Venturing Out

Yesterday after school I ran errands in New Ulm. Normally, this isn't something I think twice about, but these days of coronavirus give every task outside the home a heavier weight. I went to Walmart and found everything on my list. The food selection for Joe wasn't that great, so I waited to get him more lettuce. No toilet paper here either (I'm still well stocked in that department) but the rest of their shelves were full. There was quite the selection of produce, aside from lettuce. I had to refrain from buying all the fresh veggies that caught my eye; there's no way I'd be able to eat through all of that before it went bad. Things to save for another time!

I needed to get gas too and I had a Kwik Trip gift card. As I filled up I got a hankering for their donuts. So I treated myself to a box plus got bananas. Breakfast!

After I got home I wiped down my house and car door handles/steering wheel/water jug handles just to be safe. There haven't been many cases in New Ulm that I've heard of, but it's still good to get in the habit. It's only going to get germier.

It's another nice day outside. I am definitely going to be taking a walk when I get home. From the sounds of the forecast, it's going to be rainy the rest of the week. Sigh. I better pull out my dehumidifier; my bedroom is starting to smell musty again and I want to stay ahead of the moisture.

School went well today. I finally connected with the girl who's been avoiding doing her joke video. She figured out which joke she's doing, but now she can't log on to the website we're using! If it's not one thing, it's another. I got tired of waiting for her to do her video, so I mailed the card to C without hers. He is going to send us a shell casing of one of the rounds his crew shot off. He said after each launch mission they save half of the shell and each crew member signs it; it's a big honor to keep it. He was able to snag one and it will hopefully get to us next week!

I corrected a few of my giant stack of papers this morning and I corrected all of the English assignments waiting for me virtually on Writing City. I thought I'd have time to scan some of the shelves in our class library, but correcting Writing City took most of the morning. Maybe I'll do a little before I go home. It's pretty quiet around here!

Situated

I took the weekend off from school stuff. Instead I made dried apples and almond bark pretzels (both things I've been meaning to do since Christmas), vacuumed and swept, tidied up my living room/bedroom, adjusted my plants (some I plan to move outside once the weather gets nicer), went for a long walk, took garbage out, and rearranged my craft room so I will hopefully do more art. I also scanned/cataloged my at-home books into a new library app that's supposed to make keeping track of books you own simpler. So far, so good! I have a little over 400 books at home. Next I need to tackle my school library... which is over 2,000. That's going to take a while!

School today went pretty well. We did highs and lows and prayer requests. I set up new writing assignments through the Writing City website. Spelling groups met, I did a few calls with students separately, recorded a few grades, let a couple delivery people into school (there's a setting through our desk phones that lets me open the door with a few clicks of a button). One of the guys was here to fix my classroom heater. He tinkered with it for a while and left, but it's not fixed yet. I wonder if he'll be back today while I'm still at school, otherwise I'm not sure if he'll be able to get back in!

What a day

Oh boy... my kids were struuuuuggling this morning! Our religion lesson had us looking up a lot of bible verses. I've been drawing sticks for which kid gets to read them, since I can't see their raised hands over the computer. Normally they're pretty good about following along. Not today. Gah, it was like pulling teeth to get them to the right passage in their bibles! We made it all the way through the religion lesson though.

The jokes have been slowly trickling in. I still need three more. One forgot about it, one is having trouble logging on, and the third's microphone/camera on her device isn't working. I'm hoping our card will be ready to mail today. Man, those videos they uploaded are great. Some of my favorite jokes so far: "I was working at a calendar company. I got fired. I think it was because I took a day off..." and "Today at the bank, a lady told me to check her balance. So I pushed her over. It didn't go well." "Why did the bike fall over? It was two tired." So great. (If you want to see their videos, email me and I'll send you the link!)

Another thing that cracked me up today is this one kid who keeps finding excuses to call me via Teams. I think he's bored or wanting more company than his two brothers. Every time he's on screen he has another tool in his hands he's flipping around in front of the camera. Yesterday it was two different pocket knives, today it was two yard sticks, later on it was a pliers. Who knows what tomorrow will bring!

