Friday

Well Merle ate the stew said it was "good" which for him is  an endorsement. He did say I should've left the carrots large so he could just move them out of the way and not eat them. Since I chopped them quite small he had no choice. He ate some veggies. Poor guy.  I didn't get potato kale soup made for mom today. I did brown the sausage so that will be one less step tomorrow.

I am doing some laundry tonight. Competition for washing machine time is steep around here. There are 3 businesses and 4 people to do laundry for. I was low on the priority list. We ran a few errands today and I managed to run into Joann's and get a few things on clearance. Things for me... OF COURSE NOT! Things for next years Christmas projects in my class ... Yep! Planning ahead. I learned from a former colleage to put alllllll your school Christmas "stuff" into a bin. Take it to storage or your garage. Then bring it out next year. Keeping it in the classroom gets to be too much. I now have a bright red bin.  I am going to work on doing this for all the holiday related activities and materials.

My brother is tricky. He decided that we should get my parents some electronic items for Christmas. Yeah... then he dissapeared  when it was time to set them up. THe also told me I was technological support. Yeah...  brothers....

I am still fighting this darn head cold. It is there just enough to be super annoying. Probably for everyone around me as well. I don't get away with not taking a vitamin here. Perhaps it would've been worse if I wasn't drowning in vitamins.  The flu is running around my school community fast and furious. When I head back I am going to do some deep cleaning in the classroom. We had stayed pretty healthy before Christmas Break in my class, but who knows what it will be like after. Hopefully, the worse of it is done before we are back in school.

Tonights Cooking Challenge

Experiment:
Instant Pot Beef Stew...
A conglomerlation of recipies. (untested and not approved)

2 pounds Stew meat cut into smaller chunks! (Your spoon should be able to hold the meat)
Salt & Pepper (about a tsp of each)
2 tbsp Flour
1tsp onion powder
2 Tbsp butter
Beef Broth 2-32 oz containers
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp Italian Seasonings
1 Cup chopped onion
1 Cup Chopped celery
1 chopped parsnip
1 Cup Chopped carrot
1/2 pound cubed potatoes
Bay leaf

Mix flour with onion powder, italian seasonings, salt, and pepper. Dump in the meat coat w/ flour. Brown the meat in butter or olive oil.  (you can saute the meat in the instant pot or in a pan if you saute in the pot watch closely and you will have to remove the meat to saute the onions and carrots.)

In instant pot line bottom w/ olive oil or butter to prevent burning. Pour in beef broth. When meat is browned dump in broth. Saute onions, carrots, and garlic. Dump in broth. Add parsnip, potatoes, and celery. Mix in Tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce.

Turn your instant pot to the Meat/Stew setting and press start.

Then go clean up all the carrots and onions that flew around the room as you were chopping vigorously. If you hear "OH MY GOODNESS" after you left the kitchen you may have left too much of a mess or every cupboard door open. One can never tell for sure. Put the dishes in the dishwasher. If you don't have one and you used every bowl in the kitchen... well Bless your heart.

Now as far as you know NO ONIONS WERE USED in the creation of this stew!
Had to type this up before I forgot how I made it. I might want to make it again... or never again.
I will let you know.

Tomorrow is Cowboy Beans and possibly Potato Kale soup for mom. I don't think mom will be making Beef Stew. This recipe may have contained too many steps. If she does make it she will simplify it in ways I could never dream up... and it will probably taste good.

✴✴✴ Update: I forgot to add a bay leaf or 2 to the stew. Mom approved Beef Stew. I ate it I enjoyed it. I can't say for certain if it was "good" ! My head cold has interfered with my tastebuds. Mom ate it, asked for more, and declared it "Delicious"! ✴✴✴ 

Slurping Good!

SOooooo My Lemon Herb Chicken Noodle soup was DEEEEELIIIIICCCCIOOOOOUUUUUSSS!!!   I mean I really loved it. A lot! I shall make it again! YUMMY so good! I shared a bowl with a colleague today and she consumed every drop! YES! The recipe is on my Approved Soup List. So good!  A 5 star slurp for sure!

Okay MONDAY...it wasn't too crazy. I am close to completing a couple Christmas art projects with the class. I had one student leave early and one absent today which made it a little challenging. I will attempt to catch them up tomorrow. Hopefully, with a little drying time. 

I must stop by the grocery store tomorrow....evening... someone remind me

Make the Soup...You'll be glad you did

G'nite

Crazy Week

It was quite a weak. I had a parent wigging out over something totally minor. I finally had to decide there was some "mom guilt" going on there because the response  was so over the top. However, I wasn't alone several teachers had parents mad about school lunch, playground behavior, and other things. The school lunch one was her daughter is a picky eater and when she got to lunch they were out of the choice she wanted so she wasn't eating. Ummm well make her cold lunch then. We have a company that makes our lunches. How much they make  of each option they decide we have no control over it. The playground incident the parent was certain their child was being bullied, turned out their child was lying. Then my parent I said in the progress report I'd like to see the student participating more.  We are lucky with our administration because they stepped in and took care of all these instances. There were others, but I won't go into detail. Anyhow, I want to say to the parents enjoy your last few days before break. Wrap those Christmas presents, bake some cookies, get ready for travel or visiting family, get the laundry done, clean the house. Do all the things I don't have time for because I'm at work.

To get myself back to a happy teacher I invited a student teacher to volunteer in my classroom this week. She is young energetic and the kids love her. I also asked 4 parents to come read a Christmas Story to our class every morning this week. That will start off the day on a fun note. The  week before Christmas break is mostly get through it however one can. The kids are squirrely and excited and unfocused. It is a challenge.

In my last Butcher Box I received some huge Chicken Breasts. I did kind of a combo recipe. I'm thinking about turning them into Chicken Noodle Soup, because January and February are on their way. I did a Lemon Herb Baked Chicken. I made a marinade ... Why don't I just share the recipe below. Keep in mind this is not taste tested or approved yet.

Lemon Herb Chicken

Marinade:
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp basil
1 tsp thyme
2 Cloves Garlic
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 Tbsp Lemon Zest
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/3 Cup Lemon Juice

It said to marinade 4 hours. I did mine over night so hopefully it isn't overwhelmingly lemon. Then the recipe I read suggested grilling it. I decided to bake it instead. I put some more olive oil in the bottom of a  9 x 13 baking dish dumped in the Chicken and the marinade. I looked up a similar recipe for baking it said 30-40 minutes cooking time. Chicken is cooked through when its internal temp is 165 degrees.

 I hope it turns out. I think a Lemon Herb Chicken would taste great when added to Homemade Chicken noodle soup. I think I'll have enough Chicken to shred some for soup and then eat some for dinner.

In other news I had a parent do a huge favor for me. She is a photographer. In return for the favor she insisted on taking a photo of me. Then the other day she posted this extraordinarily kind thank you from her. She lost her four year old son in a tragedy over the summer a couple years ago. Her son had just been in my second grade class. Her family kind of imploded after that and I stayed in contact privately and visited with her when I could.  The after effects of this loss has been ugly. I think she might be working her way to the other side. Her husband has not and for now seems to be lost to drugs and alcohol. I have worried a great deal for the kids. Their life has had a lot of chaos.


So my Chicken came out of the oven and it smelled amazing! I then realized I was missing celery, onion, and lunch for this school week. So I stopped and ran to the store. I bought freeze dried onion because rarely do I use the recommended amount of onion. Then the onion goes bad before I use the rest and that makes a stinky fridge. ANYHOW....I ran and got the ingredients. I made the noodles before I left for the store. They had a little time to dry. Mom said she never gives them a chance to dry and her soup is always good. LOL SHOCKING mom wouldn't give her noodles a chance to dry. the Chicken Noodle Recipe I use always calls for corn starch which I never add. It is only added as a thickener and doesn't add flavor.

12 Cups Chicken Broth
1 Cup Onion
1 Cup Carrots
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp salt
Egg Noodles
2 Cups Chicken

Egg noodles
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
add flour till you have a thick dough... then roll out as thin as you can get onto floured surface. Slice into strips with a pizza cutter.

It is all cooking in the Instant Pot on the soup setting. I have cooked it on the stove and the slow cooker and either way it always comes out good. Sometimes I add some garlic as well. Since their was garlic in the chicken I didn't add it this time.

The grocery store looked a little like it had been looted this weekend. They were out of a lot of things. I think maybe they'd had a sale and I missed it. I was able to get enough so I have lunch and dinner for the week. Hopefully, I won't have to stop and run too many errands this last week before break.

It's Derpy

I don't like staff parties. I don't really care for "small-talk." I was under considerable peer pressure to go, and so I was a team player and attended. It was different than past staff parties it was NOT a drunken  disaster. There was self-control displayed. Perhaps because it was 20 minutes from our school people realized they couldn't walk home intoxicated. I'm not sure what the difference was, but I'm glad I didn't feel like I had to escape before the stupidity started.

We had a white elephant gift exchange in which there was highly desired items like booze, a dad belly fanny pack, a Magic 8 Ball,  a 6 pack beer belt, and SHARPIES! There were also undesirable items like really ugly 1980's style painted angels, a Chia-Emoji, and the potty putter, and a nicely framed cow pie with some toilet paper. This game seemed to go on forever and ever. However, it did come to an end and I drove the 5 minutes home. Maybe I can get out of the end of year party since I went to this one.  

The white elephant gifts I came home with was a a dusty box with possibly a previously used s'mores making kit, a Merry Christmas (ugly) sign, and a seriously cheesy painted cow that said "Love one an-udder." I used to see a lot of these cheesy painted cows. I tried to find a similar  one but couldn't. So I went to my pals house gave the youngest the S'mores kit, the middle one the Merry Christmas sign, and the oldest the Cow Sign. The oldest is at that awkward tween age and the emotions that go with it. She'd just had a meltdown and I left it in front of her door. When she came out she started giggling so that was a good outcome. She told me it was "Derpy." She smiled as she said it so I had to assume that "Derpy" was good.  Apparently as the urban dictionary tells me "Derpy" means silly or foolish. I think both could apply.  I was happy to leave my White Elephant Gifts behind and others were happy to receive them. Their mom may have been less enthusiastic, and told me that they might end up in the yard sale next summer.

I haven't accomplished much today, but I have prepped a little bit for the last two weeks of school before break.

Playgrounds Lessons

Lessons learned on the playground!

1. Sunglasses aren't just for sun! The snow and rain never comes down straight here, only sideways.
    A new colleague said "Now I know why you wore your sunglasses out with cloudy skies."

2. If there is ice kids will slide on it. On a hill with potential for concussion,  on the flat, at the bottom of a slide.

3. If there is water the kids will go it. It doesn't matter if it's ice cold snow melt or muddy. They will still go in if they are wearing cloth sneakers and will have wet shoes all day.

4. If a student has to use the bathroom, they will wait till recess is over, till they've walked past the bathroom, till they've entered the classroom, till they've sat down, till you just start the lesson....before they ask to go.

5. Boys will mark their spot.

6.  Cattle-prods should be mandatory recess gear.

7. If  a student can run fast enough they can't hear you.

8. Purchase the LOUDEST regulation referee whistle you can get.

9. Never be caught without a band-aide.

10. 2nd Graders believe it takes 4-6 friends to walk an injured friend to the nurses office. Usually it takes 0. Once in awhile it takes 1.

11. If boys can re-enact an injury seen on  NFL games they will do so. With great flair. I think that is why they need a team to walk them off the field.

12. Jump-ropes are not aptly named. Why would one EVER use them for jumping?

13. Coaches should have to show up to playground duty and watch their students "play" the game they coach them . Then they should have to review the rules! Then they should have to stay and supervise.

14. Every parent should have to volunteer for at least 1 recess duty a year.

15. Winter recess gear must include knee socks, boots with traction, Long coats with hoods and gloves.

16. When you put your gloves on 10 seconds later a child will ask you to zip their coat. I need a zipper puller upper tool. Actually childrens' coats should come with extra long zipper pulls! Also no fabric to get their zipper stuck on!

17. Don't tie wet shoelaces. Just don't

18. It is easy to tell which children are making poor choices. When you start walking their way... they find another area of the playground to play on. They disperse. Quickly.

19. It is a great offense to "ruin" giant snowballs that have been on the playground for a couple of weeks. It is a major offense and the offenders should have to explain themselves to the principal.

20. If a tattler can tattle they will tell a tattling tale at recess.

21. Expect the unexpected.

23. If you give students an instruction make them repeat it back to you. It will stick in their brains a little longer that way.

24. If you want your colleagues to like you. 1. Show up to duty on time, don't go relieve yourself every day during recess duty(the office will help you out during the day), don't stick in one spot and not move (kids figure it out), take turns doing the undesirable recess task (whatever that may be at your school).

25. Did I mention expect the unexpected???

A NEW ONE!

Well Just when you're pretty certain you have said everything NOT to do on the playground someone tries something new. While on duty a student from another class came and said that two boys from my class had peed on the tire. I walked over to that side of the playground and called the two boys over to me. I walked them up to the teacher on that side of the playground. I said tell Mrs. So-and-so what you just did on the tire. One fessed up immediately and said "We peed on the tire."  I said okay you need to go to the office ask from the principal and tell him what choice you made on the playground. The one little boy kept saying  "I didn't do it, It wasn't me." I've heard that statement from him many many times this year. Usually, right after I watched him misbehave.  So, I wasn't buying his "Not-Me" story.  I went to tell the third teacher on duty and had just finished telling her and over the walkie-talkie we hear... "Mrs. So and So (the vice-principal) can you come to the office a couple of boys are in here that need to tell you about their playground choices."  The teacher asked if she should tell them and I said yes.   We went in from the playground and after quite awhile one of the boys returns, but not the other. Then the Vice-Principal came and I met her in the hallway. I had  a para-professional in the room. The one boy who had not returned his parents when called said that he had to go outside and help clean it up. She said the one kept insisting that "It wasn't him and he didn't do it. The Vice-Principal said "So when I go outside and check, and I WILL go outside and check will I see one pee spot or two?"  "...sigh...You'll see two."  She suggested he might want to change his story then and he finally confessed.  The tire is surrounded by pea-gravel and I assumed they had peed there. NOPE. They peed on the rim of the tire so they could watch it run around the edge. That boy had to go out with the Head Custodian and clean it up then sanitize it.  They also have 4 recess detentions.  It is so refreshing to a parent insisting upon consequences and then having an admin that enforces them.

What happened to the day?

Busy Day! I don't know what I accomplished today, but I was busy at it all day. I think I got a little teaching done! I am not sure what is sinking in with this group.  I need some patience. We had a staff meeting after school. It was a training regarding reading and the research is basically saying that students need to  struggle a little with reading. They shouldn't be reading text that is easy for them to read all the time. That doesn't help them to grow. Everything we read about the research today was the opposite of what our stupid reading curriculum is. Then we are told this consulting company wants to come observe us, however they want us to be using the curriculum and complex texts. Sorry peeps, but those two things are not possible. PICK ONE!!  With ALLLLLL OF MEEEEE I dislike this reading curriculum. It rarely has a "good" book, it NEVER has a "great" book, and it always disappoints.  Yeah... It is ridiculous... and we spent MILLIONS of dollars on this product in our district. MILLIONS.  Government schools

via GIPHY


I had my students write these "Thankful" essays with a twist. They had to explain why they were thankful for little things. For example staplers, calendars, scissors, tissues, shoes, and more. They were pretty funny.

Well I'm off to the showers!
G'nite

Editing?

Made it through conferences and overall I think they went well. They are completely exhausting. You just hope you explained everything clearly and that parents understand the message. I have a couple of students who are very apathetic. If parents do not care, they don't care. It is very hard to motivate those kids.

It was nice to have a long weekend after conferences. I ALMOST got caught up on laundry. I had dinner with my little buddy who showed off his reading skills. He has been practicing in Kindergarten. Fun to see a kid begin to love reading!

I've been reading my class Superfudge, By Judy Blume. Now I hadn't read this book since well lets say grade school. It was read to me in second grade. As I began to read it to my class I had to edit a bit. Have times changed? Did my teacher edit it as she read it too us?  Did some of the book go right over our heads? Hmmm It is still a funny and delightful book. However, I did have to edit a few times as I read.

Well... I'd better head off to prepare for tomorrow...

Ready?

Okay I think I am almost ready. For tomorrow. Tomorrow my marathon day of parent-teacher conferences! I have a few things to complete in the morning. To help myself out this afternoon I locked myself in my classroom. It worked!  A couple colleagues stopped by briefly, but I had warned them I was locking  myself in.  I was able to accomplish a lot on my "To-Do" list. I guess I should do this a little more often.

I hope it goes fairly smooth tomorrow. We shall see! Our students are released early tomorrow. I have them for a bit in the a.m. Then they go to  P.E.. They come back to the classroom for 1 and 1/2 hours then we have an assembly. After the assembly they are released to go home. It should go quickly tomorrow with the students at least. The conferences part... It is going to be a long afternoon.

Send me all your good vibes...

Hot Mess!

I keep mistakenly thinking that I am kind of caught up on things. Then I remember something else that I forgot that needed to be done A.S.A.P.  I just keep adding to my list. My goal for after school today was to conquer my desk. It  was pretty much overtaken by papers. I made a huge dent in it this afternoon and will need to put some things away in the morning.  I need to stuff report card envelopes before conferences on Thursday. I have some things to print as well. I shall get it done... one way or another!

I received a phone call last night asking me if I'd be willing to take a practicum student for a little bit. I said of course. She only has 6 hours she needs to complete so I think she will have them done within a week. It will be a little extra help for a week and so I will take it!

I spilled some coffee on my sweater this morning. I was attempting to rinse it out as best I could and I told my class.  "I spilt coffee on myself this morning."   One of my students replied "...aaannnddd now you're gonna be a hot mess!" I couldn't contain my chuckle! 

Well... I'm off... it is another busy day tomorrow!

AMP Sunday!

Well... I did not accomplish much other than resting yesterday. I had to make up for it today. I went to school and completed my A.M.P.'s (Academic Monitoring Plans) for my students testing below grade level in reading. I hope they are up to "par" because it took a lot of thought and a lot of time to complete them. 

I then worked on printing out the students work for intervention, work for this week, and a couple of things for weeks ahead. I am doing a week related to Thanksgiving. Including both fiction and non-fiction reading materials. It is kind of a short week as we have two early release days for parent/teacher conferences and our usual early release on Wednesdays. I hope it will be engaging enough to get us both through this crazy busy week.

I have some grades to finish inputting tonight. Then I can focus on what is next.
I rarely read anything the crazy rag New York Times releases. It is usually a lot on the nutty side. This one though is accurate. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of teachers not using Research and Evidence based practices to teach reading. NYT  This is more than a little frustrating. I know that colleagues are still using these "Whole Language" approaches. I know our ridiculously expensive and poor quality Basal Reading program does NOT teach systematic phonics.  I just do not know how to change it. I honestly do not think most teachers know what systematic phonics instruction is.

