College Cup!

Vanderbilt Medical School takes "Student Wellness" very seriously. They have all sorts of programs to keep the students as well-rounded as possible while they are studying their brains out. One of these programs is the Advisory College. Before their first day of classes first year, they get "sorted" into one of 4 "colleges." (Harry Potter, anyone?) They are a part of this advisory college for all 4 years of medical school. There are 2 physicians who head the college and throughout the year they do all sorts of mentoring and connecting and general advising. It's great. But the BEST part is the annual COLLEGE CUP: An entire weekend of competitions between the colleges. There is a swim meet, basketball, soccer, volleyball, and ultimate frisbee tournaments, iron chef, trivia, water polo, and more. Each college does their best to scream louder than everyone else at all times and basically everyone acts like they are in high school. It's a blast. 

Brian's college is "Robinson" (and I even get to participate as a Robinson Raven, too) Basically, they are the equivalent of Slytherin in everyone else's eyes. In their own eyes, they are the equivalent of awesome. (I am holding the Dean of the medical school's head in this picture. Brian is to the right banging some sticks together)

Dr. Pilla, one of the physician advisors (an ex-rock star turned anesthesiologist. No, I'm serious.) even dressed up as Snape for opening ceremonies. (In this picture, Brian is the one holding Dean Rogers' head and I am on the left of him.)

I swam in the meet. 2nd place in Backstroke!

that is a temporary tatoo of a Robinson Raven on my shoulder haha!

We both played Ultimate Frisbee.

 Brian totally rocked as water polo goalie. Only 1 point scored on him in 2 games.

 ...and doesn't he look hot in that water polo cap? Smokin! :)

It was such a great weekend that really made both of us miss the times we were doing competitive organized sports. We had so much fun and Robinson DOMINATED. It's always a plus when your team is the best. :)

Sick Day Saturday

When my students get sick, then I get sick. When I get sick, then Brian gets sick.

Then we spend a whole Saturday snuggling in our sweatpants on the beanbag watching football.

Why do people be teachers?

3:05pm on a Tuesday
Kid waiting for her bus number to be called: Mrs. Wright, what is that?
Me: "It's my lunch"
Kid: Why are you eatin' it?
Me:   "I am eating it because I am hungry."
Kid: No! Why didn't you eat it during lunch time?
Me: (*sigh*) "I didn't eat it then, because during lunchtime I had a meeting."
Kid: Why didn't you eat it while we was at PE?
Me: (in my head: "please stop talking") out loud: "I had another meeting, and I had to grade your writing notebooks."
Kid: *thoughtful pause*. . . . .  Being a teacher's hard.


3:10 pm
Kid: Mrs. Wright? Why do people be teachers? Teachers don't even get paid good.
Me: Well . . . . . . . . .  it must be because we looooooove you so much. And probably because we're a little bit crazy.

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

"What Teachers Make" by Taylor Mali

You want to know what I make?
I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional Medal of Honor
and an A-­‐ feel like a slap in the face.
How dare you waste my time
with anything less than your very best.
I make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall
in absolute silence. No, you may not work in groups.
No, you may not ask a question.
Why won’t I let you go to the bathroom?
Because you’re bored.
And you don’t really have to go to the bathroom, do you?
I make parents tremble in fear when I call home:
Hi. This is Mr. Mali. I hope I haven’t called at a bad time,
I just wanted to talk to you about something your son said today.
To the biggest bully in the grade, he said,
“Leave the kid alone. I still cry sometimes, don’t you?
It’s no big deal.”
And that was noblest act of courage I have ever seen.
I make parents see their children for who they are
and what they can be.

You want to know what I make? I make kids wonder,
I make them question.
I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them write.
I make them read, read, read.
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful
over and over and over again until they will never misspell
either one of those words again.
I make them show all their work in math
and hide it on their final drafts in English.
I make them understand that if you’ve got this (a brain),
then you follow this (your heart),
and if someone ever tries to judge you
by what you make, you give them this (a piece of your mind).

Here, let me break it down for you, so you know what I say is true:
Teachers make a difference! 

Now what about you?

(source-- http://taylormali.com/poems-online/what-teachers-make/)

watch it HERE

September 22nd

September 22, 2006 (6 years ago): I went on a date with Mr. Wright

September 22, 2007 (5 years ago): He asked me to be Mrs. Wright

(disclaimer: above photo was taken at the end of September 2007, day unspecified)

September 22, 2012: Living happily ever after

Picked a Peck of Perfect Peaches

...well, it was actually 4 pecks.

My sweet friend Rebekah invited me to go peach picking in an orchard with her this week. That is definitely not something your average Arizonan girl has done in her lifetime, so I was pretty excited.

