
2 cups warm water
2 packages dry active yeast
6-7 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup oil
1 eggs (1 for the mixture and one to brush on at the end)

Directions:
Dissolve yeast in water. Temp should be between 75-120 degrees. Stir in sugar and salt. Add 3 cups flour and mix well in a mixer. Add remaining flour. Dough may be a little sticky. Mix until it forms a ball on the dough blade of the mixer. Move dough to a greased large bowl. Cover and place in a warm place. (I put mine on the dryer!) When dough rises long enough (twice the size) punch it down to let the air out. Knead for a few minutes and then cut in pieces, roll it out and then braid. Place on baking sheets that have been lined with parchment paper. Lightly brush a beaten egg over the top of the challah. Bake at 375 degrees until golden brown. Enjoy!

Really?

None of these people look like me!

Learning While Listening

My daughter is in the Suzuki violin program. The program is very structured and somewhat rigid. There are a series of books in the program that are leveled to the ability of the student. All students start at the first book and then move up as they demonstrate mastery of all the songs in the book they are working on.

In addition to regular practice it is recommended that the students listen to the music from the books on a regular basis. This technique helps them to be familiar with the music, rhythms, etc. Sabi is currently finishing book 3 and moving into book 4.

Today, we are home sick. I am having Sabi work on test prep. I thought it would be good to play the CD for Book 4 while she was busy working away. It was a bit of a distraction to her at first. I didn't tell her that I was putting the CD on. She immediately recognized it and asked if it was the Book 4 CD. As the music continued, she reacted very interestingly. At first she was a bit worried because she said it sounded hard. I didn't say anything and just pretended to work away at my computer while I watched her. She then started tapping the music out and I could tell that she was trying to figure out the technique for the song that was playing. When the next track on the CD came on she was excited because it was a song that she really liked. We are on
the sixth track of the CD now. She has returned to her test prep but is much more focused on her work . Every now and then though she will conduct with her pencil in between solving another math problem. I love it!

Frustration

We have a handful of kids at my school that have been identified as GATE. (gifted and talented) Most of our GATE identified kids don't go to the GATE schools in our district though. Why? The parents don't send their kids to the program. The district I work in doesn't, in my opinion, do enough to promote the program to the Latino parents in Spanish. They also don't promote it at our site. Many of our parents don't speak English, or speak it well enough to understand it in an academic setting. They also are not very mobile so having something out of walking distance won't fly.

This year my daughter is in the GATE class at the school next to mine, the school where our GATE identified kids should go. There are at least 4 other kids at my school, in her grade, who should be there with her but they aren't. Two of them are former students of mine. I contacted these parents personally to ask them to send their children to the GATE program. I tried to explain the benefits of the program to them but they were worried that there would be no teachers at the other school who could speak to them, the parents, in Spanish and that it wouldn’t be in walking distance. (The kids would get bused but the parents, understandably, like to be in close proximity to their kids in case of emergency, etc.)

My concern here is that we have this handful of really bright kids who are mixed in with the rest and are not being pushed to the fullest extent of their capabilities. With our current test driven state in education, most teachers are trying their best to make sure that the kids are ready for the test. This means really focusing on the kids who are below grade level. We were in fact told by a workshop presenter, who was there to help us get our scores up, to “not worry about GATE kids. They already have what they need!”

Now I am not saying that classroom teachers don’t have a responsibility to their GATE students because we do. We need to work just as hard for them as we do for our lowest students. However, whatever we do for them in our regular classrooms, doesn’t even compare to what they can get from a class comprised of like minded individuals.

Every day that my daughter has been in her new GATE class this year has been just amazing. I just melt inside when I hear the things they are learning, the way they are learning or just the casual conversations that she is having with her friends. What a difference and change. What an opportunity!

When I walk around my school and see the GATE identified kids at my school, I feel so sad. I wish that they too could have the same opportunities that my daughter has.

Just a few questions...

Why did I let me sick daughter sleep with me a few nights ago?

Why are ALL of my students at school with drippy noses?

Why, despite the MILLIONS of boxes of Kleenex that I buy, and my students go through, did that not stop the germs?

Why did the constant use of Germ-X on both my students and myself not work?

Why did I not start using this a few days ago?

I hate being sick. Hate, hate, hate it.

It's Never Too Late To Learn

Did you catch the story in the news today about the 70 year old first grader. That story made my day. I am sharing this story and the video clip with my students tomorrow.

Here is the video and here is the story.

Paid in Full

I am still riding the Yo! MTV Raps nostalgia train. I just found the Paid in Full video by Erik B. and Rakim. Where else can you find such well crafted and eloquent rhymes such as:

"Me and Erik B. and a nice big plate of fish
which is my favorite dish
but without the money it's still a wish"

:-)