Look at that...less than a month since I wrote last. I'm proud of myself, even if everyone else thinks it is far too long. So much has happened in the last month, I don't even know where to begin.
School finished up last Tuesday, with teachers finishing report cards/folders/etc. on Wednesday. I made a huge choice last Friday and decided with a heavy heart that I was not going to be returning to my classroom in the fall. I was offered a job with Teach For America to work as a program director here. While I hadn't seriously considered being a PD until the week prior after a conversation with the head person here, I decided that it might be the best decision for me to see if the classroom is where I should be in the future. I told my principal that I really hate who I am in the classroom. I don't like yelling, I don't like the idea that yelling is the only thing that gets through to some kids, I don't like going home and hating who I am and how I have ot act in order to teach the lesson. She understood and agrees that I did not come in with the personality and mentality of other teachers in the delta. Therefore, this opportunity could show me if I belong in the classroom or if teaching maybe isn't for me. The role basically involves managing a cohort of 30 corps members in their 1st and 2nd year of teaching, observing them and problem solving around their data to ensure that they meet their goals. It is an honor that others think I would be good at this job, because I'm neverous about basically sucking at it. ha ha...however, I know it's going to give me good experience and I look forward to working on staff as TFA doubles again in the delta.
The end of the year finished up strong. We did our final assessments and ROCKED the math summative with a 94% on all skills taught during the year. We also had a reading growth of 1.40 years. I'm excited to hear how they do next year in first grade. My class is definitely further this year than my first year.
Summer is here and Mississippi isn't lacking heat or humidity. I spent a few hours outside sweating buckets this afternoon. I'm coming home for the month of June and will be venturing north on Tuesday. Therefore, if you're bored/free...please call me, I'll be driving for 14 long hours! I'm excited for summer, but know I'm going to stay plenty busy. Trevor's graduation at the end of the week. I'm taking two grad classes. I'm trying to finish that darn thesis. And I'm going to do roughly 8 hours of PD work a week. This is all on top of spending my time rollerblading, playing tennis, fishing, being on the lake, going to parades, and enjoying the Minnesota sunshine. I cannot wait!
Yay for summer :) :) :)
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
The Final Four
Easter was only a couple of weeks ago, therefore, no one can get too worked up about me not blogging for awhile! Each weekend of April was crazy hectic, so without a lot going on this weekend, I'm twisting my thumbs and pretending to be productive to ward off the spring fever!
Here is a recap of the last few weeks. Easter came and went...and was amazing. The following week Erik came to visit the dirty, dirty Delta. It was crazy! We had a bonfire on Friday night that ended with a lot of beer consumed and a nerf gun rifle fight in the kitchen at 2 a.m. The rest of the weekend involved more alcohol, leaving groceries in the car for a few hours too long, a whole LOT of tennis, another bonfire, some Mississippi sunshine for the pasty from Minnesota, an afternoon cookout that turned into a Sunday night of drinking. Phew...it was a crazy but oh so fun! I love when my Minnesota friends get along so well with this crazy Mississippi crew :) (Picture is of my roommates and I out after our professional saturday)
The following weekend was the HUGE Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale. We ran a 5K in Cleveland in the morning, beat our time from last year by at least 5 minutes, haha. I guess that's what happens when you don't walk parts of it. Juke Joint was crazyyy. It's basically another reason to drink all day and listen to blues music at different venues all morning/afternoon/night. The weekend was GORGEOUS...I love getting sunburnt in mid-April. Heck, anytime of the year is suitable for me!
Last weekend started a little rough, tornadoes and storms across the state. The kids were loading the buses when the sirens went off so they had to come in and put their heads down in the hot, overpacked hallway. It was a mess but eventually everyone made it home safe. It has now been two weeks in a row that the sky opens and it downpours right at 3:15 when I am outside on bus duty. I'm going to start bringing my rainboots for Friday duty. Last Sunday I went to Oxford (home of Ole Miss) for Double Decker their annual art and music festival. I cannot wait to go to an Ole Miss football game this fall....Oxford was great. Ole Miss was great. While it's not in the Delta, it still makes me realize that Mississippi is great too!