I had to turn up the heat a couple of degrees tonight. I realized that not only was it a bit chilly outside it was a bit chilly inside. I think we have ended our Indian Summer, spent about two weeks in Fall, and have moved on to Winter.

I'm off to finish my grading...

Saturday Boot Start

Having trouble boot-starting today. My sinuses are doing their annual fall running. It is very wearing.
I wish I knew how to make it stop. All the tricks in my repertoire  do not seem to work. I have a lot to accomplish before next week. Dragging myself along with my to-do list being so long, isn't ideal. I am doing what I can from my pajamas at home. I will have to get into school. Hopefully, with a couple good nights sleep I can get moving.

This week is parent-teacher conferences. It is always interesting. My longest day will be Thursday. I have so many that day that I am certain I won't be able to talk by the next day. I have to be on time. I hope parents are respectful and are on time as well. I don't have any extra time built in. We shall see how it goes. There is always one or two that you don't anticipate going sideways. It is also insight into the home life of my students. 

It does help that my pals invited me over for Turkey Dinner tonight. One must always capitalize Turkey Dinner, because it is just that good! It deserves  the honor. Well I am off to accomplish something...

Field Trip Day!

Field Trip days remove the challenge of lesson planning for the day. However, they are totally exhausting. A kid will forget their coat, their lunch, their permission slip, and if you're really unlucky all of the above. They will forget that the ground is covered in geese feces and attempt to wear them. You may have to correct a student in a colleagues class because after their teacher asked them five times to sit down, you can't take it any more, and suggest they'd better start listening to their teacher right now. This kiddo had full mastery of the lower lip pout and death glare after, immediately  complying to my order. The bus driver thanked us for having well behaved classes. I can't account for the other four classes, but the two on our bus tried to  behave.  You seem to be endlessly counting all your students to make sure you don't drive away leaving a kid  behind.  If all goes well, maybe...just... maybe....they learned something.  Arriving back to school you are completely out of juice, out of gas, out of energy. 

What does one do then?  Well, if you're lucky yesterday you began a thank you note to the fire fighters that entertained and taught us at the neighboring firehouse. You also had completed a drawing activity. Writing is a HUGE challenge for most second graders. Just getting them to write is painful and then getting them to write something legible is excruciating! Well not all just enough to make you tired. Some will need an hour to write a few complete sentences. We won't even discuss spelling, grammar, and punctuation.  I've decided to focus less on those last parts and just get them writing. The more they write, the more they will write. I have been trying to do a writing at least once a week. I don't make them edit and do another draft much at this point. That is just cruel when you find difficulty putting complete thoughts together. When you are a struggling reader, you are a struggling writer. Getting your thoughts onto paper can be hard. Reading their writing however, when I can read it, is absolutely the best. You NEVER EVER know what they will say. When you have them write about how their family works together they might say "My family doesn't work together, my mom and dad watch T.V. all day."   They might thank a firefighter for being "good guys!" They are pretty prolific writers when they tattle tale on each other. I have a "Tattle Tale" box. Reading the "Tattles" about what their annoying classmates do is the best. Hmmmmm Maybe teachers need a "Tattle Box!"  I don't think I'd find them as amusing. Oh well....

I eliminated spelling homework this week. There is just too much happening... I've surrendered to the crazy. Next week is Parent/Teacher Conferences. Oh my... I need a nap just thinking about it all...

George!

I was thinking about books I have read aloud to my classes over the years. Some I could read in the past and some I no longer can. This book  below was one of my favorites.


In part the history of that time was fascinating. The fact so many children survived this plague while their parents passed was horrific. I can no longer read books so obviously promoting Christian values. I wanted to share it though...what this man did with his life so unselfishly and at times at great personal cost was phenomenal. Read it to your kids, or for yourself.  It is a good one... a very good one.

Pots, Cardboard, Steam!

I am really glad I bought that steam mop. It takes a little while to heat up but once it does it is picking up whatever stickiness and spills left behind. It doesn't replace a broom, you will still need to sweep the floor and remove the big things. The steam mop is more for the drips, drops, and spills that leave the floor sticky or dirty. I  may have to steam mop again to be sure I removed all that sticky lemonade, but I can tell I was able to get up the worst of it. Some steam mops allow you to add cleaner to them and some do not. Just the steam picks up the worst of the dirt and the heat sanitizes. If that isn't enough then get the steam mom that allows you to add cleaner.

My other favorite tool is THIS:

This tool is FANTASTIC for not only opening those Cardboard boxes, but breaking them down for recycling. Get one. You need one, everyone should have one, or two, or three. They do sell them in a three pack.

My other recommendation of the day is get yourself an Instant-Pot It is my most favorite kitchen purchase in a very long time. I use it at least once a week.  I can have a pot of soup cooked in 35 minutes. It isn't overcooked it has came out perfect with all the varieties of soups I've made. I've made pulled pork and pot roasts. There are a lot more options on it, but that is all I've experimented with. I love it so much that this past week I found the larger size on sale I went ahead and bought it. I'm giving mom my smaller one. I can double my soup recipes and put some in the freezer. If you want to slow cook things it still has a slow-cooker setting. I love that the pot part is removable and dishwasher safe. Even the lid can be washed safely. Some instant-pots even have an app that you can turn them on from a distance. Of course you'd have to have MUCH more reliable internet than I do.

Speaking of the internet I was talking with a friend today that lives in the boonies. She mentioned how frustrating it can be that people living outside the boonies do not understand intermittent service. Your cell service and internet service can be awful on any given day. Sometimes impacted by storms, and other unknowns. Even when you make calls to customer service for different products they do not understand why getting on the internet isn't always possible. You can get caught in the circle of doom... where it is loading or syncing or updating. Usually when this occurs the internet goes out before it ever loads and then you use up all your data. Yeah good times. However, the upside of living in the boonies is that if you have a lot of breathing room and the Milky Way is visible almost every night.

Adding work...

I hate it when I add more work to my day. I ran a couple of errands stopping finally at the grocery store. Brought my groceries home was unloading them brought most of them into the house and....dropped a jug of lemonade. Dropped it onto the kitchen floor where it completely emptied very quickly. It splashed onto the neighboring rug of course. So I am  now shampooing my carpet and steam cleaning the kitchen floor. Sigh....

I highly recommend you avoid this activity... it isn't much fun

Halloween

Halloween is coming. Holiday's have gotten a bit out of control. Parents expectations of what we should do are ridiculous.  I keep it simple. One treat and  a couple healthy snacks. Many parents want to come in and hang out with their kids all day. It is so disruptive.  I do the treats at the very end of the day. We do a guided drawing and while they are coloring it we watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!"  It is simple and relatively quiet. They enjoy it, but it isn't rambunctious. In years past the specials teachers would have  the "Monster Mash" which is dancing to Halloween songs such as THIS.  This year they decided they didn't want to have grade levels in the gym dancing. They didn't do all grades at once and they had 4 teachers and parent helpers. Apparently, this wasn't enough. So, they are watching movies and sitting the whole time. They expect less behavior issues. Since they are choosing to do that, I am throwing in an extra recess for my students. There is NO WAY we can make it through the day without moving about. YIKES! I can do my own version of the "Monster Mash" throughout the day and get them moving when they are out of control.

We have a field trip Monday. I've had a couple of nightmares about it. I hope it goes smoother than my terrible dreams. The field trip is organized by our state outdoor school program. They often have Americorp  volunteers that want to be teachers do the teaching. They usually do a great job because the lady that runs the program is a great trainer. They teach the kids about our local watershed and the water cycle. Speaking of the watershed. I had a colleague come ask me "Where the water-shed was?" I had to explain it wasn't a place but a process of getting snow or rainfall and how the mountains "shed" the water and it runs down into streams, rivers, lakes etc. I was a little horrified. This colleague has ONLY lived in the biggest city in our state which is in the desert. I think that the perception was the whole state was like this city. We are providing shocking revelations all the time like we stay outside when it snows, we buy our own snow-boots for recess duty, and winter jackets are a must. Every time the weather is slightly inclement this teacher is asking if we are cancelling whatever is going on.  The rude awakenings might send this one back down south to warmer climes.

Reading is complex

It bums me out when students are struggling readers. There is so much fun, joy, excitement, learning, adventures, and even relaxation to be had in reading. Reading is so simple yet so complex. How our brain turns these symbols into sounds and those sounds are put together to form words. Those words have meanings. If for some reason your brain has difficulty recognizing the symbol, or the sound, or processing the sound and creating the sound, or putting those sounds together onto paper, reading becomes a challenge.

Last year I had a student that was a phenomenal reader. However, once asked to write, couldn't put what he/she knew about words onto paper. He/She could do it orally, but there was block or miscommunication between the brain and the hand. It was extremely frustrating for the student. The student is now using technology to assist with this challenge. This year I have a student who has the information in their brain and you can see they are telling their mouth, tongue, and voice box what to do. None of them cooperate. It is a major challenge to put those symbols into sounds and form words. It makes reading very difficult. We have to go back to those basic kindergarten strategies of learning to read.

The brain is fascinating. All of those parts have to synchronize and work in harmony to be able to read.

We just finished reading Gooseberry Park, one of my favorite Read Aloud books. The students applauded when we finished the book. That was pretty darn cute. I try to do a non-fiction book between every fiction one. I started reading a book about Sharks today. Every page is heavy with facts and information. We are only reading a couple of pages a day. Then I will move non to another fiction story. I am trying to decide what is next. I think one of my favorite parts of the day is reading them a story. Getting kids into good books is fun! Hopefully, they will pick up more books on their own after that.

