March 9, 2017: #teacherlife

I carried all of this from my car, down the hallway, and into my classroom.  In one trip.  Boom.

March 8, 2017: Make it stop

It's recess.  

My face is frozen off. 

Where are you, spring?  

March 7, 2017: Peter Pan land?

Apparently there is this place in my hometown that people call Peter Pan Land or something like that.  I had never heard of it until today when I was on the phone with Jesse.  I guess it's this really beautiful look out area that takes you to the beach.  Some people go there to smoke a lot of pot, which explains why I had never heard of it in high school.  Anyways, I couldn't get over the idea of there being a well known spot in Ludington that I hadn't ever been to or even heard of.  After hanging up with Jesse, I was scrolling through facebook and saw a friends post about being out there!  I took this picture to show Jesse, and didn't take a picture of anything else today, so you get the privilege of hearing this lame story.  You're welcome!

March 5, 2017: Alaska Alive

I am taking a class called Alaska Alive.  It's a required course for teachers who want to renew their Alaska teaching license.  It's self paced and online, so I am naturally not doing too well.  However, this past assignment was to learn about the land in your geographic area.  We had to go for a walk and document the plants, animals, and landforms we saw.  This was possibly the best assignment I have ever had to complete.

I went for a walk at Termination Point.  I have hiked out here too many times to count, but I realized I had never done the hike in the winter.  It was really exciting to see a familiar place in a new light.  If you would like more details about the things I learned, you can request a copy of the paper I wrote.

March 4, 2017: Coffee to Coffee 5k

Steph convinced me to run a 5k with her.  All the proceeds went to benefit the Kodiak High School track team.  Plus, I haven't run with Steph in a while, so it was a great excuse to do that.  About half way into the run, I tripped over a frozen bump of ice and went flying across it.  I gouged my hand, knee, hip, and elbow.  It was a pretty decent wipe out.  (This happened to be the first day that I have worked out since the toe stubbing incident the weekend prior to this).  I may be the second clumsiest human on the earth.  (My mom is by far the first).  Anyways, I got back up and finished the race with Steph.  We actually tied for first place in our age group and got a free coffee as a prize!  I think we might have been the only two people in our age group, but that is completely irrelevant.

March 3, 2017: Seussical Snacks

To end our week of Dr. Seuss celebrations, the parents and I brought in snacks for the kids.  We have Seussical snack mix, cupcakes themed after McElligot's Pool, Lorax Nutterbutters, Cat in the Hat string cheese, green pancakes, and little pretzel goodies that are supposed to be green eggs and ham on toast.  I love how cute everything turned out!

March 2, 2017: THE BEST MOMENT OF WINTER/SPRING!!

Last winter I distinctly remember the first morning I drove to school and it was light enough that I saw Barometer.  It was a really exciting moment, promising that the dark winter was going to be over soon.  I remember I was driving a coworker to work, and I actually cut him off mid sentence and screamed something about the light and the mountain and how amazingly exciting that was.  As we get closer to spring, I have been anxiously awaiting this moment.  It happened today!!!  Look how beautiful the mountain is when the morning light begins to hit it.  Spring is coming, friends!!

March 1, 2017: Career Day

We have been celebrating Dr. Seuss this week.  Which means I have tons of really adorable pictures of my students, but I obviously can't share any of them here.  Today we read the book "Oh the Places You'll Go," and the students got to come dressed as their dream profession.  Yesterday, one of my students told me that she was going to come to school dressed as me, because she wants to be a teacher just like me when she grows up.  Naturally, we coordinated outfits so that we would match today.  We both wore black pants, lanyards, and purple sweaters.  I let her wear my glitter gold fanny pack the entire day, and she just about died from excitement.  It was very adorable and very flattering.  She's a sweet kid.  We had kids dressed up as FBI agents, scientists, businessmen, pop stars, horse trainers, and policemen.  We even had a girl come dressed up as a pig farmer.  She was dressed in a bandana, overalls, and braids, and she carried around this little stuffed pig that she doted on all day.  She checks books out at the library about pigs.  She talks about them all the time.  She loves them. I had the kids write a sentence explaining what they wanted to be and why.  This little girl wrote, "When I grow up I want to be a pig farmer because I like bacon."  Didn't see that one coming.

