Getting the Hang of Things

Teaching is hard, but I knew that going in. Teaching is also fun and very rewarding which is why I love it. 

The first couple of months were crazy. There were several days, weeks, even months that I left for school at 6:00am. There were also countless mornings I woke up before my alarm because I was too worried. The nightmares have almost stopped completely.

One thing that I've learned through this process is that there is always something to do. No matter how prepared you are, something will always come up. Why waste every waking hour of every day planning?

I have had to learn to make time for myself. After working a long day, the first thing I do when I get home should not be to clean the bathroom or do laundry. It can wait which is sometimes hard for me. I feel like I have finally been able do things that I love for the first time in a while.

This month I read 2 books for pleasure. No, these weren't books explaining how to treat others kindly or what respect means. I probably should have been reading a book teaching me how to identify 20 rock types because apparently I'll be teaching this to my class in less than two weeks. Yikes. Wish me luck...

Andrew and I read, "The Martian" by: Andy Weir together. We enjoy reading out loud and Andrew uses quite the voices. There was a good amount of scientific information, but luckily I married a chemist who was eager to explain everything in great detail. It was fun to see the movie after finishing the book and the plots aligned nicely. (FYI-- There is quite a bit of swearing in the book. We had to get creative while reading aloud coming up with substitute words.)

About 45 minutes ago I finished reading "Twenty Wishes" by: Debbie Macomber. I like books that deal with relationships and real life situations. This book was a really positive and hopeful book. The main character and her group of friends decided to write a list of 20 wishes. At first, the main character could hardly think of anything she even wished for. Her life seemed pretty tragic and horrible. Throughout the book, she was able to find happiness after the death of her husband. This made me want to write my own list of 20 wishes. I'm working on it. (Sometimes my dreams are a little too realistic and budget friendly so it's hard for me.)

I'm on the hunt for my next book. 

I also started working out again. After teaching and standing for several hours a day, the last thing I have wanted to do is exercise. Many nights I just put my feet up and basically refuse to leave the couch. 

We joined the gym this week. Now that I'm a grown-up and don't have a free gym at college, I'm taking my gym commitment pretty seriously. If I'm paying money to go to the gym then I'm going to. It's nice to get my stress and frustrations out by working out even harder. (Maybe I should ease into this gym thing better next time because I am super sore.)

Off to enjoy my weekend work-free! 

My Classroom

Someday I know I'll want to see what my first classroom looked like. This post will probably be boring unless you care about procedures and organization. It's more for me to look back on later on. Also, I don't feel like the pictures do my room justice, but I'm a little biased and did spend far too much time and money working on my classroom.

This is an overall picture of the room. It's a bit blurry (I need a new camera), but you get the general idea.

This is to show the 4 bulletin boards I have in my room. Above each of them, I have something different. Above the first one, I have "Ditto Cinemas." Above the second bulletin board, I have a sign "Party With the Stars." Above the green bulletin board I have popcorn bowls with kernels coming out of each. Each one has a students name on it. (This is why I couldn't take a closer pic.) Above the yellow bulletin board there is a sign that says, "Awards Night."

This project took me quite some time. I think I had to paint each bookshelf 4 times for the red to cover the old wood. "Readbox" is vinyl, so it easily sticks right to the shelf. On the top of each shelf, I have a sign-out for the books.

One of my least favorite questions as a teacher is, "What do I do when I'm done? I'm bored." This is a fast-finishers station. I change out the activities weekly. The board explains what each assignment is. At the bottom, there is a basket to turn in any fast finishers. At the end of the week, I draw 3 random assignments and they get a "raffle ticket" to be entered to win a prize.

This is my "concession stand." On Friday's, I choose 3-5 tickets and these are the prizes the students choose from. There is a variety of stuff: soda, candy bars, toys, nail-polish, no homework passes, sit by a friend pass, etc. The kids love this!

Each table is a color. At the end of the week, the table with the most points, gets a treat. The teacher and students points work great. At the end of each day, I write who has more points and how many. On Fridays, the students either get extra recess or owe me recess depending on who has more points. (The most they have ever had to owe me is 1 min.)

When the students have to use the restroom, they put this pass on their desk. (I removed the batteries from the flashlights and I'm sure you can guess why.)

This bulletin board goes over our 5 classroom rules and the rewards/consequences. The students each have a clip and may be asked at any time throughout the day to move it up or down according to their behavior. If the students clip up to white, they get a raffle ticket and a positive note home. If the students move down to red, they miss recess and get a negative note home. Once a student is on red, they can move up if their behavior improves.