One of my LEAST favorite challenges in teaching every year is Renaming in Math. This is where you have ten or more in the ones place and have to move a ten to the tens place. Or when you have ten or more tens in the tens place and have to change those to a hundred and move them to the hundreds place. This year these kids seem to be struggling WAYYYYYY more to get this concept. I don't know why! Tomorrow, I have to get them practicing again hands on. We have our Fire Station visit tomorrow.  That will be entertaining!

G'nite

POTUS

When you have an opportunity to see our POTUS I think you should. Regardless of who is in office. This is my 2nd time having the opportunity to see a POTUS. I've also personally met one Vice-President. Did I agree with every one of them and their politics. NOPE NOT AT ALL. However, I do have respect for that office and the process that led them to be in office.

I wanted to see the spectacle. I wanted to here the words he said in person. Unfiltered by any media. It was very interesting to compare my impressions to how the media tweaked them and interpreted them differently.  It was fun, the audience was respectful, and the TRUMP was exactly what I expected.

The security was a extremely impressive. At a level I have never seen nor experienced at any event. No stone was ignored, no hilltop, no valley, no person. It was fascinating to see how the whole event was put together. However, I am sure there was a whole lot more going on that I couldn't see. It was interesting to see Air Force 2 fly in and fly out. 

Overall, I am very glad I attended. I wish that I'd put on some sunscreen. I wish that I had NOT put chewing gum in my mouth before I went... 4 hours later it was disgusting. I am GLAD I did not drink a lot of water beforehand... Port-a-potties for crowds are not my thing. I'm glad I put chap-stick in my pocket. We were not allowed to bring much in with us. I am glad I left my jacket at home and was chilly for the first hour and not carrying my jacket the rest of the day. I'm glad I stopped and bought sunglasses. 

I've been drinking a lot of water to recover from my day in the sun. It was a long week at work  that I needed to recover from. I am pretty much out of gas today. I did get a load of dishes put in and a load of laundry. I should've gone to school today to prepare for my week. I didn't. There is some I can do from home.  I am being observed this week for my evaluations. It will be good to have that done. We also have one day where we visit the Firehouse just up the street next door to our school. That will be exciting. Last week we had Picture Day, School-Wide Picture Day, and the Great American Shake-out Earthquake drill.  I think They learned things last week... Oh MY! We also have this FRIDAY OFF to celebrate our Statehood.! WOOT. I have a three day weekend to prepare my mind and body for HALLOWEEN WEEK!  We have our "Water-shed" field trip to the "Marina" a local reservoir with nothing marina like about it.  We have our Halloween Party. I just don't even want to... HA HA. Kids on Candy! It is dangerous times at school. LOL We are either flying on our sugar high or crashing on our sugar low.  If you have kids just bring the teacher extra caffeine that week.

Busy Days are ahead. I am glad I took the opportunity to see our President in person. I highly recommend it.

Wasps, Meetings, Pictures

I don't even want to think about Halloween! NO NO NO! My students have been nutty this week. Halloween week... I will have to surrender to the CRAZY. We had picture day yesterday and then school-wide picture day today. Imagine getting 900 students out to the playground grassy hill. Then lining them up starting with Kinder. Then imagine asking all 900 kids to be respectful and not act like a noodle for the picture and having that work out.  Yeah... it's a zoo.

We had a staff meeting today and had to do some work as a grade level. I don't know if it is our prior knowledge, my new colleagues lack of knowledge,  or just plain  ol' stupid. IT WAS TORTURE. We couldn't complete the task. In part they didn't get what they were being asked to do. In part they wouldn't listen to instructions. In part they just well.... did not get it. It did not compute. Siggghhhhh
We didn't make much headway. Luckily my noodle was still working fairly well... I can work this out on my own. Good Grief!!!

We've had a terrible wasp problem this year. I'm not sure why it is so much worse this year. Anyhow, one afternoon they sprayed on the playground because so many students were getting stung. Well, the very next day they were back and still stinging. After school today pest control came and sprayed everywhere. Hopefully, it will take care of the issue. Every single recess several students would get stung. Even during our school-wide picture kids were stung.  I guess we need another cold snap. I think I am alone in my wishes, but I really wish for snow. It doesn't have to snow a lot. Just enough!

I remembered my coffee this morning. Which was good... because yesterday I left it on the counter at home. That was sad. Today was our coffee delivery day...so I had two cups. Which was good, because my students out-number me and they were especially Noodly today. Noodly is a verb. Which makes it an ACTION word. They were way more active, off -task, unfocused, bouncy, wiggly, and somewhat slothful. It is an odd combination, but on a Noodly day, we want to sleep through spelling, and bounce through math. 

I feel bad for some of my students and their extra-curricular activities. They run late, they don't drink enough, they don't have a healthy dinner, and they are exhausted the next day. Parents be kind to these growing bodies. They need that rest.

Weekend

Another Saturday in class. It was another good one, but I was completely exhausted. It was a busy week and getting up and going on Saturday was not easy. I am looking forward to having time to implement some of my learning. Not sure when  I will fit it in....

I had a few parents come into the classroom Friday and I showed them technology we use in the classroom and how they can use it at home as well. They seemed to appreciate it and had some good questions. It also gave them the opportunity to ask some other questions they had on their mind. It was all good.

In other teacher news, we have a couple new teachers on our team. The parents are REALLY Unhappy with some of their decisions. It makes it hard on all of us. We may end up with students from their classes because of their interesting choices. Honestly,  I think I would pull my kid out of school. It is really that unprofessional. It is terrible because we all get a bad name. I am going to try to stay as far away from all of it as possible and do my thing. I think eventually it will take care of itself, but in the meantime it is not good.

I found out today our countries President is stopping in for a visit next weekend. I am thinking of attending just to see the circus.  He will be landing at our local airport and the event will occur there. It is interesting to say the least. There are those that are SUPER excited and those that are SUPER angry. Just like the rest of the country.  I think it might be a good time to tick some of the things off the Wal-Mart shopping list....

G'nite

Soups On!

Soups On! it is our Friday to make lunch for the staff. We are doing a variety of soup, chili, chowder and the like. Something hot that can be ladled into a bowl. I bought rolls to go with it. As well as Oreo cookies and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Yeah I went ALL out on dessert. I am sooo tired tonight. I am waiting for the soup to cool so that I can refrigerate it.

I have class again this Saturday. I am excited to keep learning, but part of me would just really like to spend a little longer in my P.J.'s.  Tomorrow after school I have a few parents coming in to learn about how we use software at school and how they can assist their students with it  at home. I am going to try to limit that to an hour. I'm sure I will be even MORE tired tomorrow. 

The school hired a Literacy Aide this year a retired teacher to help the students that are close to being on grade level, but are not quite there. The lady they hired has no experience with primary students and it shows. She doesn't have a lot of patience and doesn't adjust her expectations accordingly. Then they hired  a second Literacy Aide. She is a retired 2nd grade teacher that I worked with when I first moved here. I was very excited to have her. She will be working with our students which is a huge relief. Her first day was today and I am way more confident in what she will do with the students.

Well... my eyes are slipping....
G'nite

Sneezy!

I went to a class I signed up to take the next couple of Saturdays. I was really enjoying it. Then my eyes started watering,  my nose started running,  and I sneezed and sneezed. It was hard to follow along through all of this. I did learn a lot despite my allergic reaction. The problem was the classroom it was in the teacher had a diffuser running. That particular essential oil, apparently isn't my groove. Once I react that strongly it is hard to come back from it. That wasn't much fun.

The class was very informative and a lot of fun. Our school district has  Google For Education and we do almost everything through Google. It has a lot of options some of which I knew of or had attempted and some which was new to me. I did extend my learning on most of it. It is fun to make things more interactive for my students. We have Chromebooks at all of our schools as well. My students get them a couple of times a week. Middle and High-school are assigned Chromebooks they even get to take them home.  I am very interested in what I've learned and how I can apply it. The problem is... WHEN DO I DO THIS???  I over extend myself. Next Saturday we work on more of the interactive part of this. Then there will be a 2nd part to the class in May.

In every class or training I have been in. There is that ONE person. WITH NO background knowledge. For some reason I find this super annoying with adults. I guess I expect educators to attempt to learn some things on their own and not wait for a class. When EVERYONE is WAY above them in their knowledge I think to myself. Oh you've been avoiding learning...even when you've been shown how. It is a strategy that works for awhile. Eventually though... you just have to figure it out.

I came home and debated nap or dinner...dinner or nap. I had a little nap then contemplated dinner. I decided to run down the street an pick up a take-and-bake pizza. That is being cooked now. Then I am going to work on laundry and cleaning house. 

G'nite

Another Fire

Just when we thought we might be saying goodbye to a long wildfire season, another one started this a.m. It grew rather quickly after noon, because the wind picked up speed. People are being evacuated. They are fighting by land and air. The air is smoky once again. When I left school this afternoon after prepping for the coming week I saw other agencies coming in to support our agencies fight the fire. They rally around so quickly.

I feel fairly prepped for this school week. I was able to get quite a bit done. Did I finish my to-do list? Nope! I do need to work on some lesson plans tonight, because most of my time I spent cleaning up from last week, and prepping for this week. Last week was rough having morning duty every single day. Tomorrow we have a staff meeting first thing in the morning. We really do not know what it is about other than our central office is heading the meeting. We shall see !

Tomorrow...October Begins!  Here we go!

2 More

Two more progress reports to complete tonight. I needed a couple of minutes to take a break. I am probably putting WAY too much detail in them for parents, but maybe there will be less surprises at Parent/Teacher Conference time. I will have to go in early tomorrow to get these printed off and put in envelopes.  I can do this.

