Rowdy

Another rowdy day. Probably due to the excitement of trick or treating later tonight with friends. Or the fact that it's a Monday and Monday's are always a little crazier than the other days of the week. My theory is because they haven't seen each other all weekend and have a lot to catch up on. Still, even with the chitter chatter, we had a good learning day.

The 7-8th graders got through one slide of my planned lesson. We're learning about meiosis, which is how sex cells divide and how genetics get passed down. