Reflections from a Teacher's Heart

How far we come...

2011-05-01T21:12:00.003-05:00

Sometime last year I had this idea that one day I was going to run a 5K. I had a program lined up to help me go from being a "couch potato" to running the 5K. Because of school & moving apartments I never got started with the program. Around mid-February my roommate decided she wanted to get into running. Of course she needed someone to go with her & knew I wanted to start running, but hadn't yet. We went out & ran a mile, something I haven't done since high school. I thought I was going to die~ All I could think of was "Am I nuts?! How will I ever be able to run a 5k???"

Fast forward to this morning where I ran 3.2 miles & felt great afterwards!! (5K = 3.1 miles) It has been only about 3 months since I started running & I can't believe how far I have come. This morning my run was especially wonderful. We ran a "new" route, which included running the road around my apartment complex. As I turned onto the street that runs through the complex & is the final stretch of this morning's run, a new song started playing on my iPod. The song was "The Light in Me" by Brandon Heath. The sun was just rising over the tops of the buildings. Usually I don't like to run with the sun in my face, but this morning it was like God played the perfect song to get my attention as he put his glory on for me to see. I had this burst of energy as I was thinking about how great he has made my life right now, even with the ups & downs I sometimes feel. It was the perfect way to start off any day, especially a Sunday.

I wish I stopped to remember how blessed I am more often than I do, but it is great to have mornings like this when God puts a gentle reminder in my path. I hope you take a moment to stop & remember how blessed you are as well!

Oh my!

2011-04-22T20:29:00.004-05:00

Has it really been almost a month since I last wrote??? I don't know how the time got away from me. I guess just too much has been going on. Here are some of the highlights you may have missed...
The weather radio went crazy one day. Storms were all over the area. It kept going off announcing them & saying there were tornado warnings.

Ran in my first 5K. Time was 42:43. Not too bad for my first time. Next 5K is in May. Just home I can run the whole thing & not walk at all.

Yes, these taste as amazing as they look! Mom & Dad invited me over for dinner one night. These are Bacon & Broccoli Crepes.

Love the Florida skies. Saw this one day when I was walking home from work!

My Thirty-One gifts came in! Love the new purses & bags!

Saw this sign when I was out walking (taking the trash to the dumpster!) Notice the added part at the bottom..."Responds to Fatty". Poor thing, I would run away too if everyone called me "Fatty"!!

Surf, sun & relaxation. My friend found a new beach that isn't very crowded, so it was nice to go & relax. Lunch afterwards was delicious at Crabby Joe's.

My new plant. A Fort Myers Hibiscus. Took me a while to pick this one out, but the flowers were the prettiest of all the varieties.

Homemade Guacamole for Bunco. I don't even like to have store bought anymore. I think this was the best tasting batch I have ever made!

Went to a store called Pondtastic with my parents. Out front of the store is a beautiful pond with these signs up. Notice that New Jersey is a mere 935 miles away. Road trip anyone??? Of course if you want Paradise you are already in the right place!

Spring Break Week

2011-03-26T20:17:00.002-05:00

Here's what I did on my Spring Break...

No I didn't sleep the whole week, just Monday!! Or at least slept in & didn't set my alarm.

Tuesday was Magic Kingdom with my Mom. Gotta love Disney!! We had a great time & hardly had to stand in line even though there was quite a few people there.

While at Disney (Magic Kingdom on Tuesday & Epcot on Thursday) my parents helped me hunt for the Hidden Mickeys. These are usually classic Mickeys (3 circles representing the head & ears), Mickey profile shapes or sometimes other Disney characters that are hidden in rides or attractions around the parks & resorts.

Friday night I made Stuffed Shells for dinner. Delicioso!!

Saturday I went out & bought new running sneakers. Probably won't have enough time to break them in before I run my 5K on Saturday, but I definitely needed them!

Photos Week of 3.13.11

2011-03-23T11:13:00.003-05:00

Here are some photos from last week.

On Monday, for a party my roommate & I had we made desserts for all the ladies that came. I made this yummy trifle. It is made with Jello Mousse, crushed up Oreos & mini marshmallows. Didn't know it was going to be so good when I made it! (Glad it wasn't all eaten at the party, 'cause I got to have leftovers during the week!)

Tuesday night I was invited to a Pampered Chef party. I had such a hard time trying to decide what to buy. The whole catalog wouldn't fit into my budget! I bought just a couple of things, but mostly enjoyed hanging out with the ladies & eating a delicious dinner we all helped to make.

Wednesday night - Fellowship meal was BBQ sandwiches (yum!) & then bible class. Love being with my church family on Wednesdays, Sundays & any other day of the week!

My wonderful 3rd grade team! Don't know what I would do if I didn't have them. We had these shirts made for our field day on Friday. The backs have our last name & the number 3 on them. Go 3rd grade!

Saturday, Karen & I went to Epcot since they were having the Flower & Garden Festival. It was so beautiful to walk around & fun to go on the rides. I love Disney!

A lot changes in 4 years!

2011-03-19T21:57:00.005-05:00

Four years ago my roommate & I got annual passes to Disney. We had a lot of fun going to all the parks & especially taking pictures at various places in the park. This year we got annual passes again. Since we have both recently been on a weight loss kick & have dropped quite a few pounds, we decided it was time to recreate some of our past photos. You could say these are my before & after shots.
This is me in October of 2007 holding the Epcot ball.

Me in March of 2011. I can't believe how different I look!

Just after you get off the Maelstrom ride in Norway you have to go through the gift shop. This ugly troll is there, so of course I had to have a picture with him!

This is the picture retaken almost 4 years later. He hasn't changed much, but I think I have!

I love this fake phone booth in the England area of Epcot. There isn't a phone in the booth, but it is still fun to pose at the booth.

Here I am again, almost 4 years later at the same photo booth. Guess I need to keep up with my running & healthy eating. I am hoping at the end of the year when our annual passes are almost up to retake these photos again. Hopefully there will be a little more difference after another year.

More photos from the 365 Day Photo Challenge.

2011-03-12T23:18:00.006-05:00

Oops. I totally forgot to blog last Saturday, probably because I was here...

Hollywood Studios - Disney. My roommate & I finally broke down & bought annual passes to Disney World again. The only reason was that they now let you pay per month, so I didn't have to shell out all that money at one time.

Since I was at Disney here are a couple of images from last week.

Moe's for dinner. Talk about a good meal! Love their Queso dip & the fact that they have a "Junior" size so I don't feel like I am eating enough food for two people like I do at Chipotle (though, I still LOVE Chipotle!)

Went on Thursday to give blood. Notice my nice high iron count. It has been low the last couple of times I have gone. I will go, get a low score & not be able to give blood. Then I have to try to eat foods rich with iron & try again. This time there was no need for a second try!

Bowling on Friday night. You would think I would be getting better since I am playing more often. It still takes me a game or two to warm up & by the time I am warmed up, our time is done! Oh well, one of these days maybe I will get a decent score.

Here's what you missed...

2011-02-27T14:32:00.009-05:00

Totally forgot to post last week!!! Sorry about that. Here are some photos to catch you up. Nothing too exciting, but these sum up my past 2 weeks.

The sky was beautiful when I walked out of my apartment the other day. God does marvelous work!!

Ice cream was dessert after our meal on Wednesday night before bible class. Aren't you proud that I didn't lick the bowl???

Went to Disney's Animal Kingdom on Monday with my parents & roommate. It is like a large zoo, but better! I love to see all the unusual animals they have from different areas of the world. Plus Expedition Everest is an awesome roller coaster!

Received this in the mail this week!! I thought it was a bit premature since I am only turning 30 this summer!!!

Went with some friends to eat dinner then get pedicures. My tummy & feet are now very happy! Now I just need a massage, a manicure & sleep to make the rest of me feel the same!

HighFive Frozen Yogurt is one of my new favorite stops. You get to choose what type or combination of frozen yogurt you want, then add on as many or as few toppings as you like. They weigh your dessert, you pay, then enjoy! I had vanilla & chocolate swirl with strawberries, mini chocolate chips & hot fudge. YUM!!

Ughhh!

2011-02-13T23:03:00.002-05:00

I only watched a part of the Grammys tonight, but now I have new insight into my students thoughts when it comes to how they dress. I teach third grade right now, but still I have to watch out that my students are in compliance with the dress code of our school. I watched some of the performers (and award winners) on the Grammys & can't believe how immodest their outfits were! These are the models for our students. They listen to this music (a lot of which is inappropriate for them) and they idolize these singers. They want to be just like them & that includes dressing like them. If the performers can wear this kind of clothing & it is accepted what kind of message are we sending to children?

Lunch - yummy!

2011-02-12T13:44:00.003-05:00

My favorite image from the week, today's lunch! My roommate found out that Snow crab legs were on sale at Albertson's so we bought a pound & had them steamed, then added broccoli & couscous. It turned out quite delicious! Plus it was much cheaper than eating at Red Lobster!

Yummy!

2011-02-09T16:13:00.005-05:00

For some reason most of my recent shots have been of food. Let me correct that, dessert!

Oreo Truffles - My roommate, Karen, made dinner so I made these yummy treats for dessert. I am so thankful to my sister for introducing them to me. Quick, easy & oh so delicious!

On Wednesday nights before bible class we have a meal at the church building. I made rice krispie treats for dessert. The meal was taco salad!

Potluck on Sunday - Made White Cheddar Mac & Cheese & cupcakes for dessert. I LOVE chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing (plus a tall, cold glass of milk!)

My roommates birthday was on Wednesday, so on Tuesday night for bible study I made cupcakes. These are Red Velvet, her favorite.

A few pictures from the week...

2011-01-31T21:04:00.006-05:00

My cute little reading nook. The only thing missing is a light bulb for my lamp!

Can you believe it? I went to IKEA for the 3rd time in 3 weeks. Do I have to admit that I have an addiction??? (I didn't buy anything, so that is progress.)

This was what the sky looked like when I left for work on Friday morning. I love the beautiful skies that God has created here in Florida. You will probably see many more pictures of the sky throughout this year.

The remnants of a delicious meal at Logan's. Started off with peanuts, which led to those wonderful rolls they serve! Next came a very scrumptious salad (they add bacon & no croutons, just the way I like it!) The main course was a sirloin steak & rockin' onion petals. To top it all off was cool & refreshing Coke.

Keep checking back to see what I find to take pictures of next week. (3 weeks down, 49 to go!)

Week 2

2011-01-22T17:01:00.006-05:00

Well, Week 2 of the 365 Photo Challenge is done. I have taken 14 photos so far. It seems like I try to challenge myself each day to find something new or creative, yet the photos tend to be just ordinary shots of things I do throughout the day. Hopefully as the year progresses I will end up with more interesting shots. Until there here are a couple of shots from the week.

Yum, yum, yum!! Rita's is the BEST! The only thing better than Rita's on a hot summer day is knowing that in Florida I can have it ANY day! This was a Gelati - vanilla ice with chocolate custard. (Thanks, Dad for the gift card!)

I was really excited to win this cookbook at Bunco the other night. Of course it might have been nicer if it wasn't the "Loser Prize"!! I only won 4 games out of 18 that night. The 1st place winner won 14 games.
You are probably thinking "Sneakers = Gym" and that was my intention, but "The best laid plans..." I was expecting my roommate to wake me up when she got home from work so we could head to the gym, but she didn't want to wake me up when she saw me sleeping (I think she just didn't want to go to the gym either!) Needless to say I didn't make it to the gym. Maybe tomorrow...

Week 1

2011-01-16T00:16:00.014-05:00

Week 1 is complete. I have finished taking my first 7 photos. The real challenge I have discovered is trying to decide which photo I want to take. There are too many options!

On Sunday I finally got to go to IKEA & buy the shelf I have been wanting. It had been out of stock for awhile. It only took me 30 minutes (on the dot) to put it together. I would say I felt proud of having put it together, but after assembling a dresser, this was a piece of cake!

On the mirror in my bathroom I always write quotes, song lyrics or scriptures that are inspirational to me. This is one of my favorites that I have added. It is great to read these words first thing in the morning when I am getting ready to begin my day.
Tuesday night was Sisters' Bible Study. We are doing an interesting study on Elijah & Elisha, although tonight I learned a lot about Obadiah!
Wednesday was a lesson at school about mining natural resources. My students learned a lot by "mining" the chocolate chips out of cookies!
I have recently started reading this book. Recommended (forced?) by my mother. Just kidding. She usually knows what types of books I like to read & we suggest books for each other that we liked a lot.
Friday night was one of the highlights of my week, bowling!! We had a group of friends (& family) from church, get together to go bowling. We are hoping to do this the first Friday night of each month. My high score for the night was 118! (May have been the high score of my life!)
Tonight I finally purchased my own Sun Pass. (Thanks to wonderful parents I haven't had to buy one yet!) I did try to go on to register this new Sun Pass, but found out I have to be deleted from my parents account first, oops! Guess registration will have to wait till tomorrow.

Since it is technically Sunday (and this blog was supposed to be written Saturday!) I will sign off & head to bed. Need to teach bible class in the morning. Hope I don't fall asleep in class like some of the teen girls act like they might!

