Rainy Day Recess

There's nothing fun about it. The kids are trapped inside, I'm trapped inside (WITH THEM) and it makes for a long day. Rest assured I still love my class dearly, but when they are 12, excited for our 6th grade trip, 12, eager for winter break, 12, overstressed with assessments, 12....THEY NEED THEIR RECESS.  Maybe I just need them to have their recess. 

I live in an area where it rains.  It rains a lot during the winter months.  It's not necessarily that cold, but it rains.  (I don't necessarily care for the rain.) When it rains too much the kids can't go outside or they can't play in certain areas of the playground because it's too muddy.  Seriously, it baffles me that engineers, architechts, contractors (whomever plays a role in building a school) doesn't take the weather into consideration.  A play area that can be sheltered from rain, that won't cause a muddy mess and that can cover a significant amount of students should be considered when building a school in western Washington. 

Although, my kids ARE quietly working (on a writing assessment) as I blog about the rainy day.

She's One of My Favorites

I'm a lucky girl.  Beyond having a great husband, a job I enjoy going to every day and good health...I also have some amazing girlfriends in my life.  I have girlfriends that I work out with, girlfriends I teach with, girlfriends who I drink with, girlfriends I share the Lord with and girlfriends who I share life with.  Throughout my life I have always been blessed with being surrounded by wonderful women.  I think about the women that have drifted in and out of my life and at any one particular moment in my life she (or they) mean the world to me. 

This moment of my life I have one friend that I have a special connection with.  One that, I know, we will be friends forever.  We have shared our inner most fears with one another and been there for each other through trying times.  Times in our lives that I know if we didn't have each other we would question, "How did we make it through that time in our life without each other." 

I thank God for placing this funny, caring, adventerous, honest, matter-of-fact, sincere, trusting and loving friend, Molly, in my life....because she is one of my favorites. 

Love you, Molly. 

Coffee and a Correcting Pen

I think I've found my new morning routine. 

Although I can't afford for it to happen every day. 

I was at Starbucks this morning by 6:45 

Where I sat quietly,

Next to a warm fire,

In my cute teacher outfit (goes with the job I guess),

Sipping on a peppermint mocha,

Correcting papers.

This made me happy

For the rest of my day.

Bottle It Up

Today I was told I was the best teacher EVER!  That's big.  That's huge!  That feels awesome.  Now if only I can figure out how to bottle up this tremendous feeling I feel in my heart right now, save it, and open the bottle later as a little reminder when the tough, tiring and trying times come through  my classroom. 

Once again, I love my class.

The Hallo-Wiener

Preface to a story: 
One of my favorite Halloween picture books is called The Hallo-Wiener.  This book is about a wiener dog named Oscar who always gets picked on by the other dogs because of his size and he even gets picked on by the cats too (this is the worst).  For Halloween his mom buys him a costume, a hot dog bun costume, and Oscar doesn't want to wear the costume, but he also doesn't want to hurt his mom's feelings...so he wears the costume.  Of course, all the other dogs make fun of him.  All the dogs go trick-or-treating together and Oscar can't keep up because his legs are so short and his costume keeps getting in the way.  The other dogs get spooked by a "ghost" and Oscar comes to the rescue by pulling the bottom of the costume off of...the cats! In the end the other dogs realize that Oscar's size is important and that he is actually a really nice dog. 

Story: 
The Friday before Halloween I shared with my students my favorite Halloween book, The Hallo-Wiener.  The kids had heard of the book and many of them had had the book read to them when they were younger, but I read it to them anyway.  As I was reading the book, they would laugh at the jokes the author incorporated into the story (there is a play on words that revolve around hot dogs).  One of my students even said, "I never got all the jokes until now." 

When I finished the story the kids all "awed" and commented on how cute the story was.  I had them think about how this story could be related to the personal narratives that they were writing themselves.  I then asked them to think about what the "lesson learned" was or the moral of the story that the author was trying to get across. 

One serious student, sitting towards the back of the classroom, quickly raised his hand and without thinking said, "Don't judge a person by their wiener." 

Instantly the class was in an uproar and I about fell off my stool I was sitting on from laughing myself.  Other students commented to this young boy, "Do you realize what you just said?" 

As he sat there for a second and the classroom continued to be filled with student laughter, the boy finally realized what he had said and smiled himself.  He then said somewhat sheepishly, "Well, you know what I mean."

There's never a dull moment when teaching 6th grade.