My prep for Drop Day is going well. Just down to figuring out what art projects they should do... Then I need to organize their packets and put them down on the pick-up end. I might do a quick grocery run today, depending how soon I leave school. But then again, everyone else might have the same idea and the store might be crazy. Maybe I should wait until next week...

Leavin' It!

Our big topic during this morning's Morning Meeting was, are we still going to be able to have our field trips in May. They're mostly thinking about the Heintz farms tour that's been on the calendar since the first day of school. I told them we would hopefully still go, but if we are in virtual school in May, I would take them on a virtual tour of the farm. One of the other boys (who also lives on a farm) said, "Hey, I could do a virtual tour of my farm and then we could compare them!" Thus was born the idea of Field Trip Fridays. A girl's DNR officer dad volunteered to take us on a virtual tour of the prairie. Another girl lives near a motorcycle club and volunteered to see if she could take us on a virtual tour of it. There are four school Fridays in April and four that want to do virtual tours. Perfect. I figure I'll save my farm tour for May just in case we can still go in person.

Tomorrow is our last Drop Day before the 'shelter at home' mandate starts. It lasts for two weeks, but since we know school won't be in session until (at the earliest), May 4th, we want to send home papers/worksheets for the whole month of April, just in case. That's a lot of planning to do!

The 7-8th graders were supposed to have class at 1:00 today, but they messaged me in the morning and asked if we could move our class to sometime in the morning (so they could be finished with school before lunch). Sure! So I got all my virtual teaching finished in the morning. Then, as I started planning for the upcoming month, I got sucked in to teacher resources to share with students...

Eventually I pulled myself away from the distractions, and mapped everything out (solidly for April, roughly through May/the end of the year). The 5-6th grade lesson topics are planned; I need to figure out what I should print off to go home. I'm saving that for tomorrow. Everything is printed off and ready to go for the 7-8th graders except one assignment about explorers. I have to save that for tomorrow too. I've hit my breaking point; it's late and I should go home and be done with school for the day. Parents can come to school from 4-6pm tomorrow, so I will have a little time after my virtual classes to get things ready.

I'm leaving everything at school: my planner, my grading/lesson plan clipboard, my flashdrive of lessons, my papers to correct... everything will keep until tomorrow.

Virtual Bible Study

Tonight was our first try with Virtual Ladies Bible Study. It went surprisingly well! We did it through Zoom and everyone was able to 'tune in' without many issues. We scheduled another meeting for next Thursday night so even more of our usual ladies can join us.

School has been going fine. A few kids didn't show up for our science meeting, so we recorded it. Hopefully they watch the video so they catch up on what they missed.

My kids are yearning for in-person school. That was a topic of conversation in our morning meeting. Many of them really want to be back in school. I think the novelty of virtual school has officially worn off. Bad news for those kids... The governor's announcement today was that school can maybe resume May 4th. So it's a whole nother month of this. At least I can start planning for that. I've been hesitating to plan too far ahead of time just because things have been changing on a daily basis.

Jokes

I had THE best idea today. 

Here's the backstory: The last time I talked to my marine friend C, he thought he'd be able to visit his family the last week of April before they ship him off to Japan in May. I haven't heard from him in a while, but I'm guessing with the coronavirus going around, the military isn't going to let him go home on leave. Bummer. How to cheer him up...

April is fast approaching, along with April Fool's Day. How about sending him a card full of jokes? Normally I'd have my students help me out, and with a little creative thinking, I figured out a way for them to do that from a distance! 

First, I used a program called "Flipgrid" to make an assignment: send me your best joke. They can record themselves saying the joke and the website will gather the responses in one place. I will write their jokes on a card and mail it to C. 

But... after poking around on Flipgrid more, I found a feature that lets the owner (me) share an assignment (the jokes) with a guest (C) so he can see the videos right from the students! So... my current plan is to write the link to the assignment in the card so he can look it up when he gets the card (more of a surprise that way). But, I may change my mind and message him the link after he would've gotten the card. 

We talked about jokes in today's morning meeting, but no one besides me has uploaded a joke video. The one I picked was one of my brother's favorite jokes: Knock knock! Who's there? Panther. Panther who? ...Panther no pants, I'm going swimming! 😁

Memory Work

I think today has been the least stressful day I've ever had of kids saying memory work. During our morning meeting, I asked for volunteers to go for memory and I made a list. After our meeting, I called them in order, moving on to the next one on the list if they didn't answer. It took each one about two minutes to say their memory. Then I asked if they needed anything from school or if they had any questions about school. Easy peasy!

