My hard drive is full.

Lynn and I used this metaphor way back when hard drives held way less than 40 mg - we were begging money so that we COULD buy a 40 mg hard drive so that we could have the kids keep electronic portfolios. Well, now hard drives are way up in the gigs (nanos even?), and the analogy is still valid: my hard drive is full.
My mind is in constant overdrive. Sleep is elusive. Maybe 4 hours at a time. School, home, family. The trilogy.
I've banged away at the NBPTS renewal all summer. I am constantly revising - that's my MO for just about everything. I use ALL the time allotted to do and re-do whatever it is. It's not procrastination - I have typed all 4 PGEs, but I just keep revising and revising and revising.
Guilt - I'm not sure that's the right emotion, but it feels as if that's what it is. I feel guilty that I don't do more to help Daddy. There are SO many things I could do. However, I walk a fine line between helping and imposing. He despises having anyone do anything FOR him, and he certainly won't ask unless he is absolutely unable to accomplish the task. I need to let this go and just enjoy listening to the stories.
Enough of this. Biggie needs meds and Willy is waiting for love and food.
After that, it's time for coffee - one cup of full-strength. More than that wires me up. I'm out of decaf.

Teaching things, ideas

I want to start the year with Whole Brain Teaching. The kids this year enjoyed the little bit that we did. As usual, the problems that I had with it resulted from my lack of preparation (lack of time to prepare). Color, Consistency, and Common Language - the 3 Cs of learning - are critical to success.
I need to print the directions for getting started and read them over and over. I need a game plan - literally. I especially want to use the Power Writing and the Power Vocab (I'll just adapt Power Spelling). I want to use the Power-Student-Olympics to help slow and ESL readers. The Power 100 and the Power 1000 will, I think, make a tremendous difference in their confidence and reading ability.
I want to set up the group work atmosphere right away with the tower building exercise.
Then we'll discuss the synergy that develops in groups.
We'll need to get this all set up in time to set and surpass goals at Camp Harrison.
1. Print directions
2. Print game rules
3. Print individual stars sheets for each kid on card stock
4. Print Power 100 and Power 1000 sight word lists

I'll begin with the Power 100. It's an easy list, but will allow students to set goals and reach them. Then, we'll move to Power Stems. I guess the rules will be similar to spelling - I'll need to check that out now.

Summer school has begun. It's a real mixed bag of kids and approaches for teaching them something during these 10 days. Amazingly, they are getting as much instructional time as they get during the regular school day (three 80-minute blocks), but we only have them for 1/2 day. I will finish this later. It's 1145, my bedtime.