Are you a rabbit?

For Red Ribbon week, everyone could dress up as their favorite book character on Friday. Most of the grades did things as a team. We had to think hard because with eight people on your team, a lot of books get ruled out quickly. We decided to dress as the different mice from the Kevin Henkes books. I immediately wanted to be Julius (a baby mouse) so I could go to Target and get adult footy pj's. (I'd secretly been wanting some for a while.) I made our ears so they would match the color of the mouse in our book. I got asked all day if I was a rabbit because of my white ears. :)

Back row: Chester's Way, Sheila Rae, The Brave, Julius, Baby of the World

Front Row: Weekend with Wendall, Wemberly Worried, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, Owen, Chrysamthemum

Picking up the Pace

It was back to the grind today. Oh yes, back to school. Goodbye staying up until 1. Goodbye sleeping in until 10. Goodbye laying out by the pool. Goodbye... until next June. :)

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So. I got lazy this summer. Yeah. I never do well on a strict diet but today I went back to eating only whole foods again. That I can do. It's easy to know and understand what to eat and why. I'll let you know how it's going every once and a while. Happy eating!

Field Trip, Buddy Day, Silent Auction

If you teach, you know how much is going on at the end of the year. I wanted to share a few pictures and info about what's been going on lately.

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Field Trip to HMNS

How knew IMAX and fossils were so gosh darn exciting?

Buddy Fun Day

Me and my buddy, Krissy.

I served my time in the dunking booth my first year. It was Holly's turn. :)

Second Grade Team

Silent Auction

We held a Family Day at school a few weeks ago and teachers were encouraged to offer up their time in a silent auction to raise money for a teacher that was diagnosed with cancer this year. I raised $145 to take two of my students to a movie and lunch. WHOOP! Krissy also had two students. We went and saw Shrek: The Final Chapter before heading over to Fudruckers. They truly enjoyed themselves and you know they are excited to go when you pull up to their house and they are waiting on top of the car looking out for you! I had a blast and would love to do it again!

Um, I love it!?

Teachers get some interesting gifts for Christmas. I usually put them into one of three categories. Here are a few from each this year. . .

Awesome! I love it!:

$25 Visa debit card

$50 gift card to Pappas chain restaurants

$25 gift card to Target

Super cute gift bags that I can reuse :)

Nice, but not something I needed/wanted:

$20 to Bath and Body Works (I'm not a smelly bath person. It irritates my skin.)

Cute, plaid scarf

Ornament one of the kids painted

Good smelling (thank goodness) Yankee Candle

Brownies in a Jar

Fleece throw with cats on it (it must be a present for Blanca)

You should have saved your money:

Puzzle

Stinky lotion

Assorted candies

Ugly soup bowl

'Love' necklace from Claire's

Perfume

Stinky candles

Note to parents: When in doubt, get your child's teacher a gift card. They will most likely love it and be very excited to use it.

School Funny!

So we are listing holidays to do an activity for social studies...

J: I know why we celebrate President's Day.

Me: Really? Why?

J: My mom said it's to pick a new President because the one we had this year is doing a bad job.

Me: Oh, that's nice.

OMG! I love it! Made me laugh for sure!

Red Ribbon Week

This week was Red Ribbon week. Yee-haw? Wednesday was 'To Smart to Start' and everyone was dressed like nerds! So much fun. I got told all day that I looked 'smart' and not 'nerdy'. I thought about just wearing my regular clothes and telling everyone that I look like a nerd everyday but decided to play along. :) I cropped a couple of the kids photos so you could see the outfits.

I am way too tall for my school buddies.

Nerd face!

The most awesome part is that I called for anyone dressed like a nerd to come up and i would take their picture. I didn't think he was dressed like a nerd since he's worn that sweater at least three other times. HA!

I love this kid! His pants were even higher, but they fell. He had on a belt with elastic waited pants, Harry Potter glasses with tape in the middle and his shirt pocket was full of pens, pencils and a calculator! Too cute! I wish you could see the look on his face!

