Finally tried one of the "things"--#4.  I wanted to do this one because I love making lists of things to do and then they disappear.  However, I set one up with "Ta-da" that will appear on my desk top automatically.  The author said to put it out so it's in your face everyday, so I did.  I also think an online calendar which students can access when they've been absent physically (or mentally) to find out what assignments they've missed also seems like a good idea.  Another good idea from the calendar page is sharing one with other teachers so that we can see who's assigned what and when and when it's due.  One of the places I went to in checking out this "thing" was the 4teachers.org site.  I want to take my students to the "NoteStar" site and the "Web Poster Wizard".  So this wasn't as scary or frustrating as I thought it would be.

Light in the Middle (beginning really) of the tunnel?

Here it is the second month of MILI (read Ides of March) and this is my first blog.  So many times I've wanted to just give up and drop out and then I see one of my sixth graders struggling with things that are so difficult for him/her and take heart from the student and go back to trying to learn this stuff (hum some uplifting song to yourself here).  I read some posts from people who are now in their second year in which they wrote how frustrated they were last year and now they're humming along.

The one thing I attempted was to set up a blog for my team so we could communicate about students we're trying to worksheets 1 and 2 on without having to have face-to-face meetings. . . .  It didn't work.  I'll try something else.