Grateful Friday

 I have felt a lot of angst about being sick this week.  I seem to think that I should be exempt from sickness, but I don't know why I think that.

Sometimes it feels like a personal failing.  If I weren't so weak/careless, this wouldn't have happened to me.

I'm a lot of fun.

I stayed home from school yesterday again because I completely lost my voice and felt awful.  I had activity day and I didn't know what to do about it.  There needs to be two leaders.  Maybe I would feel up to it?  I didn't want to have to reschedule or cancel.  I texted Becca, my partner, to let her know that I was sick.  I told her that I would see how I was doing in the afternoon and try to find a sub if I wasn't up to it.

She texted back in pretty short order that she had a sub.

She is pretty much the dream being my partner.  She is on it, always.

Would it surprise you if I said she is a mother of six?

Adam went with me to my school last night because I am home again today.  I talk for a living and it's hard to do my job when my voice is so raspy and then occasionally just leaves the building altogether.  I maybe feel better than I did yesterday?  Emma said if I'm on the same trajectory as her, yesterday was my worst day.

Here's hoping.

My students have mostly been doing things on the computer and I knew that was a recipe for trouble so I made copies of some things and redid the schedule and set things up a bit.  I handed Adam the one and a half pages of notes from the sub about the day and said, "See if there's anything in there that I need to know about."

There was fighting; punches were thrown.  There were tears.  There were girls listening to music on their computers while they worked (so going to YouTube, which is a no).  There were girls working together at the back table and saying I "always" let them.  Someone got in someone else's "bubble."

Not great. 

I hope today will be better.

I hope my voice will get itself together.

I'm grateful for Adam's kindness to me.  I'm grateful that I can get a sub when I feel awful (even though I'd rather be there).  I'm grateful for people picking up the slack.

BEM

 I went to my math fluency class last night.  It makes for a long day, but I really like it.  One of my favorite things is interacting with 3rd and 4th grade teachers from around the district.  They are good ladies (and there's one guy--it seems like no matter how big the group of elementary teachers is, there's just one guy).  

I was working on a project with two other women and they were looking at my necklace and trying to figure out my name.  I was wearing the necklace Janet gave me that has the letters BEM on it.

I said, "I'm Thelma.  The necklace is my kids' initials."

"Ohhhhh."

I sure like BEM though.  I talk to Braeden on the phone more frequently, but texts from Emma and Mark delight me.  

These all happened Tuesday evening.

This from Emma:

Then Mark couldn't find his new institute class so I texted him the room number.  He asked me how I knew:

Awhile after the class started, he texted this:

Later still, Emma texted this:

The drama!  The details! Adam said it was better than the murder mystery he was reading me at the time the text came in.

I like being on the other end of their texts (and Braeden's calls).

Being a mother is a pretty good gig.

After school

 Yesterday was warm and sunny.  I only wore a cardigan over my t-shirt for recess duty.  I decided to take down my winter decorations.

I have a wooden decoration I made years ago at a Relief Society thing.  It has three pumpkins stacked on each other, but if you turn it around, it is a snowman.  The bottom section is screwed into the base and a pain to disassemble.  The top two sections just stick together with pegs.

I decided I was finished with it and I plunked it in my garbage can that was in the hall awaiting the custodians.

There's a second grader who is trouble.  I think everyone in the school knows his name.  He is super cute and super rascally.  He stays after school for boys and girls club and he was walking by my door.

He said, "Wait!  What is this?!?"  He reached into my garbage and pulled off the top layer.  He said, "That came off easily."  He stuck his head in the door and said, "Hey, can I have this?"

I said, "Sure."

He quickly unzipped his backpack and started putting the fairly big pieces inside. When he got to the bottom layer, he said, "I can't get these apart."

Not looking up from my grading, I said, "Yeah, they are tricky."

He said, "But I can't do it."  

He brought it over to my desk and I gave it a cursory try, but said, "That is why I'm getting rid of it," and handed it back to him.

He looked around the room and asked, "What is this place anyway?"

I said, "Third grade.  You might be here next year."

He said, "I'm in second grade." (Like every teacher in the school doesn't know that, like I didn't know that because I said he'd be in third next.)

He said, "Well, I better go.  Thanks for this and...maybe I'll see you next year."

I said, "OK."

And I wouldn't mind him so much.  He's the type of boy Mark and his friend Gavin prepared me for.  If I do have him, I'll remind him that I gave him the pumpkins/snowman and he owes me some good will.

I was finishing up my grading and Miriam and Alissa came in my room to watch the professional learning hour over google meet together.  It is every bit as soul deadening as it sounds.  We sort of listened/participated with the camera off and I graded and then took down some more decorations.  They were both on their phones. 

Miriam accidentally bumped something and the volume came on her phone it was clear she was watching a video.

