Category Archives: Life

Talking about life

The year that was 2010.

Compared to the last few years, this year was pretty mellow. I feel more settled, and things all seem to be working a little more like they should be. So, in no particular order, here are the highlights of 2010.

  • Christine got married. There was the lovely bridal shower, the bachelorette party, and of course the wedding itself. Christine’s road to marriage, was an amazing experience to be part of. She has grown up A LOT, and I feel privileged to have been part of her journey.
  • We moved. I have always heard that moving in with someone is very hard the first few months, and I was very pleased to see that we didn’t have those problems. I get to see my best friend everyday, and it really doesn’t get much better than that.
  • I visited my grandparents in Florida and JMO met them for the first time. We went to the beach and went on an attic hunt. My grandparents really liked him, so I will probably keep him.
  • I held two jobs for most of the year, it lead to the full time job I wanted and I saved money for my car.
  • I finally purchased a new car. I emailed different dealerships and collected my prices. I knew that I wanted a Honda CR-V, so I got my ducks in a row, and did it on my own. I’m quite proud of myself.
  • I became a fourth grade teacher. It has been one of the most difficult things I have ever done, and I love it. I love the children, my coworkers, and the feel of challenge in my work. Being a fourth grade teacher is kind of like being a small business owner. All my hours put in, are for the good of my classroom. I lucked out with a phenomenal partner, a marvelous mentor, and a terrific team. These people have supported me so much during my first trying months. I feel truly blessed that things worked out as they did.
  • This year I was lucky to spend lots of time with friends and family. It is a fabulous plus in every year. I am very lucky to have such wonderful people that I want to spend time with.

It has been a great year, life is treating me well. In fact, the last few years have been pretty wonderful (2009 Recap and 2008 Recap). So here is to 2011! I have big plans and monthly goals planned! I’m still working on that post…..

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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A Holiday Evening with the Oswalts

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Before Christmas JMO’s family and I went to see A Fertile Holiday at the Radio Music Theater. The show was hilarious. There were three actors who played many different parts, I suppose you could say they wore many hats. They have done this particular show for the past 26 years. Apparently the theatre will be closing down this Spring, the actors are ready to retire. The show was a hoot, and I was really glad we got the chance to see it in its final year.

I didn’t take any pictures at the show, but we did take a few pictures while we were waiting to go inside. Although Trent looks angelic, I think this is a pretty fine photograph of the Oswalts.

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Happy Holidays!

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I like these people. We had a truly wonderful Christmas. We spent a lot of time together, ate a lot, watched movies, and Em and I played some Scrabble. Marvel walked right over when it was time to take the picture. She knows where she belongs, front and center.

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Kid Lit

I love books. Always have. This year I have reignited my love for children’s literature. I would be embarrassed to share how much money I have spent on books since started a fourth grade classroom. The urge to buy two of every book is very hard to overcome. See, I need one book for my personal shelf in the classroom and one for the library. Books that make it to the class library are well loved. I’m ecstatic that they are being read, and more ecstatic to hear them discussed, but I feel a twinge of pain when I see how beat up they get. Therefore, I need two of everything! Two of everything is not so practical, books are not so cheap.

My Goodreads list is now full of novels for children. I am finding that when I attempt a “grown up” book lately, the story line cannot pull me in the same way. Whether the book is about an imaginary world (which many are) or not, all of the kid lit books I’ve read have a sense of magical wonder. I want to learn more about their worlds, and like Peter Pan, I don’t really want to grow up anymore. Children’s literature lets me experience the best parts of being a child, while still being a grown up, where I know everything does turn out okay.

Here are a few of my recent loves. I have also been doing book reviews on my classroom blog, www.pickertskiddos.blogspot.com. A few of my students are working on reviews that we hope to have published after the holiday as well!

The Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series by Rick Riordan is just a fun ride. Like many novels for kiddos, it is about a boy who just doesn’t fit in. Percy finds out there are reasons he doesn’t fit it. The books are just a really fun quick read. Rick Riordan has also branched out to start two more series. I recently read The Red Pyramid and am almost done with The Lost Hero. And the guy is a teacher from San Antonio, who doesn’t want to support that?

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Soctt O’Dell was one of my favorite books in elementary school. One of our literature circle groups is currently reading it, and I had to take it home and finish it IMMEDIATELY. This is one of those books that just gives you a feeling of a world you would never know, or expect to know. I find it difficult to describe without giving away to much, but the book it phenomenal. I have several copies of this book, so if you have interest in borrowing, let me know.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick is MAGICAL. The book has 284 pictures in 533 pages. The story is told through pictures, and words. There are stretches of 20 pages or so, where there are only pictures, and then a couple pages of words. The words pick up right where you were with pictures. Hugo is a boy who is all alone and lives in a train station. The book gives me the chills. It is the only novel to ever win the Caldecott Medal, which it won in 2008. The book is already in production for a movie to be released next year. I can only hope it will be just as magical.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Disclaimer: this book is not for elementary age children. A colleague who is currently on her way to becoming a librarian introduced me to this book. It is more a middle – high school aged book. In this story, children from each district from ages 12-18 are put in a drawing every year. A boy and a girl are selected from each of the 13 districts. Those selected are sent to the Capital to participate in the Hunger Games. Basically, they are trained, dumped in a arena, and meant to compete for their lives. Only one person may leave the arena. It is televised to each district. This book is insanity. There are two more in the series, that I haven’t gotten to yet, but I’m dying to read.

