Sunday, October 30, 2011
Pool and School
Hello everyone I hope that you all enjoyed the holiday weekend and had plenty of scares with the family. I would like to let everyone know that I was able to talk Leah into shooting pool in her first tournament this past friday. She shot really well and actually won a game which she was very happy about. We had a great time and I hope that I will be able to talk her into shooting at another tournament soon. Also this past week I had a test in my motor development class that I thought was going to plummit my grade. However this test was much easier than anticipated and I believe that it went very well, we will find out tomorrow how we did on it. Also I have a test tomorrow morning in my physiology class that is over all the cardiovascular system and immune sytem responses. WTF... not looking forward to that. I will let you all know how that goes in my next update. Again hope everyone is doing well and I wish that I could be home to celebrate my niece and little sisters b-day with them. Leah and I will be trying to make a road trip this coming weekend to Ft. Collins for a date night, at leas if I can talk her into it that is. Anyway utnil next time stay out of trouble and only have a drink if its a day that ends with Y
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Pumpkins, Cooking, and Marriage
Keeping with the spirit of our awesome niece and nephew, we decided to make some awesome food and carve some pretty sweet pumpkins. Enjoy the pictures!
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| Grandma's Fantasy Fudge = delicious! |
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| Honey Mustard Pork Loin recipe thanks to Grandma! |
Brandon working hard on his pumpkin....
Leah's completed pumpkin :)
Brandon still working......
Leah and her pumpkin
Brandon's pumpkin finally finished
Brandon's pumpkin finally finished
Pumpkin seeds!!!
Just like his pumpkin :)
After a fun filled weekend of pumpkin carving, we waited until this weekend to start our new adventure of making homemade pizza! We made the crust from scratch and created three different varieties.
1. 4-cheese rosa sauce, chicken, pineapple and banana pepper pizza
2. Chunky Mushroom sauce, hamburger, olive, and banana pepper pizza
3. Dessert Pizza! (icing sauce, cinnamon, brown sugar, apples, chocolate chips :) )
Mixing the dough for the crusts
Putting on the sauce!
More ingredients.....
Complete! Close look at the meat pizza
Dessert pizza preparation
Dessert pizza cooking
We are amazing chefs!!!
Sometimes Simple is the Hardest
This update is going to just be about teaching and we will update the other areas tomorrow :)
This past week was eye-opening for me as a first year teacher. One of the hardest parts about teaching is being able to explain concepts well enough that students understand how to actually use and why they use it. It is also hard to try to explain things that you do everyday without thinking. One of the biggest challenges I have had through teaching math is trying to explain concepts that I do without thinking. For instance, why do two negatives multiplied together get you a positive? I have known this "rule since before middle school and now I am supposed to explain it to students so that they fully understand it and remember it. Well, it is because of these things called zero pairs. How do you solve for a variable when there are numbers all around it?
Suppose you have the problem 3x + 4 = 16 and you want to solve for x. Well, I have always done this without thinking too hard....you subtract the four from both sides then divide the new equation by 3 on both sides. Well.....what I think is simple as a math teacher has once again proven to be a challenge for my students.
This past week, I encountered a trend of misconceptions with my students. Many of my students were confused as to whether to get rid of that darn 3 or that 4 first. They all knew the goal was to get the x alone but they were unclear as to the order of the steps to take. Of course, you can divide by the three first but then you need to take into account the 4 divided by three as well. So, the simple method is to get rid of the four and then the three.....but WHY? How do you explain that to students so that they can fully understand the order?
I tried color coordinating, I tried just verbalizing it...none of these methods worked. Then it hit me, in the middle of a lecture one day, of how I could try to relate this math equation to their real lives. Kinda a goofy analogy but I was in the middle of teaching so you must give me some credit. So here it goes....this is how I explained it to my students.
You have the equation 3x + 4 = 16. Your goal is to get the x alone.
Think about this problem as if you were the x. You get up in the morning. You put clothes on and then you add on your accessories such as earrings, your purse, your wallet, etc. Now, think of your clothes as if they are glued to you and your accessories are just simple attachments to your outfit. When you get home at the end of the day, you cannot take off your "glued" clothes before your accessories right? Therefore, you must take off your accessories before you take off your clothes.
