Happy New Year!

It has been a really nice break so far! There is nothing like not doing anything you don't want to do! Christmas was very nice because we didn't go ANYWHERE the whole day! My parents and I were going to go to Scott and Kim's in Bountiful, but my mom was pretty sick, so we just stayed home and took care of her. It was kind of weird though because this was the first year that we haven't been anywhere on Christmas. When I was little, we always went to Springville to visit both Grandma and Grandpa's and lately we usually just visit Scott and Kim, but we didn't even do that. It was nice to just relax and play with what Santa brought. :) It is hard to believe that Christmas is over and the new year is coming! Hopefully it will be a good one....

Well, there really isn't much to say on the teaching subject right now since I am off until next week, but before the break, my students got their blocks done. I took some pictures of them. They are so cute! At first I thought I would take them home and fix them up to look nicer, but once I got them home I decided to just let them be. They did 2 sets of alphabets, 2 sets of shapes, and 3 sets of numbers. We also had time to just paint a couple of sets of regular building blocks that somebody brought in.

So Fun! We still have so many blocks to paint, but we can do them later on in the year. It was good just to get these ones done! :)

We also had a class Christmas Party on Tuesday. It was so nice because all I did was walk around and watch them play games and do crafts! I had 4 moms come in and just take over! It was awesome, and the kids had a blast. I had to take a picture of all of the presents my students gave me once I got them home. My whole desk was covered with them on Tuesday! It was crazy! I told them I didn't need Santa to come because they had brought me so many gifts!

And this was not even all of them, because I forgot to put some in there! :) Anyway, I am just blessed to have the greatest class this year! I really have enjoyed them and I am thankful they are so patient with me, this being my first year of teaching and all...

Well, I hope you all have a happy and prosperous New Year!

Merry Christmas!

I can't believe it is Christmas this week! That's so crazy! It feels like this whole year just FLEW by! I am really excited for the holidays though, to be able to spend time with family and friends and celebrate the birth of Christ and all he did for us. I think I get so wrapped up in all of the things I have to do to get ready for Christmas, without really stopping to remember what the holiday is supposed to be about. I am just realizing that now, and with every year that goes by it seems to get harder to remember Christ because of all that "busy work". It is so good to go to church each Sunday and remember why I am here. I am so blessed to have all that I have and to be able to be around sweet little children every day for my job! Some days it is discouraging, but I absolutely love being around kids and hope that I can influence them for the good. Even though I can't really teach them about the gospel at school, I can show it by example and I hope I do. . .

Well, this past week I ended up not having to do Jury Duty, which I was SO HAPPY about! It just made life a whole lot easier! We continued to work on our service project for Primary Children's by painting the blocks they brought in. I attempted to have them put the alphabet, numbers and shapes on the blocks, but most of them did not turn out too well (as you would expect with 9-10 year olds!). So, I assembled a little "committee" to touch them up and make them look as nice as they can, and they are doing a pretty good job of it. I wish I took a picture of what they looked liked after the first day of painting. . . They looked REALLY SCARY to say the least! :) Oh well, it is about the experience anyway!

I also got a new student on Thursday. I was a little worried about getting a new one, but this little boy is actually really sweet and well-behaved. All of rest of the class loves to help him with things and he seems to be "on top" of everything we are learning so far, so I guess we will see how it goes!

Anyway, I hope you all have a great Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Thanks for all of your support everyone! I did have a much better week this last week. It seemed to go a lot smoother. I guess there are just the good and bad weeks! Oh, and my date was fun. We went to the Festival of Trees and to dinner at Guadalahonky's. The guy is really cute and nice and we got along okay. I would like to go out with him again and I even asked him to go to my single's ward date night yesterday, but he had something else going on, so I don't know what will happen! I will have to let you know...

So this week, my students decided that for a service project they wanted to make and donate toy cars to Primary Children's Medical Center...well if you are like me I was thinking "how the heck are we going to do that", but they REALLY wanted to do it so I said, "Okay, how are we going to do it?" Well, they insisted that if they got enough wood from home, they could have somebody cut it into cars and we could paint them (I wasn't going to let them cut the cars in class of course!). Well, I sent home a note to the parents explaining what they wanted to do and that we needed some donations, but when the notes came back, all anyone wanted to donate was paint and wood blocks, not any "cutting services". So, I told them yesterday that we didn't have anyone to cut the wood into cars, but then they came up with just cutting them into blocks and painting the blocks with the Alphabet and numbers and things like that. (What a much better idea!) A bunch of them said they could have their parents cut the wood into blocks (poor parents...:) ) this weekend so we can paint them next week, so we will have to see what will happen! I love to see them problem solving like this though! It is so awesome when I am not making all the decisions for them! Hopefully it will be a good lesson in problem solving and service! Gotta love kids...

