First Week of School

I survived my first week of teaching!! :) AND enjoyed it too. :) I love my class! I think I've got a great group of students this year, which is good! 2nd graders are so awesome - they can think! and work together! and work independently!! (you know you've done kindergarten too long when. . .)

For example, on Wednesday we needed to design and create our class flag for the Second Grade Olympics next week. These kids came up with ideas, voted on them, and figured out how to accomplish the design with MINIMAL help from me!!! They worked together! Kindergartners can't do that very well. I was astounded. In a good way. :)

Also our flag is the cutest of all the classes. There is a large star in the middle and multi-colored stripes behind it. THe star says, "Who I Am Makes a Difference" because I make them say that every afternoon as they leave my classroom. :) So cute!

We tie-dyed shirts yesterday for next week and when I washed out mine today it looked awesome! I hope all of theirs look as good as mine. :) Our class's color is blue and it worked out great!

Oh my goodness. I love them all. so much.

"I see your [brown] eyes every time I close mine.
"You make it hard to see where I belong to when I'm not around you."

"And I never told you what I should have said.
"No, I never told you; I just held it in."

First Two Days of School!

So, my first two days of teaching have been great so far! I love my kids so much already, and we seem to have good class dynamics (so far, at least! :p). I'm feeling like I can do this teaching thing. which is good. :)

They were so cute yesterday when we talked about Olympians Michael Phelps and Sasha Cohen, since we are doing our own Second Grade Olympics next week. They were so interested in the althletes and how they got to be so good. Then this morning we created our class flag, and they were able to work together to decide on a design and we are still coloring it, but it is SO CUTE!!! and they are SO CUTE!! I love them. So much already. Even those that are testing the limits. :)

It was funny, today we had to do so much practicing of procedures, like lining up, taking out supplies, lining up, sitting on the carpet, lining up, writing, lining up. Yesterday they did everything perfectly (probably they were still nervous).

But I think it really is going to be a great year, even though it's a lot of work!

Thank You, Lady Antebellum

"Reachin' for the phone 'cause I can't fight it anymore
And I wonder if I ever cross your mind?
For me it happens all the time."

Wishes

Tonight, I saw 18 shooting stars and made the same wish 18 times.



Does that mean it has 18 times more of a chance of coming true? I think so.

I'm a Dork

So, apparently I feel it's acceptable to go to the library every stinkin' day to check out more books. My basket is nearly overflowing at this point. . .

BUT I had to get the next book in this series I started reading that is AWESOME! It's called Standing in Holy Places series by Chad Daybell.

This is the first one. It takes place supposedly around 2010 (was written in 06 or so), and all of the last days prophecies in D&C and Revelations are starting to come true. The government is pressing people to get "the chip" in their hands, a tiny microchip that contains all of their financial, personal, medical information and can be tracked via GPS. The prophets have come out strongly against it, and then give notice for the stakes of Zion to move to camps in the mountains, taking enough supplies to live on for at least a year. The Coalition (Russia and China) invades the US, major earthquakes happen, there are famines throughout the land, but the righteous Saints are being blessed by the Lord. The story continues on for these people to build the New Jerusalem in Missouri, and I think in the 4th or 5th one the Second Coming happens (I haven't gotten that far yet. . .other people have checked them out. meh).

It sounds strange. . .but these books are SO GOOD!! It's really interesting to think about and a really, really good story.

Also . . . one of the characters gets to meet one of the 3 Nephites and hold the brass plates brought here by Lehi and Nephi. AWESOME!

The First Note

Life is pretty good right now. This week started out AWFUL. Oh man, it was the worst at first. But I guess there's something to be said for "enduring to the end," because this week ended just so wonderfully, that I can't complain about the first part of it, because it was so awesome. :)

Good news - my classroom is finally finally finished!!!! It looks awesome and I haven't yet taken pictures of it, but I will.

Bad/Good news - school starts in about 2 weeks!!! I am freaking out!!! I am so so so excited but also so very nervous to be a "real" teacher!

Also, I found this picture when photography-blog-stalking a couple of days ago and I just love it so much so I will share it.

It's from a contest that the pioneer woman did a long time ago. But I love it so much that it's my desktop picture right now. To me, it's all about the first note of a new piano piece. Hesitant and exciting. Is it going to sound well? Am I going to like it? I'm not sure what I'm doing. . .but I'm going for it! Totally applicable to a couple different parts of my life right now.