Every Friday, I add a new name to the Wall of Fame. At the beginning of the year, the students filled out a questionnaire. I read each clue for the students on Fridays and they have to guess who I'm talking about. When your name goes on the Wall of Fame, you get to choose a candy bar.

I use my keyboard almost daily to teach important concepts. We have learned multiplication songs, songs about clouds, you name it. The students love it. I also let them earn the chance to sing a fun disney song. "Let it Go" seems to be high on the list.

It's impossible to picture everything. One thing I do that seems to be really positive in the classroom is allow the students to write compliment cards. The students have really taken to this. I read the compliments on Mondays at class meetings.

I also have a bin with a folder labeled with each date on it. If a student is absent, they can check the bin for any work they missed that day. My door has a quote from Walt Disney that says, "All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them." Each student signed the door underneath this quote.

This is just a quick glance at my classroom from afar. There is always plenty to do as a teacher, but I sure do love my students.

Cramming in the Fun

This summer has flown by. I'm sad to see summer end, so we have been cherishing every moment the past few weeks. 

Andrew and I enjoy playing tennis together. We are very evenly matched and so it's always interesting to see who ends up pulling out the victory. This most recent time, I won which meant Andrew had to make me ice cream. It was delicious by the way. I ended up taking to heart something Andrew told me last time I lost to him. He said that he wins because he is willing to move around and get the ball no matter what. This time, I did just that and it paid off. 

Last weekend we went and saw the play, "Mary Poppins" in Provo. Andrew and I made a bet about something that would happen in a T.V. show and decided that the winner would be treated to a date of their choice. Based on the date, I'm sure you gathered that I won. I chose that we go to dinner and "Mary Poppins" with Luke and Wendy Wilson. We went to JCW's for dinner on the way and tried to stop by the Provo bakery before the show started, but were disappointed to find that it was closed. Their sugar cookies are out of this world. We were disappointed with "Mary Poppins" and decided to leave at intermission. I'm glad we did because half of the show lasted an hour and a half. We weren't sad to go back to our place and play some games with our friends.

(This is how Andrew would pose in every picture if I let him.)

On Monday for family home evening, we went with some friends from our ward on a hike. Andrew and I have had plans to hike Stewart Falls multiple times this summer, but each time something came up. (Work) I was so excited that we were finally able to do this hike. It wasn't very challenging which made talking to our friends easy. When we got to the falls, we celebrated by eating some sour patch kids.

(Too bad we didn't get a pic with Brighton and Ryan!)

This past Wednesday, August 19, school started. What!? I'm a teacher? I can't believe it. The first three days were busy and exhausting, but I am loving every minute of it. When the bell rings to dismiss the students, I'm always surprised and sad because the days fly by. I have the cutest students and I am so excited for this year. Every school day so far, my body has automatically woken me up at 5:00 am because I'm so excited. I'm hoping that will change this week because the extra sleep would be nice. I won't claim that teaching is easy, because it isn't. But going into teaching, I knew it would be challenging, and I'm up for the challenge.

Yesterday my best friend Mary got married in the Manti Temple. It was a beautiful day and we were glad to be a part of it. It ended up being quite a long day because Manti is about an hour and a half away. We had to leave at 8:00am and we got back home at 9:30pm. We left the luncheon right after I gave my "maid of honor speech" (which I was so thrilled to give) so we could race to my nephew's birthday party which was 2 hours away. I then had to eat quickly and dash to the reception for pictures. I got to play the keyboard at the reception for about 45 minutes which was fun and challenging. I saw lots of friends there and had a hard time playing the piano beautifully and talking at the same time. I finally ended up asking for the next pianist to take over. :)

Throughout the day, I took multiple pictures with Mary anytime she had a spare second. It took many tries to get one that wasn't too dark. Here is our best.

Still sporting the beard.

I had to post this picture. Andrew told me he wanted a good picture of the temple, and I saw him take one. Later I asked him how it turned out and he told me it was great. I asked to see the picture and pulled this up. Apparently he didn't notice the pole. haha. 

I can't believe it's time for another busy week to start, but bring it on. Oh, and wish me luck at back to school night this week as I get to present to the parents.

Lake Cavanaugh

We spent the weekend at Lake Cavanaugh about 2 hours outside of Seattle. Andrew's family goes to this lake-house annually and I can see why. It's breathtaking. (This was my second time going. We didn't go last year.) It is near Mt. Vernon and there is no cell service/internet there. It was nice to take a breather from social media for a few days.

