Texas Bound

Well, my adventure of Christmas vacation began very shortly after I booted the kids out the door. Over a month ago, I had this great idea that Christmas break would be a great time to visit my good friend Jessica and her husband Grant in Texas. Grant is in Air Force pilot training and while they spent over a year in their previous location in Mississippi I never had the chance to visit. I knew that I wanted to make a trip but there was a big question about getting there. Initially, the idea was that I could convince enough people that a stupendous road trip was in order and we would drive. However, everyone wanted to go home and see their families and shot me down faster than I could stay on my feet.

Plan B was thanks to our good and wonderful friend Rita who offered me her husbands frequent flyer miles for the trip. I've found that nothing usually works much better than last minute plans so we got the tickets on Wednesday night to fly out Saturday morning. : ) Easy flying both ways and plenty of time for me to read two books front to back.

I got there Saturday around noon and we spent the day catching up, visiting the Naval Air Station where Grant is learning to fly a T-something (sorry, I have no memory for numbers), and visiting the beach. I got to sit in the simulator where pilots practice flying without actually flying and put my feet in the Gulf. It was cold but that hasn't stopped me before. I waded in up to my knees but didn't have extra clothes with me so decided to stop there. We also took around Flat Stanley who was sent to Jessica and Grant by Grant's mom's first grade (?) class so that he could report back to IL what South Texas is like. We completed our evening with Wii playing, a movie, pizza, and late night "teacher" talk. They have a great little apartment with an excellent, comfy couch and amazing TV/projector set up that definitely enhances all video/tv/Wii experiences. On Sunday, we went to church, lunch, and then Jessica and I shopped. I have to say it was a little strange to be in someplace so warm (65 and sunny) so close to Christmas but that didn't lessen the crowds out to get their last minute gifts. There aren't very many Christmas trees but lights on palm trees made up for it. They were also still playing "snow" Christmas songs on radio which I thought was a little odd since that doesn't happen very often in South Texas but tis the season so I guess they play it anyway.

I met a lot of their church and pilot friends who were all very friendly. I learned or at least heard more about planes, flying, moving, and the military more than ever before but it was great to have the chance to be in a completely different place out of my normal element just hearing and talking about what makes people "tick" and realizing how similar we really are even when we live completely different lives. On Monday, we decorated cookies with a couple of moms and their children from Jessica's church before I flew back to IL. Having both grown up in the country, we had never had the experience of a house full of kids playing, coming and going, and just hanging out, and what an exciting experience it was! Mostly, we just stayed out of the way until all the kids had sugared up and left the table and then we sat down to decorate a few of our own. It was fun to have the chance to relax and do something as simple as frost a cookie and add some sprinkles. I headed out on Monday afternoon hopefully giving Jessica and Grant the time they needed to pack up and ready themselves for their drive back to IL on Wednesday. It was great trip and I'm so glad and grateful to have such generous and loving friends!!


The plane Grant is currently flying. It fits 10 people if there is someone buckled on to the toilet. : )


Grant taking a picture of Flat Stanley in front of an airplane on the base.


Thanks Rita and Tim for making this trip possible!




The Beach!!


The simulator where I pretended to be something I am not: a pilot

Merry Christmas!

Well, it seems as if the busyness of the holiday has really consumed us all and myself is no exception. I would have argued if you had told me it had been two weeks since I've updated this but I would have lost so I'll quickly try to recap the last few weeks. It is amazing how quickly time flies.

The last week of school went by rather quickly with lots of Christmas festivities keeping everyone excited and the teachers on their toes. My first picture is of the Christmas basket that each person on staff received from the board of education. It had bread, apple butter, cheese, summer sausage, and my personal favorite cinnamon rolls. Mmmm.



The rest of the week was all about how "normal" I could keep the schedule to make sure that everyone stayed calm and we got something done. For the most part, we were successful with the my only crazy day being Wednesday. I'm not sure why but at the end of the day I was more than ready to kick them out the door and not see another student for two weeks. However, the last two days weren't so bad while I'm glad for the break I will be glad to see them in January. We made ornaments with their pictures on them for their parents-complete with glitter glue and lots of sequins. I hope they appreciate them as much as I do the ones that are currently hanging on my own tree. I gave each student a book, an elf ornament with his or her face in it, and a pen that looks like the hand pointer that we use during calendar time. I received my first "teacher" ornament, some scented oils, a mug and hot chocolate, and a bracelet.

The last day was of course the most exciting of all and we jam packed it full of sugar, singing, and playing. We made our ornaments in the AM and came back from lunch prepared to party. We played "pin the star on the tree," playdoh, decorated bags for the gifts, and decorated our own gingerbread men with pipe cleaners, sequins, and crayons. Then, the entire school went into the cafeteria for Christmas caroling with a sing-a-long video. Now, most of the time I don't think too much about how our school is only K-2 but at that moment when there were 320 students all under the age of 9, hyped up on LOTS of sugar, and 1.5 hours away from Christmas break all sitting in a very small room, I thought about it. Whew. The irony of it was that it was a sing-a-long video complete with words on the bottom of the screen that over half of them couldn't read. They sang along to the ones they knew and bothered everyone else when there were ones they didn't know. Oh well, it was a grand ole time. : ) Each grade level sang a song and then the teachers got up front and sang "All I want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" with raisins attempting to cover up our teeth. It was cute and the kids got a big kick out of it.



After that, we went back to the room for our snacks and treats. We had 3 kinds of cookies, 2 kinds of cupcakes, and LOTS of chocolate. There was too much and in the all the excitement I ended up with 3 boxes of cookies and 2 bags of chocolates that never even got opened. They also went out the door without their folders, a wristband that was their gift from the school, and the extra candy. Oh well, I'm pretty sure they didn't miss out. The room was trashed and it took me almost an hour after school to pick get everything back to almost normal before I headed out on my own adventure. It was quite the Christmas party.