365 days of photos

2011-01-14T22:51:00.002-05:00

Every year I hear people talking about New Year's Resolutions. Some years I have made a list of my resolutions, but many times I haven't. This year I decided I really didn't have a lot of things that I needed to change or fix in my life. I have already been working on losing weight, so no need for a resolution about that. My Day Zero Project is a list I made last year of 101 things I want to accomplish in 1001 days. That covers a lot of other things I might have made a resolution about.

There is one resolution I decided on for this year, take a photo a day for 365 days. In the past years I have seen friends take on this challenge & thought it looked like fun. This year I decided I would try to conquer the challenge as well. I started a little late, January 9th, but no one said it had to start on January 1st! Each Saturday I am going to try to blog & post the photos from the past week. Who knows blogging once a week could turn into my second resolution! Keep watching for the new photos. I have titled the album "Daily Life - A photo a day for 365 days" on Facebook. You can probably guess that all of the photos will be about something that I did that day, a place I went, or an exciting activity I was a part of.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful new year so far (& that you are keeping the resolutions you may have made!)

Remembering

2010-12-09T22:46:00.003-05:00

It's interesting being a teacher & observing each of my students. I know many years down the road I will remember each student in a different way: the talker, the class clown, the "genius", the best behaved student, the trouble maker, the one who drove me up the wall, etc. What I really wonder is "How do my teachers remember me?"

What kind of student do you think you were??

Happy :-)

2010-09-29T20:48:00.002-05:00

It is days like today that make me thankful I am a teacher! The day started out like any other, but as it progressed it just seemed to get better & better.

Reading went well. Most of the students worked really hard on their assignments. We were called towards the end of Reading to go to get our pictures taken. They told my class that they were the best behaved class they had had ALL morning! Way to make me feel good (as well as all of them)!

My students have really been struggling with the new math series our county has adopted. I think more time was needed to transition to the series & new standards, but nevertheless we are trudging on, trying our best. Despite all the set backs we seem to experience we worked today on pictographs. I had a few wrong answers on the papers, but overall THEY GOT IT!!! I was so excited & I think my reactions to how well they were doing really inspired some of them to keep on working. They did more work than I had planned on & they did it really well!

After lunch we had our Science time & they worked with partners to identify the physical properties of substances. Don't worry it was ordinary stuff like paper, an apple, water, a cracker, etc. They just had to use their 5 senses to describe it, then categorize them as solid, liquid or gas. They had so much fun (despite a few complainers) & seemed to really enjoy it & learn from their "self-discovery".

On Wednesdays we have early release days & we do professional development during the extra hour. Despite the fact that we have to go to a meeting, even though most of us would love extra time in our classrooms, the meetings we have had this year have been really useful. Today we talked about how to use our 90 minute reading block. My grade level team enjoyed working together & we were inspired to try to get together & work on somethings for our classrooms.

I wish everyday went this well. Of course, it may be that the "rainy days" are what help me to enjoy the "sunny days" that much more!

Motivation

2010-08-30T20:54:00.002-05:00

This year has started off really well. I have 17 students & am looking forward to working with them this year. Almost all of them are very motivated to work & know how to follow the rules & procedures of the class. What I wonder is how to motivate a student who seems like they don't really care. I have one who is repeating the 3rd grade & because he didn't understand it last year he seems very unmotivated to try to learn it this year. How do I convince him that he can succeed? I see so much potential, but if I can't convince him of that what good does it do?

On the flip side I have another student who is doing great. One of the things we are doing this week is to do a reading test with the students to assess their level. Most 3rd graders should be reading on Level L. (A is the lowest level, Z the highest - about what an 8th grader would read). I read with this student today, haven't finished yet, but already we are on Level R! It makes me really excited to be able to work with a student like this. Hopefully it will rub off on some of the others!

School's out for summer ... not any more!

2010-08-17T20:30:00.004-05:00

Alright, I think it has been long enough since my last blog! I am going to try my best to blog at least once a week during this coming school year. I am hoping to share funny or sweet stories about my class & do my best to stay away from the negativity that seemed to follow me around last year.

As of right now my room is almost ready (pictures to follow soon). We have Meet the Teacher on Thursday & I can't wait to meet my new little 3rd graders. It will be nice to have students that are actually "little". Some of my 5th graders in the past have been taller than me!

This year there is a big push for doing things as a grade level. Teaching on the same schedule & being consistent with our procedures & rules from class to class. Not sure how I feel about all this, but if it works to help our students I guess I'm for it. Thankfully I have a wonderful team & I am looking forward to working with each of them this year.

Thinking about schools & teachers, who was your favorite teacher?

Happiness

2010-05-09T00:29:00.002-05:00

My friend Karen introduced me to a new site called Day Zero Project. On this site you make a list of 101 things to complete in 1001 days. One of my objectives is to make a list of 100 things that make me happy. I haven't finished the list yet, but here are a few of those things that make me happy:

1. Sunsets
2. Laughter (especially children's laughter)
3. Finishing a really great book!
4. The sound of rain outside as I fall asleep.

So, what makes you happy??

Full Moon

2010-04-29T21:52:00.002-05:00

Why is it that yesterday when we had a full moon my students were wonderful, yet today they turned into little defiant monsters??? It seemed like some of them wanted to do everything they could to cause problems in the classroom.

The other thing I wonder about is this: Why do the others put up with that behavior? I am waiting for the day when the other students go ballistic on them & yell at them to finally "Shut up!" (Maybe they just expect me to keep taking care of it???)

Just wondering

2010-02-23T22:18:00.002-05:00

Are you a glass half-full or half-empty type of person?

I used to think I was more of an optimist when it came to situations. I could usually see what could go well & what could go wrong, but I always hoped things would go well. Recently it has been a struggle for me to see things in a positive light. Various events just have me thinking about all the negative that is around me. I am trying a new approach & each day I just try to tell myself over & over that today will be a good day & things go well.

So with that in mind, I hope you have a glass completely-full day tomorrow!!!

Olympics

2010-02-12T18:03:00.002-05:00

Okay, yeah, I know ... I haven't been on my blog since last September. I guess I feel like I never have anything to talk about. I am going to take a note from some family & friends & just write about any random thing that comes to mind.

My first thought was about the Olympics that are starting tonight. I love that they come every 2 years even though it is a different set of sports on the opposite years. So here is a couple of questions for you ...

1. Which do you like better: summer or winter Olympics?

2. What is the sport that you most like to watch?

3. Are there any particular athletes that you support & want to win?

My new friend!

2009-09-21T20:48:00.010-05:00

I went out this afternoon to my balcony to clean the area up. I just found out that the apartment complex where I live is going to be screening in our balconies, so I needed to move my plants in doors so they could have room to work. It seems like every time I head out to my balcony I find some new little critter out there. This little guy has been out there the past few times. He looks pretty small, but he is actually about 3 inches long from head to rear.
Today though, as I was clearing things up I found out he had a little friend. Maybe a girlfriend? I guess with the balcony being screened in I won't see him anymore, but at least I won't have to worry about the bugs or wasps that are sometimes out there either.

Do you live the game or celebrate the huddle?

2009-09-07T16:45:00.003-05:00

I just got back from SonQuest on Sunday. For those that don't know, SonQuest is a weekend retreat for teens from all around Florida. They hold it in Orlando every Labor Day weekend. I enjoy being a chaperone at SonQuest because I am able to get to know the teens from our church a lot better, plus the classes & speakers are really amazing.

All of the classes were wonderful & really made me think, but something one of the speakers said stood out amongst the rest. He made the illustration of our lives compared to a football game. When you watch a football game you see the plays & cheer for the touchdowns, but you never get excited over the huddle. The huddles are the times we regroup & plan for the game. Nobody rushes off to the bathroom & hurries back to watch the huddle. It's all about the game & how it is played. Life is the game, SonQuest is one of the huddles. We need to be careful not to celebrate the huddle. SonQuest, camp, retreats, etc. are great times to get together & build each other up, but how do we live in the time in between?

I saw many students who responded to the message & want to rededicate their lives to Christ. I think it is wonderful, but what if some of them are ones that I have seen do it before? At camp or retreats, these same students come forward & want prayers again & again. They say they are going to change their lives, but as soon as the "huddle" is over they are back to living the same way they had been before. What do you do with them? I want to be there for them, but it frustrates me. How do you teach them to live the game & that the huddle isn't what is important?

I guess right now I just have to focus living my life the way I should be & hope to be an example to the teens & to others around me.

So, do you live the game or celebrate the huddle?

No, not school already!

2009-08-16T13:34:00.001-05:00

Ugh!!! School starts back for teachers tomorrow. Where has my summer gone? I miss it already!

Mission Trip

2009-08-02T22:04:00.003-05:00

Coming soon ... pictures & information from the mission trip to Sardinia, NY. I am busy trying to get all the photos posted on Facebook & then will try to get the best ones posted here. For now I will leave you with this picture. We stopped in this town on the way back from one of our day trips. Kind of awesome to find a town with my name!

New resolutions

2009-07-13T10:46:00.005-05:00

About 2 weeks ago I joined Gold's Gym. The Curves where I was a member closed, so I needed to find another place to work out. When you join Gold's they offer 3 free training sessions and I went to the first one this morning. I think I need to sleep for the rest of the week to recover!!!

The truth is I actually enjoyed the workout. Of course I may have to eat those words tomorrow when I can't get out of bed because of how sore I am! I know it isn't New Year's & most people don't make resolutions at this time of the year, in fact most people are slipping on their resolutions, but I have decided to rework the resolution I created at the beginning of the year regarding working out.

Go to Curves or walk on the treadmill every day.

Obviously I can't go to Curves, but I am going to try to go to Gold's 4 to 5 times a week. I signed up for a training session once a month. This way I have someone watching over me and making sure I stay on track. I want to continue with the treadmill as well. The most important thing I need to work on is to eat healthier. Increase the fruits & vegetables I eat. Make sure my meals are balanced with lots of different types of food. Less sweets & junk food.

Hopefully by this time next year all of these resolutions will have made a big difference in my life, physically & mentally.

Headaches

2009-07-01T21:06:00.002-05:00

Anyone know of a good natural cure for headaches? I had a pretty bad one this afternoon & couldn't get it to go away.

I tried eating chocolate with almonds (heard that almonds help with headaches & usually chocolate makes me feel better) ... didn't work.

I tried taking a nap ... didn't work & it was worse when I woke up.

I tried snacking thinking maybe it was partly because I was hungry ... didn't work.

I finally took 2 ibuprofen ... didn't work!

As a last resort I took another ibuprofen, ate a burger from McDonald's & drank a Coke ... it worked! But I am not sure which of it worked or if it was the combination of all of the above. I am just hoping I can find something else that does work without having to take the ibuprofen or other medicine.

Zzzzzzz...

2009-06-12T22:59:00.002-05:00

Do you know how wonderful it is to be able to stay up till 12 or 1 in the morning & then sleep in till past 9 in the morning, knowing that you don't have to rush to get up early for school?

Well I do now and I am enjoying it immensely!

Reflections

2009-06-08T21:08:00.004-05:00

Now that the school year is officially over, I am thinking back to the highlights & low points of the year.

Highlights:
-I had the same class from the beginning of the year till the end (with only one addition).
-We had a wonderful technology grant that gave us lots of fun new toys to use in the classroom.
-Field trip to the Renaissance Faire.
-Watching my students grow & learn throughout the year.
-Calling parents to tell them how well their students did that day!
-Signing my contract for next year!!

Low Points:
-Bad attitudes of students
-2 students shop lifting on a field trip
-Calling parents to talk about misbehaving students.

I'm Sorry...

2009-06-04T21:42:00.002-05:00

To my wonderful treadmill,

I am sorry that I haven't spent time with you recently. School is ending & there is just too much work to do. Everyday I come home, sit & grade papers or work on projects on the computer. I see you across the room. I know you miss our nightly walks as much as I do. I promise that I will return to you soon. Don't forget about me.

Love your neglectful, but apologetic friend.

Rain, rain & more rain

2009-05-20T17:19:00.002-05:00

Well it has been raining for at least the last 3 or 4 days here in Florida. I didn't know we could ever have one day like this let alone 3 or 4! I for one like it, except if I have to be outside in it! I like to stay inside & listen to it from the warmth & safety of my apartment. My favorite is to curl up with a wonderful book & just relax. (Although I may go out & jump in a couple of puddles later on before bed!)

What is your favorite thing to do on a rainy day?

(By the way only 11 days of school left!!!!!!)

Giving up????

2009-04-04T18:31:00.002-05:00

At what point do you give up & just say "What I do doesn't make a difference?"

This past Thursday I took my students on a field trip to the zoo. It went pretty well at the beginning. We got there at a decent time & were met by the Zoo Teachers. They had some classes set up for our students, which they ended up loving. They learned a lot about pond life, tortoises & various other animals & their life cycles. After the classes, which lasted about 2 hours we ate lunch & then entered the rest of the zoo. All of my students went with the chaperones, so I was free to tour the zoo by myself. I constantly ran into groups of my students & they were excited to entertain me with stories about the animals they had seen.

