Muh Waaaaard, he took my cray-on.

First week survival, YES (fist pump, Napoleon Dynamite style)! I should go back to last years' and see what kind of chaos I was feeling at this point. Let me tell you....last week, I was EXCITED to go to school. My class was GOOD. They stood hip and lip. We walked in a mostly straight line. They know we don't want to hit people who are on our team. Wh, wh, wh, what? What is going on in my life and who are these children because this is not what I was anticipating and this DEFINITELY isn't anything that happened with the last class that I had for 9 whole months. There was a big TFA gathering on Friday night hosted by a community member and all of the first-years would vent about how awful their first week was and then ask how mine went and I truthfully didn't want to tell them. It was so good! Although today was a bit more of a dose of reality...they were worse today and it was the first day that kids legitimately had to stay in from recess and finished on not so nice colors at the end of the day. Let me specific though...I do not have any of the severe behavioral issues that I dealt with last year. Today they were just chatty. We'll work on it.

Here is the lo down of children in my room, once again good luck with the names: Floressa, Autoria, Jaylon, Tyla, D'Marco, Braxton, Kayla, Tyra, Michelle, Tryen, Cedric, Lebruhnze, Jaquavious, Kenqualon, Zydrell, Maya, Jordan, Arian, Ladarious and Antonius. It's not too bad. They are all sweet in their own way. One of them, who is definitely one of my little buddies has the shortest attention span on the face of the planet and is just ALL OVER. He means well, he really does. He also talks like he is younger than 5 years old, as in my quote.

I am going to hope that this year my students will know that I mean business. However, I'm not sure how to convey to them that I can't stand criers. Today was day 6 of school and someone has cried EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. I just wave them to my assistant...I can't handle it. Sorry, I have 20 other students, not going to baby this one because they "want their mama." My assistant is good about it though...she's MUCH sweeter than I am :)

AND, one of the best things...I was able to finish my lesson plans lickity-split last week (good thing because I didn't get started until 10 p.m. on Thursday night) because I already had them on my computer or in hard copy. That seriously rocks. Now let's talk about what doesn't rock. My kids are going to be tested next week to see if they can use blocks or other manipulatives and count forward to 20 and backwards from 10. What a mess, we are going to bomb that part of it. They have just not had enough practice or time, but don't tell the school district that. They are giving us our objectives 3 week at a time and then are coming in to test our kids (ALL kids in the district) to ensure that we are doing our jobs. I have no had anyone in my room, even though the curriculum team was at school last Thursday and Friday. I consider that a blessing, they are HARD on people and basically write evaluations telling our best teachers (the ones with the HIGHEST state test scores in our district) that they are doing a terrible job. Whatever....we'll see if I get visitors this week...I could probably bet my bottom dollar on it.

Another big event happening...I signed up for grad school classes today. Yeah, yeah, I know, I really hate grad school. But I can get my masters in elementary education basically free, so I'm going to start it. I'm taking two classes, one is in-class the other is online but I have a friend also doing the same one. So, besides teaching a class of 21 kindergartners, leading weekly meetings for first year teachers in Greenwood with my roommate, taking two classes, and helping train all TFA Kindergarten teachers in the Delta...ugh, my blood pressure is rising. It'll be fine, our weekly meetings are over in October and the monthly learning team is semi-planned out already. I'm doing a solid job at making my second year of teaching not as easy as it should be, but it'll pay off.

One quote today, I asked my kids to show me their teeth (aka smile) and one kid goes, "I got me some gold ones" he meant silver, I think, I didn't see any gold ones in his mouth but who knows. Last week was the first time that I could honestly say, "I love my life" in the delta and what a great feeling that was! Let's hope that my class and the rest of this who-ha doesn't get to be too much, but I think it will be fine. And GUESS WHAT ELSE?! I am going to be at the MINNESOTA STATE FAIR IN 10 days....WAHOOOOOO!!! :) :) :) How could I NOT love my life then! Ingrid's wedding in t-12 days :)

PS, it is the GREATEST feeling in the world to see the kids you had last year and have them smile and wave all sweet and such saying, "hey Ms. Ward" so calm and quiet...because rest assured these children were not calm and quiet last year. I had one mother just call me to talk about her daughter's home work....she told me the daughter I had last year got a note sent home saying she was rolling her eyes at the teacher. HA, that's the kid I know! Gosh I love them...when they are not in my class :)

Lastly...it's hot as sin here. Humid as all get out. The first day of school is not the day to learn how to wear liquid eye liner. And my kids notice my jiggly arm fat. Gosh I love them.

