Last Day of School

Today was the last day of school. The kids are driving me crazy right now. My minions are waiting for the assembly to start, and we've run out of things to do, and so I'm sick of them driving me crazy.

I am glad, however, that I have two weeks off and get to play with my family for a long time! I will be very glad in 50 minutes when school is out and I get to go home.

The other fun thing about today, is that in one of my classes we rewrote the lyrics to popular christmas songs and several of them are absolutely hystarical. There are several that the kids put me into the songs and it was funny. One of the groups used all these inside jokes about what has happened in class and everyone was rolling on the floor laughing.

Power of Sticker Charts and A Dream Fulfilled

I have a new success story for myself. The power of sticker charts! I decided that I would put a sticker on everyday on the calender that I read my scriptures and write in my journal. In the month of December, there is only one day missing a sitcker, because I decided at ten at night, I didn't want to write in my journal, but I still read my scriptures. I am so proud of myself!

I think that I am going to add on other stickers--but I'm not sure. I get so excited to do both things, because then I get to put on more stickers.

I had a dream fulfilled yesterday. My Hero and I went to the Christmas Concert put on by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The dream fulfilled is from the special guest. They invited Brian Stokes Mitchell to preform with them. I have always wanted to see him preform live before he or I dies. And I did.

It was so amazing! At the end of the concert, the prophet came up and presented a gift to him. And then the president of the choir told the story that Brian Stokes Mitchell was willing to sing "The Impossible Dream" from Man of La Mancha for all the secretaries in the Church Administrative Building, and that the prophet had missed it. He then asked Brian Stokes Mitchell to sing it for the prophet, and he agreed!!! I have heard him preform "The Impossible Dream" LIVE!!! I feel so honored and it is a dream fulfilled!

Quadratic Toolbox

The first year I taught, after I was through the Quadratic unit, I got a really cool idea--over two thirds of the unit is teaching the kids all the different tools to solve a Quadratic equation. (For all you non-math people, a quadratic equation is one with x-squared in it as the highest exponent.) But last year, when I got to this unit, I couldn't find pictures of tools to use and was getting burned out from everything I was trying to do and so I didn't get it ready for the students.

This year is different. I got everything ready and today we made our quadratic toolboxes. They turned out awesome! There are four ways to solve a quadratic equation: 1. graphing, 2. factoring, 3. completing the square, 4. quadratic formula. So I made four tools: a hammer, a wrench, a screwdriver, and a tape measure. The assignment the kids got today was to take their notes and pick a tool to go with each quadratic tool and write the steps, create an example on how to use the tool and place them on the tools.

It was so fun to see the kids working on it! Most of the kids put Completing the Square on the tape measure "because it's square!" I just loved watching several of them realizing that what we've been talking about are all for solving quadratics and that they're tools. A couple of kids told me that they liked it because they could see that some tools are easier to use in different situations--just like sometimes it's easier to use the hammer instead of the screwdriver. I just felt like I was the queen of teaching!



Here's my example that I made with the kids to show for next year and absent kids.


Speaking of being the queen of teaching, I was JPASed. This is the method the district uses to make sure that teachers are good teachers and hypothetically they can get help if they need it. Usually it's used to fire teachers. So the VP came into my classroom twice and watched me teach lessons and evaluated me. I got my results back--I got exceptional ratings. I am an exceptional teacher!! I am proud of my achievements and get to toot my horn for the fact that I can improve, but the scores are as high as they go! (YAY!!!) The Math Super Hero Strikes again!!

The other big news is before my hero came home from Germany, I dyed my hair. I wanted to be a different hair color, and it's been so much fun to have dark hair. So we decided that it's time that we show my hair color to the world. (Disclaimer: My belly looks bigger than it normally does, because my arms are pulled back.) I really like my new hair color!

Belly Dance

My Panda has gotten big enough in my belly that he causes the belly to dance. It's quite interesting to look down at my belly--when he's going crazy inside and see my belly move.

It's also really weird to think that there is life growing inside of me. There is another person with me always. This person also has a hobby of kicking my belly. I don't know how I feel about that.

Snake Cake

I was voted the celebrator of Math Department Birthdays. To do that fully, I was told to bring treats and do something for every Departmentee Birthday. Today was one birthday. So I made a snake cake.



