TDay 2011

Ryan and I drove to Charlotte, NC on Wednesday night to stay with his cousin Justin.  It was just the three of us for Thanksgiving and it was really nice.  We had a pre-cooked turkey, mac and cheese, corn souffle, broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, apple pie, pecan pie, and whipped cream.

On Thanksgiving Day, Charlotte hosts the 4th largest parade in the nation.  Of course I made the boys go!

Zits and Data

My biggest complaint so far about being pregnant is my acne.  It is out of control!!!  Not to gross you out, but I feel like I'm a teenager again.  My face HURTS it's so bad.  I am getting zits in places I have never gotten them before - in my eye brows, in between my eyelids and eye brows, and all around my hairline.  I have figured out how to get rid of my headaches though....take an allergy pill!

On a different note, some of you may wonder what I actually do at my job.  Here is one project I took up:

This is our school data wall.  It has every single students' name on it, twice.  The left column contains students who fall below standards in both reading (on the left) and math (on the right) by grade level.  The middle column is all students who meet standards in both subjects, by grade level, and the right hand column consists of all the students who exceed standards in both subjects, by grade level.

Clearly, teachers want to focus on helping the students in the left hand column catch up to their peers.  Teachers - do you know which of your students fall below standards?  Amazingly, the left hand column contains the fewest amount of students, which makes it really manageable for our teachers to really target those students.

There are several things we do to help these students that I haven't seen in any school I've ever worked at before.  First of all, we offer them free after school tutoring in reading and math twice a week.  Secondly, we require teachers to look at their classes' data and determine the skills they are the weakest in.  Teachers have to create an intervention calendar and focus on one of the skills per week.  They have to carve out 10 minutes a day to do mini lessons on the subject Mon-Thurs, and then give a short assessment on Friday.  They then have to input that data into their intervention calendar weekly, proving:

1. They are aware of the standards their students are the weakest in
2. They are actually targeting those skills daily in addition to continuing on with the regular curriculum
3. They are proving with data from their weekly assessments, whether their students are experiencing learning gains in that area

The things we require of our teachers are amazingly overwhelming, but no one could argue that it's not what a phenomenal teacher would do.   It is awe inspiring to see true education reform in action!  And I thank the lucky stars that I don't have to do it!  =)

I found this on the PostSecret App today and liked it so much I thought I'd share:

Baby Bump?

4 weeks pregnant

8 weeks pregnant

12 weeks pregnant

So am I showing yet?  I don't know...I don't really see any difference in the pictures.  In fact, I think they look somewhat out of order, but I know they are not.  I started this pregnancy about 10 lbs heavier than I normally am, and I think I look pretty consistent in all three pictures.  

First trimester was really easy... second trimester is not starting off well.  I am having headaches and lower back pain on a regular basis.  Stretching doesn't seem to help my back.  At times, I am also having burning muscle pain below my left shoulder blade.  That is very painful!!!

I have one more week of school and then I have the entire week of Thanksgiving off!