Happy Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving. I am in Utah and will be celebrating Thanksgiving with my grandparents and my siblings. I am thankful for family and I am especially thankful for how close we all live so we can spend time with each other often!

Stuff

A lot has been on my mind lately. It's not necessarily deep or profound, but it's just a lot of stuff. Stuff that preoccupies my mind 24/7.

I just finished my first trimester of teaching but it just hit me today that I just finished my first trimester of teaching! I am a third of the way done and I'm not so sure I know what my kids have learned in 12 weeks of school. I'm feeling a little nervous that the end of the year is going to come around and my kids won't have improved. At my school, testing is weighed heavily. Not only do we take the CRT like the rest of the state, but we are also piloting a new test that the kids take every fall, winter and spring. I like this new test much better than the end of the year one because it actually measures progress so teachers can use the data to help their teaching. I know I shouldn't stress over tests because more often than not, they don't actually measure what a student knows, but it's hard being a first year teacher and having that kind of pressure. Anyway, I'm sure my students will improve some, but I just worry.

I am in dire need of this break coming up. I feel like it is a lot easier to get burned out now than it ever used to be. I teach three full weeks of school, and I feel like I'm done and in need of some rest. It's crazy how time-consuming one job can be. This Thanksgiving was supposed to be a "Farr" Thanksgiving because last year we had it with Derek's family, but a couple of weeks ago, my mom said that she and Matt were going to California to be with Matt's parents. We're still going to see Doug, Heather, Tyler, Chelsea and the kids, but it's kind of funny how we are trying to set it all up so we can all be on the same track, and then my mom of all people goes and switches everything. She's always sad when she can't be with us because we are celebrating a holiday with our in-laws, yet when we are planning to do it with her, she bails.

Tomorrow at school, we are having a Thanksgiving feast. I'm super excited about it. At first, I thought I was going to have to spend a lot of money out-of-pocket because I figured not very many parents could bring food, but I was pleasantly surprised. I'm pretty sure we are going to have about 5-6 pies, turkey, cheese, vegetables, rolls, apple juice, apples, muffins, and popcorn. All I have to bring is cool whip! I'm just excited because we are going to eat and tell one thing each of us is thankful for. It's really going to be a fun day.

I'm getting really excited for the Christmas holiday. I'm just ready to start doing all of the fun Christmasy things. I usually get annoyed at people who start getting ready for Christmas before Thanksgiving is over, but this year, I have been ready for Christmas since before Halloween. I don't know what it is, but I've wanted to pull out the Christmas music and start decorating. I've withheld my urges because I still think it's a tad too soon, but I must say I am more ready for Christmas this year than I have ever been.

I got suckered into singing in church on Sunday. Luckily it's a trio so I don't have to do a solo, but I'm still wondering why I said yes.

That's life for now.

Read-a-thon

Today is the last day of the first trimester. That means that I have been a teacher for 1/3 of an entire school year. I can't even believe it. It has flown by, and I know it will just go quicker because the holidays are coming up and once we get back from Christmas break, there will only be one month left until the 2nd trimester is over!

I wanted to celebrate with my kids today because since it's the last day of the trimester, it also means it is the last day for my kids to turn in their assignments. None of my students failed any of the classes (it is actually kind of surprising, because the district requires us to give 4th graders hard-core grades...it's kind of ridiculous), so I decided to do a read-a-thon. When the idea was first given to me, I thought it wouldn't really be a celebration because they'd be reading, but the kids loved it. I let them bring pillows, blankets, and food, and we just read the entire day! It was so much fun. I had the kids write down how many pages they read and I am going to be giving some prizes for most pages read. I think the best part about it was that I got to sit and read the whole day too! Super fun!

Baby Brady?

On Thursday, October 22nd at 12:12 p.m. my family was introduced to quite a surprise! We were expecting my sister-in-law, Heather, to have birth to a baby girl, but instead, we got a boy! She spent her entire pregnancy thinking it was a girl (the doctor said she was 100% positive it was a girl) and so she had EVERYTHING pink! And, Heather is not the type to put her newborn kids in anything that hasn't been washed, so she took all the tags off the clothes and washed them all! Pretty sweet!

