So, I'm not going to lie, I've had a pretty rotten week. Without going into detail, I have to say that this has probably been the worst week since I've started teaching. Let's just say I have been giving some serious thought to what else I could do with my degree. Haha. (Even to the extent of thinking of going back to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and trying to work my way up the Totem Pole). But within all this, there have been a few things that have made this week (and last week) slightly better. They are as follows:
1- One of my students who normally has terrible handwriting and difficult behavior was an angel all of last week and used his very best handwriting in every subject area. Success!
2- One of my students is always on task, always looking to me to follow what I want him to do. We were walking in the hall, and, as always, he was following all of our rules for walking in the hall. I gave him a thumbs up, he smiled, and winked at me. I almost busted up laughing because it was so cute and funny! This same boy has walked past my classroom and said goodbye to me the past few days about 5 minutes after the bell has rung. Definitely a good way to end my day.
3- One of my hardest students is on a behavior contract now, and his behavior improved immensely last week. In fact, twice last week he came and gave me a big hug and said thank you for the scores that I gave him for various parts of the day. Then, yesterday, he brought in a bag of salt water taffy for us to use as our "mystery prize" this week. He told me that he earned 2 dollars, and he wanted to use it to get something for our class, so he bought the taffy for a prize. He said that it was very generous of him. :)
4- I have been sick this week. I started to lose my voice on Monday, and one of my little girls gave me a couple of hugs during the day, and told me that she was sorry that I was losing my voice. Yesterday, she gave me a hug before recess again, and told me that she was sorry that I was sick. So sweet!
Because I have no voice, I have a substitute today. I'm not going to lie, it's kind of nice to have the day off, especially because I have strained my voice at work the past couple of days. So, I slept in (until 8:05), and then took a hot (or at least as hot as I can get at my apt. complex...) bath. Now I am reclining on the couch with vicks on my chest and feet, eating lipton noodle soup, drinking water and sprite, blogging, and watching Pride and Prejudice (the 5 hour version). I have to admit that I have also been talking to myself this morning. Not so much because I'm lonely, but because I've been trying to gauge how my voice is doing. This is kind of how it's been going: *cough, cough* "Oh, do I have my voice back now? Oh...not really," or "Can you hear me now? Uh...nope, it's still gone!" or trying to sing along with music....let's just say it's incredible how many wrong notes you can hit in a row when you are trying to sing along with Pandora when you have no voice.
Well, I think that's about all I can think of to "say" right now. I guess typing will have to be my way of expressing myself for now, because I sure can't do it through talking. Haha!
Adios!
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Once upon November
Once upon a time, November seemed really far away. But, here we are over halfway through November already! It is super crazy how time can seem to be moving so quickly, but so slowly at the same time. But perhaps that's because I'm a bit of an impatient person. It is moving super quickly in that I have so much that I need to do and I feel like there is never enough time to do it. But then again, can you believe that it's already NOVEMBER? It's only 37 days until Christmas, which is just enough time to get all excited and ready for it. But, before Christmas I have so very much to do, including: finishing out my last semester at UVU (projects, portfolios, evaluations, the works), one final teaching evaluation by my intern coach, teaching my students a song for the school Christmas program, having my students make a Christmas craft to give to their families as a gift the night of the Christmas concert, planning games for our faculty Christmas party, not to mention trying to teach my kids all the material for math second term so we can take the district test BEFORE they go on Christmas break where they would forgot all the math they had learned due to sugar and presents and fun overload. (I know, that was a terribly long Christmas and not grammatically correct, but since this is not a paper or anything formal for that matter, I feel like I can do as I please. :) ).
One funny story that happened a couple of weeks ago in class: We were watching The Magic School Bus and one of my students pipes up and says, "Miss Hansen, these are really old!" To which I responded that they were kind of old. He then said, "Yeah, I used to watch them when I was a kid." So, apparently being a "kid" is now redefined as being under the age of 7. (I just have to add a little disclaimer that this is the first time that I have shown my kids The Magic School Bus or any longish movie. But, my elbow started to hurt almost as soon as I got to school and I was without painkiller--what a great start to my Friday! I was just going to try to tough it out, but it kept hurting all day, and I was starting to feel kind of icky. On top of that, one of my girls sprayed perfume of sorts in the classroom, and it gave me a headache. So, on my lunch break, I went to the office and begged--okay I just asked-- for some painkiller. My request was satisfied with some tylenol, and I went back to work. But, my energy was kind of low, so we just watched Magic School Bus, and it was great! The kids loved it, and I think they learned something too, which is an added bonus!)
