Success

It isn't hard to see evidence of teacher's successes being measured by tests in today's world. And I won't go into my thoughts and opinions on that matter. But, I think if you have any common sense, it is easy to figure out that those percentages aren't really what measures your success.

We have 20 minutes of daily silent reading time in our school, and my students have it for my class once a week. Yes, there is the typical grumbling you'd expect (they're teenagers for cripe's sake that's what they excel at). For the most part, though, my students have been pretty good at staying on task and digging into their free choice books (one class has almost read 250 books since the start of the year).

Yesterday, I told one girl I'd miss her next year as she recommended another seven books for me to read. She immediately told me that she was going to miss me more because I was the only one who gave her recommendations and good ones at that. A few minutes later, she told me I had to give her some type of contact information for the summer because there was no way that she'd make it through the summer without my input on books.

Today, different class, different student. Same conversation.

Back to the first student today: Mrs. Knipper, I read in previous years, but nothing like this. But, because of YOU, I really, really like it now.

Now, that's really some success.

Day with Aunt Beth, Part 2

Taylor's choice for our day together was going to the Science Center of Iowa. So, we went to lunch first, and I made sure to time it so she had the option of being on the Channel 13 weather forecast at noon. But, she didn't want to do it, but at least I gave her the option.

I basically let her go on her own and just trailed behind. It's a hands-on museum, so I let her play with what she wanted to and added in my knowledge when necessary. This resulted in us blowing through the place in 32 minutes.

Taylor may have had the most fun in the toddler section of the science center.

Here she shows off her brute strength.

I had her for the rest of the afternoon, so I had to quickly think of an idea of what else to do. I suggested we go to Barnes and Noble, and she was thrilled. I had to put her on a limit of two books, otherwise she would have walked out with 20 (not that I would know anything about that). She was reading one as soon as we hit the car, and she curled up on the couch to finish it when we got back to the house.

But her dorkitude didn't end there. Last summer, I had the girls Kool-aid dye some yarn, which they then used to knit a bookmark. Taylor really took to it, and she had actually finished a dishcloth for her mom a few weeks before that. So, I had given her some needles and two balls of remnant yarn I had so she could make herself a scarf. I can't describe how proud I was when she showed me this:

It doesn't look like much, but there's only one error in there. That's pretty good considering she did all of that on her own. 

We finished the day with a trip to the mall to get some ice cream. I also let her window shop for a bit.

So, we had a nice dorky day. The dork gene runs strong in this family:)

Goal updates:

Um, the no new yarn thing, still not working. The shop got a lot of new sock yarn. I came home with two skeins - one for me, and one for Jeremy. I also heard that my favorite sock yarn will be coming in soon. Plus, I'm on the search for the World Cup sock yarn; I'm going to have obnoxious German knee highs for the next one:)

I have read a book a day so far. I've also been reading on my Kindle while I work out. It makes me less cranky about the entire thing.