A view from top:














And a shot of my belly, since everyone wants to see that...I'm at 23 weeks.



















Is anyone else impressed that I am finally using pictures? I know that I am impressed!

Minions Responses to Panda

I'm sorry it's taken so long to get these responses up, but in my defense, school is quite crazy right now and I'm working not to evict the panda, since he is determined to kick his way out. He is constantly moving and doesn't like me to sit down for very long since it limits his space. Here are the long awaited responses to the minions with the quiz.

1st period: They were really dead, but there were gasps all around the room as they reached question 3. One minion raised his hand and told me not to get a massage of any kind, especially not a foot massage because it would cause the panda to be born early. I thanked the minion for the advice and everyone got excited.

2nd period: They found out from their friends because there is no 2nd period on Wednesdays.

3rd period: I passed out the quiz and right as the last minion had the quiz one minion, the loudest minion in the class, yelled out "Congratulations!" And the whole class was confused. He then yelled out, "Am I the only one who reads the whole quiz before I start to answer? Read the quiz!" They all read the quiz and then they hollared out Congratulations! They all started telling that other minions had said that it was time that I had a baby. And different girls had called that I was pregnant. This period was loads of fun.

4th period: They were really quiet, but one minion kept raising his hand and asking me, "What are you having?" I told him to guess, and then the next question he wanted to know what I was going to name the panda. I told him I don't know and then he looked at me and asked me how he was going to get the question right. I laughed really hard about it after wards, because he totally missed the point.

5th period: One minion saw the questions and then started talking to everyone about it and pointing at it and I reminded her to be quiet and to try the quiz and she was really excited. One boy minion yelled "I don't know what you guys are talking about! Be quiet!" And then two minutes later the same minion said really loudly, "OH!!" The following day when I put on the board that the panda was a boy and the same minion child was at the board doing the starter right underneath the sign and everyone started talking about how it was a boy and he looked so hard at the kids and said, "How do you know?!" They told him to look up. It was precious.

6th period: They were quiet, and I was surprised how many had no idea. Their friends hadn't all told them because they wanted to share in the joy of discovering. One minion raised his hand and was really confused, because he didn't think that it was real. I told him that I really was having a baby and he said, "oh.....well.....congratulations.....I guess...." And I laughed all the way back to my desk.

7th period: They were loud and excited. A couple of minions said that they thought that I was expecting, but that they weren't going to dare to ask me. I told them I was grateful that they didn't ask me. One minion asked how far along I was and I told him 20 weeks and he looked at me and said, "You've known for 20 weeks and you didn't tell us?!" I asked him if he could tell, and he said no. And then I told him that at least I was telling him now. And he was satisfied.

All in all they were great and I had loads of fun telling them all day long.

Minions and Panda

Today I gave my minions a pop quiz. There were five questions, the first two were math questions and the last three are as follows:

3. Yes, the Rumors are true, Mrs. Hughes is having a baby! Do you think it's going to be a boy or a girl?

4. What should Mrs. Hughes name her baby? (One name for each gender)

5. Mrs. Hughes is due February 26, 2009. Most babies are not born on their due dates, but are close. When do you think the baby will be born?

Today has been precious. The minions have been so funny about the responses. I have great stories from every period! I have advice about not getting massages because it will make the baby come early, and kids who didn't believe me. It was wonderful!

Healthy Baby

We got to see our little baby yesterday! He is healthy and happy and doesn't like to hold still. My Hero told me that this little boy takes after his mom. He has all body parts and didn't want to show one arm. We know he has it, because the hand attached to the arm is down by his bum, so there has to be an arm. He also wiggled his fingers and that is also a sign there is an arm, he just didn't want to show that part of him.

It was amazing to see him move and now I know what he feels like as he moves and he doesn't sit still. It doesn't matter if I'm standing or sitting, he's moving around in my belly. Really weird feeling. I'm worried for when he gets bigger and it starts to hurt.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Wednesday and Thursday were Parent Teacher Conferences (PTC). This is mainly an endurance game for the teachers, because we put in 12 hours a day for two days in a row and are expected to say nice things to the students when we see them and say nice things to the parents, especially if the parent starts to yell or get mad at you. It is obviously your fault as the teacher that their student is failing, especially when their student has turned in a total of one assignment for the whole year. But I didn't get yelled at, and most everyone was happy to have their student in my class--which is an ego stroke for me!