Anyway, I am really nervous right now because I might have to do Jury Duty next week! That would mean making sub plans, which take HOURS because you have to write down EVERYTHING you do for each lesson! It is a PAIN... and you never know if you're going to get someone good or not! So, pray that I don't have to do that next week! :)


Well, I took a few pictures of my classroom Christmas Tree I brought in and my bulletin board with the art we have been doing so I thought I would post them for fun! The art we have been doing is optical illusion art and paper quilling (which is just a fancy name for rolling little strips of paper into designs!)

And the FUN continues.....

So, it was REALLY hard to get up and go to work everyday this week...I don't know if it is because of the cold or what, but I feel like I am in this rut and I can't get out of it! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE teaching and I LOVE my kids, but maybe I am just plane TIRED. I guess that is the same with every job, no matter what you are doing so I shouldn't be complaining...

Today was pretty crazy. It was a track change day, which means one track goes off and another one comes back on. It is also considered a moving day because we have to move everyone's things in and out of rooms. I didn't have to move this time, but we all have to help everyone. It is pretty crazy, but it all works somehow. I have realized though that I really like the school I am at, even though we have to move around, but people there are so supportive and it is a good community. We also had a faculty Christmas Party tonight that I had to help with because I am on the "Social Committee". I kind of thought that not very many people would go but the turnout was really good. It was really pretty fun too! So, needless to say, it has been quite a day (hey I am rhyming...oh boy...I AM tired...)!

Anyway, everything is going good.... not much else to say except that I actually am going on a DATE tomorrow! Sad to say, but this will be my first date this year! And not to mention, it is a blind date. I guess that is the only way I can get them these days. :) I will have to let you know how it goes...

Yea for Thanksgiving and Pioneers!

Wow! I can't believe Thanksgiving is almost here! It is going to be at our house this year with my Dad's side of the family coming over. We have started cooking some of the food tonight and I actually made a pie I saw in the Better Homes and Gardens Magazine. It is a Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake Pie. It looked so good in the picture and I am a HUGE fan of cheesecake and pumkin pie and chocolate....so to combine them all together is FANTASTIC! I just finished it, so I couldn't help but take a picture of my little creation. I have to say, it doesn't look too bad! I will be excited to try it tomorrow!

As far as Pioneer Day yesterday, we had a BLAST! The kids were all dressed so cute...some parents even making dresses and bonnets for their children to wear! They came into school and sat in chairs with the girls on one side and the boys on the other side. They then had to use their chalk and "slates" to write down some math problems on the board and a poem that they had to try and memorize. Oh, and when I called role, they had to stand up and say "Yes, Ma'am" and sit back down. Also, throughout the day, they had to drink out of a bucket of water, instead of the water fountain. They all had their own cups and would dip a laddle in the bucket and pour the water in their cups. Nobody would do it for a while, but when they got thirsty enough, they tried it. I tried it too, and it wasn't bad at all!

We had a bunch of rotations in the morning and then went on a "trek" in the afternoon around the field. It was a LOT of work but it all turned out okay because we had so much help with all of the parents that came in. I had a total of 7 parents come (including my own mother :) ) from my class alone! I will definitely do this again! It really gave them a taste of how pioneers lived and traveled. It is those kinds of things that really stick with them for a long time! Anyway, here are a few shots from the day:

School Days

Well, things are back to being crazy as usual! :) This week I spent Wednesday and Thursday at the school for 12 hours each day, doing Parent/Teacher Conferences! They were VERY long days, but all of them went pretty well though. I didn't have parents yelling at me like I feared...they were actually really supportive and if their kid was doing bad, they wanted to know how they could help improve the situation! I have such awesome parents of my students! I am really thankful for that...it makes my life easier to have that kind of support, because I really do want these kids to succeed and they will if I have help.

I am pretty excited for next week, not only because it is a short week, but we are doing a Pioneer Day on Tuesday! It is going to be filled with pioneer activities like making candles, tying quilts, making butter and soup, playing games, and making potatoe prints in the morning and then in the afternoon, they get to "pack their wagons" and go on a "trek" around the field outside! We are going to actually have them pull wheelbarrows or wagons with things in them and have situations in which they will have to get rid of items and have trials. We are then going to have them come in and eat some soup and bread with butter on it and go home! I did a pioneer day similar to this when I was student teaching, but I don't think it lasted the whole day, so it will be a blast! (hopefully!) I will have to take some pictures and share them...