That is about all I have to say, other than I am super excited for this week to be over, as cynical as that sounds, because I am super excited for a break! And, what else could you ask for in a break other than spending time with friends and family, eating great food, relaxing, and playing some games! Sounds pretty wonderful to me!
Well adios, y'all!
One funny story that happened a couple of weeks ago in class: We were watching The Magic School Bus and one of my students pipes up and says, "Miss Hansen, these are really old!" To which I responded that they were kind of old. He then said, "Yeah, I used to watch them when I was a kid." So, apparently being a "kid" is now redefined as being under the age of 7. (I just have to add a little disclaimer that this is the first time that I have shown my kids The Magic School Bus or any longish movie. But, my elbow started to hurt almost as soon as I got to school and I was without painkiller--what a great start to my Friday! I was just going to try to tough it out, but it kept hurting all day, and I was starting to feel kind of icky. On top of that, one of my girls sprayed perfume of sorts in the classroom, and it gave me a headache. So, on my lunch break, I went to the office and begged--okay I just asked-- for some painkiller. My request was satisfied with some tylenol, and I went back to work. But, my energy was kind of low, so we just watched Magic School Bus, and it was great! The kids loved it, and I think they learned something too, which is an added bonus!)
That is about all I have to say, other than I am super excited for this week to be over, as cynical as that sounds, because I am super excited for a break! And, what else could you ask for in a break other than spending time with friends and family, eating great food, relaxing, and playing some games! Sounds pretty wonderful to me!
Well adios, y'all!
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Every Day's an Adventure
To quote one of my favorite movies, "Adventure is out there!" Some may have to look for adventure. For others, adventures simply come. I would say that in second grade, adventures simply just come.
My most eventful day this week was Thursday. Whoever planned the schedule for this day did a very poor job- it was make-up picture day, pajama day, and reflections assembly day. So, we had kids that came in normal clothes to get their pictures taken, and then they brought pajamas to change into afterwards. Not that this would ever cause chaos or confusion in a second grade class...
So, pretty much, my kiddos were having a pretty fun day. Well, to add to the excitement, I decided to do and activity with M&Ms in math regarding odd and even numbers and making equations. I made it quite clear that they were not allowed to eat their M&Ms until they were told, so that wasn't much of an issue. The lesson went fairly smoothly and the kids seemed to have fun and understand it. (I later had a girl ask me if we were going to do math today, and I told her that the M&M activity was math. She said that it was so fun that she didn't even notice she was doing math. :)).
I finally let my kids eat their M&Ms while they finished their math and science work. I put on some Disney music to help them focus while they worked and to make things fun. I seriously turned my back for 2 seconds, and one of the boys in my class is standing backwards on his chair "dancing" (a.k.a. shaking it) and pulling his pajama pants down. Needless to say I had to stop him before his pants were all the way off.
About 2 minutes later, I look at a different student, and he has a green M&M up his nose. I told him to get it out of his nose immediately (which he proceeded to do by pushing in his other nostril and forcefully blowing). I then told him to go throw it away and wash his hands. While he was washing his hands, a girl in my class came up to me and told me that he licked his hand before washing it. Yep. I am definitely teaching second graders going on preschoolers.
I did have a good laugh about both of these afterwards though! I guess things like these spice up life, and you just have to learn to love the spices.
In closing, I would just like to leave a little joke that I came up with. I think it's quite funny, but I may be a little biased.
What does a minion dance at the ball?
A minionuet.
My most eventful day this week was Thursday. Whoever planned the schedule for this day did a very poor job- it was make-up picture day, pajama day, and reflections assembly day. So, we had kids that came in normal clothes to get their pictures taken, and then they brought pajamas to change into afterwards. Not that this would ever cause chaos or confusion in a second grade class...
So, pretty much, my kiddos were having a pretty fun day. Well, to add to the excitement, I decided to do and activity with M&Ms in math regarding odd and even numbers and making equations. I made it quite clear that they were not allowed to eat their M&Ms until they were told, so that wasn't much of an issue. The lesson went fairly smoothly and the kids seemed to have fun and understand it. (I later had a girl ask me if we were going to do math today, and I told her that the M&M activity was math. She said that it was so fun that she didn't even notice she was doing math. :)).
