Seriously, Week Three???

I don't know how we've come this far in this short of a time. WOW! This year is flying already, and I guess it's because I'm having so much fun!  This past week, we went through a series of poetry stations, delving deeper into the connections between poetry and the river.

Students typed and submitted to me via email their "Battle of Redwood Triolets".  They were a lot of fun to hear and read.  I hope they were fun to write!

One station asked students to imagine what would have inspired a poet to write a particular haiku.  They had to write a paragraph that painted the scene that could have been the source of the haiku situation that was ultimately boiled down into a haiku.

At another station, students read a selection from Mark Twain, "Two Ways of Seeing a River."  Once they read and discussed the reading as a group, they sought out examples of figurative language that Twain used in the piece.

They did a Read! Listen! Write! activity.  They read a selection by Pat Mora, which talked about the nature of poetry and the resemblance to a river.  Then they listened to Langston Hughes talk about the inspiration for his poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers."  And finally, they came up with five to ten ways that poetry was like a river and explained how poetry did the things a river did.  For example, they might say that a river can be deep and at times shallow and a poem can be deep in meaning and at times shallow in meaning (no deeper meaning, surface level).

The last station was Poetry Poker.  Word cards are dealt to the players who have a chance to discard and try to build the strongest hand possible with the five words they have.  In the end they manipulate the words to create a line of poetry.

When we finished with the stations, I performed a Miguel Pinero poem for the class.  We then looked at various examples of performance poetry.  Each group randomly selected one of the poems I had picked out to perform this upcoming week.

We've just been building, building, building.  I'm excited to see what comes next.

Week Two? How'd that Happen??

I can't believe tomorrow will mark our third week of school already!  It's been a lot of work, but it has also been a ton of fun!

This week we went over the syllabus for my class .  I know it is important and a college ready skill, but it's not much fun.  I must think of a better way to do that!  Luckily we had a chance to at least start in on some poetry.

Monday afternoon we did some team building games in front of K Building.  I was responsible for ALL ABOARD.  The object of the game is to get all of your group on a sheet.  Pretty easy at first, but after every successful attempt, I fold the sheet in half.  C Group did the best; they got the entire class on a quarter of a sheet.  I also had them sit on the ground back to back and lock elbows.  Then they had to work together to get up and race.  We did it in pairs, quartets, and sextets.  It was very entertaining to watch...speaking of which, I have some video to edit.

Tuesday, I explained the rules of our WATER BALLOON EXTRAVAGANZA!  Basically, it's a huge 4 team game of capture the flag, with water balloons.  That afternoon, we headed to Redwood park and played.  It was a good day.

The last class of the week, we managed to analyze "Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy and students wrote a triolet about their exploits during the Battle of Redwood.  They will be turning in their analysis and presenting their triolets the first half of this upcoming week.  I'm excited to hear them.  Triolets are always so much fun!

I also began assessing students during English Lab to get an idea of where everyone is with their fluency and reading comprehension.  It'll be nice to have the English Lab to work on literacy skills and strengthen student understanding.

We finished the week off with a cold rainy trip down the New River, but we had fun.  The kids were awesome and everyone seemed to have a great time!

Up next, poetry poker, stations, and maybe some performance poetry!

Back in the Freshman Saddle Again!

Well, after the CECHS staff switcheroo this past summer, I've found myself back on the freshman team, teaching English I.  I won't lie, I'm pretty stoked to be teaching English again.  And I'm especially excited to be teaching freshman again.  I love the energy freshman bring to the classroom.


We started the first day with a little getting to know each other activity.  I used the questions to learn more about the students and to let them know more about me.  We also established four clock buddies or appointments.  This will allow us to quickly meet up with a partner throughout the semester.  The entire grade level team has been able to make use of them, so that's pretty cool.

We are off and running with poetry. Students wrote "I Am" poems and published them on my back bulletin board.  It's a lot of fun to read them and see the different ways each student expressed his or her individuality through the final piece.

