My class has written 253 words in 2 days. The preplanning has really paid off. We have two or three more days to write. Looks like I could have set a higher word count. Next year I think we will keep a low word count for the class novel and encourage students to write their own!

I spent 30 minutes tonight writing, revising, and editing The Moon Walk. When I hit spell check, I lost my internet connection and my whole text from today. Lesson learned - save every few minutes on line also!
The rewrite will have to wait for tomorrow. And to think I was considering tackling more than one milestone tonight!

Happiness is sitting together with my family in Bible class, sharing The Word. I don't realize how much I miss having my children worship with me until they come to visit. Coleen and Matthew came to Bible class with us this evening. There is great comfort in studying and celebrating the Lord with family.

I am going to start over on the eight days of happiness challenge. In fact, I am considering everyday of happiness. We would all be better off for focusing on the positive.

I've been up for fifteen minutes and have already enjoyed my first smile of the day.

As a teacher, I share our nation's concern with the failure of mathematics and science to attract the great minds of our country. Or is it the failure of our country to develop great scientific and mathematical minds. I guess it depends on who you ask. At any rate, I am working hard to transform my classroom into a place where scientific and mathematical thinking are taking place everyday in an exciting, natural way.
Today I read that president elect Obama has announced the inclusion in his team of a couple of scientists dedicated to fighting global warming and creating new jobs in the process. Immediately, I thought back to my school days. I was in the third grade when  Richard Nixon ran for president the first time. That is to say, I studied through the 60's with our country under the leadership of John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.
What an exciting time, that was! We were in the space race up to our necks. Every young boy and girl wanted to be an astronaut or work for NASA in some way. President Kennedy challenged our scientists to get to the moon by the end of the decade. Now, the word astronaut didn't even exist when I started school in 1958 but he wanted us to figure out how to put a man on the moon before 1970. And you know, we did it!
We changed how we taught mathematics in school, every hear of the new math? If you learned about sets when you were in kindergarten or first grade, it is because of the space program in a round about way. That's when we started talking about how to teach algebra in primary school. Kids and adults became excited about science and how it could change the world. We saw how it DID change the world. Now I'm not saying that science doesn't change the world every day. I'm saying that our country had a sense of purpose,  a common goal besides being the richest, most spoiled people, per capita (is that correct usage), in the world.
There is a new possibility for purpose. If Barak Obama can fire us up, can enlist us in the cause, we could change the world again in the teens. We could stop global warming. We could learn from the native Americans how to live with the land instead of on the land. All our kids could aspire to be something that hasn't even been named yet. Someone who is dedicated to this planet and the men on it.
That makes me happy, today!

Technically it is December 7 but the day is young so I will start my 8 days with December 6. One of the great things about this time of the year is joyful music! Today I listened to A Charlie Brown Christmas, twice. It always makes me feel warm and happy!

As a teacher, it is my responsibility to move into the 21st century boldly, if belatedly. This is my attempt to join the cyberworld and keep the journal I have always promised myself. Not every day will hold a pearl of wisdom but every day is a gift and now I have a place to keep it.