Atlanta
by Helen » November 4th, 2011 » 6 Comments
Tuesday, Oct. 25th
Students took formative assessments today about their new units, Human Body Systems and Physical and Chemical Changes in Matter. In the self-contained class we dissected owl pellets. Goliath had his first car wash! I ran 11 miles in Central Park in the afternoon, then relaxed with some abc.com and delicious Indian Food.
Wednesday, Oct. 26th
I slept nine hours last night. I love getting that much sleep. I should do it more often! There were two separate field trips today for the 8th graders - one to a poetry event in Brooklyn and one to an I Will Graduate! event at the Fashion Institute. I stayed behind with the students that weren't on either field trip. That's okay, our field trip is coming up Dec. 1st. I graded a bunch in the afternoon and found a cool comment on a student paper. (FLF means Fun Lab Friday!) I came up with that idea this summer, I'm glad it is going well. Ah, you must be wondering how it works. It came out of a conversation R and I had, "Why do I do labs with the classes that misbehave?!" So now they have a clear method for earning their labs through on-point behavior. So far, all classes have earned all labs. It's working!
Thursday, Oct. 27th
We had our school wide Halloween party today. Eek, lots of melt-downs and behavior problems in the afternoon after the candy high bottomed out. Students in my Target 10 presented posters about their upcoming Specialized High School Test. Thousands of NYC 8th graders take the test in the hopes of getting a spot a Bronx Science or Stuyvesant or other coveted public schools. In my 8 years of teaching, none of my 8th grade students have scored high enough to grab one of these spots. I've had students who were close, though. I could write pages on this topic (tutoring, lack of teacher preparation, haves, have-nots, but I'll refrain.) In the afternoon I did laundry here in the city and went for a run in an awesome rainstorm. In the evening Rachel visited East Harlem! She is organizing a Donor Registry Drive to help out Amit Gupta (http://amitguptaneedsyou.com/) and needed to borrow clipboards. We enjoyed some great beverages, food, and conversation at the local Mexican Restaurant.
Friday, Oct. 28th
I rushed out after school and hopped on the bus to Laguardia. My flight went smoothly and I met R at the airport. The first picture is a cool water fountain that fills bottles at LGA. It has a running tally of how many plastic bottles it has saved. The second picture is the sunset from flight, and the third picture is Robert arriving in Atlanta. We took separate flights (he was coming from PA), but we were in the same part of the airport so, like in the good 'ole days, I was able to meet him as he walked off the plane.
Saturday, Oct. 29th
A very good day. Highlights: sleeping in at the hotel, breakfast, running in Atlanta's Piedmont Park, going to the marathon Expo, lunch, lounging in the hotel all afternoon, a fancy Italian restaurant for dinner (including a piano player and black spaghetti), and drinks like "the perfect 10 martini" and "kryptonite." Atlanta was colder than I'd expected, but we did spend some time outside at night sitting in the court of our hotel that had a neat fire/fountain. Hard to believe that yesterday I was at work in NYC. Today was truly a vacation day through and through.
Sunday, Oct. 30th
Atlanta Marathon! R and I finished hand-in-hand. We were aiming to run 8s as a training run for our goal race: Philadelphia Marathon on Nov. 19th. Of course, we went a bit faster, but not too much so. We finished at 3:28 and change, including 3 port-a-potty stops. Note to self: drink less leading up to the marathon I'm actually aiming to run my fastest at. The course passed lots of Atlanta landmarks: Coke HQ, Aquarium, 1996 Olympic Rings/Stadium. It was surprisingly hilly. 1700 ft elevation gain and 1700 ft elevation loss. And as a record for myself: 3 gus seem to keep me pretty powered with no bonking. One at Mile 8, one at Mile 12, and one at Mile 18. My flight home went smoothly. School tomorrow!
Monday, Oct. 31st
I turned on the heat in my apartment for the first time today. Grama went back to the hospital for pneumonia. We had a rapid dismissal at school - everyone out of the building at 3 pm exactly and the school gets guarded by NYPD. The idea is to prevent any Halloween shenanigans. I spent the afternoon shopping at Costco and rearranging the furniture in my apartment. R is still without power in PA. The Nor'easter caused a lot of people to lose power. The photo-of-the-day is on my block. Kids and their parents go from store to store trick or treating. Good news: I wasn't sore from the marathon yesterday.