We got to play around with Poetry Knots, which are usually referred to as Human Knots.   The difference in my class is that we use this exercise to draw an analogy between untying our human knot and untangling the meaning in a piece of poetry.  We learned that sometimes we need to step back and get a different perspective and other times we need to get deep inside to unlock meaning.  We also learned how important it is to communicate with each other and help each other unlock meaning.

As a grade level, we had a giant slip-n-slide, which was symbolic of our freshmen launching themselves into their future as they begin their high school and college careers. Unfortunately, a massive storm rained on our fun.  We had to make a run for campus and pretty much everyone and everything got drenched.  But the students were awesome!  If there attitude during that pounding rain is an indication of this year, it's going to be an incredible adventure!

We finished the week with some time in the pool and team building outside in the morning. Then we watched The Ron Clark Story.  Ron Clark's Essential 55 are the building blocks for the culture we try to create at CECHS, it's important that we look at where those rules came from and why they are important.

Overall, this has been a FANTASTIC first week of school.  I am looking forward to diving deeper into poetry next week and getting to know my students even better!

Twitter Discussion

I had a chance to allow all four of my classes have a discussion with each other, not me!  I pulled myself out of the mix for the most part.  But I added a layer of technology to give depth and another dimension to the talk.  It also limited me to 140 characters or less.

In each class, I had a moderator to help lead and guide the discussion, and I had at least one technical facilitator.  I had asked the kids to create twitter accounts for us to use as part of the discussion.  I projected my account on the big screen and the technical facilitator refreshed and interjected digital commentary as needed.  I also had a student volunteer to be text relayer, relaying comments sent to their phone via text message.

My goal was to give everyone a voice and allow for some sidebar, but related, conversations to take place.  It was for the most part successful.  In some classes the conversation flowed better than others and the direction of the conversations were varied.  The basis of each conversation was framed around the question of what it means to be college ready and how Seminar can help prepare them for the challenges ahead.

There was a lot of contradictions overall.  Things like the request for stricter policies and deadlines being followed by a desire not to change too suddenly or at all.  Some said that they needed to learn self discipline or to be self sufficient or maturity but also said that those things couldn't be taught.

One of the biggest revelations I had today was how varied needs are.  In one class, they wanted the nuts and bolts of registering for classes and in another they got hung up on learning to cook and do laundry.  So my next step will be to create a "Readiness" self evaluation.  It will include categories that delve deeper into "Ready for College, Ready for Career, Ready for Life." 

I will then have students use the evaluations to determine what they need to get out of Seminar this spring.  I will be meeting with students to provide them with some feedback and talk through their evaluation.

From the conferences, I want to move to "Goal" folders.  I'm thinking like a workshop type time that will allow students to delve deeper into the areas they feel they need the most work.  Each "Goal" would have a set of activities.  Students could then "defend" the learning they've done during the individual time.

It's still taking shape, but the outline is becoming clear!

Blogger License Revoked

I've not blogged about class in so long that I'm pretty sure my license is going to be revoked or expire or something!

This past month we had two more days of service, and continued through The Six Most important Decisions book. We've actually wrapped up Parents and are making our way into Dating and Sex. We had some good discussions last week as we looked at survey results.

It was fun to look at how little or how much some students knew about their parents and vise versa. I think it offered a good opportunity for my students to have a conversation with their parents. Even some who swore they knew everything and told their parents everything tended to get something wrong.

This week we've started in on rules of dating. Students are currently posting personal type pages as a blog on NING. They can get extra credit by replying to someone's ad blog with a hyperlink to their own personal page.

I am going to try to make an effort to be better at this!

Cursed!

I think I might actually be cursed. And I'm pretty sure they're going to revoke my seminar license. We had another eventful Friday to say the least. But before we get into that, let's take a look back at the week. Moving along with the second decision, Friends, we wrote another journal before exploring friendship survival tips. The journal was, "Write about something nice you can plan to do for a friend or group of friends in the near future. How will this improve your relationship?" The class was split into groups that each had a single tip to explain or illustrate to the class. It was kind of interesting seeing what they took a way from each tip.

