100 Things About Me As A Runner

1.  I have been a closet runner.

2.  I have been starting and stopping running for 4 years.

3.  I first started when I turned 40, it's now 4 years later.

4.  I usually restart each summer.

5.  I usually fall off each fall.

6.  This year I've done something different.

7.  I started at Spring Break.

8.  Why?  My mother in-law had stints put in and I started bootcamp at the Y and running.

9.  I love bootcamp! to vary the running.

10.  I see muscles from running and bootcamp.

11.  I feel stronger from running and bootcamp.

12.  I have made changes to make this time for myself.

13.  I've read a couple of books about running.

14.  The first summer I did followed the Couch to 5K plan.

15.  The next two summers, I just dabbled around without a big plan.

16.  I like plans!

17.  Sarah and Dimity wrote a great new book, Train Like a Mother.

18.  To be honest, all I've read is this summer's plan - 5K Finish It

19.  I started on week 3 - Walk 2 min and then run 6min 4 times.

20.  I liked running the same path in my neighborhood.

21.  I think running in the neighborhood guaranteed I could make it back home somehow.

22.  I found creative ways to run 3.1 miles in a small neighborhood.

23.  Running the same path gave me benchmarks for distance.

24.  I then knew about how far additional minutes might take me.

25.  I appreciated the walking periods between running periods.

26.  I like running at night.

27.  My body moves easier at night.

28.  I was dedicated enough to run in a slight thunderstorm on the horizon one night.

29.  I've gone out as late as 9:30pm, again just staying in the neighborhood.

30.  I've have increased my running wardrobe.

31.  I love the Champion line at Target for my clothes.

32.  I even bought running leggings in full length, capri, and short all in black.

33.  I wear running shorts over anything legging.

34.  I use and LOVE the app Runkeeper.

35.  I like numbers and Runkeeper tells me every 5 min. time, distance, and pace.

36.  My pace has improved, around a 10 min mile give or take.

37.  Runkeeper maps my path with my GPS on my Android phone.

38.  I have my running playlist on my amazon cloud.

39.  I always start with the song, If It's Love by Train.

40.  I have an arm band for my phone.

41.  I had a plan to run a 5K June 2nd.

42.  Things got a bit busy with the end of the school year, I didn't sign up.

43.  I want to make sure I can run 3.1 miles and smile at the finish.

44.  Since school got out I've ran 3.1 miles three times now.

45.  I found with the routine of running I look forward to it on my running days.

46.  Yesterday I had a small mole removed on my left leg, not to worry.

47.  The Dr. said no running for 72 hours and I am bummed.

48.  I can run on Saturday, the stitches come out in 2.5 weeks.

49.  I need to find a 5K, something small.

50.  I have been really inspired by my friend Franki.

Franki started a blog Reading Teachers Running and I have been following her fitness journey all year.  A recent post to start this summer was her list of 100 Things About Me as a Runner, where she also explains her thinking about creating such a list.  I appreciate her open and honest thinking about her journey.  She shares ups and downs.  She shared weekly what she could accomplish.  I found myself thinking, if Franki can do this so can I.  At one point we swapped a couple of running songs and as I shuffle through my mix, her songs come up and remind me, if Franki can do this so can I.  Many times people assume I am a runner based on my body type, whatever that is.  Running is hard.  For me, it's been an issue of thinking I can do it.  Running also requires mental fitness.  I've also had to make time and changes in my schedule to run and do bootcamp.  I've run 3 times a week to get this far.  I would like to have a good week of 3.1 running three times and end the week with my first 5K.  I'm no longer a closet runner, thank you for joining me on this journey.  

Play!

PLAY and summer go hand in hand.  I am so grateful they have both arrived.  I was so excited when my Hearthsong catalog came as I was finishing up the school year only to discover it was filled with thoughts about playing.  I instantly thought what a great post to be first when I return to blogging to embrace the season.

"Play keeps us fit physically and mentally."   -Stuart Brown, MD

"Play is training for the unexpected."   -Marc Bekoff

"Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning."  Fred Rogers

"Play is the free expression of what's in a child's soul."  Frederick Froebel

"Life must be lived as play."  Plato

"Play is our brain's favorite way of learning."  Diane Ackerman

"Almost all creativity involves purposeful play."  Abraham Maslow

"Simple play outside helps foster a love of the outdoors."  Jennifer Ward

"Play builds the kind of free and easy, try it out, do it yourself character that out future needs."  

                                                                     James L Hymes Jr.

I hope your summer is including some play and these quotes help you feel safe in playing. 

 

Just What I Needed

I received a small silver coin this past week from a kindergarten student.  The front is cute with ABC Teacher as the text with an apple.  The quote on the back was just what I needed to read in the hurried and harried rush  the end of the year brings.  I've found myself wishing I could stop time and bottle up where we are, as we finish our kindergarten year together.  Right now, it's all beautiful and my heart is happy from spending time with these 44 students and my heart is sad to let them go.

"A teacher is a gift from God, 

with the power to mold a child's character and mind, 

which is worth all the riches in the world." 

 LM

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can -
say goodbye to each group with smiles, hugs, and tears.
I can't wait to join many of you on summer vacation.

and then it's spring

and then it's spring by Julie Fogliano is charming.  It's a new picture book reminding us patience and anticipation are part of our seasonal journey from winter to spring.  A boy and his dog are outside and notice everything is brown, all around.  They plant seeds and wait for rain.  As they wait they notice things around them in the garden outside are still brown.  As I think all gardeners do, the boy and his dog worry about their seeds.  Waiting, watching, worry and weeks past by.  Sometimes the brown seems to be turning a greenish.  Planting pots are set outside.  A tire swing gets hung.  I bet you can predict the ending, it's a happy one.

