Volunteering

So, I have always enjoyed volunteering.  I like to spend my time doing something that benefits other in some way.  For the past few years, my volunteer time has been with Southern Nevada Pug Rescue, whom I adore.  Since getting pregnant I have not been able to help nearly as much as I would like to.  And since Bridget arrived, we haven't been available to foster or help at all it seems.  *sigh*  So, I really wanted to get into volunteering again.  It was one of the things on my 101 in 1001  list (which I really should update).
So today, I volunteered at Three Square, which is a non-profit organization that helps get food to people that need it here in Vegas.  They are an amazing organization and their new facility is beautiful.
I spent the morning with a few teachers from school organizing and repairing packaging for items that had been donated.  Holy cow it was a lot of stuff.  Apparently, Three Square doesn't just give food.  We were sorting everything you can think of: boxes and boxes of paper towels and TP, zipper plastic bags, dog food, blankets, area rugs, kitchen items, and some things I didn't even know about, like the Nana Saver which, now that I type out, seems like an even more stupid name than I originally thought.  (Is anyone else picturing a floaty for grannies?  No?  Just me?  Okay then.)
Anyway, it was a great time and I hope that I'll be able to go back again soon.  Volunteering is definitely more fun when you go as a group. 

Um, yeah, I guess

So, Halloween is also Nevada Day. Yes, this great state I live in was "born" on October 31st. The great thing about this is that I don't have to work on the last Friday of October. Yahoo! This year, that day fell on the day before Halloween so of course, all the kids were super excited (as was I).

Anyway, to try to get them to understand that we don't have HALLOWEEN off but NEVADA DAY, we study about our state symbols.

We learn about:

The state tree: The pinion pine for those not in the know.


Our state bird: The mountain bluebird

Our amazing state "flower": Sagebrush (just so you all know, this is what dries up and becomes tumbleweeds. Fabulous.)

And finally, our state animal: The Desert Bighorn Sheep.

It's this last one that is the subject of today's post (took me long enough to get to the point, eh?) So, we're reading our story in our small group and we get to the bighorn sheep page. We read the little blurb about the sheep and look at the picture. One of my kids gets all excited and calls out "Oooooh, like a Dodge!" ??? Then it connects. He has connected the ram horns with a Dodge Ram truck.

Score another one for Consumer America. *sigh*

I couldn't do anything but smile and say "yep."

What about the rest of the year?

I have 4 different spelling groups in my class. They are differentiated by color. When I was telling students which groups they were in today, I announced that T was in my pink group. He quickly stated:

"You're my March enemy!"

Hahahahahahaha!

Several students caught it and corrected him. I swear, the kids this year have great personalities!

Are you ready for some?

Today we were discussing seasons. Students were thinking of which one was their favorite and why. Since I've had problems with kids not knowing their seasons, I wanted to clarify what the seasons were. Especially for my non-english speakers. Here's how the conversation went in my classroom...

Me: Ok, who can name one of the seasons?

Student 1: Fall.

Student 2: Snow. (Ummm, that's a type of weather. Let's try again.)

Me: What season were you just out of school for?

Several students: Summer!

Me: OK, so we have Summer and Fall. What's another?

Student 3: FOOTBALL season!

Bwahahahahaha! I couldn't help but laugh.

Anyone need some "Baby Dust?"

I'm offering to pass it around because apparently, my school has been hoarding it all.  Remember how at the beginning of the year, there were 5 pregnant women and 1 teacher's wife pregnant as well?  Yes, 6 babies due for the year.  Well, then I got my BFP.  That brings our total for the year to 7.  There were really only two others that were possibilities to get pregnant this year.  Oh yes, you guessed it - both pregnant.  Due within 10 days of each other.  

So seriously, it's time to pass this off.  If you want some, let me know.  I'll blow it off in your direction.

My school is stupid

Again, I shall regale you with tales of the stupidity that is my school.  You may remember this post from earlier this school year.  Well this time it's not really the administration's fault, but still.  HUGE oversight on everyones part.

So, a few weeks ago we were preparing fire drill.  This may be a little known fact to all you non-teachers out there, but word about coming fire drills spreads quickly throughout a school.  Especially if you are not in your classroom.  I have the advantage of being in the "annex" of our school and so my door faces the school across the street.  The fire truck always does the drill at that school first.  So, if I hear their alarm go off and see the trucks outside their school, I know to expect a drill at out school within the next half hour.  I make sure that I don't start any lessons that can't be stopped quickly (investigating mealworms for example) and I try to keep my kids in the room (no bathroom breaks).  

