It's Official...

I have tonsillitis.
My first time.
How exciting!
Not.

Believe it or not, I wanted to be at school today. I spent a lot of time preparing for this...

My kiddos and I blew up 65+ balloons to litter his office.
I decorated the office and the teacher's lunchroom.

 I made these salty, sweet treats.
(I saw them first on Pinterest here. I also saw them just last night here.) They are SUPER easy to make!


I ordered and picked up a cake for the birthday celebration.
And then I don't even get to see our principal's reaction to the surprise.
Grrr!
Oh, well.

At least I'm finally going to get rid of some of my aches and pains.

Pencils, Cards, and Stolen Bucks

What a day! Today my kids have inspired a list I'll undoubtedly be adding to in the future.

Things my Fifth Graders Have Taught Me
For When/If I Have Kids of my Own

# 1 Don't waste $$ on expensive school supplies.

I wish I had a counter on the pencil sharpener to count the number of pencils I've sharpened this year. Boy have I seen a lot of interesting pencils too. The kids eat chew on their pencils, cut them with their scissors or karate chop them with their hands, break them in half, leave them places, misuse the lead, take them apart, or over-sharpen them. They get new pencils, and the pencils are gone in the blink of an eye. Just like that. Most of the kids just don't take care of their supplies.

I will say that becoming the queen of the pencil sharpener really helped this year. We went through two pencil sharpeners before I had this revelation, but, hey, who's counting? Right? Fortunately my pencil sharpening days are numbered for 2010-2011, and I'm not a bit saddened by that. Bring on summer vacation!

Today we celebrated how absolutely amazing and wonderful our school secretary is. Last year we made a beautiful card that I loved [see above] and I think she liked (loved?) it also...

So this year I tried to do something similar. We wrote our "[Name] is..." sentences, I typed them, the kids made illustrations, and we glued everything into an accordion-style book. The kids enjoyed it.

In other news on the Western front, we had an incident involving stolen SOAR bucks today. While they were actually stolen a few days ago, they turned up today in the hands of someone who purchased them for $5 (real money). Unfortunately, my little lady didn't mark on or put her name on all of her bucks, so I wasn't able to return all of them. (Only 15 out of 155.) We'll see what happens to the perpetrator(s) tomorrow, I guess.

The Only Me

I have a very popular first name.
Ever since I was married, I have a very popular last name.

My hubby's name is also popular. He'll even roll off some number of how many others have his first and last name. He will tell you all about having to give additional information every time someone pulls up an account with his name.

For me? Hasn't been a problem yet... until lately.

I know all about multiple Sarahs. There were at least 2 at all times in my class all through grade school. I know all about always having to write your first name and last initial [Sarah O.] on assignments. Then, when all the grade schools in my hometown joined together for middle school and high school, there ranged from 4-6 Sarahs in my class. Sarah is a popular name. I know.

I have never had the problems I've had this year, though.

You see, after the first nine weeks of school, I received a new student whose mother just so happened to share my same name AND is now working for the same school district, except that her first name is spelled S-a-r-a... the wrong spelling of Sarah. [ha ha]

At first it was ha-ha-how-strange-is-that kind of interesting. Over this last nine weeks, though, it has become rock-in-your-shoe annoying.

I'm getting emails intended for her, which I have to reply to or forward on. And today, for the first time, I received a phone call intended for her.

Me: Hello. This is Sarah.
Doug: Hi. This is Doug from the train (?) company.
Me: Hi.

You know, our grade level used to take a field trip up to Abilene, and one of our activities was eating our sack lunch on a train. We haven't done that for a couple of years. I thought maybe they'd missed us! [ha ha] Anyway, I had no idea why I was getting a phone call from a train person, so I figured I'd let him do all the talking.

After the awkward pause (where I think he thought I was supposed to know who he was and communicate that), he continued by saying something about me being recommended by Marvin at the Circle school district.
Hmm. I don't know anyone in the Circle district, but... cool!

Me: Oh. Ok.

At that point he said something about energy, and it clicked in my head that he truly did not want to talk to me. He wanted the Sara [whose name is spelled incorrectly]. I told him I didn't have her contact information, so he'd have to call the district office. The funny thing [to me] was that the district office is apparently the one who directed him to me. Yikes. The ducks were not in a row this morning. For sure.

All I can say is, I hear this other Sara's job is only a 2 year position. Phew! I like being the only me in the district!

Can You Hear The Choir Singing?

I hear it loud and clear! They're singing...

"Hal...lelujah! Hal...lelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hal-le-e-lu-jah...!"

I turned in my final novel, I mean paper, tonight with 30 minutes to spare. Phew, what a relief it is! I am so glad to be finished with that Master's class. I'm not a terrible paper-writer, but I don't always enjoy it either, and that's all I did throughout this class.

Thank You, Lord, for the opportunity and the resources to take this class, for the writing ability I was given, and the capacity to learn the new knowledge that may (or may not) be useful to me...
but I thank You even more that I've officially turned in my last assignment. It couldn't have come soon enough!

Halloween: Past and Present

 

Stuart Little, 2006

 

Bumblebee, 2008

One of my favorite things about being a teacher is getting to dress up with the kids for the Halloween parade.

Here's a look back at my Halloween costumes since I've been a teacher...


Stuart Little: A quickly thrown together costume because of an inability to make a decision in a timely manner. The nose and ears were made out of Styrofoam cups.

Bumblebee: A recycled costume from many years ago... maybe 2001? I'm not certain of the year I wore it last, but I am certain I was working at the movie theatre at the time.

You'll notice 2007 is missing. My principal that year had the rule that teachers couldn't dress up. Very unfortunate, I know. Thankfully, that rule only lasted one year (because we had a new principal the next year).

Orange M&M, 2009

Orange M&M: A group of teachers decided to have a theme. We made them out of felt and put a piece of poster board on the inside to help keep the shape a little. The kids absolutely loved it!

Waldo: My 5th graders enjoy looking at the Where's Waldo books I still have from when I was a kid, so it only seemed appropriate to make a Waldo appearance. It was a big hit! All along the parade I heard, "I found Waldo!" A couple of teachers didn't know who I was right away but thought I was a

European traveler. Funny!

I enjoy wearing the costumes, and I really think the kids enjoy their teacher dressing up in a costume too. My policy is that I try to keep my costume a secret until I walk through the doors of the school as my temporary identity. I also think this suspense adds to the fun!

Waldo, 2010

Here's to another Halloween
and another year of costume fun!

Back to Business...

School is in session again, which transforms me into a busy bee. Before long, not only will I have lesson plans to create, I'll have papers to grade. This year I've lovingly added another task to my plate, a Master's online college class. To top off my load, I'm attempting to make exercise a part of my nearly daily routine. Not to mention, our small group still meets once a week, usually. Yeah, I got it right the first time, a busy bee.

I think my favorite part of a new school year is the new school supplies that I buy. Everything is new; crayons, colored pencils, and markers have never been used. The classroom hasn't truly been lived in, not like a pack of 20 students 'live' in a classroom anyway. Everything is fresh, untouched (and has fewer germs).

I've posted a few pictures of my classroom this year.

Sign in for the day and let's go!

Waiting for Science to begin...

The kids have arrived!

We're HAPPY!

Behavior Chart

Math Bulletin Board

A Testing Ninja

This year I'm wearing a mic.

And, of course, as mentioned before... this teacher has once again become a college student...

And so my plate overfloweth!