Motivational speeches

Well, I figured since lsat year I wrote a post the morning of my first day of school...I'd better keep up the tradition. AND because the feelings from last week's professional development is inconsistent with how I should feel on my first day of a new school year.

First off, see.ya.summer. Where did you go? It was fun while it lasted I guess!

Like I said, last week we had professional development as a DISTRICT for three days. We were able to get into the school on Monday to work on our rooms, mind you it was the first day we saw our classrooms whereas other people in our district were done and ready. I created the motherload of all tornadoes in mine, unpacking as many boxes as possible and trying to create a more functionable classroom that looks semi-organized. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday were spent at district meetings, last year we had one morning of district meetings. Because the MCT2 test scores came back failing and because we have a new superintendent who is all about rattling people and making changes, this was just another to add to the list. Don't get me wrong, some of the sessions were good and I wish I had them last year as a new teacher. However, during the opening speeches/welcome on Tuesday morning, our fearless leader graciously told us things like, "if you do wrong, I will do everything in my power to destroy you." Or, "if this is not the job for you, get out. Get out." The philosophy is to create fear and scare us into doing our jobs rather than making us WANT to do our jobs and help these kids pass the test. Just so you know, my school is the only one NOT failing or in the at risk of failing category. However, in the eyes of the state, each school doesn't get a ranking, the district gets a ranking as a whole.

So, the new changes...they implemented a district-wide curriculum. I have a guide that tells me what I am going to teach for the first two weeks of school The district is going to come in on the 25, 26, and 27 of August and test my students. This is not a bad plan, however, the people that wrote the kindergarten guide really don't know kindergarten. My kids need to be able to count forward to 20 and backwards from 10 WITH manipulatives. Counting is hard enough at first, much less being able to do one-to-one correspondence. Some of my kids struggled with that up until March. They also need to be able to generate rhyming words and identify beginning sounds. Um, really? Two weeks? Did I mention that they have to match all uppercase and lowercase letters. However, when most teachers teach letters they teach the sound at the same time, it just makes sense. Don't worry, teaching letters/sounds is not listed for the first two weeks. I'm venting about it, but not too worried just yet. Their main purpose is that kindergartners should be reading and being able to do all of these other skills, well, my students were reading by the end of the year and because I know what is going on, this year should be even easier to make that happen and get them further. Our goal is to be reading on the middle of a first grade level by May. Lastly, we are all on job-improvement plans, which basically means if you mess up this year you're done.

Well, after those motivational speeches, I felt so ready to get into my classroom and teach my kids and enjoy the school year because I know it was going to be better than last year...etc.....wait, that is sarcastic. I realized quickly that fear does not motivate me, it only makes me nervous. Thursday, after district meetings, we had a community walk in which we went into our school communities, in the areas which students lived and passed out fliers encouraging them to register for school. Well, not only is this mildly dangerous, wait, scratch the mildly, it IS dangerous. My co-teacher was offered drugs, and just hoped that it wasn't a student's parent.

Okay, onto Friday. Our 2nd day of working in our rooms. We had the morning to get ready, thank goodness. Went to lunch. Then came back and ended up having a 4 hour meeting. OMG. I was wicked stressed by the end just knowing that my room wasn't ready and I didn't want to stay at school all night. However, I threw the last bits together, figured that my desk would never be truly organized so I wasn't going to fret about that and called it good. I left that night NOT feeling prepared for the first day, I should not feel like that! Everyone else got rosters of their students, Kindergarten did not. We were told that because there are not two full classes registered, when they come in on Monday a body will just be put in our rooms and then a roster will be created after that. So, the kids in my room today, might not be the kids I have this year. OMG. I freaked about this a bit. That also means that there is no point in learning my classroom rules and procedures because they might end up in the other room with different procedures. I can't give them lunch numbers, write out table nametags or assign bookbag places until a roster is created. The real kicker is that when they come in today, many of them will just come in on their own without parents and they aren't going to know how to spell their name so I'm going to have to phonetically spell it (write it out it sounds) on a label and stick it to their shirt, which in turn is going to make me look like an idiot because chances are it won't EVEN be close!

