Silly Puppy..

Big Dog insists that any insect that is flying around must.be.hers and she must eat it right.now.

Silly puppy, you can't do that when it lands on the t.v. because mommy and daddy don't want to see the television come crashing down over something as silly as a moth. When you do this, it causes daddy to jump up and grab you and shout to mommy to swat it down. (Silly daddy doesn't realize that I hate anything that has wings...)

Of course, once I swatted it away from the t.v., she proceeded to jump and eat it mid-air.

Silly puppy.

In case you were wondering, Little Dog was oblivious to the shenanigans going on and proceeded to wag her tail hoping someone would remember to come back and cuddle with her.

The One Where She Whines...

**WARNING: Whining to follow!**

I am annoyed with...

• being an adult and having responsibilities.
• students who repeatedly refuse to follow directions.
• having an IEP meeting tomorrow.
• having to tell a parent that their child is not doing well, despite what they may think about their "angel".
• deadlines, observations, professional development, and meetings.

However, I am loving...

• kids who insist on giving me hugs (even though I may not want them at the time..)
• kids who apologize for not following directions and sincerely mean it.
• Wednesday night television- hello ANTM, Modern Family, and Cougar Town. I heart you.
• my supportive family.
• a puppy who always wants to cuddle.

Thanks for letting me whine.

Wow..

I heart days off.

Today I accomplished SO much and I actually feel rejuvenated. I had a wonderful weekend with my mom and her best friend (girls weekend!) up in Pittsburgh, so I was really thinking I wouldn't get much done today. Boy was I wrong!

I found something that actually motivates me to clean! Books on tape. I LOVE to read, but reading often means that I'm pretty lazy because I want to finish the book. Instead, if it's being read to me, I have to find something else to do because I can't just sit and have it read to me. I cleaned the bathroom, kitchen, folded 4 loads of laundry, swept and mopped.

I also think I'm going to start having a evening schedule for each night. I'm SUCH a routine-oriented person, so instead of having the routine of coming home and cooking dinner and vegging out, I'm going to come home, walk the dogs, cook dinner, and then tidy one room of the house. That way I'm not stuck doing it on my day off or the weekends.

How do you ladies keep up on the housework? It's never-ending.. I swear.

He Knows Me Sooooo Well...

I have been hearing noises in the vents this evening. Of course I forgot to ask hubby about it before he left. So I called him.

Me: There are noises coming from the vent.

Hubby: Is it the air?

Me: Um... no... the air is coming out but noises are, too. Like weird noises. Like an animal or something.

Hubby: Go upstairs. The dogs are there, they will take care of it if it's an animal or something.

Two reasons this is a pretty normal conversation: 1) Never put it past me to not notice the obvious (in this case: the air) and 2) I don't like anything involving critters of any kind.

I'm really glad he thought the dogs would take care of it...

Workshop

Actual 7 year old writing project, which included stickers of a broomstick, ghost, and pumpkin.

The pumkin haz a scard fas.

(The pumpkin has a scared face.)

The gost sayz boo to skayr pepul but not me.

(The ghost says boo to scare people but not me.)

A wich flis on her broom wif nitrus.

(A witch flies on her broom with nitrous.)

Mrs. L flis on her broom wif owt nitrus.

(Mrs. L flies on her broom without nitrous.

I, of course, had to ask what nitrous is. Apparently it's NOS, the stuff you put in cars to make them go really fast. Because doesn't every broomstick have NOS? Of course.

Another group of kids was "reading" together. One turns to the other and says.. "Dude! You stink!" the (stinky one) turns and says, "Don't you know.. you smelled it, you dealt it! That means YOU stink!" and a fit of laughter erupted.

No wonder I have issues dealing with "bathroom humor", I hear it all day long. Bathroom humor is the only humor first graders have.

I was also asked what a pimp hand is. And, in our science lesson we were using our observation skills to figure out what objects were in the mystery containers. I had to write, "two tiny balls" and "big balls" on the overhead. I also may have repeated a child when he said fart. I then said fart two times after that. It's a wonder I get anything done in my classroom. I feel like all I talked about today was tooting and balls of all shapes and sizes.

Me immature? Yup.

I may have also had a kid eat a marker AND crayon today. I love my job.

Making Words...

Working with little ones is always an adventure. If you're a long time reader, you know this is certainly the case in my classroom.

 

Today we were working with the letter Nn. When asked to come up with their own words that began with the nnnnnn sound, I had some pretty interesting ones. Here are the winners and their definitions.

