Second Grade

It's funny how I have spent my teaching career wishing and thinking that second grade would be the ideal grade for me to teach. It is something that I have wanted to do since college. Now that it is my reality, I have come to realize that maybe second grade really isn't for me. It's funny how that works out.

I would rather have the students that are ready to take some responsibilities and actually do some independent thinking. So I think fourth grade is now the ideal grade for me. I think teaching for five years in the junior high spoiled me. :)

I do however LOVE the students that I have this year. For the past three weeks, I have not had to raise my voice once asking for the chaos to stop. I go home at the end of the day with energy. Something that I have not had for two years! It is amazing how a difference of personalities will do that.

However, I have lots of drama with my head hurts, my tummy hurts, and other various aches and pains of 15 students. I have learned that a band-aid will solve anything and if you tell the student to sit down for a little bit everything is amazingly better. :0)

So for now, it looks like the year will go smoothly because of the types of students that I have. So it is a year to actually look forward to teaching. I tell people that the class I have this year is the class that reminds me why I went into teaching in the first place. So I really cannot complain too much!

Veggies

My veggie garden is just about finished. I spent an hour pulling dead plants on Sunday. I think that it is pretty funny that I didn't plant any cucumbers this year and just take a look at what I have:

Yup cucumbers. They grew from seed last year when they didn't get picked because I was in Europe. So they pretty much rotted away and viola new cucumbers for this year. This is the reason why I only have one jalapeno. The cucumber vines kinda squashed out the poor jalapeno plant. Oh well.

However, I was quite surprised when I started pulling the dead plants, and I found three honeydew melons growing underneath everything. So only time will tell if they will be any good. I am hoping that they will be. At least the cucumbers didn't kill everything. :)

Bread Ties

Every so often the principal puts things in our mailbox at school that really have nothing to do with teaching. Basically she gets forwards in her e-mail and then prints it out and gives it to each of the teachers.

I found the one she gave to us on Friday quite interesting. It is about bread ties:

"When you go to buy bread in the grocery store, have you ever wondered which is the freshest, so you 'squeeze' for freshness or softness? Did you know that bread is delivered fresh to the stores fives days a week: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Each day has a different color twist tie:

Monday=Blue

Tuesday=Green

Thursday=Red

Friday=White

Saturday=Yellow

The colors go alphabetically by color. So if today was Thursday, you would want a red twist tie; not white (which is Friday) because the bread is almost a week old!"

So now I plan to really see if the bread ties are in fact different colors. I get to test this idea tomorrow at the store after school. We shall see.

Wouldn't you be curious?

If you were driving by and saw this...would you be curious?

I just LOVE the fact that my mother was wearing her glasses on her blindfold!

Surprise!

On Sunday we threw a surprise party for my parent's 30th wedding anniversary. They did not want to throw a 25th wedding anniversary party, so we decided to surprise them for their 30th!And gee they were surprised!

Laura told them that she was taking them out to lunch on Sunday and that they had to agree to wear blindfolds. I thought no way that they were going to wear blindfolds! Well Laura actually got them to wear the blindfolds! As they were going down the driveway my mom refused to wear hers, Laura actually stopped the truck and refused to move until mom put hers on! So they did cooperate! My parents were both trying to figure out where they were going my dad actually was driving in his mind turn by turn until Laura started turning on random streets. So needless to say they were quite surprised and appreciative. My dad even teared up a little. It was quite cute!

Looking for a Laugh?

Check out this blog: Cake Wrecks Then go back and look in the archives. Some are really insane.

Never in my life would I have imagined that professional cake people are capable of such things!

Happy Birthday!

Happy 23rd Birthday to my sister Rosanne! She is celebrating tonight at Corby's. Please go and join her. I sadly cannot because I have to get up before the sun comes up. Blah!

Frustrated and Annoying at the Same Time!

School started today. South Bend calls at 7:33 this morning trying to get ahold of me to set up an interview for a sixth grade position that they knew about on Friday. I did not look at my phone until this afternoon because I was teaching and then had a stupid meeting. So needless to say I did not call the lady back. I just find it rather frustrating and annoying. This is why I have decided that sending my resume and cover letters to the principals out at the end of March next year might not be a bad idea. Maybe I might at least have a shot of getting in somewhere due to the fact that there might be a ton of teachers retiring next year.

Let the Year Begin

Look how calm and collective my classroom is. At 8:00 AM it will be inhabited by 15 second graders hopefully eager to start the school year off. Too bad their teacher cannot say the same. Please give me another week....I'm not ready for summer break to be over with.

Daughtry

The Indiana State Fair was fun, Daughtry was great!! I had my first corndog, and I can say that I enjoyed it if I put enough ketchup on it. I know 28 years on this planet and I have never had a corndog. I must have been living under a rock, but I can now take that off of my list. :)




We had great tickets, we could see everything. Rosie wanted to be on the track but you cannot argue with free tickets from the state police officer we know! Virgin Millionaires opened the concert. They are a local band from Indy. The only thing that I can say about them was that they were really LOUD. I don't even think Daughtry was that loud, but then again I could have been hearing impaired by that point.