It was definitely a surprise but we are extremely excited to have a new nephew. It took Doug and Heather the entire pregnancy to come up with a name for a girl (she was going to be named Lily) so they have had quite a difficult time coming up with a name for a boy. At first, it was going to be Ryan. Then, I suggested McKay (I just went through all the names of boys in my class and put them out there) and that was going to be the name for awhile. Now, it's Brady. But who knows? The kid is two days old, there's a lot of time to change it! :)

My niece, Emily and nephew, Colby (the siblings) have been really funny about the whole situation. At first, Emily was really mad. She locked herself in her room (she's 4) and wouldn't talk to anyone. She thought that mom and dad had tricked her by telling her it was a boy instead of a girl. She was really upset, especially because she had already divided up all of her bows and dresses to share with the baby! Colby, on the other hand, was pretty happy about having another boy around. After Emily had had a couple of hours to digest the information, she was still upset. She didn't like any of the names that Doug and Heather suggested but she just wanted another Colby. When told that they already had a Colby, she said that she wanted two Colby's. Colby then piped up and said, "Yeah, two Colby's!" Then, Emily got to the point where she said she would love the baby, but she wouldn't talk to him when he got older! After Doug and Heather and the baby came home, everything changed, though. Emily adores the baby and can't get enough of him. She wants to hold him all the time, help change his diaper, etc. It is really quite cute how she has reacted to the whole thing.

Well, hopefully some pictures to come! We are so happy to have a new baby nephew!

It Feels Good!

I guess it's about time that I update this thing seeing how it's been a couple of weeks. Here are a couple of highlights from school since then:

1. My students are starting to see that I mean business so I can start to relax a bit more and I don't have to feel so mean. They know when they need to be working and what I expect of them, so I have more time to have a good time with them during those times when they don't need to be working too hard.

2. I was officially observed on my birthday and even though I never got my official scores, she had a lot of nice things to say to me! She even came in unofficially yesterday while my kids were taking a test and said that she had never seen a class so quiet before. They were taking a test and I told them if they talked, they would have to come in at recess and take it with me then, but still, it was a very nice compliment.

3. Derek got to come and meet my kids on his day off last week. They asked him a lot of funny questions, some of them a little embarrassing for me (What do you like most about Mrs. Lee? Why do these kids want to know that...) but it was fun for Derek to get to meet them. Then, we all went outside and spent about thirty minutes playing capture the flag. Boys against girls. The boys won the first two rounds and then when Derek got recruited to the girls' team and I went to the boys' team, Derek got a victory for the girls! It was really fun and I like that the kids have met him. It makes it a little more fun. And, now, when I talk about some of them, he actually knows who I'm talking about. Well, for the most part.

4. I completely lost control of my class for about fifteen minutes at the end of the day one day this week because a girl did something so sick and funny that I couldn't stop laughing. All the fourth graders at out school sell gummy worms to try and earn more money to go on field trips. (Sidenote: my kids have only been selling for about 2 weeks now, and we have already made $115.00 dollars. That's crazy, and that's just my class!) Some of my girls have thought it would be really good to put some of the sour gummy worms into their water bottles to make it sugar water. I have told them that it is really nasty so if they do that, they can't let me see it (the gummy worms get enlarged and it is just gross!). At the end of the day, this girl was swirling her water in her water bottle and I didn't notice it until it was too late. The gummy worms she had put in there had completely disinigrated and it looked like purple-brown throw-up. I had to completely stop my lesson mid-sentence because it was so gross. I turned and gagged and the kids were like, "what's going on? What is it?" and they were trying to see what had made me stop and turn around like that. I finally turned around and told the girl with a huge smile on my face that she had to put that away right now! It was sick! Everyone knew what I was talking about and I don't know who started it but all of a sudden, all my kids were chanting, "Drink it, drink it, drink it!" I couldn't help but laugh hysterically. I don't know why it was so funny, but I just couldn't help it. The other intern that shares the portable with me opened the door between our rooms and was like, "What's going on?" I couldn't even stop laughing to tell her. I finally got my kids under control again but it was time to go. It might not be that funny to anyone that reads it, but I swear, I was crying I was laughing so hard!

