Dandelions

Go

fly

a

kite

today.













Admit it, you love flowers. Pretty, full, vibrant flowers.
Dandelions are flowers, too.

Dandelions
Welcome children of the Spring,
In your garbs of green and gold,
Lifting up your sun-crowned heads
On the verdant plain and wold.
As a bright and joyous troop
From the breast of earth ye came
Fair and lovely are your cheeks,
With sun-kisses all aflame.
In the dusty streets and lanes,
Where the lowly children play,
There as gentle friends ye smile,
Making brighter life's highway
Dewdrops and the morning sun,
Weave your garments fair and bright,
And we welcome you to-day
As the children of the light.
Children of the earth and sun.
We are slow to understand
All the richness of the gifts
Flowing from our Father's hand.
Were our vision clearer far,
In this sin-dimmed world of ours,
Would we not more thankful be
For the love that sends us flowers?
Welcome, early visitants,
With your sun-crowned golden hair,
With your message to our hearts
Of our Father's loving care.
Frances Ellen Watkins

Big Huge Labs is my favorite website at this very minute in time. I created this in a millisecond. It took me longer to find the quote to match than to make this motivational poster. That's what they call it, a motivational poster.

You can also make badges. This could come in handy if you ever want to pretend you work for CNN or FOX News and want to duke it out with yourself.


You could put yourself on a billboard. I chose this rural scene. But you might pick Times Square.

You can star in your very own movie.
And you can have it rated whatever is appropriate.
Of course, my movies are G.


You can even be the cover of a magazine. Wowie Wow Wow!

Did I ever say how much I miss the south? The south really is, well, southern. You know, as in Southern Living southern.
Friendly and just plain down-home southern.
Fried ocra and deviled eggs southern.
I bet the Brady Bunch lived in the south. Especially Alice.
Aside from that, it's where I grew up. We went home for Easter and stayed with Mom and Dad for a short weekend.


Emma stayed under this table during her waking hours. She hid from Devil Dog Hokie and Gentle Giant Brandee. Brandee's not so bad. She's a Golden Retriever with a sweet hulking disposition. Hokie is a Yankee. He's a dachshund and not very southern. Except when he's sleeping.

Camden and Benjy played with Nana when they weren't chasing invisible clones in the woods.


These were the same woods Michelle and I played in when we grew up here. Old Mr. Hart had built trails in these woods and we felt like explorers and wild Indians when we played there. I love how they hold the same magic for my boys.


See those guns? They practically slept with them. These are their weapons when they play Clone Wars. I couldn't believe they sat side by side for this shot and smiled simultaneously. They are good clones.


And here's Eaglescout after he sneaked one of Mom's deviled eggs. Shame on him. But Mom, being a woman of good southern stock, didn't mind. She let him eat all he wanted even before we said the blessing.

And here's Emma waiting for us to leave. She was scared to death when we went to church, so afraid we were leaving her there. She was born and raised in the south, but something about these visits to Mom and Dad and their dogs makes me think she prefers the green grass of the north. But she would never in a million years say yins.

Have you filled a bucket today?

I love this book, and I've used it in my classroom at back-to-school time since I discovered it in a Hallmark shop a few years ago. Here's the skinny: We all have this invisible bucket that people can either dip from or fill up. Bucket dippers make you feel lousy, sad, ineffective, or just plain dumb. Bucket fillers make you happy. They support you, bring smiles, cheer you on, encourage you to be all that God wants you to be. Personally, I prefer to hang out with the bucket fillers.

And now, Teaching Heart is sponsoring a give-away right here. I love give-aways as much as I love presents! You could win this bucket to give to your child's favorite teacher. It's filled with a copy of the book, activities to be used with the book, and two of her wonderfully amazing CD-ROMS filled with teacher goodness to be used with an elementary class. That's so bucket-filling amazing! (I've used her stuff and it is beautifully presented and relevant and easy and FUN! My kids love the activities I've used from her site.)


I am blessed to be surrounded by bucket-fillers. But the one who continues to fill my bucket to overflowing is my husband, good old Eaglescout. I cannot imagine life without him. He is a bucket-filler by nature, being an Eaglescout and Order of the Arrow and the publisher of his own invisible newspaper company and all. But seriously, he rocks in the bucket-filling business. He holds me to a higher standard with his outlook on life and people. When I'm down and ready to be in the dumps for a while, he pulls me out and shows me what's to love in life. When my bucket has been drained by petty every-day stupid stuff (for lack of a better term for it), he stops the leak and gently fills it back up. This weekend, home with my mom and dad, he spent so much time filling all our buckets that it's a true wonder he has anything left in his own. And yet he keeps on filling. Amazing is he, no? (Yoda said that.) Thank you, Eaglescout, for making me so happy and keeping me that way.