The warm, muted illustrations are one to enjoy.  From what I can tell the illustrations are done in a colored pencil tool of sort.  They look like pencil lines carefully done using shading to show angles and shades within a color.  The facial expressions bring emotion and feeling to this story.  It's easy to connect with the characters and hope for the brown to go away.  I was easily anticipating what would happen and hoping spring would arrive to complete their plans.  I also love the monotone color hues and the use of non glossy paper.  

Our Global Community Series

I've decided if you muddle long enough, the mud settles guiding the confusion to settle for a bit and clarity to float to the surface.  After muddling this year with the Common Core and our new state curriculum for science and social studies, I decided I needed to purchase some books as I thought about content learning for next year.  This is day three for sharing some resources that are helping bring clarity to my muddling.

Today I want to share with you a collection of books I've found to use with social studies.  In Ohio, kinders have the topic of History and one subtopic is Heritage.  Exact bullets state - Heritage is reflected through the arts, customs, traditions, family celebrations and language.  I looked up the definition for each of the ways to reflect heritage and holidays is not part of each.  Holidays could fall under family celebrations but it's not the soul means to learn about heritage.  Also our focus is to be on heritage within our room, learning from our classroom community.  These titles will help our students think about a world bigger and different than their own.

Our Global Community is another series from Heinemann includes these titles; clothing, families, farming, games, homes, markets, music, and schools.  The photographed illustrations are rich and beautiful with visual images that are unknown to my classroom community.  What a great visual for seeing different cultures.  The books have a very similiar format.  The table of contents have these great titles Schools Around the World, Types of Clothing, Why People Play Music, Types of Games, What Families Do Together, Markets Around the World, and Types of Homes.  Each book ends with a picture glossary which will be very helpful in supporting our young readers.   The text is limited per page, short, and I believe accessible to young readers.  The homes book alone is quite fascinating.  For example, my students would rarely think of  "Houses made on stilts."  or people living in mud houses.  I can't to discuss heritage that stems from our classroom community and to have some new resources to help us think outside our community when our community looks the same.

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons

Today was filled with anticipation because I knew when I got home tonight one of my favorite book characters would be waiting for me on my front porch.  Yes, it was Pete the Cat!  This time Pete comes to us in the book, Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by the dynamic duo Eric Litwin and James Dean.  I had the pleasure of meeting this creative team this past February at the Dublin Literacy Conference.  They gave participants a sneak peak of this new book and I immediately pre-ordered it.

As you can guess, yes Pete the Cat is wearing a shirt with four big, colorful, round, groovy buttons.  (Right there is a great mentor text for describing one word as a writer.)  His shirt is yellow.  His buttons are on the larger size, I think that is what makes them groovy.  The buttons are turquoise, green, blue, and red which also compliment the yellow shirt against this blue cat.  Eric Litwin's color choices are vibrant, inviting, warm and cool.  I love turquoise against a lime green background.  

This book combines my love for books and my love for teaching mathematics.  When Pete loses his buttons he is counting backwards.  Students will need to understand numbers and the relationship between quantities.  Students could compare numbers.  Pete is subtracting by taking from and modeling subtraction through drawings.  The reader will also discover number sentences with mathematical symbols.  

With series books good readers have expectations and James Dean didn't let us down.  Pete has speech bubbles, Pete sings a song, Pete doesn't cry, Pete has a positive message again.  The message is, "Buttons come and buttons go."  I can't tell you the ending because it would take away from the whole book but let's just say it is funny!  Students are going to burst out laughing and you will too watching them truly enjoying a book.  The ending of the book and what Pete does actually brought hesitation from the publishers.  There were questions about fact or fiction characteristics of a cat.  There were questions about fur exposure - yes, on a cat?!  I'm so grateful James and Eric plugged along, preparing their song and art because as Pete says, "It's all good!"  

PS - Pete the Cat has a Christmas book coming later this year.

Materials Series

I've decided if you muddle long enough, the mud settles guiding the confusion to settle for a bit and clarity to float to the surface.  After muddling this year with the Common Core and our new state curriculum for science and social studies, I decided I needed to purchase some books as I thought about content learning for next year.  This is day two for sharing some resources that are helping bring clarity to my muddling.

In Ohio, kinders have the topic of Properties of Everyday Objects and Materials under the topic of Physical Science with the focus on the production of sound and on observing, exploring, describing ,and comparing the properties of objects and materials with which the student is familiar.  Exact bullets state - Objects and materials can be sorted and described by their properties and some objects and materials can be made to vibrate and produce sound.

Materials is another series from Heinemann includes these titles; glass, metal, plastic, soil, rock, rubber, water, and wood.  Each book follows a similiar format and reminds me of Weather Watchers I shared yesterday.  I love the photographs illustrating this series.  They are crisp, clean, and focused on the text for each page.  I think before students can describe properties they need to be able to define the property by asking the question found at the beginning of each book.  For example in the Materials Plastic text, "What is plastic?"  The text guides the reader to learn, "Plastic is made from oil.  Plastic is made by people.  Plastic can be strong.  Plastic can be light.  Plastic can be stiff.  Plastic can bend."  This book and the others in the series will promote student thinking with their provoking photographs.  For example, a hard hat is used to show plastic is strong and plastic shopping bags help the reader think about plastic being light.  I also think with the examples shared via photographs the students will be able to think more about their own discoveries and examples of plastic objects.  Other areas discussed in each book include What happens when plastic is heated?, Recycling plastic, How do we use plastic? and How do we use plastic?  Not only is this series  helping me plan and think about new science curriculum it will also help my students stretch and think in new ways.