APPLES, APPLES AND MORE APPLES

Decided to post in red today in honor of red apples. Though as we found out in our lesson today, apples can also come in yellow or green. So, why all the talk about apples? For the last several years during the second week of school, Catherine takes the students one at a time into the other room and does an assessment test of them. This helps us place them in reading groups and she gets to see "where they're at". They can be reading anywhere from really well to not at all. She also gives them a couple of simple words to spell and just talks to them (like what's your favorite game, TV show, movie, etc). While she is doing this I get to teach the class! That is where apples comes in.

We get a children's newpaper kind of like Weekly Reader called Scholastic News. Usually one of the first papers is all about apples. So I wear a T-shirt with apples on it and lots of apple pins including my Disney Store Johnny Appleseed pin. We go over the paper and this year I brought in four different apples, Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious and Gala. I then cut one in half to show them the inside and we also had a paper they could work on with a diagram of the inside of an apple. Tomorrow we will do a cut and paste (and color) of how an apple grows. On Thursday we will do the September calendar and I will read them the story of Johnny Appleseed. Because she is taking her time with the assessments we have to come up with something for me to do with them on Friday. I am thinking I would like to try and find a parent who has the Disney Johnny Appleseed DVD and I can show that to the class.

Basically the class is good. There are a couple of boys who push the boundaries (the same two I mentioned in the other post). Catherine, the teacher, had a conference with G's parents yesterday afternoon. They are concerned and willing to do what it takes to find out what is wrong. The other boy, S, is doing good in a structured setting with consequences for his behavior ... that is all he really needed.

Tomorrow Paul and I are going to take advantage of a senior offer at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific. Seniors (50+) will get into the aquarium for free from 9 to 2. We can stay as long as we want, the price just ends at 2. So I will try and get home as soon as possible from work and we will park the car at the Blue Line Del Amo Station and take the Blue Line Metro Rail into Long Beach and walk over. Paul has never been, but Jennifer and I met Bruce there once a couple of years ago. Bruce can't go as he is working a couple of times a week at a comic book store in the valley. He is now officially retired as of September 1.

I will plan to take my camera and get pictures and post about it here.

I think I'll go eat an apple now.