This PTC, as a school we had the absolute best experience. Unfortunately it was not my minion, but my neighbor's minion. But it still makes a great story. Mrs. J, my neighbor was explaining to one parent about why their child was failing TA. TA stands for Teacher Advisory and we encourage the use of planners by doing planner checks to make sure minions are writing in them. This hopefully helps minions become more organized. She explained that this particular minion did not use his planner and was failing because of it. Mrs. J. said that she wanted to help him learn responsibility. The Mom said, "That's what I'm hearing from most of his teachers." Mom looked at minion and said, "you need to learn to be responsible. They're trying to help." Without missing a beat, the minion replied to his mom, "I get my irresponsibility from you Mom. After all, you had me when you were 15!" There was an awkward silence and Mrs. J tried to change the subject as fast as she could.

All the math teachers have been dying of laughter over this story. It makes us laugh really hard, and I thought I would share.

I'm doing great, not showing at all, and in a few more days I will be able to know what I'm having! I'm really excited for Tuesday!

Two weeks of Minions

I have now had two weeks with this years batch of minions, and they are up to their usual tricks and I have many stories about them.

Yesterday two of the stories happened and they made me very happy. The first of them happened not in my class. Mr. S, another math teacher had one of his minions tell him that he was boring. Mr. S then said that if he wanted an exciting math teacher the minion should sign up to take a class from me, Mrs. H. The minion then replied, "Mrs. H, is like a kindergarten student who's really good at math." When Mr. S told me that story, I just laughed and laughed.

The other story happened during 7th period, the second to last period of the day. Every Friday I celebrate that I didn't kill any one, no one killed me, and I get to sleep in tomorrow by dancing to the music in the halls. Before 7th period, I was dancing in the halls and once it started I passed out papers. Half way through the process, one minion looked at me and asked, "did you just change your shirt?" "No. This is the shirt I've had on all day long." Another minion asked me if I'd been wearing the shirt in TA (2nd period) and I looked at him and said, "Yes." The whole class was convinced that I had changed my shirt right before I came into class. Mr. S thinks I should change my shirt halfway through the period sometime next week and see if they notice or say anything.

Last week, the principal shared this story with me. She told me that she walks around during lunch talking to the kids and she asked one seventh grader who their favorite teacher is. The seventh grader said, 'I think it's Mrs. H. But she's scary." The principal asked why I was scary, and the seventh grader looked up at the principal and said, "You know she wears a calculator on her leg, That's scary." The principal and I thought that was funny too.

School

School has started again. I like my classes this year, because of two things: 1. the sizes of classes are smaller than last year, and 2. I have a prep period! These two things make school a whole lot more bearable than last year.

I'm in the process of learning all of the names of my minions. I think I'm at about two periods shy of knowing all their names. It's a lot easier to teach them if I know their names. Odd, then I can tell them to stop talking to their neighbor and give them the stare down, and mostly the kids are really good.

I don't have any real complaints, and it's great. I'm having fun, and trying to get rid of a cold. Some days I really wish I could take nyquil, but I'll survive. Tomorrow's FRIDAY!!!

August Graduations

My Hero graduated from BYU this past week. I am so proud of him! It was a lot of fun to see family and play around with everyone a few last times. His family came up to visit and we got to take pictures and it was loads of fun!

My Hero also has a job for the next five or six months studying a bug. He gets to travel and catch the bugs and publish, so we're pretty excited. And the six months is the best thing that could happen to us, because he'll finish working just in time to take care of the baby that is coming!

We are both so excited for the end of February! So excited! That's our news. And no, I'm not showing at all.

Girls Camp

I spent the last week at Girls Camp in San Diego. It was tons of fun! I vollunteered to go with My Hero's Mom and we were the camp cooks! I enjoyed cooking for lots of people but it felt completely cycical, because once we had cleaned up one meal, we started on another meal. We went to the mountains and camped in the beauty. My only complaint was that there was a pleathera of Breaking Dawn books.

I had read the rest of the series and now hate Bella. I don't like her, and so I am refusing to read the books and it was all over camp, and everyone was obsessing over it. I understand everyone will have obsessions, but I don't like how my students obsess over the book and wish that they found something else to obsess over.

School starts in a week. I'm sad to go back. I've thoughly enjoyed my freedom. It will be hard to give it up.

Primary Rocks

For all of you who don't know, I am a primary teacher with My Hero. We teach Valiant 10, and there are only two boys who come every week. During the school year we have another boy who comes ever other week, when he is in town.

This past Sunday was awesome! Some days it's a trial, but most of the time it is good. This past week was awesome. We are in the war chapters and so our two 10 year old boys are always asking us questions like, "Why didn't they use flaming arrows? If I were fighting I would use a bomb. Did they plant mines?" And we have to explain to them nicely, that no they didn't use those weapons because they weren't invented. Sunday was no exception--except one of the boys started off as soon as we were in class that he found a website where you could buy tazers and oozies and all sorts of cool weapons. I let them talk for a little bit and then asked them if they wanted to hear if the Nephites had tazers in the war they were fighting this week. Both of the boys looked at me and said, very condesendingly, "They didn't have tazers. They weren't invented." I had to laugh, at least they listen to somethings I say.

Then came Sharing Time. We had it this month and so I had drawn pictures about missionary stories (Theme of the month is missionary work) and I had the boys hide them. Then as we found the pictures the boys told the story about it. I used stories like Ammon, Elder Groberg, and Seth's. I also made part of the picture be visable. They were mad at me for that. I also had to give clues so the people could find the pictures. My boys are very good hiders. There was one picture left and they called up one girl to come and find it. I had to help with this one, they had hidden it so well. Anyways, I give one clue and then answer questions and the boys are disgusted with me. All during singing time they won't sit by me and they glare at me and give me the biggest evil glares ever. I am dying of laughter. It was so funny to watch them hold a grudge.

At the end of Primary I told them that it was a good thing I was going to be gone for the next two weeks so they could have time to forgive me. Both of them looked horrified and told me, "We forgive you! Don't GO!" I told them that I had too, but My Hero would be there and they were somewhat molified.

I love those boys! They are so funny!

Monday Business

For most of first part of the month of July I went on a kick of I don't want to do anything. And so I didn't. It was really bad. I mean, a list of accomplishments for a whole day would be, "I made the bed and got dressed." And that was a good day.

But I have kicked the habit of laziness-mostly. I am still in my pajamas, but hey, I've made a few worksheets, wrote a letter, did the dishes, and organized the year on Excell for Algebra 2.

Yesterday I worked on my cross-stitch and I am going to make a quilt! I am really excited to do stuff again! It was good for me to be lazy for a week or so, but then it's good to do things again. I love life!

Blood Work

Today I went in for some blood tests, just the customary check up and it has me wondering. I never have problems getting blood taken from me when I am at a hospital, or a lab clinic. They find my veins and the blood is drawn and there is hardly any pain, just a prick.

I go to donate blood through Red Cross or other blood collection agencies and there's a problem. They dig in my arm, they comment that I don't have enough veins and they tell me I'm too little. (The agency really likes my blood, but the collectors don't.) Why is there such a big difference? Is it that good phelbotomists only work at hospitals? The rejects get sent to the donation clinics? I don't know. I will still donate, but it makes me wonder. Why is there such a vast difference between the locations?

Accomplished

Visiting Maria was a blast! I loved walking around DC and taking things slowly and easily. My favorite place was probably the Newseum, followed by the botanical gardens. I really liked them. The gardens are so peaceful, and the Newseum has the history of reporting history and how it changed with technology and how things have stayed the same. It was so cool to see that news affected different parts of history and how the repression of news stops countries from developing.

The other cool thing is jazz in the park. There are free jazz concerts every Friday and it was tons of fun to go and listen and relax after a busy week.

My family also tried to convince me that the east coast, by DC is the best place to live and that I should move out there. I'm pretty close to being convinced, but I have to wait and see if that's what my hero wants or if that's what the Lord wants.