The second part of the class we wrote another journal:
“It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends.” Explain. Is this true? Give examples. This part of the book focused on peer pressure. There was some good conversation about how to stand up to peer pressure. Mr. Pitts also flew us all to UNC from the moo I think via Google Earth. It was really cool being able to zoom in on areas of the campus and see some pictures. It made things on Friday's trip stand out that much more.

Friday we rolled out as close to 7:30 as I could make it. Thankfully we had Mrs. Bolick as a guest driver! She really did save the day; although, most of the kids had no idea. The trip was much longer than I had planned on, so we missed our tour time. But Ms. Brody got the kids into an informational lecture, which was very informative. Then we ate lunch in the pit! It was really a chill day. The unfortunate part was that we had limited time. So after enjoying the culture of the pit, we headed to Franklin Street where we got to do some shopping and take in more of the culture.

The kids seemed to really enjoy the relaxed nature of the day. However, my curse struck again! We had gotten to Statesville on the way home when I40 turned into a parking lot. Luckily I knew a few ways around. We had to go a bit out of our way, but still made it back to school before the dance...almost an hour late but before the dance!

Next time I'm adding an hour for traffic's sake!

Again!

I'm getting so bad at this. I had a good excuse, but you know what they say about excuses. So let's get right to it. Two weeks ago, we had a crazy week with the PSAT. We had our normal Wednesday morning on Tuesday, and then Tuesday afternoon, we had a rotation of PSAT Prep, connections, and Student Led Conference prep. Wednesday morning was the PSAT and that afternoon was a normal Wednesday. Thursday was a regular Thursday, and Friday we returned to service.

So for the one day we had that week, Mr. Pitts led the class through a reflection of their Interviews. They also discussed the top 10 mistakes that applicants make in college essays. They looked at samples and began work on theirs.

Come Thursday, I was out with sick babies. My daughter ended up with an ear infection, and they thought that my son had strep. I stayed out with Zayden the rest of that week and the first part of this past week. I didn't get back to school until Wednesday.

The first part of the week was spent peer editing essays. The second part of the week students participated in a fish bowl discussion of Friends.

Friday we had Accuplacer testing in the morning and The Crucible in the afternoon.

This week we will continue to explore Friends.

Two for One?

So I totally missed last week's blog! Let's see here's the week in 30 seconds or less: the week started with the class being assigned about four pages to prepare a lesson from. The second part the lessons were taught, which went well. Friday was an early release and we did some PSAT prep.

That's awfully compact, but pretty accurate. We did some updating too, but that was the gist of it. This past week Mr. Pitts has taken more of a lead in the planning. I began by presenting a little information about the presentation we went to see on Wednesday and about our trip to The Carl Sandburg Home. Then Mr. Pitts led the classes through reading another section from our book. At the end of the reading, each table shared what they found interesting. Then Mr. Pitts had the class write about four areas: Passion, Talent, Need, and Conscience. We were looking for a place where those four areas overlapped. It helped some students begin to think seriously about what they want to major in when they transfer to a four year University.

The second part of the week Ms. Brody came in and we explored CFNC. After about 15 minutes of getting everyone into their accounts, we took some quizzes to find out which majors and or careers might fit our personalities. There was also a pretty cool tool that let you compare careers. Students worked on a worksheet that they e-mailed back to themselves for future reference and use.

Friday was a long day but still a lot of fun. We left later than I had hoped because several people were late or just didn't show up at all. But before too long we got out on the road. We drove to Flat Rock, NC were we visited The Carl Sandburg Home. The park, which was Sandburg's home from the 40s until his death in '67, was gorgeous, the park staff was awesome, the kids were well behaved, and the program we went through was very informative. All in all, it was a fantastic day! The only thing that would have made it better would have been not running into spontaneous construction traffic and an accident which put us over an hour behind.

