One Hundred Hungry Ants by Eleanor Pinczes

One hundred hungry ants by Eleanor Pinczes is the book that I’m reviewing today. I like this book and the style of it. It’s the best kind of teaching. It’s teaching even when the kids don’t even know they are being taught. Children are taught about division without even knowing it.

I was surprised that the [...]

MasterCard moment

Got any old books just lying around the house collecting dust? Why don’t you do something useful with them. Trade them with others. I found this great website, Paperback swap, that lets you trade your old books. You simply list at least 9 books that you want to share. After that you can order [...]

Guys Read

Jon Scieszka, who is a former school teacher, created a website just for boys. It’s called Guys Read. It is for boys who hate to read. He wants to motivate boys to read. He believes that reading is not usually seen as a masculine thing to do, so he wants to change that. It is [...]

R-E-S-P-E-C-T!!!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T. I’ll tell me what it means to me.
Respect, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is an act of giving particular attention; high or special regard; the quality or state of being esteemed.
Believe it or not, there are people that I know who think that respect is optional. I am here to tell you that respect is [...]

Not the besta’ of Scieszka (Shess-ka)

If you have a really offbeat sense of humor like me, then you’ll like this author with a weird name. Jon Scieszka. Even though his name looks hard to pronounce, it really isn’t. It’s pronounced Shess-ka.
You’ve probably heard of him. He has written over twenty books, including the chapter book series, The Time Warp Trio. [...]

What Your 6th Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, jr. (7 of 8)

The “write” way

As I said in my About Me page, I am a sci-fi junkie. I love most things sci-fi. I especially love good sci-fi. Before I really got into Stargate SG-1, I was the biggest Babylon 5 fan. Boy was I scared of those Shadows! The last episode was movie worthy. It was wayyyy better than [...]

This journey

I visit a lot of sites during the day and am fairly impressed by the amount of thought and planning that goes into teaching. Thank goodness that I love doing that stuff or I would be outta’ luck when it comes to teaching. I was just over at Andrew’s blog and looked at a project [...]

Today’s the day

Well, today is Prom. He’s going to look so handsome. I think I’m going to cry!

Faculty meeting

Before I started blogging, I was vehemently opposed to advertising on blogs. I thought that it sullied the very nature of a blog. Would I sell space in my pen and paper diary? I think not.
However, that was before I became the Blogmëister.
It has only been two weeks and I already have 35 28 posts.
35 [...]

Isn’t it ironic?

This blog thing reminds me of days when I just think that I am so cute. I put my outfit together at night and try it on. I make sure that my hair is just so. I match up my shoes and my purse and head out the door.
When I get to work, nothing! Not [...]

Blog nog

This thing called a blog is so intoxicating. It is so addicting. Like any drug or mood altering substance, more is required.
I find myself checking my blog and feed stats excessively. I find myself re-reading my posts and congratulating myself on how cute, original and/or good they were.
Well, what do you know? I actually [...]

Google-y me!

Guess what!! I googled myself yesterday. I can’t believe it. I feel so important (lol).
Now that I’m able to google myself, on to the next thing.
Let’s see. Is Oprah hiring???????

Fly away!

Fly away! This is what I want to tell my oldest son as he embarks on the first leg of his soon-to-be adult journey.
I should want him to drive, but I don’t.
I should be ready for him to move out; but I’m not.
I know that over the past couple years I’ve wanted to put on [...]

Stop being a baby!

Ever think about this:
Those who fight the hardest to be considered an adult when they’re younger are usually the ones who fight the hardest to go back to being a child when they’re older.
by
-Leila-
And that my dear sir or madam is food for thought!

What is that? That freaky thing?

What is that? That freaky thing?
I don’t know what it is, but I can describe it for you. It smells. It’s messy. Sometimes it’s even rude. Oh, and did I forget to tell that it knows absolutely everything there is to know.
It also seems to be allergic to advice. I can tell by the way [...]

Make it fun! Part 2

Here is another cute little website that I use at school. It’s great. The website is very child-friendly and is easy to navigate around. It teaches stuff like chunking, which is basically breaking the words into little chunks to make them more manageable.  It also teaches the long vowels and short vowels. Learning all of [...]

Snuggle mountain by Lindsey Lane

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Tongue-in-cheek parent letter

 
As y’all know, I am trying to do as much as I can while I get ready to get ready for my first year of teaching. One of my things that I want to do is compose a parent letter to introduce myself, let the parents know what to expect, to get contact information, etc., [...]

Restless me

I am so restless. I am still getting ready to get ready.
Why am I so restless? I don’t want to go to work. I feel so burnt out.
I finally finished school; something that I’ve wanted since I first started in 1988. Why then don’t I feel fulfilled?
I thought that I would feel a sense of [...]

