16- MLC Play

Lots of neat things going on today.  The Mystery Class answers have been announced... and both of my classes got bronze (we found 8 sites) and our name posted on the Mystery Class website! This is the first time we've found that many! You can see my class names here under the 6th and 7th grade bronze categories (if you can't find it on the site, press "control" and "F" on the keyboard and type in "Heintz" which will locate my name on the page).  Looking back at the answers I found, I located all 10! First time ever! But since I didn't share my answers with the class, we only had 8 correct.

It was Miss W's last day today.  She brought us mini candy bars to eat at lunch, and then came to the MLC play with us.  Hopefully she can come back for the musical or one of the field trips we're taking!  My kids made her a few cards, and she wrote us thank-you notes (haven't read them yet...).

Lots of kids were excited about the Book Fair today.  I didn't expect much business since we hadn't advertised that it'd be open today, so most kids wouldn't have money to spend.  However... I noticed a lot of the 3rd and 4th grade girls with the little trinkety things sold at the Book Fair so they must've had money stashed away somewhere!  My guess is business will pick up next week now that people know it's going on.

The MLC play was good.  Once Upon A Wolf was about Granny Smelly Feet telling stories, mostly ones that feature the wolf being the bad guy, always dying in the end.  He gets fed up and wants a better story.  So he tries fitting in as Goldilocks, Cinderella's fairy godmother, and a prince.  But none are quite right and in the end he realizes that he's better off as a wolf after all.  It was pretty funny! Also, long.  It ended ten minutes later than usual, thus we made it to the bus 15 minutes later than usual, so it was a scramble at the end of the day to send kids home. We made it though!

Monday's balloon activity: make a special Mother's Day gift.  I think we'll paint terracotta pots and plant some flowers.  That's always a good project.

17- Work Without Shoes On

I don't think anyone went with the "work without shoes on" activity today.  Since I figured that'd be the case, I added "have extra read-aloud time."  Now, all the pinatas are finished and we only have one letter left on the "JUNGLE" poster for the musical.  All other props my class was in charge of are complete!

The penguin pinata group got a little fancy.  Instead of keeping it a plain old emperor penguin, they added yellow strips of paper on its head like a mohawk so it would be a Macaroni penguin.  When they peeked in the closet they got the idea to add yellow yarn to make it stand out even more! It looks pretty impressive!

We had musical practice at church for the first time.  We didn't have any of the set setup yet since there's communion/church on Sunday, but we'll stay after church and put everything in its place then so it's ready for practice Monday.  Only four more practices until the musical!!! Ahh!!!!  Today's practice went all right considering we didn't have actual places for kids to sit and we were missing three of our main speakers.  It can only go up from here!

After school we set up the Scholastic Book Fair that will run the rest of this week and all of next week.  We'll have it open after the musical, after next weekend's 5K, and after church the following Sunday.  Hopefully we sell lots of books!  All I need to do now is put up posters for the fair.

...Remember all those months ago I filled out an application for the WEM Outstanding Educator Award? ...Well... I finally got a call today... and I'm a regional runner up! There are three categories with two main winners and two runners up for each category.  So out of all the applicants in MN (I think), I am one of the two runners up and I automatically get to fill out an application for next year's award.  They're sending someone to school to interview my class and me and pass out my "goodies".  This includes a certificate, a trophy, and $1500! Woo! It's still pretty surreal.

Tomorrow's activity: go to the MLC play. (Some of the boys were grumbling because we were already going to do that... why couldn't we do something actually fun? Yeah, I was not too happy about their attitude.  But when I brought up the option to stop doing the balloons, they all said, "no, let's keep doing them.")

18- Watch a Wishbone Episode

The Wishbone episode was a hit! (When is it not???) The hardest part was deciding which episode to watch.  I really should invest in purchasing the whole show on DVD, but for now we watch on Youtube.  Sometimes the quality isn't that great.  Such is the case with the David and Goliath episode we were going to watch.  The kids were all excited for that story and then the sound was weird on the video, so we switched to the episode featuring the book Arabian Nights where Shaharazad tells tales to the king night after night so he doesn't put her to death.  The particular story she told (for the Wishbone episode) was "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves".  I don't think my students had heard it before!  We had good discussion afterwards.

