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 fo
r 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!"
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