Tonight is our first Drop Day at school. There will be a table for parents to drop off papers for each teacher and pick up more things to do at home. I have a few requests from students, so we arranged a code word to have written on the bag. Manna, banana, and marshmallow are the ones I have so far. Hopefully their spelling tests at home go well! I have the tests recorded and uploaded. All they have to do is listen to the recording and do their test like normal.

Computer Glasses

I left my computer glasses at home today... now my eyes feel all buggy. Staring at a screen all day will do that!

It's been rainy all day, which has affected the internet. This morning in the middle of my Morning Meeting, our internet totally stopped. No desktop internet, no phone connection, no wifi. I got kicked off my own video chat! It took about five minutes before it came back online. I'm still not sure what happened. My kids were all going nutso, trying to decide if they should leave the call or stay on. They all stayed on and we finished the last two pages of the read-aloud chapter and called it a day.

They didn't have as many questions as they've had other days. I think they're either doing their schoolwork less or they're figuring it out. That and the novelty of 'being online' in our Team group has probably worn off. Even with fewer questions, I haven't had much downtime today. Mr. E received emails from a few groups about how we're providing meals to families who need the support. He contacted Nicollet public school and we're teaming up with them. The Nicollet Legion is passing out free breakfast and lunch sacks from a specified time every day for families to pick up. Awesome! All they have to do is call to RSVP so they make enough food. Meals are also available for elderly people and veterans if requested. And if you can't stop in to pick it up, you can sign up for a delivery.

It's really nice to see people coming together to work for the greater good. It's a change from the negativity and tension between various groups in our country the past few months. The main thing to remember is that it's going to be okay. We're going to get through this. Hunker down, help each other out, stay calm. God's got this.

eLearning Day 2

Day 2 went just as well as Day 1! Only a few hiccups. My classroom wifi was not working when I got to school. I tried a few things, but couldn't get it to work in time for my morning meeting, so I moved my stuff to the office. It worked just fine in there! We had a few cameos from the Es when they poked their heads in.

After our Morning Meeting, I helped Mr. E get his stuff going. He did six class meetings today! My kids didn't have as many questions as they'd had yesterday, but a bunch called me to talk through specific questions they had on assignments or to get help. I also got the virtual confirmation stuff set up with the help of our IT guy. Now I just need to teach Pastor how to use it... A task for tomorrow!

There was going to be a funeral tomorrow (Mrs. B and I were going to sing a duet for them), but the family decided to cancel and just do a small prayer ceremony at the funeral home today. I found out from a friend that her sister (one of my former 'wing' girls at Bethany) is getting married this Saturday and has to cut the guest list down to 10... basically just the couple's parents. How sad! Sad for the couple, sad for their families...

First Day of eLearning

Well, today was full but it went well. I got to school about 7:45 to get everything set for our first 'Morning Meeting.' It was super strange to be the only one at school. There are usually at least two or three other teachers there by the time I arrive. Today... I was the only one around for hours.

My students all logged in at the appropriate time. They handled the conference call well. We took turns talking, typed messages to each other in the side chat bar, and got to see bits of everyone's houses. A few kids showed us their dogs. Some were meeting in their beds or in their bedrooms, others went to work with their parents/were in the home office, others sat at the kitchen table. I sat at my desk with my teacher bookshelf behind me. At some point I might do my meetings from home, but for now, I wanted to keep something 'normal.'

It was sweet, we ended our devotion with prayer and a bunch of them gave me prayer requests. It was a way for us to talk about what's going on in our lives when we can't be together. After devotions, we did religion, then read aloud. Some kids ate breakfast while we met, some ate snack. Some were in their pajamas, some were in their normal clothes. After read aloud, I met with one group of spelling that I hadn't gotten to yesterday.