Well, this drill was set to happen just as second grade was heading to prep.  I quickly walked my kids to P.E. and went back to my room to grab my attendance folder and emergency bag.  I was standing outside my room waiting for the alarm to sound when another second grade teacher came around the corner and asked, "Do you have a pull in your room?  The fireman is just around the corner and I need to find the nearest pull and there isn't one in my room."  Oh crap.  The fireman is just around the corner and here I am standing around.  (another side note to all non teacher people - the fireman do not pull the alarm.  They randomly grab a teacher and say something like "there's a fire in your trash can" and you have to follow the procedure and pull the alarm.  This has never happened to me and is one of my biggest fears in school.  Strange I know.)  Anyways, I say yes and both of us duck into my room.  I turn to prepare myself for the possibility of pulling the alarm.  And there is no pull.  

Wait - What?!  No pull?!  I know I have one! I turn to the other side.  No pull there either.  I swear I'm not crazy.  I know I had one!  Instead all I find is an electric cover.  Like a light switch plate with no switch.  CRAP!  Now what will I do if the fireman comes to my door.  

See it there with the arrows?  That's from the beginning of the school year.

The other teacher and I decide to hide (Yes, we really are grown ups. I swear.)  I turn out the lights and we hide behind the armoire (the one on the right in the picture).

A few minutes pass with no alarm.  Hmm, this is kinda strange.  We brave walking to the window to peer out and see classes streaming out.  Umm, WTF?  I guess we should head out, too.  So we do.  Although we hear no alarm (and believe me, a fire alarm is not a sound you can miss.  and even if you do, flashy lights should be going off as well.)

Turns out, the alarm system in the annex was somehow disconnected and never fixed.  Oh fabulous.  So if there really was a fire, we would have no way of knowing.  And all the pulls throughout the ENTIRE school were taken out.  There is now only ONE pull in the front office.  (the poor teacher that had to pull the alarm was frantic and on the verge of tears.)  Apparently, the school district people came through and "updated" our alarms to make them more sensitive so pulls shouldn't be needed.  (does anyone else see a disaster waiting to happen?)  The problem is, they didn't bother to tell anyone this.  It came as a shock to teachers and administrators alike. 

Yet somehow, we passed our fire drill.  I know for a fact that one second grade teacher was in her room throughout the entire drill (because of the no-alarm-going-off issue.)  Whatever.  Hopefully we all don't burn.

Until next time, be fire safe internet people.  And send some fire safe vibes my way while you're at it.  lol.

 

It's Aliiiiive!!!!!

My laptop that is. Oh internet, I cannot tell you how utterly happy I am about this. Mike's been laughing at me because I have been stroking my keyboard and saying things like, "Oh, I have missed you so much" and "Don't ever go away again, ok?" and "I love you computer." But truly, I am sooo glad to be able to relax on the couch and surf away. What does this mean for you? Hopefully, I'll actually be able to update more often. Hooray! And pictures will be making a return. :)

Funny story for the day:
I was walking into the school this afternoon for lunch. I hear behind me in small whispers "hurry! she's going inside. go, go!" I glance behind me and three little girls from another classroom are hurrying toward me. I continue walking. They call my name just before I reach the door. I turn around to three faces staring up at me. "Mrs. M, are you having a baby? Yes or no?" Hmmm, must be showing more than I thought. I was taken aback my the bluntness. No wishy washiness there. No room for wiggling. I quickly thought through all of the options: Lie. Truth. None of your business. What do you think? Why do you ask? I decided on truth. Why not? If anything were to happen at this point, I would be out of work for awhile anyways so I supposed it couldn't hurt anything. "Yup" came out of my mouth. The complete and utter shock on the girls' faces was priceless. They went running off yelling, "Mrs. M is having a baby!" I was expecting to come into a barrage of questions when I picked my kids up from lunch but got nothing. Not a word from any of my kids. I'm thinking it won't take long for word to spread though.

I must admit that I'm happy it's been put out there. Because really, how do you bring up pregnancy with a group of seven year olds? And when?

My doctor's appointment is tomorrow. Hopefully we'll discuss the ultrasound. And I'll get to hear the heartbeat again. :) I'll be sure to keep you all updated.

((hugs)) to all. I have missed you!

I have found a way back to you!

Hooray!!! I apologize so much for the long silence. Blame this as Mike has been playing it just about every night since he got it for Christmas. And I know that If I mentioned that I wanted to get on the computer, he would get off without an argument, but I feel bad. I just want my laptop to work again!

