1st grade graduate




This past Friday was my last day of student teaching. I can't believe I lasted through the 14 weeks. I have never felt such a sense of accomplishment in my life! It was a difficult chapter in my life and I made it. I'm glad my co-op was so tough on me, I'm grateful for that now. I'll admit that there were overwhelming moments but I put up a fight. At first I resented that I was placed into such a tough environment and I wished my experience would have been like the other student teacher in the next class. But now that I'm done, I'm glad that I had such a crazy situation with limited resources. I'm going to be prepared and as what most of the staff said, if I got through this, I'll get through anything.

It was definitely an emotional day leaving. I got gifts for practically anyone that I had contact with. As for the students, I bought them popsicle sticks and goodie bags. I found out what their favorite colors were and I made each one of them something. For the girls, I made them each a bracelet and for the boys I made them a star keychain that they could put on their backpacks. It definitely took a lot of time but I wanted to give them something personal. For most of the other teachers, I got them these bracelets with cute jade cutouts. I felt really bad but I made one of the 2nd grade teachers cry. I know that she had lost her mother a few weeks ago and she has looked completely destroyed. I never really knew what to say to her, especially since we're not close. The bracelet I gave her had a piece that meant to bring peace and as I explained it to her, she started tearing. But it wasn't because I made her think of her mom but because she was touched by my concern for her. I also got a bracelet for our aide, Sue. She was shocked that I got her something but without her help, I'd be swamped with busy work. I think that she had encountered nasty teachers who made her feel that she was beneath them, just because she wasn't a teacher. But I always welcomed her and treated her as a colleague. She actually gave me gifts too which I was really surprised by. She was tearing as she told me how much she was going to miss me and it was hard to hold it in myself. It's a great feeling to be appreciated and for someone to recognize your hard work. She told me that she truly admired me because I always gave the students respect, even when she felt they didn't deserve it. She said she wouldn't have been able to do what I had done. Sad to say but there were times when I would go home extremely devastated by what the kids said and did but I always started them on a clean slate the next day.

My co-op had asked all the parents to chip in $2 for my gifts. What was I surprised with? They got me an ice cream cake that said, "#1 Teacher" on it and two bags of teacher supplies. The most touching gift was the tote bag. When they presented it to me, I nearly broke out in tears. She had them each place their handprint on the bag, sign their names, and she wrote what their favorite memory was. This will be something that I will cherish forever. My co-op also gave me a cute photo album and some lotions/soaps. I gave her one of those jade bracelets, a crystal bracelet that I made her, and an Asian tea set.

All day the kids were hugging me like crazy and saying they wish I could stay. I promised them that I would visit them before the school year was over. This might not mean much to others but to me, it was such a wonderful moment when one of the boys (who has emotional/behavioral problems) hugged me. Although it was for a brief moment, the fact that he hugged me truly made me realize that I got through to him. That is more rewarding than any test scores.

Even to the very last minute, I worked my butt off. I stayed after to pack up my things. I put everything I created into folders for my co-op, that way she can reuse them next year. As well, I put post-it notes on where she needed to pick up from, and I got everything prepared for what she would need to teach next week. I know I didn't have to do any of this but I still felt responsible for the class. She complimented me on something that once again, I could feel the water works coming. She said that she was captivated by my professionalism and how I was as a person, that she didn't come across that very often. It's just a wonderful feeling when someone recognizes you.

I just wish that I could completely relax now but I still have seminar and a killer final.

Creepy crawlies


Look at the size of them!

The live samples came in so I finally created the terrarium with the students. I have to say that the 3 types of bugs were disgusting. The pill bugs weren't so bad because they were tiny and when you got near them, they would roll into a ball, hence the name, roly-poly. The millipedes, yeah....really long and lots of legs, freaky! However, the scariest one was the bess beetle (which you can see in the picture)! They were huge and made a raspy sound when you touched them. My co-op was standing 20 feet away the whole time saying that she couldn't handle it. I was like, "I am so not comfortable with this as well, I'm usually hysterical!"

They had fun creating it though, they each had a turn putting something in. It was a really great hands-on activity that allowed me to assess their ordinal skills as well. In all honesty, putting things in wasn't as bad as having to take them out. Each day we had to observe one of the bugs. I dropped potatoes in and the pill bugs started feeding on them so they were easy to take out. The beetles were difficult because by the next day, they had dug themselves into the bottom of everything. So I had to dig them out. As for the millipedes, they were impossible to find. Each time I overturned something, it would beetles crawling out, never what I was looking for. Seeing them crawl out like that just sent shivers everywhere. As gross as the millipedes were, I have to admit they're pretty cool to look out. I got them to crawl on a long skewer and letting the kids watch how the legs move in synch was awesome.