The school board did come in to watch us today.  I went about my normal morning routine, but he came in at a sort of boring time when the kids were working on their spelling and there wasn't much for me to do except wander and help them when they got stuck. The board member looked a little bored.  Oh well. Such is life. One guy still didn't show up today. I'm not sure if he'll reschedule or just skip it for this year...

Tomorrow's activity: work without shoes on (most weren't too thrilled with that one, so I said we'd do extra read-aloud tomorrow to make it a little better).

19- Chew Gum

I didn't think having the kids chew gum this morning would drive me nuts, but surprisingly it did!  I had to mentally stop myself from telling them to spit it out practically a bazillion times.  I would start to say something and then remember, "oh yeah, it's chew gum day." Thankfully it was only for the morning.  Mr. E came in to pass back math papers and immediately noticed all the chomping mouths.  He was none too pleased (I think chewing gum is a pet peeve of his), and I don't think he realized it was a special activity in my classroom.  Oops!  I told the kids to not be obnoxious about chewing their gum when they went into the hallways so they wouldn't get in trouble or have to spit it out.  We also made a rule that you can't have more than one piece of gum in your mouth at a time... one boy came to school with SIX in his mouth.  And he wasn't a quiet chewer either... Needless to say, I was happy when the morning was over and everyone threw their gum away.

Tomorrow's activity is to watch a Wishbone episode.  I don't think they can turn that into a crazy activity!

20- Sit Anywhere for the Day

As you may have guessed from the title, today was a bit crazy.  At first they moved their desks so they would block off the computers.  Then they pulled their desks in front of the doors.  Yeah, not such a good plan.  I made them move and eventually they all found a place to sit for the day.  We had desks in rows, desks tucked behind the lab table, desks squished into the reading corner, desks that stayed in the same place... and a few girls who sat on beanbags under the lab table all day.

We had to set up the white table for lunch a bit differently and we had way more room for the tap game, so all in all, it was an interesting thing to try for a day.  Though I am glad we're back to the same old set up as usual!

Electricians hung out at school for most of the morning.  One of the cages around the lights in the gym fell in the night, so we had a very bright light that needed fixing.  And one of the ballasts in my room (above my desk) was still out.  Mr. E sent them to my room first so they'd hopefully be finished by the time musical practice ended.  They were just finishing up when we got back to the room.  It didn't take long for them to fix the thing in the gym, but they still didn't leave.  Then I remembered we got a new industrial freezer for hot lunch.  They stuck around to get that hooked up.  It's one we bought from Target in New Ulm (they got rid of everything since they closed, so we got a great deal!).  It's very loud!  And it's so big we had to move the milk cooler to a new place.  That will take some getting used to!

Tomorrow's balloon activity: chew gum in the morning (must provide your own gum).

Pen Funeral

The 7th graders were taking their spelling test this afternoon when one of them raised his hand.  When I called on him, he said in his most tragic voice, "We're going to need to have a funeral... my pen died!" Cue the fake sobbing.  One of his classmates (while sputtering out fake tears) passed him another pen and the test went on.  Who says 7th graders aren't creative?

Today was the last day of Mystery Class.  We entered our answers online! Now we have to wait for the big reveal next Friday.  I think I found all of them this year.  Of course, in past years I think I've found them all, and then after the reveal I realize I was wrong.  But this year I think I got 'em!

I almost forgot to pop the first balloon of our countdown, but thankfully, my students reminded me at the end of the day.  Monday's activity: sit anywhere you like for the day!  Only 20 more days left of school! ...Scary...

Birthday Singing

In case you didn't know, today's my birthday!

I got to school and found a green elephant balloon animal on my desk (courtesy of Mr. D).  There was also a birthday balloon and a mason jar of flowers from Mr. and Mrs. E.  How sweet! I've enjoyed looking at their bright colors all day.  

