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.

New Year

Even though my Christmas stuff is STILL up...that's tomorrows project, I have been thinking about New Years and New Years resolutions. A couple of years back Dad encouraged us to pick a scripture for a New Years resolution, or sort of a motto for the year. I have decided to do this rather than the usual making of resolutions and goals. Mainly, because I am sick of them. I am sick of starting to think about what I should focus on through out the year and quickly coming up with a list that could be a book, then trying to pick one or two from the list/book. Another reason is that setting yearly goals, or resolutions usually just makes me grumpy, for me the list/book quickly turns into a list/book of everything I don't like about myself. It makes me wonder if the world would be better off focusing on what makes them happy and doing those things rather than making goals to change everything they don't like about themselves. Wouldn't we all be more likely to exercise if we found a way to stay active that we enjoyed rather than the painful dragging ourselves to the gym or onto the treadmill? The change would still be there, the weight would be lost, but we wouldn't hate ourselves doing it. Going to the gym because you're fat or out of shape is miserable, if you like the gym, great... if not find something else. Too often my life motto, is life is hard, and its because I make it harder than it needs to be. Constantly worrying about and focusing on everything that is not perfect about me or my life is exhausting. So, while I want to constantly be growing and changing and getting better, life and the experiences and trials it brings seems to have a way of making that happen on its own. This year I am going to focus on 1 thing: "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy"- 2nd Nephi 2:25. I am going to do more of the things that make me happy, spend time with people that make me happy and stop stressing about everything else, because I already have enough gray hairs...

Tis' The Season...Maybe

It is December 17th, Christmas is in about a week and yet I am just not in the Christmas mood. We put up our Christmas Tree, stockings and nativity set, there are ornaments hanging from the ceiling in my classroom, we made Christmas cards, we read Christmas stories, I have planned our Christmas party, I have been Christmas shopping, and went to Forgotten Carols. BUT I am just not in a Christmas-y mood. Perhaps its because I am working until Wednesday the 22nd, or maybe its because I HATE the cold, snowy weather. But I am just not feeling very Christmas like. To me it seems like the older I am the more rushed Christmas is.

Blog Much?

I have completly gotten out of the groove of blogging. I still try to read peoples blogs and keep up to with them but I don't ever blog. Im sure it has something to do with moving up to Salt Lake, getting a teaching job, having 2 weeks to get a classroom ready, teaching, going on a much needed vacation (I love year round schools) and more teaching. Right now as I type this I should be doing report cards for the dreaded Parent Teacher Conferences on Wed. and Thurs this week, but I am not. I love my job and I do manage to get down time Im just not always awake for the down time. Really though I think part of why I haven't blogged in forever is that I now live closer to most of my family than I have in 4 years and get to see and talk with them alot. Blogging seems sort of repetitive. On a random side note, Jordan District has this evaluation called JPASS where the principal has to come watch 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year teachers teach. It is a stupid hoop to jump through and is ridiculous. I met with my principal today to go over the results. She hands me the paper and says. "you passed." (The score you have to get to pass is ridiculous a monkey could pass it). Then reminds me that she has to come again in January. The End. Seriously, no how are things going, no this is what I saw you could work on, nothing. I think it is very odd to go from student teaching where everything you do is graded and evaluated to not ever having feed back from anyone. Very odd... and now I really have to go do report cards.

Alot has happened since I last posted. Most recently we moved. The original plan was to move at the end of the month into Brian's parents' basement. We had decided that even without a teaching job I could do more subbing up in the Salt Lake area than in Cedar. What was supposed to be 2 weeks to move turned into 3 days and we are now officiallly in Kaysville. Jobless but in Kaysville. As I drove out of Cedar last Saturday with my car full of stuff I realized that I had lived in Cedar for 4 years and despite knowing that it was time to be out of Cedar and that going up north was the best decision, I was a little sad leaving Cedar. It holds lots of memories. Some of my favorites are:
1: My apartment flooding freshman year
2: Walking to Ihop and eating a ton of food
3: Pastry Pub
4: Ballroom (I could list a ton but I'll just say Ballroom)
5: An orange stuffed frog and falling over from laughing
6: Alternative Spring Breaks
7: Dating and marrying Brian
8: Our first apartment with orange counters
9: Going into old houses
10: The Block
11: Sleeping in the student center, the library, the science building, pretty much everywhere
12: Student teaching
13: Working for the Family Support Center
14: The sheep tunnels
15: Cheesecake and diet coke at Denny's.