Monthly Archives: August 2013

We survived the first week!

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We survived week one of 1st, 3rd, and 5th grade! Luckily it was a short week because we are all TIRED today. School is great though! For everyone! Lex loves his teacher and was excited that they are allowed to chew gum in school now. Eve loves her teacher and her class. They are both pretty chill about it all. Old pros at this school thing.

I’m having fun with the 5th graders. We have a great class this year. They are friendly and funny and nice to one another. I got to teach my first lesson yesterday and another mini-lessons/UVEI assignment today. My mentor teacher is super supportive and encouraging. There are three 5th grades and the teachers work very well as a cohesive team. They are even doing rotating classes with “homerooms” this year, so my mentor teacher teaches writing/language arts to all three homeroom classes. Basically he’s teaching the same lesson three times a day. Yesterday I taught it the third time, after watching him the first two. :) Today I rotated with my homeroom class, so I got to see all three teachers teach their subjects. It was interesting to see their different styles and their different room setups and how they interacted differently with the same class. So much to learn! Our team meetings are really useful for me to learn what teachers watch for in student behaviors and development, what’s par for the course and what’s a red flag.

My kids are adapting to our new routine with the expected amount of overtired fussing. Alan walked them into their classrooms the first three days, but left them in the hall today. Lex apparently had a hard time with that. He told me all about it after school. Alan is weaning them off the morning drop-off routine that I’ve done for years (because I liked it) and moving to a drop at the door system, like most other parents do. They will be fine with it… eventually. :) It’s a year of transition for all of us.

Now we have a four day weekend and then another four day week. Time to recuperate and get caught up on some sleep!

More later. For now, a picture of Eve’s silliness this evening:

toothbrushes

That looks like a good place to keep the toothbrushes, right?

Parking

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On the way out of school today I told the kids that we had to go out the side door instead of the front door. Lex said, with wonder in his voice, “You parked in the teachers’ lot today?” I said yep and was amazed with the honest enthusiasm in which he replied, “Congratulations!! That’s one step closer to being a teacher!”

If it only it were so easy. :)

The first day of school!

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Today was the first day of school. I wanted to be at school at 7:00am (I got there by 7:10 so there’s room for improvement tomorrow!) and Alan brought the kids in at 8:00am. I wasn’t confident in his ability to remember to take pictures, in part because he assured me he would not remember, so I had the kids dressed and ready for pictures at 6:50am. :) Don’t we look snazzy?!

three

First day back to school and we have smiles all around! The color coordination was pure coincidence.

two

Just the two of them… notice Lex is wearing the same shirt as last year? :)

I wish we had a really nice clean wall or hardwood door or something to take these pictures. They look a little trashy with our screen door and unswept porch, but it is what it is. It’s also been cool and rainy for the past two years when I’ve taken these pictures!

lex

Lex.

eve

Eve.

Everyone had a great day. The kids both came home happy and tired. Not too chatty, but I think that will come as they settle in. I enjoyed my class, and really enjoyed working with a teacher in the room. Sooo much easier than subbing!! Of course the real challenge comes when I have to write my own lesson plans. I’ll be there soon enough.

On the way home I suggested popcorn for snack (a favorite in our house) and Lex said, “Yeah! We can eat popcorn together and we can tell you about our day and you can tell us about your day.” Wasn’t that sweet. Of course once he got food and a book at the table he lost all interest in talking. Oh well. He ate three regular bowls of popcorn, a bowl of sugar snap peas, a tiny bowl of ice cream, plus another half of that blue bowl full of popcorn! Then an hour later he put away a big bowl of oatmeal (the usual way with almond butter, honey, and raisins) with a big glass of milk and a cookie. Hungry boy!

snack

Lex was HUNGRY after school today!

Eve polished off her popcorn and ice cream, but didn’t have much else this evening. She caught a yucky cold on Friday and has been dealing with sniffles, low energy, scratchy voice, and loss of appetite ever since. She went to bed early tonight. I hope she can kick it soon. Of course, not without passing it to Lex who seems very sniffly tonight. Sigh.

