Well I am off in a few hour to rock it out and sing karaoke. I HAD a date lined up tonight (before late night karaoke) but as expected she postponed and as going out with another guy.

Yes the excuse was her daughter got sick and then I was told a few hours ago that she is taking her to the doctors so don't call her till she gets back.

I admit I was a bit of an ass when she was trying to reschedule but I am not going to be wimpy and say let's meet tomorrow or during the week. I also plan to send her a pic of karaoke via phone email with another woman very close to me. Yes I detest such games but sadly such is life.

Other than that looks like I am stuck here in Japan longer than I wanted as no decent jobs are opening up. Though I said barring something great occurring here I am leaving when the visa expires.

My date on Sunday well the one that also canceled last weekend has yet to get back to me so I figure as usual...

Eek! I'm so nervous! I was asked to speak at a local university's induction for a Literacy Honors Society. Me? Speak? Squeak, maybe. I write. But of course I said yes, because saying no would have just brought regrets. Because I'm not good with speaking off the top of my head, I had to write the whole thing out and then go back and outline it so that I wouldn't be looking down at my paper the whole time.

I thought I'd run it by my PT friends first. You're lucky- you get the long hand version, free of ums and flailing hand movements. But it also won't have the two videos that I'm going to show the audience. You'll have to make a mental image.

A couple years ago, I had four boys in my first and second grade classroom who were overly passionate about all things Titanic. They formed a Titanic club and their meetings consisted of them pouring over all my Titanic books. When they ran out of mine, they got all the ones they hadn’t read yet...

Sharing ideas has become a major focus here on ProTeacher. It seems that one idea that I have shared has become a favorite for asking more information.

As I begin a new year in teaching I will begin by sharing this idea with directions.

I use book baskets for my kids' to house their self selected books for reading independently and to a partner within the Reading Workshop idea of teaching reading. I have gained so many thoughts from you. I also am anal when it comes to organization within the classroom. I guess part of the reason is that there is NO closet for materials. Everything that is in the classroom is visible. Because of that--every nook and cranny (is that a Southern phrase?) is utilized. When it came to storage of the kids' baskets I have had those all over the room. A couple of years ago I began using an empty desk in the center of groups of desks. I tried lowering the empty one and using it to hold the baskets in order to not interfere with vision...