Once the kiddos got to school, the chorus of birthday greetings began.  The 3rd and 4th grade girls made a special trip to my room to serenade me with both birthday songs, plus another birthday cheer (the one they sing at restaurants sometimes...).  On the Bookmobile, the kindergartners sang both birthday songs for me.  And the 7th and 5th graders sang to me while they worked on Mystery Class.  Lots of singing for my birthday...

We had dessert today at lunch, a happy coincidence (brownies), and the 5th and 6th graders were really nice to me during our game of 4-square.  "Don't get Miss H out! It's her birthday!"  A few kids wanted to know if I brought treats.  My plan had been to bake something, but last night I hosted Bible Study and didn't have time.  We watched the movie War Room, (if you haven't seen it, it's definitely worth the time, it's a fantastic movie) and Mrs. B brought brownies to share as a birthday treat.  

It's been raining on and off all day, both here and in Truman, which means that it's too wet to plant and my farmer can take the evening off to come visit me!  But if it had been too nice to take the night off, my parents said they would meet me for supper somewhere so I wouldn't be by myself on my birthday.  I have such a great family! :)

Playin in the Rain

My kids were all excited today because today is a PE day and the weather was good enough to have softball practice outside.  One of the 7th graders told me, "Miss H, you ABSOLUTELY need to have your kids come down to Mr. E's room on time today.  It's PE today. And we're doing softball.  You HAVE to."  Well, Miss W taught the 5th and 6th graders today, but she finished the lesson with a few minutes to spare, so everyone got where they needed to be on time.  And the 5-7th graders headed outside with glee.

It was fairly nice weather up until 2:10ish... then a sudden downpour. And yet I didn't hear any noise coming from the gym.  A few minutes later, one of the 5th graders dashed inside to grab a jacket.  On her way out the door she said, "Mr. E is letting us keep playing outside! It's fun but it's cold!!!"  At 2:30, everyone happily trekked inside, soaking wet but bubbling over with the novelty of getting drenched in the rain.  It will be a PE to remember that's for sure!

Weather

It's funny, all day it was dreary and misty and humid and not all together pleasant.  And now that school's over, the sun has come out.  Oh well, I'm not complaining.  I still made the kids go outside for recess.  The boys pitched such a fit; they wanted to go in the gym.  They tried to convince me it was too wet, even though it wasn't raining and we'd be playing on the blacktop.  Then they tried pulling the "it's too cold!" card.  Put on a sweatshirt, it's not that bad out!

The real reason they didn't want to go outside was that the baseball field was a little too wet to play over there and the basketball hoop on the blacktop was still busted from one of the 5th graders hanging on it too long.  Some still played mini-basketball even with the lopsided hoop.  Most played 4-square.  A few of the "handyman" boys in my class stayed after school to fix the hoop and do other fix-it jobs for Mr. E.  So now there really are no excuses to go outside!

Balloons

The balloon countdown to the end of the year has been hung up.  And inside each of the 20 balloons is a special activity for the day.  We don't get to pop the first one until Friday though (so we know what special thing we get to do on Monday).

My students are chomping at the bit to see what's inside them, especially the 5th graders, who haven't seen the balloon thing before.  The 6th graders are mostly excited.  One of the boys was running his mouth, saying that they'll all be the same as last year and a bunch are probably going to be "go to Track and Field Day" or "Last Day of School" and be kind of boring.  I told him I changed them from last year; they're not all the same.  But he didn't seem to believe me.  Granted, some of the special events are ones they already know about, like Caswell Softball Day and the field trip to my parents' farm.  But still.  It's more exciting than a day in school, right?

