Tuesday, December 16: How does your family celebrate winter holidays? Do you have any special traditions?

Monday, December 15: Tell me about your weekend.

Tuesday, December 9: What job(s) would you like to do when you're older? Why?

Monday, December 8: Tell me about your weekend!

Thursday, December 4: Interview someone who has a job. Find out what things they do at the job, what hours they work, and how they feel about their work.

Wednesday, December 3: Interview an adult who raised you and find out what you were like as a baby.

Tuesday, December 2: Draw a timeline showing the important events that have happened in your life.

Instead of drawing, I'll list the dates here:

• 1988: I was born in Sacramento, CA.
• 1989: My family moved to 4110 Mindt Court in Carmichael, CA.
• 1989: My great-grandmother died and we went to Chicago for the funeral. It was my first trip on an airplane.
• 1991: I started attending Shalom School, a Jewish Day School in Sacramento, CA. 
• 1991: My sister, Nirra, was born. Life was never the same after that!
• 1993: I began kindergarten in public school at Mission Avenue Open School.
• 1995: I left Mission and started second grade at Deterding Elementary school. I was nervous about making new friends!
• 1995: I started playing basketball for the 7-8 team at Deterding.
• 1999: I graduated from elementary school and went to Barrett Middle School for seventh grade.
• 2001: I received my bat mitzvah, which is a Jewish ceremony that you perform when you become an adult at the age of thirteen. I had to read from the Torah in Hebrew in front of all my friends and family.
• 2001: I graduated from middle school and started high school at Rio Americano high school.
• 2003: I stopped playing basketball and started doing yoga.
• 2006: I graduated from high school and moved to Chicago to go to college at the University of Chicago!
• 2006: I got a passport and took my first trip out of the country. I went to Spain, where Ms. Trigo is from!
• 2010: My dad and I both graduated! I finished college and he finished his graduate degree from UC Davis.
• 2010: I moved to New Orleans and started teaching pre-Kindergarten at KIPP.
• 2012: My grandpa died. I flew to CA for the funeral.
• 2013: I left KIPP and started teaching third grade at Benjamin Franklin.

Monday, December 1: Write a letter to your diary about the best or worst day of your break.

December 1, 2014

Dear Diary,

The worst day of my break was on Wednesday, when I spent TEN hours in a hot car driving up and down a mountain. The night before, my friend Jennifer asked me if I wanted to visit a school out in the country. I don't like being in the car, so I asked her, "How long is the drive?" She responded, "It's about two and a half hours away." I thought to myself, "Well, that's not so bad," and replied, "I guess I'll go." Boy, was that a mistake! First of all, in order to get there on time, I had to wake up at four in the morning! When the alarm went off, I almost screamed. Second of all, the car didn't have air conditioning and it was unbearably hot. For most of the ride, I felt like someone had taken my stomach and put it in a blender. It was awful. Visiting the schools almost made it worth it, but I'm not really sure that anything could make up for waking up in the middle of the night and spending the whole day in the car. When I got back from the trip, Jennifer asked, "Did you have fun?" I responded, "Are you KIDDING me? Unless your idea of fun is spending ten hours feeling like throwing up...NO!" Thankfully, the rest of my break was a blast. I'll tell you about that tomorrow, Diary.

Yours truly,

Ms. Radding