"Thank you Baylee!"

Santa be seein' you be'in bad. Oh yes, Santa is watching, ALL.OF.THE.TIME. However, for some reason the threat of Santa doesn't do much to tame down kids in elementary school. Heck, even an elf that moved places around the room each night didn't do much except cause a stir as kids came in the room and instantly looked around to find him. Mind you, the last few days before break, "he musta falled asleep cause he didn't be moved." Whoops, I may have forgot to move him those last two days.

Anyway, these three weeks following Thanksgiving break have been chaotic to say the least. It involved two weeks of instructional time and one solid week of testing. Because we have to give 5 tests, I tried to get started a day or two earlier, but of course, even on Monday morning (our original start date) the tests were still sitting on my Principal's desk, not copied. UGH, I was annoyed. We were already pressed for time to finish and that just added to the annoyance. But of course, it all worked out. The last week we were frantic to practice the Reindeer Pokey together to prepare for the Christmas program on Friday morning. Lo and behold we found out on Thursday at about 1:15 that we ALSO had to participate in the Thursday evening performance. We sent a note home, figured a few kids would show up and we would just do the best we could. Well, I ran to wal-mart after school and forgot to pick up lipstick to use for our red noses. We were a hurtin' unit. About 20 kids showed up, acted a fool in my classroom before the program, then got on stage and acted like they had no idea what was going on, thank you Kindertots, much appreciated. Friday's performance was much better.

18 kids and counting...not the tv show. Thanks to actions started last year by my co-teacher, I inherited shopping for families (kids) that would most likely not be able to afford Christmas presents this year. My principal and two other workers at school came up with the list of the families who needed the most. Thanks to two GENEROUS donors, I started shopping on Monday for 13 kids. In school on Tuesday I found out that my list had increased. One family had two younger children of non-school aged that couldn't be left out AND that family also stayed with another family of 3 children, therefore my list was up to 18 kids to shop for. I did the best I could to finish on Wednesday with the help of my roommate, we found shoes, shirts, uniform pants, socks, hats and mittens, not to mention toys for kids that were late additions. It took us almost as long to check out as it did to shop, thank you Wal-Mart. Following the Christmas program on Thursday, Lois and I spent a couple of hours wrapping and bagging presents by family and FILLING my jeep. As soon as kids got to school on Friday, I put in Home Alone (a debatable Christmas movie) and left my class with an assistant while another co-worker and I ran around town delivering the bags. It was truly heartfelt to see/hear the reactions of some of the families. As I left one house, the mother (whose daughter is in my class) could be heard outside screaming.

It's disheartening to realize that there are no Angel Trees around there...there are probably too many people who would qualify and not enough people to buy for them. It's sad to realize that many families are getting government assistance for one reason or another, while families with a working parent are making even less. While I am in a tough situation when it comes to debating government assistance, living in a rural area that literally LACKS jobs/factories makes it hard for one to even attempt to make a living for themselves.

Enough of that topic...let's talk about the selfless and generous people in this world...ie the topic of this post, "THANK YOU BAYLEE!" I think I've mentioned before, but my friend Sara's cousin Baylee raised money last year for my classroom. She is in 4-H and thought it would be a good youth leadership project...and her mom is a teacher in their community in Iowa, so education is incredibly important. Baylee raised money at her school and through her church. Soup dinner donations went to my classroom, she raised money by talking to people at her school, and got donations of school supplies. Baylee and her mom filled 24 NEW bookbags with books (at least 3 in each bag), construction paper, pencils, crayons, glue, scissors, erasers and a pencil sharpener. I acquired them this summer and made the decision that I would wait until Christmas to give them to the kids, mostly because about half the class would come to school WITH school supplies. But by Christmas, those that had bookbags might already be in store for a new one. Anyway, this HUGE box was on my table with a blanket over it on Friday morning for them to stare at. We made a big to-do about it and pulled the blanket off. They were smiling but not overly excited. THEN I opened one and pulled out the books (gasps) and plastic bag full of crayons, scissors, erasers, etc (more gasps), and finally I pulled out the handful of pencils (screams!). They were OVERJOYED. Each child got their bag and headed to the rug to take a picture. When they were released to their seats all I heard was, "muh ward, look at this!" "muh ward, we read this book!" "muh ward look!" "muh ward look!" OMG, they were in heaven. Because we were waiting for lunch at that point, I let them watch a movie and color on paper I had on their tables, I had to keep fussing at them to put their new things away, not to use their new crayons, take that stuff at home, etc. One boy didn't watch ANY of the movie, he read each and everyone of his books with SERIOUS intensity! Let's just say, Baylee.frickin.rocks :) Did I mention she is in the 5th grade? Love her!

**I'm going to try and make the video work, the kids are showing me what they got and saying thank you to Baylee, even though some of them were forgetting her name! PS..I was at the height of a cold and lost my voice that day, please don't judge! **

Well...Christmas is almost here and Minnesota has gotten snow everyday I've been home...amazing :) Although we don't have to travel on Christmas, I pray the roads aren't too bad and you are able to spend the holidays with the ones you love.
Gosh, I LOVE them :)


"Merry Christmas, thank you for the bookbags!"