I also need to share this gem of a moment.  (We haven't covered the "ou" sound yet, and to be fair, it's a tricky combination that makes 4 different sounds, so we can't be too hard on this kiddo.  She meant to say "teacher" and "teach."  I helped her fix it before we put it on the bulletin board :)   I love phonetic spelling so much.   If you can't read it, it says, "When I grow up I want to be a toucher because I want to touch kids."

 

February 28, 2017: floppy drive?

This is the order screen at KFC/Taco Bell.  It has been broken for a long time, but I just realized today that it says that there is an error and you need to insert a floppy disc of some sort.  Not sure why that made me smile today. 

February 27, 2017: Kodiak Weather

When I moved here, I heard someone say, "If you don't like the weather in Kodiak, wait 5 minutes."  It's so true.  This afternoon, it was sunny when we walked the kids out to the bus.  By the time I was in my car headed home, I was in a mini snowstorm, but I could still see the blue skies ahead.  I outdrove the snow, parked my car in the sunshiny parking lot of the grocery store, and came outside 8 minutes later to more snow.   As long as it isn't 28 straight days of sideways rain like it was last winter, this girl is not complaining.

February 26, 2017: Busted Toe

Tonight we watched the Academy Awards.  That experience could be an entire post in itself.  I used to love movies and after moving to Kodiak, it's hard to keep up.  While I know nothing or care at all about the lives of actual famous people, I still love watching the Academy Awards.   The days of watching every single nominated Best Picture film may be over, but I still can't wait to see who wins. 

All this to say, I was in the bathroom during a commercial break.  I rushed out to see who was presenting the next award, and I ran straight into the side of this train set.  I basically kicked the plywood that the train was set on.  It doesn't look like much, but that bugger hurt.  I could tell it wasn't broken, but I limped around for a week, took as much tylenol and ibuprofen that was allowable, and had to wear sandals at work for a couple days because it didn't fit in my shoes very well.  I swear, I'm not usually a baby.  This one was a doozie, and I didn't even have a good battle scar to prove it.   

Here's what it looks like a couple weeks later.  Still not anything to be dramatic about, but I don't whine about many things, so let me have my moment and pray that nothing actually harmful ever happens to me, because I doubt I'd survive it. 

February 25, 2017: Penguin Problems

This is one of those really boring posts where I forgot to take a real picture and all you see is something school related that was originally intended for one of my colleagues.  In this case, this is the homework that I was sending home this week and this picture was sent to my teaching team to double check to make sure we didn't already send it home a different week.

Thrilling. 

February 24, 2017: Liberty

Kim Raisley teaches kindergarten across the hall from me.  I don't know if she fully knows it, but she is one of the major reasons I survived first grade last year.  She's phenomenal at what she does, and I hope that someday I can become the kind of teacher that she is.  Kim is a master at teaching her kids how to draw using various shapes.  They usually work on animals, but yesterday they drew the Statue of Liberty.  She hung her kids' drawings up in the hallway this morning, and underneath the drawings she printed the words that are on the plaque at the base of the statue.  They say, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

This is really, really beautiful. 

February 20, 2017: Buskin!

"Mommy, I was brave!  I got off the couch!"

-Arthur, after he spent a good 30 minutes hiding on the couch afraid of Buskin. 

I'm glad he decided Buskin was harmless, because they became fast friends. 

February 19, 2017: gross little love

I love Henry, I really do.  But he happens to be one of the nastiest kids I have ever seen.  I don't remember the last time I have seen him without food either being shoved into his mouth, or clinging to the side of his mouth, or being spit out from his mouth.  Anyone who knows me well knows I love kids, but I shy away from babies.  They are fragile, not super entertaining, and a little disgusting.  This goes to show how much I love Henry.  I wasn't around Arthur much when he was a baby, but I have been able to experience Henry's slobbery, boogery, crusty phase to the fullest and I still am 100% completely in love with the little guy.  Sticky face and all. 

