Dear Baylor Fans...

Happy Diadeloso!!!

Brought to you by the number 7...

Last Friday Mike dropped me off at the airport for my flight to Dallas to attend a wedding on Saturday.  It was so early in the morning that I didn't have time to eat breakfast before we left so I ate at the airport.  The Rosetta Stone and Best Buy vending machines were investigated by many curious travelers.

I boarded the airplane around 8:30 am knowing things could get interesting because there was bad weather throughout the state that day.  We left the gate and taxied out to the runway and ended up sitting there for a few hours.  We had plenty of other airplanes in the same situation to keep us company.

There were plenty of people complaining about the delay and how hot it was getting.  I figured getting upset wouldn't help anything so I enjoyed my apple juice and made some "I'm bored" phone calls.

We eventually left the ground and started on our journey to Dallas.  To avoid the weather we went over Corpus Christi and San Antonio.  We prepared for landing but it was easy to see we weren't in Dallas yet.

We stopped in Abilene because we needed fuel.  Things were really backed up in Dallas so we spent a few hours on the ground waiting to take off again.

We were the first airplane there but it wasn't long before we had plenty of other airplanes to keep us company.  We stayed on the airplane the entire time and it was getting hot.  I enjoyed another apple juice and listened to the snoring of my seat neighbor.

Time passed very slowly at the Abilene airport.  Even the workers were bored.

We eventually got back in the air for a very short hop to Dallas.  The weather wasn't great but I'm sure it was probably much better than earlier in the day.

We finally made it to Dallas but had wait quite a while for a gate to open up for us.  I got off of the airplane at 3:30 pm.  A flight that should have been about an hour ended up being seven hours!  I was patient for the first five hours but got a little antsy during the last two hours.

My dad picked me up from the airport and we grabbed a late lunch.  We were originally planning on meeting mom for lunch but it was pretty late.  Mom had one of my favorite treats waiting for me when I got to my parents house.  They were quite tasty.  Even though it was a frustrating day, I did have plenty of time to get ready and attend the wedding rehearsal.

After the beautiful wedding on Saturday I had to face the airport again on Sunday.  I really liked the chairs at DFW because they look interesting and are very comfortable!

The weather was beautiful on the way back to Houston and the flight was less than an hour long.  I was glad to be back home with Mike and Sadie!

Roses!

Mike bought me roses for no reason...I'm a lucky girl!!!  :)

Two Saturdays!

We really enjoyed having Friday off because it was like having two Saturdays this weekend!  It was nice having the extra time and we are definitely looking forward to our upcoming two month long Saturday otherwise known as summer break.  We spent our forty-eight hour Saturday relaxing and running errands.  Most Saturdays we barely have time to rush through laundry, cleaning, groceries, and all the other necessary weekly chores.  We were glad to have some time to start looking at paint colors, check out some furniture options, and get hair cuts.  We also tried a new restaurant and it was fabulous!  We went to Chi Japanese Cuisine in the Woodlands because we have heard about it from a lot of people lately.  Though their specialty is sushi we did not eat any.  We enjoyed what we ordered and would be interested in trying the sushi in the future.  Hopefully when we try sushi for the first time we will have someone dining with us who can help guide us through that intimidating sushi menu!

Washers and Dryers

I think I have finally convinced Mike that we should get a new washer and dryer for our new house!  (When I was in high school I never would have imagined getting so excited about appliances!)  Does anyone have any advice?  I want them to be front loading, energy efficient, and not overly complicated.  We dropped by Lowe's today to glance at a few items we will need soon.  The really expensive washers and dryers are gorgeous but have more buttons than I would ever need!  

Does anyone need a stackable washer and dryer or know anyone who does?  We have one Mike got for his bachelor apartment that we aren't using because our current apartment has a washer and dryer.  It is very similar to the one in the picture and still in pretty good condition.  (The laundry room at the house has built in shelves so it won't fit.  I'll admit it is a little convenient for me!)  We would like to get rid of it before we move so we will probably end up donating it to charity if no one wants it.

From The Dallas Morning News...

Senate OKs crackdown on replacing fine arts, other classes with TAKS test preparation

By TERRENCE STUTZ / The Dallas Morning News 

tstutz@dallasnews.com

AUSTIN – The Senate voted unanimously Thursday to crack down on the widespread practice in Texas schools of pulling students out of art, music and other enrichment classes to cram for the TAKS test.

Legislation drafted by Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, would require all school districts to "strictly enforce" a policy limiting the removal of students from regular classes to receive test preparation or remedial tutoring.

"The practice of pulling students from fine arts and other classes has become increasingly widespread and I'm hearing complaints from schools across the state," Shapiro said.

Her bill, approved on a 31-0 vote and sent to the House, also would prohibit giving students in all grade levels credit for a class unless the student is in attendance for at least 90 percent of the days the class is offered.

Shapiro said it is usually fine arts classes – but sometimes also science and social studies – where students are pulled out because those subjects are deemed less important since they are not tested on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. Science and social studies skills are tested in some grades.

The practice has reached the point that some students are missing half the class time in those courses, legislative analysts wrote.

Robert Floyd, chairman of the Texas Coalition for Quality Arts Education, said the practice of pulling students out of certain classes has accelerated as more emphasis has been placed on test results.

"Without question, the No. 1 plea we hear from teachers is, 'Please help us keep our kids in the classroom so we can teach them,' " he said.

Floyd said some of the abuses include one elementary school where certain students were taken out of every music class from October to March, and one middle school where all non-TAKS-tested courses were canceled for two weeks prior to the test. In another case, a music teacher had to create fictitious grades for students who had never been allowed to attend her class because they were receiving remedial instruction.

The legislation was backed by a broad coalition of public education groups.

Another bill filed by Shapiro could ease TAKS pressures on schools next year. That measure would eliminate the requirement that students in certain grades pass the TAKS in order to be promoted to the next grade level. The proposal is currently before the Senate Education Committee.

Middle School...

I thought things were ridiculous yesterday when the students discovered the joy of April Fools Day.  It was all fun and games until they realized me giving them detention was not a joke.  Yesterday was dreamy compared to today!  I think the stormy weather got to them because the day had barely started and we already had a number of students receiving some serious consequences.  The situations weren't anything too unusual for middle school but they also weren't typical daily infractions.  Teaching middle school is very interesting because one moment they talking and acting like children and then all of a sudden they are using very inappropriate adult words and doing very inappropriate adult things.  I'm not going to get into details here because it would not be professional and it might scare a few people.  I feel like all I did today was call parents, write referrals, and support other teachers who were having student discipline problems.  Just as I was gathering my things to leave early to run some errands, (I can never make it to the bank or post office during the week because we share pretty much the same hours) the power went out during passing period!  Again, not unusual for our school but having it happen during passing period was pure chaos.  (You would think our delicate power system would go out during bad weather for sure...no...it is really random and it is usually sunny outside when it happens...if only we had windows!)  Thankfully our school has a great backup system.  (Sometimes we don't even realize we are on the back up until we hear the air conditioning system starting and realize it wasn't on before.)  It was only out for about a minute or less.  Once things settled down I was out of there as fast as possible.  Baylor taught me that to teach you have to have "withitness".  Basically, you have to be aware of absolutely everything that is being done or said in the room at any time while teaching.  Sound exhausting?  It sure is!  I'm actually pretty good at it although it isn't something I can stop doing so it can sometimes create some strange social situations.  I'm lucky because my students are pretty good.  I have high expectations and use a lot of positive reinforcement.  They have bad days sometimes but they are still very manageable.  It really all comes down to building positive relationships and situations where students can be successful.  Hopefully tomorrow will be much less eventful!