Tagged?

So I was tagged by my friend Lauri, I have never been tagged before but I think I am supposed to fill out the info for me, so here goes..


I am: A teacher, a daughter, a sister, an Aunt and an Abba lover!
I think: All people should travel because as Mark Twain said, "Travel is fatal to prejudice."
I know: I have so much to be grateful for.
I want: to keep my history classes!
I have: great family and friends.
I dislike: disruptive, defiant students.
I miss: my nieces and nephew.
I fear: Spiders, anything with 8 legs can not be natural.
I feel: "Happy. I think I'll go for a walk..."
I hear: The sound of the after debate commentary.
I smell: vanilla hand soap.
I crave: good books.
I cry: rarely, especially in front of others.
I usually: drink too much diet coke everyday.
I regret: yelling at my students.
I search: google for interesting pictures and videos for my power point presentations
I wonder: what many people are thinking sometimes.
I love: my friends and family and good chocolate.
I care: sometimes too much and sometimes too little.
I always: Try to get home in time to watch Countdown.
I worry: about the people I care about.
I am not: very disciplined.
I remember: a lot of trivia, it is useful in games!
I believe: we all have a responsibility to vote!
I dance: in the halls at school
I sing: loudly in my car
I don't always: Tell people how grateful I am.
I argue: when I can, I always enjoy a good discussion.
I write: on a lot of student papers
I win: a lot of games and contrary to popular opinion I can be a good loser.
I lose: my patience too often
I wish: School started at 9:30 am
I listen:to a lot of 80's music
I don't understand: why bringing a pencil to class is so difficult
I can usually be found: trying to catch up
I am scared: a giant tarantula will jump out of a package at me.
I need: prayer
I forget: to do things I don't want to do.
I am happy: when I am with my nieces and nephew.

The Tongue is a very important muscle...

So last week I had a crown fall off. I called my family dentist, Bill, and made an appointment. I had to take a whole day off because he is in Pleasant Grove but it is worth it because 1. He is a great dentist, 2. he's family and 3. He has me totally parinoid about seeing another dentist who will tell me I have cavities and other issues when I don't then stick me with that horrible needle when I don't need it. Anyway the crown ended up being an easy fix, just glued right back on. But while I was there he asked me if I wanted him to cut off the fibroma on my tongue. I think that was the technical term for an annoying bump on the side that he thought was some scar tissue (I bit my tongue hard, then kept biting it or something) and I had had it for 2-3 years. I think he finally figured I was not going to go to the Doctor and get it cut off so he said he could snip it off. I said sure, thinking, otherwise it's not coming off. Anyway I found out that trauma to your tongue is very inconvienant. It wasn't extremely painful, I mean it hurt but it was more that my tongue swelled and it was really hard to talk. Being a teacher and not being able to talk easily is hard. I got sick of mashed potatoes and pudding really fast and I gave in and showed my students a video and played games on Friday. It taught me to be very grateful for that unsung hero of our body, a healthy tongue.

The Vampires...

Ok so I started commenting on my sister's blog entry on the Twilight books that she finally just read and comments posted about it and it got to long so I decided just to put it on my own blog. So here goes for all you that have been waiting eagerly for my opinion on the series (sure) Well all those of you that said it is not the best writing, you kept reading. If writing is truly bad you stop, believe me, I've read enough LDS fiction. Not that I am saying it is the greatest writing but she has created complicated characters and a very engaging story. I think it can be a great tool to show girls what is good and bad about adolescent behavior. Come on Bella cooks, and cleans for her father willingly, without complaining, because she loves him. I agree she is very obsessive about her love but if a teenager has to be obsessive about something, which they usually are at some point, it could be worse. I guess Edward reminds me of Mr. Darcy in some of the ways he acts and that is not all bad. Also he changes as does Bella throughout the series. Jacob is the one that gets on my nerves, especially in the last book. We all know you are tortured, get over it. Anyway those are my thoughts please feel free to agree or argue with any of them. I'd love a great discussion!!