5. I said it briefly before, but I taught on my birthday. It was really fun because I brought cupcakes for my kids and I wouldn't let them forget that it was my birthday because I wrote "HAPPY BIRTHDAY MRS. LEE!" on the board and everytime we had to do anything, I said,
"It would be a really good birthday present if you would..." The kids got a kick out of it because they knew that I was just having a good time with them so it was really fun.

Well, it's probably a good thing that I haven't updated this thing until now because I don't know if I could have come up with as many good things had I not waited. There have been a lot of times these first couple of weeks that I wondered if I chose the right profession. But, I'm learning that when people say "The first month is the hardest," they are absolutely right. I didn't even understand how hard it really was going to be, but I'm starting to get a hang of the routine and figure out what it is I'm supposed to be teaching, and really what I'm supposed to do. One thing that I think will be really hard this whole year is trying not to feel like I'm a bad teacher, because since my kids are so low, it's hard not to blame myself when they completely fail their tests. But, regardless of how they are doing now, I know that they will improve at least somewhat during this year and I just have to give it time. I also know that I chose the perfect profession for myself. I love being a teacher. It is what I was meant to do and I love going to school and seeing those kids everyday. It feels good being a teacher!

Back to School Night

I have been having a pretty hard week at school because I feel like I am having to be really stern and mean when all I want to do is be fun and silly. I know it is important to show the kids that I am serious and to really train them to do what I want them to do, but I still feel a bit exhausted by the end of the day because of it.

I was talking to Derek the other night and I was almost in tears because I want to be the teacher that makes a difference in kids' lives. I don't remember anything I learned from elementary school, but I remember how my teachers made me feel. I want my students to know that I love and care for them and I want to make them feel wonderful, but it is hard because I kind of have to be Mrs. Strict! I have a really tough class, behaviorally, so I know that I need to get a handle on it now or it will haunt me the rest of the year, but it's just hard!

Anyway, I was feeling like I was being way too mean and that none of the kids would know that I truly loved being around them. Derek was trying to reassure me, but you know how that goes! "You're my husband so you're supposed to say those things, but I know that you are wrong and I want to pout and moan and feel sorry for myself!"

Well, I got the reassurance that I really wanted tonight at Back to School Night. I had several parents come up and tell me that their kids were so excited to have me as their teacher, that they loved getting up for school in the morning and that they really enjoyed school already this year! What? I feel like I'm being this mean old witch, but the kids are seeing that I do really care for them and that is why I have to set boundaries! The best part of all of this is that one of the parents that told me this was the parent of the boy that is my hardest behavior issue. He and I have been working hard to turn his behavior around and for the most part, he has actually taken great strides (even though it's only been a week) so I was glad to hear from his mom that he likes me as his teacher. I always feel bad when I have to call him out but at least he knows that I am doing it to help him and not to be mad at him.

I have already set up an after-school-homework-help session with one of the kids and I am really excited about that too. This is the reason I became a teacher! I want to help kids succeed and if I need to take time after school to do that, I don't care one bit!

So, that's that! I was really excited to hear some of the nice things that the parents had to say to me and it was just really good to meet some of them.

I Love Being a Teacher!!!

2 days down, a whole lot more to go!!!

School started on Thursday and for the most part, it went really well! I must say, however, that the first day of school isn't really any fun. All I did was teach them procedures and play get to know you games, which isn't that bad, but it just wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. I felt like I was a really mean and strict teacher the first day, because I knew that I had to get a handle on management from day 1 or else I feared that the kids would walk all over me from then on. But, day 2 was much better and I was able to be myself more and be more fun with the kids. That's how I want to be every day!!!

