throw up

Well, it finally happened.

It's inevitable, I suppose.

I hope it never happens again.

We had hit the last 10 minutes of school mark. One of my students came to me and asked if he could call his mom because he wasn't feeling well. Of course I was thinking, "there's only 10 minutes left, can't you just wait?" But considering his pale face, I decided I better let him call.

After he had talked to his mom, he hung up the phone and took two steps forward. I looked up just in time to see vibrant colors spewing from his lips and on to the tile (thank goodness!). The kids were shocked and I was trying to hold my lunch in. Not to be totally graphic or anything, but this throw up had zero digestion. In and out. He ate lots of carrots and ground beef.

The kids that sat right next to the tile were completely grossed out and moved away. One girl had her coat hanging on her chair and got redesigned with some carrot chunk on the sleeves. A couple of the chairs also got some carrot chunk designs. The sink also got a good covering in carrot and ground beef.

I frantically call down to the office only to get an answering machine. I try again and talk to the secretary. She told me she would get a hold of the custodian to take care of it. Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but it took the custodian an excruciating 15 minutes to come. The poor guy came right in and poured something equally nasty and smelly on top of the throw up. Then he scooped it up and sanitized everything.

My stomach is feeling queasy. I wonder how many students will be absent tomorrow.

It finally happened.

It's inevitable, I suppose.

I hope it never happens again.

School Days

School officially started on August 23. It has been exhausting, exciting, fun, frustrating, and everything in between. I have days when I feel like I need to quit, and then I have really good days that help me remember why I love teaching. I have definitely grown a lot already and hope to keep growing and learning from my experiences. I have some of the cutest, smartest, funniest kids in my class that make it easy to come back each day. For those of you, ahem, Kristen that would like to see pictures of my room, here you go! Don't judge its ghetto-ness, I'm poor!

 

Here is a view of most of the room. I have four big windows on the side that let in so much light, I love them! It also shows a view of the recess field which is really nice.

 

This is my rug area and library area. I started buying books from DI, but even that got expensive. I lucked out when three huge boxes of books were donated to me. As you can see, we've been working on our reading "stamina". I have gradually increased their reading time since the beginning of the year and we have made it to 45 minutes. I go around during Reader's Workshop and try to distract the students in any way by taking things from their desks, bouncing recess balls, having timers go off, etc. to see if I can get any students to break focus. They love this, even though Sean thinks I'm a weirdo for doing that. They have gotten really good at not letting anything distract them!

This is my area where I pull small groups to work with. I also wanted to show off my bulletin board, I thought it turned out cute. For back to school night each student had a nametag clothespinned to the strings. When they came they pulled their name and put it at a desk of their choice.

  

Here is a view of the front of the classroom, don't mind that my board is totally disorganized. Can you tell we've learned all about place value? Check out my poor woman's place value signs!

 

 Now here is a shot of my desk. It always looks this awful. I'm not sure it will ever look very nice. Also, please note my on-the-go breakfast. Frozen fruit and yogurt, breakfast of champions.

Before I go, I just want to add that I am so glad for the opportunity to teach in Utah of all places. It is such a treat because on a daily basis I hear something that is soooo LDS it kills me.

For example, one of my kids was reading the Guinness Book of World Records. He sees they have listed the oldest people in the world and says, "well I know that's not true, there are three people still around from Jesus' time!"

Another day for journals I asked my kids to write about the best present that they had ever received and who gave it to them. I can't begin to tell you how many kids shared with the class that their families were the greatest gift they had been given by Heavenly Father.

They wrote poems at the beginning of the year and one of the lines was, "I desire". . . and they had to fill in the blank. So many kids filled it in with 'eternal life'. Another line was, "I believe" . . . and I bet you can't guess what so many of them filled in the blank with. You got it, they filled it in with, 'the gospel' or 'in Jesus'. 

How precious are these little monsters?! Their testimonies are so pure and they are not afraid to share their beliefs. It is kind of awkward for me because it is school and religion is supposed to stay out, but how can you not love these little guys when they are so precious?

There is no time at Powell

 This last week, Sean and I spent some time at Lake Powell. It was our first time going together and we had a blast! Sean's cousin, Tyler and his wife Tahnee invited us to go with them to spend half of the week with her family and other families. Sean and I decided to be spontaneous and actually decided to go, I'm so glad we did! Tahnee's family was so great and welcoming, they made us feel right at home. We camped out on the beach at Lone Rock and spent our days wakeboarding, tubing, skiing, playing cards, eating, visiting the Glen Canyon Dam, exploring places around the lake, hiking up rocks, cliff jumping and more.