Around 3:15 most of the groups were gathering back towards the front of the zoo where there was an "Insect Zoo". One of the chaperones approached me & told me a store keeper had told her two of my students had been caught shoplifting. The students completely denied everything when I confronted them, but the chaperone (who was a cousin to one of the students) questioned them & they finally admitted to what they had stolen. I took them to the front desk & they called for a manager. Thankfully the zoo didn't press charges since they had returned the items. When we returned to school I informed out assistant principal & he spoke with the parents & gave the students 5 days suspension. It would have been more, but our Spring Break is next week & they would be out of school for a total of 3 weeks including that week off.

These two students have the worst attitudes of all of my students. I work with them & try to do my best to help them. They can earn rewards in class & get extra help when needed, but whenever they get in trouble for anything they whine & pout & throw fits worthy of a two year old. Nothing I do seems to make a difference. I have sent notes home, talked with the parents & written referrals at school, yet nothing seems to change. If anything it only seems to get worse. How long do I keep on trying to reach them? At what point do I give up? When is enough really enough?

Interesting thought

2009-03-30T17:11:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I went with our youth group to a CYF (Christian Youth Fellowship) down at the West Orange Church of Christ. I believe they have one of these each month where a different church hosts all the teens in the area. One of my favorite things about the time with the teens is the singing. I get so into the music & really focus on the words & how they make me feel. The teens really enjoy this time too. A lot of the songs they sing are ones they hear on the christian radio station that is based out of Orlando.

The speaker for the afternoon was the youth minister from the congregation. His talk centered on the thought of how we need to take a stand for Jesus & tell others about him, especially in our life styles. The church itself has been focusing on the theme "Don't go to church". They have even made t'shirts that say this. When asked about the shirts or the theme they point out that we shouldn't be going to church, we should BE the church. It really makes you think & I hope it makes the teens think too. So many teenagers seem to be falling away from the church & I pray that events like this one will help the teenagers reach out to each other & to God.

One down...

2009-03-10T11:33:00.003-05:00

The first day of FCAT testing is over. Only 4 more to go. My students did really well today. For the most part (with the exception of one student) they followed directions, were quiet & worked really hard. They even went back to check over their answers, some checking it over several times. Many of them finished well before time was up. This isn't always a good sign, but the students who finished early today were the ones that usually do well throughout the year.

One of the teachers at our school sent the following story around. It is a funny parody of what we should do in case of severe weather when the testing is going on. If you have ever had to do standardized testing you will understand how truly funny this is!

Severe Weather Testing Protocols During FCAT Testing

Should a severe weather situation occur during testing, please remain calm. To display any kind of anxiety would be a testing irregularity and must be reported.

Please do not look out the window to watch for approaching tornadoes. You must monitor the students at all times. To do otherwise would be attesting irregularity and must be reported.

Should students notice an approaching tornado and begin to cry, please make every effort to protect their testing materials from the flow of tears and sinus drainage.

Should a flying object come through your window during testing, please make every effort to ensure that it does not land on a testing booklet or an answer sheet. Please make sure to soften the landing of the flying object so that it will not disturb the students while testing.

Should shards of glass from a broken window come flying into the room, have the students use their bodies to shield their testing materials so that they will not be damaged. Have plenty of gauze on hand to ensure that no one accidentally bleeds on the answer documents. Damaged answer sheets will not scan properly.

Should gale force winds ensue, please have everyone stuff their test booklets and answer sheets into their shirts being very careful not to bend them because bent answer documents will not scan properly.

If any student gets sucked into the vortex of the funnel cloud, please make sure they mark at least one answer before departing and of course make sure they leave their answer sheets and test booklets behind. You will have to account for those.

Should a funnel cloud pick you, the test administrator, up and take you flying over the rainbow, you will still be required to account for all of your testing materials when you land so please take extra precautions. Remember, once you have checked them out, they should never leave your hands. When rescue workers arrive to dig you out of the rubble, please make sure that they do not, at any time, look at or handle the testing materials. Once you have been treated for your injuries, you will still be responsible for checking your materials back in. Search dogs will not be allowed to sift through the rubble for lost tests. Unless of course they have been through standardized test training.

Please do not pray should a severe weather situation arise. Your priority is to actively monitor the test and a student might mark in the wrong section if you are praying instead of monitoring. I'm sure God will put war, world hunger, crime, and the presidential primaries on hold until after testing is over. He knows how important this test is.

Ahhh!

2009-03-06T23:04:00.002-05:00

Why do they insist on driving me crazy!!!! Isn't it enough that they bug their friends to death? I give them so many opportunities to have fun & work with partners & do exciting activities at school. Not to mention that they can earn Fun Friday. Do I ever get any thanks? No, they just get mad when I ask them to actually do work!!! Does it ever end??

By the way, what do you do when a fifth grader throws herself on the floor like a 2 year old?

It is nice to know that a few of them do care & have been taught manners. I can sit at my desk at school & look at the bouquet of roses that several students sent me through our school fundraiser around Valentine's day. I wish those students could rub off onto the others & not the other way around!

Counting down the days...

School Dance

2009-02-20T21:07:00.002-05:00

Tonight I went to a school dance. It actually turned out to be a lot of fun. When I first arrived, two of my students found me & wanted me to have their picture taken with them. Then they dragged me out to the dance floor where we all did the "Cupid Slide" and "The Macarena". Talk about a workout. I was worn out before I knew it. It was great to see my students outside of the classroom & to hang out with the other teachers & have a good time. We also did "The Electric Slide" & "The Cha Cha Slide". I think the last time I did "The Electric Slide" was when I went to an eighth grade dance.

This year I have been a lot more involved in school activities. I guess most of it stems from the fact that this is my second year here & I hope to be at the school for a lot longer. Please be praying that I will have a job next year. From what I hear I will probably be safe & will have tenure if I make it to next year, but we don't know how it will be in our county for the 1st & 2nd year teachers. There are so many budget cuts & I am worried for many that may be out of a job. Plus they may be canceling or reducing so many of the programs we have at our school & throughout the county. Times are tough & the students are feeling the effects. How do we give them the proper education if there is no money to provide it???

Well I guess that is enough of my grumblings. Have a wonderful weekend!!

Thankful!

2009-02-12T20:40:00.003-05:00

As much as I complain about the students in my class I really need to be thankful for them. They care about me more than I realize.

We have a new mail system on our campus that allows the students to write letters to other students, teachers or staff members at our school. Because of this system I have received several letters from students. One of the letters was written by a wonderful student. She works so hard in class & always has a smile on her face. She told me that off all the teachers she has had since she has been in school I am her favorite! Talk about a boost of my ego!

Several other female students have recently been telling that I need to go on the show the Bachelor. At first I was embarrassed, but then I realized that it is only because they care about me & want me to be happy. They feel I need someone special to make me happy.

These events have definitely helped me to realize how much I can learn from my students & how thankful I am that they are in my life.

Whew!

2009-02-03T21:04:00.002-05:00

We had the State Department of Education come in & do an audit of our school yesterdat. Boy am I glad that is over! It is hard enough having your principal or assistant principal walk through your room, but to have people from the state come, talk about pressure!! For the most part everything went well. I had a total of 4 people come walk through my room. Some stayed just long enough to look around, others came in & sat down to observe for 10 or 15 minutes. They said we did pretty well, but I guess we were expecting that. Everything we knew they wanted to see, was usually something we already did. I was just glad that my students kept it together & were quiet, respectful & usually on task.

Now if only the rest of the week will go as smoothly as Monday went!

Have you ever...

2009-01-21T18:33:00.005-05:00

I took this idea from my sister who was tagged with this in her blog. Looked like fun!

The idea is to copy & paste it into your blog, then highlight the things you have done. The items in bold are things I’ve done in my life. (You’re not supposed to copy the words in italics, I added those.)

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (2 years in elementary school)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower (It was really neat, but a cold, cold night)
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world (I was addicted to DisneyWorld for a while)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis (Seen 'em, but never held)
10. Sang a solo (Ha! You wouldn't want me to)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris (Want to)
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea (In a plane over the ocean)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child (for a while in college)
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables (with my preschoolers. never ate them though, the veggies, not the preschoolers!!)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight (who hasn't??)
22. Hitch-hiked (nor picked up a hitch-hiker)
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort (out of the mounds of snow the snow plow piled up in the parking lot)
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse (lunar & solar)
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run (no, but a triple once)
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (Scotland)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted (sort of, Caricature drawing in Seattle)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud (a field hockey game, ages ago!)
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (a homemade one for a class I took)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (as often as I can)
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter (really, really, really want to)
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy (Corduroy, bear I had when I was a baby)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (not officially, but wrote one in sixth grade)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem (really, really, really want to)
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House (haven't gone inside yet)
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life (indirectly by avoiding a very serious accident where a car running a red light would have slammed into the passenger side of my car killing my friend and I)
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous (Lynn Cheney)
92. Joined a book club (reading the Sunshine State Readers with students from school)
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone (Love my new one!)
99. Been stung by a bee (a wasp on my ear!)

Wondering

2009-01-20T22:28:00.002-05:00

Does anyone have any ideas of ways to reward the students in my classroom who continually do a great job? I don't want to have to go out & buy anything, but I am looking for easy simple things to do that could show them how much I appreciate how hard they work. I want it to set them apart from the students who misbehave, something that the others would strive to work toward. So let me know if you have any good ideas. One I did think of was picking 2 or 3 studendts to eat in the classroom or outside one day. Any other thoughts?

Ridiculous

2009-01-12T22:08:00.002-05:00

You wanna know something that is really stupid??? Grouping students based on the results of only ONE test instead of including how they work in the classroom. What is even worse, determining if they go on to the next grade or graduate from high school based pretty much on just the FCAT!

We are told over & over again to use alternate assessments & not just tests to give our students grades, then we turn around & the "powers that be" determine everything else based on tests the students take. Ridiculous!!!

Gotta Love It!!

2009-01-06T23:20:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was a pretty tough day at school. It was only the second day back from Winter Break, but I had 3 students who, for whatever reason, decided they were going to do everything in their power to drive me crazy! They back talked, gave me attitude, threw fits like 2 year olds, & disrupted any teaching that I tried to do. BUT that isn't what I wanted to talk about. It was one of my other students & his mom that made my day.

This particular student has ADHD & is usually on medication. Because of issues with insurance he has not been able to have the medication the past month or so. His mom has tried natural herbs, but it doesn't seem to work. He tends to wander the room, talk out, argue with teachers & hardly gets any work done. I wasn't sure how it would be when he got back from Winter Break, but I was pleasantly surprised when he returned. I didn't even realize at first he had entered the room. He came in sat down & got right to work. He ended up having a wonderful day. The second day went just as well. I decided to call his mom & let her know how he had done. When she answered the phone we exchanged hellos & then the next words out of her mouth were "What has he done now???" I had to laugh, but then I had the joy of telling her that I was calling for a good reason, NOT a bad one. I could tell that she was pleased that he had done well.

The whole situation made me realize that the students that misbehave tend to get most of my attention during the day. How unfair is that to all the other students who work so hard & give it their all only to let each day go by with out much recognition? My New Year's Resolution for school will definitely have to be to try to remember to praise those students who work hard. They need to know that what they do matters & makes a difference, not only in their lives, but in my life.

New Years Resolutions

2009-01-04T08:43:00.003-05:00

1. Read my bible every day.
2. Go to Curves or walk on the treadmill every day.
3. Blog at least once a week. (I will really try Nana!)
4. Look for every opportunity to praise God & let him work through my life.

Vocabulary

2008-09-18T20:55:00.003-05:00

I was checking out the vocabulary words for my fifth graders for next week. Each week they have about 6 or 7 words, but every 5th reading story there is usually 10 words. One of the words for this coming story is prognostication. Now, I am all for building the vocabulary of students, but come on are they serious???? I didn't even know what this word meant. What really irked me was that another word for the same week was flop. You would think they could at least be consistent on the level of words. I don't get it? Do you?

SonQuest

2008-08-31T19:00:00.003-05:00

I just got back this afternoon from SonQuest. SonQuest is a youth retreat down in Orlando that services over a thousand youth from all over central Florida. It begins on Friday night & lasts thru Sunday morning worship services. Throughout the weekend there is a keynote speaker who speaks about 3 or 4 times. There are usually a few different types of entertainment like concerts from college musical groups or in our case Bean & Bailey who are a comic/music group. The students also have a couple of "encounter" classes they attend. Many of the youth ministers & other men from the churches will teach a class about different topics & the students are able to choose from the variety of classes to determine which ones they want to attend.

The weekend started off well. We got there & registered for our rooms & after we had dropped off our luggage we headed out to Fuddrucker's for dinner. Yum, Yum! I had an ostrich burger which was quite delicious. Each time we got to eat together throughout the weekend we enjoyed just sitting & talking about the various aspects of the retreat & what we enjoyed most.

Around Saturday afternoon as we were coming back from dinner I made the comment to another chaperone that the weekend was good, but it hadn't gone as well as last year. Wouldn't you know that within just a few hours God changed my mind. He must have been saying "Oh, you don't think it's going well? Then let me show you how good it can get!" The keynote speaker for the weekend was David Skidmore. I am not sure which congregation he attends, but he definitely was a wonderful speaker. He is funny, entertaining & really brings the message home. That night he brought a powerful message to everyone there. It really moved the hearts of quite a few of the students to ask for prayers or to rededicate their lives to Christ. Around 11:00 that night there were 20 baptisms. It was quite a night! David also spoke the following morning for worship services. Each time he spoke he stuck to the same topic of "The Artist", our theme for the weekend. God being the artist & his masterpiece being the world & each one of us. Yet each time he seemed to present it a new way & to create a new thought process of how we all viewed our lives. We saw how we were God's masterpiece & how to show it to the world.

David was a wonderful speaker & did such an excellent job each time he spoke, but my favorite part of the weekend was the singing. Too often in services I sing the songs without really noticing the words. It happens even with new songs. I concentrate on getting how the song should be sung, as opposed to concentrating on the meaning in the words. This weekend God opened my heart and moved me through the words of the songs. One in particular was very meaningful. I had sung it before, but not very often. Here are the words and if you want to hear how the song is sung this is the link to it on You Tube Give Us Clean Hands (though it is sung with instrumental music) :

We bow our hearts,
We bend our knees,
Oh Spirit, come make us humble.
We turn our eyes,
From evil things,
Oh Lord we cast down our idols.

So give us clean hands,
And give us pure hearts,
Let us not lift our souls to another.
Give us clean hands,
And give us pure hearts,
Let us not lift our souls to another.

O God let us be,
a generation that seeks,
Seeks your face, O God of Jacob.
O God let us be,
a generation that seeks,
Seeks your face, O God of Jacob.

This song reminds me that at every opportunity I need to be seeking Christ. In the middle of the day my thoughts should turn to him. When I am happy about something I need to thank him for providing it. I need to remember that he has blessed me beyond anything I could ever ask or imagine. It shouldn't be only in the dark times that we seek him. We also need to encourage our younger people, like the teens from the weekend to be the "generation that seeks" God's face. He needs to be our first thought in the morning & the last one at night. As I have heard it said before, we need to seek him & be so "involved" with Christ that others have to seek him in order to find us.

I hope that even though your weekend might not have been what mine was (busy, exhausting, but spiritually motivating), you were able to see Christ working in your life some way. There are a few other songs from the weekend that were excellent as well. If you would like to view them they can be found on You Tube as well. In Christ Alone, How Great Is Our God, Everlasting God. Enjoy your extended weekend & have a good Labor Day.

Dancing with the Stars

2008-08-25T18:19:00.002-05:00

I have never watched the show "Dancing with the stars" regularly, but have heard it is pretty good. During the Olympics I got addicted to watching volleyball. I loved the indoor as well as the beach volleyball. As it turns out, one of the gold medal winners for women's beach volleyball, Misty May-Treanor, is going to be on the show starting this fall. I guess I may have to check it out & see what all the hype is about. Misty is very athletic so it will be interesting to see if the dancing is tough for her or if being athletic gives her a good start & pushers her to the front of the crowd.

Well now you know at least one show I will probably be watching this fall. What will you be watching? Which are your favorite shows and which ones would you like to see go off the air?

Senior Citizen???

2008-08-23T21:28:00.004-05:00

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I have been getting ready for school to start & this blog has been the last thing on my mind. I often times don't think I have anything to blog about, so I am going to just try to make a point to blog as often as I can about anything that has been going on recently.

Speaking of recently ... a funny thing happened tonight when my friend & I went to the movies. I went to purchase my ticket & handed over my debit card. When I got my card back & took my ticket I looked at the ticket so I could tear it off of the receipt. That is when I noticed that I had two tickets. They had accidentally charged me for not only an adult ticket but also a senior citizen ticket!!! It wasn't that big of a deal, but the funny thing was that my friend with me, who is only about 2 years younger than me, had gotten carded (the movie was rated "R") even though she is 25. Often times people have asked us if we were sisters because we look alike & seem about the same age. I guess tonight they didn't notice that! We laughed about this and teased each other for a long time about our new ages. I know a lot of times people can't wait till they can grow up, but I don't want to grow up THAT fast!! It's also a shame that they didn't refund the money for the adult ticket & just let me have the discounted rate instead!

Food Court Musical

2008-07-09T12:59:00.005-05:00

This is a great video done by a group called Improv Everywhere. The group decided to stage a seemingly random musical in a food court at a mall. In this case the mall managemnet did know of the event & helped them out, but typically the places/stores have no knowledge of what is going to happen before hand. The group does random acts all over the city of New York where they are based. I found their site randomly when I was "stumbling" on Firefox. There website is located here. They have many other "missions" that they have done. I haven't viewed them all, but the ones I have seen are really funny. Check out the Human Mirror, Megastore, & No Shirt. The site contains all the information about what each mission is & how they go about creating it. They usually take photos as well as video if possible. So don't forget to scroll down & read about each mission after watching the videos.

Have a great day and enjoy a few laughs!!!

Tennesse Trip Pictures

2008-07-01T21:06:00.007-05:00

Group photo

Photo taken of the group at a cabin where we stayed.

Snipe hunting group.

Mr. Ricky working hard!

Jessica & Andrew talking on the bus on the way to the worksite.

Chillin' on the jobsite.

Morgan with Ms. Bobbie.

Pullin' nails! Lots of fun!!!!

Tennessee Tornado Trip

2008-06-30T08:16:00.002-05:00

I just got back from going on a mission trip to Tennessee. I was asked to be a chaperone by our youth minister on a trip to help clean up areas that had been ravaged by tornadoes. We ended up only helping 2 different people/families, but the work was hard & tiresome.

We left on Sunday the 22nd at around 4:30 in the morning. Early, I know! We arrived in TN (after many stops for gas, bathroom, and food) around 6:00 pm or so. We stayed at the Lafayette C of C. They have this amazing youth group house. They have an area with couches for their bible class that takes up about half of the main room. The other half has a kitchen and a large area with tables for eating as well as a ping pong table & a pool table. The girls of our group crashed on the couches (very comfortable) and the boys took cots & air mattresses to crash on the other area of the room. The chaperones mostly slept in between.

We woke up most mornings around 7 o'clock & had breakfast. Then we were out at the work sites around 8 or 8:30. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday we spent at a woman named Bobbie's house. The tornadoes had pretty much knocked down all the trees in her backyard. We spent the days creating a couple of HUGE piles of wood for her to burn. It was long & tiring work, but we spent the time getting to know each other better & singing devotional songs. It was very uplifting to see the teens so upfront about what they believe & to be unafraid of letting others know they are Christians & love to praise God. Each day we came back exhausted & needing a nap (at least that was true of the chaperones!) We took our showers after working all day instead of wasting time each morning. No point in taking a shower in the morning just to go out & work & be sweaty & gross the rest of the day!

Wednesday was the only day we didn't go out to Ms. Bobbie's house. We went to another area & spent the day pulling nails from boards. Sounds easy enough, but we didn't have enough hammers & crowbars to do all the work. Once we had bought some more we figured out how to make the work a little easier. Half of us spent the time hammering the nails out of the opposite sides of the boards, then let those with the crowbars pried the nails the rest of the way out. It was tedious work that earned most of us sunburns from sitting in the hot sun the whole day.

Most of the afternoons we spent hanging out at the youth house. We took showers & had quiet time each day before dinner. The teens seemed to have an endless supply of energy. I don't know if they didn't work as hard as the adults or if it was just that they are younger & seemed to bounce back easier from the hard work. I could get frustrated at times when I felt they sat around or took a break every 10 minutes, but they did do a lot of work & the people we helped were very appreciative of what we did for them.

We left on Saturday morning just after 7. We were afraid we wouldn't leave on time when some of our stuff got locked in a room that we didn't have a key for. Several of us left our suitcases in another room off the main area. The door was left propped open because it automatically locks when you close it. We were careful all week about the door, but one of the teens accidentally closed the door without realizing it would lock. We tried calling several numbers we had & searching everywhere for a directory to find more numbers. As the time quickly approached 7 we caught a break when one of the men from the church came by to work. He happened to have just the key we needed. After we left the church building we took off driving for 5 hours to get to the Ocoee Inn where we went white water rafting.

The rafting was intense, but we loved every minute of it. We went down class 4 rapids & only one person fell out of the raft, but it was at then end of the rapid just before we hit the calm area. No injuries. After we stopped half way for lunch we had to walk our raft down a ramp around a dam. The water coming off the falls/dam was powerful & the spray coming up was very high. Our guide was excited, but told us that it meant the rapids were going to be a lot more intense than the class 3 rapids they usually were. We managed to make it through the other side with only a few times we all had to stop. Our guide was great. He gave us clear directions of when to paddle & when to rest & was always telling us what a great job we were doing. It reminds me of all the times we hit rocky times in our lives. God keeps telling us how to paddle through it. If we listen, we come out better on the other side.

After the rafting we traveled to a cabin in NC where we spent the night & had worship services the next morning. We then had to travel 10 hours back to FL. It was a long day, but I did get to catch up on some sleep during that trip. It is sad to think that now I won't get to see my group each day. We got very close & enjoyed being together very much. I will miss the teasing we did & the silly times we spent together, but I know we need to get back to our "normal" lives now. I am just very thankful that God gave me this opportunity to work with the teens & to help spread his love to those who needed it.

I hope that your summer has gotten off to a wonderful start like mine has. The only thing that I am sorry I brought home from this trip was the case of poison ivy that I am currently trying not to scratch! Any one know of good remedies to relieve the itching & make the rash go away sooner?

Survey

2008-05-29T22:06:00.004-05:00

My sister had this survey on her blog & I thought it would be fun to answer. Enjoy!

A. Attached or Single- Single

B. Best Friend- Robin & Lisa (Karen too, by default!)

C. Cake or Pie- Ice Cream Cake - from Carvel - Yummy!

D. Day of Choice- Saturday or Sunday

E. Essential Item- Phone

F. Flavor of Ice Cream- Double fudge brownie

G. Gummy Bears or Worms- Bears most of the time (unless it is the sour worms)

H. Hometown- currently Mount Dora

I. Indulgences- Chocolate

J. January or July- July (b/c of my birthday)

K. Kids- none except for my students at school

L. Last movie I saw in a theater- Indiana Jones (very good!)

M. Middle Name- Jeann (Thanks to my parents for naming me after both my grandmothers)

N. Number of siblings- 2 - sister & brother (one brother-in-law as well!)

O. Orange or Apples- Apples - tart & crisp

P. Phobias or Fears- Spiders (run & hide)

Q. Quote- "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." -Dr. Seuss

R. Reasons to smile- laughter (especially a child's), last day of school, realizing that life is really, really good!

S. Season- Spring

T. Tag 4- Freeze tag anyone????

U. Unknown fact about me- I can't sleep with the doors open (closet too)

V. Vegetarian or oppressor of Animals- I love a good juicy burger! (sorry)

W. Worst Habit- talking too much or too loudly

X. X-rays or Ultrasounds- X-rays are pretty cool to look at, never had an ultrasound

Y. Your favorite Food- does chocolate count? If not rice pilaf, beef brisket, asparagus, and crescent rolls (okay, so I made a favorite meal instead of just one food)

Z. Zodiac- ???? ZOO Animal (instead)- definitely the monkeys (they get to hang around all day & have fun)

Yes, Yes, Yes!!!!

2008-05-23T22:37:00.002-05:00

For those who don't know yet, I have been officially asked to stay at my elementary school teaching fifth grade. It was unofficial a little while ago, but I went in today & signed the paper after my principal told me she had the availability & wanted me to stay. It will be great to get to stay at the same school in the same grade. Last year I had to change grades as well as change schools and it made it hard to get started out on the right foot this past year.

Another great thing has also happened, our fifth grade has received a rather large technology grant. In August the fifth grade teachers will head to Orlando for 3 or 4 days to get trained in how to use this new technology in our classrooms. From what I have heard we will have a document camera, projector, video camera, digital camera & 12 laptops in each of our classrooms. I am a little nervous about trying to incorporate all of this into the curriculum next year, yet really excited that my students will have the opportunity to get to learn about & use this technology. Many of them come from lower economic backgrounds so this will be a wonderful experience for them. Something that they would not normally have an opportunity to experience.

Have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy the time off for Memorial Day!

Huh???

2008-05-17T20:42:00.001-05:00

What is the point of locking your car doors if you are going to leave your windows rolled down??

Good Day

2008-05-05T17:46:00.002-05:00

Today was a good day in school, despite the fact that I have a bad cold & kept sneezing every few minutes. My students were pretty well behaved. Only a few of them lost points, and that was because they forgot to return their folders with their parent;s signatures. The only hitch was 2 boys with attitudes. One is the same one that I always struggle with. The other has been a pretty good student until about March, just before the FCAT. He is a smart boy, A's and B's & usually gets his work done, but for some reason he has shut himself off. Today he was chewing on paper and I told him to go spit it in the garbage can. Not 1 minute later he was using a tube of some kind to shoot spit balls at the cubbies. When I made him move his seat to the front of the room he acted like I was the bad guy even though he knew he was the one breaking the rules. I think tomorrow I am going to try to kill my students with Kindness. Be so nice to them that they run screaming because they can't take it anymore. They won't know how to deal with it.