Anyways, internet, HELLO! Apparently blogger is not banned by the school district's communist internet blockingness. Yaay! So I am updating from school. This unfortunately means that I can't post any pictures. And I have some great ones from our trip to Phoenix while we visited Mike's family.

AlthoughI was worried about it, the visit was actually pretty good. My favorite part: We went to the Desert Botanical Gardens and saw the Chihuly exhibit. It was absolutely amazing! The things that man creates are awe inspiring.

I also got a great video monitor and a breast pump from Mike's mom for Christmas. So yaaay! Two big items out of the way already. I was so excited when I opened the monitor. I think Mike thought I was nuts. Haha.

In other pregnancy news, our Big Ultrasound is tomorrow. ::deep breath:: I keep having slight panic attacks. I know that in all likelyhood, everything is fine. But the "what if's" are getting to me. I don't know how to stop them either. So I just keep taking deep breaths and trying to calm down. It's working less and less. I wish that I had taken the entire day off tomorrow and not just the afternoon. I don't know how great a teacher I'll be what with the anticipation and anxiety. Oh well, the kids will survive one half day with a crazy teacher. Oh wait, they do that every day.

And since some of you are probably asking the same thing EVERYONE has asked us, we will find out the sex of the baby if a good oportunity presents itself. If there is no doubt about what the baby is, we want to know. If the u/s tech can't get a great shot, we're not worried about it. So, wish us luck tomorrow that all is well and good and that we will (or won't depending on your preference) know which team the baby will be on.

And as a parting question: What do you think is in there? I've been thinking boy from the beginning and Mike's been all about team pink. He's so confident that he's got me wondering and now I'm all confused. Everyone else that we've talked to thinks boy but is hoping for girl. What's your thought?

(Sorry for any spelling or grammatical errors. I'm not going back to edit this as the bell is going to ring very soon and I still have stuff to get done around this classroom.)

Wait? What?!

So, I generally like the administration at my school. Both the Principal and Vice Principal are very nice ladies. They are both also new to our school. We have had so many changes this year that I think many of our heads are about thisclose to exploding. New math program, about half of our staff is new, new reading ideology, etc, etc, etc... But we have all been dealing pretty well, I think.

Yesterday was a different story for me. I was walking out of the builing at a little after 4 (because really what teacher ever gets out on time?) My Principal was still in her office and had the door open. I waved bye and a "have a good night" and kept walking. Then I hear, "Katie, can you come in here for a minute?" Umm, ok. I know I haven't done anything wrong so I wasn't worried, but our principal has a way of grabbng people and roping them into teaching staff development activities or going to classes and such. No. It wasn't any of those types of things. It was her telling me thatI can't bring my kids out for the FIVE MINUTE break that I give them to use the restroom and run off a bit of energy. Seriously people, five minutes. I bring a timer. After they've been in school for 2 hours and are getting antsy.

I used to troop all my kids down and stand in line while they all used the restroom, but that seemed like a waste of time to me. Some kids never needed to go but they had to stand there quietly anyways while we waited for EVERYONE to finish and line up again. Ugh! Talk about a waste of academic time.

This year, I started bringing them outside for five minutes and allowing them to run on the field for five minutes. Anyone that needed to use the restroom or get a drink - this was their time to do it. And it's been amazing how many fewkids I've had leaving my classroom during work times. I just ask, "Can you wait until our break time?" and usually they have no problem with that. They really just need a break for a minute or two.

(A little background here. My kids don't get a "recess." They have whatever time they get before the bell rings in the morning and ten minutes before lunch. And that's IF we get out perfectly on time. Which is rare.)

So, my principal has decided that my break time is a waste of my precious academic time and I need to do the line up and wait thing again. Yes, you're right. Much better use of my time. Oh, but to make it "academic" I should bring Brainquest or "sponge" activities, or just ask questions like "who can give me three combinations of 10?" Yes, what a blast. Now, mind you my kids LOVE Brainquest. We do a few questions every day at the end of school. But they need a break! I don't think five minutes is hurting anything. Infact, I really think it helps because they can get out and clear their heads. Heck, it gives ME five minutes to clear my head.

So, now that I have written a small novel and completely rambled, what do you think? Should kids have the chance to have a short break from classroom routine or is it too much of a loss to the time they're in school? What was recess like when you were in school? If you're a teacher, what is recess like at your school? How long do your kids get outside?

School cuts again?!