We purchased the cheapest flights possible which made our travel times less than ideal. We left on Thursday, July 30 at 6:00 AM. (Meaning we had to leave for the airport by 4:30 AM) We returned from Seattle last night at 12:00 AM and we pulled in to our place around 1:15 AM.  Yikes.

We rented a car to travel from the airport to the lake-house and found a really good deal. I think we ended up paying $11 a day for our rental car which is so reasonable. We got the cheapest, crummiest rental car possible. When we got to the rental car place, it turned out that every rental car would be rented that day, so we were allowed to pick any car. According to an employee there, we got a quadruple upgrade which was nice. Driving in Seattle traffic is no fun, but my phone lead us around the traffic areas and we got to drive through various parts of Seattle on our way.

The lake-house was quite crowded this year because every one of Andrew's siblings came. There were 43 of us total in a 4 bedroom place. Andrew and I slept in the loft with a couple of our nephews. One couple slept in a tent, another in the back of their car. Meals were massive and I found myself in line for seconds or even thirds far too often. I won't be stepping foot on a scale anytime soon.

The weather was perfect and I was very cautious not to recreate my Puerto Rico burn experience, so I lathered the sun screen on. Now I'm a little sad I was so careful because it doesn't really look like I went to a lake at all. Oh well, there is always next summer.

There were plenty of kids (28) to hold and play with all weekend. My body adjusted to going to bed around 1:00 AM every night and waking up when all the babies did at about 7:00 AM. Nights were always exciting because all the kids were in bed and the adults could focus on things other than their children. One night each couple told the story of how they met. Another night we all traded first kiss stories. Ocean's 13 was projected one evening.We also planned an adult family vacation for 2017 which can't come soon enough.

Lots of nerts, hand and foot, and spike ball were played and I miss it already. (Although my partner and I were out of the spike ball tournament in the first round.) I have a few battle wounds from our time there. I got at least 6 huge bug bites on my legs. I am also still limping from the 3 mile run I took around the hilly lake. (That run was the deciding factor in why I chose not to run the 7.8 mile run around the lake race the following day.)

I went tubing twice and realized quickly that I'm getting old. I was sore the following day from gripping the tube so tightly. My back was also yelling at me. I learned that going with boys tubing is a completely different activity. They purposely try to kick and knock each other off. Who knew.

It was an eventful weekend with 3 birthday celebrations and one trip to the E.R. Some stitches were necessary after a skiing incident on the boat. (Poor Vaughn) I am glad to be home though because I finally got to shower! 

Finally Official!

I have been waiting and dreaming and waiting some more to finally be able to write this post. I have accepted a teaching job at Cascade Elementary in Orem, UT. I will be teaching 4th grade and couldn't be more excited. I have known for several weeks now, but was waiting until I finally signed my contract to post about it. (I signed it yesterday!)

I feel extremely blessed to have this opportunity. After I accepted the job, I learned some details about what went on behind the scenes in the hiring process. First of all, when I interviewed at the school, I recognized one of the teachers in the interview (Cherie). I had met her as a substitute teacher a while back at a different school. We had an instant connection because her sister was my professor at BYU-Idaho. What a small world. Cherie transferred to Cascade Elementary and this will be her first year there as well. She will be on the 4th grade team with me. The principal also recognized me when I walked into the interview because I had met him while subbing at his school a few weeks prior.

After meeting me as a substitute, Cherie couldn't remember my name. She wanted to recommend me to be interviewed, but couldn't. She even asked her sister (my former professor) who I was, but my professor couldn't remember either. I learned that there were over 550 applicants for my position which is unbelievable. Apparently my application stood out thanks to my overhead projector story. I saved my money when I was a child to buy an overhead projector for my pretend classroom. I finally got it, but used it so much within the first month that I burned the light-bulb out. I was nick-named "projector-girl" at Cascade Elementary for this reason.

When I went to the interview, Cherie recognized me as the girl she had previously met, and I ended up being projector girl which she didn't know. I was surprised when I got the phone call offering me the job. When I interviewed I was VERY ill. My nose was so runny and I felt horrible. I didn't want to cancel, so I went anyway with plenty of medicine running through me. I didn't feel like I interviewed super well because my mind was so fuzzy.

I have met with the 4th grade team to plan the year out and have spent lots of time, probably too much time in my classroom. It's looking good, but I still have quite a ways to go. I recently got my class list and am anticipating having 24 students which is a pretty small class size. I'm hoping my students love the movie theater theme I'm working so hard to create. Pictures to come.