I was proud of the rest of my class. We took a test today. I know, I know a test on Monday how could I?!?! We had Junior Achievement Day all day on Friday and couldn't take it then, but despite that, the lowest grade was a 71, a C. I was expecting some low grades, so this was a nice surprise. Hopefully they will continue to keep up the good work. I was afraid that not having open book tests would mean all the grades would drop, but it hasn't. The funny thing is that one of my good students who usually gets A's and B's got a C today, 'cause she figured she didn't have to study. Maybe this will make her work harder next week.

Have a fabulous rest of the week, I know I am going to try to!

Is it the end of the school year yet?

2008-05-01T20:37:00.003-05:00

Be careful what you pray for! I sat in on the teen class on Wednesday night & our youth minister talked about Colossians 3:5-17 and how we need to clothe ourselves with the good that is mentioned: love, faithfulness, gentleness, forgiveness, peace, unity, patience, etc. I decided that I was going to try to work on some of these things that I lack or don't feel I am as strong in as I could be. Crazy me decided to start with patience. I knew that as soon as I told God I wanted to work on it he would give me a situation that would require a LOT of patience. He definitely did today...

My kids have shut down and I am about ready to do so myself. It is so hard to get them to do any work. Half of them get it done with no problems. They work hard & do what is expected of them, but the other half ruins it. They talk non-stop, they walk around the room or they do anything to keep from working. I had to write 3 referrals today. That is where my patience was tested big time. One student in math put a tack on another student's seat & he sat on it. She still is denying that she did it, despite that there are about 7 others that say she did it. Her mother thinks she can do no wrong and defends her at every turn. The student was even willing to let her friends go down with her when she was the mastermind & they only did what she wanted. Why do they stay friends with her????

At the very end of the day I looked out my door to the hallway & a student was standing there. I went over for 1 minute to speak to her & see where she was supposed to be (in a another class because she was in trouble in her own) and all of the sudden my kids start shouting "They're fighting". Apparently 2 of the boys had been jokingly hitting/pushing each other throughout the day & it had escalated. When I had turned my back the original instigator got out of his seat & pushed the other boy. The 2nd boy flipped out & just started hitting him, pinning him to the floor. They cooled off quickly, but the frustrating thing is that the first boy didn't seem to realize that he was the main problem. He teases his friends, but never gets that what he does has major ramifications. I made him look at his friend who was standing there with fists clenched tightly and tears streaming down his face. I think maybe he is finally starting to get it.

In other news when I was dealing with the two boys I yelled at the rest of the class because they were snickering & talking about the boys. I realized later it wasn't their fault & that I was really harsh on them. I need to take a step back & rethink some things. I want to make sure that my class knows I am sorry about yelling & being upset, but also make sure that they know that when things like this happen & I have to deal with it, they need to make sure to behave & give me the space I need to sort through everything. The 2 boys will be suspended tomorrow more than likely so I will definitely try to do something nice for the rest, they weren't the ones fighting & causing all the problems. In fact they were getting ready to play a game because they had been doing a pretty good job getting their work done.

The count is now 25 days till my freedom!! (Except for post planning) I have lots of stuff planned for this summer. Mission trip with our youth group to help clean up an area of Tennessee that was hit by tornadoes. Spiritual Growth Workshop in July (hopefully family visiting then too!!!!) Maybe even a trip up to New Jersey (with a stop in Philly!)

Have a wonderful weekend! Hope yours will not be as stressful as my day today.

Motivation

2008-04-27T13:18:00.002-05:00

How do you motivate a student to do work in class when NOTHING seems to work? I have tried speaking nicely & promising candy. I have tried gentle reminders to get to work. I have tried threatening loss of Fun Friday and referrals (and carried through). I have tried conferences with mom. I have tried sending him out of the room. I have tried speaking very softly and encouraging him. I have tried behavior charts with promises of rewards. I have even tried threats of having to repeat fifth grade. NOTHING, I repeat NOTHING is getting through to this student. If he doesn't do the work I can't give him credit & if I can't give him credit he will not get the grades he needs to pass. His FCAT grades will probably not be high enough for him to make it to sixth grade. Everything else is borderline.

Any suggestions?? I am out of ideas & don't know where to go from here.

Other than that life is good. Hope it is good for you too!

DARE

2008-03-26T19:41:00.002-05:00

Today was the first day of DARE for our fifth graders. I remember doing dare when I was in fifth grade. For those of you who may not know, DARE stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. The officer coming for DARE seemed to get along well with my students & they had a great time getting to know him. The unfortunate thing is that I don't know how affect this type of program will be with my students. Most of them know a lot about the different types of drugs already, which is a little sad. I am sure many of them know where to get drugs & know people who do drugs. I am praying that this type of program will instead help to keep most of them from going down the same path as others they have seen before.

In other news...I have found some great games to play on-line. In the first game you have to slide the cubes around to make them land on the dot of the same color. Be careful it can be addicting. The second is a set of quizzes that you can take; some easy, some hard. The last one is a speed test to see how fast you can type.

Hope you all have a great rest of the week! Enjoy the Spring Break (if you get the time off!) I will be spending some of the time with my brother who is coming into town, Yea!!! God bless!

Update on student

2008-03-19T21:26:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to give a brief update on the student I had mentioned in my last post. I tried a different approach & tried to only speak to him very quietly & whenever he was upset I let him cool down before approaching him. It only worked for about a day. He usually comes in okay in the mornings, but as the day wears on he slowly gets worse and worse. I can handle the attitude he gives me, but he is treating his classmates terribly. He pokes them, pushes them, tries to trip them & if they do the slightest thing to him he flies off the handle. Today he pushed a student out of his chair & if the student hadn't caught himself he would have hit his head on the floor. It has gotten so ridiculous. All of the students avoid him & are constantly telling me what he has been doing to them. I had to write a referral for his behavior today, so the assistant principal is going to request that the mom come in for a conference. We are at our wits end with this student. I am hoping that his mom may get the hint that most of the behavior has been occurring since they took him off his medication. He is able to control himself so much better when he is on the meds.

In other news the rest of my students have been performing well on the FCAT. They are working really hard to stay on track & get everything done. It is hard for them. Our district has decided that the students may not do ANYTHING when they are done with their test. They have to sit quietly until the whole time is up & then I can collect all the tests. It is difficult when they get done in 40 minutes and have to sit still for 20 more! I am taking them brownies as a treat to perk them up after the test.

I hope that everyone has a great long weekend! I am going to play paint ball!!!
God bless!

I don't get it!!!

2008-03-03T20:18:00.003-05:00

In one of my recent posts I mentioned that I was having trouble dealing with a student with a major attitude (besides all the other issues he has!) On Friday morning his mother happened to come to school to talk with the assistant principal about his grades & how he was doing in school. While sitting slumped in his chair he pretty much said whatever we wanted to here, but you could tell he didn't care about how we wanted to help him or get him back on track. It seemed very frustrating to think that even with 4 adults there to help him he still acted like he had no cares in the world.

Later on that day, even after all we had talked to him about, he was still out of his seat misbehaving. Then on the way to the bus he got in a fight with another student. He now has an in school suspension. He still won't admit he has done anything wrong. In every class there is someone else he has a problem with. Each of the teachers that has him also has problems with getting him to do his class work & stay in his seat. Yet amidst all of this his parents keep claiming that it is the other students who are bothering him first. They are aiding him in not taking responsibility for his own actions. If we can't get the parents to admit he has a problem, there isn't much hope of getting him to admit it.

Please keep him & his family in your prayers. I fear for them because the road they are heading down is only going to lead to many more issues in his future. The scariest thing is that the first words out of his mouth are a lie & he is really good at making you believe that he is telling the truth! If he doesn't get his life together there isn't much hope at all for him.

I hope all of you have a great week! 1 week till FCAT!! God bless!

Interesting

2008-03-02T21:21:00.001-05:00

Found this when I was "stumbling"...

Politics Explained

FEUDALISM: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.

PURE SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all of the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.

BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and put them in a barn with everyone else's cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs as the regulations say you need.

FASCISM: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them and sells you the milk.

PURE COMMUNISM: You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

RUSSIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.

CAMBODIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. The government takes both of them and shoots you.

DICTATORSHIP: You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.

PURE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.

BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

PURE ANARCHY: You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.

LIBERTARIAN/ANARCHO-CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

SURREALISM: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

(Original source unknown . . . this version expanded and Illuminated by SJ.)

Ahhh! Yes!

2008-02-28T19:03:00.003-05:00

Finally a good day at school. It didn't quite start out that way though...

Most mornings at school are a mix of telling the kids over and over to sit down and get to work & reminding them that they are not to be talking. This morning started out the same and after we made it through announcements I dropped them off at their Specials, Media (Library). When I went to pick up the students they were getting in trouble for being loud & not following directions. (Typical of the fifth grade classes.) I took them back to the classroom and told them I was not happy with their behavior & wasn't going to allow it to continue. I was pretty strict with them as we got ready for Reading. I guess it worked, because they listened to the story on tape & did their work nicely. They even did a great job working in their centers.

Math class is usually pretty tough as well. They ALL love to talk! I didn't have a chance to grade a packet of papers they had done the day before, but they all wanted to know how they had done. I told them that they couldn't be quiet for 15 minutes for me to get the packets finished, but they insisted they could. We ended up making a deal. I told them that if they could not talk long enough for me to get the papers done & they could work quietly they would get a piece of candy. Can you believe that they were actually almost silent for over half an hour!?! I was pretty shocked! They did get their candy, but the got in trouble for their behavior during lunch. I guess it was too good to last. In the afternoon my homeroom class was pretty good again, but I am not holding my breath for tomorrow. Two good days in a row is a little hard for them to do.

Anyone have any suggestions for how to deal with a student with a major attitude? He has ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyper-activity Disorder) and his mom has taken him off of his medication. He was pretty tolerable up until the beginning of January, but I think that is when he stopped taking the medication. Now he is constantly up from his seat, he throws things around the room or at his friends and he talks back or gives all his teachers a bad attitude whenever they correct his behavior. I have mentioned his lack of focus on his classwork and how he behaves in the classroom to his mother, but it doesn't seem to phase her. He takes home papers that he has to fill out about his behavior, but I never hear anything about it from his mom. He doesn't seem to care about the fact that he is rude. He just gets mad when we remind him how to behave. How do you tell a parent that they need to put their child back on medication? It seems like the only things that will get him back under control.

Well I guess that is about it for now. Hopefully tomorrow will be a good day! 11 days left till FCAT! God bless everyone at their jobs/school/etc. tomorrow!

Stumble Upon!

2008-02-24T21:49:00.002-05:00

Thanks to a good friend of mine I have discovered a new feature on Mozilla Firefox, it is called Stumble Upon and lets you randomly find websites that fit your interest. When you first set it up you choose subjects you like from a list of categories. Once everything is set up you "stumble" through all kinds of websites and then Stumble reads your interests and finds similar sites to the ones you like. I haven't discovered all the various components that Stumble Upon can do, but it has led me to some fun sites. One of the first was a crazy puzzle in which you have to fit some very unusual pieces together. Another was a site that listed all kinds of random facts that had me saying "Wow, I never knew that!" I am looking forward to other great sites that I will discover soon.

Have a wonderful week! God bless!

Finally Settled!

2008-02-18T15:45:00.002-05:00

It has been just over 2 months since I have ventured out on my own! I am finally settled into my new apartment with only one box not put away. I still have a few more things to hang up on the walls, but otherwise I guess my little apartment finally feels like home. Isn't it weird how after a while you forget what it was like before you made a change? I have only been on my own for 2 months, but it feels like longer. (pics will be coming soon)

School is still school. Only about 3 weeks left till the dreaded FCAT tests! My students (& me!) are already fed up with the tests & they haven't even taken them yet! We (meaning the school mostly) have been preparing the kids for months. I don't know how affective all the prep has been, one can only hope & pray for the best.

Hope you are all enjoying a nice President's Day! God bless!

Beautiful Night!

2007-09-13T21:17:00.000-05:00

Tonight was a beautiful night. I think the weather here in Florida has finally begun to change. The days are still hot, but the mornings & the nights have been a little cooler. After going to a volleyball game at the Bible School where my mom teaches, we came home & stood outside for a while, because the temperature had cooled down quite a bit. The sky was so beautiful as well. I think God has a really great time creating the skies in Florida. I have begun to really see how awesome his creation can be when I see the skies of Florida. Here are a couple of pictures I have taken recently. The picture above I took tonight, the others have been since the beginning of August. (By the way if you are in the market for a new digital camera, I would definitely recommend the one I have. It is a Canon Powershot SD750. It takes awesome photos!)

No Talking!

2007-09-10T19:18:00.000-05:00

School has been going really well for the past few weeks. The students & I have pretty much gotten into our routine. Only a few kinks left in the armor, so to speak. There is one small problem, the students don't want to stop talking & get down to work. Everytime we switch subjects the students start to talk when they get their books or move from class to class. I have to spend 5 to 10 minutes settling them down. It gets frustrating at times. Anyone have any advice? I have tried giving them a few minutes, but they only take more!! I try bribing them & they don't seem to care.