Then I was bombarded with questions. How do I do this? Why can't I see that? Where do I go for this? What time do we need to check in again? Are we having math today? (We weren't... Mr. E was totally exhausted from the stress of getting our school ready for eLearning, so he took the day off. The 7-8th graders might start tomorrow.). Pastor stopped by to ask a question about how he can do confirmation class virtually. Mrs. L stopped by to check in and see how our first meeting went. A few kids called me through the computer to say their memory work, or to ask a question.

Eventually I got all their questions answered! Things calmed down for a while. Then Mrs. L and I went over to church to explore ways to live stream church. The elders are meeting tonight to decide whether we'll have services or not. Our projector screen programmer stopped by church while we were there and then went home to play around with things. She messaged me later to say she has some solid ideas of how to have virtual church.

Someone had sent Pastor a skit/article of society questioning God during our troubled time, which Pastor wanted to act out/film/put on our church Facebook page. I filmed, Mrs. L was society, Pastor was the voice of God off screen. It turned out great! You can watch it by clicking here.

I got home around 4:00, and then Mr. E called me a few times to get his class stuff figured out for tomorrow. One of my friends who works in the area swung by on her way home from work and we went for a short walk. Lots of people called me to talk about church plans! So it's been a busy night. Now I'm hoping to settle in with a book before bedtime.

Roller coaster

Wow, what a roller coaster these past few days have been... I am completely exhausted mentally and physically.

We got the news Sunday morning that the Governor was closing all schools starting Wednesday. Mr. E called an emergency staff meeting Sunday at 12:45 to talk about our school's plan and I didn't get home until 9:15pm. But, Mr. E and I had a plan in place for how to do eLearning with our students and we showed them what to do today. We only had a half day of school (following what Nicollet did). New Ulm kids stayed the whole day (New Ulm is staying open Monday and Tuesday to go over things, off Wednesday).

Instead of using the two weeks to plan, we're starting e-Learning tomorrow. Every day my class will 'tune in' at 8:30 via Microsoft Teams (our IT guys actually helped us get things set up). We'll do devotions, religion, and read-aloud, plus talk about what types of things we need to do for the day. After about an hour, they'll be turned loose to do independent work. They'll have another live lesson with Mr. E every day for math. Science/social studies will be a toss up if they're doing live lessons or working on their own. I might make videos for them to watch. We'll see.

So it was a lot of work to set everything up, but hopefully it will be smooth-ish sailing while we're out. Some sources say three weeks, four weeks, eight weeks, or the rest of the year. But officially, our physical school is closed from now until March 27th.

Yesterday, prepping for the break, I was so stressed my body physically ached. I couldn't fall asleep and when I did, it wasn't very restful. Some people have been saying, "Oh, I wish I could have two weeks off!" Yeah, I do too.

Today school was CRAZY. I had my students bring the device they'd be using at home so we could practice a video call and log into everything. One student stayed home, but she was able to tune in and hear what we were doing. Of course all the kids were riled up. Thankfully my voice is pretty much back, so I could compete with them. They all had tons of questions, which I answered as best I could.

Mr. E's class joined ours for a while so they could figure out how to log on. My poor meltdown kid had a rough day and I didn't have time to coach him through it. My rope was very short today and I'm afraid I wasn't as patient with him as I should've been. We ate lunch early at 11:00 so the kids would be done in time for the bus at 11:45. Mr. E wanted to do math, so my day with the 5-6th graders ended at 10:30. That's only two hours to explain all the technical stuff about e-school and how to do it. But we did it! We also went over each spelling group's instructions for the week, finished up spelling tests from last week, and packed everything we might need for the next however-many weeks into backpacks. I convinced some of the 7-8th graders to bring 'fun' books home to read.

After the Nicollet kids left, I had two kids for the rest of the day. They had some recess in the gym, worked on an art project, tidied our classroom/the school a bit, ate leftover ice cream from the cancelled Lenten meals (all the kids who stayed behind did), and finally went home on the bus. Now, I am going to go run errands and take the evening off!

Disappearing

Things have been disappearing in my classroom... more likely they are just misplaced. My kids are not very careful with our things. Sigh. It makes me want to slowly remove things from the classroom and see if they notice, like our vast amount of pillows.