Happy 6


My fave flowers, tulips and orchids (love the purpley-blue)

It's finally mine! Oh happy days...oh happy day!

It's been a while since I've felt this surprised! I was taking all the bags out of Kevin's car when he starts telling me to remember to get the stuff from the trunk. So I just said ok and then realized that I never put anything inside the trunk. I see this huge ass bag with an ice cream cone on it. I take everything inside and I dive into the bag. When I pulled out the tote, I was screaming and jumping up and down. Not to mention my happy dance. I couldn't believe that I was holding the tokidoki that I've been craving for the past 4 months. I don't even know how many stores I've called and gone in to search for this bag. I'm not a Lesportsac fan normally but when I saw that they collaborated with tokidoki toys, I was hooked. I had been getting huge totes to carry my stuff for school but none of them were "fun" and this bag was the perfect way for me to express myself. The bag comes with a cute toy and the teeth of the zipper are all multicolored. It's crazy, they only make a certain amount which would explain why I couldn't find it anywhere. I love staring at all the cartoons, especially the cute milk carton cow! Thanks poopoo head, I love you!

We postponed going out since it was downpouring this past weekend and I still have another week of student teaching left, not to mention seminar and a final. I'm just glad that I got the tote first, hehe.

Not that anyone else cares but me, but I love the rationale behind tokidoki. It means "sometimes" in Japanese. It is the hope, the hidden energy that everyone has inside that gives us the strength to face a new day and dream something positive, that something magical will happen to us. How nice is that?

Switcheroo

Before I left school for spring vacation, I just had this sinking gut feeling about the tadpoles. Martha, one of the custodians, agreed to come into the classroom to feed them and to water the plants. I come into school today and find out that the remaining 4 tadpoles have gone to ribbit heaven. We didn't want to tell the students that all of the tadpoles died because we didn't want to upset anyone, especially when they will be having standardized testing all week. Of course immediately there were questions of where the tadpoles were. On the spot, I just told them all that I took them home during break to feed them and didn't bring them back yet. During my lunch, I called up so many places asking for tadpoles. I finally found one place that had them but they only had 3 and not all of them had hind legs. I picked them up after school and will bring them back in tomorrow. In all honesty, I know the kids will know they aren't the same ones. Things like this, they pick up on! I could see one of them saying something random like, "This one has 20 spots, the old one had 17 spots!" I just hope they don't realize the differences and that these new tadpoles will be able to turn into frogs.

Bitter with baggage seeks the same


"Had Saffron fully grasped the excruciating pains of childbirth she would have insisted on the epidural from the first. Who cared what the midwives would say? Next time, she might even plan a C-section, or just lay an egg like the rest of the girls."

Cuteness


Don't worry, be happy!

This pastry is too cute to eat. Spongey cake, cream, and chocolate, mmmm.

My kids not only say funny things but apparently they write them too. I just remembered some of the cute things I read last week. I had them write directions on how to do something. One of the boys is dinosaur crazy and he'll only participate or do work when it's something he likes. He decided to write about how to learn about dinosaurs. Granted, this really wasn't what I was looking for since as a class we generated ideas like how to bake cookies, how to make a bed, how to play tag, etc. I still let him go with it because I didn't want to stifle his creativity. He brings his rough copy over and I look it over and all he has written is dinosaur facts. I explained to him that his paper didn't teach me how to learn about dinosaurs. I gave him suggestions about where he could find dinosaur facts. A few minutes, he shoves the paper under my face and is grinning. I look at the paper and see that he has managed to squeeze in one tiny sentence at the top. He writes, "Come to Adam!" I normally can keep my composure but I just cracked up, it was so cute. He's so sneaky, he knew why I laughed and he knew that he didn't give me what I had wanted. But I told him that he could talk about using the library and Internet, and that he could add to the "come to Adam" in the end, sort of like if all else fails.

One of the girls wrote about how to make someone feel better. Her last two sentences were cute too. She was writing from her personal experience. She wrote, "If you are 1, 2, 3, or 4 you may get a shot. If you are older than that, you get nosedrops."

Another student wrote about how to be a peacemaker. I was really impressed that she decided to go with that topic. It was really sweet and funny actually. She wrote, "If someone is teasing you, do not tease them. What you do is just walk away, calm down, and tell an adult that you know. Treat people the way you want them to treat you. Help the poor. If someone falls down you should help them get up. Help old people that can't hear that well and can't see that well. Most of all don't be mean!"

Zipper defense



Look at the size of these zippers! If you are ever under attack, just smack them across the head with one of these suckers! The funny thing is that my mother was giving me crap about my "exaggeration" lock months ago yet now it's okay for her to have a bag with giant zippers.

