First Day of School

Since we spent yesterday loading up the car with the last of belongings in Gainesville and moving them to Tallahassee, we did not begin our school year yesterday, along with the rest of the city. Our first day of "classroom" work was today.

We started our day at 9 a.m. with a timed math drill, just like the ones that Blaze did at Trilogy School last year, except that I added an extra minute to the time, so his drill is "5 minute math". We are starting over with the 2s times tables, because he has forgotten most of this over the summer.



During reading, Blaze read a simple phonics book aloud to me and then I finished reading Chasing Vermeer, the book we've been reading as a bedtime story, aloud to him.



The book is a mystery about the disappearance of a Johannes Vermeer painting, "A Lady Writing".



Scholastic has a page of games to go with Chasing Vermeer.



Blaze also started translating the letters in the book that are written in secret code.

After lunch, we started a science unit about the weather. Thanks to the kind of weather we been having lately, we began this unit by reading Wild Weather: Floods!.

My Good-Bye Post to Trilogy School

Eight and a half years ago, my son and I moved to Gainesville, because my boyfriend wanted to work on his PHD at the University of Florida. I didn't know what to expect here and Florida took some getting used to. I really wasn't sure I wanted to stay. I'm a Midwestern girl and we didn't have fire ants, banana spiders, and giant flying cockroaches where I grew up. Having a good job can make all the difference when trying to fit into a new place and my first job in Gainesville was not a good fit for me.

Then I answered an ad for a teacher's aid position at Trilogy, a small private school in a little house with a white picket fence out front. I went for an interview with the younger elementary teacher, Kristen, and one of the principles,Terry, but I didn't have any childcare for my two year old son, so he had to come with me. The two women were completely unflustered, as we conducted our entire discussion while following my son from computer to computer all over the building. Afterwards, I was told that the flexibility I showed during that very active interview contributed greatly to me getting the job.

Starting work at Trilogy really changed my opinion of Gainesville. Once I was doing something I enjoyed, I was able to come to love this community.

During the eight years that I have worked at Trilogy, I have had many different jobs, teacher's aid for younger elementary, older elementary, and middle school, tutor, substitute, language arts teacher, history teacher, and keeper of the elementary blog. The consistent thing throughout all those positions, was that I enjoyed working with the Trilogy staff and children. It's a small school, even though it has grown out of that little house with the white picket fence. We really are all family.

I just found out a few days ago, that my husband has been offered a job in Tallahassee. Although he's not quite done with his PHD dissertation, he's very close, and that is something he can do while working. His new job will begin July 23, so I will not be returning to Trilogy in the fall.

I went through my photographs and put together a little good-bye slide show. I'm sorry it's a little light on older pictures. I didn't have a digital camera back then.

Please enjoy this and thank you all for being part of our lives.

Acting Out Lewis and Clark

I posted this to our class blog last week, but I'm reposting it here, because, of all the school pictures I've taken this year, these are my favorites.

Last week, my history class of younger elementary students finished up their unit about Lewis and Clark, by dressing up and acting out scenes from the Corp of Discovery's trip to the Pacific Ocean.


The younger elementary students aren't just learning about the Corps of Discovery, they ARE the Corp of Discovery.President Thomas Jefferson asks his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead an expedition to the West, to make maps, study plants and animal, make friends with the natives, and possibly find a water route to the Pacific ocean.
While the corps spent the winter at Fort Mandan, they were joined by a French trader,Toussaint Charbonneau,and his young Shoshone wife, Sacagawea. They would work as guides and interpreters for the explorers. Sacagawea's baby, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, better known as "Pomp" was born while they were still at Fort Mandan.
Sacagawea

Toussaint Charbonneau

Sacagawea and baby Pomp played an important roll in the rest of the trip. The native people they met were less suspicious of a group traveling with a woman and child, because they knew that nobody would take a woman and child to war.
Sacagawea knew which plants were edible and was able to cook for the men.
Once they crossed the mountains, they made dug-out canoes and continued their journey westward.

They finally reached the Pacific Ocean!
They spent the winter at Fort Clatsop.
The men became very fond of Pomp and Clark often referred to him a "my dancing boy".

The journey back to St. Louis:

This will be our last week studying Lewis and Clark. We will be finishing up this book tomorrow:

One of the reading groups is also reading the book Tall Tails, which is told from the perspective of Seaman, Lewis' dog.

We will also be watching the movie of The Time Warp Trio: Lewis and Clark

My Other Blog

Since about the middle of the summer, I have been keeping a blog for the Trilogy School elementary classes. It is a small private school. At the moment our entire elementary program consists of only 11 children, so if you are looking for homeschooling ideas, many of our classroom activities could be easily adapted.

http://trilogy-school.blogspot.com/

A Look into My Day Job

Trilogy School, a small private school in Gainesville, Florida is my employer. The school has children who range in age from first grade through high school, but I mostly work with the elementary students. That's why, when I was asked this summer to start a school blog, I focused mostly on the elementary program. Once the new school year gets started, I hope to include more about what is going on in the whole school. Until then, I hope people will enjoy some of the scenes of past field trips, school plays, and classroom preparation that I have posted so far.



http://trilogy-school.blogspot.com/

End of the School Year Celebration

Last night was the elementary and middle school graduation at the school where I work. All of the elementary children made display boards of the work they were proud of.

Each child was able to decorate their board however they chose, so we had a wide variety of very beautiful, colorful boards. Because they are so good at covering large areas quickly, the block-shaped beeswax crayons got a lot of use for this project.





Blaze's board:



The high school seniors got in one last prank, while everyone was distracted by the younger children:

Beauty and the Beast

This morning, Blaze and I accompanied the elementary school on a field trip to the Phillips Center of Performing Arts to see a musical version (non-Disney) of Beauty and the Beast.







The kids all really enjoyed it. My favorite quote from one of them, was the little third-grade boy next to me, who, after the play was over, turned to me and said, "I am stunned! Just stunned!"

Blaze was a little uncomfortable during the play, because he had to sit all squished down in his seat for the entire show, or else his big, fluffy head obscured the view of the stage for the boy behind him. He still really liked the music, and has started taking special interest in how lighting and effects are done.

Christmas Cuteness

The elementary children at school were broken up into 4 groups today, to decorate gingerbread houses for the teachers. I just want to show you how cute mine is.

Mine was decorated by a 9 year old boy and a 10 year old girl.



The royal icing was a bit runny and hard to work with, but they did a fantastic job.

We also have very creative and kind parents and grandparents at the school. One of the grandmothers, who also volunteers in the classroom, made these candy bar snow men for all 16 of the elementary students. They are made by wrapping a Hershey bar with butcher's paper and then gluing on the hat, scarf, and face. She said that she found the snowman parts as a kit for making a foam photo frame, that was marked down at Joann Fabrics.



Tomorrow should be fun. The children have all been invited to the lead-teacher/principal's house for a Christmas party, which will include a Secret Santa gift exchange, baking cookies, and watching the original cartoon version of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

Pajama Day

In a perfect world, the day after Halloween would be a day off from school, to recover from the late night and candy excesses, but since that wasn't possible, the next best thing was a pajama day at school.



This peahen showed up at the school for the first time last week. Since then she has stopped by three more times.



She's not afraid of people, so we're guessing she came from the Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo. One of the Principles called the zoo about her, but she had disappeared before they could come get her.

We're all kind of hoping she stays at the school and becomes our special pet. Just after Blaze took this picture, she was seen going into the playhouse.