Grateful Friday

 Yesterday was a cranky pants kind of day.  (Although I wore jeans.)

It was rainy and we had inside recess.  A boy crawled under my desk and cried because he didn't win the Blooket we played.  I told him if he wasn't old enough to not cry about Blooket, he couldn't play anymore.  He put his head inside his t-shirt, but he stopped crying.

Later in the afternoon two kids cried because they didn't have enough time to finish.  They had spent oodles of time in clipboard selection because they wanted to work somewhere beside their desks.

I hadn't slept well so I know my patience was thin.  That usually results in more fragile children, which is a losing cycle for all of us.  Between not being home last weekend to do the weekend things and trying to fit them all in this week, I've been stretched thinner than normal.

I have a pathetically small margin of stretch.  

I have a sore throat and my old friends, the mouth sores, back.  I need to rest in order for my life to work and that is discouraging.

I have a rock that a student painted in a rainbow and gave to me years ago.  I use it to prop open the door when I have recess duty.  A student complained that there was no purple in the rainbow and that is his favorite color.

I said, "One of my students gave it to me as a gift, so I didn't complain about it."

A girl said, "Also, she is a teacher and a grown up so she doesn't complain."

I am a grown up and I do complain.  I felt chastised.  I need to do better because no one likes a complainer.  

I went to recess duty and watched the children run and play and I watched the clouds dance across the stormy sky and I watched the mountains, red, yellow and brown, steadfastly looking over us.

I don't really have much to complain about.  I need to take care of my weak constitution, but my life is pretty great.  I had a student wear his bicycle helmet all morning because he wanted to.  After a while he came up to me and said, "If one more person asks me why I am wearing this, I might take it off."

I mean, these kids are nuts and they delight me.

I had a boy pull a tooth out during math.  I gave him a ziplock bag and he put it in his backpack and they all laughed at my jokes about him being a jack-o-lantern just in time for Halloween.  They are the easiest crowd to make laugh.  And several of them tried to pull out more teeth so they could also be jack-o-lanterns, but no one was successful

What really righted my ship is last night Adam and I drove to Salt Lake to meet up with Megan and Emma for dinner.  Megan is in town for a conference.  Driving to and from Salt Lake with Adam mended my soul up a bit.  It is good to be with him.

I am looking forward to a weekend.  Geri is here and we are planning to go to the new Sense and Sensibility movie and Adam will be here until Sunday night and I will soak that time up.

Also, I think we are securely in sweater weather and I love that.

I am grateful for my life and grateful for a blustery recess to remind me of that.

We the People

Yesterday we read a passage about the Constitution.  It is part of our curriculum now to learn about the three branches of government.  

I haven’t had a more intense government discussion since Braeden was 5 and demanding to understand checks and balances.  (No surprise that kid is getting a PhD in political science.)

I decided we needed to start strong so we talked about the Revolutionary War.  They all thought they knew the name of the war and none of them did.  I gave them a hint.  It starts with an R.  A boy ventured a guess, “The Repentance War?”

No, and I’m not even sure how repentance would wage a war, but I’d like to see it try.

Next stop was talking about the Articles of Confederation briefly.  The newly minted Americans didn’t want to have to pay a lot of taxes.

But that didn’t really work out.

So they convened.  We talked about what a delegate is.  We read in the passage who was there, including Alexander Hamilton. I had to tell a boy to stop singing songs from Hamilton.  You really never can tell what the range of their experiences will be.

We read that Americans now observe September 17 as Constitution Day.  A girl was deeply insulted.  Why hadn’t we celebrate Constitution Day on September 17?  

One boy told me twelve times his birthday is on September 18.  Eventually, when his hand was raised, I said, “I know.  Your birthday.  September 18.”

The righteous indignation persisted, “But why didn’t we celebrate Constitution Day?!?”

Ah ha!  It came to me.  I said, “It says we observe it, not celebrate.  So we notice it is Constitution Day.”

“OK,” she said grudgingly.

We landed on three branches of government in the passage.  I told everyone to buckle up because these were big words.  Imagine 22 wide eyed 8 year olds pretending to buckle a seatbelt.