So far I'm missing: three whiteboard erasers, one headphone splitter, lots of clipboards (at least seven), who knows how many pencils, and a whiteboard marker with a magnet on it. The whiteboard erasers are the latest thing. I'm sure all these things will turn up at the end of the year when they clean out their desks and crates. They usually do, although I haven't seen many clipboards in crates...

The Fine Arts Fair is officially cancelled; they called it off this morning before 8:30. I'm going to put the science fair projects on display at church so some people will at least get to see them. We'll probably put them in storage after that so we can have them on display again at the musical this May. Not too many of the kids were bummed; they all wanted another day to sleep in.

Word on the street the MN government is thinking about closing down schools for a few weeks to let the illness run its course. If it happens, it will be a huge mess for us. Do we add three weeks to the end of the year? Try to have kids do e-learning at home? How will we get their homework to them? I suppose it's borrowing trouble to worry about all that now. Nothing has been officially decided. Just in case, Mr. E and I had our students bring a bunch of their books/workbooks home. The 7-8th graders are betting they'll call school off before Monday. We'll just keep praying and leave it in God's hands!

Blustery

Oh man, did it turn windy today! Walking back from church I had to lean into the wind to stay upright! 

My kids were actually pretty good today. Mr. E stopped in a few times to check on us. That helped the squirrely ones settle down. One kid had a tough patch, but he turned it around and was great the rest of the day! 

We had practice for the Fine Arts Fair over at church. We're also playing bells and singing Sunday, so we set up bells during our normal practice time and ran through the Sunday songs and our one song for Saturday. Then we did it again during the dress rehearsal. I think we're ready! We ran out of time during the dress rehearsal so about six kids didn't get to do their dramatic readings or songs. Some were upset about it, but most were fist-pumping and grinning. 

Mr. E and the other principals have been discussing whether to actually have it or not because of the coronavirus. I can't believe how everyone is freaking out about it. So far, the show will go on. They're officially deciding tomorrow. I think we should still have it; if people are sick, they should stay home. 

I just learned a trick for getting rid of colds/flu faster. When you start to feel sick, drop some hydrogen peroxide in your ears (one at a time) and let it sit for a minute, then drain it out. The hydrogen peroxide kills the virus cells in your inner ear before they get down into the rest of your body. I tried it last night to see if it would help me get rid of my lingering cough. I feel much better today than I did yesterday! Still not 100% though, so I'll do it again tonight. 

My class tried a quick experiment today. The read aloud book had a part about running better if you exhale when your left leg hits the ground. My kids wanted to test it, so we did a quick break in the gym. First, we ran down/back normally, then we did the same but tried to time our breathing so we exhaled on the left foot and inhaled on the right. Results varied. I think we'd have more accurate results if we did a longer distance. Still, science!

Chewing

Sigh, today was another rough one. Lots of boys got sucked into the tornado of chaos. Only two boys didn't. The rest were either instigators or were observers egging the others on. It was so bad Mr. E hit the roof and chewed out my boys for a long time over lunch. He kicked the girls out to his room and told me I could eat in there with them or I could listen to him chew out the boys. It was actually a hard choice. Do I let Mr. E do his thing and avoid the awkwardness? Do I go in my room and be another teacher backing him up?

I ended up eating in Mr. E's room. I figured Mr. E would say what he needed to say and I didn't need to be there to hear it and he didn't need an audience. He was so fed up with their behavior, he threw out the 'expel' word. Yikes. Part of why he was so mad was from yesterday's conference. There was one session that the majority of the 5-8th graders were at together. They got too comfortable and picked on each other and didn't show the best image of our school. Mr. E's sub told him about it (I was at a different session).

In other news, most of the science fair projects have been turned in. Some are quite extensive and have giant folders of data/written reports. Others are very basic and need to add some things to get a decent score. A few forgot their written reports at home (another reason I have them due on Wednesday instead of Friday). One girl stayed after today to type hers.

It's hard to believe the Fine Arts Fair is already on Saturday!

YWAC

No school yesterday and today was a field trip... Tomorrow is our first day of actual school and the week is half over! Well, technically not, since the Fine Arts Fair is Saturday and that counts as a day of school.

I had two students bring in their science fair boards already. One forgot his written report, but there's still time to get that done before I bring them down Saturday morning. Another mom dropped one off before the PTL meeting. I heard her and another parent commiserating how much they hate science fair projects. That makes me sad. I don't know what else I can do to make the process better. I guess I could get rid of the project entirely...

