So we just finished our Thanksgiving Break and basically have 4 weeks til our Holiday Break in December.  This is the time of the year that when busy becomes crazy for everyone!

Fourth and fifth graders are working on their Wish project.  Fourth graders are using Google Docs to create a list of things they wished they had.  Each student is given $1000 in virtual money, and they have to shop online for these items.  They have to include the Item Name, the Price, a Photo and the Website domain where they found the item.

Fifth graders will use their fourth grade list and modify it to their liking.  Then they will use Google Excel to input their items.  They have a larger amount of virtual money ($5000).  Their requirements are similar to those of fourth graders.

Third-graders will be designing a flyer using Seesaw.  Second-graders will use Seesaw to create their Neighbor with shapes.  In short, each class will have some skills they are required to show.

I hope that you will have a great holiday where ever you are at.  Enjoy the school year and be the best you can be.  Happy holidays if I don't see you around the school.

How's your summer 2023 coming along?  Some of you may still be in summer school and some of you are probably out and about doing things that you enjoy.

I remember when I was in grade school, like most of you, going to summer school and enjoying my learning experiences.  I can still remember working on my spelling and my teacher asking me how to spell Pennsylvania as we played Spell around the World.  I remember playing my favorite sport, soccer, with my summer friends outside during recess.  I hope those of you who are in summer school will enjoy your experiences and forever engrave them in your memory for a long time as well.

Those that are doing things at home or outside, I hope that you are helping your parents do chores or visit places that you haven't been to before.  This experience will make you a better person for sure. Just think of all the accomplishments and opportunities you had.  I remember going on camping trips and learning survival skills.  I was able to make new friends and learn new songs.  I remember the fishing trips with my cousin.  Even though we didn't catch anything, just to be able to spend a little time with him lasted a life-time.  We still talk about it whenever we see each other and that's over 40 years ago.

This summer I got to referee soccer games at the annual Hmong Freedom Festival at McMurray Fields in St. Paul, Mn.

Referee during a girls' soccer match at J4.

I also ran a golf tournament that raised over $2500 for our Minnesota team to participate in this year's Heritage Cup in Milwaukee, WI.  It was sad, however, that I didn't get to play much golf because I injured my left wrist early in the summer (more like spring).  But, I did get to meet Vunnisa Vu, who used to live in Minnesota but moved to California.  Now she is pursuing her education at Fresno state on a golf scholarship.  She's such a humble person and will do well in college!

Helped raise some money for Vunnisa Vu

My family went on a quick camping trip up North and got to enjoy nature while our son fished in his kayak.

 Elijah in his kayak!!

Let me know what you've been doing.  I hope to see all of you back this school year!

 I Played golf with my boys during Father's Day at Phalen GC.

And just like that, it's been 30 years of teaching for me in the education field.  I've been a classroom teacher, a specialist (computer science), and a coach (soccer, basketball) in Saint Paul Public Schools.  The only other school district that I've taught at was Bloomington Public Schools.  This was right after I had graduated from college in 1992.  Thus, technically, I've taught for 31 years.

I remember coming into the district in my 20's and people were retiring left and right.  I was already envying them because they can now rest easy from their daily routines.  Now that I am at that age when retirement is just around the corner, I am often reminded of how cool it would be to retire and rest easy.  Congrats to those that are retiring after this school year!  

Sometimes we teach with what resources we have available for the students.  When I came to Frost Lake four years ago, they had just recycled all the desktop computers and bought a new cart with 30 MacBook Pro laptops.  Each student also received iPads so they can use them in their classrooms and take them home. There were no other resources available so I had to make due with what was available to me.  Thus, I made it a point to teach students how to use laptops and the apps associated with them.  We used Microsoft products until Google Drive was able to be implemented for students' use.  I was using a sketch program until Seesaw was adopted for all lower level grade students.  There have been so many changes in apps and projects but I remain grounded in the necessary requirements from students; learn life-long skills to benefit them in the near future.

We continue to work on keyboarding skills and coding skills.  We learn how to copy and paste photos from outside sources to make our documents more presentable.  We learn how to modify our text documents and change our fonts, size and color to make them attractive to our audience.

I am glad the school year is coming to a close. Mentally, I've had a draining year.  I hope that next year will be better.