Our Stories

It's about time!

Mrs. James's class has begun a unit on time. Here's a good starting point for finding some interactive online lessons and games to supplement your teaching.

An alarming discovery brings

some sad news.

Gobble gobble redux (um, make that Quack quack!)

Plan ahead. Be prepared. I was.

Mrs. James was out Tuesday with the stomach flu. (She'd been sick all day Monday and advised me she would stay home on Tuesday.)

Knowing the sub situation, I figured on running the class by my lonesome. So when I got to school Tuesday I rustled up Scholastic's history of Thanksgiving. Teachers, just so you know, BOOKMARK THIS SITE FOR NEXT YEAR. Using the InFocus projector, the class and I went back in time and witnessed the pilgrim's 65-day ocean voyage to the new land. (I had to chuckle when I asked the class what a chamber pot was. Julian volunteered, "Something you drink out of?") Once we made it to America, history unfolded before our eyes.

This site is a must! You have the option of having the text read to you, or you can have the class take turns reading. There's a timeline, loads of pictures... oy! Just so much goodness here. Sites like this one is (are?) what makes the internet a super valuable teaching tool. So take advantage already.

Author visits Conlee

Conlee students shared an hour with author Cristina Ortega last Friday.

"Cristina Ortega is the granddaughter of Juan Melquiades Ortega, a master weaver of northern New Mexico's Chimayó Valley. Chimayó's roots are in early Spanish Colonial times and has long been famous for its unique weavings.  Juan M. Ortega was taught to weave by his father in the early days when weavers sheared their own sheep and spun and dyed the wool for their blankets. El Tejedor (The Weaver) continued weaving until he was one hundred years old, when his eyesight failed him. In The Eyes of the Weaver, Cristina shares her memories of visits when she was ten years old with Grandpa in the village of Chimayó, where he taught her how to weave. She also recalls how Grandma helped her husband choose color combinations for his Chimayó blankets. It was during these visits that Cristina learned how important it is for a child to listen to and learn from his or her relatives. Some of Juan M. Ortega's weavings and tools of the trade have been included in the exhibit, "American Encounters," at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. Reading level: 10 years and up"

Nolly Flip Underflip

So I'm checking out of Sam's Club Saturday with T.H.U.G. for Xbox and the cashier, a young guy, asks me if I play videogames. I guess he figured that this old dude must be buying a Tony Hawk skateboarding game for his grandson or something. So I said, "Yeah, I play a lot of videogames."

Couple years back I'd watched, and was intrigued by, Dogtown and Z-Boys. I mean, how did those kids physically do that? Later I'd been to Deming to do a photo shoot of Melanie Zipin. We talked some, and I learned that the song "Tiny Reflections" from her CD, Shades of Blue, is about the generational gap between herself and her son, Rafael. In the first verse, Melanie sings...

I'm walkin' thru the hardened mud
and the trash
discarded products and broken glass
tiny reflections of a misguided path

rebels on skateboards with their
music cranked up
preach death and destruction 'cause
hypocrisy sucks...

This is my only skateboarding game (well, not counting the incredibly cool Jet Set Radio Future). On a hunch I drove to COAS Books Sunday and, sure enough, scored the T.H.U.G official strategy guide for three bucks. Now I'm grokking skateboarding terms like Ollie and Nollie and Fake Ollie and Beanplant and Wallpush and FS Nosepick and Axle Stall and Blunt to Fakie.

Before I bought an Xbox in 2001, I played computer games on my Macintosh. Before that I played the arcades (Oh Tempest, how do I love thee? All those quarters!). Before that I played the pinballs in the local bowling alley. And before that I played cowboys and indians.

Games are an important component of any kid's life. So why shunt them aside as we grow older? I figure every new game is a chance to form new neural pathways in my gray matter. And that, my friend, is a good thing.

Kudos to Alan Kuncel and his choir!

Mr. Alan Kuncel's Conlee School Choir performed their Thanksgiving concert today to appreciative students, teachers, and parents.

I've been listening to school choirs for over 20 years now, and this is the first time I've had the pleasure of hearing well-chosen material performed with grace, beauty, and style. This is also the first time I can ever recall students at this age level (2nd - 4th grades) performing every song on key. Every note sung was in the proper register, the proper pitch, the proper volume. What I really mean to say is that, THEIR SINGING WAS BEAUTIFUL!

Kudos to Mr. Kuncel and his boys and girls for a most remarkable musical achievement. (And to our student, Julian Gutierrez, for choosing to be part of a great program!)

Story and photo here.

Soul food

Here's the second of three holiday themed poems I wrote at least 20 years ago. (The first poem is here.) Looking at this poem now, I don't see any connection at all with the Thanksgiving holiday. Well, except for all that food.

Hungry

Food! Food! Bring it quick!
Feed me soon or I'll be sick.
Fry me taters, slice me rye.
Look lively mate; I'm about to die.
Bring me corned beef. Now set it there.
Where's the mustard? Where's my chair?
I'm so hungry I could bite a bear!
Gobble gobble... burrrp! Ahhhh, there.
Who? What? You're going where?
I don't think you're being fair.
What's eating you? Why this rebuff?
Of course I love you. Quite enough.
Your hands like hams, your arms like steaks,
spun candy hair, your feet like cakes.
What have I done? What can I do?
What do you mean 'I'm starving you.'?
I don't see how. We eat for nine.
Why, just last night - my, how we dined!
Wy do your lips allow a sigh?
Well, before you leave, is there any pie?

I later rewrote the poem in prose. It's reprinted below.

For Teachers

Las Cruces teacher Toni Gross, head of the speech and language program at Alameda Elementary, has a great website I want you to see. Goes to show what teachers can do when they embrace current technology.

Count me as very impressed, Toni (from her website) -

November 7, 2006:  Best Buy will be delivering our awesome te@ch award of $15,000 worth of technology tools next week!  Alameda will see a renewal in its technology resources in the form of digital projectors, laptops, digital cameras and more!  Go Panthers!

Toni this week told me of a promising site called Puppetools. I'm going to ask Mrs. James to take a look. Perhaps we might be able to integrate puppets into our curriculum.

Ridin' and Ropin'

The 2006 Dodge Turquoise ProRodeo Circuit Finals Rodeo is this month in Las Cruces. A rodeo spokesperson presented a 40-minute introduction to the rodeo at today's assembly.

If you want to learn more about rodeos, visit this site!

Beethoven bye-bye!

Next week our class will finish our all-too-brief look at Beethoven and his glorious Fifth Symphony.

Resources we've been using include the excellent Classics for Kids, the compelling book Beethoven Lives Upstairs (it's in our school library), and, of course, a recording of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

Yesterday I was looking for some musical info and ran across a terrific classical music site for kids, teachers and parents - DSO Kids (DSO=Dallas Symphony Orchestra). Lots to see, do, and learn.