And now, I'd like to pass along some bucket-filling cheer to a few people who make me happy and fill my bucket.

Leslie. I know you feel like your bucket is drained to the point of being inside out. There are the people who rock and the people who suck rocks who pull at you. I pray the people who rock win the battle. I really feel it's gonna work out just like that for you and your wonderful boys. Here's a drop in your bucket. I hope it feels full soon.

Mom. You've been my hero for the past year with your Wonder Woman strength. How you've nursed Dad through cancer. Twice. And how you've let God hold you up after we lost Shell. How you've felt His blessings even when your bucket was drained. You are my hero. I hope that feels like a drop in your bucket today.

Tami. Your bucket seems to be overflowing with laughter and smiles and cheer. From your ninja skills to your princess tendencies, you make me giggle. Oh, but it's a serious giggle, of course. I do take you seriously. Seriously. :)

Kim. You haven't blogged since Pi day. I guess the holiday extravaganza plumb wore you out. But I thought you should know that you really put a big old drop of goodness in my bucket when you told me I could really and truly spar, at least a little. And, well, the Christmas gift you gave continues to give. hehehehe Here's a drop for your bucket!

OK, y'all. I challenge you to fill a bucket today!

Happy Easter! Allelujah, Allelujah!

Because there's a bit of Wild Thing in all of us.



I'm not sure if I can wait till fall. This has long been one of my favorite children's books of all time. I love it so much I've memorized it.

The night Max wore his wolf suit
and made mischief
of one kind
and another
his mother called him
"Wild Thing!"
And Max said,
"I'LL EAT YOU UP!"
So he was sent to bed
without eating anything.
That very night in Max's room
a forest grew, and grew, and grew
until the ceiling hung with vines
and the walls became the world all around,
and an ocean tumbled by
with a private boat for Max.
And he sailed through night and day
and in and out of weeks
and almost over a year
to the place where the Wild Things are.

This just in ... for everybody who disses my peeps:

Thank you Princess for the helpful image that gave me reason to blog.
And LL, you have my love and prayers, including this one.

I am nearly blind from being on the computer all the live-long day. I've been working on my National Board Certification renewal portfolio. Now I know what Tiger Woods goes through when he practices for the Masters. Only I don't get a green jacket. But I do get a nice little certificate to hang up on the wall of my choice. And if I was teaching in a public school in Virginia, I'd get a handsome $2,500 bonus every year for the next 10 years. If I lived in Mississippi, I'd get an annual $6,000 bonus. It's hot there, though. And humid. Since I teach in Pennsylvania, which sucks, by the way, and teach in a private school, I just get the lovely certificate. But ya know? That's enough for me. I'm easy, what can I say.

Really, that's what I've done today. I've typed my fingers to the nub on how I teach reading comprehension strategies like inferring through the reading workshop model and how I teach writing by focusing on the reading-writing connection. Big stuff, I tell ya.



I had to videotape one component of the portfolio. I recorded 10 minutes of moi leading the class in a minilesson (teacher-speak for a brief lesson) focused on how to infer what the author doesn't explicitly say. It wasn't so much my great teaching as my students' great inferring. They're a smartly bunch.

And now I'm so addicted to the keyboard that I sit here doing the blog. That and, plus, my mom has missed the blog updates. I love you, Mom! Thanks for being my loyal reader!

I finally couldn't take it anymore and quit Microsoft Word for Mac. Literally, quit it. Stopped the application and saved the whole shebang.

And then I thought on it some more. I'm wild that way.


The BOX has to be mailed by April 30. I have completed 2 of the four papers required. I have almost completed the third, but need to add a couple of examples of how I impacted student learning and all that jazz. I have a reflection on my growth as a teacher to go. And then I send my box off to the wild blue yonder in Texas. You can bet I'll pay extra to track that shipment.

Why put myself through this experience, you ask? Well, part of me feels that since I worked so hard to get it, I shouldn't let it go, even if it costs to recertify. Another part of me feels that keeping the certification will certainly help if I move and want to teach in another place. And, well, the biggest part of me (which is my hips) feels that this is the best way to reflect on my growth as a teacher. Truly, going through National Board Certification was by far the best professional development I have ever undertaken. No GIANT NAME IN EDUSPEAK can compare to the process of examining your teaching and reflecting on how you can be even better.

Break to watch the TV...

I see now that Christopher has died on the Sopranos. A rerun is on, and I'm admittedly drawn to it. The Sopranos opening song is the theme song of Camden's arrival into this world. Let me explain. The season premiere was slated to start when our first son was born. We actually have photos of Curt and me in bed awaiting this event, with Camden snuggly wrapped and lying in my arms. And then the theme song came on.



Those were the days.

I'm a blue belt!

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