Pet peeves I didn't even know I had....

I have learned a lot about myself through this process of being a teacher. Here is a (short) list in no particular order of the top pet peeves I didn't even know I had:

1. People who underachieve.
Really people, in my class if you do work you'll get an A. People fail my class and I don't get it. It bothers me! There are only so many reminders I can give. If the homework isn't turned in, I can't grade it. I know my class isn't on probably most of my kids' priority list, but I like to think it is a useful and enjoyable class. If you ace the quiz, you can do the work. So do it.

2. People who are disrespectful.
I make a big deal about respect on the first day of my class. Respect can be shown in a number of ways and should be shown to everyone in class. It bugs me when people are talking when I'm talking but it bugs me more when kids disrespect other kids. Learn to deal with different people. We don't all have to be best friends, but we have to be kind to each other.

3. People who try to be clones of their "friends".
Oh my word. Get a life people! I have noticed this with a couple of girls in my classes, but in one of my current classes I have the worst case and it is a boy. I have student (A) and then student (R) who would like to be the clone of A. It is pathetic. Right now I have them on opposite sides of the room thinking R would learn to intereact on his own. Nope. Now he just cranes his neck to see what A is doing. And there is lots of talking across the room. Arrgh.

4. Negative people.
I know this post is basically all negative, but people who see the glass half empty ALL THE TIME in EVERY SITUATION bug me to no end. Get over it! Don't sweat the small stuff. When students complain excessively, I give them more work. The end. We're playing a game called I win. : )

5. What am I supposed to do??
I've learned to say, "Ask a friend who was listening." I know some kids have CAPD, ADD, and a whole host of other learning disabilities, but really folks, it's written on the board, it's on your worksheet, and I've said it at least twice now. In life you have to put forth at least a little effort on your own.

Ahhh, I feel so much better.

JJ's Buddy

JJ's friend TB has two adorable kiddos (JB and EB - and a wonderful wife BB). They live upstairs from us and we have begun to spend more time with them. At first JB (age 2) was scared to death of JJ. This is a very unusual occurance for JJ. Kids usually flock to him. In Church, for example, he's usually in a stare down from some kid over a parent's shoulder. One time when we were visiting the B's, we just entered the house and JB started bawling. Poor thing! When she settled down, JB and I were chatting (at times with the help of translator mommy). She was showing me her new baby and wanted to give me a better peek, but I was sitting by JJ and so she made a WIDE path around any time she was near us on the couch. We believe this whole thing started when JJ came to get TB to go to class and was dressed in his full winter get-up - basically covered from head to toe. Not to mention that his visit resulted in JB's daddy leaving. So anyways, to help JB get over her fear of JJ, TB and BB gave JB a pic of JJ to get her used to him. NOW, the opposite has happened. NOW, she has a little crush on JJ. After giving her the picture, it was time for lunch and BB told JB she had to put the picture down, to which she replied, "Not my JJ!"

Who's the April Fool?

I thought I was soooo clever. Sooooo funny. I planned a little April Fool's joke on my buddy TAF. I even went so far as to not post it on the 1st so it wouldn't be so obvious, a little cheaty I know. I should've known that my blog is not well-read! : ) I called TAF later in the day on the 3rd to find out if she had received any calls. She was like "No, why?" and I was so disappointed! : ) I spilled the beans in case she DID receive any future calls. She told me I should've posted it on facebook or something, but I didn't want it to get too out of hand. So anyways, I just want to clear the air of anyone who actually took me seriously. TAF is not pregnant. But, I do think they'll be awesome parents and I WILL spoil any children they may have in the future! : ) Have a happy April!

Congrats TAF and MF!

People always made a competition out of who would have babies first - my best friend TAF or I. Well, I bow to her first place victory. Congrats TAF (and MF!), you guys will be awesome parents. I'm so excited for you two and can't wait to spoil your little one ... in a while! : ) Love you guys!

I'm not atheltic per se...

... but of course I signed up for the staff vs. students basketball game. Last year I got a basket and was thrilled! Last year I also accidentally passed the ball to the ref. (a fellow colleague, c'mon, easy mistake!). This year... this year - no basket (but I don't think I attempted nearly as many this year either) - and an embarrassing pass to a kid on the other team. Boo! But, I had a wonderful time and the kids really really have a blast, so it's worth it. We had some guys on our team that were really good -- think college-age bball coaches. Towards the end of the game, I found myself out on the court with the kids' all star line and these good "adults". I called to one of the good players on our team, "You should be out here. Why am I out here with all these people who can dribble?!" Yes, that quote kind of summed up my game. : )

New sprinters' coach? Sure, why not?

