Happy Halloween!

I thought I should add this cute picture one of my students colored for me for Halloween! I was quite surprised that he gave it to me! He is one of the kids that I am ALWAYS getting after for talking or something of that sort. I thought he didn't like me but apparently he does! He did a great job too!

I am ENJOYING my break though! I just got off track this week and I am SOOO excited to relax! Last week was a week from you know where....mainly because of Parent/Teacher Conferences and the fact that we were going off track on Friday. I think we ALL needed a break...kids included! PT Conferences went well, they were just LONG. I have great parents that when they found out that their kid was misbehaving so much, they really talked to them about it. So it is good to know that parents backed me up too! In fact, they said I should be meaner! I am going to change a few things when I get back, so we will see how it goes!

Next week Sally and I are going to Washington DC and then to Toronto to visit her parents. I have never been to either of those places so I am SOOOO excited to see them! In the meantime, I am just hanging out, sleeping in, shopping, and running errands. On Monday we had FHE at our house with lots of fun "Halloween" food. I also carved 3 pumpkins! I haven't carved pumpkins for so long! They turned out so cute too...

Happy Halloween!

I Will Survive!

Wow! Time is flying by so fast! I cannot believe it is Fall again! I am sad that it is getting colder, but I love how pretty it is this time of year! I am also excited that I will get my first off track time in 2 short, crazy weeks! Yessssss! (Isn't it sad that I live for the breaks???)

Things have been pretty much the same since the last time I wrote. In a weird, twisted way I am excited for P/T Conferences coming up on the 21 and 22 of this month, so I can really communicate with parents about their children that are having a hard time behaving in school. I really do like the kids in my class as individuals, but it is soooo difficult to manage them when they are all together! They want to be good, but a lot of times they don't know HOW to do that, and with my personality, maybe I am just too nice! I did visit with my principal this weekend after her observing my class while I was teaching, and she agreed that I had a lot of difficult kids in there to manage! She suggested a few things to help, but I feel like I have already tried those things so many times! I told her that and I asked her if I could send some of them to her when they were being difficult and she said yes...so, needless to say, those certain kids are not going to get very many warnings anymore before they get sent to her! It is so relieving to know that she recognizes what I am going through and can back me up! Hopefully I can get control of this class for the good! In the mean time, I am learning and growing from this class everyday! I think it is a love/hate relationship! I know on the days that are difficult, that I just need to learn from them, and go back the next day doing just a little bit better!

Anyway, these past couple of weeks have been filled with a lot of fun, despite the craziness! 2 weeks ago, my mom came and helped me do salt dough maps of Utah with my kids. I was nervous about doing this with these rowdy kids, but they actually did pretty well! Here are a few pictures of them before and after we painted them. (We made them one day and then let them dry and painted them the next day.)

This past week, all of the classes in the school had to decorate their doors for our Reflections Theme, which is "Beauty is..." My class came up with that they wanted to draw their favorite places to be. So, I made a little background of mountains and a waterfall, and they drew little pictures to put on there. Some of them were so cute! I loved the one that talked about his dad's work, with all of the tools and that. I also laughed so hard at a kid that drew a picture of Walmart as his favorite place! Some of them did awesome pictures of the beach and other places. I was proud of what they did! It wasn't enough to win the contest for the school, so they were bummed about that, but I thought they did a great job! Here are a few pictures to enjoy!