Celebrating The Story of Our Cross

Our daughter was married last Friday in Charleston, South Carolina on Johns Island.  She moved to SC immediately after graduating from Bowling Green State University. Her home is in SC, but I believe her heart is still at our home, 22 acres of country living. She asked her dad, Tom, 6 months ago if he could build her a cross for their wedding. My husband replied, "Yes," and he found the perfect walnut tree on our property.  My husband and son cut down the tree and placed in our barn to dry. 6 weeks prior to the wedding he took the tree to a mill in the small town next to where we live to get the bark trimmed "rough sawn" which was a new term for me.  When the gentlemen asked my husband what he was going to make out of the walnut tree, my husband replied, "A cross for my daughter's wedding."  The gentleman replied, " I don't charge for crosses. I hope you have a beautiful wedding."

Our friend, who is a master craftsman, offered to help my husband build the cross.  One of the biggest decisions was how big to build the cross since we had to transport it to SC in our truck. The decision was made 9 feet which make me nervous, but I trusted the two experts. After several meetings, Tom went to pick up the cross and again he heard,  " I don't charge for crosses. I hope you have a beautiful wedding."

It was a beautiful wedding, and as I sat in the front row with my husband watching our little girl walk down the aisle. I knew in my heart that the cross held our true story of love and family.  Marriage is a full circle moment for parents. Knowing that our daughter married her best friend with our cross watching over them, this will always be a lifetime celebration.

Four hours before the wedding. Anna sees her cross that came from Ohio

It's a celebration for me as I reflect on my memories only a week ago.  I always appreciate the posts when Ruth shares her intimate family stories.  I am honored to share our recent family story today on #celebratelu.  

Celebrating Conversations

 I am celebrating conversations this week.  Conversations that could have been difficult but turned out to be wonderful.  The first round of parent teacher conferences are complete, and I am thankful when I am discussing my learners with their parents, and we are on the same page.  I don't have to be on the same page; however, when it happens I breathe deeply.  

Have you ever had to say the difficult thing?  Practicing on the way to school, hesitating to share, and feeling nervous. I waited for that moment and I said it. Pausing,I breathed deeply and waited....choosing my words carefully and having the best intention were my focus.

Finally, one of my favorite parts of being the elder in our school is sharing ideas and mentoring strength.  I am always learning, and I am celebrating our weekly team meetings. This week was extra great because we were talking with our math coach about recent changes to the standards.  All four of us trust each other which is so important as we dig deeper into the curriculum. Mentoring is where my heart is.  I am thankful when I am asked my opinion, and I can share 30 years of experience.  Encouraging young teachers to trust their judgement and try some new strategies is a celebration every time. 

I am celebrating because two weeks in a row I am able to blog on Friday evening. Some might call that strange, I call it contentment. I am thankful for joining my Saturday celebration community. I am looking forward to a beautiful, cool fall weekend. 

Found this special nest in our grain truck. 

Celebrating Speed Poetry

My passion is collecting words! I notice unique features in words. I love to lift lines from books because of the beauty of the language.  I purchase books for my classroom based on having fun with words.  I love poetry.....not all students love poetry. 

First week of school, we spent a huge amount  of time discussing our classroom library and how should we organize our library.  It is still color coded which continues to make my heart happy.  All of my beloved poetry books just continued to sit on the shelf without an ounce of love given to them.  I watched my poetry shelf and not once, not even a passing by, did one reader choose to pull a book off the shelf.  Something had to change.  Yesterday was the day!!

I turned their frowns upside down.  As we started our official Poetry Friday celebration. We sat in the circle and discussed poetry - have to admit I almost dozed off from the lack of conversation.  Finally I had two students walk over and choose 12 books apiece. Each reader had a book.  Welcome to "Speed Poetry"  30 seconds with a book and pass.  I suggested having their Literacy Spiral open because you never know when you want to write down a title that you might want to read later........ GO!!

It was one of those priceless moments as a teacher...everything was perfect.  Everyone was talking, laughing, telling their neighbor to look at a certain poem.  I had to pause longer than 30 seconds because there wasn't enough time to write titles.  It was heaven with poetry in Room 234.  