Tuesday, Nov. 1st
I did a ton of grading after school today. In the evening I was a wimp and didn't want to run in the cold so I signed up for a free trial at New York Sports Club, the gym a half mile from my apartment. I did a long workout and lost some brain cells while watching The Biggest Loser on my treadmill. They were filming the tv show Gossip Girl in the building across the street from my apartment. Kinda cool.
Wednesday, Nov. 2nd
I went for a short run on the treadmill in the morning. I covered some classes for an absent teacher and met some of the 7th grade students I don't usually teach. In the evening I met up with Karla, Tara, and Lisa. It was great to see high school friends here in the city! We went to a fancy Italian restaurant in the theater district. Robert arrived in the evening. What a treat to have him here midweek. (He's in town for the marathon and Runner's World events.) And more good news: Grama is back home from the hospital.
Thursday, Nov. 3rd
A good day at school. In the evening I ran in Central Park and through all the pre-marathon set-up and excitement. Mid-interval I was running across the marathon finish and a huge video screen with Paula Radcliffe footage from past marathons was playing next to me. Talk about getting you pumped to push hard in your workout! Even though it was dark out, the tree cutters were still going like wildfire in the park, preparing for the throngs of people that will be in the park this weekend. Many trees were damaged by the Nor'easter. The photo-of-the-day makes me very happy. A note, postcard, and flowers from R. The shoes are the ones I'm wear-testing for RW.
Friday, Nov. 4th
Fun Lab Friday! We dissected owl pellets and most of the students were really engaged. (Did you know they aren't real owl pellets anymore? They are machine-made to look like real bones, hair, feathers, etc. but they are synthetic.) Insideschools.org visited our school to get data about their review of us. I won wine at the union meeting raffle! Tonight R and I are hoping to watch Gone with the Wind. I haven't seen it in a long time. If you read this far, I'm really impressed! This was a looonngg post.
Students took formative assessments today about their new units, Human Body Systems and Physical and Chemical Changes in Matter. In the self-contained class we dissected owl pellets. Goliath had his first car wash! I ran 11 miles in Central Park in the afternoon, then relaxed with some abc.com and delicious Indian Food.
Wednesday, Oct. 26th
I slept nine hours last night. I love getting that much sleep. I should do it more often! There were two separate field trips today for the 8th graders - one to a poetry event in Brooklyn and one to an I Will Graduate! event at the Fashion Institute. I stayed behind with the students that weren't on either field trip. That's okay, our field trip is coming up Dec. 1st. I graded a bunch in the afternoon and found a cool comment on a student paper. (FLF means Fun Lab Friday!) I came up with that idea this summer, I'm glad it is going well. Ah, you must be wondering how it works. It came out of a conversation R and I had, "Why do I do labs with the classes that misbehave?!" So now they have a clear method for earning their labs through on-point behavior. So far, all classes have earned all labs. It's working!
Thursday, Oct. 27th
We had our school wide Halloween party today. Eek, lots of melt-downs and behavior problems in the afternoon after the candy high bottomed out. Students in my Target 10 presented posters about their upcoming Specialized High School Test. Thousands of NYC 8th graders take the test in the hopes of getting a spot a Bronx Science or Stuyvesant or other coveted public schools. In my 8 years of teaching, none of my 8th grade students have scored high enough to grab one of these spots. I've had students who were close, though. I could write pages on this topic (tutoring, lack of teacher preparation, haves, have-nots, but I'll refrain.) In the afternoon I did laundry here in the city and went for a run in an awesome rainstorm. In the evening Rachel visited East Harlem! She is organizing a Donor Registry Drive to help out Amit Gupta (http://amitguptaneedsyou.com/) and needed to borrow clipboards. We enjoyed some great beverages, food, and conversation at the local Mexican Restaurant.