Now onto the important stuff....my classroom. So far we have grown 1.2 years in reading. This is okay...could be better. We want to get closer to 1.5 years of growth by the end of the year. We will be close...it's things like this that make me nervous for the last weeks of school but force me to constantly stay productive! I just started giving our big math test that determines how we did overall. It's a 16 page test, clear to see that we are going to spend a good 5 days or so taking it! My kids did their end of the year DIBBELS test last week and kicked the **** out of it! I had 12 students that were considered "at risk" at the beginning of the year (that is NOT a good thing) and I finished with 3 that were only scoring in "some risk." Definite improvements. Many of my kids had phenomenal scores. I even baked them brownies on Friday because I was so proud of them!
Our district has been in an absolute mess all year. I've tried to refrain from complaining too much (because I wanted to keep my job) but now all bets are off. Before spring break, parents lodged a protest and didn't send their kids to school for two days. The state finally realized there was a problem. They brought 50-60 members of the state department to the district for a week to do a FULL audit. Their report was concluded 30 days later and was more than 300 pages long. Our superintendent was fired. The school board was removed. The state took over. They issued a conservator to be in charge of our district to straighten us out. It could take months but more likely years before the state will remove the conservator and allow us to function independently again. This is not necessarily a bad thing. There are 37 qualifications for accreditation that must be met in entirety across the district. We did not meet any. It was severe. However, spirits are rejuvenated and people are happy again. All is starting to become peaceful again in the land of sunflowers.
I have another little lovely (no one is sure how I got so lucky two years in a row). This one is worse in many ways. When I give him ANY instructions (sit down, get in line, etc.) he does the opposite. A clear case of oppositional defiance. When he gets mad (many, many times a day) he does bodily harm to himself. Scratches his arms and face. Tries to break his fingers. He has punched himself in the face. Other awful things. We are guaranteed to have some sort of blowout each day, you just never know when it's going to happen. Well, he went to the same behavioral treatment center for two weeks. He came back last Thursday WORSE THAN EVER. I cried in school more that once....I am NOT a sap, I NEVER cry in school. I didn't want to come to school on Friday, but knew that I couldn't do that to my assistant. Ugh. It was a nightmare. He is still bad and each day you never know what you are going to get. I try to get him through the day and will walk him home after school if he makes it all day...many times if he is sent to the office even the principal can't control him or keep him from hurting himself. It's a sad situation and one that makes me realize that the future of this Class of 2022 is not everything I wish for and work toward.
Enough of the sap....lets talk about animals, particularly ones that are in and around my school. There was a lizard in my classroom a few weeks ago. I made one of the kids kill it. Now I realize that might not have been my best move. The janitors killed two snakes climbing up the outside wall of my classroom two weeks ago (this was ON the playground mind you). They were not small but luckily not poisonous. (Picture is after they poured a little gasoline on them. Turns out gasoline makes them flip over and die instantly) The other day at recess one of my cute and hilarious girls told me there was a turtle by the door. I went to look and sure enough there was a big ol turtle right at the door. Its shell was probably 10 inches or so! A bigun'. Anyway...the kids all screamed when we walked past it just because they can. I went out the back door an hour later to get something and saw the turtle had dug a hole and was laying eggs next to the school. My co-teacher and I quickly got groups of kids to come out back and watch. I thought it was SO COOL that my kids got to watch that...heck, I haven't ever seen a turtle lay eggs before! However, good thing I went to see The Last Song over Easter so Miley Cyrus could teach me a thing or two about turtles!
In one month I'll be home for the summer (or at least 6 weeks of it I guess). I cannot wait to enjoy the sunshine and some Minnesota lakes!! If anyone knows of any sand volleyball leagues around Amboy...please let me know...I really want to play :) ALSO...here is my plea...if anyone hits up any good garage sales and finds some Disney movies on VHS...please buy them for me! I'll pay you back, PROMISE :) We are getting a little sick of the ones we have and with the rain we've gotten lately, we haven't been able to go outside (mehhhhhh).
Hope Minnesota spring is FABULOUS! The humidity in the 'sip for the last two days has been at least 80%. Ridic. I just turned the air on because our house got up to 78 with TOTAL humidity!
Just less than four weeks left of my Teach For America commitment...who would have thought it would go this quickly....