Back To School...

Well, my break is officially over... :( It is back to reality tomorrow! On Friday I had to go in and move all my stuff into another classroom. Luckily there is lots of help, but it just takes a while to get everything all set up! The good thing is that I am in a really big room so there is more space in between the desks and more places to move around the room. Also, they just installed a microphone in that room so I don't have to talk so loud anymore. I noticed that my voice would be kind of hoarse when I went to bed each night when I started teaching. Now, I can just wear this microphone around my neck and talk normal. It will be really nice!

Anyway, it will be good for me to go back, because I started getting bored this past week! I was having a hard time motivating myself to do anything useful, but I did manage to get some lesson planning done, so hopefully I am ready for tomorrow. It will be fun to hear what all of my students did over the break. They are such cute kids! I really am excited to see them again!

NEW YORK!

I'm back!!! I had a blast in New York! We left on the red eye flight last Friday morning and got home at about 4 in the morning today... so five whole days in New York! Here are some pictures and what we did every day! Enjoy!

We saw a lot of all the good sights like the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Brooklyn Bridge, and the World Trade Center sight all on the first day we got there because we couldn't check into our hotel (the Marriott at Times Square!) until 4 and we got there at 6 in the morning! That was a VERY long day because of not much sleep, but it was worth every minute of it! We bought a ticket to ride these double-decker tour buses around town that you could see all of the sights on and took a "water taxi" to the Statue of Liberty and all around the island. We also walked to the Brooklyn Bridge and Ground Zero. You couldn't see much of Ground Zero, because of all of the construction still going on, but you could go into a visitor's center and check out some really neat things there. That was a very humbling experience.



We also went to the Empire State Building, Central Park, and did a LOT of shopping on Canaal Street, Soho, and Times Square. It was a beautiful day when we went to Central Park, but VERY cold when we went on the Empire State Building. There wasn't much visibility, but we had fun anyway! You can see in the picture that it was WAY windy. I felt like I was going to be blown right off the deck! We didn't see all of Central Park, because it was so big, but it was gorgeous! We got a lot of pretty pictures there. We mostly walked everywhere, so our feet were very tired after every day was over, but we did ride the subway once, and a took a taxi back to the airport.

We also got up VERY early on Monday and went to stand in the crowd on the TODAY Show! We all got to be on TV a couple of times and I got to shake Matt and Meridith's hands! It was way fun to be famous for a day! This is Sally and I waiting by the fence!

Over the course of our trip, we also went to see 3 broadway plays! We saw Wicked, Mary Poppins, and The Phantom of the Opera! They were all way awesome! We had tickets to Wicked before we left, but bought the other ones for half off at a ticket office in Times Square. These are all of the theaters we went to.

That pretty much sums it all up except for the fact that on the way home our flight was a little DELAYED to say the least..... First of all, it wasn't good weather, so they only had one runway open for all of the flights to take off and we had to wait for that, then right as we were first in line, the maintenance light came on and we had to go back to the gate to get the fuel burner checked or something. Then, we were all ready to take off again and the light came on AGAIN and we had to go back to the gate! Well, 4 HOURS after we were supposed to take off, we FINALLY got in the air! Let's just say, we were all very tired after we were on an airplane for 8 or more hours! And all they gave us was water and free headphones to watch a movie! :( Oh well, I guess we made it home okay.... and that is what counts... right? :) There's no place like home!

3 Week Break!

It's official...I am off for 3 1/2 weeks! I can't believe I made it this far! I have to say that this break came at a time that I needed it. I need to change a few things that I am doing in my classroom to see if it will go smoother. I have been wanting to for a while, but haven't had time, so I am glad I have the time now (although it is hard to motivate myself to do so!). I could tell the last 2 1/2 days before we were off track, the kids were getting excited to go off too, so lets just say, we didn't get much done! :) We had a little "Ticket Day" Activity on Tuesday, where they got to "spend" their tickets on games, prizes, and treats. They LOVED it! I have awesome parents that came up with some fun games to play and then the kids wanted to do some show-n-teach where they chose something to "teach" to everyone else in the class. One girl did "how to make flubber" (don't ask...). It was something made out of water, glue and borax. Another kid did "how to make paper frogs". They both did a very good job and we all had a blast!

