Space Center

Okay, so will someone tell the students that they still have 36 days left!! I tried but they're not hearing my words. There's a lot to learn yet and my students are acting like it's the day before summer vacation! Yesterday was Friday and after putting up with constant chatter, back talk and disrespectful behavior all week, I had had it! I came down like a hammer for the first hour of the day and ended up having a very good day. It's just hard to be so tough on kids, though. I've spent all year teaching them to be kind and respectful TO EVERYONE, not just me, and now they're sniping at each other, rolling eyes, passing around notes labeling kids as "good" or "bad", etc. PULEEZE! This is totally unacceptable. Our classroom is a place where kids can feel safe, they can feel loved, they are free to make mistakes because making mistakes is LEARNING and that's why we are there. Anyway, that's my explanation of why I haven't got back to the blog. Next week will be better and I'll continue to push them to learn more and more and I will continue to light candles and pray that they remember everything over the summer break.   (sigh)   Sometimes the end of the year is worse than the beginning. And the beginning can be BAD!

I've been emailing some people in the district about finding a way to distance teach my class

here in the United States while I am teaching in Ireland. I would like to, twice a month at least, teach both classes a science lesson via the internet. If colleges can do distance learning, why can't elementary schools? They can, so I'm sending out emails as fast as I can think of people who can help me make this happen. Of course, it would be a lot easier if the State Department would send me the name of the other exchange teacher and we could start a dialogue about it! When everything is a done deal it's easier to get excited about it. I KNOW I'm going but there's no paper saying this is the other exchange teacher and this is her school and it's located in this town, etc.  It's like winning the District Teacher of the Year. I won't know until May 7th if I win and get that laptop but if I want to get video equipment that will allow me to video-cast from Ireland, then I have to begin writing now so I make the grant deadline. I can't keep waiting for proof . . . but sometimes I get unsure. I wonder if I'm dreaming too "pie-in-the-sky". It's like dreaming about teaching from the International Space Station, if I don't apply now it's not going to happen any way, any how because I won't have done the footwork necessary. Faith is a tricky thing-- trust is even more so.

I'm also thinking about creating a website. I've had some incredible experiences that I could

 share with others. I'd love to post some photos and lesson plans that I developed when I went to Japan. I could post some lessons for teaching about Texas, since that's what I'll be doing in Ireland and, of course, I could post photos and videos about Ireland so people could experience the trip along with me. It would be fun to do it on a website. Maybe it could end up being a cool teacher resource site like Mrs. Meacham's website. Okay, talk about pie-in-the-sky dreaming! There's always so much to do but it's all so FUN! 

At any rate, I'm here to write about taking my boys to the Space Center in Houston. It's right next to NASA so they even have a trolley you can ride to tour NASA. We didn't get to do it since the boys would never have sat for another hour and a half after being in the car for 2 1/2 hours while we drove down there. When I go next time, I will be sure to leave quite early in the morning so we can actually DO and SEE everything there and I will also stay overnight and not spend 5 hours getting back home through that terrible Houston traffic and road construction!! Yes, that was NOT a typo, it took us 5 HOURS to get back home. Another lesson learned. It was a great trip though. There were a few school field trips there and lots of other visitors. Apparently, quite a few people had Spring Break at the same time as the boys.Mikey would make a great astronaut, don't you think? He already looks the part! Of course, what's the most interesting thing about space for boys???!

TOILETS, of course. The straps to hold you in were the most interesting. This is Ruben in the Discovery mock-up pretending to float in space. Pretty creative!Here he is the flight game. You are put in a chair that floats on air and your task is to hit the buttons as they light up and twist the dials. The more you do, the better your score. If you do enough, you have "accomplished your mission". Ruben had absolutely no problems accomplishing his mission. He had great scores. Can I even tell you how much I want to go into space? There are no words for the longing I have. I'd better get going on the application... right now I have no chance at all unless I get that thing in!

But for today, I have to paint the entry way.