How do you also teach the students to follow the rules, not because of consequences, but because it is the right thing to do. I have one student who almost refuses to follow our hall procedures unless I am watching him. It is like he does what he has to in order to obey if he absolutely has to, but not because the whole school has to follow the rules. What can I do to motivate him to do the right thing?

I hope all of you are having a great week. God bless!

School starts on Monday!

2007-08-17T18:20:00.001-05:00

Well school officially starts on Monday! Woo Hoo! I guess I am a little disappointed to no longer have any more "lazy days of summer".

It has been hectic this last week trying to get everything ready for the students on Monday. Each time I think I have everything ready I find something new I have to do. Thankfully the first day of school is basically just going over the school rules, procedures, fire drills, etc. We have so many papers to hand out & books to assign to the students that they cover all the tables in the room. It is nice to not have to worry about getting lesson plans ready for that first day. Of course I am sure that the students don't realize that they are going to have homework the first night anyway!! Since we teach fifth graders, we teachers felt we needed to prepare them from the very beginning for what to expect. Our students have so much pressure to pass major tests in March that we have to begin preparing them from the very start of school. All of their homework is FCAT (Florida's standardized test) prep information. As much as I hate having to teach to the test, we have no choice but to do it!

The room is still a work in progress. I tend to constantly change things throughout the year to make it new & exciting. It is especially fun to add holiday/seasonal decorations. I guess I just don't like it when things stay exactly the same way all the time.

Have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy every last minute of summer that you can!

I got a job!

2007-08-08T15:02:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that I finally got a job. I have been waiting & waiting for my test scores to come back so that I could apply for jobs teaching in the area. I was in contact with my old assistant principal & he highly recommended me to a school nearby. They decided to take a chance with me & they hired me!!!! They said they would do what they have to to help me pass my test again if I don't the first time, but they would go ahead & hire me now.

I am going to be teaching 5th grade at a school that is a little rough. I am nervous because I didn't want to teach anything above 4th grade & I am really worried about discipline problems. Please keep me in your prayers. I guess the Lord wants me out of my comfort zone. I know that he will not give me more than what I can handle, so I am going to trust that he will help me bear this burden. In fact that he will help me to succeed here & to be a shining light for him.

Please also keep my mother in your prayers. She will be teaching 6th & 7th grade geography at The Christian Home & Bible School here in Mount Dora.

Now that I have a job I am hoping to find an apartment/house to rent as well. I have been waiting for the job issue to be settled so that I knew I would have the financial ability to live on my own. Does anybody have any tips about finding a place to live? I would appreciate any knowledge/experience you would like to pass on to me.

Have a wonderful week!

Proverbs 3:5 & 6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart & lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him & he will make your paths straight."

Birthday!

2007-07-24T22:54:00.000-05:00

Well I am now officially 26 years & 2 days old!!! I didn't get a chance to write this post on my birthday because we are in the midst of VBS. I wanted to say thank you to all of you that sent cards & wished me well. I had a great birthday. It wasn't too fancy, since we do have VBS going on, but it was still special.

Mom & Dad took me to Outback for dinner. Yum, Yum, love those steaks! Then we had ice cream cake for dessert. Dairy Queen makes some great ice cream! Later on we had VBS. During the opening ceremony they called me up & everyone sang Happy Birthday. It was so sweet! I don't usually like to be the center of attention, but it was nice to be for that little while. The rest of the night went well & when VBS was over they wanted everyone to head to the Fellowship Hall for a little while. I didn't realize it till I went there, but they were throwing me a small surprise party. Everyone sang Happy Birthday & they had cake & ice cream for me. It was so great! It made me fell really special for them to do all this for me.

I hope that all of you have a wonderful rest of the week. I for one know I will since I am headed to Virginia on Friday! God bless!

My 2 week vacation in the North!

2007-07-09T18:14:00.001-05:00

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been since I have blogged! I thought maybe with the school year over I would have more time, but I guess with vacations & all we have planned this summer I just don't have the time.

I just got back from a 2 week vacation in the north. I spent my first week at Camp Manatawny counseling for 11th & 12th graders. The week was great. I had 6 girls in my cabin & had a co-counselor this year, Brenna Smith. She is so sweet & we worked well together. I wish I could have gotten there on time, but because of a class I had to take I couldn't arrive until Sunday morning. Luckily I did arrive almost in time for worship, actually walking in just as it was time for communion. I had woken up at 2:30 that morning to get ready & catch a 6:15 am flight to Philly (thanks Dad & Mom for taking me to the airport). It was my first time renting a car, but it went well. I ended up with a Chevy Impala. Pretty sweet car!! It was smooth driving & had all the bells and whistles a car should have!

The week at Camp went really well. We only had about 75 campers and about the same amount of staff. The week was very spiritual & I loved the hymn sings. Not quite the same has they have been in the past, but still really good. The food was amazing as usual, but that is thanks to our wonderful cook, Chip Hartzell. This was his last year, though he may be back to help train someone for a year or two. This year was also the last for our director(s) Roger & Carolyn Hladky. They have been the directors for about 27 years. It was sad to say "goodbye", but it seems that they are ready to move on & let a "younger" generation take over. They will definitely be missed, but hopefully they won't leave altogether.

The second week I spent in Jersey. I stayed the weekend with some friends from church. It was great to see everyone from Tabernacle. Most of them haven't changed at all! It was tiring to have to repeat the same things over & over. Everyone wanted to know how my parents were, my grandparents, my brother & myself. Many even asked how my sister & here family are. So pretty much I said the same things again & again, repeating them about 50 times!

Sunday night through Friday was spent with my friends from the preschool where I used to work. On Monday I got to go in & see all of my old students & old co-workers. It was really great to get to see how much the kids have grown. Most of my last class is getting ready to go to kindergarten in the fall! On Tuesday my friend Holly & I went to Peddler's Village in PA & shopped. We had a good time & that night we all watched "The Benchwarmers". It is a really funny movie, but had some gross humor. If you like "stupid" movies with corny humor you might like this. Wednesday was my friend Annie's birthday. We also celebrated Independence Day. Thursday Annie & I went to the Aquarium. It was going to be the shore, but we didn't go because of rain. It didn't help that we had to stand in the rain anyway as we waited to purchase our tickets!

I left on Friday to return to hot, hot, humid Florida. The weather in Jersey had been gorgeous (despite the rain), so I wasn't exactly elated to be returning to heat, but I did miss Florida for other reasons.

I hope that all of you are enjoying your summers, even if some of you have to work. Don't forget to stop and enjoy a little time off! I for one am planning on heading to Disney on Saturday. Anyone want to fly to Florida & join me???

Have a wonderful week, God bless!

Graphics

2007-06-14T22:09:00.000-05:00

On my sister's blog she has an adorable waving stick figure that says "hi" to anyone who visits her blog. I thought it would be fun if I could find something similar to add to my blog. (I know you said we could use your guy, Lisa, but I wanted something a little different ;-) ) I found a great website that has lots of different graphics to choose from. Some funny, some serious. I found my new "changing face" guy on there. I figure we can see how many blogs we can get that have fun animations on them. Here is the website in case you want to add something fun to your blog.

Have a wonderful night. God bless!

Prayers

2007-06-01T07:24:00.000-05:00

I just wanted everyone to know that I had a job interview yesterday. It went very well & I will hopefully get the job, if there is one available. One of the teachers may not be coming back to fourth grade, so I may be able to have her position. I also am setting up an interview at another school today. Hopefully one of these options will lead to a job for this fall. Please keep me in your prayers.

Please also be praying for my mother. She is hoping to find a teaching job for the fall as well.

Have a great weekend! God bless!

Children say the funniest things!!!

2007-05-18T20:48:00.000-05:00

This cute story was sent to me at school. Children can be so funny in what they think they hear & then they go & repeat it to others!

RETARDED GRANDPARENTS

(this was actually reported by a teacher)

After Christmas, a teacher asked her young pupils how they spent their holiday away from school. One child wrote the following:

We always used to spend the holidays with Grandma and Grandpa. They used to live in a big brick house but Grandpa got retarded and they moved to Florida . Now they live in a tin box and have rocks painted green to look like grass. They ride around on their bicycles and wear name tags because they don't know who they are anymore.

They go to a building called a wrecked center, but they must have got it fixed because it is all okay now, and do exercises there, but they don't do them very well. There is a swimming pool too, but in it, they all jump up and down with hats on.

At their gate, there is a doll house with a little old man sitting in it. He watches all day so nobody can escape. Sometimes they sneak out.

They go cruising in their golf carts!

Nobody there cooks, they just eat out. And, they eat the same thing every night --- early birds.

Some of the people can't get out past the man in the doll house. The ones who do get out, bring food back to the wrecked centre for pot luck.

My Grandma says that Grandpa worked all his life to earn his retardment and says I should work hard so I can be retarded someday too. When I earn my retardment, I want to be the man in the doll house. Then I will let people out so they can visit their grandchildren.

PRICELESS

Funny moment

2007-04-26T19:01:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had something silly happen that just got you laughing & you couldn't stop? The other day after I got home from work I went to pick up my bag off the floor of the passenger's side of my car. On the floor I also keep my sun visors, which keep the sun from heating up my car to "burning" temperatures. The sun visors are the type that fit in your window, but you can bend/fold them up nicely & wrap an elastic strap around them to keep them from popping open. As I picked up the bag it caught on the strap of the sun visors & they popped open almost at my face. I was stunned for a second trying to figure out what had happened, then I started laughing & couldn't stop. It was so funny, but the thing that really had me laughing was that I was picturing how it would have looked if someone else had seen it!!! It reminded me of how someone opening one of those trick cans with the "snakes" that pop out of it.

Just thought I would share that silly story with you. Enjoy your weekend! God bless!

Bunco

2007-04-25T21:39:00.000-05:00

Last night I went and played Bunco for the first time. If you have never played before, it is a very easy game to learn. There are 12 players. There are 4 people to a table, with 3 tables. You roll dice to see who can get the most points. I found out that the whole point of the game is not to worry about the dice & who wins, but to sit & chit chat with "the girls". It is your night to have fun & relax. I had such a great time playing & even came in 2nd (actually third, but the host didn't feel right getting the 2nd place prize since she had bought it!)

We get together to play the third Thursday of each month (except if it needs to be changed for some reason). We have a list of substitutes that are available to play if one of the main players can't come. (You have to have 12 to play.)

I guess I found I really liked the game because it was so easy to learn & I got to sit around & have fun talking to adults. After being around 4th graders all day it is nice to have the adult conversation.

So, tell me about your favorite game. Why do you like it?

Coming soon look for some pictures & a story about my trip to the Orlando Science Center. We have a field trip tomorrow & I am sure there will be some story to tell! Whether it will be funny or not is yet to be seen!

Have a great night! God bless!

What holiday is your birthday on?

2007-04-21T10:16:00.000-05:00

My friend found this random "quiz" & I thought all of you would enjoy it. Her birthday is on "Dance in your underwear day"! What a hoot!

I love vanilla ice cream, especially with lots & lots of chocolate syrup! I guess I will have to go eat some on my birthday!

More Fun Quizzes at QuizPox.com

Guess what?!? I'm a believer! Yea!

2007-04-19T21:02:00.000-05:00

You Are a Believer

You definitely believe in God - and you're very unwavering in your religious beliefs.
In fact, religion and spirituality are definitely big parts of your life.
Religion shapes how you view right and wrong, as well as the decisions you make.
It's hard for you to imagine how your life would be without your beliefs.

Are You an Atheist, Agnostic or a Believer?

I was looking around to see what kind of crazy quizzes I could find to take. Thinking I could find personality, IQ, How "Jersey" are you? quizzes & I found this one called "Are You an Atheist, Agnostic or a Believer?" My first thought was "Are you kidding?!?" If you really want to know that answer would you go looking for a quiz to take? How many people would actually take this for real?

Look at what it tells me about myself:
You definitely believe in God - and you're very unwavering in your religious beliefs. Uh, Duh! This is kinda stating the obvious.
In fact, religion and spirituality are definitely big parts of your life. I should hope so!
Religion shapes how you view right and wrong, as well as the decisions you make. If only it were true of everyone.
It's hard for you to imagine how your life would be without your beliefs. Ain't that the truth!

As funny as this quiz was, I think it is sad that many people don't know where they fit. They want to believe in God, but when times turn rough they question him. Would he really allow bad things to happen? At times like this, especially after all that happened at VT, we need to realize that no matter what happens we should be trusting in God, looking to him to guide our steps.

Go ahead & check out the quiz. If nothing else it will give you a good laugh. The questions are so stupid they are funny! If you take longer than 2 seconds to answer a question, maybe you should be opening your Bible instead of the taking the quiz on the computer! J/K

Have a wonderful weekend! God bless!

Virginia here we come!

2007-04-04T20:53:00.000-05:00

Yea! It is finally Spring Break time! I have off for over a week. That means a week with no students bickering or annoying each other. No tests to give or lesson plans to write. No settling arguments or worrying about who is sitting next to who.