Apparently I'm the go-to girl for any new postitions open at my school. The other day the vp stopped by my room. "Hey, we need a female track coach. Interested?" "Sure, why not?" Some extra change in the pocket before summer break is always wonderful. So, I head to practice after school. Three of the other coaches are hillarious and fun guys. The other one (basically first time ever chatting with him) casually dishes about his recent divorce and low times where the boy's bball team he was coaching was the only thing keeping him from ending it all. Ok buddy. Then I find out I'm the sprinter expert. Sure, why not right? I haven't "sprinted" since hmmmm... can't even remember when. Since a big sale at the mall or something. : ) If anyone has some good drills for sprinters, it would be much appreciated! : )

Rrrrrrr!

What's a pirate's favorite letter? Have you been to the latest pirate movie? Yeah, I have quite a repertoire of pirate jokes. So you can imagine my excitement when my school put on the musical Pirates of Penzance Jr. this week. They did an awesome job! We have some talented kids (and chorus teachers!). One of the parts of the musical are these ditzy daughters of the general... one of whom falls in love with Frederick, the pirate done with his indentures. During the preshow peptalk, Mrs. B E, the 7th grade choir teacher, told the "daughters" that everyone laughs at their ditzy parts. She wanted to get the message across that they should go overboard on their acting, so finally she said, "Girls, be daughters on crack!" After some startled looks and much laughter, she revised it to "Or, how about daughters after drinking lots of pop!" Yeah, a bit more middle-school appropriate! : )

Just gotta love 'em or something...

Tuesday marked the beginning of the end. The first day of the last quarter. Phew! We made it! I have a whole new group of kiddos and for the most part I think this is going to be a great quarter. I do have one child in particular that is going to drive me up a wall. I just know it. Here is a snippit of life with dear little D.

Assignment: Fill out notecard with name you like to be called and answer questions such as "Where would you like to sit if you could choose? Who do you work well with? How do you learn best?", etc. I have read the directions, explained the questions, given examples and left them on the overhead.

D: "Mrs. J. should I put my name on this?"

EJ: "Yes, D. please check the direction sheet one more time.

D: "But Mrs. J. should I put my full name?"

EJ: "What do the directions say?"

D: "They say to put the name I want to be called."

D: "But Mrs. J., do you want me to put my number from Mr. S's room?"

EJ: "What do you think?" (inside.... "aaaaaaaaaah")

D: "What is this wire basket under my desk for? It looks like it holds books."

Yes.... and this was the first like 10 minutes.


The Life Skills teacher, Mrs. L. said that one day she was doing a foods lab. The kids saw ALL of the ingredients laid out on the countertop. Dear, sweet, curious D watched Mrs. L. add all the ingredients while talking about what to do. Dear, sweet, curious D still had to ask, "But Mrs. L, did you put raisins in those cookies?" Ahhh, life with middle schoolers who don't yet have their prefrontal cortex developed.

Still got it...

My Grandpa turns 85 this week. But really, age is just a number - he and my Grandma stay very active and involved. We celebrated with a little food and a lot of good company. And for my family the party isn't complete without some pinochle. But, JJ and I added a new game tradition - we brought our wii along for the weekend. We played countless games of tennis, bowling and even broke out the new Olympic game. My G'pa used to bowl in a league for many years. I even remember it. So, I challenged him to a game. He beat me. I swear I wasn't going easy on him either! I was so impressed with how he picked it back up right away. He even remembered which buttons to push on the wiimote. So there was the occasional shot to the audience (when he accidentally threw his ball backwards), but who hasn't done that? I told him to keep his arm fresh because I want a rematch when we come back to visit!