This week, it's more work to get ready for mock college interviews, interviews, and a return to service!

Moving Right Along....

We began our week exploring more of our book, 6 Most Important Decisions You'll Ever Make. Specifically, we read the first 15 pages or so of the first chapter, School. The focus is on staying on the high road and seeing it through. at times you feel like you're preaching to the choir, but it's worth stressing the importance of staying in school.

The second part of the week we had two rotations. Mr. Pitts was in charge of one and I the other. When with Mr. Pitts, students took a survey and participated in a webquest type of assignment. The survey gave students their personality type and possible majors related to their type. Then they went on to find more information about majors and careers. They looked at unemployment rates and found colleges that offered their majors.

When they were with me, we worked on our social network on ning. First they wrote a blog about all of the things they've ever wanted to be when they grew up. They were required to have at least one embedded hyperlink. Then I asked them to go over to the forum section and respond to my question about their favorite part of junior year so far. If they had time, I encouraged them to respond to another forum.

Friday was our second service Friday. We returned to the same locations that we were at the Friday before. The highlight of the day for me was reading a story to one of the kindergarten classes. It was also very nice to pick up each location and be back at school in plenty of time to catch the buses. We have four service Fridays left, the second and third Fridays in October and November.

I can't wait to see what this week brings!

How can a short week be so long?

Last week was technically a short week, but boy it didn't feel like it! We blitzed on Tuesday, which means before lunch we had seen all classes. They were quick thirty minute classes, but it worked out better to keep things together. We mostly just worked on our 6 Goals for the 6 Decisions and updated our planners.

The second class of the week, we started by organizing our binders. We're only half way through the first 9 week grading period and already notebooks look like an Office Max exploded. We sorted through and put everything in its place. The next part of class consisted of tallying a weeks worth of out of school behavior. Everyone, myself included, logged a weeks worth of activities when we're not in school. We then took time to categorize those activities and total the hours spent doing various things. I collected these for a future lesson.

Then we read "School vs. Education" by Russel Baker. It's a satirical piece that questions what it takes to become "educated". We then had a good discussion about how one becomes educated and the control we have over our education. We talked a bit about attitude and desire being the key difference between going to school and getting an education!

Friday was September 11th, the anniversary of a travesty. It was also the National Day of Service and Remembrance. I was glad that our first service Friday was on the National Day of Service. At the end of the day, most everyone seemed to have had a good time. There were definitely quite a few students on my bus who were very excited about their day. And we made it back to school in time for the buses, so it was an awesome day!

Progress report? What? How did we get half way through the grading period?

I'm still trying to figure out how we've got to the midterm point? Wow what a ride! This past week was good.

Mr. Pitts led a journal on a quote that tied back to Dead Poets Society. We then discussed how it applied to the movie and our lives. Then we reviewed The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by discussing them. We then had a chance to get a broad overview of The 6 Most Important Decisions You'll Ever Make. The decisions are School, Friends, Parents, Dating & Sex, Addictions, and Self Worth. We'll start with School! What are going to do about it! We answered some brief questions about each of those 6 decisions in our journals.

The second part of the week Ms. Brody came in and talked about University visits and our trip to UNC-G. I made a few announcements about college classes and the magazine sales. I handed out the rubrics for the finding my place Friday collaboration and for the Essential 55 presentations. Then Mr. Pitts led the class through an activity writing SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely) Goals linked to the 6 Decisions. The goals will be placed in or on the students' binders.

Friday was a whirlwind University visit to UNC-G. It was a short visit, but a good day. We got to explore a little, got an awesome group picture, ate all we could eat, and roamed around campus a bit more before heading home. My group found the meditation room...the Zen garden was full of rocks, but the room was pretty cool. On the ride home, the bus I was driving tried to die...repeatedly. Nevertheless, the kids were awesome, and we had a fantastic day!

Carpe Diem!