Ahh...this is why I spent all day yesterday working on school stuff but not being generally excited about school. I shouldn't feel like that. I think part of my problem is that because I'm a 2nd year, I have no excuses for getting it wrong or not having things under control. Everyone says it is SO much easier your 2nd year, I just hope I am not the exception. Time to take our ritual first-day-of-school picture!

Welcome home, let's get to work.

Back in the Deltaaaaa...

Wow, hard to believe summer is o-ver. :( Where is an emoticon with tears, for real. Summer in Winona was in one word: fabulous. Minus the grad school-sitting-in-the-library-everyday-part. However, I submitted two drafts of my thesis and her last comments told me I am just about in the home stretch. WAHOO!!! I also managed to spend some time on the lake, in Amboy, Mapleton for Abby's wedding, and generally loving life in Winona. I came back to the Delta early because I am leading the Kindergarten Learning Team this year (for all Kinder TFA teachers in the Delta). However, after getting back I learn that I am also doing pre-k as well. WHAT?! If my kids went through a solid, useful pre-k program, do you KNOW how much my life would ROCK?! Someday...

So...I got back to the Delta on Monday (14+ hours driving), surprised Lois by tearing into the house as we were talking to each other on the phone, hopped back into the car to go to dinner with Cody, then out to the bar to see some other 2nd years and meet some of the new first years. I was dead.ash.tired. But thus began a whirlwind week. With learning team on Tuesday, then hosting new corps members Tuesday evening, then driving them all over Ruleville/Cleveland areas looking for housing, by Thursday night I felt like a first year all over again. HOWEVER, the new corps members are frickin' wonderful. The Ruleville/Cleveland people are so much fun and it's going to be so exciting to have more people in this area. TFA went on overload in the Delta this year and expanded BIG time. My corps had roughly 100 people. This year they brought in 280 new teachers. We expanded into new school districts, towns, areas of the delta...it's pretty fricking amazing. The motto presented to them at induction was, "welcome home, let's get to work" because there is oh so much work to be done here.

The week finished with our big move on Saturday. Lois and I decided to start packing at 10 p.m. on Friday night...whoops. Luckily we have AMAZING friends (who are male) who came and helped us move all of our furniture and big things. We couldn't have done it without them, no joke. After moving 3 blocks away into the Ruleville Manor (homestead for the guy who started Ruleville), we both decided we hated moving. We have so much stuff. This house is fully furnished, which is awesome. However, we did a lot of work to move the old stuff (hide old pots, pans, dishes, etc.) in order to make room for our new stuff. Luckily we have a HUGE attic that is full of furniture, Lois and I go up there multiple times a day thinking, "hm..I could use a nightstand or dresser or headboard/bed frame" and go up to the attic and have our pick of things. I wish moving/settling were always this easy :) We each have our own rooms and our own offices...we also have a spare bedroom, hint, hint, come visit...

So...other things happening...school starts in two weeks from today. Funny, until the other day we all thought our school district was starting on Thursday the 6th....now it's not until Monday the 10th. Oh well. I've been busy with Learning Team sessions and trainings and trying to help other people have the things they need to get ready for the first days of school. This has forced me to get myself ready at the same time.

This past weekend we left the Delta for a mini-vacay. What? I lost my tan in the week that I had been back...had to make that up somehow. Cody and I went to Pensacola and stayed with his friend Matt who recently moved there. We spend Friday and Saturday at the most BEAUTIFUL beach EVER and left with wicked tans. I thought my face felt funny on the drive home, a bit like I imagine botox feeling...sure enough, the entire thing peeled yesterday and I am refusing to go out in public for the rest of the week. My skin is an eery combination of tan and then stark white. mehhhh.

