Last Week's Polar Express

Finally uploading pics! :)
Here are some pics from the Polar Express our amazing PTO set up!

Enjoying hot cocoa and cookies in our PJ's while the Conductor reads to us.

(notice the lights on the train!)

Our PTO knows how to have fun, the snowmen are sliding down the hill!
PLUS who doesn't love going to work in their Pajamas?

10 days til Mismas!

We have a little Kinder at school who fights a battle with speech. Today during lunch we were discussing the up coming break and the holidays at the table, and very very excitedly my little friend says "AND THEN IT"S MISMAS!" Took me a quick ponder to figure out he meant Christmas, but I certainly share his enthusiasm!

OH AND I GOT MY ERIN CONDREN Life Planner, I AM in love! I got one for the hubs too and he LOVES it!
Seriously the PERFECT planner. check out her site here, I have no idea how I ever lived without this thing.

Happy ALMOST winter break to you all!

You found WHAT in the trash can?

So today was an eventful Monday.
Was supposed to sub all day so that Carol could attend a Webinar. This said webinar was due to begin at 8 this morning. Then delayed to 11:30, so Carol and I adjust and readjust our day. Then after lunch as I was thinking through the afternoon in my head we walk back into the classroom and Carol is there! They couldn't get it to work, I don't know if it was on our schools end or the other end, but mind you I just subbed last week or the week before for an afternoon, which was devoted to making sure things ran well for the webinar. Ironic, no?
Anyway I end up leaving a bit after 1:00 when it's clear the webinar won't be happening today. Run some errands, hang out with the pups briefly, a little clean up, then it's back to school for a meeting.
At this meeting I hear
"So, was it "Eric" who peed?"
My mind is just ????????
Turns out one of the kids, Kinder or First or someone from our bunch, 2nd and 3rd, had peed in the trashcan in the bathroom! I have no idea what the situation was here. Did he just make it to the bathroom with no time to make it to a toilet? Seriously who pees in a trash can???
I am baffled by this, I guess it happened this morning, and by the end of the day everyone was still clueless as to who had done it. Mind you there are only 40 some students in our school...

On a happier note, only 4 more days until break! YAY!

Coasting to Christmas

Things are just coasting along, there's always that time after Thanksgiving and before winter break.... it's bleh time in my eyes. Thanksgiving is a tease, lets you see how great Winter Break will be but then makes you suffer through 3 more weeks of school.
I've been super busy crocheting, gifts for my family, a project for a friend whose baby is due in February, as well as a few true orders! What's that, people who want to pay for my crafts?!?! EXCITING! It's seriously fun, but keeping me busy.

Today was the National Geography GEOBEE!!!! It was fun to go and watch the older kids. We didn't hold a preliminary round as we have just 10 students in 4th, 5th, and 6th, and that's how many are needed to participate in the final round. So we jumped ahead and just held the final round this morning. The kids did a good job, and it was exciting for the 2nd and 3rd grade to watch (HOLY COW were they a good audience, sat still and quiet for an hour with NO REMINDERS!!!) they also got to see how much "fear" there is involved with answering in front of a panel with audience members. I was shocked to hear that the majority of the questions were based on the States, I was thinking it would contain more global geography.

CHOO-CHOO, tomorrow is the POLAR EXPRESS :) There is a cardboard box train set up in the library and there will be pajamas worn to school, stories read, and hot chocolate to drink.

We are also gearing up for our first test with the new math program in 2nd grade, I am anxious to see how that goes next week. This program really makes the kiddos think, and the ones who were breazing through the previous program are finding a challenge with Everyday Math, I LOVE IT!

