Gotta Love Rocks!

So this week I started teaching about rocks for science and who knew that kids could get so excited over them! I brought in a lot of different kinds of them and let them look at them all on Monday and ever since then I have had 5 or 6 students bring in a bunch to show too. Needless to say, we are having a lot of fun studying about them! I have one little girl that LOVES collecting rocks and she is also one of my struggling students (behavior and reading wise), so she asked me if I had any more rocks at home that she could have. Well, my lovely little brain got working and (this is so bad) I decided to BRIBE her with them! She hardly ever turns in her homework and we have a contract going for her behavior, so I said she could choose a rock only if she turned in her homework on time or got a good report on her contract 2 days in a row. So far it has worked with the contract, but we will see about the homework... don't know if that will ever change...

Anyway, I snapped some pictures of the rocks we made out of clay during one of the lessons and the art we did. I had them paint rocks they brought in for art. They are so cute! Enjoy!

Back to School!

So, not much has been happening since I got home from Disney World so that's why I haven't been writing for a while. It has been a nice break though because I really have not been doing that much! Just sleeping in, going to the gym, unpacking, attempting to plan lessons, getting another cold :( and following my mother's orders....

Well, all of that changed today because I had to go set up my classroom to start teaching on Monday! I am happy to see my kids and be busy again, but I am NOT looking forward to all of the paperwork and planning! It is never ending stuff, but I guess that's what I signed up for, right? Gotta love my job!! Anyway, I am going to start a unit on rocks for science, so I have been studying up on them and collecting them. Thanks to some project that Scott did while in middle or high school, I have quite a nice collection of them. :) So we will have to see how that goes...

Well, that is pretty much all that is going on except for the fact that we made it into our new house and our old house is going to be demolished on Monday! Our neighbor's house just west of us went down in about 10 minutes this afternoon. It was sooo weird driving by and not having it there, knowing that ours is next! So, my parents are pretty sick about it and I am pretty sad. We aren't enjoying our new house as much as we should because of it, but maybe we can once our old house goes down... kinda weird. Anyway, my dad's new garage is coming along really well and will probably done in a couple of weeks.

That is about it for now. Hopefully, I will have something more exciting to say next time! :)

FLORIDA!

The last few weeks have flown by so fast! About a week ago I went off track again. It couldn't have come at a better time either. It is nice to have a break during the winter "blahs" so that I can get excited about teaching again in a couple of weeks and it is nice to be able to help my parents unpack all of the boxes in our new house and get settled.

So the day after I went off track I left for Florida with my awesome friends Sally and Candyce. It was a blast! We went to Disney World for 3 days and to Cocoa Beach 1 of the days. The only downfall of the trip was that I got sick the day we went to the beach. My sore throat came back AGAIN and this time with a vengeance because I got a fever with it too! But I didn't let that get me too down. . . I just rested for a few hours at the hotel and the next day, I pumped myself full of Tylenol and enjoyed my last day there! The weather was pretty good for the most part. It was warm the first day we were there, but it also RAINED the WHOLE day. We were soaked! The good part about that was that there weren't that many people there and we pretty much just walked on all of the rides! The next couple of days after it rained were nice and sunny but just a little bit cooler. I still thought it was nice to be in a place that was in the 50's and 60's instead of the 20's and 30's! Anyway, here are some pictures of the trip. Enjoy!

Candyce and I on the "Small World" ride. I think it was a "let's get out of the rain" type of ride....as you can tell. :) And yes, I bought those ears and wore them the whole day!

All the girls and the Stepmother and her Ugly Daughters!

Me in front of the Tower of Terror! We were able to ride this one a couple of times because the line was sooo short!

Look at our AWESOME glasses! From left to right it is me, Sally, Candyce, Erika, and Jenny. Erika actually lives in Florida and works at Disney World. She invited Candyce and Jenny to come and get in to Disney World for free and Sally and I kind of just wanted to come because we wanted a vacation!

Sally and I in front of the HUGE Animal Kingdom Tree! They had this awesome ride there called Everest, where you went into a mountain and went backwards in pitch dark. It was one of my favorite rides!

This was in front of one of the many Disney Stores at Downtown Disney. Couldn't resist a picture of one of my favorite princesses!

This is at Cocoa Beach. As you can see, I was a surfing MANIAC! Look at me go with my WHITE legs! :)

Candyce, Sally, and I wading in the water. The water was actually really warm, but outside, it was windy and kind of cold!

This picture is at Epcot at the United Kingdom part. I have NO idea why I pulled this face....