Love!

In honor of Valentine's Day (which my little people reminded me several times is coming in two days), I am writing about lovely things! In this case, I am writing about lovely teammates.

I recently had a really, really horrible day. I received some terrible news that made it quite difficult to get through the afternoon, and that afternoon just happened to culminate in a child wandering off and finding himself temporarily misplaced at dismissal time--all on my brand new volunteer's first day with our class. (Welcome to first grade...I'm promise it's not like this every day!)

Well, it was one of those days when chocolate was an absolute necessity--and also unavailable. Gah! I meandered into my teammates' room looking for some, and their stash was unfortunately empty. So I went back to my own classroom and just sat and stared for a while. (I admit it...not all of my prep time is spent grading things and making anchor charts and cutting out game pieces. Shhhhh don't tell!)

Anyway, the next day, I was sitting in my room when my two fantastic teammates walked in with this beautiful card and plate of double chocolate cookies, baked the night before especially for me because they knew how crappy my day had been.















(There were a lot more cookies before I took this picture. They were delicious.)


Best. Teammates. Ever. 

Chocolate.

One of the things that is super great about teaching is that it's mostly female, so people totally understand the necessity of chocolate as part of daily work and life.

The other day I was observed. I'm not a huge fan of being observed, particularly because the kids get really distracted by the crowd of unknown adults walking into the room in the middle of class, but it went fine. The great thing about it though, is the feedback. I do appreciate getting feedback, both positive feedback and impovement areas, because it reminds me of things I sometimes forget. There is a lot to remember in teaching, and sometimes I know to do something but it doesn't occur to me at that moment, and I appreciate the reminder.

My favorite thing, however, about my observation, was that my feedback form had a piece of chocolate attached to it. Not just any piece of chocolate, either. Ghirardelli white mint and dark chocolate. Hea. Ven. Ly.

Made my whole day.

Sometimes, it's just the little things...

Cravings

This is one of those posts I very occasionally write that has nothing to do with teaching at all. It happens. (WHAT?! There is life outside of teaching? Tell me more!) I know, right? Shocking.

The other day I was craving Chinese food. Does that ever happen to you? You just absolutely have to have something really specific at that moment? Anything else, and I wouldn't have been happy. I really really wanted Chinese food. But not just any Chinese food, mind you. It had to be Chinese buffet food. (Random, anyone? Yep. That's me. Random. It happens.)

I texted a friend who had already eaten, so she invited me to the Timberwolves game. Do they have egg rolls there? I think not. So I had to turn her down. 

I texted another friend who was busy. What? Busy? That's ridiculous. What could possibly be more important than Chinese food?

I was starting to think I'd have to settle for homemade pasta (sigh...) when I got a last-minute text back from a friend (new bff?) that made my day. His response to my randomness: "If you're craving something, you might as well indulge yourself. Let's go." 

That's friendship right there, man. People who indulge your cravings with gusto.

Guess who got her fill of sesame chicken and wontons? Yep, that's me. Even my fortune cookie was awesome. 

Sometimes indulgence is just the best thing ever. (That and cheese wontons.)

Zumba!

Since it's been so cold lately, we have had to find fun ways to get the kids active even though they haven't been able to go outside. Some days we have normal inside recess where they get to make cool things out of legos and manipulatives, but I wanted to give them a chance to use their large motor skills too (in ways that aren't against the rules...).

We've been doing Adventure to Fitness, which the kids LOVE (and so do I!). You can find out about it here. 

We went on the castle adventure and now we're in the middle of the dinosaur one. Our recess isn't quite long enough to do the whole thing, so it's been kind of nice to just do it in little pieces, even as just a warmup in the morning when they come to school sleepy. 

Anyway, during sharing time one morning, I told the kids that I frequently go to Zumba class. The kids found this very amusing and one of them said that he goes to Zumba with his mom at church. I was chatting with my Zumba instructor after class and she actually volunteered to come and teach my kids for half an hour. You wouldn't believe (or maybe you would) how ridiculously cute it was to watch 24 kids try to dance to Starships by Nicki Minaj. 

My favorite part, though, was when she asked them to freestyle in the middle of the circle. The kids really wanted to hear "Opa Gagnam Style", so she played it and every kid (and one mom!) spent the next five minutes bouncing up and down, Gagnam style. Naturally, I caught it on video. It was incredibly cute! 