She looked sheepish and apologized.  I was up on a chair removing a heart that was hanging from the ceiling.  I said, "Yeah, you should be as engaged as I am."

Alissa said, "How dare you.  But what are you watching?"

Miriam said, "The high school state basketball championship."

Alissa and Miriam both played college basketball.  It shows in their competitiveness and wardrobes (Alissa has a Nike collection that would impress my brother Enoch) and the fact that Miriam plays basketball with kids when she has recess duty.

Alissa said, "You should have told me!  I want to watch basketball!"

The chatted about basketball and I kept taking down hearts.  I said, "Do you guys even have to stand on chairs for stuff like this?"

They are tall girls, but said they did.  Eventually we got tuned back into our professional learning hour.  

It was a multitasking kind of after school day.  Making friends with a future 3rd grader, climbing up and down a chair 50 times, professional learning hour.

And I got the papers graded!

I missed it

 I am grateful for the luxury of being able to stay home from work when I am sick.  

I wrote sub plans and emailed them to my team; I got a sub and I assume that everything went pretty much fine.

I also know that my students will castigate me for being gone.  It is deeply offensive to them when there is a sub, even when they like the sub.

I missed being at school.

As exhausting and hard as it can be, I love that place.

It is part of me.  Every morning when I walk the halls, I greet students. Sometimes, cheerful younger students greet me by name, proud that they know a teacher of older students.  Sometimes, younger students look at me blankly, not returning my greeting at all.  It's an equally mixed bag from former students.  Sometimes they smile and say hello and sometimes they just look at me.  Sometimes they look away.

When I see a sort of haunted expression on a student's face, I want to take them in my arms and give them a warm cookie.  I don't know what they are dealing with and I wish I could make it better.

One of my favorite parts of the day is opening the outside door to my own students in the morning.  They tumble in full of stories and greetings, sometimes for me and sometimes for each other.  Some of them look super tired and like they just rolled out of bed and others are perky and energetic.  When they come to school looking dejected, it hurts my heart.

Teachers in the hall are part of the rhythm of the day.  Some click along in high heeled boots and others scuff along in sneakers.  They all smile when they see me.  Sometimes it is a tired smile.  Sometimes it is a white knuckled I-am-smiling-because-screaming-is-not-an-option smile.  Sometimes it is just friendly.

Matt's booming voice heralds his arrival and Riley whistles so you know he's coming too.  The secretaries unfailingly acknowledge me kindly amidst the constant chaos of the office.

In the morning you hear the pledge echoing through the open classroom doors.  As the day progresses, you hear teachers shushing students and praising those who are walking quietly in the hall.  Walking by classrooms, you hear teachers reading, or students reading, or conversations about math.  The halls are covered with students' work and wonky posters made by the student council. 

The sights and sounds include crying on any given day (we aren't far from the kindergarten), conversations in rapid Spanish between kids who seem quiet until you see them speaking Spanish together, and laughter.

Lots of laughter.

In the workroom throughout the day, teachers are there, making copies, grabbing things off the printers, checking their boxes.  Almost every teacher inspects what another teacher inadvertently left lying around, is that something I can use?  If it is, they make a quick master.

One of the things I did yesterday, while I was home sick, was read section 18 of the Doctrine and Covenants.  

When I read, "the worth of souls is great in the sight of God," I thought of my little school.  There are the complicated braids of well cared for girls and students who have warm coats and hats and gloves.  Alongside them are kids with bedhead and dirty clothes.  There are students who have a ragged hoodie that passes as a coat.

For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him.

He suffered for all of us.  He loves us, the thriving and the struggling.  I'm glad I could take a sick day, but I'm glad I can go back.  I think I learn more than any of the students.

 

Weekend

 We had high hopes and strenuous to do lists for Saturday.  I woke up feeling like I was starting to get a cold.  It doesn't help that I spend my days with coughing children who won't cover their mouths when they cough!  

No matter!  We were going to be productive!

Braeden and QE are coming in a few weeks and one thing on the list was organize QE's room, which moonlights as a catchall.  The bunkbeds were up on risers so as to accommodate more under the bed stuff and I wanted it lowered because I didn't want QE getting hurt if she fell out.

Adam thought she'd be fine.

We went back and forth and I said, "Just let me have this."

And he did.  He's Adam and he's unflinchingly kind to me.

He got under the bed and lifted it and I moved the risers, then there he was.

He wasn't actually stuck, but it cracked me up and that is the other thing Adam is very good at doing.  Also, the reason there is a gap in the slats is that when Braeden got too long for the bed, I took a saw to the slats.  It was the best idea I had after the bad idea of buying a bed with a footboard.

Emma had been sick all week and still going to work even though I kept telling her to take a sick day.  She was worse on Saturday and was in need of some essentials.

