Five for Friday on Saturday

I feel very guilty that I haven't been blogging about my educational life other than Five for Friday. But it is a nice little snippet that keeps me from getting too stale. So here I go again, posting five things from my week, some about school, some not-so-much, and then linking up with Doodlebugs.

Let's get this party started! 

1. I love this little Easter bunny. We have had some super difficult times and on top of therapy and about every service our mental health center offers, we are also exploring diet changes now too. Maybe... hopefully... things will get better soon. For all of us. I want her to feel better~ physically (she's had a headache of varying degrees since March 24), spiritually (she doesn't like church because she feels like a bad person) and emotionally (battling depression and anxiety for over a year). Did you know....? Did you know that a gluten intolerance can cause depression anxiety? We were just getting ready to medicate for depression because we've been battling this anxiety disorder for a long time, almost a year with a therapist, and then I read this. Did you know.... that of the top 10 symptoms, my child has more than half of the biggies? We are going to go gluten free for a minimum of six weeks and see if it helps.  If we still have high levels of anxiety, we will explore the medication route. And if you are saying to yourself.... gosh that is awfully young to be trying medication, I agree with you. But we are all sick of living like this, and nothing breaks my Mom heart more than after a meltdown and my child tells me that she does not like herself. So if you are the praying type, don't hesitate to lift us up. We will appreciate it as we continue to search for solutions. 

Punky wearing the Easter dress her Grandma made for her.

2. First grade guided reading have been reading the stories in this "magazine" this week! On Friday we read The Frog's Party. We took turns reading the different parts. We worked on adding expression. We discussed why the character's should be afraid of Hawk. We talked about the "fly pie" and "bug cake." Then we talked about our favorite kind of cake. My Dad would be proud, two students said their favorite was chocolate cake with chocolate frosting! Whoo-hoo! So we drew a picture of our favorite kind of cake and wrote a sentence. I only "made" them write one word phonetically. I put "I like ___________ cake!" on the board and they had to fill in the blank of course! It was fun way to wrap up our week.

3. We had to purchase supplies from Menard's because.... drum roll please.... we have a graduation coming soon to our house and need a place to host a reception!! Hooray! And... along with this news is that said upcoming-graduate got accepted to the community college she wants to attend! 

Going shopping for supplies to finish some space in the basement for our graduation party! 

Celebration dinner the night we found out "we" got accepted to college!!! 

4.  What?! Are we talking about this wild yak again? You betcha. I, for one, am super proud of it and I am now fairly resourceful when talking about the Wild Yaks of the mountains of Tibet and Nepal. This guy is pretty true to life in size. We finally, finally, finally got to present. To be honest, we had to review some of our facts, hence the paper with written/typed facts! These were all in our book we read, or I took them from their research that they recorded in their journals. Instead of trying to move our yak again, we presented in the hallway after lunch.  The students were so proud and it was so good for them to present what they learned. I hate it that so many times only the highest groups get to do research, I believe that this kind of learning solidifies learning for all learning levels, and so we jumped in to this project whole-heartedly, because some of these kids don't get to do extension projects. I know their classroom teachers agree, and I love how second grade is migrating toward more projects and hands-on learning strategies! Yay!!

My colleague pointed out to me that a female yak CAN be called a cow. However, a female yak is approximately
30% smaller than a male wild yak, so this guy here cannot be called a cow! 

5. Still searching.... 

The job quest is in full swing. Our district has some elementary openings and so far I cannot get an interview. I have talked until I am blue in the face, and so have my colleagues. Our district relies heavily on your score on those gallup polls, which I am aware that I cannot do that well on, but feel powerless to change. I feel like then I am faking stuff so I can fool people. But many times the answers offered are no where near what real life scenarios look like. I have knocked some interviews out of the ballpark this week, but I also got WAY too over excited in an interview. I have to try not to do that, it is not good. But it's progress, because I've told you all my sad stories about freezing in interviews and not being to articulate my teaching abilities, and the fact that I was able to answer questions without completely going blank is a huge step. So hooray.  I have to hold on to the idea that God is going to take care of me and that there is some sort of plan for it all. But when the jobs I really, really want don't come my way, I am crushed, lets just face it. I will probably always be like that. I can't apologize for it, it is also part of the passionate person that makes me a good teacher. The right job is out there and I pray God will bring it to me soon. In the mean time I pray I can stay positive, because no one likes a whiner!