So now "We're off to see Virginia. Wonderful, wonderful Virginia. Because, because, because, because, because... Because of the Leichners living there!"

I hope everyone else gets to have a nice Spring Break! God bless!

2007-03-26T19:56:00.000-05:00

This one really had me laughing!

School cartoons

2007-03-25T21:29:00.000-05:00

I googled some fun school/teacher cartoons. Some of them were so funny I just had to share them.

Have a great Monday! God bless!

Interesting thought

2007-03-24T20:54:00.000-05:00

I was listening to the radio this morning & heard a song I have listened to many times. It is by Casting Crowns, called "Praise you in this storm". I love the words to the song, but this morning I heard something that I guess I just hadn't really considered before. The words were "...though my heart is torn, I will praise you in this storm." I realize that the song is about us praising God even though bad things are happening to us, but the first part of the lyrics above never really penetrated my brain. I realized that even though we have doubts & may question God we still need to praise him. Our heart may not be settled, but that is okay. We just have to trust God, praise him & know he will work out the best for us. We don't have to say "I can't be upset or feel bad" we just have to know that whatever happens we have to praise God.

I hope everyone takes the time to thank God today for all that he has given us. I know that I often get wrapped up in things & forget to just stop & realize all I have comes from God (especially all of you!) God bless you all!

Turtle

2007-03-18T18:17:00.000-05:00

Does anyone know anything about red-eared turtles? I think I need to go in to PetSmart & ask them some questions. As you can see from the picture on my last post, Speedy looks as though he has dirt on his shell. I don't know if he is shedding it or if it is something growing there and I need to clean him. He spends most of his time in the water & I don't know if that is bad for him. He is about 6 to 7 inches long, but his tank is pretty small. I don't know what size he may need. I probably need to do some research to find out more of how to take care of him. The people who gave him to me told me how to feed him & clean the tank, but not much else. I don't want him to get sick or die just because I did something wrong, or didn't do something I should have.

Did that paragraph make sense? I sort of rambled. Oh well. If you know anything, please, please let me know. I don't know how soon I can get to PetSmart (or another store).

Have a great night. God bless!

New class member!

2007-03-13T20:59:00.000-05:00

Meet Speedy Gonzales! He is the newest addition to my classroom. He is very easy going. (Something I can't say about most of my students!) He loves to eat, swim around, and is always on the "go". Hence the name "Speedy". He is a little skiddish, but I am working on his people skills. He will occasionally take a piece of food from me, but not if I move too quickly or accidentally drop it on his head. The students have definitely enjoyed getting to know him & welcome him with open arms. (Except they can't touch him for fear of Salmonella poisoning.)

I have been having trouble with my students & how they relate to each other. Anybody have any suggestions of how to teach them to treat each other nicely? They tend to pick at each other, call names & in general do things to drive each other nuts. Also I can figure out how to get them to act a little more maturely. Today at lunch time when I came out to pick them up there was a mess of food on the table. Instead of cleaning it up, they argued about who had made it & got angry with each other & the teachers. How do you teach the students to act their age?? I don't think I am asking too much of them, but no matter what I say to them it goes in one ear & out the other. Maybe it is because it's getting towards the end of the year (only about 9 weeks left) or maybe they are just so used to having me as their teacher & I have become to soft on them. I guess I will just have to crack down on them harder these next few weeks.

Well I hope you all have a great day tomorrow. I have a teacher work day, no students. Yea! God bless!

New Look

2007-03-12T21:39:00.000-05:00

My sister has inspired me to change up my look. What do you think? I was getting tired of all the pink, so I thought this might look good. I haven't decided on all the colors yet, so somethings may change. We will just have to see.

Have a great week! God bless!

Me, Einstein?

2007-02-28T21:45:00.000-05:00

The other day I had my students working in groups on a fun project. I didn't want them more stressed out on the FCAT days, so I was trying to avoid actual work. Instead indirectly they were learning the bones of the body. Each group had a set of "bones" that they had to cut out & piece them together. Then they had to label each of the bones. We hung them on the walls in various positions. The students told me how they wanted the "bodies" to be stand or look. I haven't had a chance to take pictures yet, but will try to post them another day after I have taken them. They look really good! I even have Superman flying across the wall!

During the middle of the project I walked over to a group to see how they were doing. One of the boys turned to me & said "Ms. Bliss you're the smartest teacher I've ever had." I was surprised by this & asked him why. He answered "Because you know everything. You're like Einstein." Wow! I had no idea he viewed me this way. I must say that I had a big head the rest of the day!! Usually I think the students view me as strict & always on their cases, but they don't seem to think that. They love it when I play basketball or frisbee with them and even when I have to be really strict with them, they usually come & give me hugs & tell me I am their favorite teacher. One of them even told me that he was going to be a teacher just like me! (I told him I wanted to hear from him if he ever does!) I guess we as teachers may never realize the influence we have on our students. Only rarely do we get a glimpse into their minds to see what they are actually thinking.

Just thought I would share that interesting story. Who knew that one day I would be compared to Einstein! By the way if you haven't see it, there is a new television show on called "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" It is hosted by Jeff Foxworthy. I have only seen it once, but I like it already. I even knew all the answers to the questions they asked! Of course I guess being a 4th grade teacher gives me some advantages!! My brother-in-law, a 5th grade teacher, would definitely know all the answers! Try it some time & see if you are smarter than a 5th grader!

Have a great night! God bless!

Fun Friday!?!?

2007-02-23T20:47:00.000-05:00

Today actually began as a pretty good day. My AP had some car trouble so he couldn't be in for our meeting this morning. My students behaved well. We did some Reading FCAT practice & then did some last minute Math lessons on division, perimeter, probability, & measurement. Then I had a meeting at the end of the day that ran past dismissal time, so I didn't get to say goodbye to my students. By the time I got back to my room it was 3:30, which is when I wanted to leave. I had to get some things done in my classroom, then call a grandma about her grandson's behavior in school today. Finally around 4:30 I went out to my car ready to drive home, have dinner & go see a play. Can you guess what happened when I got in my car?? If you guessed that I realized I had left my lights on & that my car battery was now dead, you win!!! (I don't!!!)

Now can you guess what I proceeded to do after that? Yep that's right, I did the only thing that could make the situation worse, I locked my keys in my car!! Whenever I get out of my car I have this habit of locking the door, shutting it & checking the handle to make sure it is locked. This time as I let go of the handle it suddenly hit me that in my hand I was holding, not my car keys, but my school keys. At that point I just wanted to sit down & cry. "Luckily" for me I did have my cell phone in my pocket so I called my Dad. He volunteered to come & open the car & jump it for me. We decided to call AAA instead, thinking they could get there quicker (our house is 50 minutes away). 2 1/2 hours later I was finally on the road! You see I stood around for almost 2 hours waiting for the locksmith to get there. Just when I thought I was going to have to sit down & cry because I was tired, frustrated & cold (yes in Florida it can be cold!) my CRT (Curriculum Resource Teacher) drove over to me on her way out. She asked me what was wrong & volunteered to stay with me till the locksmith got there. As we were talking another teacher stopped to see if I was okay. The interesting thing was that this was the same teacher who had to help me jump start my car the last time I left my lights on! What a coincidence!

So now it is almost 6:45 pm and it is starting to get really dark out. The locksmith showed up & spent 15 minutes trying to pop the lock in a round about way. He finally did it the "old fashioned" way we see in the movies. He was just afraid that since it was the first time the door had to be opened that way it would break something, which is why he wanted to try it the other way first. After he got done the other teacher, "my hero", jumped the car for me so I didn't have to wait for a different AAA guy to come. About 7:10 I was finally on my way home. Of course then I was paranoid that I would not be paying attention and would accidentally stall the car & be stuck yet again. I made it home in time to sit down & blog all of this for you to read. Can you believe that I am blogging 2 days in a row?!?! Next thing you know I will turn into my sister & be blogging every day!! J/K - Lisa! (I love reading your blogs!)

Well I hope you all have a great (& uneventful) weekend. God bless!

IPPAS

2007-02-22T19:54:00.000-05:00

Well it is finally over. I had my IPPAS today & it went very well. For those of you that don't know the IPPAS is an evaluation tool that the administration uses to see how well we are teaching. It goes on for the first three years that you teach. You have to receive a 10 your first year, 11 your second year & a 12 your third year. 12 is the top score you can achieve. Most of the administrators know that you always have things that you can work on & can do better, but this is the tool that they are given by the county to use, so they do their best.

My students did a really great job. They were on their best behavior & really paid attention. Of course they also thought that the Assistant Principal was coming in to watch them too! We did a quick lesson on fractions. I was sure that they wouldn't know much about it, since they really seem to have struggled to remember simpler things like multiplication. I started out with a quick example of a pizza & how we can cut it in half & make to halves or 1/2 & 1/2. They understood that & so we moved on to fourths & eighths. All of them were right on top of it & were answering questions. We moved to putting some examples on the overhead & then I let them each take out their manipulatives & I quizzed them to see if they could put together things like 4/5 & 6/10. They even brought up the fact that 5/10 = 1/2! It was really great. I will have my conference sometime next week to see how I did. The students earned themselves extra recess today because of their wonderful behavior.

Now all we have to do is make it through the FCATs next week! I know the students are just ready for all of this to be over & to move on. They get so stressed out taking these tests. I understand that the state requires it, but the students don't need to be reminded over & over. Isn't it funny that everyone tells us not to teach to the test, but that is the only thing we can do when they put so much pressure on getting results on the test. They are just getting ready to implement a new plan to reward teachers based on how well the students do on the tests & if they improve. The more we work to get away from teaching to the test, the more they force it on us!

Well I hope that everyone has a wonderful Friday & a great weekend. God bless!

God Bless America

2007-02-18T20:49:00.000-05:00

At school in the mornings they play a song on our announcements after everyone does the Pledge of Allegiance. All of the songs are patriotic, America the Beautiful, The Star Spangled Banner, etc. God Bless America is the song that they play on Friday mornings. I love this song & was pleasantly surprised that a public school chose to play this song over the announcements. Each week I sing the song & try to encourage my students to sing it too. ( I encourage them to sing all of them.) This past Friday I was trying to really listen to the words that I was singing. I think too often we just sing the song, but don't even realize what the words mean. The song is really beautiful, but one part struck me as annoying. The whole song is about God blessing America and us, yet in the song it says "I thank my lucky stars to be living here today". Why in the world would we feel we are lucky when it is our Heavenly Father that we should thank. I know for some people this doesn't seem like a big deal, but I always remember my mom emphasizing the fact that we are not "lucky" we are "blessed". Whenever good things happen to us so many people say we are lucky, or they will comment on someone's good or bad luck. I can't help but wonder if this is someone's way of being "politically correct"? If so shouldn't we just change the whole song or not use it? If we are really worried about offending someone with thanking God, why do we even bother to play the song at all?

Thanks for listening to my ramblings. Most of you probably haven't even noticed this about the song, but maybe next time you will hear it & think about who it is we should be thanking. Remember, I don't think the stars can hear us if we talk to them, but I know that God can. Good night & GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Why, oh why am I not tired?

2007-02-11T00:23:00.000-05:00

Why is it that each night during the week when I have tons of work to do and need to stay up I am usually falling asleep on the couch before bedtime, yet on a Saturday night when I can get to bed early and don't have much to do, I find myself still up at Midnight not even tired?!?! Does this ever happen to you? I am usually a night person, but since I have started teaching in the elementary school I find that I am more and more tired each night (except the weekends). I can't seem to get enough sleep. When I was working at the preschool with 3 year olds, who have more energy than 4th graders, I was never this tired. I don't know, maybe it is the fact that I have so much extra work to do (grading papers, tests, lesson plans, etc.) and that the students just plain wear me out. It isn't that they have more energy or that I have to chase after them, I think it is the fact that they just wear me down with their constant back talking, bickering & lack of attention to lessons.

Well since I am up I guess I will just sit here and ramble on about nothing & everything! Did I tell you that my door handle broke on the driver's side of my car. I went to open the door one day after leaving Walmart. The door opened, but the handle popped and felt funny. It didn't break all the way off, but the part that connects it to the inside broke. So for almost a week I had to enter my car by opening the passenger door, leaning across both front seats & opening the driver's side door from there. Then I had to walk all the way over to the other side of the car to get in. The real trouble came if I parked on a slight incline. The door wouldn't stay open unless I pushed it all the way open. I was already practically in the driver's seat by the time I got the door open! If it wasn't for the stick shift & emergency break I probably would have just climbed in from the passenger's side each day. Well, I finally got it fixed. Thanks Dad (& Mom). Dad took it to the shop for me & I borrowed his truck. He & Mom had to share the van that day, which can turn into quite an inconvenience, but luckily it was only one day. Now I have my baby back & can climb in it normally. Now if only the trunk would work as it should! If there isn't something going wrong with my car I would wonder who had swapped it for another one!