Let’s see if we can pull this off again tomorrow! :)

Videos

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A few videos from the past week…

Last weekend Alan made oobleck with the kids. They all loved it. :)

During the week while I was at orientation and Alan was home with the kids, Lex decided to make a top-secret surprise. He spent a full day in the office with a Top-Secret Work in Progress sign (I should have taken a picture of his cute sign!) hanging on the office door. One morning he emerged with this:

I had the camera on the wrong setting which is why that video is all orange. I paused it for a second and switched settings. Here’s the rest.

That’s what we’ve been up to around here. That and so much more! One more day at home then three of us are off to school!

Necklaces

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image

Do you like my new jewelry display? I have been thinking about for months. Scouring Pinterest and the blog-o-sphere. Planning. Thinking. Almost shopping for supplies. Are you noticing that I tend to over-think the stupidest things?!?

I bought two necklaces at the Gap yesterday (tres chic!) and with barely a thought started sticking thumb tacks into the inside of my closet door. A few thumb tacks, a sheet of old fabric, and voila! Jewelry neatly arranged. No tangles. No mess. Easy peasy.

It only took me about six months of thought and five minutes of work!!

Day three of “full time”

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Day three of teacher training, “full time” away from home, homework every night, and I haven’t even started in the classroom yet. I’m exhausted! Rushed and trying not to be cranky with the kids. Tired. Oh wait, I said that already. One more day, then into the schools we go.

I picked Eve up from dance camp yesterday and took her to run errands. She was tired and wanted to go to a playground. I was tired and wanted to go home. We did ok, but we both clearly didn’t want to be there. As we headed home Eve said to me, “Mommy, I’m glad you have a job you like doing, but I wish we could go back to how it was last year.” So sweet and so sad because we are only just beginning!

Back to school… for me!

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Today was my first day at UVEI! I’m so excited! It went really well and I came home feeling tired, but motivated. Let’s hope it lasts!

I started a new blog. I actually revived an old blog I started years ago when I was applying to nursing school. Like a lifetime ago! Check it out if you’re interested: exploring.learning.teaching. I thought it would be good to separate my personal blog and a somewhat more professional blog. I need to work on the style a bit, it’s kind of boring right now, but it’ll get there.

A day at the fair

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We went to the fair yesterday to celebrate Rosy’s birthday. Unfortunately we couldn’t go with Rosy because we were about six hours apart, but we were thinking of her! I was anyway, the kids were just thinking “rides, rides, sugar, rides!” We went yesterday afternoon for bracelet day, which basically means you pay a small fortune upfront and the kids can ride all the rides they want for four whole hours! A pretty great deal really. Especially for those little, crappy, over-before-they-even-start rides that cost three tickets each. I hate spending tickets on those things, but with the bracelets the kids just went over and over and over. They loved it! They were also quite brave this year! The rode the Tilt-A-Whirl (with me because that’s my favorite!) and the Scrambler and this ride called Cliff Hanger, plus all the kiddie rides. Eve had a sudden fear of the Ferris Wheel, so Lex and I did that one together. We were there with a friend, don’t worry, I didn’t leave Eve unattended! :)

plane ride

We started small with the kiddie rides.

strong man

This was a game you’re supposed to pay $3 to play, but Lex was unaware of that and the carnie was nowhere to be found, so Lex grabbed the mallet and tried until he rang the bell. Then happily walked away feeling proud and accomplished. I was happy to not spend $3 and not have to carry around a prize. :)

slide

They did the slide about a hundred times!

While we were there Eve kept making friends with random little girls. One was there with just her mom and she decided to join us instead. She kept following along, her and Eve were holding hands and making plans, and I kept reminding her that she had to stay with her mom. I chatted with her mom a bit and they had been there for many hours longer than we had and mom was bored! I think she was happy to have her daughter tagging along with a different family for awhile.

cliff hanger

I was surprised that Lex wanted to go on this and even more surprised when Eve agreed to go with him. They sure are growing up! The little girl in the middle is one of the girls Eve made friends with at the fair. They got off the ride and immediately did it again two more times! Then three more times later.

high

Flying high!

