some things never change...

my brother tells me that it's snowing up in portland. friends in seattle say it's snowing up there too. darn it...i want it to snow here! then, i won't have to go to school/work tomorrow. too bad snow days are unlikely here. boo.

thanksgiving!

thanksgiving morning started off with a flag football. 'twas quite fun. afterwards, the orphans went and started prepping for dinner. we ate so much food. we had turkey, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, garlic mashed potatoes, cous cous, corn bread stuffing, sauteed string beans with asparagus, salad, somen salad, and poached pears. oh, and of course, sangria. i think we were all in pain after dinner. seriously. and then it was time for apples to apples! fun game! there are pictures, but they won't be posted until i go on vacation...3 more weeks of teaching and then it's sweet, glorious vacation!

friday morning, i woke up and got ready to drive up to san jose to meet up with shiv for her bridal shower weekend. i got to downtown sf around 5:30 and went shopping while i waited to meet up with them for the macy's tree lighting at union square. it was insane with people walking around. but i managed to find them and we saw the tree, ate, and then went home. at shiv's parents' house, we stayed up watching grey's anatomy and she and jamie got me hooked on survivor. i've since developed a mini-crush on yul.

saturday was breakfast with the wong family and then a tiny bit of wedding sweatshop work - i made 3 (or was it 4?) oragami flowers for the centerpieces at the reception. we had the bridal shower at a teahouse in menlo park and it was so much fun! there were games, food, presents, and a whole lot of fun. and then it was the long drive back home. i made it back in 5.5 hours with 2 gas stops and a food stop. i was so exhausted. so this morning, i stayed in bed watching survivor until 1pm. :) and i don't want to go to school tomorrow.

ok, only 15 more days and then i'm on vacation. let the countdown begin.

mysterious messages

over the last few weeks, i've been getting these random text messages on my phone, usually around 8am. they are encouraging messages, like "glorious morning!" and "amazingly beautiful day! great and awesome is our God!!!" i got another this morning, so on my way home, i texted the phone number to ask for the person's identity. all they replied with was, "someone who loves the Lord." while it's lovely to be encouraged, it's also a little odd that it's anonymous.

fourth grade funnies

today seemed to drag. so, to help me remember why teaching can be entertaining, i've compiled a short list of amusing things that have happened this year:

two months ago... during afternoon independent work time, one of the kids (ChMe) comes running up with a note in his hand. the note read: "i got to throw up." his other hand was covering his mouth. i told him to run to the garbage can. he wrote me a note to tell me he had to throw up and to ask for permission! this is a first.

last month... the kids took a district science test. the last part is a constructed response (short answer) question. as the kids were finishing up the question on a plant/animal food web about producers and consumers, i wrote some language arts vocabulary on the whiteboard. after school, i was grading their responses and i came across JeS's. the question was "what does the arrow from the mice and the songbird to the plant tell you about mice and songbirds?" something along the lines of "both songbirds and mice eat plants/consume plants" would've been correct. she had written, "the producers and consumers ambition." seriously...no logical connection! i started laughing so hard there were tears. she is the only student in the class who randomly interjected a vocab word into her science answer. this might only be funny to me...and other teachers, but i made a photo copy of it to keep.

last week... like i mentioned before, i had the kids make their own greeting cards and think up messages for the inside of the card. i read CaG's message to his parents. this is what it said, "i'm sorry mom and dad for getting in trouble. i really like you guys. when i see david hasselhoff, it makes me want to puke." hahaha... i couldn't hold back the laughter. i asked him where he heard about david hasselhoff and he said tv. i don't think he knew why i thought it was funny.

a few weeks ago... my disheveled girl, MoF, was caught drawing on her composition book. after i confiscated it, i had to try hard not to laugh. she had been drawing a giant-headed princess and a giant-headed prince kissing, along with two ponies, presumably a boy and girl pony with hearts all around. the drawings were pretty funny. i made a copy of this too. this same girl, i caught her staring off into space and drawing on her cheek with a pencil...twice! when i told her she had pencil marks on her face, she said, "how did it get there?"

on friday afternoon, i spotted one of the kids in the after school program and he ran up to me to ask me if i had a paper clip. i said no and asked him what he wanted it for. he said that he and his brother like to stick it in electrical sockets and get a slight electrocution. i looked at him and said, "huh...that actually explains a lot." and he looked back at me, blankly.

today, i sent home a notice about different magnet school programs that they can apply to for next year if their families are interested. one boy, JaS, asked, "do we have to wear magnets?" ahahaha... the girl next to him, in an exasperated manner, was like, "oh my god..."

emergency drills

this morning, we had a "shelter in place" drill, which basically means that the alarm sounds and we are to stay in the classroom, lock the doors, and turn off the a/c - in the event that there are hazardous airborne pathogens. so during the drill time, i had to explain to the students what it was for and why we have practice drills. the students had a lot of questions and a whole lot of stories to share about different experiences with emergency situations. it was really sobering to hear that many of them have experienced a lock-down either in school or at their apartment building because of neighborhood shootings. even scarier, a handful of the kids have seen a dead body in the street after gunfire. and it's weird to me that they are really nonchalant in talking about it. it's another reminder for me that i have such little understanding of the daily life that they engage in. their reality is a foreign concept to me.

this week, the students are reading a story about a blind kid who starts a greeting card business for step-families. as an activity, i had the students make their own greeting cards in class and i was kind of surprised to learn that many of them have step-families too. it was another reminder about how little i know about my students' families, though parent conferences have given me some more insight into their backgrounds. some of the parents today had very complementary things to say, such as how their kid talks about the class and me and think i'm really nice. eh...i don't care so much about being nice. i would much rather be effective and hear that the students seem to be learning.

i have all of these ideas of things to do in class, and then i never get to actually planning them out or prepping it. so sad. but, i am starting to like my students more and am no longer as overwhelmed by the fact that there are so many of them. i have to say that that is a 1st-year teacher victory.

as a side note: will most of my posts now pertain to teaching? yes...because i have no outside life. boo.

conference time

this is parent conference week. i have 32 students and therefore, 32 parent conferences. as of today, after 10 back to back conferences, i'm done with half of them. they've gone pretty well so far, but then the conferences have been with the parents of the students who are doing pretty well. tomorrow begins the set with many of my struggling students who are really below 4th grade expectations. did i mention that out of 32 conferences, 26 of them are in spanish? it's actually kind of terrifying, but i'm making it through and the parents have been so gracious with my language mistakes.

and it's almost thanksgiving! which means that next week is a 3-day week of school. and after that, it's only 3 more full weeks until i'm off-track and on vacation! if i can just make it through mid-december, i will be ok.

did you go out and vote?

i left school early for the first time in a few weeks. by early, i mean 5pm. how sad. i hope you all went out and exercised your right to vote!

in other news, i, along with every other teacher at my school, am incredibly excited that friday is veterans day. this means that we have a 4-day work week and an extra day of weekend. the last two weeks have passed super slowly leading up to this shortened week. hooray! i love having a day away from the kids. they get a break from me and me, from them - we all win.

and, i just bought my tickets home for christmas! yay!!! i haven't been back home in almost half a year. that is forever. it very well may be the longest i've been away without a visit. i can't wait to veg with the fam and play! and even better, if it would snow...just for a day, after a day, it's just a traffic nightmare.