Tomorrow we have our Walk-a-thon to raise funds for a scholarship for students in the area. I don't know how I will do with my allergies and walking in the dust. I'll just have to see. It is Friday lunch and the Specials teachers are providing pizza tomorrow. One less thing to worry about...making lunch.

I am ready for the WEEKEND! One day at a time....
Okay I'm going to finish these!
G'nite

Boogers

In non-cold/allergy/asthma related news I've been going to work. My class this year is soooo much better behaved than classes I've had in awhile. Which is amazing. I need this. It makes teaching so much more fun. We completed state testing so I have an idea of where students are in their reading abilities. Which some has me pretty scared.  I suspect one has a form of dyslexia.  The student does not connect sounds to words in ways that show any phonemic awareness. I will have to do more assessing. I just think how could this student get this far into our school system and no-one has done more for her. I don't know... sometimes parents resist it as well.

I have a couple little challenges this year. One challenge is a pouter, full on, lower lip out, arms over our chest, crocodile tears pouter. It is unusual at this age. I spoke with the parents once and I was told yes they do this at home and if I have any ideas that would help they'd appreciate it. Keep it simple Mom and Dad CONSEQUENCES. Take away the thing they like. UGGH ! Okay anyway so this one has this mastered. I tell the student the action I expect, what will happen if it doesn't stop or start, and walk away.  Then I get the pout, the crossed arms, the tears, etc. I finally pulled the student aside for a conversation about how 2nd graders behave and this is NOT it!  Welllll it slowed down a little, but hasn't gone away. I guess we all need practice in being corrected. It isn't fun, but life will be much, much, harder if we cannot accept a little correction.  This student also appeared to have a pea-sized bladder. I contacted the parents about this as well making sure there wasn't a medical issue (HA!). They were quite apologetic.  I did a little recognizance  to see if the bathroom was the final destination. The student wandered the hall did a little bounce into lost and found, went into the bathroom, came out 20 seconds later. SO now we are doing bathroom tickets. The student gets two a day. They can also go during lunch or recess without using a ticket.  We'll see how this goes.

My other little challenge I am not sure what to think. I got this very weird vibe from the family at back-to-school night. The whole family was all over my classroom...with 6 people it is uncomfortable. I suspect a couple things might have fallen into pockets. Anyhow, this one in my room hasn't really been taught basic behavior. I am not sure how much is naughty and how much is just poor parenting.  The other day this student's table-mate comes to me and says "____ wiped __ boogers all over my desk and pencil" I look and gagging inside um yep ____ sure did. I call ___ over to me and ask why ___ did that. " Well it was gross and I didn't want it on MY desk."  "It was so GROSS  YOU didn't want it on YOUR desk, but you thought it was okay to put on YOUR FRIENDS desk??" " Uhhhh wellll...."  "First you are going to clean her desk and yours, and WHAT do WE have in our classroom to put our boogers in?"  "Kleenex?"  "YES, KLEENEX and  you WILL USE IT!"
So disgusting... SOOO Disgusting. I let the other person throw their pencil away and get a new one. Because who wants that really. UGGH. Conversations you can't imagine ever having. I also moved the table-mate away from this student. This student has been annoying enough to classmates I have a limited pool of friends willing to tolerate it. We have a lot of conversations about how we treat people. Siggh.... Parent's if you could do this at home... I could spend more time teaching reading.

Then I had to consider carefully how to log parent contact in our software we use to track student information.  I asked my colleagues for advice and finally settled on one. "Poor choices with bodily fluids."


Since testing is completing I have to do AMP plans for all the students that fall below the measure we use required by our state. This is always a chore. I also have to complete progress reports by Friday. It is halfway through the first quarter and I feel like I haven't been teaching, just assessing.  It is hard to keep up with my "To-Do" list. Especially when I haven't been feeling very good.

I had a special guest come to our classroom this week! This week in our reading was all about pets and why they are important. I had a local bring in a trained therapy dog to meet the students. It was a HUGE ten year old mastiff named Solomon. Sweetest  gentle giant you'd ever meet. He was  perfect for the kids. Also as a bonus his owner is a juvenile probation officer. When we asked her where she took him she mentioned she worked at "Kid Jail" and she would take him there to meet the kids who were not making good choices.  That was the first time most of my students had heard of "Kid Jail" and their eyes got huge. I might have good behavior for awhile.

It's all about the COUGH!

I've been trying to get over whatever plagues is bugging me. I think I have a combination of inflammation from being in wildfire smoke all summer, fall allergies, and perhaps a cold. I've been eating A LOT of soup. A LOT. I only want hot soup or ice cold drinks and Italian Ice. Anything that causes the slightest bit of phlegm is out the door.  The part that is driving me the most crazy is NOT SLEEPING! I wake up hacking and coughing nightly. Then I have a terrible time going back to sleep. I've been tracking my oxygen levels and  it has improved. I think my lungs are doing better. I just need to end this coughing and phlegm. Since I haven't been sleeping well it just makes working a lot more difficult. I've just been doing one day at a time and not getting ahead of anything. Which is NOT the way to do it.

I decided to go spend some quality time in the cold and flu aisle to see if there was something I could take that would help the mucus and give me a good nights sleep. That aisle is daunting. There's nighttime, daytime, 24 hour, 8 hour, 4 hour,  no-hours or days mentioned. Then there is for cough, for mucus, for fever, for congestion, for aches, for blah blah blah. This isn't even reaching in to the Allergy part of the aisle. Multi-symptom, cough and cold, cold and flu, sinus, sinus and cold, throat and chest, cough suppressant, and on and on. Then there is different strengths maximum strength, regular strength,  severe etc. Then you have to decide do I want a syrup, a capsule, a tablet, wait their are lozenges. Sigh......Then you think okay maybe I'll try this because it says nighttime and I want to sleep. However, it comes with daytime and you can't get it without daytime. Also there are 24 daytime capsules and 8 nighttime capsules.   WHY DOES THIS HAVE TO BE SO COMPLICATED!!!!!

Okay so fine I finally surrender pick something and go home to eat dinner.
Before bed I take the nighttime stuff that should help me. I still woke up coughing, but did fall back to sleep. I also woke up to use the bathroom several times and then went back to sleep. I haven't been able to do the fall back to sleep part. It did not remove any phlegm going on. What it did do was allow me to sleep, and sleeeep, and slllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeppppp. I couldn't wake myself up long enough to accomplish anything.  Perhaps the maximum strength was too much for me. This aisle is way to much for people who don't feel well. UGGH

Early

Perhaps I should've slept in. Instead I got up at my regular time, ate some breakfast, nebulized, took my medication, and tried to remember what I forgot on the sub plans. I think I forgot to upload a file. Luckily my teammate is checking for me. I don't know what I did before I had colleagues that would step in and help. It must've been really hard.

I usually get sleepy after I nebulize. It seems to open me up and then I relax. I should have been nebulizing sooner. I don't know why I thought things would improve. Especially after having the wildfire smoke well about three months now. We had a few teaser blue sky days, but it is back.

I was supposed to do my second state test on my students today. I think I might be able to trade times with a colleague. Otherwise, I will just have to figure something else out. I  think having today to rest and get some meds in me was a good idea.

Well... I don't know anything else....
Good Morning

Feeling bleh

I got up early and went to urgent care this morning. The doctor has seen me quite often with all of my allergies and asthma issues. She said my lungs sound really tight and wants me to use my nebulizer with more frequency until I clear up. She also gave me antibiotics for a sinus infection.  The pharmacy wasn't open when I left the office, so I attempted a nap. I woke up from that nap with a pounding headache.  I ran and picked up my prescriptions and now I am contemplating tomorrow.

Do I want to attempt work? Should I stay home and get some antibiotics in me? Based on how I feel right now I don't feel up for chasing 2nd Graders. However, that does mean I have to go lesson plan for a sub. Which is different than lesson planning for oneself.

In the meantime I received a message from my grade level team that we had been put on a different duty schedule. We aren't sure if the person who sent it was soooo confused by the duty schedule that they made a clerical error, or if it is changed again. This duty schedule was made so complex everyone is stressed trying to figure out where they are supposed to be, when they are supposed to be there, and what week it is because it rotates. It is a very inefficient system. I hope they didn't change it because I just put the entire schedule for the year in my lesson plans.

 

Well, I am off to eat some soup...

update

Well... my sinuses have not improved and I am quite irritable. One might even describe my general demeanor and attitude as cranky. The smoke from fires has not helped my sinuses or lungs for that matter. I am considering going to urgent care in the a.m. It is too early in the school year to be taking time off.

Somehow at the end of the school year and over the summer I have misplaced some of my slacks I wear to work. I have one spot in the closet to hang them and if I hang them dry they are in the laundry room. I can only conclude I did something wacky with them. I started cleaning my bedroom and bathroom this evening. I have a bag to deliver to a local thrift shop. I probably would have more, but I ran out of steam... and haven't found the slacks yet. 

Me making dinner wasn't in the cards. I contemplated it. I decided that by the time I did make it my cranky demeanor would be upgraded to downright cantankerous. I opted to order a sandwich from Jimmy Johns. After eating dinner if I get a spurt of energy I am going to make a pot of soup in my instant pot. I did complete a few loads of laundry today and did my dishes. I MUST go to school tomorrow to plan for my week, so I hope I can get a little help to feel up to snuff.

There is something new this year at school. Every school in the nation is required to have NARCAN on the premises. This spray is to treat an overdose. Apparently at a school event somewhere in our nation a parent died of an overdose. The president has ordered this to be so. It is sad that we are at this point.