Legislative, executive, judicial.  We got into it.  

Can you go to the Supreme Court if you don’t like someone?

No.

Who was the president before Donald Trump?  

Joe Biden.

None of them had heard of him.  They are all impossibly young!

We talked about how the members of Congress and the president live in Washington, D.C. 

The president lives there?!?

Yes, he has a house there.  The White House.

I thought Washington, D.C. was in England!

I tried to correct all the misconceptions.  I gave it my all.

I don’t know if they truly understood it, but I do know that I truly tried….

 

Haunted classroom

 Yesterday was the day everything went wrong.  I swear there was a ghost around messing with things.

During math, the document camera wouldn't work.  It was frozen with an image of the remote sitting on the desk.  I picked up the remote with the intention of trying to figure out what button would unfreeze it (like I really have any idea) and the kids got freaked out that they were seeing the remote on the desk, but "it is in Teacher's hands!"

Ghosts.

During phonics I couldn't get my slides to cooperate at all.  I was trying to extend the display so that I could see the notes and show the slides and nothing doing.  I tried multiple times.  No dice.

During my specialty, I was talking to Alissa and I said, "What am I doing wrong?!?"  I showed her and it worked perfectly.

Haunted.

On Monday, the tech guy replaced the battery in two computers and assured me they were fixed and charged.  

They wouldn't work.

Eerie.

During literacy, first I was the ghost and messed things up.  I had been planning ahead (a teacher work day will do that to you) and I was all prepared with the next story.  We halfway through reading it and I realized, wait, this is next week's story.  

Ugh.

I told them my mistake and we went back to this week's story.  

During writing, I have no idea what was afoot.  The slides that I had been using, that I had in fact written on with my Apple pen, were just gone.  I know they were there at one point, but they were gone.  I imported them again from my Google Drive and my notes were there.  

Then they weren't.  I found it again and it was a brand new slide with no markings.

Spooky.

I just gave up and wrote everything again.

I know when I've been beat.

Back at it

I feel a bit sad that fall break has come and gone.  I was looking forward to it and it sped on by. I didn’t feel like I got as much time with Adam as I would like.  Lately I never get enough time with Adam!

We flew to California and had a great time adoring our grandchildren and visiting with Anna.  We took a few walks and read some books and played with legos.  I love just spending time with them, learning their routines and getting to know the kids a little better.  Braeden arrived on Saturday morning.  We went to Crepeville for brunch and to the Arboretum and library to walk around and soak in the beautiful day.  After naps/quiet time we went to Bobby Dazzler's, which is the best imaginable name for a pumpkin patch.  It was also pretty hot (there's sunny and then there's Central Valley In California Sunny).  We didn't stay too long, but it was a great place and Adam and I especially appreciated that so much of it was free.  A great place for families!

We had Papa Murphy's pizza and watched the BYU football game.  Adam took Emma and me back to our hotels during halftime, because we aren't very good BYU football fans.

(One hassle of the trip was that we were in separate hotels, but one car rental.  It was not an insurmountable obstacle, but a hassle.)

Sunday we all went to church and both Adam and Braeden were not happy with me during sacrament meeting because QE and I weren't being as quiet as we could be.  She had a notebook and markers and she was having me draw things, but she had notes and sometimes the notes got louder than Braeden (or Adam) approved of.

They had their primary program practice and I stayed to watch it.  I loved it.  They are a very small but mighty group.  Anna is the chorister and does a great job.  Braeden said I had a professional interest in watching and he wasn't wrong.  I mostly loved hearing QE's little voice belt out the songs.  She is a gem.

Her little brother got a little homesick for his mother so I took him out in the foyer and we had a good time looking at all the pictures and rattling my mint container.

We had lunch at Braeden and Anna's and Geri and Talia joined us.  We happily spent a little time with them, then Emma and Mark and I went to the airport.  Adam stayed in California to drive back to Utah with his mom.  Adam was very concerned that I know how to get to the airport; he described it all in case my phone directions didn't work.  He outlined where we'd parked at the SLC airport.  Mark reassured him that he would manage my luggage.  I think Emma was a little fed up with the entire thing and she said I was a Passenger Princess.  It's true.  Traveling with Adam has made me a spoiled brat (and I'm also not great with directions).

