A few random things before bed…

I know I haven’t posted all my pics and I haven’t told you about my new ride…believe it or not I’ve been busy.

On the way back from the lovely humid Memphis, I watched (for the first time ever) Batman Begins. It was really good, not at all like the other Batman movies out there with the neon and horrific costumes. Why did I watch this movie? Well, besides the fact that a 20 hour drive is long and boring, The Dark Knight came out on Friday. Let me tell you, I love living in a small town. Bought tickets 10 minutes before it started and walked right in to the theater. Warning: the move is LONG. Very, very long. over 2 hours long. It was awesome. It held my attention the entire time. I’m so glad that I had just watched the first movie, because this one picks up where the first one ended. Loved it! Go see it. I don’t want to say too much b/c I don’t want to spoil it. Go, go, go! Oh, and take your man with you. He’ll appreciate it and you can probably get a chick flick the next round for being so nice and taking him. : )

Guess what I started today? No. I didn’t clean. No. I’m not giving up anything. No, not that either! Fine. I’ll just tell you. school. Not teaching, but attending. The tables are being turned on me. I’m in a Geometry class for a couple of weeks. It will help me become highly qualified and the credits go towards a pay raise. : ) BUT, I actually have homework, projects, and a final. Ugh! I feel like my kids. lol Did I mention that I have to go an hour and a half away from home just to get to school? that I have to be there at 8 AM? that I like to sleep? that I like to sleep late? oh, and that I have to teach high school geometry next year? ME?! I just started to love my Algebra I, but duty calls in another form.

I’ll leave you with a pic….

My hair is short and curly and Lucky is her beautiful self. She has such a natural beauty. : ) and so does her daughter…..

Wow!

It has been a long, long, long week. Tuesday felt like the week should be done already. And, by the time Friday came I couldn’t put a complete thought together. Here’s a quick review of my fantastic last week of school…

Monday: K-ra-zy schedule at school. The kids cleaned out lockers, checked out with the library and the cafeteria. Then I saw all of my classes for 20 minutes. It was basically enough time to sign yearbooks and say good-bye. Then, we broke the students into groups to work on their projects. The kids all went home and I stuck around tutor. I was tutoring another teacher’s son in Algebra II. That was tough. Did I take Algebra II in high school? I can’t remember. If I did, I didn’t study this stuff. I went straight from tutoring to the 8th grade Continuation Celebration. I, finally, left school for the day around 8:30. Whew!

Tuesday: Field Trip. We walked to the tram at the Caverns. Then I spent the day on tour of the caves, watching the 8th graders on different rides, and telling them NO, I do not have any money for you. After the day was done, we walked back to school in the rain. The pouring rain and then just before we got back the sun came out shining bright. I had another tutoring session and left school around 6:30 or 7. I met up with a friend for a few quick moments and then went home to crash. BUT, I was too tired and unable to sleep at first.

Wednesday: The first day of presentations! Our 8th graders did a research project on a topic of their choice that provided change to our world today. We talked a lot about turning points and how 8th grade is a big turning point. They did a group presentation that was about 20-25 minutes and then each group member did a personal presentation. The personal side was a reflective essay where they described their journey through middle school. It was an amazing experience to hear exactly what the kids thought about the teachers, the other students, and themselves. We had laughs. We had tears. After school, the mentors and mentees went out to dinner. It was a good time. I left there, went home changed clothes, and headed to the park. It was the first night of Jazz in the Park. I really enjoyed it and plan on going again next week. f

Thursday: Second day of Presentations! Let me just explain that presentations start at 7:30 am. Each presentation is alloted one hour. So, I go from one class to the next and sit over and over again. I listen carefully. I grade. I take notes. I get a little brain dead. By the end of the second day, I had a brain of jello and I worked until 8:30 pm. I had my evaluation meeting and attempted to clean my room.