Friday, April 2, 2010
Irons in the fire, dogs in the basement
Is that how the expression goes? I mean about the irons part? Either way, we no longer have dogs trapped under our house. I heard one while I was getting ready one weekend so we went out to the boarded up basement, took the board down and of course.....nothing. Well...we got smart and decided to get some old hotdogs (clearly we wouldn't waste good ones) and threw one under the house and left one at the opening. 10 minutes later, a black lassie was sitting in the yard chillin' like Bob Dylan. I started screaming since it was out my window...I ran around to get shoes to close the hole while my roommates stared out the window. Lo and behold, there was the brown one, the one who really had been under there for 4 weeks to the day....needless to say, we're not sure how he survived. Before I could close the board, the dumb thing went back under there. We threw the rest of the hotdogs all over our lawn so when he came out we were quickly able to board it back up and take a few pictures to prove to the plumber that we are not, in fact, crazy yankees.
The school sweetheart pageant came and went. No winners here. Oh well. Next year I am going to pick the bad kids to be in it because whoever is picked if they are good they turn bad; if they are bad, they stay bad. My king this year was super sweet, but suddenly turned into a big ol' baby. I don't DEAL with crying children. He crumpled up someone's paper, got his clip moved and cried for 30 minutes. My principal got sick of hearing him and wanted to whoop him or call his mama because he would not stop boo-who crying. I'm sick of babies crying--I make them go stand in the hallway to cry which usually gets them to stop before they get there. I have little sympathy for boo-who'ers. Makes you want me to teach your kids, huh?
The end of my two-year commitment to teach for america is almost up. Who would have thought. It has been a crazy ride, one I wouldn't trade for the world. Crazy enough in fact, I'm not quite done with the adventure. I'm staying here another year...finish this ed masters and get more teaching experiences under my belt. I love life here, not enough to live here forever, but it's pretty great right now. In fact, only one more professional Saturday left in my existence of needing to attend professional Saturdays! In February they announced that 20 of us or so were nominated for the Sue Lehmann Excellence in Teaching Award. While I wasn't named a finalist, it was still an honor to be nominated by peers or other corps members.
And it's also official that I will be basking in the wonderful midwestern sun somewhere on the shores of a Minnesota lake this summer!! While I was ultimately rejected from a staff position that I had hoped for in the Delta, I am still excited at the thought of not being stressed out or crazy busy sitting on the lake. I.frickin.love.Minnesota.summers. Cannot wait.
Two weeks ago we enjoyed a mildly frigid spring break trip to Destin, Florida. We drove, it is roughly 7 hours. Somehow we made it take 11.5. I think this was because we went through Louisiana (completely unnecessary) and got stuck in standstill traffic outside of Mobile, Al (WHAT?!) in which we went 6 miles in 30 minutes. However, we had a great car ride/trip. Did you know IHOP DOES in fact have ice cream? Take that Erik Stonestrom and scarring me for life for never having been to an IHOP before. We rented a house in the middle of spring break spectacularness. It was a nice house, even for 9 people, despite the raccoons that took up residency on the second story deck outside of my bedroom (we found this out AFTER I left the door open for 30 minutes because it was hot). My kids would say, "they nasty." And they were. You should only see raccoons briefly before you run them over with your car. The temp in Florida didn't get over 65 and was plenty windy, but all in all, not bad. We drank too much, made bad choices, acted like college students...you know, typical teacher stuff. I spent the last weekend of break in Jackson enjoying the luxury of Redbox movies from the grocery store and reading outside getting one helluva suntan. Go fig that one would get more sun in the 'sip than they would in Florida. My Uncle Mike and I ran a St. Paddy's Day 5K around the capital building in Jackson on Saturday...we decided at 10 o'clock Friday night. It was great although I think next year we need costumes! I went to the parade in the afternoon to check out this sweet potato queen business....someone help me, how can I sign up to be one? My life long aspirations (they just started)....Lastly, the highlight of my weekend. A crawfish boil with Mike and Gretchen at their neighbors. I would stay in Mississippi FOREVER just for things like crawfish boils. It was amazing. And don't even think about judging it before you try it...I know, I know, I'm the LAST person that should be saying that.