Mark told Emma that I preferred Embarking Empress to Passenger Princess.

I guess I will answer to either.  Really, I just prefer traveling with Adam.

Monday was a teacher work day.  The school felt like a ghost town.  My team and I met in the morning and updated our curriculum map and planned a writing project for December (which made us feel really prepared and sassy).

We invited our 5th grade friends and Nicole and Jamie and we all took a (much much) longer than our typical 30 minute lunch break at Tru Religion.  I got pumpkin French toast and I will be thinking about it for a long time.  I really loved that it wasn't too too sweet.  I mean, it still seemed like a dessert rather than a lunch, but it wasn't overly sweet.  My friends were all supportive of it as a choice and no one saw the irony in me getting a Diet Coke.  As Lacey said, "Imagine how much more virtuous you are than if you got a regular Coke!"

So true.

I got a lot done in the afternoon, even mundane organizing tasks.  I am ready to see my cute students again today!

Fall break

 Yesterday we had a fire drill.

I had forgotten all about it and so I hadn't told my students.  They freaked all the way out.  Most of them were convinced they smelled smoke.  Children spiraling everywhere.  I kept telling them it was only a fire drill.  They did what they were supposed to do: left the school and lined up on the field.  They still kept telling me they smelled smoke.

I promised it was a drill.

Even when we went back inside, some of them swore they smelled smoke.

Alissa's class was walking in next to us when we got the all clear and her girls were loudly chanting armpit, elbow pit, armpit, elbow pit... over and over and over.  For no apparent reason.

We celebrated a birthday after lunch.  I have them make cards for the birthday boy or girl.  Some of them scribble their name in pencil and hand it over.  Some of them gather a palette of markers or start sharpening colored pencils for the masterpiece they have in mind.

It isn't all compatible time wise.

The student council had put pumpkin shaped notes on all of the classrooms leading up to Fall Break.  Mine read: Thank you for being a good example.

On the reading teacher's door it read: You are as smart as Albert Inestine.  I texted my kids that one and said the layers of irony weren't lost on me.

I noticed the note on a kindergarten classroom said, "You have one day left."

It seemed vaguely threatening.

By the end of the day I had papers to pass out for picture retakes and papers to pass out for PTA spirit night at Hangtime.  I answered ten thousand questions.  Why do we need a retake?  Do we have to have a retake?  What if my parents don't want me to have a retake?  Does it cost money to go to Hangtime? (Yes, it's a fundraiser.) Do I have to go to Hangtime?  What if my parents don't want to take me to Hangtime?  

Then Armando from Boys and Girls club stopped by with two different fliers to hand out.  Before I distributed them, I told my students, "Do not ask me one question about these papers.  I don't know anything about it.  Take them home."

A student raised his hand.  I said, "Is this a question about these papers?"

He slowly lowered his hand.

All of this is to say that I am ready for Fall Break.

Dark ride

 We had another Underground Dress Up Day.  Everyone wore black.  Head to toe.  Not one student noticed as far as I could tell.

After school, Matt saw Alissa and Miriam together and said, "Did you guys call each other and decide to wear black today?"

He thought he was being funny.  They explained the Underground Dress Up Day.  Alissa said, "You didn't notice your entire staff was wearing black?!?"

He hadn't.

Besides that, my afternoon was head spinning.  Disneyland is on my mind because Alissa is taking her kids over Thanksgiving.  Yesterday at school reminded me of a dark ride at Disneyland.  Around every corner there is something unexpected.

In literacy we read a story called "Every Vote Counts" about the importance of voting.  It led to a Big Discussion about school closures.  (I was not the one who brought it up!) I couldn't promise them Bonneville wouldn't close because it is not up to me.  They talked about Bonneville being "on the chopping block."  They wondered where they would go if the school closed.  Would the same teachers go with them?!? I did tell them that I wasn't worried and they didn't need to worry either.

