Update, Engaged, School, Busy!

Wow!  The beginning of the school year has been crazy!!

Update on Grandma and my Aunt

*Grandma when she was rear-ended by the semi broke both pelvis bones, shattered both artificial hips, cracked several ribs, and broke a few bones in her back.  She was in the hospital for 3-4 weeks before they released her to go home to Arkansas for physical therapy.  She will be in a wheel chair for the next 6-7 months.
*They are still running tests on my aunt.  Because of her seizure, she is not able to drive for six months.

Update on Squiggles the Cat

He's ready for summer!  He is now six months old, and he loves to cuddle.  He is a lot calmer now that he is growing out of his kitten phase. 

Update on my personal life

I'm engaged!!
October 17th was our six year anniversary.  Nathan and I went to Destihl for dinner.  *Yum!*
Then we went to the Boneyard which is a local park/creek bed in town.  Here is what part of it looks like. 

Now to get the setting right.  It was raining, dark, and there were lights over the water.  We were alone.  It was very romantic.  The rain was very light, which set the mood.  Anyway - it was so romantic.  I still get goosebumps just thinking about it!

So I'm planning a destination wedding in Maui. 

The above pictures are of Makena Surf in Maui.  I'm not sure of a specific wedding spot yet, but it will probably be on the Makena-Wailea side of Maui. 
If anyone knows of people getting married in Maui and you have suggestions, I'm all years.  We are looking at a wedding June 2013, so I still have a lot of time.

*Needless to say, I've spent all of my time away from school doing stuff for the wedding!

Update on School

 The above two pictures are from a PBIS celebration.  We do them monthly.  Students have to have so many BUG slips (our version of Gotchas) for entrance. 

The above three pictures are from our field trip to Meadowbrook Prairie. 

At some point I will post pictures of Bakery 127.  (My classroom).

I wanted to mention a couple of things I have been obsessed with this year.
1.  Mountain Math - I got the idea originally from Beth Newingham.  The subscription for Mountain Math online is $49.99 a year.  It is well worth the price.  Basically there are 34 different boards that include a variety of math problems.  When you register, you tell them your grade level and the math problems are related to common core standards for your grade level.  The goal is that you do one board a week - for 34 weeks.  Each board has 24 different types of math problems. 
Everyday at the beginning of math, I randomly draw a few students from the class using Popsicle sticks.  The students go up to our Smart Board and are able to interactively answer the question.  Now for third grade the skills range from place value, addition, subtraction, money, measurement, multiplication, division, geometry, probability, so on.  So if you pick a lower student they could pick a topic that they know for example an addition problem.  A higher student might pick place value or multiplication.  There are questions at a wide range of levels so every student can experience success.  I love it!  Check it out here.

As for what I do after math, I follow Beth Newingham's example.  I use a pretest to divide my students into high, medium, and low groups.  Then I teach them separately as they rotate through stations.  Check out her article on math workshop here.

My school also just got a subscription to Learn 360 as well.  This website has videos related to everything I cover across the curriculum.  I have been using some of the short videos to hook student learning, and just the other day I used a Cyberchase cartoon episode to introduce my place value unit.  The kids love it!

Also, I love GameQuarium Videos  They have videos for so many things.  Might I suggest the Bill Nye videos on simple machines and measurement.  It's funny how my kids love Bill Nye - my generation loved watching that everyday after school. 

Call to Arms

1.  I'd be interested to hear what types of resources those of you with Smart Boards use.

2.  Comment with links if you have any fun info on Maui!

Love blogging!  Thanks for reading!