Daughtry played from his current CD and some new songs that he is working on. They are going back into the recording studio in September to compose a new CD. He played for about 85 minutes. All in all it was a great show.


I would go back again if I could. I tried to convince Rosie to leave me there for Backstreet Boys tonight, but alas I have school tomorrow with students. Goodbye summer, see you next year.

Daughtry

I had totally forgot that Daughtry was coming to the state fair. Rosie was planning on seeing Daughtry tonight with her friends. Her friends however cannot make it, so I volunteered myself to go with her. So all the sisters are taking a ride to the State Fair today! This should be a fun day!!

Have you seen Kate?

Kate is someone who lived two rooms down from us my freshman year at St. Mary's. She is now my Mary Kay rep. I just get a giggle everytime I see her on a tv because I can say, "Hey I know that person!"

What are we...six?

I am guessing that I did not get the job because the principal has not called. Plus when I called the school yesterday, I informed the secretary who I was and was asking if the principal had made a decision. The secretary went off on a tirade exclaiming that the principal is on a retreat and will be for the week and I could call back on Monday if I wanted to speak to her. So needless to say I think I did not get the job.

Anyways so I told the other third grade teacher (my mentor) when I first started and Linda (8th grade teacher) about my interview. The third grade teacher then tells the first grade teacher, the first grade teacher marches off to my principal's office and tells her. My principal goes and asks the secretary. The secretary claims she knows nothing about it (even though she knew I was serious about trying to switch). The secretary called Linda and Linda called me.

I was told the principal starts ranting and raving about how I am under contract and I cannot break that contract without reprecautions. In my mind I know that there are no reprecautions because teachers do it all the time. Plus I saw an article about this very subject in one of the magazines we got from school last spring.

So needless to say it will be a very interesting day tomorrow. Although I don't think my principal will mention anything because she hates conflict. Sometimes I have no idea why she is a principal. She tries to please everyone and it just cannot be done.

Patience

I went on my interview today for a sixth grade position. She asked me nothing about previous teaching experience. I thought that was rather odd because I am always asked about my previous experience. My mom reminded me that I did give her my resume. I was asked six different questions all about different types of scenarios and how I would handle each of them.

The principal told me that she would reach a decision by the end of the day. She told me that she would call no matter what the outcome. I was one of three people that was interviewed. Well I can say my nerves got the best of me and I could not sit at home waiting for a phone call any longer because I was literally going nuts!

So I went off to paint. Yup, I'm painting again, and not my house but my brother's house. I really like to paint because there is something just so soothing about hearing the sound of the roller go back and forth. So here are some pictures of what we have been doing....

The Kitchen....we are unsure of what color to paint the cabinets? Any suggestions? Laura and I were thinking a chocolate brown, while my mom thought black.

The living room...doesn't it just remind you of a summer cottage on the lake?

The Master Bedroom...yes I know about the color everyone who sees it gives a little yelp, or in my mom's case an outright dislike. But I think once we get done with the accents it will look real nice. Besides Tony likes it, or he is just saying it because he doesn't want to buy more paint. :)

The other bedroom that will become his office area. The blue trim will be painted a nice bright white. It is just gonna take a nice good primer to cover the blue. I am even surprised that just two coats of red paint covered the yellow paint.

I just now realized that I did not take a picture of the dining room. Oh well, I guess I can post that when it is finished. So I made Tony a list of things that he needs to get so we can finish up trim and the little odds and ends. Laura told him he is not going to have any money left after he is finished sprucing up his house. :-)

Happy Birthday to my Dad!

On Saturday my Dad turned 53 years young! We spent the evening at the Four Winds. Where we enjoyed a very yummy dinner and not so great slot machines. Although Laura did have a good night.

Tonight my mom cooked a fabulous dinner and the entire of us were there. Which really is a rare occasion!

Dad and his girls!

Mom and Dad and the fabulous Snickers Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. Tony had it shipped especially for his birthday!

Even Dad's granddaughter Lexi enjoyed the cheesecake!

Interesting

I am starting to think that 15 minute interviews are the norm or maybe I am answering questions entirely too fast. I met with the Rabbi today and it went okay. I really don't think working there would be the best fit for me. He kept explaining that he wasn't from here and doesn't know where anything is at. One of the questions he asked was "If you came into your classroom and saw this on the board: _er_. What would you do?" He explained that it was meant as an insult to myself. For the life of me I cannot think of what would fill those blanks. So needless to say I answered the question with something.

What I thought was really odd that he asked me to describe my family. I really don't think that you are allowed to ask those types of questions. When he asked what my husband does and I said that he works in a Plastic Factory his tone changed. It was really odd.

So anyway, I was calling around to various South Bend schools hoping that someone somewhere would have a teaching spot available. Luck must be on my side because I have an interview for a 6th grade position at Greene Intermediate Center on Tuesday morning. The only bad thing is that Tuesday is the same day as our registration at St. Michael. So I will trot on down to Plymouth after my interview. I would just hate to leave them hanging on such short notice, but I really need to do what is best for me. Plus Greene is 15 minutes away in a country setting. That cuts my driving time in half! Gee it is really going to be a stressful week next week.