3 WEEKS!

I now have just 3 weeks left of teaching before my first year is over! WOW! I never thought this would come so soon! It has definitely been a CRAZY year, but a learning one also. I will miss my class (even with all the drama), but know that things can't stay the same forever! :) I can't wait for my summer break, but I am excited for next year too. I definitely know what I want to change about things I did this year, so it will be fun to try them out. I am kind of stressing right now though because I need to start boxing my teaching stuff up to move out to a portable next year. Yes, I am going to be in a portable. It will be very different, but every teacher at our school next year is going to stay in their own rooms instead of moving around and it just happened that 4th grade got 3 portables, so guess who is moving out?! Yep, me. I don't know how I feel about being in a portable, but I think it will be kinda nice, as far as not worrying that my class is too loud or something, but it will be annoying going in and out of school just to go to the bathroom or make copies.

Anyway, I feel like the end of the year is way busier than the beginning! It's crunch time, even though testing is over! I just thought this was going to be a time to relax and do whatever, but there is so much going on (school-wide), I am having a really hard time cramming things in that I want them to do! Like, we are finishing up our Utah History by doing counties and county reports, but it has been hard to find time to have them do research! The good thing about it though is that they are sooo excited to do them! It is so funny! They are so excited that some of them are bringing stuff from home to put in their reports and they are always coming up to me and showing me the things they find out about their county. As a school, we get these books that are called "bare books" that are basically books that are completely blank that they can write in. So, that is what I am having them use to put their reports in. I will have to let you know how they go...

We are also trying to practice for our 4th grade program that is in 2 weeks! They have to know a bunch of Utah Songs and Recorder Songs, so we have been busy with that as well. We are also going to This is the Place State Park this Wednesday for a field trip, so I am excited about that! Hopefully it is good weather!

Anyway, after all of that, I went camping this weekend to Beaver with the singles ward and it was actually pretty fun! I got to meet a lot of new people and just have fun hanging out and getting all stinky from sitting by the fire! :) There were these Indian drawings on a rock by where we were staying, so I took a few pictures of them because I thought they would be fun to show to my class! They are way neat! Makes you wonder what they say and how they have survived for so many years! Also, we hiked up this HUGE rock! It was kind of scary, but fun at the same time. I didn't have my camera while we were hiking, but took a picture of the rock for visual purposes!

The End is Coming!

So, not much going on. I feel like I don't have much of a social life at the moment because I am stressing over my students doing well on their end-of-year tests! I am going to have them start taking them this next week. The end of the year has just come way too quickly! I still have SO MUCH I haven't taught them! I feel so bad for them because I am cramming so much into their little brains at the very last minute! Especially math...I am resorting to 2 math lessons a day to get it all in! Bad, I know, but I know for next year what to do better! I can't take so much time at the beginning of the year to teach things! It is just so hard when I have kids that are getting so behind because they don't understand things yet and I don't have the time to teach it to them better! AHHHH! Frustrating for sure! Hopefully I can figure it out soon!

I can tell that my students are becoming 5th graders now because of all of the drama that is going on! It isn't so much the boys as it is the girls. Girls are so weird! I really can't figure it out! This past week, I had to send 2 of my cute girls to "Think Time" because they came in during lunch recess, put lip gloss on, and kissed a boy's planner that was sitting on his desk. Ug! I NEVER would have thought of doing something like that in 4th grade! What is this world coming to! It is also one thing after another with my girls saying hurtful things to one another. One day they are "best friends" and then the next day it is the crying about how somebody said something that hurt their feelings. I really did NOT sign up for all of this! I think next year I am going to have to teach some good communication/people/teamwork skills at the beginning of the year, because I am just tired of it! Anyway, sorry for all of the complaining...but it really is frustrating! :0

I still have 6 more weeks until I am out for the summer. Crazy! I know that seems like a long time, but I think it will go VERY quickly! This whole year has. We will definitely be busy with our field trip to "This is the Place State Park", a talent show, a program, and Utah County Reports. At first I was worried about having enough to do, but I don't think that will happen! I will keep you updated on all of it!

Back to Work!

My how time flies! I am already back to teaching again and I can't believe May is here and I am almost done with my first year of teaching! It is kinda creepy how fast it has gone...

Anyway, I though I would tell about my trip to California last week. Sally and I left on Sunday night and stayed with our awesome friend Tanya that night. We had a blast with her and her 2 adorable little kids on a part of the Manhattan Beach the next day. Yes, we did get a little fried in a few spots, but it was so nice to just relax, eat junk food, and build sand castles with the kids. So FUN!

We checked into a hotel near LA that night and on Tuesday we went to a Price is Right taping! It was sooo fun! No, niether one of us got to win anything, but we did sit just a few rows behind contestants row! It was also very interesting to see the process of how they filmed the show. We had to be there really early too, to get our "order of arrival" passes and then went shopping for a while until 1, when they wanted us to be back for "processing". We actually didn't get inside the studio until 4:30 in the afternoon! They interviewed every single one of the 300 people in the audience. It was QUITE the process, to say the least!

On Wednesday, we found our way to Six Flags where we promptly went on 2 REALLY crazy roller coasters and go sick from them! Ya, after those, we pretty much rode all of the water rides and then went back to Manhattan Beach for some more beach fun. We felt really old, because we couldn't handle all of the rides...but they were just toooo extreme for us! I think I am just used to all of the fun and NOT crazy Lagoon rides in good old Utah! :)

We had to come home on Thursday because Sally had to work that night and I had to work on Friday, so it was a pretty short trip, but very worth it! Here are a few pictures of our adventures.

Beach fun! This is Sally, Tanya, and little Andrew. He was a great little buddy the whole time we were there. Such a cute kid!

Yes, we took turns burrying each other...it was quite the experience! Let's just say that there ended up being sand in places you never knew there could be sand! :)

This is the other little buddy we had! Her name is Ally. She was so cute!

Andrew and I. He is the only guy who wants to hold my hand these days... :)

Sally and I waiting in line during our "processing" for the Price is Right.

My official Price is Right name tag! AWESOME!

This is how frozen yogurt affects us... :)

Yes, this is what I wanted to do after riding this ride! You can see the horror we went through in the background...

The last night there at the beach. It was GORGEOUS!

So, that was my short little "off-track" adventure and now I am back to the grind, but it really is going pretty well. I am a little stressed about teaching everything I am supposed to before end of year testing at the end of the month, but I think I am getting to the point that I know what I am doing a little better. I am really enjoying the kids too. I know I will miss them when the year ends, but life does go on I guess! :0 I did have a student that didn't come back this time because of the whole Swine Flu thing. His mom decided to pull him out of school because she didn't want him to get it. Crazy! I feel bad on all that he is going to miss out on! He was such a sweet kid too. I will miss him. Also, I have had MAJOR girl drama going on with about 3 or 4 girls in the class. Girls are so mean sometimes! It is just frustrating as a teacher, because I feel like I don't know how to handle it, because I never really got into fights with my friends. Any suggestions? I just have told them to apologize and forget about it! I am just soooo tired of it! Ahhhh!