Today was a busy day spent running errands.  I went to Oneonta and on the campaign front, counted Becker signs.  Everyone asks when Gary’s are coming out but it seems a little early.  No other politicians (other than the ones with primaries) have signs out, except Becker.  He only has a handful, mostly in Walton.  I sited only one between my house and Oneonta.  None from Oneonta to Walton.  Several around the town of Walton (someone is an eager beaver in that town!), and only one on the way to Delhi from Walton.

On the Social Studies front, I spent about 1 1/2 hours on Edmodo this morning and looked at some cool sites and information:  The Common Core Conversation, Web 2.0 Guru, 13 free annotation tools for teachers, the 33 digital skills every 21st century teacher should know (I’m not even close – something else to work on), eight free tools for teachers to make awesome info-graphics, 48 ultra-cool summer sites for kids, Bloom ipad apps, Annenberg classroom; games and interactives.

I spent a half hour at school.  I had to pick up my notebooks to revamp and talk to Mike MacDonald.

I spent an hour reading “Teaching Global History.”  Mostly about teaching it chronologically versus thematically and why it is so European centered with suggestions on how to change.  Interesting quotes were:  “Social studies teachers who are avid students of history find that the more they learn, the more they discover what they do not know.”  SO TRUE!  Alan Singer also suggests “the 21st century may be the “Chinese century” in the way the 20th century was dominated economically and militarily by the U.S. and the 19th century by Great Britain.” (Fishman, 2004:24)  Singer also discusses his “poop theory” of history – funny!

I hope to finish, “The Dark Monk”, a mystery set in Bavaria in the 17th century.

For the food lovers out there, sorry, no pictures tonight.  Dinner wasn’t very photogenic but it was good.  We had ham from Maple Shade Farm in Delhi, a salad of lettuce from the garden, arugula, red onion, figs, pears, pecans, feta cheese, topped with a dressing of salt, pepper, red wine vinegar, and olive oil. Bread was a lemon-blueberry sweet bread from Annutio’s in Oneonta.

 

Yesterday we spent the day campaigning, starting with the parade in Margaretville to celebrate the Fire Department’s 125th year. Go Margaretville Fire Company!!! Then it was on to the carnival for a chicken dinner to support the fire department, shaking hands and walking around, an auction at McIntosh’s (I bought some cute stacking tables for the breezeway), more carnival “electioneering”, and finally fabulous fireworks from the Porter’s porch. A very busy day but no social studies reading or computer/lesson planning work.

The best laid plans often go awry as we discovered yesterday. When Katie took Charlie out of the barn to ride her, low and behold, she was lame! After being sick with mono and unable to ride for over a month, this was her first attempt. Oh well, that isn’t the worst of it. As anyone with horses knows, waiting for the vet can be an all day activity, and it was! So much for going to Andes to ride my horse or Oneonta to run errands. It was a waiting game instead. But, the bright side is that while waiting I was able to read more of “Teaching Global Hisory.” Alan Singer makes an interesting comment regarding standardized tests and teaching in a non-traditional manner, “Students who read and write on grade-level perform well on these tests whatever the particular content focus of a teacher.” Essentially, he says that we as teachers have very little effect on the outcome of standardized tests. Students that perform well on tests will continue to perform well and poor test takers do poorly no matter how we teach the content. It is all about how well they can read and write!

Back to the vet, Charlie was diagnosed with an abscess. Now we have to soak and pack it twice a day. This is such a relief because I thought it looked like something much more serious.

Gary and I did finally make it to Oneonta to run some quick errands. It was in the evening, after a stop to schmooze at Fair on the Square in Delhi.

A reoccurring goal for the summer is to read a historical or educational book for 1 to 2 hours each day in order to improve knowledge of content area or teaching.  Last night I started reading “Teaching Global History”.  This is a great book and really got me thinking about ways to improve my classes this fall.  The author also makes thought provoking comments that really make you think with a social studies mindset.  Can’t wait to spend more time with this book today, though I’m not sure when.  It’s going to be a busy one, riding in the a.m., on to Oneonta, back home for dinner, then Fair in the Square for “electioneering”, as my father-in-law refers to it.

Arrived on Friday to a filthy dirty house.  After spending a couple hours cleaning, mostly done by Lynne as she arrived first, we made an executive decision and moved to a motel.  Notice, this occurred shortly after I got there. I guess there was a mix-up with the cleaning crew.  Needless to say, the house was ready to move back into the next day.  There were still some cobwebs and dead bugs covering the floor in the basement but we tried not to notice.  The house was located some distance inland, so we had to drive to the beaches.

Saturday was spent at Lemon Tree, there was a craft fair.  The usual antique show wasn’t happening this year. 😦  Very Sad!  The cape was somewhat quiet as we drove to Wellfleet to eat at Moby Dick’s. We had a great lobster meal, as usual, and scoped out various beaches on the way back to the now cleaner abode.