Now, if we go back to the equation at hand......the extra tacked on number is like our accessory. It is what we add on at the end of our initial dressing. The number with the x, is your glued part....like your clothes glued on until you take off your accessories. Therefore, in order to get x by itself, you must first get rid of the accessories and then the glued part (aka...the 4 and then the 3)
I wasn't sure if this was going to hold but apparently it worked! Now, when I ask my students what our first step is when solving an equation....they pause and then all at once say "get rid of the accessory!" and I respond by saying "yes.....and what is our accessory? What is tacked on at the end?"....and they all seem to pick the right number!
I do not know if this analogy will hold but I sure hope it does. It seems to get the kids thinking about something they do everyday and how they can relate it to a random math equation. I was pretty excited about my idea and was so proud when my students started talking about the accessories and glued parts. Made me feel like I maybe, just maybe, helped these "at risk" students get out of the mind gutter and on to understanding how to solve math.
It is a great feeling and a wonderful way to end my first quarter of my first year teaching.
This past week was eye-opening for me as a first year teacher. One of the hardest parts about teaching is being able to explain concepts well enough that students understand how to actually use and why they use it. It is also hard to try to explain things that you do everyday without thinking. One of the biggest challenges I have had through teaching math is trying to explain concepts that I do without thinking. For instance, why do two negatives multiplied together get you a positive? I have known this "rule since before middle school and now I am supposed to explain it to students so that they fully understand it and remember it. Well, it is because of these things called zero pairs. How do you solve for a variable when there are numbers all around it?
Suppose you have the problem 3x + 4 = 16 and you want to solve for x. Well, I have always done this without thinking too hard....you subtract the four from both sides then divide the new equation by 3 on both sides. Well.....what I think is simple as a math teacher has once again proven to be a challenge for my students.
This past week, I encountered a trend of misconceptions with my students. Many of my students were confused as to whether to get rid of that darn 3 or that 4 first. They all knew the goal was to get the x alone but they were unclear as to the order of the steps to take. Of course, you can divide by the three first but then you need to take into account the 4 divided by three as well. So, the simple method is to get rid of the four and then the three.....but WHY? How do you explain that to students so that they can fully understand the order?
I tried color coordinating, I tried just verbalizing it...none of these methods worked. Then it hit me, in the middle of a lecture one day, of how I could try to relate this math equation to their real lives. Kinda a goofy analogy but I was in the middle of teaching so you must give me some credit. So here it goes....this is how I explained it to my students.
You have the equation 3x + 4 = 16. Your goal is to get the x alone.
Think about this problem as if you were the x. You get up in the morning. You put clothes on and then you add on your accessories such as earrings, your purse, your wallet, etc. Now, think of your clothes as if they are glued to you and your accessories are just simple attachments to your outfit. When you get home at the end of the day, you cannot take off your "glued" clothes before your accessories right? Therefore, you must take off your accessories before you take off your clothes.
Now, if we go back to the equation at hand......the extra tacked on number is like our accessory. It is what we add on at the end of our initial dressing. The number with the x, is your glued part....like your clothes glued on until you take off your accessories. Therefore, in order to get x by itself, you must first get rid of the accessories and then the glued part (aka...the 4 and then the 3)
I wasn't sure if this was going to hold but apparently it worked! Now, when I ask my students what our first step is when solving an equation....they pause and then all at once say "get rid of the accessory!" and I respond by saying "yes.....and what is our accessory? What is tacked on at the end?"....and they all seem to pick the right number!
I do not know if this analogy will hold but I sure hope it does. It seems to get the kids thinking about something they do everyday and how they can relate it to a random math equation. I was pretty excited about my idea and was so proud when my students started talking about the accessories and glued parts. Made me feel like I maybe, just maybe, helped these "at risk" students get out of the mind gutter and on to understanding how to solve math.
It is a great feeling and a wonderful way to end my first quarter of my first year teaching.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
A week Late!
