I arrived in Minnesota yesterday (Saturday, December 18th). It is great to be back and to see family and friends. Although the weather is extremely cold here compared to the upper 70 degree weather I left in Houston, the familiar faces seem to help keep me warm. I think my tolerance of cold weather has been significantly weakened from living in Houston, but hopefully after a few days of this (cold weather), I will be able to adjust. As much as I don't miss the snow, there is still part of me that was happy to see the white stuff from the plane window as we got closer to Minnesota. Speaking of snow, there seems to be an awful lot of snow this year in Minnesota. Enough to collapse parts of the roof of the Metrodome and basically shut down most of the metro area last weekend.
I am excited to be home and spend the holidays with my family. I remember when I was younger that Christmas was all about the presents. Now that I am a little bit older (and probably because I live much further from home) I appreciate the time I am able to spend with my family. I am very fortunate to be able to come home and spend the holidays with the people I care about. I will be having Christmas Eve with my immediate family and on Christmas Day everyone who is able will be joining us. My mom is an excellent cook, I am anticipating the wonderful food already.
Although the teaching professions has many things that make it less than ideal, the availability to have most holidays off from work is something that makes it pretty nice. I will be thoroughly enjoying my two weeks off. I will be spending lots of time with family and friends... and maybe even doing a little relaxing.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
- Joe
Sunday, December 19, 2010
More Shamless Self Promotion...
Here is another story that "HISD News" did about our school's "Plug Into the Outdoors" event. I was interviewed for this one... Click Here to view the video.
(It takes a little time to load... be sure to give it time) :)
- Joe
(It takes a little time to load... be sure to give it time) :)
- Joe
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Anticipation Builds - Holiday Season
The holiday season in elementary school (the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas break) is, in my opinion, one of the hardest times of the year to be a teacher. Even in a school where many of my students will not be seeing the gifts they are hoping for underneath the Christmas tree - if they are lucky enough to have a Christmas tree, students are buzzing with excitement about Christmas. The students know that Christmas is coming and it is hard for them to contain their excitement. They know that soon they will be having a break from school.
The students' pent up excitement makes it even harder for them to concentrate on the topics at hand and even causes them to struggle with simple tasks, such as staying in their seats.
I try hard to not be the "Grinch" for my students, but I do walk a fine line between trying to push the students in their learning and still allowing them to be excited about this great time of year. We cannot afford to spend entire weeks making Christmas cards for mom and dad and writing letters to Santa about what we want for Christmas (although, I think the ELA teachers try to work these topics into the curriculum). I feel my students are too far behind to lose more educational days to just have fun. I remember when I was school... I didn't expect to do much the week before Christmas break. My students, on the other hand, will be learning about the Earth's rotation and revolution tomorrow and the effects they have on day/night and the seasons.
My students' will be having a "holiday party" on Friday. They will be watching the movie of one of the books they ready in ELA the first half of the year in the morning and then playing board games and/or Nintendo Wii in the afternoon (my students' love when I bring the Wii in for them to use). They are really looking forward to the holiday party and have been asking me questions about it daily since the first day back after Thanksgiving... haha
On a different note.
My school had "Plug Into the Outdoors" this Saturday. It was an environmental event (our school is an environmental science magnet school). The event went really well and was attended by a lot of the families from the community. Here is a link to the story that Fox News did about the event!
The students' pent up excitement makes it even harder for them to concentrate on the topics at hand and even causes them to struggle with simple tasks, such as staying in their seats.
I try hard to not be the "Grinch" for my students, but I do walk a fine line between trying to push the students in their learning and still allowing them to be excited about this great time of year. We cannot afford to spend entire weeks making Christmas cards for mom and dad and writing letters to Santa about what we want for Christmas (although, I think the ELA teachers try to work these topics into the curriculum). I feel my students are too far behind to lose more educational days to just have fun. I remember when I was school... I didn't expect to do much the week before Christmas break. My students, on the other hand, will be learning about the Earth's rotation and revolution tomorrow and the effects they have on day/night and the seasons.
My students' will be having a "holiday party" on Friday. They will be watching the movie of one of the books they ready in ELA the first half of the year in the morning and then playing board games and/or Nintendo Wii in the afternoon (my students' love when I bring the Wii in for them to use). They are really looking forward to the holiday party and have been asking me questions about it daily since the first day back after Thanksgiving... haha
On a different note.
My school had "Plug Into the Outdoors" this Saturday. It was an environmental event (our school is an environmental science magnet school). The event went really well and was attended by a lot of the families from the community. Here is a link to the story that Fox News did about the event!
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