I finally let my kids eat their M&Ms while they finished their math and science work. I put on some Disney music to help them focus while they worked and to make things fun. I seriously turned my back for 2 seconds, and one of the boys in my class is standing backwards on his chair "dancing" (a.k.a. shaking it) and pulling his pajama pants down. Needless to say I had to stop him before his pants were all the way off.
About 2 minutes later, I look at a different student, and he has a green M&M up his nose. I told him to get it out of his nose immediately (which he proceeded to do by pushing in his other nostril and forcefully blowing). I then told him to go throw it away and wash his hands. While he was washing his hands, a girl in my class came up to me and told me that he licked his hand before washing it. Yep. I am definitely teaching second graders going on preschoolers.
I did have a good laugh about both of these afterwards though! I guess things like these spice up life, and you just have to learn to love the spices.
In closing, I would just like to leave a little joke that I came up with. I think it's quite funny, but I may be a little biased.
What does a minion dance at the ball?
A minionuet.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Life
"My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can." ~ Cary Grant
Let's just say that somehow, I manage to get up every morning, and I definitely go to bed at night. Occupying myself the best that I can in between consists of: work, teaching prep, teaching, more prep, more teaching, more working, eating something, more prep, something for my calling, and trying to have a social life. I also try to sneak in things such as personal hygiene. Ok, I lied. That is a top priority, because who like to be stinky? I try to find time to do things that I would like to do such as: working out, cooking, watching a movie, doing my nails, laughing with Laura, and just being silly! Luckily, I can multitask, so being silly can often be worked in with other things in my in between.
This teaching game is hard! Right now, I'm not sure if I'm winning, but it's an unpredictable game. It's only about 1/4th of the way through, so there is still plenty of time to be the victor. But seriously, who thought up the job of being a teacher..."You know what would be really funny? Sticking one adult in a room with 20+ children ages 7 and 8 who are all at different emotional, social, and academic levels and watching what happens. Let's take bets on how long they last!" That's what it feels like sometimes.
But, if there is one thing I have learned in life, it's that feeling overwhelmed or frustrated with your situation gets you absolutely nowhere. So, I am sticking my oars back in the water and am rowing against the current in the attempt to turn the situation around. Once I get turned around, I'm sure that rowing will become much easier. Granted, I will still have to row, but my muscles can have a little break here and there.
There are also things that happen while I'm teaching that make my job so fun! For example, when I picked up my kiddos from art the other day, one little girl came and gave me a note that said, "I like you being my teacher. I wish you were my mom." Day made. Also, yesterday during science, we watched a little 2 minute video on the life cycle of a frog. After the video, I had a page with picture and arrows for my kids to color, cut out, and glue in their science notebook that outlined the life cycle of a frog. My kids were little angels. They all followed instructions and got right to work. They were so quiet that I put some Disney music on while they were working. They even did their best work. My kids who usually rush through things took their time and had quality coloring, cutting, and gluing. Success.
Well all, ta-ta for now. Enjoy this beautiful October weather!
Sunday, August 18, 2013
A Year of Firsts
In life, there are many firsts. Your first step, the first day of school, the first time you go swimming, the first time you go to Disneyland. There are many firsts to look forward to, such as your first kiss, the first day of summer vacation, or your first sleepover. There are also many firsts that you don't look forward to such as: your first cavity, your first funeral, or your first car wreck.
This year, I have had many firsts--and most of them have been wonderful! Here are some of these firsts:
1- First time working 2 jobs.
2- First time working 2 jobs and going to school.
3- First time being a teaching intern.
4- First time having my own car.
5- First time having a calling in the Relief Society.
6- First time setting up a classroom.
7- First time going to Bear Lake.
8- First time having all of my roommates get married. (Don't worry I never ever felt even a little bit left out.)
9- First time having a sibling leave on a mission.
10- First time eating pretzels with peanut butter. (Seriously, I am eating it right now and it is so good. I mean I've had the peanut butter filled pretzels before, but I think this is even better! And, I am getting some protein.)
11- First time moving to private housing.
12- First time I went to the Stadium of Fire.