Thanksgiving made me lazy

The hubs and I had a great Thanksgiving weekend together (yes we both had the same time off!) it was a truly great weekend. We showered and then got back into our pajamas on Thanksgiving, we had a pj day complete with movies and pizza and ice cream, yum! We had offers to go to a few different peoples' houses to celebrate with them but we really just wanted to stay home and be lazy. We cooked up a huge Thanksgiving last year, and decided to just be slugs this year. No regrets.
Then the remaining 3 days we did a lot of sleeping in, a dinner with some friends, some meandering in the neighboring towns and tons of online shopping! We even got our Christmas tree and decorations up, although we couldn't find any eggnog to help with the festivities.
So after that glorious 4 day weekend I had to wake up and be chipper yesterday morning. Yikes! Plus we didn't stock up on Monsters (my coffee replacement until its truly cold outside), so it was a dragging morning. Once I got to school though I didn't feel all that tired, and the time went by quickly. Don't worry I still came home and took a snooze :) during the snoozing though I got all our laundry done and put away, so not a complete waste of an afternoon.
This brings us up to today. Still no Monsters to start the day off right, plus I was to sub in the afternoon, making it a full day of work! Boy have I gotten spoiled only working part time, hehe.
We are working on visualizing in Reading and I have an exert from a story to read to them and have them sketch tomorrow.
Math went pretty well today also, measuring using rulers and tape measures, they have been having a blast with this new math program. Tons of hands on activities and group work, which is really good because I have one in particular who really struggles in this area. I was attentive to her group today as I was certain problems would rise. And sure enough they did. But little did this one know that I had been watching the whole issue unfold, yay for being able to pay attention to a group when they think you are busy with another group! Any who I tried to let the group work it, the biggest issue today was agreeing on the length of the table in inches using a tape measure, I allowed all parties to explain the issue, and then our struggling friend told me we were all measuring it wrong and the answer was 33" yet was unable to explain why she thought so when asked. Turning into an argument, I suggested the group split and work as individuals if they couldn't work together, thus sending our struggler into a rant how it's always her fault, no one listens, yada yada yada. So I told her she needed to take a cube (their behavior system, start with 5 each day, each one they loose is leveled consequence), she proceeded to whine and complain pulling the "my mom is going to ground me" card. I was a bad bad teacher and ignored all the whining, being sure to help other groups/individuals, and praise the good work I saw.
Whoops sorry about the long story, just needed a bit of venting time.

Author Visit!

The wonderful author Lucy Coats came to visit our school today!
She is a brilliant woman full of life and passion for her work. It was great to hear her read aloud "King Ocean's Flute" a story she wrote for the younger kids. There really is nothing better than listening to a story being read by the one who created it, with all the right voices and emotions, just as it was before it was ever written down.
She did a session with K-2 and then another session with 3-6 so our class was split, I was able to go to the K-2 edition, but unfortunetly missed the 3-6 session, which from what I heard from the kids at recess was focused more on her book "Atticus The Storyteller's 100 Greek Myths" which would have been wonderful to hear but I was able to purchase a copy of the book and get her to sign it for me! YAY!

Here is her site if any of you are interested in checking her work out. Lucy Coats

Everyday Math!

Today I began teaching the new math curriculum the school purchased. It is the same program that was used in my student teaching classroom in 2009, which in years isn't that long ago, but it certainly feels like AGES! While I was familiar with the ideas of teaching Everyday Math, and all that goes with it, I hadn't gotten my hands on all the materials provided. I love it and the kids, although only one day in, have taken to it well. Some have used it in first grade, others are getting their first taste of it.
I like the routines and format the program uses.
This week marks the start of teaching PE for the quarter. How sad is it that I am looking forward to "comfy" clothes I can move in to wear to school?!

Sad news:
The African Snail the class had as a pet didn't make it through the weekend. He was a very cool guy the kids miss him and I know my co-teacher does too. He had been around for years, I want to say he was 6 years old? He was really starting to grow on me, I hope he enjoys his snail heaven.


The hubster and I went to our first UK Hockey Match last night! We had a team we LOVED in the states, the Idaho Steelheads. And we were happy to find the Skydome when we went to IKEA for the first time, and they have a hockey team! So last night we went to check it out, The Coventry Blaze. Its a much smaller arena than we are used to but it was a very good time. I think we'll continue to check them out.

My boyfriends back!

Okay, okay, so my husband is back! He got to come home early from his deployment, 5 months early in fact!!!!
I got to pick him up Saturday from the airport! I was getting along just fine and all while he was gone, but once I got word he would be coming back, and SOON, I started to realize just how much I had missed him!
Straight after picking him up we went to IKEA, a larger bed was in order. He had been sleeping in a king size bed while deployed, and I had become accustomed to stretching out in our double at home. It was known that we would not be able to live much longer with such a small bed. We thought we had a bed picked out from previous IKEA trips, but when we got there we changed our minds. It was a quick and easy change as we both agreed on a new frame and found a mattress almost straight away.

This is the one! They delivered it on Tuesday, and BOY IS IT HEAVEN!!!!! How did we ever share a double before!?
Needless to say I am one happy girl!

As far as school goes:
-First quarter is over, generally all went well
-Art projects are finished and displayed, I hope to add some pictures for you to see, they did a great job.
-PE starts this quarter, I'm kind of dreading it
-Parent/Teacher conferences were Wednesday and Thursday this week, everyone showed. Most parents were really receptive to things we had to say.
-Carol and I have started working out together at least twice a week, generally walking the perimeter road at a fast pace, it is about a 3 mile walk. (My dogs are loving it too!)

And I have a friend who has started a blog about her time being an au pair in Spain, so my goal is to keep up posting with her, a little friendly competition never hurt.