Mr. E's class was helping out at the New Ulm Food Shelf this afternoon, so we had math in the morning.  This messed up the afternoon a bit.  I wrote the edited schedule on the board, but it didn't stay that way for long.  Originally, we were going to do Daily 5 rounds when they got back from math at 11:00.  But when their math was over, I was still in Mystery Class mode from working with the 7th graders, so we changed our changed schedule so we could do Mystery Class in the morning.  After lunch, they were super hyped up, in no shape to focus on a science lesson, so I had them do Read-to-Self for a half an hour to calm down.  THEN we did science (bending and refracting light).  After that was pinata time followed by recess.  That's one of the good things about Lutheran schools... we can be flexible when we need to be!

Zonked

Ufda! I'm glad it's Friday!

I'm coming down with a cold, the sniffly kind, so I've been blowing my nose all day.  My stomach has been feeling a little off all week (again).  Earlier this week I had a check-up, and since I've still had some off days, the doctor thought I might want to see a gastroenterologist about it.  I kind of think my issues are stress related, but of course I won't know unless I remove the stressors which most likely won't happen until summer.  So I was going to just wait until then to see if I got better after a month off school, but today I was feeling off again, so I ended up asking the doctor for a consult.  Haven't heard back yet.  In the meantime, I've been keeping a journal of the stuff I'm eating, just in case it's related.  So we'll see what happens.

The church year chain is dwindling.  Every day the boys count it... 37 chains left.  That includes weekends, field trips, and school days.  At the end of the year, I put up balloons to count down the last 20 days of school.  My plan is to put them up Sunday, have them tempting my students for the whole week, and then Friday we get to pop the first balloon to find out what special thing we get to do the following Monday (which is the 20th day til school ends).  As of today, there are only 25 days of school left.  Within those 25 days are Track and Field, Caswell, End-O-Line/Heintz Farms field trip, Canoeing at Swan Lake, MLC play, our school musical, and an Ag in the Classroom speaker.  Whew! Lots of stuff to cram in!

Sneaky

One of the 6th graders was sneaky today.  At lunch, the girls and I were talking about Reading Buddies tomorrow and that we should get books from the Bookmobile to change things up a bit.  A boy eavesdropping on the conversation casually walked to the reading corner and plucked a bunch of books from the shelves.  When he brought them back to his desk, I noticed they were all the books that just came back from vacation!  He snuck them out from under his classmates' noses.  I know tomorrow the boy who was soooo excited about them will make a fuss that his classmate has them all, and the other boy knows too.  So I told him not to be surprised if I make him give the other boy one or two of them.

Speaking of the Bookmobile, I checked out way too many books today.  I had placed a hold on a few after school yesterday, going off my to-read shelf on Goodreads.com.  But I didn't realize that a bunch of the books were actually chapter books, not picture books.  Oops.  I guess I have a lot of reading to do now!

Shoo Fly!

The weirdest thing ever happened in 7th grade science today.  The powerpoint went ahead two slides without me touching the board...

Nothing else was touching it, or even close to it! So I was confused.  Then one of the 7th graders pointed out the fly buzzing around.  That's right.  The fly hit the board and that was enough to trigger the slide to move ahead.  After school, I was working on my computer and the mouse started moving on its own.  Yep, that pesky fly again!  Not sure how it got in here, although we did have the windows open today, so maybe it snuck in through a hole in the screen...

One of the 6th graders came to school with a gigantic freezer bag full of mini Crunch bars, which he shared with everyone of course.  I got two, Miss W (our student teacher) got four I think.  He said he has about three hundred of them.  That might possibly be true.

Remember way back earlier this year, when my students read and reread the same four picture books over and over again? And I got sick of them not reading anything else, so I sent the books on "vacation"? Well, they came back from vacation yesterday.  Today was the first day anyone noticed.  All of a sudden I heard a squeal from the Reading Corner, "Ooooh! We got Black, White, Day, Night back! And Be Brown is here too! ...[insert classmate's name] I missed them books." This from a 6th grade boy.  We also discovered that a bunch of books had fallen behind the metal filing cabinet.  To get to them, we had to pull out a bunch of posters I have stored back there.  I think we found about seven books back there!