Well I am going to snuggle with my humidifier....

LET IT SNOW!!! ⛄⛄

Irritating Chrysothamnus

Well... My plan to decide on my course of medication went terribly wrong. Before I could do anything my body decided to expel everything. That night was a terribly short night. I did feel a bit better afterwards, but still had terrible drainage. I think the drainage was causing some acid reflux. Okay yeah... you wanted to know all this. I managed to work the next day. I was hopeful that last night I would get a little more rest. I did get a LITTLE more. It was more pleasant rest because I didn't feel nearly as bad. I hope this weekend I can give myself rest and a boost. Maybe I can move on from this. I am doing everything I can. I think I may have found the irritating culprit causing all of this irritation. Rabbitbrush is in bloom here. Have I mentioned I can't wait for snow?



I made it through Friday and even managed to teach the students a few things in between assessments. I forget how busy the beginning of the year is with assessing. We were told we had to do it ourselves. I don't know how we can do it all and teach. We can't use a retired teacher even to help. I don't think our new admin realizes how long this can take for each individual student. While we do these assessments our classes are given sorts of "busy work" so we can do this. We can't give them something that might cause them to be loud or we won't be able to hear the student we are working with. I don't know... seems there must always be something that adds another challenge to the day.

Speaking of challenges. I have seen my challenge almost daily this year. Since traveling to the city and getting help from a child psychologist and medication there seems to be a huge improvement. This will be a lifelong battle for this one. I hope that feeling more present will be enough to keep the student on the right track. It is terrible to see mental illness in one so young. The outcome is just a huge unknown.

I don't know if I will accomplish half of what I want to this weekend. One step at a time. If you have a cure for fall allergies let me know. If you could send some snow my way that would be even better. In the meantime I either want hot soup or icy cold treats. I have always found that a little lemon can help with the drainage. As long as this isn't eaten right before resting for the night. This is my favorite lemony treat...

It's cool and refreshing. The cup is not full above the brim as shown in the photo. It has a seal on it like a yogurt cup.It does have more sugar than I'd like. The ice and the lemon sure make a difference on some irritated passages. Once this passes, I will forget about it for awhile.

Week 2

Week two. One wildfire contained another starts. Not as smoky as most of the summer, but there is still a haze in the air. It seems as though this fire season will not come to a close.

My sinuses decided they don't really care for this new snap of the fall air. While I am enjoying a bit of crispiness in my morning my sinuses said "NO THANK YOU!" Hmmm probably without the polite thank you....!They have begun their Autumnal draining. This disgusting mucus leads to coughing. Full body from the ground up coughing. Coughing with such force I will either throw up or pee my pants. Coughing hard enough that I am concerned about inhaling again. This is all super enjoyable as you attempt to teach small people things. Post Nasal drip is REAL folks! Uggh...Since this occurs to me in the Fall and Spring and once and awhile in between with the change in the weather, I looked up Home Remedies. What do you know... The cure involved Apple Cider Vinegar. It ALWAYS involves Apple Cider Vinegar.  I can't add insult to injury! I just can't do it. I did temporarily slow the cough down with a spoonful of honey. I took my nasal decongestant. That gave me about two very pleasant hours of sleep.

I have about another 30 minutes where I can either attempt more of that OR....! I can go for the OLD Fashioned Cure shared with me by an Elder. Well, that is sort of the story. You'll have to ask Merle for the "Rest of the Story!" Anyhow good old fashioned whiskey. If it could give me a few more hours of peaceful slumber, I might try it. However, I have other concerns about this cure. The dosage is never on the bottle for one thing. What is too much? What is not enough? I don't know my limitations on this product because I don't imbibe. I don't think it has decongestant properties either. Hmmm What to do...What to do! 

We had our first staff meeting of the year. It was brief. Amazingly BRIEF. It has been quite awhile since I experienced such efficiency. YAY!

We have been  retraining parents that they MUST sign in at the office before wandering the halls and should pick up their kids in front of the school. This has been met by resistance from a few. For every rule there is someone who feels like they should be the exception to the rule. Even if it is for their own child's safety. Which is interesting. I think they'd probably be yelling the loudest if something dangerous occurred. So these "Lawnmower" parents or "Hovercraft" parents meet your requests to sign in at the office with a little hostility. It is very interesting to be the recipient of their hostility for a simple safety measure. Your child can make it to the front of the school without your help. If they cannot because they are a Special Needs child, they will have someone walking them out anyway. Please don't turn your child into a Special Needs child because of your neediness. Our principal has had our back 100% on this.  It is still very interesting to observe and feel the anger for making sure they are a person that should be in the building.

We started some of our assessments last week to give us insight into our students strengths and weaknesses. Today my students had their first state required standardized test. I was pretty discouraged by the scores coming back. I only had one student that hurried through the test like a rabid squirrel. The majority really took their time.  They often drop a lot from 1st to 2nd grade on this test because they go from having Audio Support to Zero Audio support. The students who are poor readers rely on that audio to inference what they need to do. When that is taking away and they are simply required to read directions and answer questions  they cannot do it. Some students will quickly make the adjustments and be up to grade level in no time. Some students it is just too great of a leap to make the jump. It is difficult to decrease that gap.

I was reading the directions on scoring one of our benchmark assessments required by our district. I had the directions that the company that provides this assessment gave us. I thought I had a misconception on how to score it so I went and read the directions again. A colleague came in and asked me to remind her how to score hers. I told her and mentioned I just re-read the directions. She didn't think I was correct so she went to the school "expert" on this assessment and they told her I was wrong. I said well then ask what this means and handed her the page with the directions. Turns out I CAN  READ  AND FOLLOW directions, well as long as they aren't provided by IKEA. 

Well I am going to drink some more water, decide on my medicine of choice, and attempt a view more hours of upright sleeping. G'nite

1st Week!

I made it through the 1st week with kids. The principal made changes to help keep parents from running amok through the building before and after school. Meaning that they had to drop them off in front and pick them up out front. There was loud push back from the worst offenders. However, the majority of the parents were grateful we were trying to secure our building. There are always a couple that feel they are the exception to every rule which is hard.  Hmmmm... I wonder how that first PTA meeting will go after these changes.  When you are trying to move about 900 kids before and after school, with a campus not designed for that population, you can imagine adding parents to the hallways makes travel chaotic.   

I have a student this year I was warned could be a bit of a noodle. I hadn't had too many problems from the student other than a short attention span. However, on the carpet during a story I looked up to see this student's finger inserted way up the nose. The following Dialogue occurred:

Me to student-  "M------  Stop please!"
Student- "No!"  ...and continues to root around in there
Me:  "Please stop picking it  now!"
Student: "NO! I have a rock in there!"
Me:  (Waving arms back and forth)  "Then definitely Stop! Please! "
Student:  continues...
Me:  (Waving arms back and forth) "Stop Now! I will send you to the nurse she will get it out! Just STOP PLEASE!"
Student: "NO! I think I can blow it out!"
Me: "NO PLEASE DON'T BLOW IT OUT!!! The NURSE WILL GET IT!"
Student: blows rock out of nose....shows me the rock in hands... "See I told you I could blow it out."
Me:  "How did you get a Rock in your NOSE?"
Student: shrugs shoulders "I don't know"
Me: while attempting not to gag "Throw the rock in the trash, wash your hands with soap and water, and go to the nurse for her to check your nose."
Student: throws the rock in the trash, after touching every surface between the trash and the sink, washes hands, and goes to the nurse.
Me: tries to block this out or I will have the whole class gagging with me.  "And this is why we don't play with the rocks on the playground kids! "

Just when I thought I'd  said all the words I'd never say like "Don't lick your chair"  A student gives me a new one. There ya go an Auspicious beginning to a new school year.

New Year Begins

We had our first OFFICIAL teacher workday today. This morning we sat on small child-sized lunchroom seats for our first meeting of the year. Luckily our group was at the back of the room so when my "sit-upon" became numb and my back started yelling at  me I just stood up for awhile. Our new administration has made a lot of very positive changes. A couple of the changing have me scratching my head going  huh? Over all though the changes are just what was needed. This principal seems very matter-of-fact and no-nonsense.

We have a couple of new team-mates in second grade this year. One is a brand new teacher. Brand new and I am not sure she had enough time in the classroom as a student teacher before this, or maybe she was just not paying attention in class. We are surprised by her questions on a daily basis. She has been assigned a mentor and I hope that her mentor can help. It was a first for me to be asked "Can I wear my gym clothes tomorrow." That was for our first day today. No you cannot EVER wear your gym clothes to school, I've seen them. Okay I put it much nicer than that, much much more diplomatic. The problem is unless I provided a pictures with multiple examples of appropriate and inappropriate I  don't think she would understand what professional work wear would mean.

I am apparently the most technologically literate person on our team. I spent a good hour inputting schedules into our Google Calendars. Our administration doesn't want to be handed papers. They have tried to do more and more electronically. I created Calendars for three grade levels last year so I created a couple again for our team. I had to input all of the scheduled times for us six second grade teachers into the schedule. It is great now that it is done, but it was a little bit of a headache to do everyone. It is done though... I think.

A colleague is struggling with a mentally ill family member. The family member has had to be hospitalized a couple of times just this summer. We are trying to be a support for the colleague. It is sad to see how our brain and chemistry can significantly impact daily life.

The smoke has been constant from these summer wildfires. Today it rolled in thicker than what it had been. It is not fun with my asthma. I try to stay indoors as much as possible. However, as school starts I do not know how much that will be possible.