This coming weekend I'm meeting up with the crazy cousins in Missouri (Matt, Kayla, Gini, Tony, Nicki, Tim). Oh goodness, I don't know if I'm ready for them. Then again, I don't know if they are ready for a true bean bag tournament, pictures will be posted...maybe even e-mailed out if you are lucky :)

Enough of the lame blog...I really have nothing interesting to stay. It's been raining all day and I'm still sitting in my bed with my laptop pretending that I'm going to start getting some work done. Tomorrow I'm going to try and get into school to start setting up my room aka killing roaches and spiders that have taken up residency in my room for the summer. Oh the Delta.

Peace, love and pecans.

Milo and Otis theme song...youtube it...*love*

Oh.my.GRACIOUS....we made it. Where ON EARTH did this year go. I'm finished. Done-zo. First year of teaching is in the books...what???? Sara made me update, but refused to make an outline of things I need to cover, so it'll be sporadic.

We finished our three+ weeks of testing....thank goodness that part was over. It rocked to finally be able to do our nine-weeks test whole group (meaning I don't have to administer them one-on-one). The last week of school was spend preparing for our "transition program." A whack title, but no one asked me. The night before, I was stuck at school for an extra 90 minutes printing off certificates for this program. We had promotion certificates all signed and ready, but since not all students were being promoted, they obviously couldn't get them. Lame. I figured we would be a hot mess, as my class normally is for ANY type of program. That morning they came dressed to the nine's. It was only the 2nd day all year they didn't have to wear their uniform...and most of them came to school with their "hair did." Did I mention that more than one of the boys had light blue polyester multi-piece suits...wicked cute!

Anyway, we started the program with our kindergarten poem. I had the letters spelling out Kindergarten and each of them shared a big letter with a partner. They would go to the microphone and say their lines. Such as, K is for kindergarten....hip, hop, hurray. Well, we were doing alright, until we got to the last E. My two youngest, most immature boys were in charge of that letter. Well, when it was time for them to walk up to the microphone, it looked basically like deer in headlights, they totally balked. I thought, oh.friggin.cripes. What are we going to do. Well, I was sitting in the front row, so I went up the steps and coaxed the first one to the microphone telling him that I would say it too. This is the child who doesn't talk, so clearly I anticipated this going smoothly. He takes my hand, we walk to the microphone and together say, "E is for excitement..." The crowd is laughing hysterically, mostly because of the boys that refused to say their line, partially because I'm up there in a dress and heels reciting the same lines as 5 year olds. I take him back to his spot and have to coax the other one. He cried most of the morning (didn't like his outfit I guess) and didn't necessarily need my help, but walked to the microphone and in the crabbiest, maddest voice EVER said, "this.year.we've.had.some." which caused everyone to laugh again, but at least he was done. Oh goodness, get me off the stage, out of these shoes, and away from an audience making my kids cry. However, that was our final hurdle. We survived. We were done.

So....the last couple of days were spent cleaning and packing. Blah. I left school on Friday (the last day) not feeling as joyful as I anticipated. But a bonfire that evening was totally necessary. I spent memorial day weekend sulking about not being on the lake...and grading/doing grad school work. Tuesday was our last teacher workday...it should be listed on our yearly calendar as "day from hell." We had to be there at 7:30 a.m. only to sit around and pick our noses until everyone else finished their grades. Report cards had to be printed, verified, signed. Cumulative folders had to be finished, verified, immunization records updated, and stickers put in with grades. Let me tell you, none of this was even STARTED to be printed or verified until 3:30 p.m. I left at 6:10 and was one of the first 5 finished. ANNOYING! However, I literally screamed the entire way to Indianola, so frickin' excited to have survived and put the first year behind me (I was light-headed from screaming so much!).

Two days later....up at 5 a.m....16 hour drive to Amboy. It wasn't even awful (except for the moment I realized I forgot my fishing poles in Ruleville)! Granted, I'm thankful for having friends call me and having the internet on my phone ;) I'm not a fan of Missouri though...I will put that out there. It's been a whirlwind this past week....Amboy for a couple of days, Ingrid's bridal shower, turning in my 4th and final grad school contract, procrastinating starting my thesis paper, and L.O.V.I.N. my life in Winona. It's so beautiful here....enough to get us up at 6:15 a.m. to power walk around the lake. If you talk to me this summer and I don't have my thesis done, yell at me. If I'm sitting outside and haven't been to the library yet, yell at me. If I have been fishing and playing golf but not working on that stupid paper....feel free to drop kick my butt to next week.