Phat Pants

Happy December! I'm not sure if I was exhausted last year at this time, phew! Once again, I'm recapping the last few weeks but it's what I do. November came and the countdown started. We were more than ready for a break. Of course, on our last day we spent the afternoon in a healthy extravaganza carnival, eating nachos and chips while coloring pictures of fruits/veggies and playing tug of war. Not only is everyone already nutso because you can almost taste break, but lets add the rest of this hoopla to it. The very last activity we did was a fruit walk and multiple kids went back to the room bawling because they didn't win. Well, one little boy was so distraught that he went into the room and threw a folder and tipped over a chair with insane force. Don't worry, he got the first swat on the behind in my room with those actions. I told him I would just take him home after school for those actions and talk to his mama. He cried for the next 20 minutes knowing full well what it means to his mama for him to show up at home in the car of his teacher (he witnessed it first hand with his brother I had last year). ON bus duty, I told his brother (L.G. from last year) that I would take him home, so he went sprinting to my room not caring he was staying after school when break had officially started. They helped clean up and get ready for post-break class. Minus the earlier temper tantrum, these boys are the sweetest children on the planet. IN my car, I asked if they were both buckled up, even though I was pretty sure my ginormous duffel bag was on the middle seat belt. However, L.G. pushed his little brother back and instantly buckled them both into his seatbelt. Instantaneous heart melt. Down the road, L.G., who was struggled in first grade, says to me, "this is a jeep." I responded quite surprised because my vehicle is known to everyone as a "truck." I asked how he knew that and he simply pointed to the steering wheel as the source of information. I felt like a proud parent in that exact moment, I taught that child how to read. He didn't have to sound it out or blend it on his arm, he read it. At that moment, I thought I was a lifer in Moorhead.

Thanksgiving break was wonderful, enjoyed a lovely jaunt through Dallas, St. Louis and then Minneapolis before finally making it home. Got to see lots of friends, family, eat way too much food, did some shopping, put off school work, the usual. I'm not sure how the week went so fast or how I came back from break exhausted? It could have been from black Friday shopping at 3:38 a.m. with Jeannie. She wanted a laptop from Walk-Mart, so we went to Blue Earth. Instead of being a huge waste of space, I decided to find a line to stand in as well...so I bought myself a new tv. No worries, it'll be stuck in Amboy until I can figure out how to get it to the Delta. It was a fun morning though...we really did get some great deals. I bought a few movies for $2....seriously cheaper than renting it! I can't say I would necessarily need to do that every year because I never NEED any of the big items, but for one year it was fun.

Last weekend we went to Memphis at the crack of dawn on Saturday because my roommate Jenn ran in the half-marathon there. Lois and I drove around downtown catching her at a couple of spots on the route, it was fun, minus the early morning. We all went back to our hotel and napped that afternoon then ended up laying in bed watching tv for our evening rather than venturing down to Beale St. We decided it was too cold, it was like 30, really, too cold for going out!

The past two weeks in Kindergarten have been CRAZY! While I was leading my Kindergarten/pre-k learning team today for professional development I was telling the first year teachers that they are GOING to be crazy, come on, it's December, SANTA IS COMING! Over break I bought my class an Elf on a Shelf. It's a book with a creepy little elf that "shows up" on your shelf after reading the story. The story is that the elf flies to Santa every night and tells him what he saw. Then when he flies back, he sits in a new spot. Therefore, each evening I have to remember to move the elf before leaving school! Really though, it doesn't make the kids behave, they are just too excited to function at this point. I will admit that I am doing a better job of being a Kindergarten teacher this year, we have made Santa pictures and made reindeer last week and have a few other activities that they will make and take home for Christmas.

Starting first this Monday morning are our 9 weeks test. We have to give 5 tests, and a large chunk of them have to be done individually. The reading/language test is like 6 pages, woof. It's going to be a stressful week getting tests done, doing Christmas like activities and practicing the reindeer pokey for the Christmas program on Thursday evening/Friday morning. And we have short days on Wednesday AND Friday. Who made this bogus schedule???

I decided that during ANY down time or typical instructional time, I was going to let my assistant give them squares of colored paper and let them trace their hand and cut it out. They LOVE to trace and cut things and we practiced our hands the other day with mild disaster, but it'll keep them occupied!! I have 140 pieces of paper ready for them. Perhaps I'll make a wreath with the hands, perhaps I'll just send them home, who knows?!

Yesterday two of my boys got in trouble in the lunch line for talking. I asked what was going on and the girl in between them says, "he called you fat." Well, I'm pretty sure this was fat with an F and not ph (phat). Haha, I laughed. I shouldn't laugh. But I'm one of few people at my school that doesn't eat fried chicken on a weekly basis. I WAS wearing two pairs of pants yesterday, but I'm pretty sure that had nothing to do with it. Ugh..maybe I'd better start training for a half-marathon too!!

I cannot believe Christmas break is in 5 VERY short days! I'm so excited, but nervous for everything to get done on time. I put in a request with a worker at my school to make a list of kids that were probably not getting Christmas presents this year. It's sad, but I haven't seen an angel tree or anything around here, probably because too many people need it. However, for kids in my class or kids I had last year...I want to make sure they get something.

Better jet, Lois and I are headed to a couple of parties tonight...we had a LONGGGG day of professional development today. But it was surprisingly a really good day and TFA provided some fun social events/dinner following pro sat. It's things like that which make me really love the delta and this sometimes harder than life situation.