• nobble- you know, a long book with chapters and lots of pages.
• neener- someone who is acting mean.
• nada- as in nada chance.
• nookie- what my mom and dad do.

Sounding out words is fun, too! We were sounding out the word t-i-p. As we sounded it out, one kid was a little behind and sounded it out ttttttt....iiiiiiiii......tttttttt. I almost peed myself.

Warm Apple Pie

Dearest Starbucks,

I simply adore your Caramel Apple Spice. As in, I cannot get enough. If you could please go ahead and have this ready for me every morning, I would appreciate it. Seriously. Any drink that tastes like warm apple pie deserves to be mine every.single.morning.

Thank you.

Books?

I am in need of a new book. Any suggestions?

no subject

Sorry for the lameness of the title, but I just don't have anything witty.

You know you're a teacher when... you get excited for professional development days because it means you have more than 25 minutes to eat, can eat without working, AND you get to go out for lunch.

Yup. I had breakfast for lunch today. At a diner. With another adult. And did zero work. On a school day.

That's pretty awesome.

Beautiful?

Today during work time, the kids were working hard so I walked over to check my email quickly. As I was walking back, I heard one kid tell another, "Shut up you b@stard!". Not knowing the circumstances, I immediately sent him back to his seat and moved his clip (behavior management tool in our school). When I went to talk it over with him, I asked him why he would call a friend that and reminded him that we only use velvet words in our classroom and the word he said was not a velvet word.

His response? "He told me you weren't the most beautiful-est teacher in the world. So I told him he was a b@stard."

Do you know how hard it is to discipline a child when you're laughing so hard you're crying?

He was really ready to throw down because his classmate didn't think I was the most beautiful-est teacher in the world.

Glad to know he thinks I'm beautiful.

Domestic Diva?

Mmmm.. nothing like the smell of homemade pita pockets, homemade hummus, and cheesy broccoli and rice soup.

I'm pretty sure that automatically means I'm a domestic diva.

Plus, I rocked the KitchenAid Mixer. Seriously, is there anything better than that mixer? The only thing I need is the splash guard/pour spout. Then I think it would be perfect.

Sigh..

We are working so hard in my class to become "super readers" and every opportunity we get, we are reading something or attempting to read something. When we're not reading, we're sounding out words. This transfers over to our writing.

One little boy was writing the word sit. As he was sounding it out, he did ssssss hhhhhhh iiiiiiii ttttt and proceeded to write "shit".

That was a bright spot in my otherwise awful day.

Going to bed early, hoping to sleep off the funk.

Out of the mouths of babes...

Being away from my kids for a few days this week made me forget just how hilarious 7 year olds can be.

Today during our read-aloud, the kids were all sitting nicely (that doesn't happen often, you know...) on the carpet. One little guy leans over and lets one rip. Knowing that 7 year olds are so very immature, I ignored it and kept teaching. I then see one student after another covering their noses. Then it hits me. The smell. The horrible, rotten, disturbing smell of a child who has.. ahem.. let out a little gas.

Stifling my laughter (because really, toots are that funny), I quietly ask the student if, perhaps, he would like to go to the bathroom.

Me: "Do you think you need to go to the bathroom?"

Student: "Huh?"

Me: "Do you think you need to go potty?"

Little Miss Drama Queen: "Too late, I think he already did..."

I could not contain my laughter at this point. I had to raise the book to my face to cover the huge grin on my face.

And, later on in the day my exasperation had finally caught up to me when I said to a student, "Come on, dude... really?" His response? "You don't like it when I call you dude, so why did you call me dude?" Touche my friend, touche. No more dude. At least to your face.

We love books...

Today I introduced our Social Studies books to the kids. Because they are now 1st and 2nd graders, we are using individual text books instead of a big book for the whole group.

 

Forgetting that this was their first encounter with text books, I passed out the books and asked the kids to turn to the page we would be reading. I instantly had four hands waving wildly in the air. Confused, I called on a kid to see what was up. He shyly asks me, "Can we look at these books first? They are SO cool!". I also had one kid ask if he could keep his book because it was filled with fun stuff. Of course my whole social studies lesson flew out the window and I let the kids do a book browse. Turns out, that was way more informative than anything I could have taught them.

 

At the end of the day, a little came over to me and said, "Mrs. L... I love books just like I love you."

 

Even though they are naughty, I love them just like I love books.