When you are a parent, even a parent of adult children, you swerve often.

Adam and I decided to fit a mission of mercy into our Saturday plans.

We took her medicine and Kleenex and chicken noodle soup.  I washed her dishes (there weren't too many dishes, but related to her teeny tiny kitchen, a few dishes look like a lot) and Adam cleaned her bathroom and we took her trash out and hopefully boosted her spirits.

We were gone all afternoon with our various errands, but we got them all done.  

It wasn't the super productive day we were hoping for, but it was a good day.  We were together and that's the best kind.  I think I would have been better served not being quite so eager, because I woke up feeling sick on Sunday.  I watched church at home.  Emma and Mark were both sick, so it was a quiet day.  Adam eventually got home from his long church day and he lay down next to me in bed.  Braeden FaceTimed and we told QE we were Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  She didn't get the reference, but she will someday.

Adam made fried rice and we talked about our summer trip and watched the last All Creatures Great and Small of the season.

I'm home from school today.  I was so sick last winter because I kept powering through and then I had to miss several days of school.  Hopefully I can get better after today and be good as new, ready to be coughed on again....

Grateful Friday

 I'm grateful it is Friday.  I'm grateful that it is today and not yesterday.  Yesterday was a DAY.

We had a lockdown drill which made everyone skittish.  It doesn't matter if it is just a drill, it's kind of scary.

We had inside recess because of the snow.  

While all the extra principals were in there watching me (and there were 8 of them, because Alissa had sick kids and wasn't there), one of my students discovered a tiny sticker on the new whiteboard easels I bought recently and which are really hard to erase.  The sticker said that there was a protective film you should remove before use.  So then everyone completely lost interest in the lesson and started peeling away the protective film.

At least they erase better now.

A girl gave herself a haircut in the 3-4th girls' bathroom.  I don't know who it was, but she cut off a lot of hair.  I went to tell the office and they said, "We know."

I said, "OK, because I didn't know what to do about that.  They didn't cover that in college."

They didn't cover a lot of things in college....

We did have afternoon recess outside and yours truly had duty and if you think they could stay out of puddles, you would be wrong.  Some fifth grade boys were picking on some third graders so I traipsed through the snow to talk to them (we were at the puddles on the blacktop, slushy snow on the grass phase of things).  They pretended like they didn't know what I was talking about so I said, "So the third graders came up to me and completely lied?"

Well...

I said, "Be nice, especially to younger kids.  Use your strength for good."

They said OK.

It is a big deal that snowballs are forbidden.  The kids that were wrapping a baseball in snow and then throwing it weren't really living the spirit of the law...

Some girls came up to me complaining about another girl yelling at them.  I got to the bottom of it and it turns out the yeller was mad because the other three wouldn't believe her that 2 was a digit "and we learned that in 2nd grade!"

I told them to stay away from each other.

After we got back in from recess, a fight broke out between boys and a book was thrown.  

Nerves were frayed.

About five kids told me they needed to call home because their shoes and socks and pants were wet.

We had a conversation about cause and effect.  "What happens if you step in puddles?"

"You get wet."

"Yep.  You know that, but you did it anyway, so don't ask to call home."

After school I was making copies and there were a gaggle of teachers and Matt in the work room making copies.  I asked if Bertha (one of the copiers) was free and Matt said something cheeky about how I couldn't use it.  I said, "I have not had a great day, so don't mess with me. Also thanks for the Swig."

He laughed and said, "Yes, today was bananas."

But hey, 100% survival rate is still holding.

I'm grateful for that.

I'm also grateful for my activity day boys.  They are so sweet and a calm little oasis after a day with 27 wild ones.

Here's another thing to be grateful for:

The news is depressing me and I hate feeling helpless about it all.  The other day I sent an email to the Utah attorney general.  I didn't know that it would make any difference, but I knew I would feel better doing something.

And guess what?

I am part of "public pushback!"

I'll just keep pushing!

Who even knows how to spell aluminum?!?

 I mean, I do.  But that is what the PE teacher asked me at lunchtime when we were marveling about the school spelling bee.  

Two of my students were in the school wide bee.  I was so proud of them!

We went 32 rounds!  Classes peeled off when the kids got too restless, but one of my students was still in so we were there for the duration.  (I was also low-key cheering for all my former students and I had taught a lot of them.)

My little guy spelled words like aluminum and gargoyle until it was just him and a 5th grader.  (She had been the smartest girl in my class a few years ago--also, not a native English speaker if you want to be even more impressed!)

They weren't wearing watches, but my students could feel it in their bones that they were missing PE.  Miriam had left with her class so the PE teacher switched times with her class and took them outside.  (The spelling bee was in the gym.)  Much to everyone's relief, we still got PE.

