Weekend Coffee Share 3-16-19
Top of the morning, Everyone. Grab your coffee. It’s been a whirlwind week!
It’s been a week of celebrating green and Irish traditions. The song, McNamara’s Band, loops in my head. I can’t help but smile when thinking back on my Kindergarten students’ version of an Irish jig. Stories of leprechauns and other folklore, crafting leprechaun hats in art, and filling in the shamrock number bonds kept the theme alive for almost two weeks. It’s a wonder that report cards, IEP updates, and assessments were completed on time.
Yesterday it all culminated with the K-Kids performing their song and dance for the whole school. The older students clapped along remembering their turn as K-kids and McNamara’s Band.
But the excitement did not end there. Lucky the Leprechaun came to the Kindergarten classroom and did his usual mischief. He locked the door so that our usually taciturn custodian had to be called to unstuck the door. He pulled out a note from Lucky. Lucky thanked the K-kids for letting him play in their classroom. He so wished he could go to school and learn to spell and do math like the K-kids. For their kindness, he left a “pot o’ gold” for the children to find.
The door was open to chairs on tables, foam letters on the floor, and misplaced books and crayons. Shamrocks were painted on the tables and “Hi!” was painted on the bathroom mirror. In Lucky’s haste, drops of green paint fell into the toilet. It was quite exciting seeing green water in the toilet. There were little footprints smudged on the window ledge. The K-kids decided that Lucky escaped through the slightly opened window. The “pot o’ gold” was finally found under a chair.
What an exciting morning! My lead teacher has been doing this magical day forever. It is part of the RSE traditions. My youngest daughter, now 30, has fond memories of this important year with Mrs. J.
In other news I received a glowing review of Hug Everyone You Know from Donna Connolly She was a winner in the Hugfest Challenge in January and received a copy of my book. Her blog, Retirement Reflections, is so inspiring and worth a visit.
My class, Journaling the Journey, was canceled due to lack of enrollment. It’s really OK. The warming weather inspires a list of upcoming yard, and boat chores and the Blogging A-Z Challenge will soon need focused attention. I will need to rethink my ambitions of teaching adults face to face. Anyone have thoughts and/or suggestions on teaching online?
This weekend my sister and brother-in-law are visiting. I am hosting dinner on Saturday with my siblings and cousins. It will be an Irish fare with corned beef and cabbage, shepherd’s pie and an apple crisp. My other sisters are filling in appetizer and libation gaps. I’m anticipating a lot of laughs and great stories.
As always, BIG THANK YOUs go out to, Eclectic Alli for managing Weekend Coffee Share.
Have a good week, Everyone. Make it great.
Antoinette Truglio Martin is the author of Hug Everyone You Know: A Year of Community, Courage, and Cancer. The memoir is a wimpy patient’s journey through her first year of breast cancer treatment.
Stories Served 
My youngest came home from kindergarten so excited about the adventure of the leprechaun in their classroom. He was very animated and long winded on the topic, haha, it was so great to hear.
You Saturday dinner sounds fabulous with so many tasty eats. Hope it is the best time! Have a great weekend.
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Hi, Antoinette – Thank you so much for the shout-out. ‘Hug Everyone You Know’ is such a moving and inspirational book. It is also incredibly well-written. It is my pleasure to recommend it wholeheartedly. I have already lent my copy to a neighbor.
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Hi Antoinette. That visit from Lucky sounds like a great tradition and lots of fun. I have done some remote teaching with adults. I liked it, but it really depends on the tools you use. I have only good things to say about Cisco WebEx while using using 2 screens. Once setup , everyone clicks on one link that gets them to your presentation, They then either have the system call them or they dial in for audio. Then you can do your lesson, discuss, Q&A, use a chat box for queuing questions, make someone else the presenter if they need to show their work. It’s really just a web conferencing system but we use it for internal classes all the time.
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Thanks a bunch, Gary. I have been in tech in services online training. I’m not sure I have the tech savy-ness to teach one. I’ll have to look up a few online courses.
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Awe, it sounds like our students were in for a fine treat. What a wonderful tradition. One that they will remember growing up. Thank you for the delicious coffee!
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