It rained all week but that didn't stop us, no sir. We went and picked those peaches, rain and all! Now I'm looking for a really good peach cobbler recipe...

Semi-Annual Pilgrimage to the Homelands

As soon as I finished school, I started on what ended up as the biggest project of my life. It is a family tradition to receive a quilt when you are married. I volunteered to make the quilt for my sister's wedding. She picked the fabric, and I drew up a plan. It was a great plan... if I had had several months do to it. Luckily, I had all day every day for 3 weeks to work on it. I used a technique I found on The Welsh Quilter.

 the back of the quilt is gray and yellow. this is square 1 of 100... I quilted a treble clef/bass clef/heart design on each square. I actually ended up mis-calculating and making 45 extra squares (?!) so there may be a mini-version of this quilt up on etsy in the not-so-near future.

This quilt was huge, she took over my entire desk!

It's hard to see in this picture, but I embroidered their names and a quote from Shakespeare about love and music.

 Brian was also working on the biggest project of his life: studying for Step 1 Exam for the Medical School Boards (aka "The Test of questions about anything in existence"). So he didn't mind that I was completely occupied. He studied for 6 weeks, 14 hours a day, 6 days a week for that bad boy. He resisted all kinds of social temptations (movies, game nights) that were posed to him. And he conquered that 8-hour test! He just got his scores back this week and he scored above the Vanderbilt average! (cue the music.. "Hail the conquering Hero! da da dun dun dun....."

We flew to Arizona for Sarah and Zach's wedding. We had a week full of Chimichangas, Just Dance 3, decorating, ice cream, and generally enjoying the Arizona sunshine.

Mom and Sarah manning the frying station.

Michael and Brian claimed the "quality control" station while making chimis

 Just Dance3... bringing families together

 Beautiful centerpieces for the reception

 caught in the act...

The wedding was beautiful, the day was beautiful (though HOT), the bride was beautiful, and everything went generally smoothly. It was so fun to be their photographer! My amazing friend Amanda has been so great to help me along as I learn how to take better pictures.

After the chaos died down, we flew to Oregon. There we had a week full of sleeping in outrageously late, visiting the Keldsens in Bend, s'mores, puzzles, golfing, Disney Sing-Alongs, nieces and nephew, mini-golfing, movies, reading, PS3 gaming, the beach, fireworks, and (of course) more ice cream.

500 piece puzzle!

 Eli--Commanding and Conquering

Disney Princess sing-alongs

 cute Avery!

 Silly Alayna

 Reading the Bearnstein Bears

Jenna, Alayna, and Uncle Brian shooting for Par

 Brian likes his ice cream...

 Alayna and Aunt Stacey

 Fireworks!

  The Oregon Coast is beautiful, but COLD!

All too soon it was time to fly home. It's back to real life... I am studying for the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Exam and Brian is starting his rotation in Anesthesiology. Always staying busy!

Another Year Over

 Well, blog world, I did it. I made it through 2 years in the Nashville public school system. I've officially survived 4 years of teaching! Who knew I would ever get this far? A year ago, I wasn't so optimistic. But moving into the main building from a portable really helps brighten your outlook on life!

I was so blessed to work closely with an amazing teacher and friend-- it made swapping students during the reading block a cinch!

  

I tried something new with my computer station and took the legs off the table! The kids like sitting on the floor while they use the machines, and there are 4 less chairs to deal with. I loved it so much I am going to do the same thing to about half of my desks! Stay tuned....

We got to go on a fun field trip to the Grand Ole' Opry House.

 My kids had some serious dancing skills .The students got to show off at a SWPBS Big Ticket dance!

 Crabs and frogs and millipedes (millipedes not pictured) joined our class as part of an animal studies science unit. I was so disgusted. We all loved them. :D The frogs lasted about a week. The crabs and millipedes were indestructible, and they reeked. Eventually I told the students we had to release them because they weren't happy in their plastic containers.  I think next year our animal studies unit will be a little less "hands on."

 We did a lot of work... and correcting work....

 I started using Data Notebooks with my students. They each keep a notebook where they keep track of their goals, scores on assignments, mastery of the curriculum, and reflections of their progress. They love it and it really helps them to see where they are in relation to where they need to be. I was afraid that it would be discouraging, but for most students it became a good motivator. They would get very excited during "Data Time" where we would record scores and talk about our goals. I am still new to this idea and definitely got started on something I wasn't ready to keep up with fidelity, so next year I will be doing a simpler version

I made so many memories with this crazy group of kids. It's so hard to let them go on to big bad middle school. I'll miss them just as much as every other group I've had.

Now looking forward to year number FIVE! 19 days until the madness begins again!