On Wednesday, it was short day since it was UEA weekend this weekend. It was also track change day, so I had to move out of my classroom and another 4th grade teacher moved into mine. All of my things went into storage in a 2nd grade classroom. Yes, everything but my desk is on wheels! It is crazy, I know, but I wouldn't trade it for the world because we get paid to move around and we get breaks in the middle of the year! It is really nice too, when a lot of people, including the principal, come and move all of your things for you! I bet I only moved 2 pieces of furniture from my room (and they weren't even heavy either). Anyway, I am happy to be on break, even if I am going to be working on things instead of relaxing! It is sick, I know, but what else have I got to do! :) Oh, and I am going to New York too, so I really won't be working then... Hopefully next time I will have some fun pictures to show of New York!

Mountain Men, Pioneers, and New York, Oh My!

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while! It seems like I barely have room to breathe lately! Sometimes I wonder what in the world I am doing being a teacher.... It seems like a 24/7 job! I guess for a first year teacher, it is because of all of the planning. Maybe next year will be better! I still love being with the kids though. I think they keep me entertained and learning new things every day. I love the challenge that it is too, trying to get them to understand a concept. Then when they get it, it is so neat to see that light in their eyes! I just have to keep reminding myself of that everyday...

These last couple of weeks have been okay. We finished up talking about indians with our tribe habitats. We also did a short unit on mountain men. I had a mini mountain man rendezvous for them on Monday. I purchased some tan-colored felt, beads, and feathers at the local JoAnns and made them all "possibles sacks" (mountain man bags). I sewed them together and then they decorated them on Monday. They had a blast! Some of the girls still bring theirs to school! They brought little things from home to trade and we did some arm and leg wrestling. We also happened to have a real Mountain Man come talk to us the same day too! They REALLY liked that! I am starting a pioneer unit now. They are going to do a simulation of a wagon train traveling across the plains to Utah. We started this week by splitting into "wagon trains" and packing our "wagons". It is fun to listen to them argue about what to pack and not!
I also had my first experience with doing sub plans and having a sub yesterday. I had to get a sub so I could go to a funeral for my friend Candyce's mom. She died of cancer on Sunday. It came as kind of a shock, even though we knew it was going to happen. It was a beautiful funeral though, so it was worth getting the sub for. I worried a lot about how they would be with a sub, but they did just fine. Today, they said she was kind of mean! That just made me laugh because I am probably too nice to them!

Anyway, I am just anxiously awaiting next Wednesday when I get to go off track until November 10! YAHOOO! I need the break so bad! Also, I am going to New York with my friends Sally, Candyce, and Candyce's sister, Melissa on the 24th of October. I am so excited to do that. I think it will be good for Candyce and her sister to get away, especially after all that has happened in their lives lately. My heart aches for them, but it is comforting to know that they will get to see her again someday. It is just hard going on without a mom.

Well, that is all until next time I guess!

I Am Still Alive!

In the midst of another week of my teaching adventure, I am having a great time! It is stressful and a lot of work, but the kids are so much fun! This week I had them create tribe habitats for the 5 tribes of Utah. They were divided into groups and each had a tribe to research. They brought everything they needed to make habitats showing the food, clothing, shelter, and way of life of their tribe. This is them in the process of creating:






























The finished products!




















It was fun, just listening to them work together! They were so cute! The made pretty cool little habitats. It is fun also to see what their creative little minds could do.

I also had some of the students that were looking for a "job" to do, rearrange my collection of books that were given to me by a retiring teacher. Here are the pictures of them! I couldn't resist how they sorted them out.... and then look at how they spelled the categories out on the boxes.... :)

5 Weeks Down, 4 More to Go!

So, I can't believe I have made it through 5 weeks of teaching! Only 4 more weeks until I go off track! Wahoo! What a journey so far! This week I was sooo frustrated on Monday because I felt like the kids weren't turning things in and all the papers just kept piling up and so on, but then I talked to my mentor (another 4th grade teacher) and she told me that if kids don't finish their work or bring their homework back, they have to stay in and do it at recess in her class. What a NOVEL idea! :) So, I started posting up all the work each student was missing and making them stay in and it has worked so well! I am getting a lot more work turned in, because they really don't like to stay in for recess! Who knew....

As far as the work piling up to correct, I started sending it home for parents to do (that said they could do it) and it worked too. It has made it a lot easier for me to grade the really important things instead of spending my time on all the "little" things! To all those parents out there who help out teachers...THANK YOU! It really does make a difference!