Our field trip today went well. We had a ton of parent drivers, which ended up being a good thing since two backed out at the last minute. We were able to swap them into different cars and still have some room to spare.

I went to the first session with my group of typically rowdy boys. They did origami and we're surprisingly well behaved and quiet. I thought they'd be the same in the next session (metal drawing art), so I went to a session about publishing on Amazon with some of my girls. Yeah, I probably should've stuck with the boys. The 7-8th graders were taking that class too and there were so many of our students, they felt too comfortable and picked at each other. There were even three of our parent chaperones there! I'm not sure if I would've made a difference or not.

The last session I went to was about natural dyes. That was cool, although the presenter didn't let me do it because of supplies. She had various fruits and vegetables- spinach, blueberries, cherries, red onion, red cabbage- that they got to squeeze onto a white bandana, kind of like tie dye. They put the dyed cloth in a ziplock bag with 3T of vinegar and a penny. Leave it in for 7 days to set the dye. The second activity was with koolaid drink mix. You mix it with 1T of water, then add 1/8tsp oil and 1/4tsp spy lecithin. Pour some on a folded paper towel and presto! Instant stamp pad! I used paper from my folder and did some stamping with the dye my student made. I was only with one because her partner (who had signed up for every class with her) got back late from a trip and didn't end up coming on the field trip. So she was all alone during the day and felt a little lonely.

After the trip, the Immanuelites, aka ladies aid of our congregation, served us supper before the PTL meeting. I'm glad they did! The meeting itself wasn't long, but I had so many people to talk to afterwards, I got home kind of late. And it's snowing! And sticking to the roads! That made my drive home a little slow...

Book Character Day

I had a great costume today... I was the grandma from Little Red Riding Hood. My outfit consisted of things I (or someone else) found at MLHS Dollar Bag Day Sale: a light pink fluffy nightgown and a very old sleeping-cap-ish bonnet. I topped off the look with my computer glasses perched on the end of my nose and a creaky 'old' lady voice (which wasn't hard to do since my voice is kind of creaky today).

My energy level is doing better, throat isn't sore any more, but now my nose is dripping like a faucet and I still have a deep cough that only shows up every once in a while.

Our fun activity for the afternoon was playing BINGO with the nursing home residents in New Ulm. I wondered if they'd want me there spreading germs to the residents, so I brought a book along just in case I needed to quarantine myself. It's a good thing I did. They shuffled me off to the reading room near the entrance to the nursing home and I read for the 40 minutes they played BINGO. It was nice! I am rereading one of my grade school favorites, Boston Jane. The nursing home staff made cookies for our kids, and the lady in charge brought me a cookie before we left. How sweet!

Yesterday at the end of the day, one of my kids said, "Miss H, we're going to meet our pen pals tomorrow. If we were thinking, we would've written them letters and given them to them right there." Oh, yes, that would've been a good idea. It's a little late now though, right? Well... I came up with a compromise. We colored them 'spring' pictures. Everyone finished in time! Only one boy didn't find his pen pal, so he brought the picture back to school. Shucks! I guess we'll include it in the next round of letters we send.

We're going to plan a time for the residents to come out to school to play games with their pen pals, probably in April. Then they'll come out to see our musical in May. Should be fun!

Accessory Day

I thought about wearing a ton of scarves today, but decided one was enough. A few of my kiddos went all out though! One girl wore 35 accessories. A lot of them were scrunchies (which have been making a comeback this year). The winner for our class wore a poncho, scarves, bracelets, sunglasses, hats, and a whole bunch of things so that you couldn't even tell who she was when she wore them all. It was pretty cool.

I had a lot more energy today. My nose is more stuffy and I'm still coughing a bit, but much better than yesterday. My students were crazy again. Big surprise. One girl's grandma had surgery today and she was worried and irritable all day. My normally tough kid was one of the better behaved ones today! He's started medication this week and it is doing amazing things. He was respectful, productive, kind to his classmates... the jittery-ness is gone and he seems more peaceful. Praise the Lord!