C.S.E.T.

I’ve mentioned the C.S.E.T. before. If you’re reading this website, you probably know what the acronym stands for. If not, then let me enlighten you. It is the California Subject Examinations for Teachers, which is yet another hoop that L.A.U.S.D. expects you to jump through to get hired. I think that California has the strictest [...]

$5,000 signing bonus

L.A.U.S.D. will give a $5,000 signing bonus to teachers who are hired on at certain schools. To find out the particulars, visit http://www.teachinla.com

Why you ackin’ like that? (The Willie Lynch letter)

I feel that I would be totally remiss if I did not mention the black community, as a whole, and our sad state of affairs. Why is our black community the way it is?
If you will, ask yourselves these questions? Maybe it can shed some light on a few things.
Do you ever wonder why we [...]

For teachers in the know

The Scholastic site is a wealth of information and resources. The posting two days ago was about their big sale. Today’s post is about one of the resources available on their site. There is a feature on the website that allows teachers to create a homepage. This allows the parents to check up on the [...]

Getting ready to get ready

Teaching is like having a baby. You can try your best to do what you can to get ready for it. But, unfortunately, there is no way that you can prepare yourself for a total life change like that. You can try to get as much sleep as you can before the baby comes. You [...]

Blogmëister!!!!

My husband says that I am a blogmëister because I’ve only been doing this for 5 days and I already have over 10 posts. Do you think he’s right?
Okay, maybe I have gotten a little carried away. I have been spending a little bit of time on this. He wants my attention back. Especially since [...]

So what is this blog about, anyway?

If I were reading this blog, I would think, what is this blog about. Well, this blog is about my first year as a special education teacher, being a working mom, and random stuff. The only thing is that I haven’t started working as a teacher yet. I start in September, so that’s when it [...]

Scholastic book fair

♥ If you love books and you’re in L.A. and the surrounding area, this should make you happy. Scholastic is having a book fair. It starts today. It’s being touted as the BIGGEST book sale ever with up to 80% off. Visit the website and register for the Fast-cart pass≡ to receive a $10 off [...]

Pissivity!!!!!

Let me just get this off my chest. I am pissed off to the highest of Pissivity!! Yes, I did say pissivity!!
I am proctoring the state mandated tests at the school that I work at and boy am I pissed.
Let me just say that it is not fair. I sound like a whining baby, [...]

Who’s in the classroom?

In the immortal words of David Alan Grier of In Living Color fame: I got a little story to tell you. Like to hear it; here it goes.
This is the cutest little anecdote.
Like any mom on the run, trying to get ready for work, I did one of my usual numbers of getting out [...]

An A.P.L.E. a day!!

Well folks, this post is kind of long, but here is the information about the A.P.L.E. grant. It is the Assumption Program of Loans for Education. It is our government’s way of giving back to those who labor so hard in a sometimes thankless job where the only rewards are the progress of the [...]

Service Learning- Hold the phone please!!

When I first heard that a service learning project was required to receive the AmeriCorps award, I, like most of the people present, wondered what it was. I had no idea what it was; let alone how I was going to do it. Initially the project was a problem for me, but alas, all [...]

To die for

I was so lucky. About three weeks ago, on one of my weekly trips to Michael’s, I got my heart’s desire. Imagine how happy I was when I saw that Sizzix’s personal die-cutting machine & the accompanying die-cuts were being retired so they were on sale for 60% off.

Now let me just tell you, I’ve [...]

Money, Money, Money- Want $9,450?

I didn’t get a chance to write yesterday. I was so tired. Yesterday was my last AmeriCorps meeting of the year. These meetings are so helpful, but at times, they can be a tad bit boring. But, far be it for me to look a gift horse in the mouth. This is the way that [...]

Hello world!

Hello world!
My name is Leila. I will be taking you on my journey with me. What is my journey? Glad you asked. I just graduated from college at the age of 36 (Yay, me!). I am a late bloomer just in case you couldn’t tell.
I got my degree in Human [...]

Talkative me!!

I am so excited. Why didn’t I start this blog before. The fashionista @ fashionistaandbaby.wordpress.com has been on me for months to do this. I was so proud of her when she started hers. She was able to google herself. I told her that I wanted to be googled. Maybe some time in [...]

Educational quotes

I love it when I find a quote that takes the words right out of my own mouth. In my earlier article, I stated that I want to be a victim of my own success. Well, I found the perfect quote that says just what I was thinking. It sums up my teaching philosophy perfectly.
A [...]

Make it fun!!

When I am doing research for new and exciting stuff to try with the kids that I work with, there are a few websites that I go to time and time again. Since we are on this journey together, it is only fair that I share my information with you. So, at least once a [...]