Friday, Oct. 28th
I rushed out after school and hopped on the bus to Laguardia. My flight went smoothly and I met R at the airport. The first picture is a cool water fountain that fills bottles at LGA. It has a running tally of how many plastic bottles it has saved. The second picture is the sunset from flight, and the third picture is Robert arriving in Atlanta. We took separate flights (he was coming from PA), but we were in the same part of the airport so, like in the good 'ole days, I was able to meet him as he walked off the plane.
Saturday, Oct. 29th
A very good day. Highlights: sleeping in at the hotel, breakfast, running in Atlanta's Piedmont Park, going to the marathon Expo, lunch, lounging in the hotel all afternoon, a fancy Italian restaurant for dinner (including a piano player and black spaghetti), and drinks like "the perfect 10 martini" and "kryptonite." Atlanta was colder than I'd expected, but we did spend some time outside at night sitting in the court of our hotel that had a neat fire/fountain. Hard to believe that yesterday I was at work in NYC. Today was truly a vacation day through and through.
Sunday, Oct. 30th
Atlanta Marathon! R and I finished hand-in-hand. We were aiming to run 8s as a training run for our goal race: Philadelphia Marathon on Nov. 19th. Of course, we went a bit faster, but not too much so. We finished at 3:28 and change, including 3 port-a-potty stops. Note to self: drink less leading up to the marathon I'm actually aiming to run my fastest at. The course passed lots of Atlanta landmarks: Coke HQ, Aquarium, 1996 Olympic Rings/Stadium. It was surprisingly hilly. 1700 ft elevation gain and 1700 ft elevation loss. And as a record for myself: 3 gus seem to keep me pretty powered with no bonking. One at Mile 8, one at Mile 12, and one at Mile 18. My flight home went smoothly. School tomorrow!
Monday, Oct. 31st
I turned on the heat in my apartment for the first time today. Grama went back to the hospital for pneumonia. We had a rapid dismissal at school - everyone out of the building at 3 pm exactly and the school gets guarded by NYPD. The idea is to prevent any Halloween shenanigans. I spent the afternoon shopping at Costco and rearranging the furniture in my apartment. R is still without power in PA. The Nor'easter caused a lot of people to lose power. The photo-of-the-day is on my block. Kids and their parents go from store to store trick or treating. Good news: I wasn't sore from the marathon yesterday.
Tuesday, Nov. 1st
I did a ton of grading after school today. In the evening I was a wimp and didn't want to run in the cold so I signed up for a free trial at New York Sports Club, the gym a half mile from my apartment. I did a long workout and lost some brain cells while watching The Biggest Loser on my treadmill. They were filming the tv show Gossip Girl in the building across the street from my apartment. Kinda cool.
Wednesday, Nov. 2nd
I went for a short run on the treadmill in the morning. I covered some classes for an absent teacher and met some of the 7th grade students I don't usually teach. In the evening I met up with Karla, Tara, and Lisa. It was great to see high school friends here in the city! We went to a fancy Italian restaurant in the theater district. Robert arrived in the evening. What a treat to have him here midweek. (He's in town for the marathon and Runner's World events.) And more good news: Grama is back home from the hospital.
Thursday, Nov. 3rd
A good day at school. In the evening I ran in Central Park and through all the pre-marathon set-up and excitement. Mid-interval I was running across the marathon finish and a huge video screen with Paula Radcliffe footage from past marathons was playing next to me. Talk about getting you pumped to push hard in your workout! Even though it was dark out, the tree cutters were still going like wildfire in the park, preparing for the throngs of people that will be in the park this weekend. Many trees were damaged by the Nor'easter. The photo-of-the-day makes me very happy. A note, postcard, and flowers from R. The shoes are the ones I'm wear-testing for RW.
Friday, Nov. 4th
Fun Lab Friday! We dissected owl pellets and most of the students were really engaged. (Did you know they aren't real owl pellets anymore? They are machine-made to look like real bones, hair, feathers, etc. but they are synthetic.) Insideschools.org visited our school to get data about their review of us. I won wine at the union meeting raffle! Tonight R and I are hoping to watch Gone with the Wind. I haven't seen it in a long time. If you read this far, I'm really impressed! This was a looonngg post.
6 Comments
Looks like you had a nice dinner with Karla et al.
mom
Leave a Comment