Sorry we missed updating last week! Things got a bit crazy but have slowed down enough to where we can write once again! I will try to keep it short this week as either tonight or tomorrow I am going to post again with our Pumpkin Carving Adventures along with some new recipes :)
Teaching Life--
Phew! Things are picking up and this Thursday marks the end of the first quarter at Hanna Elk Mountain Jr. Sr. High school--which means I have "successfully" made it through 1/4 of my first year teaching! WooHoo!
Last Friday was the most exciting day of teaching in the past two weeks so I figured I would chat about that. Started out fairly normal with the other math teachers coming in and talking and me preparing for my first class. One of my students was in the office and seemed a bit frightened. After talking with him I found out there had been an encounter and he was scared to be at school. I talked to him for a bit a reassured him that there were a lot of teachers there to look out for him. Next, Algebra I came in and we were off to a good day--until it started again--the nagging, negative comments. My algebra I class has had some social issues lately trying to contain their negative opinions to themselves. I went off and told them that I was tired of hearing such negative comments in the classroom. I gave them a choice of shaping up their attitudes towards their peers or taking notes by themselves from the book.
Pre-Algebra went well and we had a blast talking about dolly parton aka Pamela Anderson aka Improper fractions :). After lunch I got to have a meeting with the superintendent and a school board member---SCARY. Essentially, they are going to be meeting with me about once a week to discuss how to improve "at risk" students scores and achievement levels. I was hired on to teach the at-risk students at HEM through a grant that was given to the school because they had not made so many consecutive years of AYP. The superintendent asked me a lot of philosophically hard questions as a teacher but I feel that I answered them pretty well---at least I hope so!
Consumer math had a rough talking to about being accountable for their own learning and taking the initiative to recall information from previous class lessons. Then geometry came. I love my geometry class. But today....there was a student....that caused me to write my first discipline slip as a first year teacher!
This student has trouble staying focused in class. He constantly is moving and not taking notes but as soon as I urge him to try harder so that he can play basketball, he can usually get on task. That was not Friday. He was insisting on not taking notes as usual in class but he was not disturbing students therefore it is his own grade and not any one else's that is being hindered. Well. he then proceeded to lay across the seats and start talking and swinging his head. I finally asked him to move seats. He asked why. I said because I asked you to. He then proceeded to tell me no and say that he was going to sit outside. He refused to come back into class.
I was caught in one of those scenarios that we talked about in college that I always froze up on. Inside, I felt like I froze up, but I think I did alright handling the situation and making sure that the students that were able and willing to learn, kept learning. We will see how he does this week....hmm
The week ended with me getting interviews by a newspaper in Rawlings--talking about a struggling school and what we are trying to do to improve.
School/Pool Life--Brandon says he will update after his test sometime in the middle of the week---boring! He went to a pool tournament last weekend and although he did not do very well standings wise, he learned a lot and said that it was a great experience. He is looking at going to quite a few more tournaments throughout the year.
Married Life
As always, married life is going well. We are spending as much time together as we can although life does get busy with me being gone most of the day. We made some of my mom's meatloaf the other day but we used sundried tomato basil cream cheese = delicious! Tonight, we are trying a honey mustard pork loin recipe my grandma send us and the fudge is cooling on the counter!
Also got some pretty sweet school pictures taken so if any of you want some let me know!
Other exciting news: Our bed came in!!!!!! yah!!! Here are some pictures:
Teaching Life--
Phew! Things are picking up and this Thursday marks the end of the first quarter at Hanna Elk Mountain Jr. Sr. High school--which means I have "successfully" made it through 1/4 of my first year teaching! WooHoo!
Last Friday was the most exciting day of teaching in the past two weeks so I figured I would chat about that. Started out fairly normal with the other math teachers coming in and talking and me preparing for my first class. One of my students was in the office and seemed a bit frightened. After talking with him I found out there had been an encounter and he was scared to be at school. I talked to him for a bit a reassured him that there were a lot of teachers there to look out for him. Next, Algebra I came in and we were off to a good day--until it started again--the nagging, negative comments. My algebra I class has had some social issues lately trying to contain their negative opinions to themselves. I went off and told them that I was tired of hearing such negative comments in the classroom. I gave them a choice of shaping up their attitudes towards their peers or taking notes by themselves from the book.