Maria inspired me with all her to do lists and that she checks things off. Due to her amazingness, I created a to do list of my own and I have over half of the year planned for one of the two classes I am going to teach next year. I am so proud of myself. I feel productive.

Well, I'm off to ponder the best way to think about teaching logarithms and exponential functions, because I didn't teach it very well last year.

Summer is very nice. I have really enjoyed not doing a whole lot of stuff. My biggest accomplishments are that I am almost caught up on sleep--I know this because I can actually start doing something now without a strong desire to take a nap, and I wake up everymorning before 8:00--and I finished typing up my Grandma's personal memoir of her experience in World War II in Berlin. It was amazing! As I worked on it I am so astounded by her faith and the love that Heavenly Father has for everyone of his children. I also reinforced in my stubborn head that if you look for Heavenly Father, He is there. He is in the little details of our lives and it is our responsibility to find Him and thank Him for all He does for us.

Today I am packing because I get to go and visit Maria for a week! I am sooo excited to go and play and recouperate from the end of school! I'm giddy with excitement! School is out and vacations here I come!!!

The last three days of school seemed to take an eternity to finish, and now that they're done and have been done for five days, it seems like an eternity since I went to school. Time is really crazy like that.

My Hero and I went to see a play, "The Curious Savage" and died laughing. We thoughly enjoyed the production and recomend it to anyone and everyone. The plot line is that Mrs. Savage is interned at an insane assylum because her step-children don't like the way she is handling the Savage fortune. Consequently, over half of the cast play insane characters, for instance, one character refuses to talk and will only recite a list of things she hates. This character also gave up electricity for lent, and you know when this character enters because the lights go off for a short period of time until the other characters can find the light switch. The whole play is loads of fun and makes everyone really laugh hard. If the opportunity presents itself, you should go. You won't regret it.

I also did something else due to my Hero. He has some Star Wars video games that he likes to play and I've been interested by one of them because there's lots of puzzles to solve and I like that sort of thing. I tried playing it and now I hate it. I will watch him play and help him through the puzzles, but I dislike the controls and I hate dying. (That's all I do when I play.)

I am unable to find a job for this summer so now I will be looking for projects to occupy my time, so if you think that I need to try something I will be game. I love to cook, and I enjoy sewing, scrapbooking, making cards, reading, and doing all sorts of things. I don't hold still very well, and my attention span is short, but I will pick something back up after I've put it down when my attention is back. Let me know via email or this blog if you have ideas for me. That's all.

End of School Musings

I'm so excited for the end of school. Today is the last Friday of school this school year. It's really almost summer. I am so sick of doing stuff for school and having hoops to jump through. I am finding that I get tired earlier each day. But all in all, I'm excited to be done and really I love my job.

My minions are really well behaved. Most of them are willing to work still, even though there are three more days left.

I've also got a lot of stuff to do as a teacher. I check in so much of my stuff--like my overhead projector, keys, books, scissors, calculators, and other many numerous things. These other things seem to take up just as much time as the regular stuff and it's hard to realize that I'm getting anywhere on my list of things to do. But Good News: My grades are done and finished. Completely. This is a big accomplishment, but really obnoxious, because School has three more days in it.

I'm plodding through the mess. I'll make it and I'm so excited for summer. You don't get really excited for summer until you are a teacher. You may think you are excited, but it just doesn't compare.

Love and Logic

School today was interesting. My kids were good(mostly) and I didn't lose my cool until 7th period. I had two big problems with today--but they are resolved now and so I'm not going to let them bother me.

We're having an in-service about Love and Logic today after school. I like it, and it's good for a reminder, but I feel drained. I like that I am being reminded about empathy and teaching responsibility. But at the same time I am feeling worried that the timing of this in-service that they (the administration) are telling us that we suck as teachers. We need to not lose our cools with the kids. The selfish parts of me, the proud part, doesn't want to change and hear it nine days before the school year is over. I feel like I'm in survival mode. I don't feel like the kids
deserve my empathy because they have drained me for the whole year. I feel like the kids need to be nice to me. But that's just me. I'll encourage my students and help them through the year.