The first day was an extremely stressful day because everything seemed to go really, really fast and I wasn't able to do a lot of the things that I had planned. In my school district, most elementary schools do what's called "Track Time" which means that 1/2 my kids come at 8:00 in the morning and I have them for an hour and 15 minutes before the rest of the kids come. Then, the second set of kids stay for an hour and 15 minutes after the first track kids leave. Well, anyway, my second trackers came at 9:15 and we had Specialties at 9:30. That meant that I had 15 minutes to teach my kids:

1) that they would be split into thirds and each go to a different Specialty which will switch every trimester,
2) how to line up (quietly, without touching each other, in two lines, etc.) and
3) how to walk in the halls.

Plus, I had to get them to each of their specialties within that 15 minute time-block!
That's what I mean when I say it was stressful! I felt like I had so much to teach them (because they had to know it that first day) and so very little time!

Like I said before, Day 2 was much, much better. I didn't plan as many things and even though we had an assembly that was a bit stressful, overall, it was a very relaxed day compared to Thursday. I was able to be myself and be the kind of teacher that I truly want to be. For homework on the first day, I gave each student a sack and they had to fill it with 5 things that represented them. When we were sharing the next day, I kept singing the kids names as they were getting ready to come up! At first, the kids kept looking around with confused looks on their faces like, "Is she for real?" but then they started laughing every time I did it! It was really fun and silly!

There are a couple of stories that I wanted to share from the first two days (many of which are pretty funny!)

1. First of all, I lost a kid on the first day...that's right, lost one! He is a second track student but I wasn't paying attention as well as I should have been and he left when all the first track students were leaving. He is new to the school, so he didn't know he was doing anything wrong, but I still had to walk to the office and get them to call his name over the intercom. Pretty funny. Then, I had a kid that stayed all day. He came at first track even though he wasn't supposed to come until second track. The office lady came in and kind of chewed him out saying that he needed to only come at 9:15 and leave at 3:30, so, he did stay until 3:30, meaning I had him the entire day! He is one of those "hard" ones so it was pretty funny that first day!

2. On the second day of school, the kid with a mohawk brought me an apple. That's right...he brought me an apple! I wanted to laugh so hard but instead I made a big deal about how nice it was! I was so excited because it felt like I was a real teacher. Kids bringing me apples and all!

3. Our air conditioner is a little slow so in the morning it is freezing cold because the trailer has had all night to cool down but as the day wears on, the air conditioner can't keep up with all the hot bodies that come in after recess so it gets really, really hot. Like 90 degrees hot! I was telling one of my colleagues (that's right, I have colleagues!) about how hot it was and he told me that if I needed to, I could come in and use his room (he is doing a pilot testing program for our school so he is in the computer lab, but there isn't any testing going on so his room is empty). That second day I decided to take him up on his offer and since my students were just doing show and tell, I didn't think it would be a big problem. Well, four adults were in the classroom when we got there but they just sat in the back while we did our show and tell. One of the kids brought a cell phone and I quickly asked if the phone was off. He told me it was and he seemed a pretty trustworthy kid so I believed him. A few minutes later, another kid was presenting, and a cell phone went off. The people in the back looked at me and I was absolutely mortified! I walked over to the kid and just held my hand out so he knew to give me the dang phone NOW!!! I put it in my pocket and moved on. Later, after school was over, I saw Boyce, one of the adults in the back of the room, and I said, "How about when my kid's cell phone went off!" He just laughed and said, "Yeah, it had to happen then didn't it? When we were all in the back watching you! It had all day to go off, but it just happened to go off then!" Seriously! I mean, I am judged on how well my kids behave and on the second day of school, one of my kids' cell phones rings in front of 4 other teachers! Awesome!

Well, that's all I can think of right now. I know that a lot more happened during the last two days, but I can't remember all of it. All you need to know is that I love being a teacher!