Lately

Things are going pretty well.
I am enjoying teaching Art this quarter, but I am sad because the students are taking far longer to complete projects than I had originally thought. They are also rather noisy, but I am conflicted with the noise, is it my own personal thing, that drives me crazy that they are so noisy, or are they really being too loud and not getting as much work done as they could. I understand it is art, expressive, fun, not the usual work in the classroom, and I wholeheartedly want them to enjoy art. YIKES! Maybe I'll just start wearing ear plugs to the art room.
The Henri Matisse projects I started the kids with, which I had planned to take 2 weeks, are looking now to take 4 weeks. I have had the 2/3 grade class for 3 classes now and only 2 have finished, so now onto finding something for finishers to do next week while we wait for the rest to finish. I am thinking maybe free drawing or painting, I also have a book of EXTREME dot-to-dot which I might make some copies of. I love the book personally, so maybe the students would like it too. That's artsy right?
I finally get to have the K/1 class on Friday afternoon, I haven't gotten to work with them in art yet because of early dismissals and inservice days, but I am looking forward to it. For their Henri Matisse inspired art I plan on using shape templates that they will color and then cut out and glue onto to solid color backgrounds.
I can't wait to post pictures of finished products soon.
If any fellow art teachers have any recommendations at all, I am very open :)

Back at it

Started work at the new school this week!
Monday was mostly paperwork and getting things sorted.
Tuesday the students went on a Study Trip to Oxford, there wasn't room on the bus, so I took the beginning of the day to bring in a few items from my closet and teaching things. Some more paperwork and got a login.
Wednesday and Thursday morning, I was able to do some observing in the 4/5/6 classroom, as well as the 2/3 classroom.
Friday the students only had a half day, After they all left, teachers were required to stay for some computer based training. Woo that was challenging.
Finally got it all done, and that felt good.

Friday evening we had a cookout, kind of as a going away for Aaron. Everyone had a good time, was fun to host again.

Yesterday was a craft lock in at the community center, took the Cricut and did some classroom crafts, and watched others sew. I think sewing will be the next hobby, can make some curtains for the house and various other things.

Laundry and some organizing today. Maybe catch up on some Grey's Anatomy.

imPATIENTLY waiting for tomorrow morning!

I am very eager to start work in the morning, could it hurry up and get here already?!
I have my schedule for the week, I am not sure if this will be the usual schedule, or just to get things started.... Hopefully an answer for that tomorrow.
I hope to do a lot of observing this week, get to know the teachers, staff, and students. Learn about them, the teachers style.
Another AWESOME thing: I get to walk to work! It's so close! Walking to and from work, and one of my goals while Aaron is deployed is to take the dogs on a walk every single day. For most of you with dogs, this might be no big deal, but usually we just play with the pups and they are good to go. But with Aaron gone, their play companion, they honestly don't enjoy playing with me, I'm not rough enough or something; I want to get them walking. Plus it is good for me.
Not really much to say, just wanted to let you guys know I AM PUMPED for tomorrow. I hope I can sleep tonight and not the usual night before jitters of excitement. Ha, even if I don't get to sleep I can take a nap when I get home after lunch.

Anyone know any good shops in England that sell yarn? I am out, and can't seem to find anything good around the area.

Back at it!

A'HOY!
So I am all settled in England with the pups and the hubster. We just got done celebrating my birthday and then our first anniversary! It was WONDERFUL!
The Mr. is going on a 6 month deployment soon.
I got a part time all grades teaching position at the elementary school on base and start on MONDAY! EEK! I am pumped. It's a position to help where need be.
The school is very similar to my school last year, small, combined classes, close knit community. So now I have fuel for the fire of blogging! (I know, I've been bad, but REALLY with this job being part time, I cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye, that I will be more consistent, I HAVE TOO!)
I got a sweet Cricut Expression 2 Anniversary Edition for my birthday, it's still not here yet... (grr to boxes getting lost between the states and here!) but it will DEF get tons of use. My mom was a rock star and somehow got a Cricut personal, and sent it my way, I got it a few days ago and am in love, can't imagine how great the big guy will be. So I will try and post Cricut creations here upon occasion.ALL THE THINGS! CRICUT ALL THE THINGS! (all the things, is an internet meme, and accurately captures my actions at the moment) Meme
AND
I got a new, AWESOME, camera for our Anniversary, above is an example of its handywork. This was from Oxford, at the Christ Church Garden.
So hopefully more pictures too.
I know I am making a lot of promises here folks, but stick with me.

Oh, I want to get a sewing machine, so if you have any recommendations as what I should get, please share!