Another week has passed and I'm starting to feel more comfortable in my new role. There is still a lot to do, but some things seem to be clicking. Last week was interesting. Mr. Pitts, my student teacher, started Monday, but I couldn't be there. I had to appear for jury service. I was eventually dismissed and back to school by Tuesday.

Mr. Pitts had Mr. Young to help with Monday and I was back on Tuesday to lead the class. We reflected on our experiences with the "Finding My Place race", the scavenger hunt that never seemed to end. We also filled out collaboration rubrics evaluating our performance and the performance of our teammates during the scavenger hunt. After that, Mr. Pitts had a chance to introduce himself and answer some questions. Off Campus Learning fee sheets and planners also went home. I postponed all presentations until the end of the week since I wasn't there on Monday.

The second part of the week started with Essential 55 presentations. Nearly every group had a chance to present a review of the Essential 55, some more creatively than others. Most groups just read the rules and then "acted' them out. I was a little disappointed especially since so many people had told me how good this group was at this type of creative presentation. After the groups were done presenting, we went through their planners some. We looked at different elements and how to use the planner effectively. We also added a bunch of Friday activities and other important dates.

Friday was a good day, though I did hear a game of witch hunt almost got out of hand. We started the day with a presentation to kick off our Magazine sell. It's a good opportunity for our students to help the school and help themselves. Students will receive $10 for every $50 worth of magazines sold for their end of the year Road Trip! After that, we spent the morning team building through game play. After lunch we watched Dead Poets Society. I asked students to view the film thinking about the 6 areas we will explore through our book, The 6 Most Important Decisions You'll Ever Make.

I'm looking forward to this week and our first of three University visits!!

Crazy Weekend!

I completely forgot to write my blog yesterday! It was a crazy weekend. With my daughter's fourth birthday and then finding out I had jury service this Monday, I just completely forgot. So here goes...

We started the week with a journal reflecting on Friday's activities at Granite rec. We talked a little about the good and the bad from that experience to try and improve on future Friday activities. A lot of groups seemed upset that groups 8, 9, & 10 finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, and the word "cheated" has been thrown around a lot. This Friday we heard more of it. It bothers me that so much energy seemed to be focused on cheating.

After discussing Friday, we went over my syllabus, website, and various links. We watched some of the videos from Friday. We also discussed my expectations a little more.

The second part of the week was spent preparing for the Graduation Project and reviewing The Essential 55. We wrote a journal about three things we liked, then we created a chart with at least three research ideas and products that could be done. We spent quite a bit of time answering questions and brainstorming research and product topics.

From there students were grouped by tables and assigned a group of rules from The Essential 55. They are preparing creative presentations to refresh our collective memories about what the Essential 55 are. I also pulled a few students to record video updates that talk about what's been going on in their classes and what's coming next.

Friday was an adventure to say the least. Students were split into 18 groups of 4. Each group was given an envelope with a picture in it. The pictures were taken in K building and Redwood Park as well as the path between the two. What should have happened was that groups would find their first picture and then find another envelope with a different picture. They would follow this trail collecting pictures as they went. At four places along the way they would run into their teachers who had challenge puzzles. Once they successfully completed the puzzle, the students were given another picture clue and a puzzle piece. At the end each group would collect 33 pictures and 4 puzzle pieces. When all 72 puzzle pieces were put back together, the students would "find their place" putting together a group picture of them.

Unfortunately, it didn't work so well. First when the teachers met and decided on how many pictures should be on the trail, we all thought that 33 could be found by lunch. We were wrong. We may have made the course too tricky. But that factor was the smallest. All teams were told to stay together and follow their own trail. Some chose to pick up any clue they saw rather than follow their own path. Some chose to leave group members behind. Some group members chose to wonder off from their group. Some even claimed to be ditched when really they had done the ditching. And the worst part was that someone chose to take envelopes with clues. By doing that, they left holes in the trail that made it near impossible for some groups to finish.

