Kindergarten...

On Tuesday I subbed in Kindergarten for a half day. This was a big step for me, as a general rule I avoid all things Kindergarten. I think that people who teach 5 year olds are going straight to Heaven. I was actually sort of nervous about dealing with 19 little tiny kids for 3 hours. But it was a lot of fun. It was a nice change from 5th graders. See in Kindergarten, I didn't have anyone argue with me, or with each other. They didn't feel the need to voice their opinion on everything. The math lesson was on the idea of more and fewer not exponents. I tied shoes and pushed kids on the swing and held hands while 1 little girl cried because the fire alarm scared her. I love my 5th graders, and the fact they have very distinct personalities and are starting to figure out the world. But 5th graders don't think I'm nearly as cool as the Kindergartens do. To a 5 year old, you can do no wrong. Teaching the little ones all day everyday would wear me out and not something I want to do. But every once in a while it is really fun.

Thanksgiving

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this week. At the beginning of November I thought about doing something to think about what I was thankful for each day. I thought about it, but it didn't happen. I spent pretty much the last month and a half thinking about myself. It's interesting what it takes sometimes to get us out of our own little bubble of a world. Saturday was sort of "blast from the past" day. I spent it with one of my best friends, we hung out "like old times". I was reminded that we all have different things going on in our lives. Good things and bad things. It's not that one person's life is better or worse than mine, just different. This dear friend of mine reminded me that all too often we try to plan and control every aspect of our lives. When things don't go according to our plan we get upset. We get impatient and frustrated when things don't happen on our time table. Maybe, we need to give things time and enjoy what we have right now. So today I am grateful for old friends, perspective, and embracing the moment.

Cold

I've decided that winter is a trick to make us all fat. I mean really, who wants to eat fruit, salad, veggies, etc when it is freezing? I know, it isn't even that cold yet, but all I want to eat is warm food, hearty food. Also, who wants to change clothes and put on workout clothes to actually go to the gym? Seriously, fuzzy PJs and hoodies are not conducive to working out. Then you throw in that the 2 biggest food and treat holidays of the year happen in winter. It's a conspiracy. Winter is out to get me.

...

This is another post about school, if you don't want to read about 5th graders you may leave now.

Today we read an article about a WWII era ship that was found 3 miles deep in the ocean with 250 million dollars of silver on it. The salvage company that found the wreak gets 80% of the money. After reading the article, each student wrote a paragraph about what they would do with 250 million dollars. I made a list of "average" prices for things like cars, houses, mansions, etc to give them an idea of how much they could afford. I was expecting to read and hear about buy video games and swimming pools and cars, maybe even some charity donations. MOST of the kids wrote about just that. Except for a couple of conversations: o
5th grade boy #1: "How much would it cost to buy a lady?"
Me: "....what do you mean?"
5gb1: "Like a girlfriend, a cute girl"
Me: "You can't buy a girl" (What I'm thinking is that would depend on how picky you are walking the Vegas strip...)
5gb1: "Why?"
Me: "It's illegal." (Except for in Vegas)
5gb1: "Why?"
Me: You can't own a person, and you can't pay someone to be your girlfriend.

Conversation #2:
5th grade girl: Can I buy an Australian Model?
Me: No, you can't buy a person in the United States
5th grade girl: But if he's Australian then it doesn't count
Me: Yes it does, you want someone to like you because of who you are not the money you have.
5th grade girl: Oh...

Conversation #3:
5th grade boy #2: Mrs. Harris, I want to buy a smokin' hot babe
Me: You can't but a girl, it is against the law!
5th grade boy#2: Can I bribe her to go out with me?
Me: No.
5gb2: But I want a smokin' hot babe.
Me: Then you'll have to get one without paying her to spend time with you.
5gb2: Well that's stupid.

This is the future. 10 year olds who think Prostitution is a GREAT idea. Sigh.

The workings of a 5th grade

So what do you do when in the middle of talking about Jamestown in 5th grade a student raises his hand and asks you what all the Indians and Kings will do in the 2nd coming? We can't have all those kings in charge and Indians have never seen a car and where will they live when they all come back to life?
What do you do when you class develops a black market? See we have class money, and they can use their class money at our class store, our auction at Christmas and the end of year carnival. BUT now they're using their class money to buy and sell things of their own: snacks, origami, etc. They think I don't know but I do. Do you view it as capitalism and decide that you can't shut down, you can't have a communist classroom right? But what if I really want to shut down their black market/entrepreneur endeavor? Does that make me a power hungry dictator, or just a control freak? Can I justify it as preventing fights and disagreements when someone wants a refund and the seller refuses?
Do you see the dilemmas I face daily? These are tough decisions...