Clearly, I could go on for awhile. I have found great satisfaction in discussing these books with my students (and colleagues). I truly love bonding with them over books, and in some cases they are books that the students wouldn’t have attempted on their own. I love that I can speak highly of a book, and several kiddos run to the library to get it. I also love having colleagues with the same interests. Regan (the future librarian) and Lauren (the mentor) have a great passion for books as well. Having adults to have impromptu book talks with has been one of my favorite things about my new career path.

I have five days off now. I think I shall read some. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

This one time I became a fourth grade teacher the Friday before school started.

I have been trying to find a teaching position for quite some time. I’d hoped to teach at the school I worked at last year as an aide and they had hoped to hire me. Due to circumstances at the district level, teaching at my school didn’t seem like it would actually pan out. When I returned to work as an aide for the year, I was asked if I would be interested in teaching the 4th grade. My interest had been more with special needs children or younger children, but everyone needs to start somewhere.

Teaching the fourth grade has, thus far, been the most exciting and stressful thing I have ever done. I have been told many times that it will never be as stressful as it is the first month in your first year of teaching. This had better be true. I knew teachers worked very hard. I know many teachers. I worked in a school for a year. It turns out that teachers work REALLY REALLY hard. It is a very different type of hard than my previous office life. All the work I do pays off. I work harder on a lesson, and the lesson goes smoother! I grade papers and I don’t have 20 kids asking me how they did. I read the books they are reading and I have conversation topics! I make a cute word wall and they use bigger words!

If you were not previously aware, 9 and 10 year olds are hilarious. They are like really funny. One of my kids relates everything to fishing, another arranges erasers in an army line daily, and there is a gal who will probably write a bestseller one day. These kids are awesome and I feel really blessed that after a year of trying I have a class of my own. These kids actually think I know what is going on with the entire world. That kind of belief in anyone is such a gift. I am one lucky gal.

This year I hope to grow as an educator and a learner. This year I hope to learn and incorporate the art of organization into my life. This year I want to fall in love with my job. This year I want to understand what it means to be 10 again.

More to come when I have more room to breathe. I miss my blog.

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Visiting Lois

On Saturday, I got to meet the famous Lois. Lois is the corpse flower that bloomed at Houston Museum of Natural Science. The museum is one of my favorite places in Houston, my favorite part of all is the butterfly center. If you come to visit me in Houston, it is the sight I choose to show you. Lois has been a Houston sensation for the past few weeks, her twitter updates have been HILARIOUS. She has been on the news, she has a live webcam (which now shows her fallen state), has had updates on the museum’s blog, Flickr updates, and featured on the blogs of Houstonites (I enjoyed Chookooloonks love affair with Lois). Lois was fascinating, she was a great distraction for the past few weeks and she was truly a public relations sucess for the museum.

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After stalking this flower like everyone else in Houston, I was ready to see it. I was apprehensive about going because of the crowds and the intense stench of the flower. JMO works for Schipul, they are a web marketing company, and Kinetic Energy is a client of theirs. Kinetic Energy was volunteering at the museum and JMO said we would help. I have heard JMO speak fondly of the Kinetic folks before and I was excited when he said that we could see this flower without standing in a line. We met up with Tim and he gave us hats and shirts, and then a museum coordinator walked us around and showed us what volunteering entailed.

The Kinetic Look

This is my shirt.

My Spot

This is my sweet spot. My job was to stand by the waterfall at the end of the butterfly exhibit. At the beginning they give you a chart of all the types of butterflies that are in the exhibit and people deposit these in a bin at the end. My job was to stand there and then take these sheets back up when the bin got full. People liked to take pictures in my spot, so I would take pictures of couples and whole families in front of the waterfall.

My Friend

In my spot, butterflies land on me. It was clearly an awesome spot.

HMNS Web Cam Set Up

At the end, my spot moved. I held the door open for people leaving the room Lois was in. All of the setup above provided this great web feed of Lois. The new spot allowed me to hear the presentation about Lois a few times. Visitors handed their cameras off so the presenter could take a picture of the inside of Lois.

Lois getting photographed

It was a wonderful treat to get to see the behind the scenes at the museum. Thank you so much Tim for including us in Kinetic‘s volunteer endeavor!

*I included lots of links in this post, since I inserted them, you should probably click them. Gracias.

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