Friday: Oh, the one benefit of this week. My kids were all done. D.O.N.E. I went to school a little late. I sat in on one last presentation. I cleaned, rearranged, graded, hugged, cried, and finally went out to lunch. It was a small lunch group and nice day. We reflected on the school year and all that we accomplished or didn’t accomplish this year. After school, we ran over to a teacher’s house for one last toast to the school year. We did a quick shot on the shot ski. What!? Never heard of a shot ski?! Yeah, me neither. It is a ski with shot glasses hot glued to it. Everyone takes their shot at the same time while holding the ski. I don’t know that I really understood the point of it, but we had a drink. Then, we passed around the bottle of jager for one last swig. I went home and watched disc 3 of Friday Night Lights. :  )

Sorry to bore you with all of my details, but now you know why I haven’t updated or commented on your blogs. I just made it through the hundreds of posts that were on my reader. I read you. I love you. I may or may not have commented. I wish I could say that I’m done for the Summer, but I’m not. I need to finish cleaning my room. I still have grades to get together. AND, I’m teaching a class this summer. It finally filled up on Friday and is on track. I have all boys. Yep, I’m teaching seven 7th&8th grade boys Physics. Anyone want to co-teach with me? It’ll be fun. I’m using the money from this class to drive to Memphis this summer to see everyone.

Enough for now. I’ll try to find something more exciting to blog about this week.

I stink.

No. Really, I stink. I’m going to go take a nice hot shower. I just wanted to say HI!

We had a field trip today. We walked almost a total of 4 miles there and back. That does not include running all around the top of a mountain chasing the kiddos. It poured down rain on our journey back to school. We were drenched. Then, the sun came out all happy and smiling down on us. We went out back and played on the playground until the final bell for the 8th graders rang. YEAH!!!

More to come….need a shower….need the bed.

Is it wrong?

Is it wrong that I just went to the liquor store and filled my truck with boxes for a project at school? The kids are going to paint them. I guess I should explain my project first. I’m looking for something to keep my overly active 14-year olds busy. We are drawing plans for birdhouses on graph paper on a small scale then creating a paper model. After the paper model, we are building the houses out of cardboard and painting them. Then, (almost done) the classes are going to vote on the best 4 to be made out of wood and placed into our habitat. So, is it wrong that the cardboard has liquor logos on them until we paint them? I promise to make them paint over all logos/symbols.

BTW, I got a haircut today.

So…

So, the presentation went well. I snapped a little because our faculty was talking a lot and I was ready to get started. (and our boss had already made it very clear that he was tired of it) After a very full day of activities and meetings, we went to another teacher’s house for a gathering. She lives in a quaint cabin down by the river. I fell in love with it. It has character and the relaxing sound of the river in the background. She’s moving to Arizona this summer and another teacher is moving in her place. I’m excited about that because I will still get to visit this awesome place, but it’s very sad to see her go. : (  She is an awesome part of our faculty and will be very hard to replace. While at this gathering I had the best guacamole I have ever eaten. Alejandra came over and brought it. She is so sweet and apparently awesome at making guacamole. I wish I had some right now.

I have 19 more school days! Yeah! Ashley and KT, don’t even rub it in. I started school later than you. I signed up to teach a small class for one week over the summer. I hope I get enough students that want to participate in it. It should be a fun physics class. Yes, I said physics. I love Science.

Everyone say a big congrats to Aunt Barbie! She graduated from Ole Miss today and my mom is throwing a graduation party at her house. (Wish I was there.) I’m very proud of her earning her degree while working full-time and raising her son and husband. Way to go, Aunt Barbie!

I’m thinking about going back to school. I need to get my master’s and I should do it now instead of putting it off. I just need to find a school on-line. The closest university is an hour away. Any suggestions?

Enough rambling for the day…have a good one!

Reliving Vegas and School Stuff

That is what I am doing tomorrow. No, I’m not getting to go for another visit. We are presenting all of our knowledge and learnings to our staff. We have to present for something crazy like 3 hours. We put together a power point and some fun team building things. I hope all goes well. The best part about tomorrow is that breakfast and lunch are both provided for us. I love not having to worry about what is for lunch. And, I love food. I love to eat. I know it doesn’t look like it, but I do. I miss being in Memphis and having such fantastic chefs so close. I could pop in a few different places and have a fabulous meal in no time. Here, not so much. I have only found one restaurant that I love. There are a few others that are okay or even good. It’s just not what I’m used to. I’m adjusting. The restaurant that I love is Juicy Lucy’s. They have awesome steak and seafood. I’ve only eaten there twice. It’s a little pricey, but it is a steakhouse. I should go again soon. Maybe I’ll find someone that wants to take me out for a date. I could suggest it. Of course, if I do that on a first date I might not get asked out again.