 Tyler and Tahnee tubing, Tyler wakeboarding, and Tahnee and her dad tubing.

 

Sean and I on top of the dam, a view from the top of the dam, the generators, and an original turbine they recently replaced and now have on display on top of the dam.

Sean and I early one morning on the beach where we camped, and Sean and I hiding our white pasty skin from the sun. We got burned the first day and spent the next days applying sunscreen every other hour and hiding under our towels. Ouch!

 This is Gracee, Tahnee's little sister. She was so funny to watch on the tube. She loved to stand and dance as the boat pulled us. 

This is after Sean and I rode with Gracee on the tube. I taught her the Macarena, the YMCA, and the Chicken Dance while we were being pulled on the tube. She stood and did the dances for everyone in the boat to watch and loved all the attention! Little did I know, Sean was planning on shoving us in the water right after the picture was taken!

 Sean hanging out on the beach (hiding from the sun in the shade), Tyler and Sean spotting land?, Sean and Tahnee's brother Gregory digging a hole to China, and Sean and Tyler making and eating our homemade ice cream. 

It was a great trip!

and i thought this would be a boring summer?

This summer has been nuts! After graduation, I long term subbed for a 4th grade teacher at Forbes Elementary who had a baby. I finished out the year for her and learned a lot!

Fyi-Forbes was the school where I did my first half of student teaching with the sixth graders.


During the month I subbed, many of the teachers came to me asking what my plans were for the coming year. At that point I had decided I didn't really want to bother with job hunting and really liked the flexibility of choosing when I wanted to sub. The pay wasn't too terribly terrible and it would keep me busy. So I told all of the teachers I thought I was just going to sub.

As more days passed, the teachers got progressively more interested in my plans and kept telling me to get my application completed. It wasn't until the principal showed up in my classroom one morning before the students got there, that I really took applying seriously. The principal told me there would be an opening at the school this fall and strongly encouraged me to apply. He said he couldn't promise the position to me, but I had impressed him during my student teaching and subbing and they would love to interview me.

It was after this encounter that I understood why all the teachers were so interested in my plans for the coming year. I finally took their advice and got my application in that same day.

One day after school I was in the office, and the secretary flagged me down to set up an interview time. It turned out they had scheduled their interview day for June 9. I was leaving for Arizona on June 4 and wouldn't return until the 12. The secretary told me she would talk to the principal and see if he wanted to reschedule or do an interview over the phone.

The next week the principal showed up unexpectedly in my classroom to speak with me. It just so happened to be a time where we were right in between activities and passing out papers (minor chaos going on, I was embarrassed). He pulled me out into the hall and said they would like to interview me that same day right after school. That's when I started to panic, the rest of the day I was nervous and worried. Because I was already respected by the people at the school, I was so nervous that I would make a fool out of myself in front of them. Had it been any other school, I wouldn't have cared if I made a fool out of myself since they didn't know me personally and I would probably never see them again.

Luckily, the principal took some pity on me and told me some of the questions I would be asked. This gave me some time to be prepared slightly more prepared than I would have been.

Finally my interview time came. I went in and was interviewed by the principal, two teachers, and a member of the PTA. I answered their questions as well as follow up questions and was done in about 15 minutes. I was told I would hear back in about two weeks, once they had completed the rest of the interviews on June 9. I went on my merry little way, feeling like a total dork and wishing I had responded more intelligently.

School ended, and I left to Arizona. On June 10, I received a phone call from an unknown 801 number. Obviously I didn't answer my phone, thinking it was just a wrong number kind of thing. Imagine my shock a minute later when my phone buzzed telling me I had a voicemail. Immediately I wondered if it was the principal. I listened to my message and it sure enough was the principal. He didn't give me any specific information, just asked me to give him a call back.

I told my parents that the principal wanted me to call him back. My first reaction: What if I didn't get the job? My second reaction: Oh no, what if I did get the job?

I was able to pull myself together and go outside, completely alone, to call the principal back. After a short conversation, he informed me that they wanted to hire me! At this point I was doubting myself and told him I would have to talk to Sean first and make sure that was what we wanted to do, in order to buy myself some time.

When I finally got a hold of Sean (he was at our ward camp out), his reaction was, "what is there to think about? Of course you are going to take the job!", along with being really excited and all of that stuff of course.

I waited until the weekend passed, and called the principal first thing in the morning. I accepted the position and became the newest 3rd/4th combo teacher at Forbes Elementary.

             Go Patriots!

Oh, and if it doesn't come across that I am excited. . .I am very excited! Nervousness is kind of my main emotion right now, but once I get into the swing of things I think I will have the best job in the world!