Ratty Rats

Today I met a guy in town and bought his 3 little lady rats from him for our classroom!
I am SUPER excited, they are already really well socialized and came with their large cage and various other supplies! But boy did they STINK! They had carpet remnants as their bedding the cage which is a neat idea, but it just absorbs that lovely urine aroma. So first thing I did was change the bedding, the girls are all black and white and look very similar and did not yet have names. I might let the kids name them, although they disappointed me with the naming of the beta fish, Rocky, because their last class pet was named that :(
I am excited for the rats in the room and then I think about the reality and how many times am I going to have to say " ______, go sit down" "Don't stick your fingers in the cage" "If I have to tell you one more time to sit down and leave those rats alone you are going to owe me time during recess".
You can expect to hear from me after Day 1 with the rats on Tuesday after school! Wish me luck!
As for now, enjoying some more crochet time, relaxing, and a doctors appointment tomorrow.

Bleh

Today was a BAD BAD case of the Mondays, on a Tuesday.
Situations tuggin on my heart strings, which I won't go into.
But an up point was that I got a completely random hug from one of my second graders today, very touching! :) It was a good meaningful hug too! Much needed on a day like today, and maybe it was just that, he might have been able to tell that maybe it was me who really needed the hug instead of me originally thinking he needed it. I love each and everyone of those kids and will do anything within my power to help them.
Now on to an early nights sleep, emotions wore me out, so 8:30 bed time for this teach.

Picture update :)

An amazing sunset one evening on my way home from school. So beautiful, I see a great sunset or sunrise at least once a week!

Some of the students playing with light bending and coloring at the Discovery Center, October 2010

Playing with color tiles at the Discovery Center

Giant Shadow Box

Trying to produce sound at the radio station at Discovery Center

Forgot the concept of this one, just more hands on stuff

Balancing Magnet

Making Sparks

Body pile! Some of the scarecrows the kids drew faces for and stuffed

Scarecrow surfin the web, catching up on all his friends status updates :)

2nd 9 weeks

We are under way in the 2nd nine weeks! Parent/Teacher Conferences went well, still have 3 left, one had to cancel last week due to a cold, and the other two I suspect won't be showing, unfortunately but can't really force them to show.
Red Ribbon week, similar to DARE for those unfamiliar, was also this last week. The kids did a great job participating and enjoyed the red ribbon walk we had around the town. I for one definitely enjoyed slipper day which I took and extended to Pajama Day, YES! Nothing like teaching AND wearing my favorite clothes! Let me tell you though, it was tough to change back into more appropriate clothes for conferences that day after school.
One of the parents really made me feel good, I have two of her children in my class this year, she says they have improved drastically, not only have I only been there 9 weeks, but she says they also really enjoy school and talk about it all the time. I guess last year and the beginning of this year, they did not have many friends and didn't laugh or smile much. Now they are almost always laughing and smiling, they do not have the best grades yet but I know they will come the middle or end of the year!
PTO is having a Hallo"wiener" party at the park by school today to celebrate Halloween,  the Hubs and I were going to go but we can't think of any good costumes, instead we will be lame and sit at home and hand out candy to the kiddos in the neighborhood. I will just have to hear from them at school Tuesday how they enjoyed it :)
I have finally uploaded pictures to my computer from the first quarter, hopefully I can get some pictures up on the blog today.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Hope that everyone has a safe and spooky day!

I promise to stop procrastinating

....
After Parent/Teacher conferences next week that is!
I really do promise though, I need to blog more to help remember all the little things.

In brief
- field trip to a hands on science center was fun, however it was a Free Friday so nearly everyschool in the STATE was there, talk about chaos, no joke, like 1000 students plus adults. Also didn't take my own advice to the kids. "wear comfortable shoes" well mine were comfortable until about an hour left in the day, then blistermania hit. BUT I DID NOT COMPLAIN :)
- I have both groups for core instruction of our reading program, and the wrinkles are really starting to iron out and everything is flowing pretty well
- aside from conferences coming up I feel as though things are finally starting to relax, or maybe I am just used to it now.
- I need a haircut
-My coffee addition is growing exponentially, I find myself trying to find ways to take more and more coffee to school each day....

THAT teacher

So do you remember in school when you had that teacher who was always mismatching or forgot to paint fingernail polish on one hand or something, and wouldn't notice until their students pointed it out?
Well it turns out as much as I hate to admit it, that this was me today!
I got dressed this morning and was actually feeling awake and ready for the day....
After lunch I was informed by a student that my flip flops didn't match, yes I had indeed worn a brown sandal and a black sandal to school today with my black pants.... WHOOPS!
The students at least got a good laugh at it the rest of the afternoon, I think it did them good to know that teachers make mistakes and that I wasn't super embarrassed by this mistake and could laugh at myself a bit.
I did cringe on inside a little bit, but only because I didn't imagine this would be me.

Some tiny bits

Yesterday we went to the high school for a workshop about bullying on the way to the school I decided to sit with one of my students who is super adorable but craves a little extra attention. Before I can even sit down I hear "Mrs. C, I have like a thousand Nanas". In my mind I give a little chuckle as she proceeds to tell me about her countless number of Nanas the whole way to the high school :)
Also in case you were wondering tomorrow starts October and "that means Halloween is tomorrow!"
Oh kids, love them! :)