What I learned this week...

1. I'm finally comfortable enough with myself to break it down in front of a bunch of middle school kids and a few teachers. I danced to the Cha-Cha Slide, Staying Alive, Thriller... I had a blast.
2. The above mentioned middle school kids think I'm 23. Bless them.
3. Little things can make a big difference with kids. That kid I mentioned before, the one I caught being good, it did make a difference.
4. I love the week leading up to Halloween. Each day was a dress-up day: 60's & 70's day, crazy hair day, crazy sock day... etc.
5.Finally, and most importantly, I love being a teacher. Through the good times and the bad times. I was made for this.

Planning ahead

I bought some plane tickets.... guess where I'm going for Spring Break?

Painting & Settling In

I think my first formal observation went well... won't meet with the principal until next week, but he didn't call me in right away to fire me... so I'm taking that as a good sign. Besides, I feel like it went well. I'm just curious what comments/suggestions he has for me.

Book club was fun. Of course we didn't talk about the book that much. But the seven of us found plenty to keep ourselves entertained. And there were 2 dogs there, so I was a happy girl.

I finally got around to painting the two tables Dad & I picked up at a garage sale in Telluride. They were red, now they're DARK purple. Purrrrrty.

I'm kind of behind on grading again, which means I've got plenty to keep me busy this weekend.

Stories

Snow today!

So many things happen at school and I want to share these stories with you, but I must respect my student's confidentiality. In order to do this I will name all of my students "student" and I'll use the pronouns (he/she) interchangeably.

I have a student who needs to be loved. By all accounts (and observations) he does not have a good family life. This student told me one time that "Everybody hates me." And I genuinely think he believes it. I told him "I don't hate you" and he seemed surprised by that. He's always in trouble, but today I "caught him being good" and rewarded him for it. That's what he needs - some positive attention for his good behavior and I'm making an effort to see he gets it. It's good for him and it makes me feel good because I'm helping him and showing him that someone cares about him and notices when he does good things.

What've I been doing?

Helped out with the HS football game - worked at the gate in the freezing cold. BUT got to love 3 puppy dogs, visit with (and pick the mind of) a lovely experienced teacher, AND had a great view of the alpenglow as the sun set.

Today I had my first tear-jerker moment with a student. This student was struggling so much, trying so hard to understand, and I was explaining it as simply and in as many different ways as possible. Neither of us gave up and watching this student struggle was almost heart breaking. But in the end this student understood most of what I was trying to get across and they left my desk with a smile because they had finished the assignment.

Bitter sweet? I think that applies. I'm so happy at what we achieved, but it was still hard to watch the student struggle so much.

Spent an hour with the district computer guru trying to fix a dozen little problems with my lab. Fixed about two thirds... the rest will have to wait. Ahhh computers!

Still enjoying teaching. Still having fun with the kids.

Gotta make a run to Denver to buy some stuff... snow shovel, snow boots, etc.

It's a horse... it's a plane...

I was driving to a nearby town for dinner when the truck in front of me swerved. I looked over to see a horse... a BIG horse running along the side of the road... swerving back and forth. I'm not sure what it's doing or where it's going, so I slow down. It turns around and I realize it's a moose... a BIG moose and she's as confused as I am. Then she starts running right at me, so I slam on my breaks. Problem is, she's still headed right for me. I'm staring at her face-to-face and I'm in a Honda Element. Thankfully the van behind me slams on their breaks, tires squealing and the poor moose decides she's had enough. She gave up on crossing the road and headed back the way she came.

Needless to say I'm relieved I didn't hit the moose. I'm relieved she didn't hit me. And I'm relieved the car behind me didn't hit me.

Welcome to The Rockies.

Taos 2008

Taos Wool Festival












Taos, NM




Alpaca Ranch

Back from Taos

Got in last night at 8:30pm.

Took quite a few pictures this weekend, hopefully I have a few good ones.

Gotta get to work soon and then I have an online class tonight, but maybe I can post the pics tomorrow.

On the road again... and again...

I feel like I've driven more this year than in all my other years combined.

Maybe I have.

I used to enjoy driving, but now it's become something I *have* to do... a means to an end. Ah well.

On the plus side! I'm *driving* to Taos, NM tomorrow (for a 4 day weekend) to join my parents at the Taos Wool Festival. Woot!

I guess all that pesky driving is ok when you get to go/do something cool :)

I actually took a personal day (Monday) so that I could make it a 4 day weekend and not stress myself out trying to get back to school Monday morning.

Gots me a book on cd, Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog on iPod, lotsa music, and my imagination. Shouldn't be too horrible.

And, in the extremely unlikely event that I get bored while at the festival, I'm about halfway through Eldest. Brisingr... here I come!