At that age I probably couldn't have spelled aluminum in front of a crowd at a spelling bee and I would have been perfectly content sitting on a cold tile floor in a school gym rather than going to PE.

When we finally finished the spelling bee (the fifth grader won) and got the day a little bit back on track, I had them do iReady in the few minutes until we started writing. 

They whined.  They complained.  One told me she doesn't actually like doing iReady.  Jamie had given me back my baby picture from the contest on Valentine's Day so I held it in front of my face and said, "Do iReady."

They laughed a little and got to work.  I am going to keep it in my classroom and show it to them whenever they whine.  My pout face is bigger than your pout face.

Matt called the kindergarten and third grade teachers together after school.  He asked us if we take bribes.  We didn't know what to say.  Finally Alissa said, "Why don't you just tell us what you want?"

30 principals will be in the building today and he wanted five each to go in our classes to observe.

We told him we wanted Swig.  We passed around a sticky note and everyone wrote their order.

I actually didn't have time to stress about the five principal thing, because I went straight to School Community Council, then my math fluency class and then the ward talent show.

So I'm up early this morning to put in a little stressing about it time....

The fluency class was good.  I've already learned a lot.

I have never had five principals I don't know watching me teach, but I have a 100% survival rate so far in life, so I'm not expecting a different outcome.

Being a grown up

 Sometimes being a grown up is hard.  Lots of times it is hard.

Yesterday was tiring and my eyes are feeling WAY better, but I've been fighting an infection for a few days and that is draining.

I almost always have more that I want to do than time or energy to do it in.

I signed up for an evening class about math fluency because I want to learn more.  I don't want an evening/late afternoon class, but I signed up in a moment of optimism/delusion (it starts today).

I gave my students a test in a google form and I can't get the results to show up on my computer even though I've never had that trouble before.  I'm doing something wrong, but what?!?

When I got home, the sky was low and gray and spitting snowflakes.  More than anything, I wanted to sit under a blanket so I did.

Because I'm a grown up and I can do what I want.  

Sometimes it is nice to be a grown up.

My best girl

 Yesterday we celebrated Emma's birthday.

I love her!

I love that she teared up when I was telling her about a children's book I'd read to my class.

(I went and ordered her the book straightaway.)

I love how creative she is.  She is creative in conventional and unconventional ways and I get to be the happy recipient.  She writes music and draws pictures and constructs devastatingly funny memes.

I love how independent she is.  She 100% arrived independent.  It has caused a little friction at times (like when she was a toddler and I kept putting her shoes on the right way and she'd put them on again the wrong way until I finally gave up), but it mostly is an amazing strength she possesses.

I love how faithful she is.  She wants to do the right thing and does nothing out of social pressure.  (Ask me how I know/see above.) She goes to church and the temple because she wants to. Full stop.

I love how kind she is.  She would do anything for someone she loves.  She will be the first to cut her brothers down to size, but she would also walk into a burning building for them.  

I love how disarming she is.  Emma has shaken up my thinking more than once with her unique take on life.  She does things that would never occur to me (she put all her cousins in a Hunger Games simulator to see who would win.  It was Boston, the youngest!).  She blends words and plucks puns out of thin air.  No one should be allowed to be that quick witted and deep thinking all at once.

As my mom would say, I'm glad she stood in line to come to our family.

We met for dinner last night and the only thing that could have improved it would have been if Braeden and Anna and QE were there.

We had Mexican food and then ate medium good ice cream from a food truck and watched some ice skaters at a sort of town square in Millcreek.  

On the drive home, we had an in-depth discussion about planets and moons, led by Mark.  Astronomy is his hobby like the Supreme Court is Adam's and the weather is mine.  We all have our thing to be nerdy about.

It was a good day.  And now, I'm off to school!

Weekend

 Valentine's Day was a good one!  I think I'm getting better at managing expectations and organizing activities for the really crazy days at school (Halloween and Valentine's Days are the top of that list).  The day started with me getting a text from a parent informing me that I'd forgotten a student on the Valentine List.  I was horrified.

I looked at the list and I hadn't forgotten a student.  I had forgotten two students.  I initially hadn't created a list for them because they usually just bring candy and hand it out, but in the afternoon on Thursday, students asked for a list.  While they were at recess, I quickly typed one, not looking at another list, just going from memory because that works so well.

I gave it a cursory check that the columns were uneven because 27 is the only odd number....

I dashed off to the work room and returned with Valentine colored lists just as recess was ending.

And I forgot two students.

I messaged all the parents my apologies and my students came to school telling me what I'd done.  They love to tell me about a mistake I've made after I've told them about a mistake I've made.  We mounded all the candy on a table.  It was a sight to put fear in any teacher.  All day I said, "Step away from the candy!"

