Blissful!

So today was the last blissful day of school. Everything went great and the students were really well behaved. I just thank God that I had a good school year even after all of the complaining that I do!

It just doesn't seem real that I just ended my 6th year of teaching. It seems like only yesterday that I just began. I will be entering my 7th year of teaching on August 11. Yup that is when we start school again. But now is not the time to think about that, but to think about how late do I really want to sleep in!

Hey I think I got my foot in the door....

I came home from school today just totally exhausted and I still have award certificates to start and finish tonight. Blah! But I looked at the mail sitting on the dining room table and image my suprise when there was one from the South Bend Community School Corp. The only thing I thought of was that they have no positions for me and please try again next year. Because this is the way my world is going at the moment. I also have not received a phone call from St. Matt's...grrrrr it's been three weeks!

Anyway back to the letter, imagine my suprise when it tells me that they chose me for the job of helper for summer school. This is something I applied for back on a whim because I thought there was no chance in heck they would go for me because I am not a SBCSC employee. So I have to send a fax telling I accept the position and then I have to fill out paperwork by the end of next week. Then the position starts with training on June 27 and then summer school starts up July 7th.

So if all goes well maybe I can start building network connections and somehow figure out how to get into the dang school system. Even though people tell me I am crazy for wanting a public school job. I guess I have to experience it first hand and go from there.

And I thought my summer would be boring!

This sums up my day

I feel like a monkey who has been swinging all over the place lately. This is the final week of school and I have so much running through my mind, it is a wonder that I can even sleep. Plus on top of closing down my end of the year stuff, my modem died last night and I have been unable to connect to the Internet.

The Internet this week is my friend because I am furiously trying to upload pics to Walgreens so I can get them to school, making photo collages for the students to place in their end of the year booklets, and trying to finish our School Improvement Plan.

So this was not the best week for it to go out. I called ATT and they told me my warrarety had expired two years ago and I have to call another number (their ATT store) to find out how much a new modem was and there was the possibilty that a local store had the modem. So I frantically called the place and low and behold Best Buy carried them.

So I rush out to Best Buy and viola here I am at 10 o'clock at night finishing report card comments, three pages for the pic collage, and blogging. I'm sure my time is better spent elsewhere, but I needed a mental break.

Well I think I am finally satisfied with the pic collage, now I just need to save and print it out at school. Because there is no way I am printing 13 copies times 3. I'm not that rich to afford that much colored ink. Plus anyway the ink dries up at school if we leave it sit for two months. So I am doing the responsible thing! I just need to get to school early in the morning, so nobody finds out! :D

Old to Gold!

I have been anticipating the Old to Gold sale at Notre Dame since the beginning of May. Basically this is a garage sale held at ND stadium of all the things left behind or donated by the students at the end of the year. The proceeds then go to local charities. It is a win-win situation! I think this is the third year that the sale has happened. Believe me there are some great deals if you can get them.

The sale starts at 7 AM and goes until 11 AM. However if you want to be one of the early birds you have to pay $5 to get in between 7 and 9. The past two years I have gone it has always been around 8:00. This year I was determined to get there earlier than normal. What a mistake that was! The line wrapped all the way around the football stadium! It was almost beginning to loop around to the front of the builiding again. So I was in line before 7, I just didn't get into the stadium until 7:30.

I made a beeline to the books. This is the main reason why I am crazy enough to do this sort of thing. I find the books that the students left behind and then try to sell them on Amazon. The first year I made about $150, last year was a crappy year and I don't even think I broke one hundred.

I did my best to sort through what was there as fast as I could because this other guy had the same intentions that I did. However he had one of those carts that you get at Sam's Club that you can stack many things upon. He had at least 5 piles already on his cart. I walked away with 12 books costing me a total of $6.50. What a bargain!

So after coming home after work today and uploading the books, I have found that I made really wise choices this year! If I can sell all of the books for the prices that I listed them for I can stand to make around $250. Not bad for $6.50 worth of books and an hour worth of my time!

Chuckle

While reviewing for our Unit 5 Religion test today, one of my students made the comment, "I know what the devil's name is." I asked him what it was and he told me, "Ludacris". I had to chuckle silently and told him that it was Lucifer, but he had a good guess. Plus I have no idea why he was thinking about the devil when we were talking about Mary and her Assumption into heaven. Kids...gotta love 'em!

Great Quote

One of my students told me today that "Reading a book is like a TV show in your head!" I relayed the message to the librarian and she added that even your husband can't take the remote control away and turn the channel!