Volleyball Four-Square

Today I came up with a new game... volleyball four square.  It's like regular volleyball, but you have to stay in your square and if you cause the ball to drop, you're out.  It was fun! We even got one of the boys to play.  It almost made me dizzy at times, watching the ball bounce back and forth so fast! I felt like a cat watching something zipping around.

In 5th and 6th grade science, we learned more about light.  I forgot how complicated light is! The 5th and 6th graders had a hard time understanding how some light waves are reflected (giving the object a color) and some are absorbed (heating up the object).  They couldn't grasp the concept that only one color bounces off.  Why that color? Why not the others?  I finally stumbled upon an explanation that the majority could understand.  Say we have a green crate.  Because the crate is green, the green "slot" (or green wavelength of light) is already filled.  So when light shines on it, all the other colors are absorbed because their "slot" is filled.  Red is absorbed in the red slot, orange in orange, yellow in yellow.  But when the green waves get to the crate, the green slot is filled so it bounces off.  Now that's probably not the most scientific answer to the question, but I saw a lot of light bulbs flick on when I explained it like that!  Whew! Light is complicated!

After school, Mrs. E and Miss N and I met to go over musical stuff.  We came up with a set design and a list of props/set pieces to accumulate.  Now that we don't have any more bell performances this year, we can use bell time to practice musical songs and make set pieces.  We did go over costume ideas a bit.  The 6th and 7th graders all wanted to know about their costumes this afternoon, so they'll be glad to hear details tomorrow.  Things are coming along nicely!  Which is good since the musical is in less than a month!

Student Teacher

The student teacher's first day went well.  She came a little early today and did an introducing activity... she made a list of 10 interesting things about herself to share with the class, then had them do the same so she can get to know the students a little better.  She also ate lunch with us and played volleyball with the girls at recess.  And of course observed our science classes today.

It's a bit disconcerting having a student teacher watching.  When other adults observe, I'm a tad self-conscious, but not too bad because most likely these people won't be too critical of the way I teach a lesson.  But student teachers on the other hand, they've been in classes with professors who tell them what not to do and what not to say... and I'm pretty sure I do/say some of those things.  I remember when I did clinicals, I subconsciously critiqued the supervising teacher, thinking, "Oh, that must be her catchphrase, it's the fifth time she's said that phrase today." (Something I know I do!)  Or, "Oh, she responded to a student who didn't raise his hand."  Little things like that.  Anyway, it's not a terribly big deal, I guess I just want to make a good impression.  And she's probably thinking the same thing.  So I shouldn't worry about it any more.

The 5th grader who's been gone for a week finally came back today.  She gave me a magnet she got from the Painted Desert... a place I've always wanted to go!  How thoughtful. :)  Now we just need to get her caught up on all her tests she missed...

Good Day

Today was a good day.

No, it wasn't perfect.  And I still had behavior issues to deal with.  I didn't teach them anything profound.  But they taught themselves.  And figured things out for themselves.  In my mind, that's the best kind of day.

We finally had an extended amount of time to do Mystery Class.  Now that we have all the clues, the students can dig in and narrow down the locations.  They're getting excited about it!  One group of boys kept bouncing back and forth between the iPad and the map attached to the whiteboard, seeing which countries matched best with the clues and the things they found online.  Oh, it was just great, watching them use both technology and physical resources.  Only one of the 15 bugged me about going out for recess.  The rest were too caught up in Mystery Class to worry about it.

Other good things: I got to share with the class about Ivy's art lecture (Okay, I was bragging a bit... she did great! I'm so proud of her!), more birthday treats (cupcakes from yesterday and an ice cream bar from a 1st grader), and it's Friday!

Read Aloud

We finished All Four Stars today.  It came as a surprise because no one realized we were that close to the end.  The first chapter of the second book is added to the end of this one, so that tricked us a bit.  Oh, it's such a delicious book!  The main character is a 6th grader who loves food, but her parents don't know how to cook and always order disgusting takeout.  She is accidentally hired by the New York Standard to be a food critic and review a new restaurant in the city.  But that's a bit tricky since her parents don't know about her secret passion, not to mention she's grounded for cooking without supervision (and setting fire to the kitchen).  I read the last page and they clamored for more.  Thankfully there's a second book out.  Unfortunately, it's not in the library system or at Barnes and Nobles, so we have to wait to get it.  Thankfully, we have another book the class voted to read-aloud.