Lock down, this is not a drill....

Hello all. This week was pretty good, mellow, nothing to exciting until Friday. First the beginning of the week was just work and class. I started my Special Ed law class on Tuesday and it seems like it will be pretty interesting. My Thursday night class so far is not so interesting. It will be a struggle to get through this semester.

Back to work, my administration is AWESOME. We had a meeting this week to discuss the 4 special ed classes we have that have over 23 students in them.(Luckily none of those are mine) The district will not do anything about maybe getting an other teacher until we count numbers on October 1st. So until then my Principal and Vice principal are going to take turns going into the over crowded classes and help the teacher teach them. I have never seen that before. The bad part of this is that I may have to go to teaching all Special Ed classes for the rest of the year. I really don't want to so everyone cross your fingers that it works out.

So exciting Friday... it was a normal day until the middle of 7th period. I was with my 7th grade Special Ed reading class. The secretary came over the announcements and said we were going into lockdown. I knew we were going to have a drill sometime soon so I assumed it was that and ran towards the door to close and lock it as I told my students to get in my office. My autistic boy yelled that the lights had to be turned out, I told him I would get them. He then yelled "Drop, cover and roll" and flew under my desk. I let him stay under the desk while trying to calm him down. Then my students in the office said, "What's going on, they said it wasn't a drill." I said, "Really?!" Anyway it turns out there was an armed robbery at the 7-11 adjacent to our field and the cops saw the suspect go in the school's direction. We were only in lockdown for about 45 minutes before they caught the suspect but it was kind of scary. I felt much better after Kenn and I went to the Mama Mia sing-a-long again and we dragged John too.

Finally acting instead of just talking...

So this week went really fast. The second week of school went very well, this year is sooooooooo much better and easier than last year. I also had classes, well one was canceled and one was really boring. After teaching all week the last thing I really want to do is to go in on a Thursday afternoon for a three hour class, especially one on adaptive technology. Anyway besides all of that I volunteered for the Barack Obama campaign. It is the first time for me and it makes me feel a little better about spouting my views so vehemently :), at least I am actually giving my time as well. Anyway they even talked me into making phone calls. I signed up for data entry, I told them I would not, could not make calls. I got there and before I knew it she was setting me up to call supporters. She got me by getting me to where I was uncomfortable telling her no. I tried to get out of it by extolling my bad sales skills but she said that was better because I would sound more real. Anyway it was not nearly as painful as I had imagined. I only got one republican and she just said they were voting for McCain very nicely. It was fun to be a part of the process and I am going to try to talk Kenn and his friend into going to Colorado one weekend to do some canvasing. If he is with me I can make him do all the talking :) My main point in telling you this is that one, I got out of my comfort zone which is usually always a good thing and two no matter what you believe it is always good to get involved! And oh ya, everyone go vote on November 4th!!!!

Back to School

So once I got back from my extended vacation, School started about 5 days later. Well I had to be back at the School. It was a hectic week before the students actually came back. I moved from two rooms into a brand new one at the end of last year and had not done much putting away or arranging. I did get it all put together and I feel much better about my room than last year. I actually have bulletin boards with boarders on them! I am a real teacher now :) The first week with my students is now over and it went pretty well. I pretty much just gave, reviewed and reviewed some more the rules and procedures for my classroom. I learned last year that in middle school teaching rules and procedures can be more important than the academic content. Hopefully after laying my base last week this next week will go really smoothly. Here's hoping :) Today was Labor Day and Mom, Dad and I went to Kenn's new apartment and had lunch with his roommate John, his friend Lowell and KiRin. Kenn's apartment is really nice. It is an older building downtown with a lot of cool details. We then walked down the street to Pioneer park,temple square, Brigham Young Memorial Park, City Creek park and Memory grove. There are a lot of nice parks right around him. We then played scene it where my team hardily beat Kenn's and John's. I'm not really that competitive :)