My eyes felt good enough to back to school today.
Several of my students were concerned about my absence. It was full bore ahead. Classes worked through a dialog day. Listening to other students comments and adding an appropriate statement to continue the conversation. These are some very important skills for communicatively challenged students at the high school level.
One of my "co teacher's" husband is a jew for Christ. He is still a practicing jew with all of the customs. She talked about the jewish traditions at this time of year.. with passover and sedar meals and passed out some matsa bread for the students to try.
At the other school, the trip to Starbucks was a bust. The other teacher got parent permissions back and everyhing was okay.. except for not getting the approval from the principal. Apparently there is a staff member that pre digests the requests and gets the appropriate signatures for such events in bulk. The co teacher did not know this procedure and tried to get the principal to sign them on her own. Didn't work that way. So.. the adventure which had such a good premise did not work. We will all try again in 11 days when we are back in school.
: ) Pat
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Gotem Easter Card
Kelly and her prolific stamping has sent us a really nice Easter card. Thanks Kelly.. you brightened the day!
Had to go to school today.. shouldn't have.. red eye and going into painful.
Home school kid coming in at 11:30 and not enough time to wave him off. Sixth period another anomaly. Kid came in with mom to set up a speech screening and therapy. Private school going south. 17year old with an untouched bilateral lisp. My My.
Will do breath streams and exaggerated jaw movements to hone it down to a good s sound. We start off with a non s with channeling the s through the proper channel.
The printer is working.. got some really nice photos done in the 13x 19 size. I had some premade mats so off they went to school. Sixth period worked on the logic and the reasoning behind placements of the corn lady, the sisters on the Malecon, spuds and butter, and the Carnival ship headed into Puerto Vallarta and two photos of the cathedral of Puerto Vallarta. I still have some work to do on the series to include the market photo down in the trees. I got a pretty hialrous photo of a guy hanging off the ledge taking a photo of the sunset with a digital camera and a balloon hat that has marked on it in marking pen "Lady Killer".
We have next week off.. starting with this Fiday. Sue's friend Jean is coming to visit us for a few days during this time. It will be fun to do tourist again. Hope my eye is better. I spent an hour in line at Walgreens to get the drops and an hour in the office to get a prescription.
Love to all
Pat
Had to go to school today.. shouldn't have.. red eye and going into painful.
Home school kid coming in at 11:30 and not enough time to wave him off. Sixth period another anomaly. Kid came in with mom to set up a speech screening and therapy. Private school going south. 17year old with an untouched bilateral lisp. My My.
Will do breath streams and exaggerated jaw movements to hone it down to a good s sound. We start off with a non s with channeling the s through the proper channel.
The printer is working.. got some really nice photos done in the 13x 19 size. I had some premade mats so off they went to school. Sixth period worked on the logic and the reasoning behind placements of the corn lady, the sisters on the Malecon, spuds and butter, and the Carnival ship headed into Puerto Vallarta and two photos of the cathedral of Puerto Vallarta. I still have some work to do on the series to include the market photo down in the trees. I got a pretty hialrous photo of a guy hanging off the ledge taking a photo of the sunset with a digital camera and a balloon hat that has marked on it in marking pen "Lady Killer".
We have next week off.. starting with this Fiday. Sue's friend Jean is coming to visit us for a few days during this time. It will be fun to do tourist again. Hope my eye is better. I spent an hour in line at Walgreens to get the drops and an hour in the office to get a prescription.
Love to all
Pat
Sunday, April 5, 2009
For Godfrey's Mama
The first set of iris photos were shot into the sun.
That was not going to work. I could have color corrected them in photo shot and brought out the colors.. but.. considering that they are right outside of my front door. It is easy to go out and re-shoot them.
So.. check on my flikr.. side bar on the left and you will see the two best photos that I took this AM on my front yard iris garden.
Fringe Benefits are the delicate orange iris. This pastel color is supposed to be my Talasmatic color what ever that means.
The cool spuds and butter have a delicate orange throat. There is a little breeze this am so some of these iris are moving gently to the breeze.. Its palm Sunday and there are fresh strawberries in the stands.. or at least it looks that way when you drive by.
That is something that will have to be investigated today.. hard to beat strawberry shortcake.. with local red berries without white shoulders..
: ) Pat
That was not going to work. I could have color corrected them in photo shot and brought out the colors.. but.. considering that they are right outside of my front door. It is easy to go out and re-shoot them.
So.. check on my flikr.. side bar on the left and you will see the two best photos that I took this AM on my front yard iris garden.
Fringe Benefits are the delicate orange iris. This pastel color is supposed to be my Talasmatic color what ever that means.
The cool spuds and butter have a delicate orange throat. There is a little breeze this am so some of these iris are moving gently to the breeze.. Its palm Sunday and there are fresh strawberries in the stands.. or at least it looks that way when you drive by.
That is something that will have to be investigated today.. hard to beat strawberry shortcake.. with local red berries without white shoulders..
: ) Pat
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Iris Blooming
We had a friend in Merced that used to have an commercial iris garden. It was called "Enchanted April." Each April his acres were a beautiful site to behold. I believe that he had over 150 varieties plus a few that he had developed himself and named after his daughters.
He ended up with bad knees and was forced to move his retail iris garden into a wholesale one. In one of his last years of operation, mom and dad came over with a friend from England. They bought us four different varieties.
The iris business is pretty interesting in that when you see the blossoms you really cannot get the plants you want until later in the year.. about late August or September when they can be separated and moved. The old blossomed spikes are discarded and new shoots are encouraged. My iris garden is ready for such a renewal. The dwarf peach and nectarine trees are impinging upon the light needed for the iris and the weeds are much harder to eliminate because they enter the zone of the trees and are taller than than the iris.
Currently the iris garden is displaying some beautiful fringe benefit iris (orange) and some spuds and butter (yellow fringed with white centers). Later in the season will be the deep purple black Abbey (named after his daughter) and the iris that mom likes, the Beverly Sills (pink). They are the last iris of the season.
: ) Pat
He ended up with bad knees and was forced to move his retail iris garden into a wholesale one. In one of his last years of operation, mom and dad came over with a friend from England. They bought us four different varieties.
The iris business is pretty interesting in that when you see the blossoms you really cannot get the plants you want until later in the year.. about late August or September when they can be separated and moved. The old blossomed spikes are discarded and new shoots are encouraged. My iris garden is ready for such a renewal. The dwarf peach and nectarine trees are impinging upon the light needed for the iris and the weeds are much harder to eliminate because they enter the zone of the trees and are taller than than the iris.
Currently the iris garden is displaying some beautiful fringe benefit iris (orange) and some spuds and butter (yellow fringed with white centers). Later in the season will be the deep purple black Abbey (named after his daughter) and the iris that mom likes, the Beverly Sills (pink). They are the last iris of the season.
: ) Pat
Friday, April 3, 2009
The Wind is blowing like a Banshee
Mixed bag today.
I was missing a couple of students first period. Friday's are usually game days but they got me off talking about mountains of snicker bars in the nearby warehouse distribution center for 7 11s in Northern California.. McKlane. Every day hundreds of trucks leave Merced with palates on them for 7 11 stores in Northern California. My students did not know what a palate was. So they learned about two kinds of palates.. the wooden kind and the soft palate.. back near the alveolar ridge. From there we got into lo boys and fork lifts.
The second period came in ready to play. Their favorite game is 5 second hold em. They have to hold the answer they know for 5 seconds before verbalizing the answer.
The other school had a IEP that was close to schedule. The student is a daughter of a 3rd grade teacher in town. It was nice to meet her. She was pretty happy about her daughter's progress.
Lunch time is always a riot with the boys and girls of the TOTS.. the other table.
The worm game.. a version of the milion dollar game show was on tap for the 5th period class. They had a great time with "Mr. Brown" words which are always the easiest on the board. I pinned the TAs with tough questions and saved the toughest ones for the the para. He is always up for the challenge.
Sixth period was spent working on a visual organizer for a "to do" list for this weekend for each of the students.
The student body had a multiculture day with food from all of the clubs for sale.
It was a good day but it took the starch out of me to be "on camera" most of the day.
: ) pat
I was missing a couple of students first period. Friday's are usually game days but they got me off talking about mountains of snicker bars in the nearby warehouse distribution center for 7 11s in Northern California.. McKlane. Every day hundreds of trucks leave Merced with palates on them for 7 11 stores in Northern California. My students did not know what a palate was. So they learned about two kinds of palates.. the wooden kind and the soft palate.. back near the alveolar ridge. From there we got into lo boys and fork lifts.
The second period came in ready to play. Their favorite game is 5 second hold em. They have to hold the answer they know for 5 seconds before verbalizing the answer.
The other school had a IEP that was close to schedule. The student is a daughter of a 3rd grade teacher in town. It was nice to meet her. She was pretty happy about her daughter's progress.
Lunch time is always a riot with the boys and girls of the TOTS.. the other table.
The worm game.. a version of the milion dollar game show was on tap for the 5th period class. They had a great time with "Mr. Brown" words which are always the easiest on the board. I pinned the TAs with tough questions and saved the toughest ones for the the para. He is always up for the challenge.
Sixth period was spent working on a visual organizer for a "to do" list for this weekend for each of the students.
The student body had a multiculture day with food from all of the clubs for sale.
It was a good day but it took the starch out of me to be "on camera" most of the day.
: ) pat
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Feeder Schools and Intake
The kid comes in.
He peers over his shyness to a table full of people frantically filling out forms.
His teacher is there, reluctantly telling lies about him.
Everyone smiles and the questions are asked.
What do you want for a fun elective?
You can have that fun elective if you go to summer school and pass and not miss three days.
When?
Every morning from June 10th to July 21st.
When?
It starts at 7:30. Its over at 1:00.
Sure, I will agree to do anything.. just get me out of this room.
Sign here... what am I signing?
Oh there is a translater.. yes its in Spanish.
Do you want to play sports in High School?
Yes, you are on the Jr. High team.
You want keyboarding..yes that is the same as computers.
Does your mom understand her rights?
(In his mind.. what is the principal doing here?)
And...my speech teacher...I just call her speech teacher.
And there is this other guy from the High School.. he says that he is a speech teacher too. Am I going to have speech there too?
I really don't know how to ask that question..
Whoops its over we are out of the room. Its time for the next group to come in.
Thats the way it was going today
:) Pat
He peers over his shyness to a table full of people frantically filling out forms.
His teacher is there, reluctantly telling lies about him.
Everyone smiles and the questions are asked.
What do you want for a fun elective?
You can have that fun elective if you go to summer school and pass and not miss three days.
When?
Every morning from June 10th to July 21st.
When?
It starts at 7:30. Its over at 1:00.
Sure, I will agree to do anything.. just get me out of this room.
Sign here... what am I signing?
Oh there is a translater.. yes its in Spanish.
Do you want to play sports in High School?
Yes, you are on the Jr. High team.
You want keyboarding..yes that is the same as computers.
Does your mom understand her rights?
(In his mind.. what is the principal doing here?)
And...my speech teacher...I just call her speech teacher.
And there is this other guy from the High School.. he says that he is a speech teacher too. Am I going to have speech there too?
I really don't know how to ask that question..
Whoops its over we are out of the room. Its time for the next group to come in.
Thats the way it was going today
:) Pat
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
April 1 and Fools among us
This is a very interesting day at school for the language impaired.
It is not too far from St Pat's day when people can go out and pinch others for not wearing green. The difficult part about this day is to get a prank pulled on another that is significant enough to say.."April Fools!" This is hard when your language is behind to begin with.
My students tried to do the uniform alert.. your zipper's down, your button is unbuttoned, you are wearing your shirt inside out.. again.. after the third one of these it just doesn't fly. They still keep trying.
Today was writing day. Wednesdays are always.. or mostly always writing day in the class. I let them choose from my career photos one career and then write a couple of paragraphs about it. I put up hints regarding the content I wanted in each of their chosen careers. One of the students who is on the A spectrum say the mail lady and called her Nacho Libre. He could not get that out of his head. So.. what does nacho libre do to deliver the mail?
Have a great day!
Pat
It is not too far from St Pat's day when people can go out and pinch others for not wearing green. The difficult part about this day is to get a prank pulled on another that is significant enough to say.."April Fools!" This is hard when your language is behind to begin with.
My students tried to do the uniform alert.. your zipper's down, your button is unbuttoned, you are wearing your shirt inside out.. again.. after the third one of these it just doesn't fly. They still keep trying.
Today was writing day. Wednesdays are always.. or mostly always writing day in the class. I let them choose from my career photos one career and then write a couple of paragraphs about it. I put up hints regarding the content I wanted in each of their chosen careers. One of the students who is on the A spectrum say the mail lady and called her Nacho Libre. He could not get that out of his head. So.. what does nacho libre do to deliver the mail?
Have a great day!
Pat
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