This was by far the biggest disappointment all day. I had made a point of explaining that the only way to win would be for all 18 teams to finish and bring back their puzzle pieces, and yet some people were so hung up on winning that they ruined the game for others. I hope we learned some valuable life lessons, but I fear that some people missed the point altogether.

As we journey this year to "Find My Place", I hope we can return to the memories of Friday and remember that we may face obstacles and we may indeed run into people who don't want us to be successful but at the end of the journey, it's really up to us to make the most of our journey!

We all journey towards the end; but in the end it is the journey that matters.

Week One!

Wow! What a week! I had a lot of fun during my first week as a seminar instructor. It seemed long, but an entire week on a blitz schedule always seems long. We started on Monday by talking about what seminar is and what they would like it to be. I went over schedules and a ton of forms.

Tuesday, we used sticky notes again this time we talked about each class. It worked out well and gave us time to talk about things we're looking forward to and the things that are making us anxious. The graduation project came up a lot, as did college biology. It was good to be able to have a candid conversation about some of these things.

Wednesday, we picked up college text books and tried to pay college fees. The vast majority of the juniors got both things taken care of, which was good. There are still a few who need to go and pay their $7 fee. Of course it was raining on Wednesday, which meant I got wet all day, but at least it wasn't 90 plus degrees!

Thursday, Mrs. Flowers our college liaison came in to help everyone with their student e-mail, blackboard, and webAdvisor. She helped make sure everyone could access their accounts and went over some of the features of each. I had everyone set up their accounts on or social network, http://cechsyear3.ning.com. It's a closed network just for us! I've been very pleased and excited about all the activity so far.

FRIDAY! was so much fun (sorry Brooke). We loaded buses and headed to the Granite Rec for team building, swim tests, and free play. You can see the videos to check out all the action!

We started with The Great Riddle Race! We split the students into teams of 7 and they had to run across the field to hear a riddle. then they ran back to their team to work out the riddle. They could earn clues by doing silly things. Again, check out the videos! Several student ran themselves ragged and a couple even got sick from the heat.

We moved from the heat to the pool. We got a large percentage of students swim certified, so that was good. Mrs. Grogan and myself also so offed some mad skills (not really) on the diving board.

After our time in the pool was over, we had lunch and then hung out and played. There was a football game going on, sword fighting, lounging, and scooter riding. it was a great day!

I'm looking forward to another AWESOME week!!!

New Year!! New Class...for me...

Well, tomorrow will be the first day of my second year at CECHS. Last year was great, and I am eagerly awaiting the good things I know are to come this year. This year I am on to whole new adventures!

Juniors!!! Seminar!!! Student Teacher!!!

I'm excited about all of the possibilities that each of these new adventures present. It's a new curriculum and a different role really. I'm excited though. I'm easily bored, so all of the changes will keep me on my toes. I'm looking for new connections between the other disciplines. As a team, we're exploring new technologies and new uses of technology.

Since this year's college biology schedule is different, we'll have the whole day Friday for seminar and extension activities. That means we have more freedom, and it also means last year's plans won't work without adjustments. We'll be reading The 6 Most Important Decisions You'll Ever Make by Sean Covey. We're also going to work with Mrs. Grogan on The Graduation Project.

I'll have a student teacher, Mr. Pitts, who will be with us from August 24 till December. Together we'll look at the world of seminar! I've not had a student teacher before, so that will be all new to me too. I'm sure Mr. Pitts will bring a new perspective to our seminar class. He's finishing up his degree at Appalachian State.

Here's to an awesome year with a new team, teaching a new subject, with new students!!!! Buckle up, 'cause here we go!!!

CECHS on Facebook!

Check it out! CECHS is on Facebook!

Slacker!

I'm such a slacker! I didn't post before the Road Trip because I was out of town. Then I just forgot to since! I'm rushed for time, and I have a semi awake baby in my lap, so I will try to update soon...but in the meantime. I've uploaded all of the video footage from the Road Trip. I'm working on a DVD. Oh and we were 100% proficient on the English I EOC.

It's been an Outstanding Year!