I am celebrating because once again I have a little time on Friday night to blog for Saturday morning.  I am celebrating joining my Saturday Celebration community.  But most of all I am celebrating 24 smiles and perhaps a change in heart for poetry. 

Icing on the cake:  "Mrs. Caplin, can I take a poetry book home for the weekend?" 

Celebrations

In math there are always "firsts"  We explored exponents with the power of 10s.  After the opening mini lesson and some practice on dry erase boards, they went off to work with their partners.  You could see the smiles on their faces. The felt like they were doing BIG math.  The next morning as I stood at the door greeting my class as well as most of the fourth graders, J. stopped and told me he had a great evening. His older brother was doing math HW, and he was able to help him with exponents with a huge smile on his face.

$345.20 was spent on their family vacation.  There are four members in the family.  How much money did each person spend?  Long division has not been introduced.  Division is the process of dividing large amounts into groups. 

• "I can't do this."
• Mrs. Caplin, "You can't divide money into parts."
• "Didn't you know that money can't be divided?"
• "This is one really rich task, Mrs. Caplin."
• "Really on a Friday, you're pushing my brain."

Math talk and conversations continue to be the focus of workshop.  Perseverance is the power word in our math class.  I am not the keeper of the answers, and they are still learning what that means.  After three different groups of  mathematicians circled around the table, and they opened the bank. Math got a little bit easier. Collaboration and conversations were flowing, and they all finally had the answer. 

Friday morning I walked into my school through our morning latch key program. There are at least 30 K-5 students there.  As I was walking, Maria came up to me and said, "My uncle died yesterday."  I stopped, knelt down to her level and said, "I'm sorry."  And Maria continued to tell me everything she needed me know.  The special part of this story is that my name is Maria and two years ago in kindergarten Maria saw my name tag and said that's my name.  We've been connected ever since I see her almost everyday, and we always exchange a smile. Today she needed me, and we needed each other..

Thanks Ruth for encouraging me to Celebrate.  It was a great week, and  I am thankful. It's going to be a fun weekend.  Celebrating my birthday by going to a Bob Seger concert. This will be the highlight of my Saturday evening listening to this song :)

Celebrating: Status of the Class

Celebrations are crucial. Some days I search for a celebration; however most days celebrations come knocking at my door.  We are off to a great start in Room 234. 

Choosing to spend the first four weeks discussing and creating our new community. 

Conversations about how we will talk with each other especially when we don't agree (which happens in math quite often).  

Allowing time for everyone to learn about their life as a reader and lots of time searching the classroom library. Yet to be organized except by the color of the spines of the books which makes me so happy. Because it is their library. 

Celebrating that my learners know that I am a reader, and I will be checking weekly with them on how they are progressing.  

One of my biggest celebration was on Thursday - Weekly Status of the Class. At this time of year, status takes forever or at least it feels that way.  I have to admit every Thursday morning I selftalk myself knowing that this time is well spent.  There are two parts to Status of the Class.

• Every reader shares aloud their current JR book and what page they are currently reading.  This is powerful because all 25 readers here a title, make connections and typically ends in at least one book talk. This process takes less than 10 minutes.
• Second, I meet with every reader, one on one, short conference about their JR book.  They track their reading in BoB (Book of Books) and I ask them about their goals and to share their evidence.  This takes at least 30 minutes. I value this time because I am making connections, I'm able to ask hard questions if I need too. Finally I am sending the message that we all will value reading and every Thursday is a set time for this celebration.

Fast forward to lunch and I am getting ready to go to duty. I find a sticky note hidden under my keyboard just peaking out for me to see.  In  our class, on the first day, I tell them that space is my mailbox if you need to tell me something or we need to talk leave me a note. 

Mrs. Caplin, Thank you for status today.  I have always liked reading, I don't like goals. Last year's teacher had us set goals but never met with me alone.  Now I know the importance of goals.  Thank you :)

 Thanks Ruth for encouraging us to celebrate and encouraging us to join in a community of Saturday Celebrations.