Frustrated

I only have 8 school days left, but I have a million things to do/finish. I have grades to finish up by Tuesday so report cards can be printed. Never mind that we still have to go until Friday of next week. I have never understood why the report card needs to go home with the student on the last day of school. Why can't we have the parents pick them up or gosh darn mail them!

I also have to think of awards to give every student in my class. I have known about this since the beginning of the month and have been trying my darndest to think of some awards. But can I really give out the most complaining award, I refuse to do my work award, and do we really have to do this award? My class has challenges, but I still claim them as mine because as a whole I really do enjoy them. It is just nice when certain ones are absent more than others.

I have to keep on top of my lessons because now that we are practically finished with every gosh darn book that we have, I really need to be creative. So my days are consumed of worrying about whether or not I have enough material to get us through the day. But more often than not I overplan and as a result have more than enough. Plus it also helps that all the students want to do all day is read!

My principal also dumped the School Improvement Plan in my mailbox with a lovely note attached saying that she needs help finishing it (aka doing charts and what not) and it needs to be finished by May 30th! Gee isn't that great that it is also the last day of school! Like I already do not have enough things going on. Sure let me get right on that!

So now until May 30th my head is going to be a whirlwind of activity and many a sleepless nights! Plus it doesn't help the fact that no one is calling about jobs. My interview at St. Matt's probably lasted about 15 minutes and that included a 5 minute tour of the school! The principal just told me that oh we'll be in touch. Well it will be two weeks tomorrow and still no call. So who knows what to think at this point!

Oh and to top off my lovely day, I found out that one of my students has been spreading his feces around on the boys bathroom wall, stall, and trash can for about three weeks now and was finally caught. Gee that is a phone call I never would have thought I would have to make to a parent in a million years! So I am totally disguisted and dread going by his desk or handling his papers.

8 more days....8 more days....8 more days....8 more days....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY YOUNGER, TALLER, AND ONLY BROTHER! He turns 26 today. Then my father had to remind me that I was turning 28 this year! Gee thanks dad!

I could go crazy...

in a garden shop! I went looking for Mother's Day baskets for my mom and mom-in-law after school today. I always stop at this one place in Plymouth called Whiteman's on the way home. They have some of the most gorgeous flowers I have ever laid eyes on and the price shows it. After going through the four greenhouses looking at hanging baskets, I finally settled on two. Right now the baskets are hanging out on my porch until Sunday. However, I might not want to give them up. Just look at it:

Ice Cream

Has anyone else noticed that the ice cream containers shrunk. Gee whiz we get less ice cream for the same amount of price! Give me back my 1/4 container of ice cream! Although the containers are cute, just not cute enough for $5.79 for 1.5 qts. Grrrrrrrrr!!

Feeling oh so tired

Weekends are just not long enough! I spent yesterday running around God's green earth doing errands because I did not have to go work at the station because it was the end of the month and mom closed out the month. So there really was no point in me going there. So I got things finished around the house.

Then I spent the afternoon today tearing out old edging and replacing it with cedar timbers. I just need more dirt so I can level the timbers. I just love it when it is beautiful outside. And if anybody knows how to kill a yucca plant, I am all ears! We pulled the dang thing out last year and it managed to come back because of the dang root. So I spent a good amount of time today pulling it out again. The root is just too dang thick and deep to get any of it to come out. I am thinking of a root killer, but I don't know if they make such a thing.

I also spent today grading papers and trying to come up with lesson plans for the week. We finished our reading series and now that entails me being creative and being somewhat productive because I spend the morning hours doing reading and language arts ideas and concepts. So I think I have an idea of what to do this week. Although this week is going to be super crazy!

Tomorrow we have bike safety coming in the afternoon to talk to the third graders about bike safety and then they get free helmets. Tuesday I am gone, so it is more work for me trying to come up with sub plans. Wednesday is the annual May Procession. The students all bring in flowers and we process from school to the church carrying our flowers for Mary. Thursday, I believe is the only normal day, oh wait I am having the students paint flower pots for Mother's Day on Sunday. Then Friday is Race for Education. Which means each class spends an hour running, jogging, or walking around the church for donations. Hopefully it will tire the little cherubs out!

On top of all these exciting things, it is Teacher Appreciation Week. So there are activities going on all week for that. So thank a teacher this week. He/she really needs it! :D

Also, I have my interview at 1 on Tuesday. Gee it is going to be a busy week! So I think I am going to go to sleep now, I have a feeling it will be the only good night's sleep that I get this week. :D