October Happenings

We were rained out of our field trip last week. It was the most absolutely miserable day in October that we have had so we elected to stay at home. It was smart choice because we would have had to spend the entire on the bus. We are going to go tomorrow (Monday) instead. It's supposed to be 65 and sunny and if the weather is anything like it is today it will be perfect. We are going to the Reindeer ranch again. The Fireman (good? no?) is not going with us. I'm 98% sure he would run off into the corn maze and we would have to send up flares and search parties. It's been decided that it's just safer for him to stay at school. He has also started stealing things. He's quickly becoming a 5 year old kleptomaniac. He's taken a Capri Sun out of another student's lunch box, a 5 dollar bill off my desk, gum out of the speech teacher's purse, and the list goes on. Maybe his nickname should be Klep.

We still managed to salvage the week by carving a pumpkin on Friday. This is the third year I've done it and I wondered before I did it if it was a good idea. It's fun and the kids enjoy it but one slip up with that giant knife . . . but I didn't slip up and I got really good pictures of my kids digging out the pumpkin guts. One girl is even holding her nose while bravely reaching in to pull out a few seeds.




The end of the first quarter is tomorrow. I can't believe it's been 9 weeks already. One quarter of the year done already?!? How is that even possible??

Randoms

We have settled into a pretty good routine in room 25. I need your help figuring out a nickname for the "alarm puller, shirt cutter, attention span of a gnat" kid. It just so happens that he has the same name as one of my brothers and it's really starting to ruin the name for me. I have a feeling I might start shuddering when I hear the name and that's probably not good when it happens to also be family. All suggestions are welcome. It needs to be catchy and short and quick. GO.

Parent/Teacher conferences have come and gone. This is a four day weekend for the kids and a three day weekend for me. It was hard to imagine how we survived last year with no holidays. We had so many five day weeks I forgot what long holiday weekends felt like. I think I'm going to remember pretty quickly though. DVR here I come.

The new ride is great. It still has the new car smell and starts every time. It gets pretty good gas mileage (27 hwy) and has already started to store my random crap. Currently there are balloons, clothes that need to be given away, and a printer.

I like that the weather is nice but it needs it to be about 10 degrees cooler. The combines, wagons, and tractors are out and it just doesn't feel right to no be able to put on a sweatshirt. I LOVE sweatshirts.

"I'm a big girl now"

Me: I just don't know what to do. I hate making decisions.
Colleague: Do you want someone to just tell you what to do?
Me: YES
Colleague: GET RID OF THE GRANDMA VAN!
Me: That was the easy decision.

I would like it said that I am not a person who likes car shopping. I'm not picky. I have a hard time knowing what I want. I am not good at making choices probably because I don't really know what I want. I'm not pushy or demanding. I'm almost too low-key. Anyways, after 5 days of shopping I just said yes and made the deal. I only shopped at Ford because I was already tired of the hassle and pressure. I think I got a decent deal and in the end the decision came down to working with the person I felt the most comfortable with. I have a little tirade about the other person I worked with but I should probably be nice. He was just trying to be helpful. It's his job after all.

I cleaned the following out of my van; When you don't own a garage or house with lots of room, your vehicle becomes your storage space. As indicated by the list of things I have been driving around for 1-3 years.

toothbrush
dental floss
sprinkles
$23.00 and a lot of change
Brake fluid
lint brush
an American flag and mounting set
5 bottles of water
3 text books
1 10 year old Dog Fancy magazine (This is much improved because 2 months ago I had over 30 issues in there)
Coupons
300 gas receipts
Bandaids
Paper Towels
And the usual car things like an ice scraper, umbrella, tire gauge, and maps

The Details
2011 Ford Escape
New
Moon Roof (Apparently it's no longer called a sun roof but I have no idea why)
Sync Systems (allows you to answer your phone hands free)
It does all other standard things. Basically the moon roof was the only added special feature.

I finally came in possession of it Tuesday evening about 8 PM after waiting a few extra days. It was not on the lot in Champaign but a dealer trade from somewhere else. I never actually heard where so they probably didn't want to tell me but all that doesn't really matter. It just means I had to drive the van to 130000 miles and the new vehicle has 500 already. I think it made the drive to work faster. Probably not. But it's sure going to feel like for a few days. : )

These are the few pictures that I took but the sun made was making it hard to not have a glare. It's just so gosh darn shiny. It also looks really long but it's not. Just 2 rows. 5 seater. Who wants a road trip??!?

Patience

is a virtue.

Found!

I vaguely remembered putting the camera cord in one of the bags that I had that weekend, but I thought I checked them all. Last night, I realized I hadn't looked in my "get ready" bag. (The one that had my blow drier, shower stuff, straightner, etc.) Turns out there it was! So yeah because I was going to go buy a new one today anyway.
I'm WAY behind and in need of some backtracking so here are the before and after pictures of my room.
Before
BLUE WALL!


