August currently.... and a NEW feature (SIOP Saturdays!)

Thunderstorms are just starting here... I've got my bucket and towels in place (because no, bloggers, repair man has not returned to fix my ceiling yet) but so far so good and no leaks yet! (Knock on wood!)

Here's my August currently:

Also, bloggy friends, I want to introduce a new feature to my blog: SIOP Saturdays!

Background: I just completed a 3-day training in my school district about using the SIOP model for instruction.  I also took a class about it a few years ago as part of my path toward my bilingual and ESL endorsements.  I think it is such a fantastic method for teachers to use, not only for ELL students, but for ANY students!  So I decided that once a week, on Saturdays (because then my teaching week will be over, and also because SIOP and Saturday both start with S, so it makes sense!) I will highlight a feature of the SIOP model, and list a few examples of strategies that teachers can implement in their classrooms to address each feature!

Disclaimer: Let it be known, these are all MY opinions.  I am neither being told to, nor receiving any form of compensation for, explaining SIOP.  The book Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model is written by Jana Echevarria, MaryEllen Vogt, and Deborah J. Short, and copyright by Pearson Education, Inc.  Hopefully that's everything I need to include to make sure proper credit is presented where it is due. :)

Today's Feature: Overview of SIOP

I'm curious...how many teachers who are not Bilingual/ESL teachers already know what SIOP stands for, or use any of the features in their classrooms?  I know I had never heard of it before I began pursuing my bilingual/ESL endorsements.

SIOP stands for Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol.  What is it?  It is an empirically validated model of sheltered instruction.  (Those of you unfamiliar with sheltered instruction, that term means that the teacher adapts instruction in order to make the material more easily learned.  The same typical curricular standards are being addressed, but the manner of addressing them may vary based on student language skills).  In simple words, SIOP provides a framework for teachers to use in lesson planning and delivery in order to be more mindful about WHAT they are teaching and HOW the students will learn the material and practice language skills.

There are 30 specific features of the SIOP model, and these features are grouped into 8 main components:

Lesson Preparation

Building Background

Comprehensible Input

Strategies

Interaction
Practice/Application

Lesson Delivery

Review/Assessment

My goal for this series is to address one of these components each Saturday, highlight the features that are specific to each component, and show some examples of strategies (when applicable) that can be integrated into classroom instruction to promote student engagement and student success.  I hope you will join me through this series!  Next week I'll start with Lesson Preparation! :)

(Also, through the typing of this post, the rain came and went, and brought old leaks and new.  Ceiling leaked again (but this time just through the hole he made, so I guess that was a good call on his part!) and also the frame above my patio door.  Sad face again.)

It's 4 a.m. Do you know where your ceiling is leaking?

That's right, bloggers... We had some thunderstorms that passed through about an hour ago (and I DO NOT like thunderstorms) that woke me up, and I kept hearing something that at first sounded like hail outside (which is quite possible).

So I got up and went to look out my living room deck doors...and felt something drip on my neck... and then saw that yes indeed, there was water dripping from my ceiling.  Went into panic mode, grabbed towels and my trusty bucket, and put it under the hole.

**SIDE NOTE** I'm no stranger to water mysteriously leaking into my living room.  At my previous apartment, any time that it rained, or snow melted, my AC unit would drip...no, often cascade... water into my living room.  FINALLY convinced that management to fix it one chilly February morning - which involved removing the whole AC unit, chipping away some of the brick from the building (because it had been installed with the incline draining INTO my apartment rather than down and AWAY from it) and then didn't have any more problems with it.

But anyway, back to my current leak.  Walked away from it for a moment, turned on some lights, and looked again...and noticed that a steady stream of drips was proceeding from a little hole.

This confused me, because the hole was not right next to the outside wall, it was a little further in...and I do not live on the top floor of my apartment building.  There is someone else's unit right above me.  How on earth could it possibly be dripping from where it was?

Went into panic mode x2, texted my mother, who actually called me right back (must have woken her up with my text, sorry mom...), eventually called the emergency line for my apartment complex, got told by an operator that they would contact the repair man, went back to look at the hole...

...and realized that that little hole was the least of my worries.  At least a foot by a foot patch of my ceiling was looking a little, well, bubbled out.  Touched it (where did that bravery come from?!) and it was soft...

Cue panic mode x3.  Waited in a nervous frenzy, repair man finally arrived (but no advance phone call, so that was a fun wait), strolled over to the ceiling, took some little tool and poked my ceiling, and caused a steadier stream to start flowing into a bigger bucket that he brought.

It actually JUST stopped it's steady flow, and he left like 10 minutes ago.  Blahhhhh.

So anyway, he will be back a little later, and I'm here, awake, babysitting the bucket, making sure Libby kitty doesn't get into mischief, and because I'm afraid to go back to sleep for fear of discovering more trouble.  So I leave you with this beautiful picture:

All moved in, and my first DIY

After a crazy weekend of moving to my new apartment, I'm pretty much settled in now!  The weather was interesting, but I'm so glad it cooperated with the move!  This is what the sky looked like on Friday:

Needless to say, I packed my car up pretty quickly!  Thank goodness the rain only lasted the duration of the drive, and stopped by the time we were unloading!  And then Saturday was clear, but the crazy storms on Friday night definitely did some damage around my new apartment building - huge branches down all around, and even tore off a section of the roof of the building next to mine!  Yikes!  

So here I sit, in my new home.  Libby kitty is alternately running around and hiding, trying to figure what on earth is going on.  But she'll get used to it soon enough!

ANYWAY, time to show you my first DIY project!  I had some help with my grandma for this one. :)

For my classroom this fall, I want to try to stay closer to a theme that only uses a few colors.  I have a small cart with three plastic drawers of various colors that I like based on its functionality, but was not excited that each drawer was a different color: 

I know the lighting quality is poor in this picture (it was taken outside at dusk) but one drawer is pink, one is blue, and one is purple.  I decided that I wanted all of them to be the same color, and wanted them to be black.  So I went to the hardware store in search of this spray paint that I'd heard of specifically for plastic, and picked up a bottle, color black.  And here is the finished result, after it has dried and the drawers are back in the cart: 

So much better!! :)  And even had enough spray paint left to do two small flower pots and a candy dish (or whatever it is - both were violent shades of orange, of which I was not a fan!)

So hooray for spray paint made specifically for plastic! You are a hero in my eyes. :)  And hooray for being all moved in!  Now hopefully I can start posting some of the teacher-y projects that I'm working on this summer!