Faculty Follies and Lotsa Pasta Dinner

Our PTO put on a 'dinner and a show' fundraiser this evening. Each grade level/area group was supposed to come up with an act of some sort to perform after/during the dinner. I missed get a picture of first grade, sorry girls! They sang 'Sweet Home Alabama' and changed the words to 'Sweet Home Wilder Elementary'. Here are the rest of the acts!

Are you ready for this?! Yes, that's my principal. The AP was on the other side of the stage.

Special Ed. and paras doing the chicken dance and telling chicken jokes.

Go Greased Lightning! - Kinder

The Do-Re-Mi's - Third Grade doing the skit/song from The Sound of Music

Leader of the Pack - Fifth Grade (Yes, Mr. K was on a motorcycle)

The Cupid Shuffle - PE/Music/Art

R-E-S-P-E-C-T - Fourth Grade (They even got a standing ovation!)

Jeopardy - Second Grade (The gals playing our AP, Principal, and Edward, of course!)

Alexis Trebek

Wilder Jeopardy cast

Holly and I were the stage crew. (We set everything up and I ran the slide show.)

Thriller! - Office Staff

I almost cried

Sorry. This won't be a sad story. It's a "laugh until you almost cry" story. So I try to train my kids at school to line up at recess by looking for me with my hand raised and that way I don't have to carry a whistle outside. It worked last year and it's going pretty well this year. We were outside for our 10 minutes after lunch (exciting) today and I see one of my kiddos getting into a huge pile of sand behind the playground. Why the pile is there, I have no clue. I go back there to pretend to be mad about it (I could care less but I know they shouldn't be there) and after I fake get mad at them I turn around and see most of my class bolting for the doors. Huh?! What in the heck are they doing? Then it hits me. They think I've left them outside! HA HA! They are freaking out and climbing all over each other to get in the doors and I'm standing there laughing at them. It was awesome. I love freaking them out like that. Mean, maybe. Funny, yes. They procede to run indoors and start running down the hallway to try and catch me. They slammed the door in one girls face and she got left outside beating on the doors yelling for someone to let her in. Poor thing. She got sacrificed. Anyway, another second grade teacher asked them what the heck they were doing and sent them back outside. They came back looking bewildered but no worse for the wear. I told them they did the right thing since they thought I went inside but to check with one of other teachers first. So funny. It still makes me smile.

Bully-free zone

J:"Ms. Bowen. You want to know another reason why I like this school better than my old school?"
Me: "Why?"
J: "Because there aren't any bullies in here. There was a bully in my class at my other school and they were mean all the time and said curse words to the teacher."

It's nice to know I've created a bully free zone and that none of the kids are gutsy enough to sat curse words to me.

I feel old

My kiddos this year are making me feel very old. Not my morning class so much, but my afternoon cluster class. I love them because they laugh at my jokes, understand me when I use 'big' words and actually love learning. A blessing! Although I love them dearly, they make me feel old. The first week of school one of them spoke to me in text. Yes. Thank goodness it was something I could understand. (I still write out complete words in texts.) I was telling them about myself and a little girls busts out with, "O-M-G!" I didn't know I was that exciting. Yesterday, in the middle of their math quiz, another little girls looks at me and asks, "Do you have a Facebook?" Me: "Yes I do. Why do you ask?" Her: "I have a Facebook." Me: "How do you have a Facebook?! You're 7!" Her: "I lied about my age." Me: "How old do you have to be?" Her: "I dunno. 18 I think." A boy chimes in, "I have a Facebook too!" Oh good Lord. Really? I am more than three times their age and what kind of parent lets their 7 year old set up a Facebook account?! Is Facebook going to become the new breeding ground for pedophiles? MySpace will no longer be enough. Anyway, I was amused and freaked out at the same time. I told them to not even waste their time looking for me because I would deny their friend request since I am their teacher and not their friend. :) I did look them both up when I got home and they weren't lying about having accounts. Kids these days!