Pre-Algebra went well and we had a blast talking about dolly parton aka Pamela Anderson aka Improper fractions :). After lunch I got to have a meeting with the superintendent and a school board member---SCARY. Essentially, they are going to be meeting with me about once a week to discuss how to improve "at risk" students scores and achievement levels. I was hired on to teach the at-risk students at HEM through a grant that was given to the school because they had not made so many consecutive years of AYP. The superintendent asked me a lot of philosophically hard questions as a teacher but I feel that I answered them pretty well---at least I hope so!
Consumer math had a rough talking to about being accountable for their own learning and taking the initiative to recall information from previous class lessons. Then geometry came. I love my geometry class. But today....there was a student....that caused me to write my first discipline slip as a first year teacher!
This student has trouble staying focused in class. He constantly is moving and not taking notes but as soon as I urge him to try harder so that he can play basketball, he can usually get on task. That was not Friday. He was insisting on not taking notes as usual in class but he was not disturbing students therefore it is his own grade and not any one else's that is being hindered. Well. he then proceeded to lay across the seats and start talking and swinging his head. I finally asked him to move seats. He asked why. I said because I asked you to. He then proceeded to tell me no and say that he was going to sit outside. He refused to come back into class.
I was caught in one of those scenarios that we talked about in college that I always froze up on. Inside, I felt like I froze up, but I think I did alright handling the situation and making sure that the students that were able and willing to learn, kept learning. We will see how he does this week....hmm
The week ended with me getting interviews by a newspaper in Rawlings--talking about a struggling school and what we are trying to do to improve.
School/Pool Life--Brandon says he will update after his test sometime in the middle of the week---boring! He went to a pool tournament last weekend and although he did not do very well standings wise, he learned a lot and said that it was a great experience. He is looking at going to quite a few more tournaments throughout the year.
Married Life
As always, married life is going well. We are spending as much time together as we can although life does get busy with me being gone most of the day. We made some of my mom's meatloaf the other day but we used sundried tomato basil cream cheese = delicious! Tonight, we are trying a honey mustard pork loin recipe my grandma send us and the fudge is cooling on the counter!
Also got some pretty sweet school pictures taken so if any of you want some let me know!
Other exciting news: Our bed came in!!!!!! yah!!! Here are some pictures:
Another post soon with Pumpkin Pictures!!!
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Field Trips, Pool Leagues, and Date Night!!!
School Life:
This week again there is not much to report about school. I have a physiology test tomorrow which I feel pretty good about. I also did well on a 12 page lab report that I had for my motor development class, not so fun but I found out that i did well on it and we dont have lab for two weeks so I cant complain too much. Lastly with school I had to write a paper for my freshman english class tying in three essays that we read to a topic of our choice. Now on to the fun stuff, I have been shooting a lot of pool in the last week since it was the first week of leagues. I ended up shooting a 30 out of 40 which was not to horrible since it was the first night and there are always some jitters for me when shooting the first game of the season. My friend Will and I will be going to a tournament next weekend in Colorado and are looking forward to winning some money. Other than that I have been going to the gym and hanging with my beautiful bride. Now that my section for the week is done I will let her take over let everyone know about her week and our date night that she planned for us.
Teaching Life:
This was another exciting week as a teacher :) Monday through Wednesday were pretty plain Jane days. Thursday is when the excitement began. In the morning I had my first ever IEP meeting where we were simply seeing if a student still qualified for IEP services. It was kinda neat to go through the process. My morning on Thursday was pretty normal as well but the afternoon gave way to my first ever field trip as a teacher.