Off-Track

Last year while teaching I always loved going off-track but after 3 weeks was always ready to go back. As this first off track of the new school year is almost over, I am NOT ready to go back at all. I actually have no desire to go back. This has been a fabulous off-track. I will give you the Reader's Digest version:
1: Park City: zipline and the new alpine slide
2: Seven Peaks Salt Lake (previously Raging Waters)
3: Crazy, Stupid, Love (good movie)
4: Slept in
5: Sat by the pool
6: Swam in the pool
7: Texas Rode House
8: Brian not working for a week
9: New shoes
10: Dyed hair
11: Charmed
12: Buffy
13: Cleaned house
14: Kept house clean
Again, I have no desire to go back to work. I also know that summer is quickly coming to a close, which means winter is on its way. I HATE winter! It is cold, dark, and depressing. Sure fall comes before winter and I like fall but it is too short. We did not get enough long summer days. Winter is taking over the calendar. November-April is 1/2 the calendar! GRRRR but on the bright side this was a great off-track and another one is only 9 weeks away.

Adjustment

As of about 9:00 am this morning Brian officially signed and swore in for the Army...as a diver (think scuba diver, not coast guard rescue diver) . Apparently, the army has lots of ships. Divers maintain and repair the ships with underwater welding, do search and rescue and deep sea recovery. It was an interesting morning and definitely a reminder of how the Lord directs our path. On Monday Brian finally got to pick a position after lots of time and needing more or different papers for his packet. He tentatively picked Calvary Scout. Tuesday morning at 6 am we are at MEPS ready for him to sign and swear in. 7 hours later we discover he is missing a paper his recruiter should have taken care of and he can't sign. We went home tired and grumpy. Then today we were back at MEPS at 6 am to try again. This means we had to re-select a job. Today, diver showed up on the list. None of the recruiters at MEPS had ever seen diver come up as an option (it rarely does). There were 4 slots total for the whole nation. We almost didn't even consider it. But the more we talked the more it seemed right. Last night Brian was up until midnight because something seemed "off" about signing as a Calvary Scout. Divers have a low deployment rate, outside the military they are in high demand for search and rescue, cruise lines, and the oil industry (most start at $50 an hour). We started to wonder if maybe all the waiting and nothing seeming to work out had been for a reason. Today is the only day that diver will be available. We needed to be there today and sign for this job. Amazing how everything works out. So on January 4th he'll leave for basic at Fort Jackson and then 29 weeks of training. He has to make it through the first 3 weeks in Missouri (its apparently not easy) then he'll finish in Florida and we'll go to...we don't know where but I'm hoping for Hawaii

Sometimes...

Most of my time as a teacher is spent jumping through hoops. I teach what the state says I need to, my students take tests the district and state say they have to. Some of it is important, a lot of it I think 4th graders could do without (Does a 4th grader really need to know the distributive property?). I also am often times put in a position that makes me have a classroom that is just like all the others: sit, don't talk, work on a worksheet. I can go a whole day and never hear or see the class across the hall from me, they are in their learning. Peek your head in their classroom... perfectly clean desks, perfectly clean classroom, perfectly silent scribbling away on papers. It is those times when I walk back to my room and catch myself starting to demand the same things. I get frustrated when I don't get the same results. And then I have days like today, when I stop and think we should do this everyday! It would have been hard around 11:30 to get to my classroom. You would have had to wiggled around 11 boys, huge sheets of paper, rulers, tape, notebooks, etc. These 11 boys weren't working silently, they weren't even whispering but they were measuring, problem solving, working together and creating. If you had made it to my classroom you would have seen every desk pushed up against the wall. Kids would have been working all around the floor. It looked and sounded like chaos, it was play practice for today. We still took a math and spelling test today (in silence). But I didn't have any kids ask if they could come in during lunch recess and do more math, I had 27 begging me to skip my meeting so they could come in during recess and work on their play. I love it. I love it enough to stop hearing the voice in my head that says every other teacher's room is silent and perfect and we should be like them and I remember this is how learning is supposed to be.

If my sister gets to brag, I get to complain. I will complain about male metabolisms. See Brian and I finally joined my family's weight loss, get fit trend.Brian has lost 10 pounds, (in less than a month). His pants are literally falling off of him. He looks visibly smaller. I started 2 weeks before Brian, I work out longer, I eat less but I loose no weight, my capris from last summer still do not fit. I know guys have different/faster metabolism. It is just unfair. GRRRR.
The end.

I should be working...

