What's on your mind

It is Sunday night and tomorrow morning I have to wake up with an alarm clock. Time to go finish out the school year. For those of you reading this blog that are depressed by the end of school vacation, you only have 36 more days of school. I hope everyone had a great week off from school. I went to watch the marathon. My family watched from mile 16.5 in Newton. We saw Lance Armstrong go by, then Mr. Taylor was only minutes behind him. My husband was about 15 minutes behind Mr. Taylor. After all 3 passed by I caught the green line into Boston to the finish line. Congrats to the two Mr. Taylors for a great race. Boston was crazy. So many people there was barely any room to move, but I wouldn't have missed out on the experience. My only complaint was the T was so crowded that everyone was squished in with little breathing room. Even with that said I recommend you go to the marathon. The rest of my week was very relaxing. I did a little bit of school work. I made up the workbook f...

We all know that the school budget is going through some tough times. One thing that I have been doing is sending in empty ink cartridges and old cell phones to earn points for our school. I send them to a company called funding factory. The points that are issued can be used to purchase educational items. My goal for this year and next year is to earn enough points to buy white board markers for all the teachers. This will allow us to have a little bit more money in the budget to spend on other things. I need everyone to help me out with this. Please ask people you know to save these items and donate them to the school. You can bring them to me or the items can be dropped off in the main office. I will continue to send these items in over the summer so they can be dropped off in July and August too. Thanks for all your help.

I wonder if you realize how lucky we are here in Norton? We have two administrators that really care about the school community. Whenever a school activity is going on we always see Mr Dewar or Mr. Barth here supporting and cheering the students. Dr. Ansay attends events as well. I want you to know that it is not like that at every school. I have been dissappointed with the principal at my daughters school about that. I spent most of my weekend at my daughter's colorguard competitions. Saturday they won the state championship and Sunday they got the gold medal at the New England Championships. They are having a rally Tuesday night because Wednesday morning they are leaving for Ohio to compete for the National championship. Going to all of her competitions has made me realize that we have such a wonderful administration here in Norton. My daughter is a freshmen in high school and she has had many home shows for colorguard and I have never seen her school administrator at these. Last...

I can't believe I have gone so long without a word on my blog. Sorry about that. My last blog was about the book we all read and this blog is related to that as well. In 3 weeks, on April 21st, the Boston marathon will take place. This year Mr. Taylor is running in the marathon with Lance Armstrong to raise money and awareness of cancer and treatments. Mr. Taylor needs to raise $3500 for the Lance Armstrong foundation and he needs our help. You can visit the web site https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=259771&supid=203303370 to see Mr. Taylor's donation page and maybe you or someone you know can make a donation. I am excited about the marathon. I love to watch the race and this year it will be more enjoyable because I will know two people running. The two Mr. Taylor's (Mr. Taylor the English teacher and Mr. Taylor my husband). You all know how much of a sports fan I am, marathons included, so you know I am counting down the days until I make the...

Have you started reading? I am reading this book for the second time. If you read to the left of my blog "all about me" you know that I am a Tour de France fan and a Lance Armstrong fan so I was excited to hear our book choice for this year. I hope you like the book as much as I did(or at least half as much as I did). The picture above is Lance during the last stage of his last Tour de France when he won a record 7 times. Now that Lance has retired from cycling he is doing a lot to raise money for cancer and awareness of early cancer detection. I am sure you have seen the yellow bracelets that read "Livestrong". That is his motto. I have been wearing mine for 3 years now. Ever since I was diagnosed with cancer myself. Lance will be in Boston in April to run the Boston marathon. I will be on the route some place to cheer him, and all the other runners(maybe Mr. Taylor will be running again this year). Lance is doing this to raise money for his foundation. I found t...

Most winters I look forward to a snow day or two, as I am sure most of my students do, but I find myself a little sad at the prospect of no school tomorrow. I am having so much fun this year at Norton High that I actually do not want a day off. My daughter thinks I am a little crazy because she is very excited about having a three day weekend. This is so out of character for me. I even have a sign that hangs in my dining room during the winter months that reads, "Please Snow, I'm a teacher". I hope that all of my students can find a career that they enjoy as much as I do. It is a wonderful feeling to get up in the morning and be excited about going to work. This year I started a new position and I was a little nervous leaving my comfort zone to try something new, but I am glad I choose this path. I truly believe I am growing. I have been learning so much and I just want to continue to learn more. Now back to the weather. If the weather people are correct (50-50 shot at th...

I passed out a 16 piece puzzle on the topic of Trig Identities last week and I was wondering if anyone has tried that puzzle yet? Are you having any luck? I want you to remember that I told the class it was difficult. It took me a few hours to complete so I expect it will take my students longer than that. You should ask each other for help and maybe get a group together after school to work on the puzzle. If you need help from me, I am available after school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week. If you get frustrated with the puzzle then you need to take a break and come back to the puzzle at a later time. Don't take too long of a break because the puzzle is due before the year 2008.