I could tell that they were still worried about it. Their little faces were stressed.

I am reading an I Survived book to them and it is about the Molasses Flood of 1919 in Boston.  They are riveted by it.  They wanted me to google pictures of it to show them.  The book mentions World War I and the Spanish Flu.  They had to know more.  We ended up talking about that and also the Black Plague and Covid 19 (they were all 2-3 years old then!).  They wanted to know who the "bad guys" were in World War I.  They wanted to know about Hitler.  They wanted me to show them everything on the map and they wanted to understand how France fought against Hitler, but was also occupied.  They wanted to know when World War III was going to be.  It was a lot.

They are super curious and think I know everything (and I really, really don't).  I tried to answer their questions the best I could in child friendly language.  I tried.

I was telling my team after school and Alissa said in their class, they voted on which candy bar was best.  That was their version of the "Every Vote Counts." Sounds like a good idea!

Adam came home last night!  I am so happy he is here and we will be together for five days!  That feels a little pathetic that 5 days together seems like such a bonus.  The bar is pretty low.  I will take what I can get though.

Braeden is flying here today (just in time for us to leave tomorrow....).

I am excited to see him and sending up a lot of prayers for him and his job interview.

Rainy days and Mondays

 It just rained and rained.  We might as well be in Seattle (although when Mark watched the Seahawks game, I noticed it was sunny there).

Despited many messages to parents and a piece of paper they signed and sent back with all the times and pertinent information about the field trip, I had several parents messaging me before school, wondering what time the field trip was.

I broke the news to the students that we were skipping the park because of all the rain.  They were disappointed and one of them was pouty, which bugs me.  I can't really tolerate a pouty child.  My students usually sense as much and she got over it pretty quickly.

In multiple messages, (because I guess they didn't believe me so they kept asking?) I had told the chaperones that we were loading the bus at 10:20 so they should come then.

Two moms showed up at 10:00.

So they sat in chairs in the back of the room. 

We lined up and everyone was in high spirits.  They were going on a bus!  We didn't have enough students for the district to give us two buses, so we piled on, three to a seat, including parents.  I was the last one on the bus and there wasn't a seat for me.  I would have happily drove myself, but I needed to be on the bus so I asked if a parent would be willing to drive themself.  A dad volunteered and unfortunately, unlike an airline, he didn't get any reward to agreeing to be bumped from an overbooked flight.

Unless you call not riding three to a seat with hyped up children a reward.

Everyone was pretty happy at the aquarium.  Miriam and Alissa and I hadn't given ourselves groups of children so we could walk around and mingle with all of our students and take pictures of them.  It was nice.  

There was a group that didn't show up at the appointed time to meet the bus (there always is) and we were already past our lunch time and the natives were getting very restless.  I had my students sit on the floor and we played Down By The Banks of the Hanky Panky, which they love.  We finally packed back onto the bus and got back to the school after 1:00.  Lunch for the school was long past and I was expecting that we would need to be with our students in the lunchroom but Matt and Nicole were there and said, "Go have lunch!"  So nice.

We then had a short recess (it had stopped raining for a little window) and I showed them Lucas the Spider  videos for about ten minutes before clean up and read aloud time.  I had promised them a "staycation" when we got back from our abbreviated field trip and I guess 10 minutes of Lucas the Spider videos counts for a staycation.

After school we had a leadership meeting.  Matt asked me how the field trip had been and I said that we didn't lose anyone.

He said, "Exactly!"  He had talked to one of the dads who had gone on the field trip.  Matt had asked him how it was and he had said not great.

Matt asked him if they came home with everyone and the dad said yes.  Matt said he needed to manage his expectations.  Coming back with everyone was a success.

The dad was a parent of one of Miriam's students and his daughter had been bit morose the entire time at the aquarium, so that may have colored the experience for them.

I drove home, thrilled by the snow on the mountains.

Mark and I took a walk with umbrellas and went to Habit Burger for dinner because I hadn't had meat for days and was craving some.

Then it was home and time to settle under a blanket with my book.

More rain is expected today and we need every drop so I am grateful.