Welcome to 301

Today was the first day of my third year. Crazy. Our doors opened at 7:15 for the kiddos. I had to wake up SUPER early to get there in enough time to check over everything to make sure I was ready. My mom has always told me that they goal the first day is get them home alive. Feeding them is a bonus. I use this as my mantra. I don't know if I'll ever feel completely prepared on the first day but I'm now past the "Am I going to live through the day?" and "Are they going to eat me alive?" freakout moments. I've yet to have a bad first day of school. Knock on wood. The past three years have given me quiet kids who are scared of me when they enter my doors. Perfect! Ok, the run-down of my kiddos...
One spacey talker-girl who already loses things
One boy who says, "So, let's just say..."
A couple of goof-ball boys (aren't goof-ball and boy synonyms?)
Several super quiet kids
A good mix of sweet kids, lets see how the year goes!

Sure. Why not?

So after my AP has already done a walk through for a PDAS eval., she returns this afternoon and I'm wondering what the heck is going on. She informs me that I've been nominated for ?Teacher of the Year. I proceeded to laugh out loud. I actually laughed at her. I think of myself as a good teacher but I am in no way qualified to represent my school and move on to interviews with district personnel. There's TONS of paperwork to do and it doesn't seem like fun at all. Well, after she tells me that you have to be nominated by at least two people to be considered, she says, "So do you want to have your name on the ballot?" All I'm thinking is that there is no way I'd ever win this thing and I have teachers on my team (who apparently weren't nominated- maybe I should have remembered to do that, oops) who deserve this award ten times before myself. But out of my mouth comes, "Sure. Why not?" Now the problem is going to be if pigs learn to fly and I actually win this thing.

I blame the media

In the spirit of things being whacked out today (my stomach, my sleep pattern) I decided to share a story about my crazy kiddos. So this afternoon, one of my girls walks up and says she found this note next to her cubby with a worried look on her face. I'm thinking "Awesome. Someone is calling another kid stupid, fat, ugly, etc." Not so much. On the front there are multiple pictures of stickmen in baseball hats pointing guns at each other with bullets spewing all over the place and the stickmen are all saying "Boom!" I'm still not too worried at this point because although isn't not appropriate for school, a talking to, a clip pull, and a note to mom can fix it. Well, then I turn it over. Are you ready for the language? This time a stickman has a gun pointed at another one and the bullets are flying toward him but the gunman is saying "Who is the bitch now fucker." Um, SAY WHAT?! All spelling correctly might I add. Oh yes. From a second grader. I knew it was from my morning class and I recognized the baseball hats in the drawing so I knew who it was. I flew next door and interrupt my partner to start ranting about how livid I am and demanding to know who did it. Selina was lost until I showed her, to which she joins in my fury. I don't always handle situations the best way but I don't think putting on the "I need to know who did this. It's very bad." sweet voice is going to help either. They had about 20 minutes until the end of the day and we told them to fess up or the principal would be down the next morning wasting my time (big no no) and asking each kid if they knew anything about it. Fingers start flying to two kids. One was my suspect. After school I ask the kid if he did it and he lied straight to my face of course. Like we won't figure it out and they be mad that you lied! Hello?! Anyway, Selina interrogated him after I went to after-school duty and he starts crying and confesses. I wrote him up after school and it will be interesting to see what they do with him. His excuse was that in art class this morning, "She said we can draw whatever we want."

I apologize for ny grammatical errors. I hate re-reading and type quickly in run-on sentences, just like I think.

Update: He got ISS for two days and his mom wanted even more. Boy is he going to get it at home! Poor kid. I've met mom. It's not going to be pretty.