Headed to the cabin for the weekend....fishing, swimming, laying out, reading books, eating smores and hotdogs over the campfire and eeeeekkkk'ing about how much I love life :) :) :)

sig g's and freezees

Wow, I feel funny. Like not normal and definitely not myself. School is over in 2.5 days. I made it, almost. I'm sort of in a whimsical state, like not quite believing that it's possible, but also not wanting to wake up from that dream. We finished our math nine-weeks test yesterday and the reading today. We technically are supposed to give them on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday....but because we have kindergarten and they generally take longer, we got to start early. No one needs to know how early we finished though. Don't worry, we don't sit around and watch movies all day. Last Wednesday my principal decided we were going to have an awards program for the lower grades (K-2nd) and the kindergartners were going to do the program to show what they learned. It's like a graduation, without calling it such. I think we call it a promotion program or transition program, I forgot. Either way, we have to learn a song/dance and do some type of performance to show "what we learned." Well, my kids are going to be doing a Kindergarten poem, which they started learning today. Whoops...they each have one line written on the back of a big card and the cards spell out the word kindergarten. I'm not sure how many will freeze up and either refuse to talk or forget their lines, either way, it'll be a hot mess just like every other performance we've done this year! But, they get to wear their "Sunday Best" so you better believe I'm going to have my camera battery charged!! oh.em.gee, I'm nervous for our "performances"...if we hadn't been testing ALL of last week and most of this week we could have spent much more time practicing...however, that CLEARLY would have made sense.

We had a Pre-K transition meeting today for all parents of future Kindergartners. About 8 showed up, typical. I'm not sure if the invitations went out, nor do I think phone calls were actually made about it. However, each parent got a sweet workbook to work with their children this summer along with a pencil box of triangle-sided crayons, pencil and scissors. Pretty sweet...just for showing up. Because the other Kindergarten teacher is leaving next year, parents want their kid in my room because no one knows what the next teacher will be like. I just keep thinking, "HA, you say that now...." However, rumor has it that they hired a teacher that was here 3 years ago...she's of the motherly-age....and apparently wicked good. Perfect.

In terms of TFA and my first year of teaching...I'm D.O.N.E! I had my end of year meeting with my program director tonight. He was wicked excited about the reading levels my kids finished on and how they did on their big TFA math test. Our class average was a 92% for meeting kindergarten math standards. And we finished the year with a 1.37 growth in reading, thus meaning we grew more than one year in our reading...or so they say. This leads to the term significant gains or "sig g's" as Lois and I refer to it. TFA is all about having corps members make "sig g's" in their classroom because it means your students are learning more than expected in a typical year. I don't know how they figure out if you actually make "sig g's" but I guess I did. I just wish I were more confident in a handful of children moving on to first grade but seeming low in reading and math skills. What can you do at this point though. I'm retaining two students and will request getting one of them back. The other one can go into the other classroom and I'll be happy with that! It's mean, but he's a baddddd little boy. He still sucks his fingers, he doesn't talk, yet he is just bad. He takes pencils from other tables, he takes books from other kids, he doesn't do his work, he doesn't pay attention, he doesn't do ANY work unless I'm standing over him, he just needs to mature and stop writing jibberish all of his papers! Blahhh....done venting about the only mostly-silent child in my room...

Was in Winona last weekend to celebrate the sissy that graduated! It was soooo wonderful to be back! I really love that place...in case you hadn't heard, and if that's the case, are we really friends!? Basically flew back into Jackson in the middle of a tornado warning, life is sweet. Last week it rained ALL of the flipping time. And if it wasn't raining it was 85 with 90% humidity...FA REAL. I gave up running after I felt like I was going to die one afternoon. Friday is our last day of school, my room is getting pretty much cleaned/packed up. I do a lot during school!! Tuesday we have to come in to do grades and turn in things...sounds simple but I heard last year they were at school until like 7 p.m. Lame. Wednesday I'll pack and Thursday I'm going to ATTEMPT to drive the entire way from Ruleville to Amboy! Wish me luck and PLEASE call me SOMETIME during the day :) I wish my computer had auto-type so I could just say what I wanted it to type....then grad school would be done and out of my hair...it's all due on the 31st...EEEEEK!! How can the official start of summer (Memorial Day) happen without being at the lake or grilling or eating smores or sitting outside with freezees...instead I'm going to be pulling my hair out in human development crap. While doing so, maybe I'll go burn some student papers and toast some mallows....the.life.