February 18, 2017: sledding

Watching Henry sled has become one of my new favorite winter passtimes.  He lays on the sled like a corpse.  It's one of the creepiest and funniest things I have seen in a long time.  He looks miserable, but you know he is having the time of his little life.

February 17, 2017: Mom date

My mom is in town and I get her all to myself tonight.  What's on the agenda? A super deep conversation about joy and life struggles, chili cheese dip, a rented movie, the couch, pajamas, and a bottle of moscato.  The best Friday night I have had in a while. 

Love you, mom.

February 16, 2017: Face Partners

Twice a year, the kids don't have school for two days, and all the teachers in the district join together for training.  I actually love these days because we get professional development, can see teachers from other schools, and get a real, hour long lunch.  I was really excited when I found out that Kinsey and I were in one of the sessions together.  We are obviously both encouraging people.  And teachers.  And a bit off task.

February 15, 2017: Most beautiful drive home

I don't think it can be beaten.

February 14, 2017: Happy Valentine's Day!

I originally took this picture to show my friend my sparkly fanny pack.   It's obviously amazing.  I am also pretty excited about my free Valentine's Day sweater that I inherited from my friend Catie.  I felt very festive and full of love.

Valentine's Day is quite nice when you're a teacher.  I got loads of chocolate, some tea, and even some fun dip.  As I was sorting through my goodies, I couldn't help but think that on some days, it's nicer to have 16 little kiddos in your life than it would be to have a man.  At recess though, I realized that a man knows how to put his own gloves on, and that's pretty worth-while.

February 13, 2017: classy guy

Kyle is home alone since Meg and the boys are still on vacation in Michigan, so we hosted a little game night and dinner at our house tonight to give him something to do :)   He walked into our house and announced that he brought appetizers!

Yes, you're right.  Those are lunchables.

February 12, 2017: #pinterestnonfail

Thank you, Pinterest, for an easy and free Valentine's Day gifts for my students.  And I can only say it was easy because I had 5 of my friends helping me peel old crayon wrappers the entire time we had our Bible study on Sunday.  I have pretty great friends.

February 11, 2017: Groupies

When your friends' kids form a band and make you groupie apparel, you wear it proudly.

February 10, 2017: Puppet Show

The second grade classes put on a shadow puppet show during music class.  They invited us to come see it.  I was extremely impressed by their creativity!  The kids seemed so grown up and mature compared to when I had them, and it was making me a little sad.  Then a few of the kids put on a skit about a bunch of animals fighting over a donut hole.  I felt a little better after that.

February 9, 2017: ?

I stumbled upon this weird stump at Abercrombie today.  The metal N is attached to the stump, along with the magnifying glass.  I am wondering if it is part of an island wide scavenger hunt or something.  I meant to investigate more, but I never did.  I wonder if it's even still out there...

February 8, 2017: Happy 100th day of school!

I love the 100th day of school.  It's one of my favorite days for a lot of reasons, but the biggest is because we make it a big deal.  We literally do nothing except things that have to do with 100.  I hid 100 hershey kisses around the classroom and had the kids find them, we made hats with 100 decorations on them, we had a 100 second dance party, we did 100 work out moves, we wrote about what our life would be like if we were 100, we built 100 piece towers, we made trail mix with 100 pieces of food, and we worked on completing 100 acts of kindness.  The kids love this day.  I love this day.  It's fun, it's quirky, it's off schedule, and even our music teacher gets into the spirit.  She came to school dressed like a 100 year old lady.

And that's why she's the best. 

February 7, 2017: I have a lot to look forward to

 Everyone says I look so young and that I age very well.  That I will love this when I am older because I will be super hot compared to all the other grandmas.  This super creepy aging app disagrees.

If you're wondering why on earth I used a stupid aging app, it's because the 100th day of school is tomorrow.  It's a big deal in first grade.  I took pictures of all my kids with this app and tomorrow they are going to write about what life will be like when they are 100 years old.  Last year the majority of my kids just wrote, "I'll be dead."  So I am hoping this year's group is a little more creative.