Well, I don't want to put everything into one post so you'll have to wait for the story of my own adventure and frustrations with my Smartboard being installed for another day. I hope you have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

See You in the Funny Papers

1. I had a student today ask me if my parents called me "Lock." I told him "No. They call me Ms. Lock"

2. When told to "Zip your lips!" before heading out into the hallway, one boy replied (with his hand appearing to be holding a zipper by his lips), "Oh, Ms. Lock. It's stuck. Ugh. My zipper, I can't get it. It's stuck! Oh there, I got it."

3. Me: What are you doing in the bathroom"
Student (same one who got his "zipper" stuck): I don't know
Me: No, what are you SUPPOSED to be doing in the bathroom?
Student: I don't know
Me: WHAT are YOU to be doing in the bathroom?
Student: I don't know
Me: Yes, you do.
Student: I don't
Me: What is a toilet for?
Student: I don't know. I just don't know.
Me: What do you DO when you go into the bathroom?
Student: I don't know.
Me: Then never plan on asking to go in there again. Go sit down.

4. One day last week in a completely random moment for some reason that I have yet to figure out, my entire class began singing the ABCs. I was standing there in the front waiting to say something and they just burst out into song. I probably laughed out loud a little but I couldn't stop them. I mean really. It was the ABCs!

5. The same student who asked me back in September why I was wearing "man" shoes asked me one day a week ago why I was wearing "man" pants! I was wearing JEANS! Good grief.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

I decorated my hall last Tuesday and you'll notice that one of them is a snowman which I plan to leave up until March. And Santa, while probably not exactly what the teachers of my multicultural education class would approve of is cute and the kids like it. Between three of the K teachers, we have a tree, santa, reindeer, and a winter wonderland in our hallway.

In case you are wondering why this is posted in the middle of the day, no we are not having a snow day but an SIP day instead. It's actually pretty interesting and engaging so far. I'm learning about phonemic awareness, literacy block, shared reading, guided reading, etc. However, I just thought I'd take this moment to multitask and update the blog as well. I don't think we are going to have a snow day for a while yet.

I can't believe we only have 7 more student days left until break. The semester has really flown by and it's hard imagine my first year is already almost halfway over. The kids are starting to get a little bit excited for Christmas, snow, holidays, and just the break. I'm finding that the better my plans and schedule are the better the kids are and the more we get done. The key is to plan, plan, plan and have LOTS to do. Never stay on something for more than 20 minutes. We have still been able to go outside but that is about to be over with temps below 20 tomorrow. I will spend part of Christmas break looking for more movement activities. We are finding it nearly impossible to hold still these cold, wintery days. My more immediate concern is making sure we have a lot of fun craft ideas planned for next week and making sure everyone has a cute ornament that parents and students alike will appreciate.

In Apartment 308

Well, school is going well and I didn't get a picture of our turkeys before I sent them home so until I get a picture of some of our Christmas decorations we are on a brief hiatus from room 23 updates. The only newsworthy happening is that I had a girl throw up in my classroom on Monday. Sooo, that's another first out of the way. Yeah and gross. All there really is to say about that.

So instead of classroom news and pictures how about some from the apartment? December (because of Christmas) is Bethany's favorite month of the year and she came back from Thanksgiving break fully prepared to celebrate. We spent most of Sunday night putting up and decorating the tree and other important areas.


Here is the view from outside. We are pretty sure everyone is VERY jealous and possibly thinks we are crazy.


Wider view of the whole room with the flash


Without the flash

As you can see, it is completely complete with presents, homemade childhood ornaments, lights, beads, and a star. Now all we need to complete the scene is a little snow and the forecast says my wait won't be long. Yippee!!

It's Been A While

I know it's been a while since I've posted last, and I can't say that it's been because I've been that busy. At first, I was waiting to remember the pictures and then I just didn't ever seem to get around to it. I'll start with the fact that my "nothing exciting planned week" last week ended with the making of plastic bag ice cream. Thanks to mom's recipe and her advice to head outside with it, we managed. We shook and shook and shook those bags of ice until we couldn't shake anymore. I actually suggest using duct tape instead of rubber bands. It didn't break and allowed everyone to shake to their little arms off. The end product was delicious and very exciting. The only usable picture I have is one that Mrs. E took out of her classroom window. Hence the reason the kids are turned around and you can't see me.

This week has been full of turkeys and thankfulness. I forgot to get pictures of our home made turkeys that we made by tracing our hands and feet but maybe I'll get some pix up by thanksgiving. We also made these place mats showing what we are thankful for and I did get a pix of those. They are starting inventive spelling so I'll leave it to you to see if you can figure out what exactly is is what they are thankful for this holiday season.





Tomorrow I go to smartboard training and Tuesday is the last day of school before a 5 day break full of turkey, family, and friends. I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully with a busy and productive weekend, I'll be super prepared and able to spend a weekend away from school and just enjoying myself. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Monday

I'm not sure if there will be much news to post about this week. We don't have anything very fun or exciting planned. I'm actually hoping for it to be mostly uneventful. We have Wednesday off for Veteran's Day and while it's going to be a little offsetting to have a day like that in the middle of the week, I am looking forward to the chance to work ahead and try to get really on top of things.

I don't think that I mentioned it before but the students did get free H1N1 shots/nasal spray vaccines last Tuesday. I qualified and could have gotten one since I am under 25 but didn't. I'm not really sure why but I guess I'll just have to suffer the consequences if I made the wrong choice.

In outside of school news, I am currently thinking about finding an apartment for year. So far, all of my options are unfurnished so if by chance you are looking to get rid of or replace any old furniture, just wait until August and let me know. I'd be happy to take it off your hands. : )