Lastly....I'm in DESPERATE need of some Kindergarten and first grade workbooks to use for homework packets for next year. I have a few, but they won't get us through the year. The ones we used this year are being returned to the teacher they were borrowed from. Anyway...if you find any that are cheap but have enough activities/problems on the page to make it worth copying for my students...please let me know.

Miss you immensely and see you soooooooooooon :) :) :)

In Mis'sippi the rain dudn't drain, them skreets be flooded.

Well, here's another round of quotes from my class....I wrote down one today and realized how many I had stuck in a book and figured I'd better share them soon....

Me: read this word "cash." Did you hear the /sh/?
L.G.: Ms. Ward, when I grow up, Imma make me some caaaaash.

L.G.: Oh my Lord!
I look at him...
L.G.: I didn't say that, I didn't say that!

J.W. reading: Can the ______. It can't get up in there. Can the elephant get in? No it can't.

P.H.: I like Ms. Ballard
Me: That's fine, so I do I, she's my friend.
L.G.: No, he said he go with Ms. Ballard!

I.W.: Ms. Ward? You got make up on your eye? Close your eye, lemme see. (I closed me eyes) YEP!

unknown: Ms. Ward, Tyler just said s o o
Me: so? who cares, sit down and read.
L.G.: na-uh that's a curs word!

Supposed to find the beginning letter of nail. T.W. says, "it's an l." C.C. says, "that ain't no L, it's a dog-gone N." This child doesn't speak.

Talking about the underground railroad, Me: what were those people called?
J.T.: Chinese!
(oh.crap)

L.G.: Ms. Ward, you getting real, real flat (patting his stomach) (for a second I thought he said fat!)

Me: Is it raining?
D.W.: it fit to
translation: it's about to

"say what?"
Me: say what? say what? (like on Hannah Montana)
ALL kids: OOOOOHHHHH! (they totally think I'm uncool and don't watch Hannah Montana!)

L.G. gives me a hug in line for lunch.
Me: aw, you're so sweet."
L.G.: I'm a lil love bird

J.T.: I went to the doctor
Me: why?
J.T.: I was throwin' up!
Me: OH NO!
J.T.: I stayed there 'bout two weeks and came home with toys. They gave me two baby dolls.

T.W.: There a livin' room?
L.G.: Ain't no dog-gone livin' room up in here, it's uh classroom

Me: Don't even pretend to have something in your mouth
L.G.: I'm eatin' my tongue.

Muh Ward, I got uh cricket in my stomach, Ima mean in my throat. (aka a hiccup)

(acting like I was crying) it's so sad someone wrote in my book. I wonder who did that?
T.W.: probly erylast one of 'em

T.W.: I ain' nothing but a cockeyed!
Me: WHAT?
(after lots of questions…)
T.W.: you know, one eyed cockeyed, one not.”
Me: Oh, can you see me?
T.W.: Yep, an I can see the wall too.
Me: Oh? Can you see the book? Good, let’s read.
T.W.: Ahhhh, you be stressin’ me outttt….

L.G.: (supposed to be looking at the word wall) I need to go outside ‘n teach my brudda how to swing—as he stares at the pre-k kids on the playground

(reading a book about a girl sitting out on her tree house) “man, that girl be sitting there and get real, real black. She gonna be a black choca chip.

L.P: I can’t eat orange no more cause I throwed up
L.G.: I can’t eat bread no more
Me: Yes you can, you’re telling me a story (aka a lie)
L.G.: No I’m ain’t
Me: Say no I’m not.
L.G. No I’m ain’t

T.W.: Muh Ward, if yo teacher has a baby, you hafta help her (RANDOM)

I.W.: (during rest) Muh Ward, muh sista had a baby
Me: (not listening very well) What? Your sister?
I.W.: Yea, cause she be havin’ sex wit a boy…

Me: use white in a sentence
Kids: your board is white. You white.
L.G.: Sydney’s white
Sydney: I ain’t white, I brownnnnnn

M.R.: (after talking about my “truck) Muh Ward, you must got no kids (I guess I don’t get our connection here?)