After
Complete with hundreds of dollars worth of new reading materials




It looks very much the same as last year with a few small exceptions. I debated long and hard about taking out the kitchen but I just couldn't do it to them. They LOVE the kitchen and I just couldn't justify taking away that exhilarating part of Kindergarten. I organized it a little better and made it easier to clean up and thus far it has gone pretty smoothly. I'm sad to say that I haven't had a funny kid emerge yet. Seems like out of 22 there should be at least one that has me laughing out loud but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe I'll step up my game and start asking ridiculous questions to elicit some great responses. It can seriously be the highlight of a year. One even tried to guess my age and said 25! He was only a week away from being right so that pretty much dashed all hope that we might have a funny year. They even drew serious pictures of themselves. No werewolves, monsters, or vampires. I ALWAYS have a vampire. And by always I just mean the last two years but still. I was coming to expect it. Just a couple of blue people which is not even very creative. I have a couple kids who don't know their colors so it's highly likely that all that happened there. Sigh.


We have gotten off to a pretty good start thus far with everyone. The impulse kid wants to please REALLY bad so as long as I'm noticing and giving him that extra smile I think he can stay on track. The fire alarm puller, sleeper, school supply ruiner is an entirely different story and his nickname on this blog is going to become "The Youngin." One day last week he was standing next to me in the gym and put his hand on the fire alarm AGAIN. I almost freaked out on him getting his hand away. His response? "That's an alarm clock." My response, "That is NOT an alarm clock!" Oh goodness. There is another that has quite a few issues the biggest being cursing at and hitting adults. He might be getting a behavior plan. I'm not complaining though because I can't say that I have the worst of the high flyers in Kindergarten this year. There is about one in every class and since mine don't scream (yet) and I haven't had the behavior interventionist assigned to my room for 2 hours a day I'm counting my blessings. I do have a very low group of kids though. It's going to a great teaching challenge to bring these kids up and see how far they can go. It's definitely one that I'm more excited about. I refuse to lower my expectations for them and if we can be successful I know it will be my most rewarding year yet.

Let's see, what else? We lost our regional softball game 10-11 in 9 innings. So while it was disappointing that we lost it was a hard fought game and we were proud of the girls. We finished with 3 wins and some losses. I lost track and it didn't really seem important anyway. We'll have 7 of our 9 starters returning next including our starting pitchers so there is a lot to look forward to next year. I also have big news about a big purchase that I've recently made but I'm going to hold you in anxious suspense until Monday. Then, there will be a picture which is all you really want to see anyway. Dun, dun. Dun, dun. Dun, dun.

Lost

My camera cord. Otherwise you be getting a great update complete with before and after pictures of my room, the "Kindergarten Faces," and maybe even a wedding picture or two from Ryann's wedding last weekend but alas it won't be so. It is either lost in my van, at school, or in Avon. I know I picked it up to take to Avon last weekend but have checked all the bags and it seems to have disappeared. I didn't think I took it out but I can't find it either so no pictures for now.

Instead, I will just tell you that one of my students has pulled the fire alarm. The same one pictured in the previous post. On a positive note, I think he made it through all last week without cutting any holes in his shirt! If nothing else, I will have taught him how to appropriately use scissors. Success. One said straight up to me, "F_ _ _ you, stupid" and "Tie my shoe, stupid girl." He's getting a behavior plan. 11 of 23 only know 0-5 letters. 8 of 23 know 23-26. A few things have been frustrating but for the most part it has gone well and the three day weekend has very much helped me catch up with things and hopefully prepare for a really great September.

Softball will be over this week and while we haven't had a lot of success the girls are fun to coach and have had great attitudes about everything. We should be much improved next year.

One last thing. I wish I was just a teensy tintsy bit as cool as Jason Bourne.

How everyone really feels . . .

after the first day of kindergarten.

Do I really need to say anymore???

Take in mind that this was taken in the middle of an all school assembly where 250 students were shouting "I AM RESPECTFUL!" at the top of their lungs, the principal was talking on the microphone, a video was played, and there was lots of screaming about the PowerStore. Yes, I think it was a long day. Yes, we survived. Myself and all 22 students. Even two days later, this is all the energy I can muster for a post. But I'll give you the barebones facts.

9 girls.
13 boys.
2 (including the one above) 4 year olds.
1 with absolutely no self control. (He's already grabbed someone's butt in the lunch line)
2 sad short lived criers.
1 screamer when she doesn't her way.
6 silent watchers
2 repeaters
0 lost
3 days done
177 to go