I, with the help of my principal, thought it would be neat to bring my geometry class to Laramie in order to sit in on a college math class and figure out what college was kinda all about. John Spitler was my favorite professor so I scheduled a time with him where my geometry students could sit in on his 75 minute diffy q class. I think my kids got antsy by the end but they all seemed to think it was a beneficial experience. We got to observe what it was like, how notes were taken, how homework was given, and how expectations are the same or different from a high school math class. It was also one of my student's birthdays so brandon brought us over some cake I had made the night before to celebrate after we observed. I am excited to see how this week turns out because I am having my students write a paper (I know right--in a math class?! unheard of :) ) I am having them write about what they observed and what they are still wondering about college. Some of these students may not go to college but now they have at least experienced a bit of it. I will update more when I have read through their papers :)
Friday was a day "off" of school but I had to drive in to work my first ever concessions stand. It was for our last home football game and since I am the 7th grade advisor, I got to work with 7 7th graders for 5 hours=exhausting!
On the way to Hanna, Wyoming had some crazy strong winds. Within about a 5 mile stretch on the interstate, I saw 7 semis that were completely blown on their sides. Then when I turned off the interstate and onto the highway leading towards Hanna, there were four cows just chillin in the middle of the highway. I am guessing the wind opened a gate or some such thing. To end the adventure, I got to spend over 5 hours with seven of the seventh graders feeding people at the football game in which I learned how to run a popcorn machine, how to make the perfect nachos, how long to cook a pretzel, and how to be completely entertained by young minds. :)
Married Life:
Like Brandon mentioned above, this week has been great for us. We got a gift card for a little coffee shop here in Laramie that does an Italian night. Therefore, we took one night this week to have a date night. We both got dressed up, opened a bottle of wine, and went to the Turtle Rock cafe. Italian night was wonderful! We were probably the youngest people in there and shared some house sphagetti and eggplant parmesan. They were both absolutely amazing! To finish the night off we ordered some mango gelato and continued our night over to Hastings. We rented some movies, came back home and had a wonderful evening relaxing together. It was a great break in between the week and a wonderful time to catch up with the hubby. I think it both did us very well.
Other exciting news--our air mattress finally got a hole in it so we returned it with our protection plan and got some money on a gift card. We were debating whether to get an air mattress or a real bed and started looking into pricing. After the PFD entered our bank account, we both decided to go a real legit bed. Therefore, we ordered a nice bed from WalMart that should be arriving in a few weeks. We are both pretty excited to have a real bed since last year we just had a mattress on the floor :) We also decided to invest in a ShopVac for a vaccuum and some floor mats so that we can work out without having our downstairs neighbor bang on the ceiling because we are being "loud". I feel like we have spent WAY too much this month but it was on items that we need so I suppose it is alright.
Last exciting news, Laramie got it's first snow this weekend! None of it really stuck to the road but there is still a few inches left on the buildings and grass---I guess winter has hit.....
Tomato Basil Soup--homemade!!
Our date night at Turtle Rock all dressed up :)
Eggplant Parmesan cooked on a grill--soo good!
House Spaghetti served for Italian Night
Best gelato ever!!!! Mango Gelato from Turtle Rock
Goofing around at hastings---yeah we are that cool
Our car versus a rich person's car--bahaha
At the end of the night :)
The cows that were blocking the highway to Hanna
Laramie's First snow
This weekend, Brandon will be off playing pool and I will have another tremendous weekend of planning. It should be a good time :)
We both wish we were home with Vikki....being away is really hard. However, without us there I hope everyone knows that we are thinking of you all and missing you like crazy.
Have a great week!
This week again there is not much to report about school. I have a physiology test tomorrow which I feel pretty good about. I also did well on a 12 page lab report that I had for my motor development class, not so fun but I found out that i did well on it and we dont have lab for two weeks so I cant complain too much. Lastly with school I had to write a paper for my freshman english class tying in three essays that we read to a topic of our choice. Now on to the fun stuff, I have been shooting a lot of pool in the last week since it was the first week of leagues. I ended up shooting a 30 out of 40 which was not to horrible since it was the first night and there are always some jitters for me when shooting the first game of the season. My friend Will and I will be going to a tournament next weekend in Colorado and are looking forward to winning some money. Other than that I have been going to the gym and hanging with my beautiful bride. Now that my section for the week is done I will let her take over let everyone know about her week and our date night that she planned for us.