We did vaguely educational things all day.  One thing that I should have tried earlier is that I gave them the number 24 and told them it was them against the BYU teacher in a contest to see who could write more equations with the answer being 24.  They could add, subtract, multiply or divide.  

They were all intently hunched over their desks writing equations, trying to beat her and it was one of those times when I wondered what kind of wizardry was afoot.  How are they SO engaged?!?

Speaking of wizardry, the ice skating was a hit!  We moved the desks and gave everyone waxed paper.  The room mother brought three rolls and I think we used them all.  At one point, I had everyone sit in a circle and watch anyone who wanted to do a "trick."  It was absolute bedlam, but they were having a great time.

After their interest (and stamina) was starting to wane, I created a zone in the middle of the room that was lava and we had boys on one side and girls on the other and they had a "snowball fight" with crumpled up waxed paper.  There was no clear objective or winner, they just flung balled up waxed paper at each other to everyone's delight.

Then, we played bingo, passed out candy and valentines and everyone went home.

When I got home, I read in my chair for a little while to get my energy restored before the next party.

I had a good time setting the table while Adam cooked the meatballs and rice.  Braeden (and QE) FaceTimed right before the party so (alas!) I didn't take a picture of the table.  I had candles down the center with all manner of Valentine candy running down it as well.  

Everyone brought food and we had a delicious dinner.  We had bowls of rice and teriyaki meatballs and kalua pork and shrimp and chicken and all kinds of fresh vegetables and sauces.  

We played our newlywed game and everyone laughed a lot and we learned things about each other.  I lulled them into a sense of success with questions like what is the color of your spouse's toothbrush, then subversively stirred things up with questions like who loads the dishwasher "properly" and who is better at directions.  There was absurdity too with questions like having the men name which Disney character they were most like.  One of them said, "Yeah, that's a normal thing we've thought about...."

There were two couples that were clear winners and I gave one of them a bottle of sparkling cider and the other a little box of chocolates.  Two couples were clear losers and I gave them each a small notebook to write down notes about each other so they could remember things.

Then Rod made crepes on the stove and we sat around the table again and ate dessert and visited and laughed some more.  

If you had told me ten years ago that we would have an actual friend group here, I would not have believed you.  I love it though.  It is great to have friends our age and stage of life and it kind of reminds me of when Adam was in graduate school and we had this group of friends all doing roughly the same thing together.

Emma came over on Saturday so Adam could put a new battery in her car.  She watched/helped him and said, "Now that I've seen you do this, I think I could do it too."

Emma has always been an independent character.

We went to IKEA together to shop for an end table, which was her birthday gift from us.  I love hanging out with our adult kids.

We had all the kids over for dinner on Sunday.  We did a reprise variation of our newlywed game.  The siblings vs. the married couple vs. the engaged couple vs. the newly dating couple.  I told them to keep their own score and I don't know who came out on top, but I think everyone had fun.

I made a gluten free cake that didn't taste gluten free which was nice.  We sang to Emma and I was able to get my phone just in time to capture her blowing out candles.

Her actual birthday is today and I'm looking forward to celebrating more today.

Grateful Friday

 Things I love about Valentine's Day:

The colors:  pink and red!  You can't do better than that.  

Being at a school: the teachers have been wearing pink and red all week.  There are hearts upon hearts.  Everywhere you look, you know it is February and I love that.

Children: they are all so excited.  One girl raised her hand and politely wondered if there was going to be a time for her to ask everyone which color they wanted so she would know which Valentine to give them.  I suggested she do that at recess....

People who love children:  I got an email letting me know that if someone is distraught about not having Valentines, let her know.  I have extra Valentine's myself.  I'm pretty sure everyone does and you can't help getting a boost from being around such kind people every day.

Adam: my favorite valentine.  I love that his immediate posture is kindness and generosity.  I love how critically he thinks about things.  He never blindly goes along with anything.  (The guy doesn't have a partisan bone in his body--except maybe for the Seattle Mariners.)  I love how funny he is and I love listening to him read (although it often puts me to sleep).

Our party tonight: we're having 5 other couples over for dinner and we're going to play the Newlywed game.  I'm more invested in setting and decorating the table than the dinner.  It will be fun.

Erin:  Happy birthday!  I love that your birthday is on such a love-ly day.

And that's how wacky Wednesday began...

I spent most of my time before school started yesterday looking for my phone.  I knew I'd brought it to school; I'd listened to a podcast on my drive.  I thought I remembered unplugging it from the car and putting it in my bag.  It was NOT in my bag.  I looked in every nook and cranny.  I looked in my coat pockets.  I finally ventured out in the subfreezing morning to check my car.

It wasn't there.

Then I remembered that this had happened before and it had been in my lunch bag, in the fridge, in the faculty room.