End of the School Year

I'm starting to feel a little bipolar. I mean, I really like it when there are days that the kids are working on something that I don't need to help them on, but then again, I also really like teaching them and being in control, that I'm not just a baby-sitter.

Take yesterday: I was so glad that all my classes had activities that I didn't have to teach them, they just did their stuff and were engaged and working. I really liked that. However, by the end of the day, I found myself doing more babysitting than I would have liked.

Take today: I find it refreshing to teach them and keep them occupied and doing work. I'm not pressured into grading these activities, because I've told my kids, it's all or nothing. You work you get points, you don't you get zero points. I am answering questions and feeling useful, but not babysitting, and I'm doing great. I hope that at the end of the day I don't feel like it was a waste and that I did a ton of babysitting...but I probably will because it is May. And there are only 11 more days left.

But while it lasts, I think I'm going to enjoy myself. We have so much going on each and every day. Take today--we have locker clean out, we have textbook check in, we have the no tardy party and we have to keep the kids occupied and learning things. Parents seem to think that if we don't keep working their kids then they can complain to the administrators and then we get in trouble.

I am so pleased with myself. I taught Summation Notation to my Algebra 2 minions, and they like it! I purposely kept it simple and easy so they can say they've seen it and don't freak out as bad next year. They probably will, but I can feel like I was successful!

Next is factoring. I love to factor!

A fun thing to share...

What Beth Means

You are full of energy. You are spirited and boisterous. You are bold and daring. You are willing to do some pretty outrageous things. Your high energy sometimes gets you in trouble. You can have a pretty bad temper at times. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life. You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home. You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble. You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out. Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia. Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

I decided to do this, because I saw it on another blog and I'm trying not to do anything useful today.

End of Level Tests

I decided with my utter and complete boredom that I would post, because it's been a while. Today I have systimatically gone through my check list and checked almost everything off. (My things to do at school list.)

These things include:

1. Positive notes home
2. Updating Grades
3. Catching a Spider for the Hubby Hero
4. Making Answer Keys for End of Level Tests
5. Cleaning out my desk
6. Cleaning out my bookshelves.
7. Telling kids to shut-up
8. Finishing my portfolio so I can get my new teaching license
9. Cleaning out my room
10. Getting ready my packets for next week.
11. Counting missing assignments to motiviate minions.

These things have been kind of bothering me, and had to get done before school gets out in 16 more days. (Not like I'm counting.) So yeah, I've got a lot done and now I'm at the bottom of the to do list here at school and so I thought I would check something off the list to do at home.

Other good news: My tutoring minions who hates coming, the one that drives me crazy because the whole hour he is there is filled with "When is my mom coming to get me, When is my dad coming to get me, how much longer do I have, etc." He isn't coming until June! I'm really thrilled, because then he can have all my patience, not just the pitiful remains that are left over after middle school.

Other good news: My counted cross-stitch is zooming along, at a very rapid rate. I'm surprised how fast it is coming and that my miniscule attention span hasn't already left it alone. It continues to captivate me, so I'm continuing to work on it every night.

Other good news: I'm in an exercise class through my ward and it is kicking my trash, but I'm sticking with it! I've already made excellent progress and will continue to do so. I will be ready for next year so I can kick my minion's butt's when they give me greif....Just kidding Mom!

Other good news: It's the Hubby Hero's birthday tomorrow. I'm really excited for it! We are going to have a lot of fun when I get home from school.

I think this is all the good news. There isn't bad news except that testing makes me bored. Really really bored. Bored Super Math Hero's are not good things. Because then I will do stupid things.

Peach

My super hero act of today is that I had decided to spot check an assignment, because I could see that the kids had understood the work, or if they had done poorly. I decided to keep it a secret until we started grading. It was funny to hear other kids get excited when they realized it was a spot check. Until Minion GD. [GD is a funny kid] Minion GD starts freaking out that he doesn't understand and that he didn't hear some of the questions. The class then says, "G- it's called a spot check." He then got really excited and blurted out, "Mrs. H- you are a PEACH!" Stunned silence followed and then we laughed about it.

It's good to be a peach.