The wind is howling outside. It was so loud one of my students was certain there would be a tornado soon. Nope. That's not how weather works, buddy. We had snow for a while but that appears to have stopped. Hopefully the wind is bringing more nice temperatures. I brought my peach tree out to my porch, thinking the super cold days are over. It had been hibernating in my spare room since it only tolerates 20 degree weather, no colder. So far, so good!

Future Me Day

Zonked. That word is a perfect one to describe how I'm feeling right now. I have so little energy, it's a miracle I made it through the day. I woke up twice in the middle of the night with a coughing fit, so that didn't help anything. My throat isn't as sore, but all my muscles are from coughing so much. Blech.

I dressed as a teacher for Future Me Day. Not very imaginative, but I also wanted to look nice for church and for Family Day. We had a guest pastor do chapel, had families eat lunch with us in the gym, and had the science museum do a talk on dinosaurs. Mr. E lined them up and made sure to have a conversation with them about not doing the 'millions of years' talk in their presentation. The speaker was like, "Well, I'll do my best." Dan replied, "That's not good enough! I need better than that." The speaker did a great job not talking about time at all and I'm proud of Mr. E for standing up for our faith.

We had a snafu with the sound system again... all week it's been working just fine! Today, awful. Mr. E called the company (something to do with radio towers?) and it turns out the towers around us got bought by T-Mobile and TODAY they started work changing them over. Of course. Our guest pastor and Mr. E just talked loud and the company sent a guy out to our school to try to fix things before the science museum did their talk. What they did must've worked because sound for the dinos was great!

After that, Mr. E took my kiddos to do math while I stayed with the 7-8th graders to clean up the gym. I was so pooped and out of it, I didn't feel like teaching. Earlier this week we'd started watching a movie during study hall. We hadn't gotten very far and I knew they would love to keep watching it. Their argument in favor of the movie (before they knew I was leaning that way myself), "Miss H, we worked really hard putting all the tables and chairs away. And we did a good job!" They really did do a good job. So we watched the movie. The last part of the day was PE in the gym with Mr. E. I started typing up the spring musical. May is going to come really fast!

Mountaineer vs Hawaiian Day

I couldn't decide, so I dressed as both. I have one obnoxiously orange Hawaiian shirt that looks like an accordion (I got it from $ bag day... I thought it was a skirt at the time)- always a hit! Then I wore a stocking cap, jeans, and brown boots.

Day Two of the Winter Olympics went better than the first. We started early so there would be time to set up tables for dinner tomorrow (families can come and eat with us). It was certainly a crunch time at the end! I let Mr. E do the talking/directing the 5-8th graders how to set up. He sent a bunch of my boys over to church to get more chairs. They were over there unsupervised; hopefully they left everything as they found it. They went back for another load of chairs right as it was time to pack up for the end of the day. Mr. E and I discovered they left too late to stop them. So it was even more of a crunch to pack them up and send them on the bus. Three people forgot to put their crates up. That means they each owe me 10 tokens to get it back.

My throat was still sore today. I'm trying not to let my voice go, but I can tell it's struggling. And of course my class was squirrely and talkative. Sigh. I wanted to go home early after school to rest up more, but we had a staff meeting, then cleaned the office, then I had a big to-do list of little things that would only take a few minutes to do... So I got home about 5:40ish. Now I'm resting though!

Crazy Hair and Sock Day

First day of Lutheran Schools Week started on a crazy note. ;)

I wore my polkadot socks and made my hair into a spider/insect/monster. Inspired by Pinterest, I made my hair into a high bun, leaving out the ends, then braided those ends to be legs. I slapped some eyeballs on top and there you go!


I also did our first all-school morning devotion. When it was time for teachers to pick which day to do, I will admit I chose to go first for selfish reasons. I figured there wasn't so much pressure on the first day: the kids can't compare how I did to a different teacher because no one else has gone yet. No one else really wanted to be first, so it worked out.

I have been droopy all day. I woke up with a sore throat and a tickling cough that just won't stop. My nose isn't runny... yet. My kids were their typical Monday selves and I had a hard time coming up with energy to deal with their meltdowns and tantrums. Still, we made it through the day. I don't have a lot to do after school so I'll head home soon, drink soup for supper, and go to bed early.