Sunday, September 14, 2008

Catch Up

I did it again....I let so many days go by without posting! I promise it's not from lack of things to write about. It's the time thing!

The second week of school was pretty good. My students continue to be mostly well behaved every day, which I LOVE. I'm really feeling the time crunch with things that bog down the beginning of the school year.....lesson plans, extra meetings, new routines, adjusting to less sleep...the list goes on.

One of my BFFs joined our gym and has inspired me to take some classes. Kenny & I have been members for almost 5 years and I've always been too intimidated to take the classes. I always thought "what if I can't make it the 60 minutes?" She told me I was ridiculus and we took our first class together last week called STRIKE. It's like taebo, only better, and you use weighted gloves and a big stick and it's awesome! And the best part was the 60 minutes FLEW by and it was high impact so I was feeling it the whole time, more so than when I just jog. We liked that instructor even though she was slightly crazy, so we took another class that she taught, cardio ballet. You can stop laughing now....we really took it. It was awful, but a good workout, but never again! So this past week we went to STRIKE again, and when we got there, there was a different instructor who said there was a change in schedule and that it was cardio kickboxing, not STRIKE, that the only difference was that there were no gloves or bars needed. So we thought, no biggie, we'll take it anyway! IT KICKED OUR ASSES. This guy (the instructor) was military style, and he was mean. If you even looked at the door with thoughts of bailing, it's like he sensed it and moved over to where you were. It was so hard, the hardest, most intensive workout I've had since high school softball. To make things worse for me, my BFF got paged about halfway through the hour because her son was crying in daycare and wouldn't stop, so she got to leave early and go downstairs and get him. I SO BADLY wanted to leave with her, but the instructor would have kicked my butt, so I toughed it out and kept going, all the while knowing I wasn't going to be walking the next day. I think I kissed the ground when it was over and done with. That was Thursday, and we both wanted to take another class on Saturday, so we opted to take WATER aerobics, which is still cardio, but a low impact version. Which was about all we could handle because of how sore we were from Thursday. The instructor for the water class was awesome, and he teaches his own cardio kickboxing class, which, after having survived it on Thursday, I have to say that I'm proud of myself and we decided we will take it again on Tuesday with the good instructor. He promised to not be so hard on us. We'll see:)

A word of caution to ladies who carry purses....

The same BFF that I suffer through aerobic classes with was grocery shopping yesterday. She opened the egg cooler to grab a dozen eggs, saw that one was cracked, and grabbed another dozen, turned around and set it in her cart and her purse was gone. It was taken in the time it took her to pick up two egg cartons. So be VERY CAREFUL when you put your purses in shopping carts. I'm guilty of it too, so just be careful! It only takes seconds!

Now I have a question to all the mommas out there. As a teacher, I am required to assign my students nightly homework. I send home the homework packet every Monday along with a reading log, and it's due on Friday. The packet includes one page of spelling word activities, and three pages of math practice. It's never work that is new that week, it's always a review of the week before's lessons. Do you think that's too much? Do you think first and second graders should or should not have 20-30 minutes of homework and reading a night? Leave a comment, even if you aren't a parent, leave a comment. I really want some opinions!!

Now that school is in full swing, we have full length lesson plans due. So I will be spending the next three hours working on them!

5 comments:

Krystyn @ Really, Are You Serious? said...

I'm glad you stuck the class out. I bet you feel better for it!

Scary about the purse snatching! I always leave mine on my shoulder.

And, that totally isn't too much homework. I asked my kids to read 10 pages this weekend, and I bet they don't do it!

Lori said...

First of all, thanks for the laugh, I needed it!

And, that is NOT too much homework. The added bonus is that you give them all week to work on it. If they have something to do one night, they can take that night off and buckle down the next.

Tasha said...

exercise, yuck!
Hannah had a homework packet last year with 1 page a day...She would get it on Monday and it would be due the next Monday...She she could do 1 page a day or work on it over the weekend. I don't think its too much at all. This year she only has homework if she doesn;t get it finished in class. I almost wish she would have homework so I see what she is doing in school. I think its a good thing to have like 1 page, something small everyday...

Anonymous said...

LOL I so wish I could be in that class with you. Not only do I need the exercise, but the laughs would be good for me too!!

The same purse thing happened with my aunt in a Target store recently. Turned her back and it was gone!

Homework?? 20-30 minutes is not bad, but sometimes it's good to have a night off with no homework. Especially if the kids are involved in after-school activities (like dance! heehee)
I realize my daughter is quite a few years old than your students, but 20-30 minutes of homework would be a welcome change around this house! She usually has an hour or two at least. I think it helps with you being the kids only teacher. You know what you give is what they'll have. Sometimes the seven different teacher assignmnets my daughter has whips her butt!

SgtMarkins said...

I think that YOUR the teacher and you know your students best. I don't think that is too much. However, I know that my son (now h.schooling 6th gr) would often get ticked, yell, cry and scream, about completing 'weekly packets' because he was bored with the information and found it redundant...

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