Have a Great weekend!
I am looking forward to Monday! (although I am unsure if I can get used to a full 5 day work week, after having a 3 day weekend all last year.)

RMM10K May 13th

I colleague and I have been planning, for what seems like forever, a huge walking/running event in honor of an influential member of the community. Ray Meyers served on the school board and was very active in education throughout his life. Unfortunately he lost his battle to cancer this school year. We began planning our event prior to his loss, just to honor him and in conjunction with our Healthy Schools program in the elementary schools. We decided on a 10k because we had a beautiful path from one of the elementary schools to the JR/SR High School. Although slightly more than 6.2 miles we figured it out with a warm up walk option and bus transportation to the 10K and 5K starting lines. This event took up TONS of my time. I don't regret it at all, minus the delay it put on grading papers and inputting grades. That I mostly consider as a figuring out timing, and working on procrastination. (which if the blog posts don't tell you that, I don't know what would)
 All the planning and worrying and everything completely paid off though! Our event was a HUGE success!

My planning partner in the front followed by the SEA of orange at the 10k starting point

The support for Mrs. Meyers who wanted to complete the 10k for her husband Ray, the inspiration for the event. She did GREAT!

Winners from the 10K and 5K for most enthusiastic to most money raised and everything in between! Way to go kiddos!

After the run/walk we had lunch and a health fair. Here are some nice and healthy PIG lungs

and some not so healthy, smoked out lungs.

And even after the health fair the district held its annual "Field Day" although just an afternoon since the morning was serious work :)
Everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves, we even had some people who found our event online and joined us from out of state! An absolutely amazing turn out for a first year event. I think this will become and annual event for the district, and I plan on helping in anyway that I can from where ever I am.
ONE THING- SUNSCREEN!!!!!!!!!!!! and A LOT of it. I applied sunscreen when I got to school that day, at like 6:00 am and then forgot about it COMPLETELY until it was far too late and I was the most burnt I have ever been in my life and WILL NEVER EVER EVER be that burnt again. High altitude sun on a windy beautiful day on a 4 wheeler does not fair well for my fair Midwesterner skin. It was insane. I ended up blistering that night and boy was I in pain for the weekend.

Seattle Trip; See you later Husband

 So it might be a few months later...
The school year is now over- but lets just get caught up :)
For those of you who didn't know already my husband and I got orders, to the UK!
He needed to be there by mid April, which meant we would be seperated for some time while I finished up my first year teaching. Although I love my husband from the moon and back a gazillion times there was NO WAY I was going to leave my first year teaching. NO WAY!!!
So the time came for Aaron to leave. I did take a day off work so I could go to Seattle with him for the weekend to drove off our car for shipping and then to say good-bye as he flew out.
So we drop off the Hyundai at the SeaTac port- took a crazy long, expensive taxi back to our hotel. By the way we LOVE Hampton Inns. I think they magically became our hotel of choice. We decided to then rent a car and be tourists in town. Aaron had been to Seattle before but this was my first time. And I have no problem at ALL being all touristy! So we ended up buying some "tourist pack" with tickets to all the local attractions. We had a great time, didn't make it to all of the locations but definitely enjoyed ourselves and got our monies worth. It was a great mini-vacation and wonderful time together before our separation.

I might have a SLIGHT obsession with dinosaurs... We tried, and failed at a picture that looked like I was giving this beaut a nice pet.

Aaron and I at the Science Center, at a larger than CLARK sized table. So that is what it is like to sit in a chair and your feet don't touch the floor :)

The weekend was wonderful. It was tough to say good-bye to the Husband but I am thankful for the next chapter.
I flew back home and went into school to prep for a few hours. I swear this was the year of not enough time. Someone tell me that teaching gets, not easier, but smoother, less time consuming maybe... don't get me wrong I absolutely love it but yikes.