Other fun things today... Iowa tests for math.  Half the class was excited to take the math tests, the other half, not so much.  TWO of my students had birthdays today, so we got cracker bars this morning, and the cupcakes a mom dropped off this afternoon will be shared at snack tomorrow.  This afternoon we had our last bell practice.  Yep, only one more performance for the year.  We went over to church and set up/practiced since the performance is this Sunday.  From now on, our bell practices are going to be musical practices/set design time.

The afternoon ended with an all-school scavenger hunt.  It took way less time than anyone planned, so I had 20 minutes at the end of the day to fill.  Mystery Class!  The kids were less excited.  They wanted recess.  So we compromised: 10 minutes of MC, 10 minutes of recess.

Tonight is Ivy's art show/speech.  I told my students about it and one boy said, "Oh, I'll be there too." (He was totally kidding).  But I played along and told him he should ask all sorts of questions when it's her turn to talk.  He just laughed.

Two for Two

Man, I hit the jackpot this week!  Both times I've called the IT guys, they've answered right away!  My flashdrive couldn't be fixed at home, but I located my receipt and it is still under warranty, so all I have to do is mail it to them and they'll send me a new one.  I copied all my files onto my laptop yesterday, so I just need to find a padded envelope and ship it.  I have a smaller GB flashdrive I can use in the meantime.  It won't fit all my files, but I think it can hold the files I need it to for now.

In chapel today we learned there are SIX people at our school who have birthdays this week!  I got two birthday treats today, both from kindergarten girls.  One was a cupcake and another was a cookie (the kindergartner was proud to announce that she baked the cookies with her grandma yesterday).  I suppose I should start thinking of a birthday treat to bring to school.  Gingersnaps? Always a class favorite.  Some exotic fruit no one has tried? Could be good... it'd be an adventure for sure!  Hmm... well, I have time to think about it.

Yesterday I didn't leave school very early... and I stayed late Monday too, so my goal is to leave school early today.  Tomorrow we have a staff meeting after school, and then Ivy has an art lecture in Mankato at 7pm.  I'll probably head for Mankato after our meeting is over... another night out and about.  It would be nice to actually spend some time in my apartment!  Although tonight's not looking too good either... ladies' bible study meets at 6:30.  But if I leave early, I'll still have time to be at home for a bit.

Student Teacher

I got to meet our student teacher today! She's just like I thought she'd be... friendly, enthusiastic, ready to dig in.  Since she's here to observe four classes I teach (7th grade science, social, 5/6 science, social) and the kindergarten class, scheduling got a little complicated.  We settled on her teaching a little bit of each subject area for each grade.  Plus she'll throw in some kindergarten lessons along the way too.  I'm excited for her to start! We figured out a good way for her to have time in class and still get back to BLC for her other afternoon classes.  At least two days a week she'll be able to stay after school so we can go over questions she has about teaching/the classroom, pointers about lessons, etc. I have a feeling these next few weeks will be extra fun.

During the Iowa tests today, we let Joe loose in the room.  He ended up wandering out to the gym during one of the bathroom breaks... although I'm still suspicious that he could get that far... I wouldn't be surprised to find out one of my kiddos gave him a lift out to the gym.  But he was pretty active today.  It wasn't super warm in our classroom, but he was doing laps while we had him out!  In the wild, they walk for miles, so I suppose it shouldn't be too surprising.