I must say this, I really am enjoying Florida in the winter. Don't get me wrong, I still miss Jersey, but when you can go shopping at an "outdoor" mall in the middle of February in jeans & a t'shirt you gotta love Florida! (Of course, when summer hits you will be hearing about how much I hate the summers in Florida!) We went to a neat mall full of outlet stores today. It was like a typical mall, where you walk in a big loop to see all the stores, but it wasn't covered overhead. It had canopies that ran over head every now & then, probably because of the summer rains, but it was definitely open up top. The stores themselves were okay. We ran into a few ones we have always enjoyed, but we are finding it difficult to find shopping like we were used to in Jersey. I guess we got used to the specific stores that were around us & we don't have all the same ones down here. Maybe I will just have to head back up north for a weekend to do a little shopping!!! In my dreams! It's all okay, though, I will probably get to do some shopping when I visit this summer.

Well I had better turn in. I need to try to get some sleep so I don't fall asleep during the sermon tomorrow!! Just kidding Dad. (I don't have to have less sleep the night before to do that! Ha Ha Ha!!!)

Good night and God bless!

Venting

2007-02-08T19:43:00.000-05:00

Alright, since I have been ordered to blog by a parental figure, I guess it is time again. I am sorry that I haven't blogged in a while. I just don't seem to have the time to sit & write, nor do I have the fun/interesting things to write about as do the rest of the members of my family. I figured then, that I might do a little venting about my students.

I just don't understand most of the them these days. When I went to school I new how to behave & what was expected of me. I also knew that if I got in trouble at school I would be in HUGE trouble at home. All of my students seem to know what they are supposed to do, but they choose to be lazy & to misbehave. Its like a game to them. They figure that they can goof off & just barely get by and they will make it to 5th grade. I am sorry to say that a few of them will be surprised when they have to repeat the 4th grade. When they get older and have to actually be the only one responsible for their grades and what they do, they are in for a big reality check. They are going to wish that they had worked just a little bit harder in 4th grade! I can hear it now, one of them will turn to another & say "Man, I wish I had listened to Ms. Bliss when she told us to work harder. She was so smart! Why didn't I pay attention more?" The other will respond, "Yeah! You're right. She was the best teacher ever and we were so mean to her. No wonder we always lost our recess!" Well, okay, that probably isn't exactly how the conversation will go, but a girl can hope. Right?!?

Well, I have lots of lesson plans to finish (most of which the students will ignore & then fail when the information is on the test.) Have a great night! God bless you, me & my students (if I don't end up strangling them all tomorrow!! Ha Ha!!)

Bowling

2007-01-27T22:47:00.000-05:00

Tonight was a fun night. We got to go out bowling with some friends from church. There were about 7 women & 6 guys. I think we played for about an hour or so. My first time I bowled an 84. ( I know that you are disappointed in me Trey!) Mom & Dad did much better. Trey must have gotten his bowling genes from them. Although I did do much better the second game. I got a 135! Whoo Hoo! It was great. I finally found my groove. I even almost got a turkey! (3 strikes in a row.) The problem was that I bowled a gutter ball the first time, then got a spare. (In my mind it was a strike since all the pins went down with one hit!) The next two times I got strikes. So it was almost like a turkey. Then they did this thing called "Cosmic Bowling" where they turn on blue lights over the pins & turn off all the other lights. We pretty much had to bowl in the dark. It really threw all of us off. I barely managed to to knock over 6 pins in the last frame. If the lights were on, who knows maybe I would have gotten that Turkey. But I guess it is okay, only my father got to be a turkey that night!

Well I had better get ready for bed. I need to catch up on my sleeping. It seems like each night I go to sleep later & later. Have a great rest of the weekend. God bless!

Worn our & weary

2007-01-23T22:20:00.000-05:00

Have you ever just felt completely worn out? One of those days where you are just sapped of all your energy? Today was that day. It started out okay. The students came to the class & were getting settled & we were preparing for our Specials (Enrichment class). That's when it all began. The principal came over the announcements and explained that we need to evacuate the school. She gave no reason, specifically, only that we needed to take something for the students to do & that we needed to keep our eyes open for suspicious packages. Of course, we quickly evacuated & went out to the far fence where we go during fire drills. After 15 minutes of standing the students were getting really bored. I handed out flash cards & told them they could sit down & talk, but most of the ground was still damp. We ended up staying outside for 4 hours. That's right, 4 long, tiring, frustrating hours! As it turned out we had some type of bomb-scare. A suspicious package with wires hanging out of it was found out front of our school. They called in the police/bomb squad, fire department, paramedics, etc. Most of the time the students didn't know what was going on. We tried to keep them busy, but there is only so much they can do while outside with no games or things to play with. The scare turned out to be a hoax. Apparently they put some type of liquid in the box & triggered it to detonate anything inside. Then they checked it out & it appeared to be fake. We finally got back inside just before 1:00.
The thing that got to me the most was that one of my students would not leave the others alone. Everytime I turned around he had his hands on someone, or he was pushing them, or bothering them in some way. After about 2 1/2 hours he mentioned that he hadn't taken his pill that morning. He is ADHD. This was not a good excuse in my opinion, because he knew to stay away from his friends if he couldn't keep his hands to himself. By the end of the day I was most worn out from constantly talking to him & having to redirect him away from the group. I just pray that when he comes in tomorrow he has taken his medicine!
So that is pretty much how I got so worn out & tired. If this blog doesn't make complete sense, you will understand why! I just feel tired right down to my bones. Of course it didn't help that I only had 5 hours of sleep the night before because I had to finish typing up my Social Studies test. A test which I couldn't end up giving! Oh that I had known then what I know now! So now I will close out & try to get to bed earlier than normal. Yeah right!

Have a great night! God bless!

Thanks!

2007-01-15T20:33:00.000-05:00

Thank you to my Dad (& my sister) for the assistance. I now have my picture on my profile. Yea! This pic was taken recently at Cracker Barrell. I don't usually like pics of myself, but this one is okay.

For those of you planning to go see a movie soon, I just went to see Eragon. I really liked it. My mom didn't care for it as much, because she has been reading the book & it isn't exactly the same. I am going to read the book now that I have seen the movie. I just have to wait for mom to finish so I can borrow her copy. Are you done yet Mom? How about now? J/K

Good night & God bless!

2007-01-15T20:17:00.000-05:00

Picture

2007-01-15T00:20:00.000-05:00

Does anyone know how to add a picture to my profile. The kind that appears next to your name when you leave a comment? I tried to do it by signing up with Picasa, but it requires you to have a blogger account, and mine is google. I can't figure out if they are compatible and how. Let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks!

I get a day off tomorrow and can't wait to enjoy it. I already have most of it planned out. Curves first, then over to the hospital to give blood. (Haven't done this in a while, but am anxious to see if I can get on a regular schedule to do it every 52? days.) Then Mom and I are going to go see a movie, probably Eragon. I hope it is really good. I want to see the movie before reading the book. Have you ever been really disappointed by a movie because it was different from the book, which you loved?!? I read Ella Enchanted, then went to see the movie & did not like it very much. It was a good movie, but I liked the book a lot & the movie changed so many parts of it. A friend of mine actually hated the 4th Harry Potter movie because it was so different from the book. (Pretty shocking, right Lisa!) You just get so excited to see the movie because of how great the book was, then when the movie is over you sit and think "Wow, they left this part out & changed that part..." Frustrating is what it is!

Okay, enough rambling about books & movies. I hope everyone has a great week! God bless!

Super Powers

2007-01-09T20:56:00.000-05:00

If you could have any super power, what would it be & why would you like that particular power? (No you cannot be Superman and have them all!)

I just downloaded the first episode of the show "Heros" to my IPOD. As I was watching it I began to wonder what it would be like to have a super power. Would I want to have super strength, be able to travel thru time, fly, become invisible, walk thru walls? So I thought I would pose the above question & see what others thought about it. Also what would we do with our power? Would we use it for our own gain or to help others? One of the "heros" from the show is talking with his friend & the friend says what good is a super power, can you make money from it? The "hero" from the show, whose name is actually Hiro (it's Japanese), says that "A super hero doesn't use his power for personal gain." I thought that was a very interesting quote. A true super hero would be the type to use his power to help out others. What better "super hero" do we know than Jesus Christ. Sure we don't think of him as a super hero with powers, but he was & did. He could heal the blind, make the lame to walk & even bring the dead back to life. Oh, to have a power like that! And of course he only used it to help others. He didn't even use it to help himself when he was about to die. He could have taken himself off the cross, but instead he died so that we might live!

Well I hope that this gave you something interesting to think about. Have you figured out what your power would be? I definitely would love to fly. Imagine soaring above the earth, being free to go anywhere you want. The feel of the wind zipping by you as you played tag with the clouds. Imagine how much you could save on gas!!! J/K

Have a great night! God Bless!

Tomorrow is the Day!

2007-01-07T22:08:00.000-05:00

After 2 weeks of freedom, do I really have to go back tomorrow?!? J/K! I really do love my job, there are just those times when you just need a break. I guess teacher's have it the best though. We have a nice long break, called June, July & August! I already have half of that break planned out! Time to work at summer camps, visits to NJ (Yea!), and lots of rest time! I wish I had gotten rest this weekend. I did spend most of it in bed, the rest in the bathroom. I don't know if it was the flu, a stomach virus or some type of food poisoning. Whatever it was it made me miserable! I guess I am just glad to be feeling better now.

Alright, on to better things. I haven't had a chance to let everyone know that my whole break went well. Christmas was great. I got lots of wonderful gifts, that I will be enjoying for a long while to come. It was more fun to see everyone open up the gifts I had picked out for them. It is really neat to get them things you know they want and then to see how excited they are when they open up the gifts & realize what it is. My brother was here for Christmas & it was great to spend time with him. Don't know if he will be here for Spring Break or not, but it is always good to see him. My sister & her clan came the day after Christmas, so did my grandparents. It was definitely packed in the house, but we enjoyed every minute of it. Lots of searching for lizards, opening gifts, playing games, watching movies, etc. Great fun!

Disney was definitely an adventure! This was my first time ever & I enjoyed it. I pretty much wore out my feet though! I think we spent more time walking around the park & waiting in lines than anything else. And if the adults got tired, imagine how the little guys felt. By the end of the day they only wanted to be held or to ride on our shoulders. I think most of us fell asleep on the ride home. We did have lots of fun while there. I loved the rides like Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Pirates of the Carribean, Tiki, Tiki Room, and many others. I must admit that I think my favorite ride was Buzz Lightyear. We got to go in this cool car & shoot the aliens. We could spin around in the car & shoot everyone around us. It was loads of fun. We got to see most of the parade too, mostly by accident. We would be walking to different parts of the park & get caught by the parade. It was good, but by the third time I had seen enough! Next time we will have to plan things out better so that we can see & do more. Maybe even try some of the other parks of Disney. I really want to see MGM. If you know which are the best rides to go on, let me know. I want to be prepared for when we get to go.

It seemed really quiet in the house after everyone left. We went from having 11 people each day to only 3. We did keep busy though. We went shopping & to the movies. Lots of fun. New Year's was good to. I can't believe that it is already 2007! My the time does really fly. It was a good year, but a little rough. We relocated to Florida in the middle of the year, which was the toughest part of all. They have really welcomed us down here, but I still miss good ol' Jersey.

Well I guess that is about all for now. Let me know how all of you have been. I hope 2007 is good to all of you! God bless!

2 days left!

2007-01-02T23:31:00.000-05:00

I haven't had a chance to blog about all that has been going on recently. I will hopefully have a chance later to fill you in on 1-Christmas, 2-Trey's visit, 3-The Leichner clan/Grandparents(Mohundro) visit, 4-Disney & 5-New Year's. For now let's just say that I have only 2 days of freedom left. I have to return to school on Friday. Can I start crying now?!? J/K! I really do enjoy my work. I love being with the students, seeing them grow & learn. I just get tired of the boring routines of doing lesson plans, grading papers, and keeping up will all the other paper work. Wouldn't it just be easier if we could go in each day and just teach whatever topic is of interest?

Friday is a workday. I have to finish putting my grades in the computer (after finishing grading papers first!), get the room set up & prepare lesson plans for next week. The students don't start back till Monday. So I guess I actually have 5 days of freedom from the students (just not from work!) One big problem, the FCATs start in about 1 month. That means I have about 20 days to cram as much information in my students heads as possible, so... that they can take these tests that really don't mean much except for the fact that if they don't pass they can't go on to fifth grade! AHHH, does that mean I may get them again next year?!? I guess I had better get working on those lesson plans!

Have a great night. God bless!

My Accent

2006-12-23T12:26:00.000-05:00

It is funny to me that even though I have spent almost my entire life in Jersey, I don't have a "Jersey accent". In fact most people say I don't have an accent at all. (A few have said they heard some of a southern accent, but I got ride of that quickly! J/K) My father found this quiz online that tells you which kind of accent you have. The test is by no means full proof. It doesn't even include a Jersey/NYC accent. There are not many questions & some of them seem silly, but it is still fun to take & see what your results are.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I hope this came up correctly. From this you can see that I have a western accent. My lowest was the Northeast. Interesting...

John's Dad (update)

2006-12-20T23:16:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to let you all know that John's dad passed away on Sunday night. The funeral is tomorrow night. Please continue to keep the family in your prayers. It has been really hard for John.