My class size is about 20 right now. It is a very nice size. I hope that we don't get many more new students. I was apparently given another challenge this year. Sigh.... Some of the behavior sounded familiar to a major challenge I had last year. I hope I am up for this challenge, because last years challenge still gives me nightmares.

Tomorrow is back to school night and I am almost ready for this. I have a couple of things to finish printing and many things to label before tomorrow night. Tomorrow we have the whole day to work in our classrooms. Back to school night starts at 4 p.m. and ends at 5:15p.m. It is earlier than last year, but we will get home at a reasonable hour.

I have never looked forward to snowfall as much as this year. It really can't be winter soon enough for me! The locals predict an early winter as the mice and spiders are already trying to move inside. I am good with this prediction!  Let it SNOW!  I saved the music teacher from a stink bug. I don't know if she paid attention to my stink bug removal technique or if I will be called upon again to remove stinkbugs. When I taught in the boonies this was a regular occurrence. The students  were trained to NEVER step on them, notify me, and let me capture in a plastic bag. If they stepped on it we had to relocate for a period of time. The music teacher felt someone stalked by the stinkbug. It was a rather large one and not intimidated at all. I was able to remove it and release it without any toxic fumes.  Unknown skill sets not covered in teacher education classes.  I am pretty adept at emptying mouse traps too. UGGH

Well I am going to attempt again to sleep. I'm going to have to prop myself up to get some air in to sleep tonight. I did change my heat pump air filter as it has been filtering a lot of smoky air. This might help filter out some of those particulates. I am excited to begin another school year. There has so many changes in the right direction that will really support teachers and make the classrooms and building a safer environment for all.  The first 3 weeks of school we have a lot of mandatory testing to complete again by state law. It is tough to get that all done while still establishing classroom procedures. I am trying to move most of it to the second two weeks, so that the first week I can really establish my expectations!  Here we go again!!

Drink Coffee

I struggled getting going this morning. I did get moving, but I wasn't enjoying it. I definitely needed that cup of Black Rifle Coffee. I notice coffee tastes better when you're really tired. I made lots of progress in my classroom today. I spent most of my time organizing, rearranging, and putting things away. You'd think after all these years I'd have a system. The problem is that we tweak for different classrooms and improve things every year. I am so close to being done to organizing and putting everything where it belongs.

I did get some of my classroom decorations put up today. I completed one classroom bulletin board. I think that the duct tape could fail tonight. It was slipping. I need to bring the stronger stuff tomorrow. I also have more to print and laminate before I can hang it up. I talked with my principal today about what my classroom plans are. He was on board and told me I could "Do what I want!" It is about to get seriously serious in there! I have a few things being shipped that I won't be able to put up till next week. It is really fun to let my creativity show this year. I am excited to see how exciting this will make it for my students.

I worked in my classroom until I just could not take the heat anymore. Since our high today was 103 it quickly got warm in there after the a.c. went off. I plan to go to school for a bit tomorrow, but I am going to spend a little more time in my p.j.'s in the morning and get some printing done.

I did accomplish one thing at home tonight. I put the dishes in the dishwasher AND turned it on!  I've spent so much time at school that home has been neglected. 

Super!

Just when my bladder decided bathroom breaks could occur upon demand, I am getting ready for another school year. It is disappointed by this development. I started unpacking my classroom on Monday and have been working on putting it back together every day since. I have rearranged a few things to make it  easier to navigate. I have the majority of organization complete. I have to put a few more things away then focus on decor. My little buddies older sister came one day and helped me get up bulletin board paper which is definitely a two person job. 

Tomorrow, I MUST complete the organization so I can start on the fun stuff. The decorating. I am working on a classroom transformation. I want it to pretty much VOMIT Superhero decor. I have a lot to get done. Next week I want to spend on curriculum and lesson planning. I am hoping we get our class lists next week so I can start printing labels for that. It sounds like we might not be getting them till the last minute this year. Which is pretty annoying.

I have a lot of things to print and I am waiting for a couple of packages to come in to add to my decor as well! My bulletin board game was made simple last year. Expensive but simple. In the long run maybe not that expensive because it is all reusable. I discovered Wall Hanging Tapestries. For around 30 dollars I can purchase one that I hang on my bulletin board. They have them for all seasons and holidays. I just change those out now and then! They also make a great backdrop for student pictures. I get them from a few places like Dresslily.com, redbubble.com, and Amazon.com. It is fun finding tapestries that really fit our school and classroom.

Good News! They fixed the air conditioning so I am not melting all day in my classroom. Bad News! They turn it off about 1 o'clock in the afternoon. Why it is turned off during the hottest part of the day, I do not know. However, some for part of the day is better than none for none of the day. It makes setting up the classroom a little more bearable.

While my classroom is receiving all of the attention my house is a disaster. I did manage to throw in a load of laundry tonight and I really felt like I accomplished something. I will have clean clothes to wear! I really want to find the time to cook up a few pots of something to freeze before it gets insanely busy.  Well, signing off for now...g'nite

Finding the Groove!

The Smoke! The smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke.  With hot days and smokey air the top speed is about .5.  There are a couple of upsides. One the  mosquitoes and green bugs have surrendered for a moment. Their propagation has slowed. Also, the bicyclists are not riding in the middles of roadways or hugging non-existent shoulders on narrow roads. They aren't out and about impeding traffic. Silver linings... you can always find some.

I worked on a craft project and spent time with a pal today. It is always good to have a little time with those who know you best and still like you! 😉😁 We accomplished our goal even though it was a bit of a challenge! I went home and decided a nap was the best option.

I am sitting down tonight contemplating curriculum. I have stuff all over everywhere as I sit and contemplate the end goal. Last night I read this fantastic quote "Be wary of people selling complete programs that will supposedly solve all educational problems. I believe that there is no single answer for out to fix our schools but that we should take the best ideas from everything that we can find."  (Dave Burgess,2012)  It is so true! I jump on almost every opportunity I can to attend professional development. If I know about it I am generally one of the first to volunteer. WHY? Here is what I have learned. Even the worse professional development I have ever attended, I gained a little gold nugget of something. Now some have lots of gold and it is overwhelming. Some just have a couple of good nuggets. It is also we I have a list of reading I am always working on that might help me in my career. Sometimes, I feel that I've wasted my time, but there is usually at least one little nugget in there.

So I am looking over curriculum a canned, basal, soul sucking pit of doom. It really is that bad. My goal which might take more time than I have is to get through it and find the nuggets. Find the nugget and expand on that. I went taught using this system last year.  It made  me sad. It killed my creativity. It sucked the joy right out of teaching. I simply do not have the power to change the program. I also cannot continue in this pit of despair knowing that I am not doing what is right or meaningful for students. My challenge is to find the nugget. Wish me well. I can find a way to add some substantial meat to this disgusting brew. I can... It may take me a couple of years, and failures a long the way. I am determined to find my "groove" with this.

We also spent some time with cousins this week. It seems Dad has always been a terror! Some claim these reports are highly exaggerated! We also enjoyed a delicious Hot Dog Pizza with the appropriate condiments. 

Keys

It's been busy visits with family, a wedding, some drywall mud, and no car keys. I left my car keys before I left town in case my car needed moving. Which it did. Now I am waiting for the person to let me know where the car keys are. I want to start working on curriculum planning and my curriculum is in my car. Mom and Dad are off to a different wedding reception. I've been singing this song in my head all afternoon OH WHERE IS MY HAIRBRUSH!🔑🔑🔑 I've just changed the chorus to  "Oh WHERE ARE MY CAR KEYS!" Other than that I feel I'm being super patient! 😝

The smoke from all this states and neighboring states has settled in to our town. It is pretty bad. The fire toll on homes and loss of life is devastating. The smoke is making it hard for those of us with asthma, allergies, or heart conditions.  There are people working to beyond exhaustion to attempt to save homes. I hope they can get it contained. After the fires comes new life. There are many species of pyrophytic plants that will only germinate in the chemicals that are created by wildfires. I am trying to stay close to filtered air for now.

I am trying to complete some professional reading before I get back into the school grind. I should get back to that while I wait for my keys.

News

I spent a week in Las Vegas at a teaching conference. I had a very interesting travel buddy. Let's just say I'll choose a different travel buddy when I go again. Despite my travel buddy it was an amazing conference. It is really helping me to focus my school year. Right now I am full of optimism! I am adjusting my focus a bit. 

I have been working on planning out my 1st week back to school. Luckily it is a 4 day school week because I think I am going to need some extra juice to get through this one. I have embraced completely a Super-Hero theme. I can't quite explain HOW completely I've embraced this theme. My incoming second graders aren't going to have a 1st week of school, but an experience during the 1st week of school. I hope this week will set an amazing tone for the rest of the year. I will share more when I am ready to execute the plan.

The fires in this state and all of the adjacent states is making for smoke filled skies. Between the smoke and the heat breathing is a bit more of a challenge. I have been snuggling up to my air purifier a lot. I am looking forward to getting a break from the smoke for a few days soon.

I have lesson plans  I really need to focus in on and get done! I want to have a few weeks (at least) done before I have to be back to work. Then I can completely focus on getting my classroom set up. I say lesson plans, but I don't just mean the plan. I want to get some presentations and activities prepared. This will give me a jump start to my year. We ALWAYS end up suffering through some meeting when we would rather be working in our classrooms. It could change with new Administration, or not. Who knows.  There is a learning curve for everyone with new administration. This begins my 9th year of teaching and my 7th principal. 