Easter weekend is here...the last break of the school year, ugh. However, one perk of teaching in the south was the ability to teach my kids that Easter is not about eggs and candy! Throw in a bit of that religion and teach the real meaning of Easter. The big news from this week. Damn thieves visited my classroom in the form of 5 and 6 year-olds. Late last week my jump drive was taken. Now, on Tuesday, my eyebrow ring was taken off of my desk. UGH, I was PISSED! I didn't realize it until after kids left. My Principal told me to call a few parents before it got too far. So, I did that. Well, no luck. The next day, during a DRAMATIC display of lesson-learning, all children's clips were on red, I had the paddle from the office showing them just what it looked like (of course I didn't use it, "they know you ain't gonna use it, Ms. Ward. Until they think you gone use it, it won't make a bit of difference."). I hit it on the table hard enough for them to realize that it wasn't going to tickle. It's practically a 2x4 mind you, and is the smallest one I think she has. Anyway, during this charade, two girls raised their hands...one claiming my jump drive was on her mama's dresser, the other claiming my eyebrow ring was on top of her refrigerator. Well, they said they were willing to go to the office to call their mama's to bring it back right then. Let's be real, these are both children of parents I talked to the night before hearing every story from both parent and child about who had it. To make this longgg story shorter, all parents had meetings in the office with me, the principal and the student. One student lied that she had it as soon as we got to the office. Her mama is FURIOUS with me, but hey, I didn't ask her to raise her hand in front of the whole class saying she had it. Moral of the story, I didn't teach on Wednesday morning AT ALL. I was in the office most of the time. I have one parent that likes me and one that could care less if her daughter passes. I have kids lying to their parents about this, that, and the other thing. And to top it all off...I still don't have my jump drive or my eyebrow ring. Damn.
"Goin' to Jackson..." tomorrow to enjoy a little bit of my break. Need to run some errands (and buy a new jump drive and eyebrow ring) and I want to go see a movie. It's going to be a BIG weekend! We're having a little Delta family dinner on Sunday after church....so I won't be home and celebrating Easter, but I will be at church with all 12 other members and having egg bake for lunch, OBVIOUSLY. I love my life...and eggbake...and crawdads.....not together.
Over and out. It's late, I'm tired and my hair smells like bonfire and is making me sick. Happy belated birthday to Grandma Davis and Happy Easter to you all (all 3 people that still actually check this thing)!
The school sweetheart pageant came and went. No winners here. Oh well. Next year I am going to pick the bad kids to be in it because whoever is picked if they are good they turn bad; if they are bad, they stay bad. My king this year was super sweet, but suddenly turned into a big ol' baby. I don't DEAL with crying children. He crumpled up someone's paper, got his clip moved and cried for 30 minutes. My principal got sick of hearing him and wanted to whoop him or call his mama because he would not stop boo-who crying. I'm sick of babies crying--I make them go stand in the hallway to cry which usually gets them to stop before they get there. I have little sympathy for boo-who'ers. Makes you want me to teach your kids, huh?
The end of my two-year commitment to teach for america is almost up. Who would have thought. It has been a crazy ride, one I wouldn't trade for the world. Crazy enough in fact, I'm not quite done with the adventure. I'm staying here another year...finish this ed masters and get more teaching experiences under my belt. I love life here, not enough to live here forever, but it's pretty great right now. In fact, only one more professional Saturday left in my existence of needing to attend professional Saturdays! In February they announced that 20 of us or so were nominated for the Sue Lehmann Excellence in Teaching Award. While I wasn't named a finalist, it was still an honor to be nominated by peers or other corps members.
And it's also official that I will be basking in the wonderful midwestern sun somewhere on the shores of a Minnesota lake this summer!! While I was ultimately rejected from a staff position that I had hoped for in the Delta, I am still excited at the thought of not being stressed out or crazy busy sitting on the lake. I.frickin.love.Minnesota.summers. Cannot wait.