Okay, so I am working, sort of... my class is working I am sitting at my desk, reading blogs. I go off track in 2 1/2 days and I am not in the mood to read with groups. Plus I haven't gotten new books for my group. I should read with groups it is the most important part of the morning but... I hate it. Overall, I am bored. I am sick of the same routine. Get up, go to work (which is the same most days), drive home, get dinner, watch TV, grade papers, sleep. I am bored with my same old clothes, I am bored with my apartment. I tell my one of my students everyday that life is not Disney Land. If it was, we would get bored with Disney Land too. Right now though I would like a little Disney Land. Also, when I get bored, I start to look ahead and plan ahead which makes me antsy. I start planning for next school year instead of for what we are doing tomorrow. I start getting antsy for going back to school (someday it will happen).
Have you ever noticed that when you're bored or stuck in day to day routine it seems like everyone around you is doing great things and moving forward. While this is probably not true, that is what it seems like.

TGIF

I am so excited that it is Friday. Not only is it Friday but it is Conference Weekend Friday, I love Conference. AND its 70 degrees outside AND in 1 week I go off-track for a month AND tonight I get to go to Red Robin and a Grizzlies game. Happy Friday everyone!

Friday Afternoons

Dear Jordan School District,
I am writing in regards to our early out Fridays. I understand that these days were designed to give teachers, like myself, some "prep" time for the next week. I really do appreciate early out. Knowing I have less than an hour of school left after recess is often all that makes me come back after lunch. However, I think that you may have overlooked an important fact when deciding to do early out Fridays for teacher prep time. I am exhausted and DONE by Friday afternoon. This exhaustion causes my afternoon to vary in productivity. For example, last Friday, I laid on the table in my room only semi-conscious for about 20 min. I then wondered to another teacher's room and we talked for an additional 20 min. I finally decided that I HAD to get some work done and sat on the floor filing papers. I fell asleep within 5 min. At this point I thought about going home only to remember I had to stay until 4. I decided that sitting was not an option and tried to straighten my room and write on the board for Monday morning. I don't remember moving any papers or cleaning up but stacks of papers are still missing and I came in on Monday morning to discover that what I had written on the board was nonsense. Most Friday's follow this pattern.
It is now Friday afternoon, and I am facing 2.5 more hours of "work". I need at least 2.5 hours to get ready for next week but I also need a nap. Could I just lock my door, close my eyes and sleep for a while? Having a quality after school nap would really help with Friday afternoon productivity. Quality here meaning uninterrupted, on something soft (I don't even need a pillow). I appreciate your consideration on this matter and hope to be in contact.

Sincerely,
Kelsey Harris

Random Thoughts

We got a hamster. About Friday of last week Brian started talking about wanting a Gerbil, and we went to the best store and looked, debated getting a rabbit, and then I said lets sleep on in and if you still want a Gerbil we can go get one. We then went to a different pet store because their cages were cheaper but there were no Gerbils. So we got a hamster. His name is Rex and Molly loves him. She sits and watches him run around in his wheel, and tries to lick him. She actually did last night. Rex likes to climb the bars of his cage making his stomach very exposed to the dog sitting as close as dogly possible and she licked his stomach the funny thing was he didn't seem to mind. :-).
I was just attacked by a herd of elephants... I have tried for over 100 days of school to make them come in quietly, we have practiced and practiced but it still takes about 5 min for them to come in and settle down and work quietly. I have also learned that it is better to let them take 5 min to settle down than to try and get them to sit down and shut up right away, it seems to make the chaos last longer. So I just sit and watch as they all talk and just wait patiently knowing that eventually I will have fourth graders and not a herd of elephants.

Off-Track

Whoever thought up the idea of year round schools was a genius! They should get some sort of metal or certificate. Seriously, I am not sure what I will do when the day inevitably comes that I have to teach on a traditional school shedule. Sure I went to school on a traditional schedule for 16 years of my life but now that I have had a taste of year-round I don't ever want to go back. Sure it is sort of tiring that every 9 weeks I have to take everything out of a classroom and move BUT this also prevents me from having piles of stuff build up everywhere. I have no idea how people have full time jobs, keep their house perfect and clean, cook dinner, workout, have hobbies, friends, get their hair cut and dyed and then add children into the mix. Seriously, as the piles of crap build in my house and as our extra bedroom gets more and more messy I just tell myself I'll take care of it when I'm off track. Yesterday, I finally rehighlighted my hair cause I was off-track. I may even have time to finish the book I started a year ago. Then I think well... even as a traditional teacher I would get June, July and August off that would be time to get all caught up. But how does the rest of the world do it? Really I can't imagine going to work 5 days a week, all the time. I would go crazy, the rest of my life other than work would fall apart.