Well I am going to go hug my air purifier and drink some more water.
G'nite

Black Holes, WTR, and GOOGLE

Whew finished another school year! I was in a training program for dealing with psychological issues in minors this year. I survived and so did they. I learned a lot.... I hope they learned the RIGHT things. The last week of school was hot and the a.c. doesn't work in my classroom. We spent the whole week with the lights off and curtains closed. It kept it cool and was refreshing after coming in from the outside heat.  I bought my favorite beverage WTR MLN Water to get through the heat and activity of the week. Ummm Beyonce drinks this, but please don't let that stop you. It IS really refreshing.  Did I mention how HOT it was? I had an allergic reaction to some flowers brought to an assembly the last day which triggered an asthma attack. I survived that, but I didn't have much left in me that day. I was able to get my classroom packed up and check out ON TIME! Woot. I waited until most of the teachers had went through the check-out line to check out.  Then I had to go contemplate the leaning tower of laundry at home. Well....after my nap.

I find myself WIDE AWAKE at 3 a.m. HOW does a teacher get so off schedule in the summer. It is pretty easy! However, I got realllly off schedule tonight when I started researching GOOGLE classroom. I think I BARELY have the gist of how it works and how it can work. I am excited by the possibility of implementing this  tool in my classroom this year. I am discovering that I am going to have to get creative as most of what I've read and found is a little out of date and resources haven't really been created too much for this yet.  I am planning on making attempts. Tonight I went down a GOOGLE Classroom researching black hole. I kept learning and researching and on and on I went. That is how I ended up staying up too late!  Don't say I don't work in the summer. It is easier to be creative and introspective when I am not in the midst of the madness of the school year.  I need to spend some time diving into my curriculum, but researching this was more fun.  I spent a year in this curriculum and I really despise it. Diving into it really means thinking of ways to make it better.

Once I traveled down the black hole  I was thirsty, then I had to go to the bathroom, then I had to blow my nose, then I had to write a blog post. ALERT: RUN ON SENTENCE

FYI: Telling Dad the green bean he is eating is asparagus and watching him spit it out.is  my new favorite thing.

CLOSE!

I can ALMOST see the finish line. I completed and sent home the required students reading plan. I think we need to do a better job of educating parents what 2nd grade readers are required to do.  If they can read that is great, but it isn't enough! They have to be able to read for information, context clues, find the answers in the text in exact locations, analyze the text. So yea... I am thrilled they can read, but according to our standards your child must be able to do more than that.  Sigh...

We had a grand explosive experiment planned for this afternoon. Mother Nature also had one planned. We had to cancel ours due to her Thunder, Lightning, and Rain. We will try tomorrow.

Next week is our LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL. HURRAH!!! We have Field Day, Bingo, Hot Dog Day, the 5th Grade Rocket launch, and other fun activities to look forward to!

I have more paperwork to complete, post grades, organize student files, and then I should be able to wrap up this year! While the students were working on a task today. I started going through old files. I emptied about 1/2 of a drawer in my filing cabinet. I was too tired to take on one of the other tasks. This one was easier.  I poked my head out and our very responsible, on time, task oriented janitor, was frustrated by our  cancelled recess. He uses that time to do a trash empty, before the final one of the night. I took the trash out to him. He was waiting with his cart and appeared to be happy to take it away. Our head custodian..didn't have such a great day. I saw him staring into space with the carpet cleaner. I said are you okay? Nope... WHO PUKES IN JUNE??? WHO??? I am sorry I said. I guess he was mentally preparing himself for the task ahead.

We received our check-out list yesterday. Things we need to do before they officially release us for summer break. It is always a bit overwhelming, but somehow I always get it done.

I was working on painting a canvas with glow-in-the-dark paint today. Adding layer upon layer as it dried. I plan to have the students stand in front of it with their profile. Shine a light on them then take a picture of the profile. I hope it will work. I need to add more paint tomorrow. If it works out I will try to share a picture.

I am staying awake a little longer than my body would like. I am making a casserole for my team tomorrow since no-one is signed up for Friday Lunch. Another teacher is bringing salad to go with my casserole. I am a little concerned I was over generous with the garlic. We all might be blasting our students with garlic breath. Oh well...

TTYL

12 days

I probably should have spent my evening inputting grades. However, I decided to spend my evening working on Father's Day Crafts. We drew on our Shrinky Dink plastic last week. I turned on the oven and started shrinking them. They were a Kinder craft I found. I decided to do it anyway because it is fun for parents to see their handwriting. I found it here.   Anyhow, they shrunk beautifully. The only issues were the students who decided to write more than I told them, or crammed too many words together. Basically the ones that didn't follow directions.  Overall, they came out pretty cute. There was one who wrote it all upside down. Sigh....

Then I started working on their Father's Day Picture. I have a Father's Day Backdrop and I purchased Father's Day Photo Props from Amazon.  I decided to laminate them in hopes that they can survive a few more years of abuse. I laminated them tonight. Before we start their Father's Day pictures we are finishing a  Time Capsule. They are writing letters to themselves and discussing what their favorite things in 2nd grade were etc. They are supposed to hand over to their parents when completed and NOT open again till they graduate from High School in 10 years.  I prepped all of that tonight instead of doing grades.

I was at a STEM training today. It is provided by a man that teaches STEM in his home state of Kentucky. He teaches stem weekly to about 100 Homeschooled  children, appears on national broadcasts about three times a year doing STEM activities, goes to local schools, and will travel to teach STEM. I was in his class last year and we worked on some fun STEM projects. Luckily he had some different projects up his sleeve this year and it was just as fun. A colleague and I are going to attempt a couple before school is out. I will have to leave my challenge behind as I will not be able to trust him.   Looking forward to that.

Tomorrow is our LAST STATE TEST! Woot. When that is complete  it means more work for me. We have Reading Plans to create based on this last test. Some students will be exited from their Reading Plan and some will be put on a Reading Plan. This is NOT fun. It makes parents MAD. Their students only have 1 opportunity to do well on the test. Sometimes, 7-8 year olds are NOT on top of their game and DO NOT take it seriously. It is super frustrating. I can't make someone else's child care and be motivated. It must be a TEAM effort.  So many of my students made phenomenal gains. It is exciting to see what they CAN do when they DO want to succeed. I have students with serious learning issues that went up a few points and I call that a success. I only get frustrated when I know they didn't show what they are capable of.  I have a couple of students that SHOULD be in Special Education, but the parents will not go there. They really could use that small group  individualized help. I had a couple of really low students that worked their behinds off  to show that they've grown. I know it exhausted them, but they really really tried. Another thing I can't do is MAKE parents read at home. Read to your kids, with your kids, around your kids, listen to audio-books, hit the mute button on the T.V. and turn on Closed Captioning. JUST READ!!! 

Can that be right? 12 days till school is out. I am going to a National Conference this summer for teachers and I found a class I am very interested in. I am also bringing home curriculum to study it and get some quality lessons going before school starts. I hope to be able to tweak some things that I found to be less than quality.  I have a few projects to help my parents with.  I hope to enroll my Dad in some LAMINATION  this summer! He's now pretty much an expert. It will be a busy summer, but I am ready for a break.

Eyes, Parties, 2028

I don't know where to begin. Maybe my eyeballs. I was just desperate enough to use a defective bottle of allergy eye-drops that I got out the pliers to squeeze and turn that sucker open. My eyes itch. Although, (full disclosure here) I am  not sure how much of this itchiness is psychological. One of my students came in after recess and said "The school nurse said I might have pink eye and I shouldn't touch my eyes or anything else.)  Pink Eye has been running rampant at our school this spring. I am thankful for our janitor that takes his scrubbing of desks so seriously that the finish is coming off.   Anyhow, I used the eye-drops. If nothing else it makes my brain feel better 😆! "Get the wipes we are going to scrub desks!"   I heard this in the classroom: "Why does she want us to scrub desks?" "I bet someone picked their nose." "Shes asking people to wash the chairs too."  "I wonder who has germs?"   You all have germs you little carriers! HA HA! Anyhow, they never seem to mind scrubbing desks.

I also had a long dissertation from a parent as to why they would not be returning nor purchasing Spring Pictures. State law statute was quoted to me with the correlating number. The poor office on Monday when she comes in to tell them off as well. Not our Circus and not our Monkeys. Contact the company lady!

I also had another crazy experience today.  As a result I had to make an awkward phone-call and send an awkward e-mail.  It is a good thing I am not a drinker because I think Happy Hour would be my friend. I can't say more than that, but it was a doozy.

What else. Oh yes. I have a lovely backdrop covered in graduation caps. I took my students pictures in front of it. A little sign near them stated  "Class of 2028." Then they held up a sign in which they completed the sentence  "When I graduate I want to....!" Last year the best one was "Work at McDonalds."  My funniest this year was "Have a big party."  It is good to see a couple of achievable goals. One little girl said  " I want to graduate, go to college, and then get a job." I liked that she was thinking about the job part.  My huge challenge said they wanted to be a "Police Officer." In my head I was thinking "I bet you will meet some." Bad Miss C. Bad  Bad Bad. I didn't say it out loud. Do I get points for self control?😁

What else.... Oh yes. before we did that part they drew Self-Portraits in 2028 in their caps and gowns. Well... one of my students said " You won't be class of 2028... You'll be the Grandma of 2028. I said "no I won't be." then they said oh yea no you won't "You don't have kids."  They then looked a me with sad eyes. " I told them, It is okay. I will be your Grandma in 2028 and you can come visit me and I will make you cookies."    Kids lol

This time of year is ROUGH. Especially when the lamination has all been used up and you might have to go to OfficeMax. UGGH  The kids are tired and over school, the teacher is tired and over school, and everybody needs a break.

Sad news in Texas today. People keep saying enough already. Well... until people change their priorities... it will happen again and again.