Pinatas

The annual making-of-the-pinatas has commenced! We skipped science today (I figured it'd be okay since they've been taking lots of tests lately and we haven't been doing art much recently).  Pastor dropped off two tarps for us this morning before school.  When the time came, we pushed all the desks back and unrolled them.  One is huge and had room for three groups!  That was good, because the second tarp was a bit, shall we say, smelly?  One of their sons is big into hunting and I'm pretty sure the weird marks on the tarp are "leftovers" from a hunting expedition.  That one we kept folded in half so the leaves and other potentially gross things wouldn't fall onto the carpet.  It's still smelling up the room a bit, but we might need to put another layer on the pinatas, so I don't want to roll it up yet... I think I might stick it in the coat room tonight so it doesn't stink up the classroom overnight.

Some groups were really good about being neat and putting their strips on the balloons.  Others didn't want to get their hands dirty and drug out the process.  Most of those groups, when they did get going, slapped on huge pieces of newspaper in chunks instead of strips.  They never put enough layers on... the more layers, the sturdier the pinata will be.  Now they say they don't care, but I guarantee when it comes time to whack the pinatas (and it cracks open right away), they'll be singing a different tune.

Speaking of breaking things... the timer that runs Joe's light is broken.  His daytime light wasn't on, and I replaced the bulb somewhat recently, so I messed with the plug ins, and yep, when not attached to the timer, the light works.  So until I can get to town to buy another one (or have someone handy with electrical things take a look at the broken one), I need to remember to turn on and turn off his daytime light every day.  ...I'm not too optimistic about me remembering...

The other thing that's most likely probably broken is my flashdrive.  Ugh! I thought flashdrives never go bad but apparently they do!!!  This morning I tried to save a new document on my flashdrive, but it kept saying I had to turn off the "write protection" first.  I never turned it on in the first place.  The IT guys actually answered right away when I called them, but he said I'll probably have to get a new one because this one is bad.  Normally it wouldn't be a big deal, but this is one of the more expensive flashdrives (it has more space to store files), so I don't really want to buy a new one.  Sigh.  I'm going to try a few things at home tonight; hopefully my laptop will make all the troubles go away... yeah, I don't believe that either.  But at least I can backup my files.  Then the IT guys can try wiping the drive and starting over.  Sometimes starting over can make things work again.  We'll see I guess...  I also need to find the receipt; it may be under warranty.  And if so, the company can send me a replacement disk.  Oh please, oh please, be under warranty!!!

CropLife

We had a guest speaker today from the CropLife Ambassador program.  I've used this program for a number of years.  At first, it took forever to get a speaker because there weren't any who lived in the area.  One year we got someone who lives/works up near the Cities and we had to coordinate a time for when she was in Mankato for meetings.  Thankfully, last year, someone interested in speaking to kids about agriculture moved to the area and now it's not so complicated!  Stephanie works for Dow out of Mankato and this was her second time speaking with my class.  This year, she talked about the different areas of agriculture and how every part of our lives is touched by ag.  My kids were amazed by all the products made from parts of soybeans and corn!

I've been jamming our days at school with as much as possible... I think perhaps a bit too much... we don't have time to fit everything in!  This afternoon, the 5th and 6th graders took a science test and we were going to do Mystery Class too (something I've been a bit lax about having them do... but in my defense, we've missed the past few Fridays which are the days scheduled to do MC), but there wasn't enough time before recess.  And the 5th grade girls had puberty ed with the nurse at 1:45.  Since they only had 15 minutes to do their test, none of them finished.  Now I have to find time for them to do it next week.  One of the 5th graders is going to be gone the whole week (her uncle in Arizona is getting married), so she'll have to wait until she gets back.  And next week is Iowa Testing, so she'll have to make up all of that too!  Plus there's a history test.  *wince* that's a lot of tests to make up.

The 7th graders had a test today too.  They were complaining because I didn't put the page numbers on the study guide.  I did put the page range of the information covered on the test, but they wanted me to put the page numbers where the information could be found for each question.  Their other complaint was that we didn't go over the study guide in class.  And their final complaint was that I didn't give them five minutes to use the study guide/notes on their test.  I gave them two minutes, but they were upset stating that I ALWAYS give them five whole minutes.  Not true. Sigh.  I think they have short term memory loss...  that and they don't take the time to study.  I have all their papers to correct this weekend so we'll see how they did...