Teaching Life:
This was another exciting week as a teacher :) Monday through Wednesday were pretty plain Jane days. Thursday is when the excitement began. In the morning I had my first ever IEP meeting where we were simply seeing if a student still qualified for IEP services. It was kinda neat to go through the process. My morning on Thursday was pretty normal as well but the afternoon gave way to my first ever field trip as a teacher.
I, with the help of my principal, thought it would be neat to bring my geometry class to Laramie in order to sit in on a college math class and figure out what college was kinda all about. John Spitler was my favorite professor so I scheduled a time with him where my geometry students could sit in on his 75 minute diffy q class. I think my kids got antsy by the end but they all seemed to think it was a beneficial experience. We got to observe what it was like, how notes were taken, how homework was given, and how expectations are the same or different from a high school math class. It was also one of my student's birthdays so brandon brought us over some cake I had made the night before to celebrate after we observed. I am excited to see how this week turns out because I am having my students write a paper (I know right--in a math class?! unheard of :) ) I am having them write about what they observed and what they are still wondering about college. Some of these students may not go to college but now they have at least experienced a bit of it. I will update more when I have read through their papers :)
Friday was a day "off" of school but I had to drive in to work my first ever concessions stand. It was for our last home football game and since I am the 7th grade advisor, I got to work with 7 7th graders for 5 hours=exhausting!
On the way to Hanna, Wyoming had some crazy strong winds. Within about a 5 mile stretch on the interstate, I saw 7 semis that were completely blown on their sides. Then when I turned off the interstate and onto the highway leading towards Hanna, there were four cows just chillin in the middle of the highway. I am guessing the wind opened a gate or some such thing. To end the adventure, I got to spend over 5 hours with seven of the seventh graders feeding people at the football game in which I learned how to run a popcorn machine, how to make the perfect nachos, how long to cook a pretzel, and how to be completely entertained by young minds. :)
Married Life:
Like Brandon mentioned above, this week has been great for us. We got a gift card for a little coffee shop here in Laramie that does an Italian night. Therefore, we took one night this week to have a date night. We both got dressed up, opened a bottle of wine, and went to the Turtle Rock cafe. Italian night was wonderful! We were probably the youngest people in there and shared some house sphagetti and eggplant parmesan. They were both absolutely amazing! To finish the night off we ordered some mango gelato and continued our night over to Hastings. We rented some movies, came back home and had a wonderful evening relaxing together. It was a great break in between the week and a wonderful time to catch up with the hubby. I think it both did us very well.
Other exciting news--our air mattress finally got a hole in it so we returned it with our protection plan and got some money on a gift card. We were debating whether to get an air mattress or a real bed and started looking into pricing. After the PFD entered our bank account, we both decided to go a real legit bed. Therefore, we ordered a nice bed from WalMart that should be arriving in a few weeks. We are both pretty excited to have a real bed since last year we just had a mattress on the floor :) We also decided to invest in a ShopVac for a vaccuum and some floor mats so that we can work out without having our downstairs neighbor bang on the ceiling because we are being "loud". I feel like we have spent WAY too much this month but it was on items that we need so I suppose it is alright.
Last exciting news, Laramie got it's first snow this weekend! None of it really stuck to the road but there is still a few inches left on the buildings and grass---I guess winter has hit.....
Tomato Basil Soup--homemade!!
Our date night at Turtle Rock all dressed up :)
Eggplant Parmesan cooked on a grill--soo good!
This weekend, Brandon will be off playing pool and I will have another tremendous weekend of planning. It should be a good time :)
We both wish we were home with Vikki....being away is really hard. However, without us there I hope everyone knows that we are thinking of you all and missing you like crazy.
Have a great week!
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Fall Time: Laramie and Love
Married Life:
Life is awesome. Brandon and I have decided that we are phenomenal cooks. We made some amazing pork loin, pulled pork, bacon wrapped steak filets, tomato basil soup, and Mediterranean chicken this week. As last weekend and this week involved lots of visitors, we both were kinda off our normal schedules and a bit tired out. Therefore, this weekend was catch up weekend. Saturday we did homework and some laundry and then spent the night playing pool. Sunday was a bed day where we basically laid around together all day. Feels pretty lazy and like we should have been outside doing things but it was a wonderfully relaxing time.