Student: what that right there? (pointing at my neck/chest)
Me: Sunburn, cause I sat in the sun yesterday. Your skin gets darker when you’re in the sun.
L.G.: nu-uh, I’m BLACK.
T.S.: My cousin get like that?
Me: Oh yeah? How come?
T.S.: Cause he white

Me: (saying the sounds in the word hippo)
S.H.: Hippo
Me: Good, with an s on the end we would say….
S.H.: hungry hippos
Me: it word family, what letter could you put in front
L.G.: B?
Me: okay, write the B first, then i t.
L.G.: B E T?
Me: No, we’re not watching BET.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Well, I'm back in Winonaaaaa....oh my gosh, I love my life. I flew out yesterday to spend a couple of days here for Cassie's graduation. Thought I wasn't going to make it, I had to fake a migraine yesterday to leave school early and catch my flight, then I broke my favorite watch....stupid karma. Then I got to Jackson only to realize my flight was delayed 15 minutes, no big deal. However, the screen said I would be getting to Dallas/Fort Worth at 7:10 and my next flight was at 7:15. Don't worry, I got to Dallas at 6:55 and trucked it to my gate making it to the final boarding call. PHEW! Sara GRACIOUSLY brought it to my attention, "you realize you hardly have time to make it to your flight, what about your bag." Well, lo and behold, my bag was at baggage claim in MSP before I even made it there!! Cassie and Joe picked me up (and brought me a delightfully organic sack lunch) and we made it to Winono-where by 12:15!

Hard to believe there are only two weeks left of school...and I am taking two days off, whoops. We spent all week testing and will spend all of the next two, testing as well. They're in kindergarten for cripes sake, but whatever. Is it real...did I really make it to the end of the school year? Wait, rewind that, we haven't made it yet.

Forgot to write about a big event in Kindergarten a couple of weeks back....we took a trip to the natural science museum in Jackson. It was an adventure. It was also the day after Easter break. Once we left the Delta, we were going over the los hills (I think that's what they're called--they are rolling hills, but in the Delta we have pure flatness) and each time we went over one the entire bus would say, "OOOOOOHHHHHH!" Heck, we could have skipped the museum and driven over hills and they would have been happy. I had a few parent volunteers, so I gave each of them 5 kids to be responsible for...well some were very concerned about their 5 students, while others were not. Rude. Whatever...no one got lost. But just in case they did, I made them put a slip of paper in their pockets that said, "If found...please call this student's teacher at ....." Haha, it's like putting a tag on your dog, right?! I even have a picture of me HOLDING A BIG FRIGGIN SNAKE!! It'll be posted, eventually!

Okay, happy Thursday....sorry for all of the suckas that have to work for the rest of the week ;) Congrats to Cassie on finishing her undergrad...and running a pseudo-half marathon today! Pray for my cousin Rachel's surgery tomorrow.

Gotta jet....gonna go stick my face in the lilac bushes since they are BLOOMING (and we don't have those in the delt)!!

Roach races and rodent wars

Alright, alright, twice in the same week....don't get your undies in a bunch, it's just been one helluva week. Let me preface this story by saying that I REALLY dislike bugs or any animal in the house that does not use a litter box. Even at the age of probably 20 I would wake my mom up in the middle of the night to kill a spider in my room. I was sitting on my bed on Sunday night getting some work done when I thought I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. I leaned over, and sure enough saw something move again. Well, at this point it was moving so fast that I wasn't sure if it was a mouse or a roach...but it didn't appear to be black (like most roaches). None the less, I sat on my bed screaming for my roommate. I pointed in between some boxes, she started kicking them and I saw the rodent race around the outside of my room. I kept screaming and pointing, and Lois was always about two feet behind. By this point I am standing on my bed screaming bloody murder. Finally it runs into my closet/laundry room. To make a long story short, we have a brilliant idea to barricade the door with plastic tubs, rags, cardboard, tag board and a broom (thinking this thing couldn't get higher than 5.5 feet). We were on our way to Wal-Mart to get a trap (at 9:30 on Sunday night). Luckily Ballard had some sticky traps, so we saved ourselves a trip. We baited it with a peanut butter glob the size of the rodent itself and let it sit. In about 2 minutes we heard it squeal. Lois was brave and stood on the chair we had drug into my room and peered over our barricade only to see the mouse stuck on the trap. PHEW. Well, we are wimps...and she sort of practices Buddhism (aka she doesn't like to kill animals) so we decide to leave it for the night and we'll take care of it in the morning.