I wish I could post it here, but since I can't, here's a cute video of some babies doing it too.

Recess.

So it's been a very cold January, and the kids and I have spent quite a bit of time indoors during recess time. And so, every day at 12:15, we have the exact same conversation. "Aww, Ms. M, por que no vamos afuera?"  Bueno, amiguitos, porque hace mucho frio y se van a convertir en cubos de hielo. Yo quiero ninos en mi clase, no cubos de hielo. "Oh."

("But WHY can't we go outside Ms. M?" Well, friends, because it's cold and you'll turn into ice cubes. And I want a class of children, not ice cubes. "Oh.") 

And then finally, after all this time, the weather decided to give us a break and the bring the temperature above zero for a day. (Shocker!) When I told the kids we were going outside, they erupted in cheers and one of them ran over and hugged me. Not one of those kids who is normally hanging on my arm, but one who is usually off in another galaxy, so it was pretty out of the ordinary for him. I guess he was really excited. 

Also, there is a headless, body-less snowman outside. I guess he's just a giant snowball. And yet, he's still endlessly entertaining. Yay snow! 

Well, hello, Wednesday. We meet again.

Today was our first day back to school after Christmas break. I was pretty bummed that the district cut our break short this year after having two full weeks off last year (that was heaven!). But of course, I love my kids, so once I'm actually out of bed, going to work isn't so hard.

On the first day back after a long break, I get a mild case of those "first day jitters" that I always get in August before the first day of school. (Yep, that's right, no waiting til after Labor Day for us.) I'm not quite sure, what will happen. It turned out to be a pretty good day. Here's the un-good, the good, and the adorable.

The un-good: Today is Wednesday. Imagine that--starting school on a Wednesday. No big deal, right? Short three-day reintroduction to getting up at 5 am, time to ease back into routines. Weekend is in two days. All that good stuff.

Problem is, Wednesday is not Monday. Why is that a problem, you ask? Because when one side of your brain knows it's Wednesday, and the other side of your brain thinks it's Monday, you have a tendency to frequently find yourself confuzzled. And thus, my predicament today. I got an email saying, "See you at the meeting this afternoon." My first thought was, What? That meeting isn't til Wednesday...OH CRAP IT'S WEDNESDAY, ISN'T IT? Oops. Good thing the meeting was in my room...Then later I saw another teammate who said, "See you at the meeting tomorrow." I said, "Um, aren't we meeting on Thursday?" (Pause for dramatic effect...) OH CRAP IT'S WEDNESDAY! Yep, again. Sigh...good thing it's almost the weekend.

The good, which is also the cute:

- It snowed, so we took my little ones out to play in the snow, and I got really adorable pictures of them rolling down the hill and making snow angels.

- When reviewing our classroom rules, we talked about why it's important to take care of books. "Why don't we step on them and rip the pages?" I asked. M raised her hand and said, "Because if you rip out the pages, you won't know what happens in the beginning. And if you don't know what happens in the beginning, the story won't make sense." (SEE? I KNEW we did a million story trains for a reason! Yay retelling skills! *pats self on back*) I love it when they learn stuff.

- Smiles. When my kids walk in the door at 7:15, and their little faces light up when they see me, waking up at 5 is totally worth it.

Happy January!

Loving the New Year

Happy New Year, everyone!

I know I've been gone for a while, sad times :( But I'm excited to be back in Blog Land!

It's 2013, can you believe it? We all survived the 21st--the Mayans were wrong, thank goodness.

I woke up this morning gushing with gratefulness for everything in my life. Even though I've recently had a few trials (some of them self-inflicted, unfortunately), I am so blessed I can hardly stand it. Even in the midst of my trials, I am surrounded by favor and goodness!

2013, for me, is the year of love. My resolution is simply this: to love. To love my family more (and make sure they know it), to love my friends old and new, to love my students more (is that possible?), to love myself more (and allow myself, therefore, to be unapologetically imperfect), to rest in the amazing love of God, and to spend more time doing what I love (which is part of why I'm back on Blogger -- I love to write!).

 Many people have a resolution, a theme, a goal this year. Mine is just to fill the year with love. What's yours?