2 Dresses. . .

Yes, I am 25 short. I was fortunate to be a moh (maid (ahem -- matron) of honor) in my best friend TAF's wedding, which was so much fun. Now, I was thrilled to be asked to be a bridesmaid in my friends CA and JPJ's wedding. JJ is the best man. He's THE man this summer with two best man jobs. Anyways, CA let us pick our own dresses, with guidelines of course. They are getting married 06-07-08 (which could be a blessing OR curse to JPJ ---- HOW could you forget??!). It felt like grown-up prom (but much more special and important) getting to choose my dress. Here is a picture - but it'll be in "clover" a bright pretty green. Isn't it lovely? Of course being excited about CA and JPJ's big day and helping them plan are much higher on my list than loving my dress, but you know, the dress-picking was fun just the same.

Michael??

Overheard while students were finishing their podcasts:

"Wow! That's really long!"

"That's what she said."


What?! 6th graders don't know about that kind of humor do they?? This guy must've taken lessons from Michael Scott (MS)...

Teachey Blogs

I love the magazine Instructor. Probably most teachers received it free for a year or something. I did that and then kept receiving it because I enjoyed it so much. I find lots of worthwile ideas and info. - a lot from readers who write in. At times I feel it is a *bit* liberal, but that's another story. This month's edition includes four popular teacher blogs:

It's Not All Flowers an Sausages (my fav. from the list)
Hipteacher
What It's Like on the Inside
Bluebird's Classroom

As Instructor states, "21% of teachers have visited online teacher blogs for an uncensored glimpse into what's really going on in their colleagues' heads." For me, it's just nice to know that I'm not the only one who goes through some of the things I go through (i.e. puke, funny stories, funny kids, colleagues from h-e-double hockey sticks, colleagues that make me want to come to school at times, etc.!).

To change or not to change. . .

Dilema alert! Sometimes I have such a hard time making up my mind. This happens to me in all facets of my life - from too many choices at Coldstone to how I should present a lesson at school. I've currently been wrestling with the idea of if I should ACTUALLY use my Master's degree or not. I've been basically offered a position in Special Education and I'm really feeling driven to take it lately. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my job as a foreign language teacher, but I only have a minor in Spanish and that is only one of the languages I teach. Even describing it here I feel more sided with sp.ed. but I just never considered foreign langauge teaching before I got the job so it's just wierd to even be thinking that I could be choosing between different areas of teaching. I've made a (quite long actually) list of positives and negatives for and against both sp.ed. and foreign languages. I'm *trying* to be better at placing this in God's hands, but it is so tough for a control freak like me! If you have a chance, a little prayer for discernment would be much appreciated!

Facebook...

Facebook seems to just STEAL my time away from me. I sit down to check my email and all of a sudden it's an hour later. How does that happen?? I am currently addicted to the scrabble addition. Some of my friends don't quite feel comfortable with it, and I definitely see their point. I try not to put too much info. out there, but it has been really fun connecting with old friends. I have been so bad at keeping in contact or staying in touch with friends from high school especially... but now even from college. It is so easy to write a quick note or view status updates to at least find out a bit about what people have been up to. It is so crazy who is married to who and who is in what job and who's having babies (EVERYONE's having babies!!). I guess we're just at "that age". So anyways... Facebook and I have a love/hate relationship. I enjoy it, but waste way too much time with it!

Weekend update

Friday during 5th period I started feeling really icky. EVERYONE at school has been coming down with something. One day for example, there was only one teacher from one of the teams -- the rest were subs! Anyways, I knew I had to take it easy this weekend. Friday I basically did absolutely nothing. Saturday, I scrapbooked almost all day. It was wonderful! I fully updated our "every day" scrapbook as well as my Dad (WK)'s scrapbook. For one of my Dad's bday's, I gave him an empty scrapbook and ever since I have been taking extra pictures and giving him new pages whenever I finish them. My friend JAP saved us from our seclusion by coming over to "work" on her resume (code word for use our internet to check her facebook and email). Then our friend JPJ suggested going to a movie, so we watched Vantage Point --- I thought it was an excellent movie! Interesting twist on an action movie! Today, we went to Church -- Matthew West (MW) was the worship leader this weekend! It was fabulous! He is so talented and worship-filled. He has a great story and was just awesome! Pastor PK also had a great message. Then we did a little grocery shopping. JJ has spring break this week (so jealous....) so I'm defintely giving him a list of things to do -- including making supper! Back at home, I worked on some school-work -- got ready for the week and so on. Then, I did some stamping. I was feeling wonderfully creative, so it was a productive session. Even though we didn't "do" a lot, I really felt like I accomplished everything I needed to (including veging out so I wouldn't get sick!).