Alright, so I don't know if I mentioned this before, but my school's budget (well, ALL schools in Clark Counties budgets) were cut by 70% at the beginng of this year. That means that our previous budget of $100,000 we ran on last year is only $30,000 this year. This includes all of our paper supplies, copier maintentence, toner for printers and copiers, pencils, erasers, etc... Understandably, we have been freaking out over how we're going to make it through the year. Well, it was annouced today that they are cutting the budget by an additional 12%. WHAT!? How the heck do they expect us to run a school of almost 700 on $26,400. That equals out to about $37/kid for an entire year. I truly do not understand how they expect a school to run on this. And I don't know where we can make more cuts from out budget. We're already down to brass tacks. I guess my kids will be writing with pencil stubs, broken crayons, and worn out markers by the end of the year. Heck, at this rate, I'll be lucky if they aren't using them by the middle of the year. ::sigh::

I have survived

The first few days back at school after three months off. My class seems like a pretty good group this year. *sigh of relief* I was having anxiety attacks for about a week leading up to the first day. Glad those are over (for the most part).

I know certain people *cough Duck* like to see my classroom, and I like to oblige, so here are some pictures. They are posted in sequence around the room in a clockwise fashion. So, if I could string them all together, you could have a 360 view of my room. But alas, I am not talented like that so you'll have to use your imagination.

View from the entry. My room is outside the actual building this year so I get natural light in there. Yaaay.

Looking right from the entrance. My small group table and the front of the room. The arrow and writing says, "Please note the obnoxious pink wall." Lovely, isn't it?

Continuing to look right, this time from the library corner. Isn't that pink wall just the best? *gag* And my TV that is stuck looking at the wall. Perfect.

Closeup of a new management technique I'm trying this year. Class/self check. So far, these first few days at least, it has worked pretty well.

Looking around some more. Look at my windows!! Yaaay for light!!!! Our ECS hasn't bothered installing the three other computers he said I was getting yet. That's what will go in that big empty space on the tables. And that teacher desk there under the backpack rack - it's gone now.

There's the door and the front view of the cabinets you see from the entrance.

And there's the library from another angle. Plus my crooked maps and birthday cakes. Also, "Please note the two different colored walls. Nice, eh?" The other message is pointing to where the pink wall is. You would think that in a room this small, they could at least get the color the same. But alas, no.

So, there's an update for you curious people out there. After about a week or so of at least 8 hour days working to set it up (it was an absolute wreck prior to this), my room is finished and is working on a whole new group of kids. :)

(BTW, please excuse any typos. It's late and getting these pictures posted has taken me forever for some reason.)

Waaaah!!!!!!!

Topic one: Summer is officially over for me. Meetings at school start today. Open house is 4:00 on Friday. (That means my classroom has to be set up by then. *gasp* I'll have to take pictures and post where it's starting today. Believe me, I have a long way to go.) Then the kiddos come back on Monday. I'm having mild panic and anxiety attacks. I know they're gonna get so much worse throughout the next few days. *deep breaths* I'll be ok.

Topic two: I didn't need to worry about going on the trip. I didn't ovulate. That's 3 months of no ovulation according to the CBEFM. I must say, I'm worried. I want to call the doctor and see if the provera could be causing it. I doubt he would have me on anything that would prevent ovulation, but maybe it's forcing me to have a period before my hormones can get themselves back in check? I truly have no idea and am pulling things out of my head that probably have no basis whatsoever in medical science, but these are my worries. I'm thinking about not taking the provera next month and seeing what happens.
Oh, and I still need to schedule the HSG. Ugh. I'm not looking forward to that. It's going to have to wait until October anyways because this coming cycle is going to be way to close to the beginning of school for me to take time off. We'll see what happens.

Topic three: Much more positively, I have completed 3 and a half of the things on my 101 list.
#48. Change my name with the school district. A huge ordeal that took 3 days. Still, it's done!
#49. Renew my teaching license. Induced a mild panic attack when I lost my cashier's check between my car and the office. Luckily, someone was looking out for me that day and a woman in the office was able to spot the envelope laying in the street. Hooray! So, another crisis avoided and another thing off the list.
#87. See a movie in IMAX. Mike and I went and saw the new Batman movie a few weekends ago. If you havent seen it yet, I definitely recommend it. We loved it!
Now, for the half.
#101. Have a class pet. I will have a pet this year. It will be a beta fish. A friend of mine is moving back to Michigan and asked if I would take her fish. Of course! Yaaay! Now, I have a pet and I don't even have to spend any money. She moves in 14 days (*sad*) and then, I will have a new fishy for the classroom. So the kids won't start with a pet, but we'll have one in a few weeks. So I say I'm "half" done, but maybe the more accurate would be "in progress."

Do any of you have 101 lists? What did you get accomplished this summer (whether on a list or not)?

