Headed Down East

We are headed off for five glorious days of relaxation in Bar Harbor! I'll post more about our trip when we get back.

It's been a long time....

I'm sorry about that. Really. But life got the best of me for about 6 months. Now though, things are back to normal. In fact, today, things are wonderful. Why? Because my great-niece, Sophia Elizabeth, was born! Welcome to the world, Sophie!

Catching up...

So things are slowly returning to "normal" after two months of definitely not normal. Dave's last physical therapy session is tomorrow, I am back in school full time, I am almost totally caught up on grading (although I am going to have a little slosh over...mostly to allow the kids time to remediate their essays), and my new grad school class has started. Last night was the first night that I could see the light at the end of the tunnel...and not think that it was an oncoming train.

Maybe that is why I got sick. Sore, scratchy throat, aches, chills...thankfully it's pretty mild right now, and I can still go in to school, but I'm really dragging. I should have never let my guard down!

Beauty in the Winter

We have had a small herd of 7 or 8 deer hanging out by our bird feeders for the past few days.

Winter must be harsh, as they are eating right out of the bird feeders and in the middle of the day. We have put out some dried corn along with carrots, apples and celery and they have loved it. I have loved being able to watch them.


Herd behavior is fascinating. One stands sentry while the others eat. They are young, you can tell that several are yearlings, and they are healthy looking. Dave says that I could eventually get them to eat out of my hand, but I don't want them to get that used to humans. I'll just continue to put out the food and watch them from my window.

Blast from the past

I have been having fun converting old slides to digital images. I am going to put them all together on a DVD for my parents. While going through the slides, I came across this one of me, my sister Susan and our dog, Bootsie. I'm the one reading. Things have not changed that much in the past 38 years. I love this picture. It's so me. I wish I knew what book I was reading so intently. It was probably about horses. Maybe Misty of Chincoteague or maybe The Black Stallion. It could have been a book of fairy tales. Whatever it was, I loved it. And I still do today. It makes me sad that some (or most) of my students don't have this love. And I am hopeful that I might eventually instill some of that love of reading in my students.

The Christmas Picture

Merry Christmas, everyone!
Merry is sitting on Dave's lap, and Pippin is on my lap.

Final Collaboration Reflection

In the end, it worked out well. That is not to say that there were not some bugs and glitches along the way, for there surely were. However, by the end of the unit, most of the students said that they saw a connection between English and Social Studies, so I felt good about that.

My partner Chris also liked having students who had read and understood "Sinners in the hands of an Angry God" while they were working on the First Great Awakening in Social Studies. Requiring the students to include an historical element in each chapter of the graphic novel was another way to forge the connection between English and Social Studies and the students came through with flying colors. Occasionally they needed a little assistance, but for the most part they made the connections easily and on their own.

Chris and I checked in with each other during the unit, but we were not in lockstep with each other. We both trusted that the other would be able to use and build on the schema learned in each class.

A side benefit was that I ended up collaborating with another Social Studies teacher, also named Chris. Most students who take Pre-AP English also take Pre-AP US History, but some don't. However, Chris 2 was also teaching Puritanism at the same time Chris 1 and I were, so it worked out great. He thanked me for teaching that, and said that his kids were getting some of the same benefits that the Pre-AP USH students were getting from the collaboration.

All in all, I feel it was a successful collaboration.