wheels

Lex was excited to see the ferris wheel is wheel powered! :)

me and lex

Me and Lex at the top of the world! (at the top of the fair anyway)

waving

Lex, waving to Eve down below. Eve was hanging out with Elizabeth and Alistair.

scrambler

This is a blurry picture but I love Eve’s face. Once again I was surprised that they both wanted to do this, and do it multiple times! This was post ice cream and cotton candy, so I only let them do it twice before moving on to something a little less scrambling!

hair

Lex’s hair got all blown back on the Scrambler. They started the ride with their hats on, but fortunately grabbed them fast before they blew away. :)

We took a break part-way through to watch The Jump Rope Warrior! This guy has been on national TV and he’s a Guiness Book world record holder for the most number of jumps while laying down! Pretty amazing. The description in the flyer sounded just awesome so we were psyched to take a break from the rides and go see him perform. Unfortunately he spent the first 40 minutes inviting kids from the audience up to do little jump rope tricks with him. They were neat, but we had much higher expectations! For the final five minutes of the show he did a few tricks of his own, including a few laying down jumps, which he calls “Rump Jumps.” (Here is a video someone else made of his whole performance. It’s pretty amazing!)

We left the fair at 6pm when the ride bracelets were no longer good. We were full of french fries, cotton candy, and ice cream. What more is there to do?! Lex dragged his feet all the way back to the car and Eve almost fell asleep in the bathtub at home. We all had a blast. They wanted to go back today and tomorrow. I told them they had to pay this time! We went to a friend’s (free) picnic today instead. :)

upside down

Eve got lots of great big muscle activity at the picnic today. They had a really great tree with high branches and cool ropes and swings hanging from it.

rope

The goal was to swing on the rope and land in the hula hoop. Or climb the rope. Whatever.

plan

She has a plan here. She got this far, thought for awhile, and decided her plan maybe wasn’t such a good one. :)

A back to school dream

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I had a bad dream last night. My first back-to-school (or maybe just to-school) dream. Hopefully my last. It went something like this:

I’m in a college lecture. The lecture is over and I’m chatting with a few people while digging through my backpack, looking for my schedule. I can’t find the schedule. Lots of crumpled up papers, but no schedule. I know I have another class to get to, but I can’t find my schedule so I don’t know where I’m supposed to go. Eve is with me, just hanging out in the periphery playing with another little girl.

I’m in a college lounge, still digging through my backpack looking for my schedule. I’m pulling out cracker crumbs and rocks and small plastic dinosaurs from my huge, black backpack, but no schedule. I see a big TV in the room and remember that I can get my schedule online. I pull my iPad out of my backpack, but it’s a big, bulky, all black device that doesn’t work. I try for awhile to get the iPad to work, but I get nothing. I call to Eve that we have to go. She wanders back over to me, holding hands with a different little girl.

I’m in the kitchen of my house, loading the dishwasher. I think maybe I don’t have a class now, maybe it was the final period of the day and I didn’t have a class that period. I know that’s wrong though and I really have to find the schedule. My kitchen is a mess and I’m trying to get it cleaned up while I remember where I have to go. I call to Eve that we need to go now and I find her (I’m outside suddenly, but smoothly) and a different little girl playing in the dirt. She is all dirty. Great. There’s one more thing I have to do now.

Back in the kitchen, I’m in a hurry so everything is going wrong. Liquids spill on the floor, the dishwasher soap powder spills. I’m flustered. I call to Eve that we really need to go now, though I have no idea where to, and (suddenly back outside again) she wanders around the corner of the house, holding hands with another little girl. I see Eve has a little white and orange worm sticking out of her nose, wiggling around. She seems oblivious to it. My body starts to convulse.

I wake up. Thankfully! It doesn’t take a genius to analyze this dream, just two days before starting at UVEI, starting down a new path that will have me more tied down and committed than I have been for the past six years! Though the dream stuck with me all day, I’m happy that the “feeling” of the dream did not. I didn’t spend the day feeling stressed or anxious, but the dream was quite clearly still there.

I did, however, get the orientation schedule today and they posted a whole bunch of documents and assignments to our Google drive. I read through them this evening, though I’m sure we’ll review them all together at orientation next week. Suddenly it’s feeling very real and very much like a lot of work!