LIVID

So, the school district just announced what our school budget would be for the year. We were all dreading this as there was a HUGE education cut this year. The total: $30,000. That's it. To keep a school running for an entire year. Our school has 878 kids. That equals out to $34.17/student. That includes the normal things like paper, pencils, erasers, etc... It also includes toilet paper, paper towels, soap, etc. This $30,000 is supposed to cover ink and toner costs for an entire year as well. Do you have any idea how much toner costs?! I'm so angry and upset right now, I can't even type anymore. I hate our government.

SCHOOOOOOL'S OUT

FOR SUMMER! (Yes, I am singing. You should be too.)

Wednesday afternoon was the last day with my class. The start of my day was entertaining and it got better from there. Here's the basics:

One of my girls asked, "So, are we going to do fun stuff today?" Being that every kid knows that the last day of school is always crazy and fun, I answered back in a VERY sarcastic tone and a laugh, "No way. We're testing AAAAALLLLLLLLL day long. Lots and lots of testing." Apparently, the sarcasm was lost on her and she took me seriously. In the time it took to get from the line outside to our classroom (about 2 minutes), the rumor had spread that we were testing. I had 8 kids ask me in the first 30 seconds of class if we were testing. They even started answering each other's questions. "What are we doing today?" one would ask another. "We're testing all day," they would answer back. (Sidebar: Can I just mention that I was feeling like my best friend Duck at this point? My stupid little joking comment was completely taken seriously. She was always able to get anyone to believe anything. Seriously. Anything. Even when it was OBVIOUSLY such a lie. Anywho, back to the main story.) The somewhat frightening thing is that they were not phased by this at all. Apparently, in second grade, testing is fun. Anyways, I finally straightened things out and we moved on with our day.

We had fun. We made read the story and made oobleck. I LOVE playing with this stuff, as does everyone else I know. If you're having a bad day, make up a batch of this and just play for a bit. You'll be smiling after 5 minutes. I guarantee it. The custodians weren't very happy with me (cornstarch makes a big mess), but oh well. We also made slushies using platics bags, ice, and rock salt. I do this every year and it's always a blast. We said our goodbyes, I walked them out, and the school year was over. All in all, my class was pretty great this year and I will miss them.

Then, it was time to pack up and move my room. ::sigh:: Here's what my room looked like at the beginning of this year.

Now, I'm moving into a room about half this size. Boo-hiss! I'll post pictures of that when I get moved in.

But for now, I am taking the next few days off and having nothing to do with school. No lesson plans to do, no grading, no stress about work AT ALL! Yippie!!!!

Made it through. How about you?

Haha, my title rhymes! That's about as poetic as I get folks so don't expect any more.

As the title says, I made it through the day. It started off very badly, with me getting to work about a half hour late and my sub already being there. I had to drop off my plans and then, since I was there, she asked me all sorts of questions. Ugh! Just let me get to my meeting.

Soooo, I finally got away from there, gathered up my things for my meeting, and scooted off to where I THOUGHT I was supposed to be. Apparently, there had been a change of venue and no one seemed to know where that was. So, I wandered around the school for awhile (all the time hoping none of my students would see me) and finally tracked everyone down. Grrr.

Overall, the meeting was good. Productive and fun. Since it was a group of women, the question went around "How was your Mother's Day?" I was fine with it as most of the women there know I don't have kids, but I felt a pang of concern for my principal. She lost her son about six months ago and I can only imagine that yesterday was hard for her. I wish I had the strength to tell her that I'm sorry for her loss, but I just don't feel that it's my place. But I just wanted to change the subject as soon as possible.

I will leave you today with a picture of Chiisai. 'Cause he always makes me smile. :D

Sleeplessness

I know I should be sleeping right now. I have to work in the morning and yet here I sit, writing a blog post, messing with my lesson plans, and watching Guys and Dolls. I can't even express how much I LOVE Marlon Brando in this movie. Well, maybe it's not really Marlon Brando but his character Sky Masterson. I want to be Sarah Brown in Havana. ::sigh:: Why must I fall in love with "fake" people. Do any of you do this or am I the only one? I have fallen in love with many a movie character as well as a few book characters .::rolls eyes::

Alright, I really need to get these lesson plans done. I have a sub coming in tomorrow and need to be sure everything's ready. I HATE having a sub on Monday. It's so stressful. Seriously, I will go into work DYING rather than have a sub in on a Monday. Unfortunately, I don't have a choice in the matter for tomorrow as I will be in a meeting with the principal and a few other teachers all day. It should be a good time, but it's on a MONDAY!

I'm off to finish. Have a good monday all.