Sunday – hiked to 6A, and I mean hiked!  First, through the subdivision, into a field, through a resort development, onto the bike path, and then down a short street to 6A.  Arrived next to the book store!  Perfect hike except we didn’t have any money with us to buy books!  I think it was about three miles and involved some hills, overall a good workout.  Then, on to Nauset Beach.  It was a late start but the first day at the beach shouldn’t be too long.  The girls were not happy about having to go to a public beach, spoiled brats!  Once they saw some cute boys their whole attitude changed and they decided they wanted to return the next day.  Go figure!

Monday:  Overcast weather, not a good beach day, sad!  Forced the girls to walk up to 6A with us.  They complained the entire way!  Besides exercise, we were on a wi-fi quest.  The coffee shop had spotty service, so we went to the book store, made purchases 🙂 and walked back (more complaints).  Next we decided to drive to Orleans coffee shop, Sparrow’s, still on the wi-fi quest along with the search for an ATM.  Wi-fi wouldn’t work on our computers but the coffee and deserts were good.  Chalk one up to calories but no internet.  Seven stops at ATM’s were unproductive so Lynne finally called her bank.   Turns out the card became demagnetized from being next to her phone.  Who knew?  We then return to Brewster and decide to sit in the car next to a house I rented last year, signal isn’t strong enough. 😦  We move on to another house we rented and BINGO, we have a good signal, catch up on our email, download books to Kindle, make necessary payments, and all is good until they catch on to us and turn off the internet.  😦   I admit, it was kind of a creepy thing to do but we were desperate! 

Tuesday:  A partly sunny day so we get the girls up at the crack of 10:00 and they are unhappy!  Can you imagine? We have been up for hours, had our coffee, discussed family gossip, compared education systems, and criticized life in Texas (common theme). We drag the girls on another complaint filled hike. The reward however, is a trip to Provincetown.  This is always a favorite.  We decide to try the beach and as soon as we walk down we notice the dark cloud heading our way. OH NO!

We roll out the towels and hope it will pass us by.  As you can see, someone needs to be covered in towels and fleece due to thin Texas blood.

We ended up staying at the beach for about 20 minutes and it became apparent that the clouds weren’t going away.  Onward to town, dinner at the Lobster Pot (excellent Bloody Mary’s but without our favorite cute bartender), and no shopping! 😦  It is raining hard when we leave so it is back to Brewster for ice cream and a Jane Austin movie (Chick Flick!).

Wednesday: A beautiful day so it is on to Chatham (after a hike without the complainers, they wore us down) for beach time and shopping therapy! The Light House Beach was beautiful, we dropped off the girls, parked in the parking lot and got a ride to the beach in an old station wagon (memories). The beach was great!

The houses fronting the beach are incredible.

Shopping was also wonderful.  So many shops, so little time (and money)!

After another seafood dinner, it is back to Brewster.

Thursday:  Sunny and time for the beach.  Back to Nauset to swim with the seals. Yes, seals!  They swim up and down the coast and pericope their heads up to look around every once and a while.  It is amazing to see them so close.  The waves were great and the girls were happy to watch the boys on the skim boards riding the waves as they beached.

Of course, they were so busy watching the cute boys they failed to observe the tide coming in.  Carly lost her Kindle as a result and almost lost the iPhone.  Despite this, it was still a wonderful day!

Friday:  Home again, home again, after cleaning the house and doing many loads of laundry, eating at JT’s, and running around making final gift purchases.

Saturday:  Post Cape blues!  On the up side, Justin Kolb hosted a Meet and Greet concert at his house and gave a superb performance.  It was a wonderful way to spend the evening.  As we listened to beautiful piano music we overlooked the Catskills.  It was awesome!

Sunday:  Hike down the road and up the mountain trail.  Afternoon is spent in the pond.  This is how Lynne spends her time:

This is how the girls spent theirs.

Gary is out collecting signatures.  Wonder who is having the better time?

Monday:  NYC for the day!

Tuesday:  Lynne and twins leave for Niagara Falls, then on to Michigan  😦  I spend the day doing laundry, weeding and watering garden, and unpacking. No Fun!

Wednesday:  The Fourth of July is pretty low key so I check out edmodo, find another teachers blog, and decide to do one of my own.  Here is the product and after four hours, we are back to the beginning.  Not too bad considering  I haven’t done this before.

As a teacher, I have heard this over and over.  Yes, it is nice to have the summer off but it is not as if I don’t work over the summer.  In an effort to keep track of the time I spend working (preparing for the next school year), I decided to start a blog.  This is not an original idea.  While spending five hours catching up on edmodo yesterday, I came across a blog another teacher was creating.

I also created some goals for next year.  Here is the incomplete list posted on a sticky on my computer :

School:

– add more music videos

– add more video’s period, w/ alternate or supplemental readings as homework

– maybe make my own videos as overviews

– re-do notes, add homework component, interactive notebook idea?

– add more common core reading and writing assignments.

– Create website maybe

– add parents to edmodo

– add videos and notes to edmodo

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