Two weeks ago we enjoyed a mildly frigid spring break trip to Destin, Florida. We drove, it is roughly 7 hours. Somehow we made it take 11.5. I think this was because we went through Louisiana (completely unnecessary) and got stuck in standstill traffic outside of Mobile, Al (WHAT?!) in which we went 6 miles in 30 minutes. However, we had a great car ride/trip. Did you know IHOP DOES in fact have ice cream? Take that Erik Stonestrom and scarring me for life for never having been to an IHOP before. We rented a house in the middle of spring break spectacularness. It was a nice house, even for 9 people, despite the raccoons that took up residency on the second story deck outside of my bedroom (we found this out AFTER I left the door open for 30 minutes because it was hot). My kids would say, "they nasty." And they were. You should only see raccoons briefly before you run them over with your car. The temp in Florida didn't get over 65 and was plenty windy, but all in all, not bad. We drank too much, made bad choices, acted like college students...you know, typical teacher stuff. I spent the last weekend of break in Jackson enjoying the luxury of Redbox movies from the grocery store and reading outside getting one helluva suntan. Go fig that one would get more sun in the 'sip than they would in Florida. My Uncle Mike and I ran a St. Paddy's Day 5K around the capital building in Jackson on Saturday...we decided at 10 o'clock Friday night. It was great although I think next year we need costumes! I went to the parade in the afternoon to check out this sweet potato queen business....someone help me, how can I sign up to be one? My life long aspirations (they just started)....Lastly, the highlight of my weekend. A crawfish boil with Mike and Gretchen at their neighbors. I would stay in Mississippi FOREVER just for things like crawfish boils. It was amazing. And don't even think about judging it before you try it...I know, I know, I'm the LAST person that should be saying that.
Easter weekend is here...the last break of the school year, ugh. However, one perk of teaching in the south was the ability to teach my kids that Easter is not about eggs and candy! Throw in a bit of that religion and teach the real meaning of Easter. The big news from this week. Damn thieves visited my classroom in the form of 5 and 6 year-olds. Late last week my jump drive was taken. Now, on Tuesday, my eyebrow ring was taken off of my desk. UGH, I was PISSED! I didn't realize it until after kids left. My Principal told me to call a few parents before it got too far. So, I did that. Well, no luck. The next day, during a DRAMATIC display of lesson-learning, all children's clips were on red, I had the paddle from the office showing them just what it looked like (of course I didn't use it, "they know you ain't gonna use it, Ms. Ward. Until they think you gone use it, it won't make a bit of difference."). I hit it on the table hard enough for them to realize that it wasn't going to tickle. It's practically a 2x4 mind you, and is the smallest one I think she has. Anyway, during this charade, two girls raised their hands...one claiming my jump drive was on her mama's dresser, the other claiming my eyebrow ring was on top of her refrigerator. Well, they said they were willing to go to the office to call their mama's to bring it back right then. Let's be real, these are both children of parents I talked to the night before hearing every story from both parent and child about who had it. To make this longgg story shorter, all parents had meetings in the office with me, the principal and the student. One student lied that she had it as soon as we got to the office. Her mama is FURIOUS with me, but hey, I didn't ask her to raise her hand in front of the whole class saying she had it. Moral of the story, I didn't teach on Wednesday morning AT ALL. I was in the office most of the time. I have one parent that likes me and one that could care less if her daughter passes. I have kids lying to their parents about this, that, and the other thing. And to top it all off...I still don't have my jump drive or my eyebrow ring. Damn.
"Goin' to Jackson..." tomorrow to enjoy a little bit of my break. Need to run some errands (and buy a new jump drive and eyebrow ring) and I want to go see a movie. It's going to be a BIG weekend! We're having a little Delta family dinner on Sunday after church....so I won't be home and celebrating Easter, but I will be at church with all 12 other members and having egg bake for lunch, OBVIOUSLY. I love my life...and eggbake...and crawdads.....not together.
Over and out. It's late, I'm tired and my hair smells like bonfire and is making me sick. Happy belated birthday to Grandma Davis and Happy Easter to you all (all 3 people that still actually check this thing)!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Hater e-mails from immediate family
Someone drank the hateraid this morning...
