Farm Fun

One of my friends from work met me at a local dairy / restaurant / working farm. David was pretty afraid of the goats in the petting zoo for a while, but warmed up to them fairly quickly. By the end of the time there, he was patting each goat on the head and saying, "Hi, goat!" to each and every one. I was cracking up!

He also saw cows (who go "boo" in his world), a pig (who snorts like David), a turkey (which had his feathers literally ruffled, so David and I both kept our distance), some ducks, a few chickens... it was a big day. He also played on some tractors on display and touched a REAL semi truck. (We asked permission from the driver first, of course.) That was pretty important to him. I am amazed at how quickly he gets over his fears. We should all be so brave.

I love this kid so much. He is helping me learn about the world in a whole new way. In that respect, he is my little teacher and superhero.

Schoolwork

Man, it's summer, and I'm STILL up to my ears in paperwork. Seems a bit odd. I'm currently taking a break from writing another research paper. I had forgotten how monotonous that routine can be. Realistically, I'd rather be grading student papers. Speaking of which, I think these courses are really going to help me be a better teacher. I've already made many "notes to self" about comments and assignments. Minimal commenting can be frustrating from a student's point of view.

My current paper is integrating differentiation into a lesson plan. Kind of ironic because when I wrote the paper originally during the second week of the course, I had already integrated differentiation. Originally I differentiated for student readiness (kind of like student ability), but I think I'll add in some differentiation according to student interest. That's an area I'd like to focus on in the upcoming school year when I plan lessons.

Ok... back to the grindstone! Thanks for checking in!

Shhh...

The little guy is sleeping. The big guy is getting ready to head over to the county fair. If the big guy wakes up the little guy from his nap... ugh. I'll have a very grumpy little 21-month-old on my hands. I'll relive the past two days all over again.

I would really prefer that the nap continues for a little while longer, especially since I have a paper to write for my graduate class. So... shh...