Yesterday, I left school on my first break to take my mother’s day present to UPS. (Mom it will be there Monday. I’m sorry and I feel bad, but I refuse to pay $45 to get it there by Friday. I wish I could be there. Love you!) I was feeling bad about not getting Mom’s present to her in time and decided that I needed something good to eat to help lift my spirits. (wow, this post is all about food) I stopped at the local sandwich shop at 10:30 in the morning. We eat lunch early in 8th grade. Luckily, they were selling lunch and just stopped serving breakfast. I decided to be nice to someone else to make me feel better. It works. The guy working, possibly an owner or manager, strikes up a conversation. He is a former teacher and is ready to get back into teaching. And that has nothing to do with what I was saying. Um, okay, I went back to school with my turkey and an Italian for Jamie. He loves that sandwich. I ran in his room and said, “Italian. I’m just going to put it on your desk.” He stood there with his mouth gaping open. I replied with, “Just thought I would make your day.” That was not the right thing to say in front of a group of 7th graders. Jamie said thanks and I left the room. I was about half-way down the hall when I heard the ooh and ahh and cooing from Jamie’s room. I walked back, threw open the door, and told his class to get over it, boys and girls can be friends. They laughed, pointed at Jamie and told me how red his face had just turned. It was really hot in his room and so I pointed it out to his students. They always give him a hard time. So far, he has been accused of having the following teachers as girlfriends: me (but this is actually the first time since football season), Kristen, and Suzanne. I guess in the minds of 7th graders anyone they see you talking to must be your girlfriend, your wife, or your crush. I will have to remember that.

We have three more weeks of school. It’s hard to believe. We have so much going on on. Three work days for our end of the year project. A field trip to the Caverns. (I’m sooo excited about this.) We have a service learning day where we are going to clean up some local parks and help a local church with some yard work. The last week of school (not included in the three weeks above, so that is actually 4 weeks) all of the students come on Monday and Tuesday and then, the 8th graders will come in groups to complete their interdisciplinary project. They will be giving 45 minute presentations on various topics. It will be a long couple of days for me, but I am very excited to see them. They started working on them in January and have many great ideas.

Going to finish watching Gray’s…..or talking to Jason since he just called. Now, I’ll have to watch it on the web.

Holocaust Awareness Week

I don’t know how many of you realized that is was Holocaust Awareness Week. Our fabulous Language Arts teachers in 8th grade are completing a unit on the Holocaust. They are comparing stories and books. The kids are really getting into it and hopefully, it will make them think about their own behaviors. The students all wore paper clips everyday and made sure to offer them to other students and adults that didn’t have one. You can read about the paper clips here. On top of all that, they decided to make a visual representation of those that lost their lives.

In case you can’t read it, the blue flags represent non-Jews and the yellow flags represent Jews. One flag represents 10,000 individuals that died in the Holocaust.

The kids did a great job and were all so proud! There were a few more posters out there with explanations and several with pictures and stories of victims.

I need a topic…

What do you want to know?

What do you want to hear about?

What?! I can’t think of anything to write about. I usually think of things and then forget them as soon as I get in front of the computer. URGH!

I almost had a fight in my class room today. I jumped in between the two boys, calmed them down, and then sent them to the office. The joys of teaching 8th grade in the Spring….I still have no idea why they were fighting. I’ll just blame it on the hormones.

This time next week…

I will be in VEGAS!!! Ooooh, ahhhhh! I have a lot of planning to do. It so hard for a responsible loving teacher to take 4 days in a row off from school. Luckily, I only have to plan for 3 days b/c the kids have a field trip on Thursday. I hate to give them busy work, but I hate to give them a grade for any assignments that I am not not their to monitor, teacher, whatever. I know some of you think it is the control freak in me, but, yeah..you’re right…I’m a control freak. I have to be around to control the situation even when my kids learning or testing. Four more days this week! Oh, did I mention the white fluffy stuff that fell from the sky all day today? Yeah, when is Spring? The mountain closes next weekend, so I’m gonna need it to warm up, quickly. Please. : )

Sledding

All of the kids were so excited to be at the top of the hill. They had their carefully engineered sleds. They had their helmets. They had their dreams….. Ready….Set….Go…….um, yeah. We need to use more duct tape next year. lol Most sleds didn’t “go” as much as they were dragged down the hill on the first run.

They were pushed down the hill. They rolled down the hill. They skated down the hill. Only one sled (made by a group of girls) made it down with just a push. It went fast! It was so much fun! I thought we were going to go off the jump, but I was stuck in the middle and couldn’t bail out. The sleds started falling apart so the kids were just grabbing pieces and taking off down the hill after the first run.