5-2-08 to 12-31-2008 28 blogs
1-1-09 to 12-31-2009 23 blogs
1-1-10 to 3-26-201 1 blog
Do you see a trend??? And don't get all wound up and call me to tell me how busy you are (you know I just sit at home in a bean bag chair and eat cheetos). So go out and do something then write about it. Did you ever think for some of us that the only excitement we get is in your blog (pretty lame huh). See ya
5-2-08 to 12-31-2008 28 blogs
1-1-09 to 12-31-2009 23 blogs
1-1-10 to 3-26-201 1 blog
Do you see a trend??? And don't get all wound up and call me to tell me how busy you are (you know I just sit at home in a bean bag chair and eat cheetos). So go out and do something then write about it. Did you ever think for some of us that the only excitement we get is in your blog (pretty lame huh). See ya
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Too cool for school
Yes, after a two month long hiatus, I have returned. You know it's bad when you get a valentine card that says "thinking of you and waiting for some blogs." Yeah, you know who you are. Anyway, I vow to not let it go for two months again, mostly because I can't stand the nagging :)
Anyway, yes, it did in fact get cold in Mississippi. In fact, for some people it was too cool for school, literally. Some kids did not come to school because it was too cold out. How do I know? Well, they are 5, they don't know what they should tell you and what they shouldn't.
These last two weeks have been crazy ones. The end of January I 
was visited by Jeannie, Delbert and Darlene. A few highlights from their trip:
was visited by Jeannie, Delbert and Darlene. A few highlights from their trip:* Visited school I was told, "you all look alike." I said, "really? why?" "Cause you all white."
* "Muh Ward, I like your mama's hair. I like your grandmama's hair." Then they started petting my mom.
* Ice/sleet/closures throughout Memphis. Drove to Tunica instead (16 miles south) for a visit to the casino and Paula Deen's restaurant. We drove over the bridge to Arkansas, although looking back on it, that bridge is the place people stay away from in bad weather.
* We putzed around the house, listened to the dog bark under the house, catfish museum, got ice cream from Sonic, the usual.
Then after a hectic three days of catching up and trying to get ahead on work and grad school, Sara came to visit. And back to the Jackson airport I went! She came to school on Friday and didn't put up with ANY crap from the kids (who got to dress out for the second time EVER and were wild as a pack of monkeys). She spent the morning reading with small groups and trying to keep them from crawling in her lap. During my planning period we frantically finished and submitted a paper/powerpoint by noon when it 
wasn't due until Midnight--masters professors need to learn am & pm. Friday night was a lazy night...Sara said kindergarten tuckered her out (the reason I have gray hair). That weekend we toured Cleveland and Indianola. We went out for crawdad's with a big crew and then to a place called the Pickled Okra for a night out with locals. Sunday, after a slow moving Kami got kicked in gear-Memphis! We had BBQ and catfish at a place we LOVED the last time we were on Beale and then went to the Peabody to see the ducks march. Home for more Sonic, papers to grade and the superbowl. Who dat? It was a great weekend and an AWESOME two weeks. I L.O.V.E. visitors!! hint, hint :)
wasn't due until Midnight--masters professors need to learn am & pm. Friday night was a lazy night...Sara said kindergarten tuckered her out (the reason I have gray hair). That weekend we toured Cleveland and Indianola. We went out for crawdad's with a big crew and then to a place called the Pickled Okra for a night out with locals. Sunday, after a slow moving Kami got kicked in gear-Memphis! We had BBQ and catfish at a place we LOVED the last time we were on Beale and then went to the Peabody to see the ducks march. Home for more Sonic, papers to grade and the superbowl. Who dat? It was a great weekend and an AWESOME two weeks. I L.O.V.E. visitors!! hint, hint :)In kindergarten we are 1/3 of the way through...holy cow! Some of my kids are progressing really well. We have grown .6 years in reading mainly this semester. However, we still have a long way to go and a lot of LOW kids to get moving. I'm starting to get antsy for summer or warm weather at least. It's currently snowing outside, where did I move to?? My summer plans are to either work in the delta for TFA during their summer institute or be back in Minnesota sitting on a lake. Either one sounds amazing right now.
A few shoutouts:
* Happy birthdays to Rachel, Dani and Craig...
* Thanks to the MPI crew for keeping me informed of your antics over the weekend despite being 900+ miles away, much appreciated!
* Congrats to Joe (or as Sugarland says JOEY!!!) for getting into pharmacy school! Woop, woop, DULUTH!
PS...for those of you that do not have to work tomorrow. Don't even think about calling me. Bitter Betty over here has to make up a snow-day when half of the schools in our district do not. I don't EVEN want to talk about it. Ilovemykids.Ilovemykids.Ilovemykids.Ilovemykids.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
"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 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!"
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!"
Saturday, December 12, 2009
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.
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.
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