Bagaholic

Do they have support groups for people who compulsively buy purses and bags? Even though Emmy just sent me one for school use, I still felt compelled to purchase 2 more bags today! The way I justify it is that I don't buy "designer" ones so it's totally okay. Actually, who am I kidding? I'm a fashionaholic. It's not just bags I buy, but jewelry and clothing as well. If my feet weren't so tiny, I'd be ringing those up as well. Close to what Carrie said in Sex and the City, I literally will be the old lady who lived in her bags.

Since I've been so busy with school, I hadn't been able to do anyone's laundry for a while. Oh, I mean for a while. I finally started to do it last night because there were complaints of so-and-so not having any more clothing left. The sad part is that I actually have more than enough clothing to go without doing laundry.

Sock fiend


Caught in the act!

Please give me back the socks...

Ever wonder where that one missing sock went? I used to think it went into the black hole that's inside your dryer. But the answer is clearly right in front of my face. Cinnamon! I don't even know where he finds all of these socks and I randomly find a hoard of them stored in some obscure area of a room. I swear, my socks need a GPS system.

"I'm a smuggler baby, I just want you to know..."

I finally got to watch "Take the Lead" tonight! I feel like I've been waiting for it since last year. I have such an obsession for movies like this. Of course I loved it, but I could also be biased. Whenever Dante Basco was in the scene, I felt compelled to chant "Rufio, Rufio, Rufio"!

Before tonight, I thought my greatest smuggling accomplishment was 2 slurpees into the movies. Well, Jess and I went into 7-11 to get them but all of them were watery. So that plan failed. While looking for candy, she decided that she wanted McDonald's cookies instead. But then she realized that if she wanted cookies, she'd want milk too. The only size of skim milk they had were quart sizes. Oh yes, I had to figure out how to jam a quart of milk into my purse. In the end, what did I smuggle in? 2 bags of cookies, gummi bears, cherry pepsi, and a quart of milk. Now that's what I call skills.

Reason why not


Splat!

Trying to eat a slice of tiramisu in the car on your way to work is not a good idea. I really thought I could pull off the cake in the car because I've eaten english muffins and steamed roast pork buns, never having a problem. Well, here I was driving with the cake on a plate on the passenger seat when out of nowhere the idiot in front of me brakes like a mofo. When I slammed on my brakes I just saw my cake fly off the plate right onto the floor. Totally sucked cause there went my breakfast and that would be a lot of cream to clean off! Needless to say, I couldn't get it cleaned till after I got to school.

A noodle find

This past Saturday, Jessica and I decided to venture to a new mall because she really wanted to buy some jeans. I can't even remember how many pairs she tried on and how many times I had to check out her ass. I tried on a pair of Lucky jeans just to see what all the fuss was about. In all honesty, they weren't that impressive. However, I did like their dressing room. I did see this tank top I liked but it was like $48! For a tank top!

We had dinner at Nothing But Noodles, a place that had caught on my eye during the drive. It was really cute there. They had mostly noodle dishes from American, Asian, and Italian. The prices and portions were pretty good. You order what you want and pay first. Then they give you this wooden slate with a number on it and you find a table. At each table, there was this little caddy with different sauces and a slot for you to stick your wooden number into. You'd then wait for someone to bring you your order. We ended up sharing the beef stroganoff and spicy Japanese noodles. The place even had cotton candy that you could order for dessert! But instead of getting it on a stick, they put a giant ball of it onto a deep dish. Originally I had wanted to order it but I held out because I knew I had a caramel apple waiting for me.

I love Emmy!


Damn straight, life is no picnic!

The highly anticipated package finally came in today! I've only been checking the mailbox like crazy for the past week. It's actually good it came in today because it was so nice coming home to a package after a crappy day. This bag is awesome, its got ants on it! Plus, it's reversible too. It's funny because it reminds me of my math bag that I had done, because one of the activities involved a picnic and ants too! Oooh unagi! My sistah from another mistah totally rocks! She wanted to give me a cheer-up after what happened last week. It's funny, mle was going to originally get me the "Get your own bag, bit@*" but realized it'd be inappropriate to bring to school. But once again, thank you soo much, love it!

Spring is here!


Mmm mmm good!

How does Cinnamon know that spring is here? I start getting Rita's all the time! He actually recognizes the cup, no joke! The moment I walk through the door with the cup, he starts going crazy. I normally will put some on a flat sauce dish for him. I found out last night that he recognizes that dish as well. He didn't see me walk in with the cup but when he followed me into the kitchen and saw me grabbing the dish, he went nuts! It was so cute. It's funny, the only flavor that he doesn't like too much is the pina colada one.