My Feeble Attempts

I am attempting to teach the alphabet to a group of learning disabled first graders.  The key word is attempting.  After a rough first few weeks of just trying to get them to memorize the letter symbols and their accompanying sounds with little to no luck,  I decided to try something I had read about in my research of Waldorf Education.  I am very intrigued with Waldorf Education and I really like the philosophies.  This is a great website with a lot of information.

Anyway, back to what I've been working on.  I decided that just a mark on a piece of paper to mean a letter is not getting through to these kids.  They needed to see the shape of the letter in a picture with an accompanying story with the sounds the letters make to go with it to keep their attention and to somehow make the letters mean more to them than just a few scribbles on a page.  I also decided to teach the lowercase first because lowercase letters are more often seen than uppercase.  I have attempted to draw and color, with pastels, four pictures with four dinky little stories and so far the kids that I've been working with have enjoyed the pictures and have been asking to hear the new stories and to hear ones I've told before again. The stories are lame and the pictures are extremely simple but I'm pretty happy about the kid's progress so far. They are beginning to  remember the letter names and sounds when I test them.  The true test will be when I finish all of the pictures and stories and test all of the alphabet together. 

Pardon the picture quality.  I forgot to bring my camera to take photos of them at work so I had to make due with my phone's camera. 

Ann the Angel

Bob the Butterfly

Cedric the Cat

and Don the Deer

I have tried to incorporate multiple letter sounds into the names of the drawings just for that little extra emphasis.  So I will be working on the letter e tonight.  I'm thinking about doing an elephant somehow.  I don't know.  If anyone has ANY ideas for letter pictures please let me know! I'm running low in the idea department, at least with some of the tougher letters. 

Sponge/Seafoam Candy

I love seafoam candy.  It is crunchy and reminds me of honey. It is covered in chocolate.  There isn't much more you can ask of a candy.    I first tried a type of this candy in fifth grade when my friend brought home Crunchy bars from Canada.  They are my favorite candy bars but are really hard to find.  I later found sponge candy at Maceys grocery store in their bulk candy section.  It tastes wonderful and is always available but the problem with that is it costs $12.99 a pound. Talk about ridiculous.  I found this recipe a while ago and it tastes exactly like the Macey's candy and it is so easy to make.  This recipe is made from ingredients that I already have on hand. 

Sponge Candy

Vegetable oil for greasing pan
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
6 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla

 Liberally grease a  round 10 inch spring form cake pan.  Line with parchment paper allowing 2 inches to stand above the top of the pan.  Grease again.  In a deep sauce pan add sugar, corn syrup, water, and vanilla. Over medium-high heat bring the mixture to a boil (without stirring) and cook until hard crack stage until temperature reads 300 degrees F. on a candy thermometer. This should take about 10 minutes.  Remove from heat. Quickly add the baking soda and blend into the sugar mixture. The mixture will bubble up when you add the baking soda. Be very careful not to touch the hot mixture!! I touched it on accident once and I had a blister for 2 weeks. SO BE CAREFUL.  Immediately after the baking soda is mixed into the sugar pour into the prepared pan.  Let this set and cool completely before removing is from the pan.  Cut up into pieces and dip in melted chocolate if desired, which of course you would desire.  Store in an airtight container.

This recipe makes a lot but do not try to cut the recipe in half, the sugar heats too quickly and burns.  I have learned this from experience. 

I hope you enjoy this candy as much as I do!

Yarn along and Reading

Today I am joining in with a blog that I follow for her weekly yarn along.  Small Things is wonderful and inspiring and I love to read her posts.  I've been wanting to join in with her yarn along and now that I have taken a picture of what I'm up to there is nothing to stop me anymore! 
 
From her blog:
"Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs.  I love to see what other people are knitting and reading as well.  So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr."

 

I'm currently knitting a shawl that was inspired by the new Jane Eyre movie.  If you haven't seen that movie I would highly recommend it.  I loved it!  The pattern is free here.

I am reading Preserve It! and Cooking From the Farmers' Market.  Eric and I are planning to buy a house soon and next year we plan to have a garden so I need to know what to do with all the fruits and vegetables that we grow.  We are excited for that next step in our lives. 

Attitude

I was doing so well with blogging through August; getting back into the hang of doing it more often but the last nearly 3 weeks I've just not had the time nor the inspiration to write.  School has been tiring and full of changes. 

For the last 5 school years I worked with a wonderful teacher with learning disabled students.  We taught 1st-3rd grades for two years, one year of 1st-6th, and then two years of 4th-6th.  We work wonderfully as a team and counted on working together for this upcoming year.  Much to our dismay the principal told us that I would be working with the new 1st-3rd grade teacher instead.  To say I was upset is an understatement. I was very angry and sad and confused.  We had worked so well with each other for 5 years and made a great team.  Why should the team be split up?  It made no sense.  I had also been working with some of the kids in my class for all of those 5 years and to not be with them as they went through sixth grade was heartbreaking. 

When school started and I began working with the new teacher and the new students I hated it.  I fought back tears many times through the first day when I thought of my other class and students that I missed so much.  I was planning to quit after a few weeks.  I was so unhappy and I didn't know what to do make myself happy again.  I really had loved my job and it seemed so unjust that it was snatched out from under me.  During the second week of school I had the sudden thought that I needed to stay there, not quit, and change my attitude.  For the rest of that week I tried really hard to be happier with my job and the new children that I have the opportunity to teach. 

I allowed myself to fall in love with the 20 kids in my class and become friends with the teacher I now work with.  I have had a much better time since my change in attitude and I'm glad that I decided to follow the prompting to stop being selfish.  I still miss my old class and the teacher that I worked with for so long but I get to say hi to them and chat with them during recess and other times during the day.