I just posted this election packet in my TpT store.  It includes a ballot in color and b&w, a tally sheet in color and b&w and Meet the Candidates pages for Obama and Romney.  My class will be using these for a mock election for the entire elementary school on Monday.  Happy Election Day!

 

The rides in Ocean City on Saturday before Sandy.

What's left of a local restaurant

 

The before and after shot of a pier in Somers Point.  The pier is destroyed and the deck is floating away.

This is less than a mile from my home!

 

 The first picture is a street from Atlantic City on Saturday before the storm. The second picture is a street a block over today.

 

This is a road that you use out of Somers Point to take to the bridge into Longport or you can turn to head to the bridge for Ocean City.  It has been flooded many times but was destroyed this time because of the pounding of Sandy.

 

The Atlantic City Boardwalk at the north end of the island during and after the storm.  It is completely gone :(

 

A dock from the bay that now sits on a street in the middle of town.



Well as I mentioned earlier the islands around me are devasted.  The bridges are either closed or are destroyed and people can not get back yet to see the damage to their homes or even if they still have homes.  The new pictures I am posting are from during and after the storm.  Many places are still flooded and will be for awhile.  The islands are not very wide and and have the ocean on one side and the bay on the other.  The ocean and bay met in the middle on Saturday before the storm began which caused the initial flooding.

I want to start today with where I live.  I live in a town called Northfield, New Jersey.  It is located in South Jersey on the mainland between Atlantic City and Ocean City.  I only live a few miles from several different beaches.  The closet water to us is the bay which is a few miles down the road.  A few blocks from my home is the Margate Causeway which is one of the bridges that takes you to Absecon Island.  Absecon Island has 4 cities on it:  Atlantic City, Ventnor, Margate & Longport.  Brigantine is an island to the north of Absecon Island and Ocean City is an island to the south.  Then there are several more islands all the way down south to the tip of Cape May which is the southern point of New Jersey.  All of the pictures I am posting are from the cities and barrier islands near me.  The only way in and out of the islands are bridges. (All of the bridges are still closed.  Some may be for a long time because of the severe damage to them.)

Yesterday started ok for us with rain and wind but as the day went on the wind and rain definitely picked up as Sandy got closer.  We had winds over 70 miles for a good part of the day.  Everyone I knew was scared to death about what was going to happen as the day went on because the forecast just kept getting worse for us.  Many of the people on the islands evacuated but there are always those who stay.  I think many regret it this time.

My home and my town were very lucky this time.  We have lots of trees in our town so we did have wind damage around town and lots of trees down.  A few trees fell on homes with damage to roofs and porches.  (We had a horrific storm in June, called a derecho, which took all summer to clean up from because it was so bad.)  This storm was still fresh in our heads since a few homes are still being rebuilt so everyone around here took this storm very seriously.  We had no warning for the last storm.

When Sandy actually hit around 8pm last night she was actally a little south of the original prediction so the eye came right over us.  For those of you who are not familiar with hurricanes the eye is very quiet.  Don't be fooled.  A short time later the back end of the storm came around and all **** broke loose.  It was a long night.  My daughter slept in my arms because it was so loud.  A storm is always so much scarier at night because you can't see anything.  It was this part of the storm that did most of the damage to our town.

The island are a completely different story which I will post about later with lots of new pictures.

My family was very lucky.  No one got hurt and we have very little property damage.  I can't say the same for my family and friends.  They are still waiting for the ok to return to the islands to see if they even have homes left.  I grew up in Ventnor so I rmemeber being a kid and having to evacuate.  Even as a child it is a horrible feeling leaving your home :(
 

A few people asked me yesterday if I was taking some of these pictures and the answer is no.  I am getting all of the pictures from family, friends and local media.  Some of my family and friends are emergency workers who had to stay on the islands during the evacuations and saw eveything developing before the storm actually hit.  They said that most people did listen and evacuated in advance so luckily many of these homes were empty.

Hi Everyone,

We survived.  Not only did we survive but we did not have any damage.  I certainly can't same the same for the rest of South Jersey.  The islands are devasted and they are still rescuing people.  I am going to try and post as much as I can today new pictures and stories of what is happening here.  Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.  They certainly worked :)

More Photos

 

 

Hurricane Sandy

Hi Everyone,

I am just sitting here waiting for Sandy to arrive.  She is only hours away now and things are getting worse quickly.  I would like to share some pictures in the areas around me from yesterday and today.  Remember the hurricane is not even here yet and the damage is pretty bad in the island towns around me.  Please send prayers because this is going to be devasting for so many people.

Having a 20% Hurricane Sandy Sale!  I hope she comes and goes quickly :)

Today my class started a very special project.  We are going to run a mock Presidential election for the entire elementary school.  The kids are so excited.  I love listening to them leave the building and run and share the news with their families.  It is such a nice feeling to see them so excited about learning.  I can't wait to post more over the next two weeks :)

I have been a big fan of the Daily 5 since Gail Boushey & Joan Moser (The Sisters) released their book.  I remember reading about them and the release of the book and ordered a copy in advance.  After I received my copy and started reading I knew instantly that it was going to change my teaching style in the classroom.  I read the book in two days and started working on changing my plans and routines that very night. 

Each year I have made changes to the Daily 5 in my classroom to reflect my schedule and my students for that year.  The best part about the Daily 5 is that it really works for any grade level, any group of students and any teacher.  A few years back our district started using a program called SRA along with our reading series StoryTown.  I was not happy at first because this meant that for the first time the children would break up into small groups and work with their SRA teacher for 1 hour.  I was worried because I was not always going to have my students with me.  I was concerned that I wouldn't have enough time when all of the children returned to our classroom.  I was definitely wrong.   I love the program and have used the Daily 5 to manage the rest of my ELA time.  The Daily 5 gives the children time to work independently, in small groups and time for one on one assessment with me.

Over the past few years I have tried a few different ways to have the children to keep track of where they should be.  Last year I came up with a new system which I really like.  Below you will see pictures of 2 of the rotation charts I give to the children. (I changed the names to my first name.)  Each child keeps their Daily 5 rotation card in their book box.  I keep miniature copies of all the cards with me so I can always keep track of where the kids should be.

Since loosing 1 hour of our ELA block to SRA I had to cut down on the rotations each week.  We do 2 rounds each day and the children will visit each station twice a week.  I also changed my Daily 5 choices.  In our classroom we do:  Read to Self, Work on Writing (W.O.W), Listening, Computers and Word Work.  We don't use Read to Someone as part of the Daily 5 because we partner read at other times. 

This was another great idea I found on Pinterest.  I don't know where it came from originally to give someone creedit for the idea.  They look really cute :)