This and That

So sorry about no pictures on this post. My computer crashed and I have no idea what is wrong with it. I am blogging from my laptop which has no pictures on it of my recent adventures. And yes, I've had a few blog worthy adventures recently.

Baby, Baby, Baby
Emma and I made a nice journey to Angola to make sure Baby Libey has plenty of nice things for his arrival. Kamie looks beautiful in her last few weeks of pregnancy! I wish I looked that good when I was pregnant..but no such luck. I think Emma and I freaked her out a little with the belly rubbing but that's just Em and I. We love babies...and baby bellies.
After a nice brunch at Ruth Libey's, Emma and I headed to the mall in Fort Wayne. We found some great deals on pants, shirts, and other awesome clothing items for friends and family weekend. Everything was 30% off :) It was almost as good as the deals at Steve and Berry's. Although, I didn't save nearly as much money.

Challenger Learning Center
So I think I could go into professional grant writing. I recently got a grant for my classroom to go to an amazing space simulation center in Indianapolis. This was by far the coolest thing I have ever done with my class. The class was divided up into two teams. One group was in mission control (the whole room was set up exactly as you would see it at NASA) and the second group went on the space shuttle. They were in separate rooms but had to communicate with each other via headsets and email to complete a mission. My class found an unknown comet and named it "Comet Challenger." They found out that it was a long period comet and even tested the gas that it was made up of. Each student had a specific job. They got to do things like work robotic arms, navigate the team to the location of the comet, take blood pressures, read humidity and keep levels safe, and build a space probe. It was so nice to see my students take leadership roles and work together and successfully build a space probe and launch it into space. I would highly recommend this to any teacher of upper grade students! It was 100% interactive and the students had to do everything on their own. I really hope I can get another grant for us to go back next year.

Student Teacher
Ahh..I have been blessed with a student teacher this semester. I don't think she fully knew what she got herself into but she has been doing a great job. It is so nice to have her. I am getting so much done! And she will be with me for another six weeks. Her first day was a little rocky but she came back the next day and had a nice heart to heart with them and told them how it was going to be. She is going to do very well. This week is her first week being completely on her own and I think my students have adjusted well to her! If discipline wasn't her strength before, it will be before she leaves!

ISTEP
Let me just say this about ISTEP...I am so glad to hear that it wasn't just my class that had a difficult time with the math. I am even more glad that that portion is over. I really hope the multiple choice sections of math are not as difficult. On a good note, they said they were very confident on the ELA and Science sections and think they did very well. Their writing was very good and I am so glad they felt some success on those portions! Now we just get to wait until April for the next section...

I hope everyone has a great week!