I also had a few parent volunteers come and help out this week in the classroom. On Monday, we did salt dough maps of Utah, because that is what we have been talking about in Social Studies and a mom came and helped with that. Also, today I had a mom come in to help give spelling tests. It was so nice to have that time to some other things. I also have a mom that has planned out who is going to help with all of the parties and who is going to come and work with the kids on certain days of the week and so on. It is great to have people willing to do things like that!

On the down side of things, I gave out a math test on a unit I have been teaching and only about 7 kids passed with 80 percent and above! :( Real wake up call to me! So, now I have to go back and reteach a few things next week and test them again. The joys of teaching! :)

Anyway, I took pictures of the kids with their salt dough maps when they were finished. They turned out so cute! The librarian is letting us display them in the library. They were excited to do that! Here are the pictures:

Can't tell who the class clown is, can you? :) And then there are the sweet girls!

Baby Lexie Pictures

This is the first day home for baby Lexie. Big sis loves her new baby sister!

Such a cute picture of both my nieces and nephew!

It's Auntie Christy!

Baby Lexie was born last Tuesday, the 2nd of September. She was 6lb. 12 oz. and 19 in. long. She is so tiny! I went up to Bountiful after school to see her that day and when I held her, it was like her eyes took up her whole face! She is the smallest baby my brother Scott and sister-in-law, Kim have had! I have not been able to see her since then, but hear she is doing great, and so is mom.

I would have to say that that was the highlight of my week! The rest of the week, last week went okay. I am getting more into the "swing" of things and I do enjoy the students I have. They are all so great! I just have a few challenges with a boy that is ADHD (the "stare into space" kind) and really cannot focus on his work and getting it done. He is also a little behind in reading, so I am having to work with him to build up his fluency in reading. There is also a girl that does not turn ANY homework in. She is sweet, but has social behavior issues and is behind in reading as well. So, this week I am trying out a contract with her to see if the incentive will help her with her behavior issues. Other than that, it is just the continuous struggle of planning, preparing, and correcting papers! I have wonderful aids that help me out with a lot of correcting and other paper work though, so I am lucky to have them!

The week right now has been really good so far. The kids have lunch workers for the first time this year and boy were they excited about that! All of them wanted to do it, but I could only choose 6 names out of a hat. Who knew that being a lunch worker would be considered fun! I can imagine that they aren't that excited to help out at home! I think they are so excited because they get to go to lunch early and get out of class work. :)

Another Week Down!

Phew! It has been a crazy, but fun week this week. The kids continue to be great students, although I am having to get after them for not turning in some of their work, now that we are really getting into all the nitty-gritty stuff. Also, I started spelling this week. I am doing a new way of spelling that I learned at the university and did while I was student teaching. It is a little different than the regular way we all did it, like write words 3 times each, use them in a sentence, etc... I put them into groups based off of where they are at from a pretest I gave them. There are 4 groups and each has a different list of words. Each week the words have some kind of pattern in their spelling that help the kids recognize them easier. Each night, they have to do some kind of activity with their words with their parents. Well, some of the parents are getting confused about what their kids are doing and the kids are a little confused too, because it isn't the "norm". So I have struggled with trying to explain it all, so hopefully next week will go a little better. :0
Other than that, I have been teaching a lot about Utah's Geography, multiplication fact memorizing, and they are writing an "autobiography" about themselves by using the writing process. I really am having fun, it is just a lot of work keeping up with all of the paper-correcting and recording scores, and making sure that students are turning in their work and all... A lot of planning every night too!
On Wednesday, it was my birthday, and the kids were so excited about it. A lot of the girls brought me little presents and wrote me funny notes and drew pictures. My mom also brought in balloons and doughnuts after lunch. They loved that part! All in all, it was a fun day. I got to hang out with the fam afterward by having dinner at the Olive Garden and homemade cheesecake at my house. By the way, I finally got my very own camera for my birthday, so I was able to take some pictures of my classroom.




This is the front of my classroom. The desks are arranged in groups of three and yes, I have a stove/oven in the corner next to the TV! ( I most likely will not be using that, but who would have thought to put a STOVE in a classroom!)

This is my desk. Notice everything I own is on metal rolling carts, so I can move from one classroom to another! FUN, FUN, FUN!

This is the side of my classroom where the kids hang up their backpacks. It is also my "word wall" (vocabulary words) and my classroom rules/helpers wall. And yes, that is a piano too!

This is where my kids put their textbooks, take lunch count/attendance, do "think time" and get books to read.

This is the other side of my room where all of the EMPTY storage cupboards are because it is pointless to store anything in them when you are just going to have to move it all in 9 weeks! The kidney-shaped table is where I will do reading groups.