I went and sure enough, there it was, chilling (literally and figuratively) in the little outside pocket of my lunch bag.  When I stuck it in my big Mary Poppins bag, that's where it had landed.

Next time I'm going to look there first.

During math, my BYU teacher was called out for about 15 minutes.  When she came back, we were doing the Mexican Hat Dance.  It had nothing to do with our lesson, but everything to do with behavior and the need to get them focused.  We did the Mexican Hat Dance, then we breathed together (using Sam, our sloth lamp friend).  

A student gave a loud and obnoxious yawn and I said, "Stop. That." and I took away one of her stars.

A few minutes later, Matt came in and said he'd seen my custodial request about a flickering light.  He said, "Riley's in a meeting, so I'll get it."  He dragged over a chair and cheerfully said, "This is an OSHA violation." 

I herded the kids out of the way who sat under the light.  He climbed up on the chair and took down 3 fluorescent light bulbs.  He handed them to students one at a time and said, "Don't drop that."

I was stressed by the whole situation.  I mean, I know these kids.  I wouldn't give them anything I seriously didn't want them dropping.

We finally got math back on track.  At least three students fell out of their chairs because they weren't sitting on them properly.  They were putting away clipboards and running and like I always do, I said, "No running!" A student who was running anyway tripped on a chair and hit her face on a desk and had a big shiner to show for it.

I think I'm going to get one of those signs:  0 Days without an Accident.

When they were at PE, my BYU teacher said, "I could tell something had happened while I was gone.  Two students' desks were switched when I returned."

I had forgotten all about that.

I explained to her why we were doing the Mexican Hat Dance and why I'd been so snappish about a yawn.  They'd all been tired and droopy and this particular student kept saying, "I'm so tired.  I'm so bored."  All the while she'd yawn in an exaggerated fashion.  

So I made everyone dance and then after taking away a star, there was no more yawning.

We are working on editing paragraphs that they are writing.  I usually have a running list they add their names to when they are ready to meet with me about editing.  Yesterday I rewrote the previous day's list on the board.  I told them we were working on editing.  I told them what they could do if they were done writing and waiting for me.

They got to work.

I called the first person on the list.  He came happily to my desk and sat across from me and smiled.  I said, "Where's your paragraph?"

His smile faltered a little.  "My paragraph?"

"Yes," I said. "What are we working on right now."

"iReady?" he guessed.

I told him we were doing writing and he had put his name on the list to meet with me.

"That is not my handwriting.  I didn't write my name."

"You did yesterday.  Where is your paragraph?"

"I turned it in. I think it's done."

"You didn't and it's not done.  Go find it."

He went back to his desk and I watched as he finally retrieved a mangled paper from his desk and got to work.

I called the next student on the list.  She was also empty handed.  "Where's your paragraph?" I asked.  She went back to her desk to get the Valentine writing worksheet they were supposed to work on while they were waiting for me.  "Your paragraph about a biome?  The one we've been working on all week?"

"Ohhhhhh."

Another student came up to me and looked beseechingly at me.  "I can't find my paper," he said.

I said, "When I was growing up, my best friend was named Marie.  I'm going to tell you the same thing Marie's mom told her kids when they couldn't find something.  'It's not on my face.'  Your paper is in your desk. Go find it."

He ambled back to his desk.

I turned to my practicum student and said, "I'm going to lose my mind."

She said, "I can see why."

We did the grade spelling bee in the afternoon.  We ran out of third grade words.  Partway through the fourth grade words, I sent Miriam to go find the fifth grade words.

The word one of the students got out on from the fifth grade list was diablo.  Diablo?  I don't know.  At least it ended the spelling bee.  We needed to declare a winner because the natives (all the rest of the third graders) were definitely getting restless and it was past recess.

It seems enough days like this would happen that they would stop surprising me, but I'm still sort of surprised.

This is my life?!?

Mother of six

 I know several women who are mothers of six children.  They're pretty much unconquerable.  I think you about have to be.

One of my students had a birthday and his mother (she's a mother of six) dropped off treats.  She brought donuts, neatly cut in two.  She brought two plastic gloves for passing out donuts and a stack of napkins. She brought a gf cookie in a ziplock bag for my student with celiac. 

I mean, I would follow this woman into battle!

After school I talked on the phone with one of my room mothers.  The other room mother can't come to the Valentine's Day party, so this room mother had talked to the mother of six about helping.  (She usually doesn't come to parties because she has a little one at home still.)  The mother of six gave my room mother an idea that she'd done before with one of her other kids.

Here's the idea:

You move all the desks.  You get squares of waxed paper.  The kids stand on the waxed paper and "ice skate" around the room.

She said when she did it for a class party before, they skated for 45 minutes and had a marvelous time.

I had so many questions.

"How does the wax paper attach to the shoes?"

Apparently it doesn't need to, they just stand on it.

We decided we'd be real sticklers about people staying in control so no one gets hurt and we decided to have bingo and some coloring pages in our back pockets in case the idea doesn't work.

But I think it will work.  I'll put my money on a mother of six.

Those ladies are amazing.

Ugh

 My BYU practicum student taught math yesterday.  We talked about it afterward and she said, "That was awful!"  I told her that it wasn't.  The kids were a little nuts.  I conceded it wasn't her best lesson yet, but I still maintained that the kids were part of the issue.

Then I taught all afternoon and the crazy only intensified.  I don't know what it was.  They were at once spacey, droopy and hyper.  How is that a thing?

After recess girls came in crying and I briefly tried to unravel the girl drama, but I decided I didn't have the emotional fortitude for it.

I left one girl at my desk to cry it out until she was ready to rejoin the class.

Some days are just like that.

Weekend

Friday I got a lot of the items done on my to do list during my teacher work day.  It was not such an unreasonable list after all!  That made me really happy, but I was also exhausted.

I came home and lay down on the couch for a while before rallying and packing my bag. Adam and I headed to Cedar City.

Earlier in the day he had gone to the Provo City Center temple with 22 young women and 5 young men for baptisms.  That was the only temple the young men went to, but the young women (and their leaders and Adam) continued to the Payson temple for more baptisms.

Later Friday, they went to the Cedar City temple, but Adam didn't join them there, because he was scraping me off the couch (and I had to work so we couldn't leave that early).

I was tired enough that I slept better than I usually do in a hotel.

Saturday morning we drove to St. George and joined everyone at the Red Cliffs temple.

  

It was beautiful, as temples are.  

The girls were very happy to see Adam and asked, "Are you baptizing us?"  They preferred him to a random stranger!

I sat with the leaders and loved being there together.  The temple is always a good idea.  

Our next stop was the St. George temple.  

Another gorgeous place.  An adult son of one of the YW leaders and brother of a YW, joined us so he did half of the baptizing.  The font there is the original one Brigham Young designed and I wondered how many baptisms have been performed there!

The entire activity was wonderful.  The girls were baptized and confirmed for over 550 people, who now have the choice to accept those ordinances and continue their progression.  That's pretty amazing.

(I told Adam that for him to be able to perform that many baptisms without getting super tired is a spiritual gift.)

We sat in the very pleasant St. George sunshine outside the temple and the YW president asked Adam to give some remarks.  He kept it very brief, because that kid knows how to read the room.  I think everyone was tired.  The YW president hugged me and thanked me for coming, and I thanked her for having us.  It was a blessing for me to be involved.

Adam and I left the group and went to visit his cousin Pam.  How we love her!  She lost her husband a few years ago and moved to St. George to be closer to her grandchildren (1000% understandable).  It was our first time visiting her in her new home.  Ever since I've known Pam, I've been struck by her goodness and kind heart.  She is a great example to me of grace in adversity.

I've been reading about Adam and Pam's great grandparents leaving Denmark to join the Saints in Utah.  I think they are so proud of Pam!

After a busy weekend and a busy Sunday, we only had our girl for Sunday dinner.

She looks sweet but she annihilated us at Parcheesi.

Grateful Friday

 It was a very intense and out of the ordinary and hard week.  

And I survived it!

We were all dragging around there last night and ready to be DONE.  Today is a teacher work day and it will be nice to keep my nose to the grindstone.  If I do half of my very ambitious list, I will be happy about it.

The third grade passed over 1000 lessons on iReady in the month of January, so we watched the movie Wonder yesterday afternoon.  It is rated PG, so we messaged parents to let them know and tell them we would provide an alternative if they wished.  As far as I know, every parent was OK with it.

The part that made it PG, is that the teenage sister kisses her teenage boyfriend.

The third graders died.  Picture 80 children squirming and writhing and squealing and covering their faces.  Actually the whole thing was kind of like watching a pot of boiling water.  We all spread out in Alissa's room and no one sat still.  At least ten kids were popping up at any given time.  One of my students walked over to me and handed me her tooth that she'd just pulled out.  I just took it in my hand (what else was I going to do?) and the BYU teachers died about that.

I guess when you've been a mother + a teacher of third graders for a while a random tooth isn't going to faze you.

She went and washed her hands and then came back and wanted her tooth again.  

It was another night of parent teacher conferences.  One of my English learners came with his mom.  We communicated pretty well, but not perfectly.  One thing I did understand was that she brought me an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.  A few days earlier, my students were talking about their favorite foods and they asked me mine.

I had said ice cream, so my student had his mom bring me an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen!

It was unexpected and unnecessary to bring a gift, but also very kind.  I took it to the faculty room freezer in between conferences.