Whoops

Looks like almost an entire Quarter has gone by without a single blog post. I attribute this to the following: In-services, Professional Development, Staff Meetings, Data Team Meetings, Moving, organizing a HUGE event for our school at the end of the year, etc.
No excuse I know I know. I HAVE learned a TON in these past weeks though!
Bad news bears! I will be loosing one of my 3rd grade girls in just two weeks. Her family is moving out of town, this girl that started the year in a really rough spot and tried to give me heck through all that to now we are close and have an amazing understanding and she has achieved SO much! Of course I will be sad to see her go, however happy I have made arrangements with her folks to keep in touch via snail mail until I move overseas and then emails after that! This girl and I have made huge impacts on one anothers lives, of this I am sure, and thankful!
Also I have my second student out who will be gone for 2 weeks! TWO WEEKS?! Does anyone out there know how much goes on in 2 weeks? Not to mention we will have spring break right after that, OH and he was sick this whole last week, then I had a professional development day on Friday, when he was there, IT WILL BE AN ENTIRE MONTH that passes without seeing this kid. SAD FACE. I am super sad because he had made major growth lately, I just hope he really works hard on his "vacation" so he maintains that work :)
So our lease on our rental was up the end of February, and Hubby doesn't leave until April, and I will be staying til summer to finish teaching, we didn't really want to sign a new lease anywhere and our original plans fell through. Originally, we had planned to stay in the teacher housing right next to the school, for very cheap rent. However the district went ahead and rented it out the weekend or 2 before we needed to move in. Luckily for us we have amazing friends! So amazing in fact, they were willing to take us, and our mangey mutts in :) so while they are both still deployed we took over their abode! The Mr. Friend will be home soon and we will do our best to stay out of his way and keep the dogs chill. Its a fairly decent amount of time and I want to do my best to respect his space and such. Here's to hoping I don't wear out my welcome!
While I am sure there are a gazillion other things I will stop here as it shall be time for ice-cream and then perhaps snuggling down with a good book!
My goal: more blogging!

Patience

I seriously need more of this.
SO thankful that today was Friday, not sure if I could handle another day without a break.
I try to give a student the benefit but when it's the same problem day after day after day, I  just have a hard time.
Got report cards out today, let's see how many come back signed (by actual parents) next week. I have a few students who have gotten in the bad habit of thinking they can pull one over on me with faking parent signatures. I am so shocked by this because at their age I can't imagine even THINKING of not showing my mom something that my teacher asked me to show her. 
Thank you weekend.

Sign?

Is it a sign when a car battery dies at 166696 miles? I mean I'm not a HUGE believer in supersitions, however that is odd.

I need to do report cards..... don't want toooo.
Done whining now.
I have the greatest husband in the world for sure! So lucky to have such a great man by my side, and such a support during all of our stresses with moving both across town, and across the world :)

Planning

I am beginning to plan our schools Read Across America Day! Oh, how I LOVE Dr. Seuss!
Can't wait, would love to hear about any ideas you have or things you have done in the past to honor the Seuss! We will start a paper count down chain on Tuesday next week. I really want to build up the excitement.

A little quote that I got to start my day from the first student I see "Do I have basketball practice today?"
My response although probably a little harsh was "I have no idea I'm not your mother" Whoops. Some days we handle ourselves better than others.

I was excited to be able to leave school this evening knowing that I already had a majority of things ready for the next day :) Maybe those 8 hours on Sunday really were worth it, especially if I can get home before dark this week!
More rain today, this poor state has gotten an inch in some places causing mudslides. Crazy to imagine for those of us from the Midwest.

2 weeks back

The very first day back after break was an amazingly smooth day. Went by very fast with few bumps.
Our school has welcomed two new teachers that first week back. First hiring a teacher for the 6th graders so they can be pulled out of a 3 grade combination class and get the support and focus they need. They have had a very challenging elementary career with a lot of changes in teachers and lack of skill from some prior teachers. Then, our special education teacher resigned, and believe it or not the new teacher hired for 6th grade got a dual major in special education also. So yet another change for those 6th graders... that teacher to special education, and then a second hired for the 6th grade. Although they took the change a bit rough. I ultimately believe that this will be the best option for them. I am eager to see how things turn out for the 6th graders and the new special education teacher for both elementary schools in the district.

As for our class we have begun a new positive behavior system. I still will be doing our small economy with them, as many enjoy it and truly work hard to earn their money, and love choosing their prize. I have begun a tally system: I have each students name written on the window (as we are lacking white board space and the kids love that I write on the windows) they earn a tally every time I see them doing the right thing or working hard. Or if I see someone not doing the right thing, instead of calling them out I will silently walk over and give a tally to every other student. Once a student has earned 10 tally marks they get a slip to put their name on to enter our Friday Prize drawing. After 10 tallies the student starts over trying to earn another 10. They earn tallies throughout the week and Friday, near the end of the day I draw one slip out and that person wins a prize from the drawer. With extra incentive of double tallies if they get a compliment from another teacher. After drawing the slips are taken out to start each week fresh. I will let you know how this works out for our class.

Today I spent nearly 8 hours at school today finishing grading, all sorts of stuff, AYP exams, Unit test for our reading program, on top of the typical load. After grading I was able to get everything updated into the grade book. Desks were moved around, I am getting brave and trying my first attempt at mixing both grades throughout the room. I hope we last at least one day, with as much moving around and collaborative work we do it should work out alright.

Here's to the new year and the new semester!