Stitching

This week my cross-stitch came in the mail on Thursday, so consequently I didn't do any school work that night. I had previously determined not to do any school work over the weekend, and I'm getting quite far on the cross-stitch. (For those of you who don't realize how long this takes, I've worked on it for almost twenty hours and completed about three square inches.)

I am having a blast! I know that I am going to need to take more time for sanity reasons and cross-stitch lots through out the rest of the month to survive the school year. I love minions, and they love me, but it's getting to the point where we all need sanity. This happens.

Minions and Staples

I have noticed that minions have a strange attraction to staples. For example, on Minion, Minion JJ, he noticed that there was a paper on my no name board. He then decided to attack it with my stapler. He put about seven extra staples attaching the paper to the board. I told him off and told him that he owed me new staples--7 new staples. He and his friends thought it funny and he apologized. I watched him leave and then forgot about it, because I had a ton of other things on my mind. Minion JJ didn't forget. He brought me a small stack of staples and handed it to me and told me that we were even. I died laughing and so did the whole class.

My other story about Minion JJ happened around Novemberish time. He was looking at my starter board and then realized that there was an upside down "w" on the board. He got really excited and pointed it out to the class. We were all really confused, because we didn't know what he was talking about. Finally he got up and pointed it out to everyone, and then a couple of kids in the class looked at him blankly and said, "Yeah, that's called an "m"." Every once in a while kids will point out a "m" and tell him, "Hey, look, there's another upside down 'W'!".

On other fronts, I'm starting another super hero task. I decided that it was time that I started another counted cross stitch. I have been looking at my boyfriend and other man in my life, the counted cross stitch that took three and a half years of my life to complete and decided that I missed doing mindless work and I needed to start up on my hobby again. I'm a glutten for punishment. But the pattern I picked out, it is super cool! It's my favorite picture of Christ. Or as favorite as I get, I have hard time picking favorites. It will come in the mail in a few days and then I'll get started! I'm so excited!

Super Hero Act #2

Super Hero Act #2: Coming back after there has been a sub. This requires lots of super hero-y-ness because you're never really sure what went on when you weren't there. It's always nice to hear that my students were well behaved enough for the sub to want to come back. (This is a good sign right?)

This hasn't been so bad. The Bug Super Hero is in the midst of finals. It's always an odd sensation to be a "grown-up" and not have finals while someone else does. I feel bad for him, but at the same time, I am so overwhelmed by late work and little things that I need to do as a teacher that I don't feel like I have time to do the things I want to. But it's all working out in the end.

Super Hero Act #1

Act #1: Creating a Blog. This is tech savy and spelling and grammer might count. These are the two things that the math super hero is really bad at. All her minions agree. (Yes, I DO have minions. I have close to 25o minions.) I try to teach my minions math. This is really a super hero act, because most of them don't like math. I have to find out where they are struggling and motivate them to care and get excited about a "boring" subject. So I do crazy things and they seem to appriciate it, or at least tell me that I'm way weird. As Super Pi they agree that my one weakness is grammer, however there are a few that are holding out that spelling is my downfall.

One of my minions, the other day got me off topic slightly. (This happens quite a lot. I have to say.) And this minion, Minion J, asks me if I want to go to Mars. I told him that I would love to go to Mars if the technology is there to get me there safely, and have time to visit, and not die and not have all my family die while I'm gone. He agreed with me and then told me he would finance my trip to Mars, because he was feeling generous that day. I gladly accepted. He then told me that I needed to design the space engine. [I guess this comes with the territory of being a super hero, people think you can do anything.] I looked shocked and the rest of the Minions of the 4th hour did too. And then the rest of the minions liked the idea. We laughed about it for the rest of the hour. I thought about it slightly, and came up with an idea that he might buy for the next day. Sure enough he came to me on the day following, and asked me how the engines were going. I told him I had an idea, but he had to do his math assignment first, and low and behold, for the first day in a long time, he started working without complaint! I was pleased with my super hero-y senses. Then Minion N, said that I should be left at Mars, and the rest of the class decided that Minion N wasn't invited on the trip. It's fun to hear them defend their Super Hero. However, now I need ideas for space travel. If you come up with any ideas, I would love to hear them.

I think this is all for tonight. It will take a real super hero to keep this blog updated. We'll see if the Math Super Hero can supply.