I continue to be grateful for that place and this life.  Even on my hard and long weeks, I'm grateful to be working at a cause we believe in along with my friends. I'm grateful to be the teacher who ties shoes and confiscates stuffed animals during math and gets handed a tooth every once in a while.  You never know what is going to happen and I wouldn't have it any other way.

The spelling bee

I've never had such an intense spelling bee.  

I have many competitive students and they were invested.  We had an exhaustive conversation before it started about all the procedures and hypothetical outcomes.  We were competing for the three top spots.  They had questions. 

What if there are only four people left and two people miss a word?  What if everyone misses a word?  What if no one misses a word?

One student wondered what we would do if we ran out of words and I didn't know what to say to that, so I said we would panic.

Then I said, "Actually, I will get more words, but we may need to finish later if that happens."

I offered them a piece of candy if they were brave enough to participate.

Someone suggested I give them the candy later, since they couldn't spell with their mouths full.  They were really thinking of everything!

So we began.

One student quickly said, "That's OK, good try," when her friend got out.

One student buried his head in embarrassment/disappointment after getting out but made a quick recovery.

Most of them walked back to their desks with their heads held high when they were eliminated.

One student sobbed big shaking sobs when he got out.  During recess, when I was trying to calm him down, I asked if he had studied, he hadn't.  He was so inconsolable after about 30 minutes, I took him to the office.

Three students were too afraid to try.

One student studied harder than anyone, came in second, and was gracious about it.

One student won and had zero amount of gloating, but smiled a happy/relieved smile.

There are lots of ways to be a person and lots of reactions to the class spelling bee.  Personal disappointments and the success of others abound in this life of ours.  

They taught me with their reactions:

• Prepare if it matters to you
• Ask questions
• Be brave
• Be gracious
• Be resilient
• Be kind

It's only Wednesday?!?

 I slept abysmally Monday night and yesterday was rough.  I was very tired and it was a day back after a sub, first day with my practicum student, someone's birthday and parent teacher conferences, so a twelve hour day.

I slept over nine hours last night and I'm ready to go back.

Also, Adam and Mark went for Chinese food last night while I was gone and this was on the fridge this morning:

So I'm looking forward to that....

I am liking my practicum student.  During my prep yesterday we were in the work room assembling phonics packets and talking about following the Spirit.  

Utah County is such a unique place to live!

Conferences were mostly really good.  Since I don't have any super tricky behavior situations right now, I didn't have to have any of those conversations.  I had a few conferences that explain so very much about the students.  One filled me with compassion and I think I will look at the student differently now.  I hope I will.

Matt brought Olive Garden food for us for dinner and he was pushing breadsticks on us and telling us caffeine was in the fridge.  He said, "C'mon, you've got to carb load!  You need energy!"

If we could ever bottle up his energy, we wouldn't need another source.

I ended up the night with a really good experience.  One of my little favorites who works harder than probably the rest of them combined, has lived in the United States for two years.  She struggles, but her growth has been phenomenal.  I loved showing her mom.  Her mom's eyes got a little teary and she said, "You have made me so happy."

Same!

I got an F

 It was a hectic day and I left school late and with unfinished things to do, but I got through it.

The sub didn't share hot celebrity gossip, but I do apparently make capital letter F incorrectly in cursive according to her and she "taught for 30 years," so there's that.

She is very valid in her criticism, because penmanship was hands down my worst grade on my report card in elementary school, but it cracked me up all the same.

I mean, who does that?

A sub who taught for 30 years, I guess.

Our data day was useful and productive and hard brain work.  I think my BYU teacher seems like a good one.  Parent teacher conferences are today and Thursday and I'll survive this week.

I will.

I'm going to keep reminding myself.

Weekend

Before I left school on Friday, I got out my February picture books and hung up a bunch of hearts and changed the calendar to February.

Could anything be better than hanging up a bunch of red hearts?  (I have some at home too.)

Today I have a sub because we are doing a third grade data dive and I also, coincidentally, have a BYU practicum student starting in my class.  Oh, and third grade has before school traffic duty.  What a week!

I had a dream Sunday morning right before I woke up that my BYU practicum student came in about five minutes after school started (and she is supposed to get there 30 minutes before it starts) and she had three people with her to carry all of her stuff.  They do a really brief get-to-know-you presentation for the class--usually a little slide show--but she had brought props.

She was getting set up and I was trying to figure out where the sub was.  She finally started her presentation and her multimedia presentation wasn't working and she was really floundering, but I was texting the office about the sub.  The sub finally walked in and told me she was late because of some celebrity gossip she was reading.

Finally I could go to my meeting, but my desk was gone (because the district painters decided to paint my classroom) and I couldn't find anything I needed.

I told Adam and he said, "Sounds like you're really confident about today...."

Does it sound that way?!?