Morning: right before we are about to leave...we go to get the mouse and decide we could just leave it outside and let the cats have their way with it. We (Lois) peer over the barricade only to find....nothing. The mouse AND trap are gone. WTF...how is that possible. I spent the day in disbelief, thinking that mouse was in my room and probably in my bed. That afternoon our landlord called in a pest person who laughed at our barricaded closet...and told us those sticky traps will catch mice but they can also get out of it easily. He put out little bags that will attract the mice and somehow makes them so thirsty they HAVE to go outside in search of water and will die out there....perfect. However, less than an hour after he left, I was doing work (again on my bed) and I heard that friggin mouse eating at the bag...HE WAS STILL IN MY ROOM. Like a bad song on repeat, I screamed for Lois and we listened to the mouse eat the bag, both highly disturbed. I wanted to open the door and chase it out with a broom, but the chances of that being successful were probably slim to none with our luck.

Anyway...here it is 4 nights later, I'm still sleeping on the couch...I wear shoes AT ALL times...and the mouse ate from the bag two separate times but the bag hasn't moved since. I HATE MICE...and the idea of one in my room, ick, ick, ick, ick, ICK. My kids learned about mysteries this week, since the fact the mouse and trap were gone on Monday morning was a definite mystery (don't worry, we found the trap under the dryer).

To top it off, I went to school on Tuesday morning and saw a roach scamper past the door when I opened it. Sick...but it went behind some shelves so I wasn't too concerned. However, a few minutes later I walked over to get copy paper out and the darn thing was rushing after me. I turned and hopped to the rug and it followed....ick, ick, ick...how on earth am I getting chased by a ROACH. I BRAVELY took off a shoe and dropped it on him...luckily I had good aim. Normally I go to the cafeteria and get a kid who will come kill it for me :) I guess I'm getting to be a big kid, huh?!

Today was supposed to be our first soccer game, but my principal didn't want all of those kids in the damp grass...what? Have I mentioned that I coach soccer nowadays? Well, I'm not sure if you call what I'm doing "coaching." But, I don't know if you call what these kids are doing "playing soccer" either. I mean really they are in 1st-3rd grade...it's nothing major. My team is full of high-strung boys that I have to scream at to stop fighting over the ball...but I think once we start games they can run off all of that energy! These kids just aren't used to anything being organized...therefore when they try something new they go crazy with new found freedom. I really just want games to start because I know NOTHING about soccer and run out of things to do to keep them entertained at practice!

Don't worry, I made it until May 1st without turning on my air conditioning! Some teachers have had theirs on for several weeks. EVERYONE that came in my room yesterday complained that it was hot. Even the stupid people that come to test my kids for this pilot program about vocabulary. WHAT ON EARTH, I'VE NEVER EVEN MET YOU! Our therapist told me she couldn't breathe because it was so hot in my room...I think if I were wearing a pink wool suit I would feel the same. To tell you the truth, I'm afraid to turn on my AC for fear that a GIANT cloud of dust is going to come out of it. No.joke.

Quote from my kids referencing my sunburn on Monday, "muh Ward, what's that red stuff all ova yo neck?" Or "lemme touch that." PS, I saw my first armadillo the other day, granted it was dead on the side of the road, it was an armadillo none the less. PPS, the movie Steel Magnolias is much more real to me now that I have lived here...and much more witty than I ever remember it being! LESS than a week until WINONA :) :) :) :)

Happy May Day tomorrow...it will forever remind me of the Grover's and living in the country.

PS, sorry for those of you that read the Jeannie-un-edited version....who knew I had grammer critics....