Colds and 4.1

I thought I'd share a school story from yesterday along with my running progress. I've had a bit of a stuffy nose for the past few days. Nothing to complain about and I still feel ok. Yesterday I sounded stuffy so the kiddos had been asking me all day if I was sick. In my afternoon class we were doing a water conservation activity and I got that feeling when something is caught in your throat. You know, that itchy feeling that makes your eyes water and you start coughing? Well, the kids are looking at me like I'm on my death bed and even after I get some water I'm still looking pretty bad. The only thing I can do is barely make a whisper so I decide to make the best of it. It was Friday afternoon with less than an hour of school left so the kids were getting wound up. Them :"Can you talk Ms. Bowen?"
Me: "Barely. I'm going to have to whisper. That's all I can do."
Them: "We'll have to be very quite so we can hear you."
Me: "Yes. Yes you will. Ok, here's what I need you to do..."
Muah ha hahahah! It was great. That was the most relaxing Friday afternoon I've had in a while. They are good kids and we always pack up quietly but they were extra careful yesterday. One of my Pakistani kiddos who wears a thermos full of water around his neck come up to me and says, "I know what you need Ms. Bowen." "Yes, S?" "You need to go home and have soup and rest for two days." "I've had soup for the past two days S." "Soup and rest for two days." "Ok, S I'll do my best." Too cute! He was so serious too! They were also worried that I'd have a substitute on Monday and they hated when I was gone. Aww, the little snots do like me! Ha.

Ok, on to running. Krissy and I headed out for a 4.1 mile run yesterday after school. I hate running on Fridays after school but sometimes that's the only day we can get together. The wind was insane. We're going along just fine and then we turned to corner. It felt like running uphill and totally ruined our mile time but the goal was just to get through the run without stopping. Needless to say we rocked it out despite the wind and finished in 44:33. that gives us a mile time of 10:51 but without the wind it would have been around 10:30 I think. A good run none the less and I felt great afterward. I'm thinking about how 6.2 won't be so bad and Krissy says, "I'm worried about 6 miles." It's so funny how the same run can go so differently for people. I'm looking forward to our 4.8 mile run next Thursday.

Today: 4.1 (well, yesterday)
YTD: 19.6

I think I'm going to be sick!

Ok, so I was grading a large stack of papers tonight just because it's a necessary evil. So I was thinking about how many papers we teachers grade. The numbers are staggering! Ok, so here's the breakdown.

• I'm required to grade 9 assignments in each of my three subjects (math, science, and social studies) each nine-weeks grading period.
• I currently teach 43 students between my two classes.
• Each week I have to grade (43x3) 129 papers.
• Even if it only takes one minutes each, I'm still spending two hours each week on grading.
• We have 36 weeks of school.
• This school year I will grade AT LEAST. . . (129x36) 4, 644 papers!!!!!!!!
• That's not counting those checked for completion and understanding of the concept that are not graded.
• Holy mess! I also spend at least THREE DAYS (2 hours x36) grading papers! I lose three days out of my year grading papers! I think I'm going to be sick!

I should not have figured that out. Bad idea. It's sad to think I'm required to spend so much time grading when I could be working on other things. I know they are a way to measure what my little darlings are doing, but I'm not paid that great. I only take home 32k a year after taxes, health insurance and my extra retirement.

Thank a teacher next time you see them. We truly do love our jobs and spend most of our time thinking about how to get to each and every darling so they can succeed to the best of their abilities. We go home worrying about them because no one will be there when they get home. We are teachers, counselors, mediators, doctors, comedians and numerous other things while sometimes being the only parent and guiding source those students have. (I'll have to share stories of my adopted son, Ken, from last year. I love him! Too cute!)

Goodnight. I have to sleep so I can teach our future about 3-D shapes, the water cycle, and family heritage and culture. I love my job!

Side note: After finishing this post and turning off my computer and realized I never proof-read it. I got back out of bed, turned on my computer and proceeded to check for misspelled words and anything crazy. There still are some mistakes I'm sure but I found it interesting that I couldn't relax until I got up to check it. I'm a loser. Night!