Laramie is finally turning over to fall and the leaves are quickly changing colors. A few have started to fall to the ground but we are hoping the snow stays away for a bit longer. Brandon's pool leagues start this Thursday and he will be traveling to a tournament this weekend. I will be working my first concessions stand with the school and then planning my butt off while my hubby is gone.
Overall, our life together couldn't get much better---unless we could have a puppy in our apartment---that would be pretty sweet. We are not sick of each other yet and are officially over 2 months in! woo hoo! I think we are both missing family back at home and Alaska in general but are keeping each other company enough :)
School Life:
School sucks as usual. I haven't failed anything but haven't done as great as I would have liked. I am ready for this semester to fly by and be over with so that I can get on to finishing my required classes and going on to my internship. I will know more about my deployment come November so I can keep you updated then. Working out and playing pool are what keeps me sane. i am excited for pool league to start up this week and to see how the season goes.
Teaching Life:
This week at HEM was a pretty exciting week! It was our homecoming week which of course involved dress-up days and late night celebrations. Monday was super hero day but Monday morning came way too early so I ended up not dressing up for that one. Tuesday was dream career day so to be a bit creative and not dress like a teacher, I decided to go as a fishing guide: therefore I can teach and fish! I put waiters on, had flies in my pouch, bug spray in hand and sun glasses atop my head. I am the class advisor for the 7th graders so Tuesday morning we got to paint the windows at our school. Each class had a separate glass pane and each got to decorate it as they so wished. It was a fun way to get to know the school traditions and the kids. The seventh graders also took this time to tattle on all their older siblings that I have in class. They all "secretly" told me that their older brothers thought I was hot and had crushes on me...I thought it was pretty funny and think that is all fine because they do not say anything in class so the teacher-student relationship is kept appropriate. As soon as it goes any differently, a talking will be had!
Wednesday was wacky wednesday but I was again pretty tired as my best friend Amber had driven into town on her way to Georgia. She and her husband got stationed there and took a quick detour to stop in and say hi. I wish we had more time with them but it was great to be able to see them and enjoy some homemade pulled pork sandwiches. Thursday was nerd day--I am a nerd by nature as I am a math teacher--therefore, I wore one of my math shirts and wore Brandon's BCGs from basic (Birth Control Glasses). I also got to proudly display my humongous book of math problems :)
Friday was a "school day" but the duration of the day was spent in the gym with student council having the students compete in some pretty funny activities. I got my 7th graders to come up with a seventh grade cheer that they timidly yelled out once during the assembly "17, 17, 17....we're the coolest kids you;ve ever seen!"--crazy to think that they will graduate in 2017--10 years after I graduated!
Friday afternoon included Brandon driving up from Laramie to help me work the football games. I was the clock keeper for the junior high game and then we were crowd control for the high school game. I was so fortunate to have BRandon there to help me out cause I had no idea when to stop the clock! Unfortunately, both teams lost pretty miserably on their football games. However, I had a lot of students come up and chat (mostly my girl students who I am pretty sure were just trying to get more eye time looking at Brandon :) ) The most monumental moment for this week was near the end of the game when one of my student's dads came up to talk to me. I had met with him at parent-teacher conferences so he recognized my face. He proceeded to talk to me and Brandon for about 10-15 min all about how I am making a difference in his daughter's life. She has always struggled in math and he said that she finally feels like she is learning and that she can come ask questions. She looks up to me because she thinks that I can relate to them because I am a young teacher and she has been truly fortunate that I take the time to explain concepts to her and the other students when they do not understand something. He went on about how she really looks up to me and loves my class. Just these few simple words made me feel so great!
My goal for my first year teaching was to impact at least one student in a positive way. To know that I am already on my way to doing that made all the stress and worries of teaching seem so minimal. Those simple words from a proud parent of an excited student makes me feel so great about what I am doing.
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