In case I don't update any time soon:

Freshmen, best of luck in all you do! You guys were amazing to teach.

ENJOY YOUR SUMMER!

Wrapping Up Loose Ends...

Everything seems to be coming to a close, together...at the same time. We've got a week and then it's road trip time, then EOCs, and then last couple of days and the year wraps up. So I guess it's good that everything has been coming to a close!

We've had multiple projects going on at the same time. All of which were in different stages. About five weeks ago we launched a cross grade level Book Club. Each group has been working on wikis for their book that need to be finished before the road trip.

We were also working on creating short story animations in my class, which I've posted on my youtube account. And as a cross curricular project, students created PSAs (public service announcements) in science, social studies, and English class, which are also posted on my youtube account.

We started this past week by writing a journal about the Group PSAs. Then we spent the rest of class playing literary baseball with the classroom responders. The game reviews grammar, editing, and literary elements that could show up on the English I EOC.

The second part of the week we looked at an editing selection included with the sample test items from the state. We focused not on answering the questions as much as how to approach the different types of questions. The rest of the class was open for students to work on wikis, animations, or PSAs.

Friday, we started with a trip to B104 where we presented short story animations and PSAs. Students wrote about whether or not each video was effective. Then we returned to a regular Wednesday third period. We missed that class Wednesday due to the early release. then it was down to the cafeteria with the sophomores where a quintet from the North Carolina Symphony played and talked to us about music!

Where did it go?

This year has flown by like a bullet train! Two weeks before the Road Trip and then finals. Wow! This past week I took Monday and Tuesday off to have some dental work done and spend more time with my brand new baby boy! I created another webpage for the first part of the week. I had them write a journal about their short story animation and then work with their group to create group PSAs.

When I got back to school, I spent the second part of the week clearing things up and tying up loose ends. We started by examining question answer relationships and indicators in EOC questions. Then we filled out evaluations and reflections on the contributions made by each group member during the animation projects. I extended the due date for finishing the movies to Tuesday to make sure we get the best possible animations.

We also clarified what needs to be done for the individual PSA planning and then the group PSA. We are shooting for finishing the group PSAs by this Friday. I felt like we had things straightened out and everything should be back on track now! I cannot wait to see the animations and the PSAs!

We finished off last week at MerleFest. As a group we saw Doc Watson and David Holt. It was a great performance! I actually bought an iTunes album, Legacy, that is a similar to the show we saw only longer and with more songs and stories! The weather was awesome and the festival was very impressive! I got several neat souvenirs and a lot of great pictures!

Easter Break & the Week Before....

I had anticipated not being at school the week before Easter, so I created an interactive web page that laid out the two days of instruction. It went like planned, except I was there. I had been rather impatiently awaiting the arrival of my second child. He however was willing to wait. It was interesting using the web page to deliver my instruction. The kids seemed to get a kick out of it too. I mean there I was sitting at the front and they were watching a video of me explaining the day's activities.

We left for break on Thursday, and I chose not to work Friday. My daughter left Thursday with her Mimi and Pappy to go to PA for Easter. They were on standby to get her when we went to the hospital to have the baby. Since the baby didn't seem to want to come, Maggie went off on a grand adventure, and my wife and I were transported back to right before Maggie was born. We were free to go out to eat and linger. We could do a little shopping without Mags asking when we were going home or what she was getting...it was fun. I also got to work in my shop. I made some craft type items to be sold at the school yard sale.

Easter came and went without a baby...but Monday, April 13th a new baby would arrive! Zayden Alexander Miller was born at 11:02. He was a healthy natural born baby weighing in at 9lbs 10oz and 22in long. We got a CECHS visit on Tuesday then it was off for home. Maggie was supposed to come home Monday, but we had to settle for a visit at the hospital and then getting her back yesterday. She got to spend some time fussing over her brother. She's going to be a great big sister. She told her brother yesterday that he was so lucky to have a big sister like her!

I hope everyone had a great Easter and continues to enjoy spring break!