Tag Archives: teaching

New President Car and quiz

Family, history, model railroads, , , ,

It is the final day of February and the month’s answer was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States of America. I will need to call my model railroad dealer to make sure I get the car. The caboose and the Benjamin Harrison car arrived last Tuesday after I posted my last update. Here is this month’s question:

Question for March: Which President graduated from Yale ranking second in his class, taught his wife to speak again after she had a stroke during his presidency and is the only President to have also served as the Chief Justice of the United States?
*All answers must be submitted by email to mtl@micro-trains.com by the March 15th to be eligible.

Good luck and let me know what your answer is! Try entering your name with MicroTrains and see if you can be selected to win Presidential Oath of Office car. Making the Days Count, one day at a time and someday (soon), we will run our trains!

President’s Day Weekend Recap

Family, food, Life in General, model railroads, racing, Reading, , , ,

It is Tuesday morning, and normally, I would be wrapping up teaching my first section of Language Arts block and heading off to duties, meetings, and lunch. However, today’s schedule includes evening, leaving me a few moments to re-think and review the President’s weekend. Continue reading President’s Day Weekend Recap →

Saturday – President’s Day Weekend 2011

Family, history, Teaching and Learning, , , , , ,
Snow remains in only a few places in the backyard, what a bright sunny February day

Most of the snow has melted leaving only pockets of grey dingy ice piles here and there. Fallen twigs and branches litter the backyard and deck leaving a carpet of brownish grey grass matted from the snow. That is what is left of the yard after twenty or more inches of snow and several days of late winter days in the forties. It is nice outside, thought the sunlight belies that temperatures in the thirties, which will probably remain there all day, at least that is the forecast. Continue reading Saturday – President’s Day Weekend 2011 →

Happy New Year 2011

Family, Life in General, Writing, , , ,
The view from the cottage across the lake is obscured by the fog hovering over the lake.

The New Year comes along just to end Christmas vacation. Today is New Year’s Eve and a reminder that getting back to school is just a few days away. What has happened to the time? I know I have spent it resting, relaxing, rejuvenating, driving, and chasing Ivy. I know the days have counted for my mental health if not for the other aspects of who I am. I have spent a bit of time (probably too much time) looking through Facebook and added several friends from my childhood home in Sugar Land. Thinking back to that time was fun and I have made a couple of connections I had been wondering about for years.  

Continue reading Happy New Year 2011 →

Christmas week

country, Family, Life in General, Reading, , , , , ,

The schools call it Winter Break, but it really is Christmas Break and the past week has been Christmas week. It has been busy and hectic since school let loose a week ago. We have logged almost 800 miles and have completed two legs of the triangle: Wheaton to Ohio, Ohio to Michigan, with the final leg to finish later this week after New Year’s Day and the trip home. Continue reading Christmas week →

Free Write Friday – Take 2

Family, Reading, teaching, Teaching and Learning, ,

I started this last Friday in class and ran out of time to finish or rather other tasks took over the time to write and think. I try to model writing with my students and Friday is Free Write. They can write whatever they want, as long as they write. Some students write lists, others work on writing a continuing story, and some write about what they have to look forward to over the weekend. Here is what I began…… Continue reading Free Write Friday – Take 2 →

Snowy Day

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The view out the kitchen window this morning, snow is still falling!

I woke early this morning. it was about ten to five. I had set my alarm early so I could get a start on the day before everyone in the house was up and about. Saturday was going to be a busy day and I wanted to get a few things on my agenda accomplished; it is much more difficult to work on my agenda when they are three other agendas about! Also, I prefer the peaceful solitude of the morning to write and get organized. Continue reading Snowy Day →

Thanksgiving and giving thanks

Family, Life in General, Teaching and Learning, , ,

I have been thinking about this post for over a week and wanted to get started earlier, but I didn’t. Before I began writing, I came across the quote below originally posted to twitter by Values.com.

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order; confusion into clarity…Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” 

Continue reading Thanksgiving and giving thanks →