Opossum and the Mississippi

At recess, my students found a clue to the mystery smell. The kids saw a large opossum exiting the vent outside of my room. A large group gathered and one of my kids even picked up the opossum by its tail. The student hunts and is around animals all the time so it did not scare him. Luckily, another teacher saw him do this, he put it down, and it did not harm him. After lunch, there was then a campus-wide announcement that a opossum was loose on the grounds and we were not to touch or go near it. We haven't seen the opossum recently and the smell is not as strong as it used to be in the room.

While it has not rained much down here, we are seeing the effects of the rain from the north with the Mississippi's waters rising. The level of the water is hitting some pretty high levels, but most residents are staying pretty calm.

I'm starting to look forward to next year and part of that process is finding more resources for the classroom. I'm looking into writing grants for some pretty cool yet costly items, namely FOSS science kits and a document camera/lcd projector. The kits would allow me to do inquiry based science on a regular basis with a curriculum backed up by solid research and endorsements. I would then be able to leave the kits for the next teacher who would only have to get replacement parts for the exhaustible materials. The technology items would just make class easier. The document camera allows any object to be displayed on the wall rather than needing it to be in the form of a transparency. Book pages, photographs, and experiments could be easily seen by all in the class from anywhere in the room. The projector would allow me to not only display websites, movies, and DVDs but to also use the school's SmartBoard. I've found many grants so far and my goal is to work from a basic outline that I will tailor to each one. As a result, I can maximize my chances through applying for many at a time.

Our state tests are coming up and the school is in preparation for them. It's not too crazy as our principal and consultant see us as on track to stay out of school improvement. We'll know the results later this summer. There isn't too much else to report; the year is going by quickly.