13- First time I hiked to bridal veil falls.
14- First time I have played sand volleyball with 11 guys.
15- First time I have had a broken heart. (Metaphorically speaking. My heart was not literally broken, but... And, I may have a touch of the melodramatic side to me, because it wasn't really that serious. I didn't even cry. I am a rock.)
16- First time locking my key and my spare key in my car.
17- First time locking myself out of my apartment via my balcony.
18- First time I had a cool shark noodle that I took swimming with me.
19- First time I went Latin Dancing and didn't get home until like 2:00 in the morning. (And, yes, I did have work the next day at 9:00--and yes, I was on time to work.)
20- First time I haven't gone camping with my family.
Here are twenty "firsts" that I have had this year. I thought that was appropriate, because it will be my twenty-first year of life this year. It amazes me how many "firsts" there are out there to do, even as we get older. Here is to another wonderful week of firsts!
On a completely unrelated side note, I was sent an email with a picture that says, "My life is like a romantic comedy, except there's no romance and it's just me laughing at my own jokes." This seriously is my life right now!
This year, I have had many firsts--and most of them have been wonderful! Here are some of these firsts:
1- First time working 2 jobs.
2- First time working 2 jobs and going to school.
3- First time being a teaching intern.
4- First time having my own car.
5- First time having a calling in the Relief Society.
6- First time setting up a classroom.
7- First time going to Bear Lake.
8- First time having all of my roommates get married. (Don't worry I never ever felt even a little bit left out.)
9- First time having a sibling leave on a mission.
10- First time eating pretzels with peanut butter. (Seriously, I am eating it right now and it is so good. I mean I've had the peanut butter filled pretzels before, but I think this is even better! And, I am getting some protein.)
11- First time moving to private housing.
12- First time I went to the Stadium of Fire.
13- First time I hiked to bridal veil falls.
14- First time I have played sand volleyball with 11 guys.
15- First time I have had a broken heart. (Metaphorically speaking. My heart was not literally broken, but... And, I may have a touch of the melodramatic side to me, because it wasn't really that serious. I didn't even cry. I am a rock.)
16- First time locking my key and my spare key in my car.
17- First time locking myself out of my apartment via my balcony.
18- First time I had a cool shark noodle that I took swimming with me.
19- First time I went Latin Dancing and didn't get home until like 2:00 in the morning. (And, yes, I did have work the next day at 9:00--and yes, I was on time to work.)
20- First time I haven't gone camping with my family.
Here are twenty "firsts" that I have had this year. I thought that was appropriate, because it will be my twenty-first year of life this year. It amazes me how many "firsts" there are out there to do, even as we get older. Here is to another wonderful week of firsts!
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| Bear Lake with one of my besties, Taylor. :) |
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Greetings from Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru!
Here is tonight's dinner, which turned out very well, if I do say so myself. :) It's all because I have a cooking addiction, which is difficult to shake, really. So, I just do my best to live with it. Luckily, I also have an eating addiction. They balance each other out quite nicely.
This is my dinner (please pardon my attempts at Espanol):
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| This is the whole meal. |
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| This is Green Rice (Peru). This is my own recipe, and it turned out. Hooray! This is my attempt at Spanish: Arroz verde con pollo (It sounds authentic, right?) |
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| These are platanos, cooked Ecuadorian style. |
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| These are platanos, served Mexican style. Platanos con lechera. (A.k.a sweetened condensed milk :) ) |
So, everything went like clockwork, until I was peeling the avocado. There was a piece of the skin that was rock hard and stuck to the fruit, so I tried to get it off with the knife. Bad idea. I now have a cut on my thumb that is a good inch to inch-and-a-quarter long. Oh well. Such is life. At least I have my dinner to enjoy!
Chow! Hasta luego.
Friday, July 5, 2013
A Week of Summer
Due to all of the crazy stuff going on in my life, I have been rather busy and summer has sometimes been put on the back burner. I am getting really good at squeezing some summer in with the crazy though, especially this week. So far this week I have done things every day that make it really feel like I am getting a summer vacation.
Monday: I played sand volleyball for FHE with my pink and white volleyball. GLORIOUS!