I'll try to take lotsa pics so I have something interesting for you, my lovely readers, to peep at.

As promised...

Fall Colors 2008

Time to go for a drive...

Last weekend I noted the progression of fall colors, thinking that by this weekend they'd be perfect for pictures... and they are!

So I'm off to drive around a bit to see if I can get some decent pictures

Stay tuned.

Devil cat? Or Yoda?

The things my kids find on the internet... I have them working on Newsletters and several students decided to do "weird-but-true" news... This is one of the articles they chose.

The cat's owner named him Yoda, but I think he looks more like a devil... maybe they should have named him Lucifer... What do you think?

Rude awakening...

At some point during the night I was awakened by an odd squeak. I opened my eyes to find myself face-to-face with my darling kitty. She was sitting there staring at me. A few seconds later I realized my face was wet... I put two and two together and came up with what caused my rude awakening... my kitty sneezed on me. On my face to be exact. And that's what woke me up.

So what did I do?

I wiped off my face, picked her up and tossed her to the foot of the bed, called her a choice name, and went back to sleep.

Week 2

Well, Monday was fine. Uneventful even.

Tuesday morning, first period, before class even started, I had two boys fighting in my room. That made for a rough day.

Wednesday 7am - 8pm (stayed late for Open House with parents). I didn't have to give any presentations, so I was able to stay in my room and get a lot of work done in between visits. A bunch of parents stopped by to introduce themselves and they were all really nice - not at all scary.

Thursday afternoon we had our first pep rally and I had NO idea exactly HOW LOUD 150 teenage girls could be... and how HIGH PITCHED. I mean really! But it was fun too. And then, one of my boys brought me an apple. How cute is that?!?

Friday - all day training.

I'm surviving and I'm still having fun, fight excluded. But I'm tired and my back hurts - even with good shoes. I'm making it one day at a time.

And the winner is....

Froyd!

Congratulations on winning the $10.00 Amazon gift card. Just shoot an email (from your preferred email account) to aaspenstarshine AT hotmail.com and I'll email your gift card to you! Ah technology is a wonderful thing... when it works ;)

Sorry it took me so long to get this posted, I spent most of the weekend sifting through papers and making lesson plans.

Speaking of... Time for school!

First Week of School

Successfully completed.

I do have some challenges ahead of me, no doubt about that.

However, I'm looking forward to this new adventure and I'm happy with the way the kids are responding to me.

Texted several of my MN friends today (good to know they haven't forgotten about me), called one of my aunts (who shared in my joy), and received an unexpected call from a cousin (who was just thinking about me and wondering how I was doing - isn't that sweet?).

Overall... Good week and good day.

I've got several emails to send tomorrow and a few more calls. I want to keep in touch with all my MN friends and TX/AL family. It's a bit of a juggling act - totally worth it - and making me realize how many friends/loved ones I have... I'm extremely thankful, if a bit sad for missing them.

First Day of School

I survived!

More than that... I kind of had fun.

I'm completely exhausted and my feet and my back are killing me, but it wasn't horrible.

I have over 180 students this semester, which is CRAZY. It's going to take me forever to learn all their names. I'll get there though.

Long day for me... at school from 7am to 5:30pm and then I came home and spent another couple of hours working. That's my life for the next... 30 years. I shouldn't complain, the 4-day work week kinda rocks.

It's 8:25pm and I'm going to bed. LoL

Ahhhh well... At least I knew what I was getting myself into! I have plenty of teachers in my family, friends who were/are teachers and then there was student teaching and subbing.

1001

Spent this morning working on my curriculum/lesson plans and this afternoon weighing and measuring (height) kids for registration.

Other than the extreme heat this afternoon I had fun. I met many of my students (and their parents) and I'm feeling even better about things.

Now I have a four-day weekend to finish unpacking and put the final touches on my first few weeks of lesson plans.

I REALLLLLLLLY need to finish unpacking. I got to a certain point and kind of gave up on it. There are several unopened boxes in my bedroom and a BUNCH in my office. My goal is to have everything unpacked and in its proper place so I can take and post pictures of my new digs by next week.

We'll see how that goes :)

1000

This is my 1000th post since July of 2002.

In celebration, I'd like to reward my faithful readers. I'm having a contest and it's super-simple! Just comment to this post by Sept. 4th at 11:59pm (central) and include how long you've been following my blog.

The prize is a $10 Amazon gift card. A thousand pennies, one for each post.

I'll put all your names in a bag and draw the winner Sept. 5th - once I've survived the first week of school!

Succumbing to parental pressure...

to blog.

*chuckle*

I've been busy with teacher in-service, training and developing my lesson plans for this year.

So far so good... Other teachers keep checking in with me to see how I am and if I need anything. I'm feeling very welcome and supported.