YWAC

Yesterday was so crazy busy, I completely forgot to make a post!  So here's all that happened yesterday...


Before the school day started, Mr. D came into my room asking for directions and a map to get to BLC. He almost seemed offended that I didn't already have one made.  But, in my defense, before this year I was the only driver for my class's field trips; I didn't need to make maps for the drivers since I was the only one.  And, in this day and age of technology, most people have a GPS or can use their phones to get directions.  That, and most people have been to BLC for sporting events, etc. (Mt. Olive uses their soccer fields and gym sometimes).  And we'd be riding in a convoy of vehicles, so I assumed most people would be able to find it.  But, for Mr. D's sake I quickly put together a map and directions.  He played it off later like he was only trying to make me look more prepared and efficient/organized with a professional-looking map to give to parents. 


There were a few parents who complained (not to me) about having to have their student to school by 8:00am.  Some parents didn't get the note home about the field trip until the day before (it went home last week!) and panicked trying to find an early ride to school for their child.  There were a couple of New Ulm people chaperoning, so they volunteered to give rides to students that needed them.  Still, one girl missed the memo and got on the New Ulm bus.  So we had to wait for her anyway.  Everyone got loaded in the vehicles, so as soon as she got off the bus and in her car, we were off!  We made it to BLC by 8:45 and were quickly registered.  Next time, we'd probably be okay waiting for the New Ulm bus kids to arrive, but since this was the first time I'd gone, I didn't want to risk being late. 


The 3rd and 4th grade boys rode with me.  Two of them are farm boys and talked my ears off about all things farming the whole way to Mankato.  I am now up to date on all the latest farming equipment!


The main speaker of the event, Michael Perry, was really cool.  He's from WI and writes mostly non-fiction.  He climbed Mt. Rainer (for a story), winter camped near Canada (another story), worked as a cowboy in WY, farms pigs and some other animals, and is in general, a cool dude.  He told lots of stories about how writing doesn't have to be boring, sit around and think all the time.  Doing research is all about experiencing different things.  He showed us a video his neighbor took... Tom is an 80 yr. old who makes his own cannons in his spare time... and then shoots them.  One day, another neighbor asked him to shoot down a silo that was looking like it would fall over.  So he did.  And that's the video we watched.  It was sweet.


The rest of the day I hung around random students.  I wandered a bit and stumbled upon students from our school at different sessions.  Some invited me to join them.  I went to one session where students got a rock with a word on it and they had to write a story about it.  The second one was making a flag book.  It's a cross between a scrapbook and a notebook; the decorations are only made out of paper.  Book art, that's what it's called.  The last class was called "Cute vs. Creepy".  An illustrator taught us how to draw cute characters (lots of circles) and creepy characters (lots of triangles).  One student got sick during the day and Mr. E had to bring her back to school.  The camera case was forgotten at BLC, but the YWAC people are going to mail it to us later.  Aside from that, the day went great!  I think we're going to make it an annual thing (at least for my class).


After school, a student stayed to work on her written report for science.  She kept asking me questions and needed help, so my to do list didn't get much crossed off.  Before I knew it, it was time for supper/church!  The ladies' choir had asked me to sing with them, so I sat with them up front by the piano.  I'm not used to having people watch me sing... I pretty much kept my eyes on my music so I wouldn't have to look at them.  After church, I still had some things to finish up at school... I didn't get out of here until 8:00!  Yikes!  It looks like the craziness isn't about to let up either.  The Fine Arts Fair is on Saturday, we sing/play bells on Wednesday at church, the quarter ends next Friday, my class serves supper the following Wednesday, and then it's Easter break!  Maybe then I can relax a bit.