Tuesday: I got the keys to my classroom and got to start arranging things. I have a TON of stuff left from the previous teacher that I have to go through though. All I really want to do is decorate my room and get things like welcome letters, newsletter, a website, and lesson plans prepared, but I have to go through all of the stuff. It will save me a lot of money in the long run, though.
I had the opportunity to play sand volleyball again--but with guys I didn't really know (a couple of them I recognized, and some of them recognized me, but they are in a different ward then me). They invited me to play as I was chatting with a couple of girls in my ward, but I needed to finish some visits first. None of the people I needed to visit were home, so I joined their game a couple minutes later. At that point, there were 5 guys playing and I joined, becoming the only girl playing. Their numbers grew throughout the night, eventually reaching a peak of 10 guys and me playing. We played 3 games, and I had a lot of fun! And then I went and ran a mile.
Wednesday: I got my hair trimmed (seriously- just a trim. She said that she only took off about 1/4 inch.). Then, I saw Despicable Me 2 with Laura. We had these awesome seats that were just off by themselves. We laughed for a good majority of the movie. It was kind of predictable, but very entertaining! Then we came back to our apartments and went swimming at the pool in the dark with our awesome seahorse and shark noodles (see picture below). Then, we went and got food at JCW's (YUM!). After that we "watched" Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I slept through most of it, but the parts that I saw were just as good as ever.
Thursday: I was able to sleep in, which is actually pretty unusual. I generally can't sleep in even on the weekends because I work Saturday mornings, and I have meetings Sunday mornings. I was then able to go shopping for some Fourth of July appropriate attire. I did some productive things in the afternoon (like 3 science responses, my ESL observation paper, and lesson prep for my lesson that I'm teaching on Sunday). Then, I got ready for my date! Pretty much, the whole night was fantastic. It was a double/group date. We had dinner at their apartment around 7:00, and then walked over to the stadium around 7:50 for the Stadium of Fire. Stadium of Fire was amazing! There was a variety of entertainment. I knew most of the songs that were sung, so that was fun. And the fireworks were spectacular! (Even if I did get showered in ash-like particles from the fireworks. I may or may not have gotten some in my eye. Either that or I got emotional from the incredible bursting-light display in the sky and one of my eyes starting watering. You can be the judge.) After it was over, we walked back to their apartment to wait out the crazy traffic. We watched some funny YouTube videos and talked. We finally braved the traffic at about 12:15, because he had to work early the next morning, but it was still pretty bad. All-in-all, it was a very enjoyable evening. Hands down a million times better than my Fourth of July last year!
Friday: Well, that's today and nothing terribly exciting has happened yet. I'm sure something will though, because my Fridays always have elements of fun.
Happy summer, y'all!
Monday: I played sand volleyball for FHE with my pink and white volleyball. GLORIOUS!
Tuesday: I got the keys to my classroom and got to start arranging things. I have a TON of stuff left from the previous teacher that I have to go through though. All I really want to do is decorate my room and get things like welcome letters, newsletter, a website, and lesson plans prepared, but I have to go through all of the stuff. It will save me a lot of money in the long run, though.
I had the opportunity to play sand volleyball again--but with guys I didn't really know (a couple of them I recognized, and some of them recognized me, but they are in a different ward then me). They invited me to play as I was chatting with a couple of girls in my ward, but I needed to finish some visits first. None of the people I needed to visit were home, so I joined their game a couple minutes later. At that point, there were 5 guys playing and I joined, becoming the only girl playing. Their numbers grew throughout the night, eventually reaching a peak of 10 guys and me playing. We played 3 games, and I had a lot of fun! And then I went and ran a mile.
Wednesday: I got my hair trimmed (seriously- just a trim. She said that she only took off about 1/4 inch.). Then, I saw Despicable Me 2 with Laura. We had these awesome seats that were just off by themselves. We laughed for a good majority of the movie. It was kind of predictable, but very entertaining! Then we came back to our apartments and went swimming at the pool in the dark with our awesome seahorse and shark noodles (see picture below). Then, we went and got food at JCW's (YUM!). After that we "watched" Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I slept through most of it, but the parts that I saw were just as good as ever.
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| (Please excuse the ridiculous look on my face) |
(This is one of my favorite videos that we watched. I've seen it before, but it makes me laugh!)
Friday: Well, that's today and nothing terribly exciting has happened yet. I'm sure something will though, because my Fridays always have elements of fun.
Happy summer, y'all!
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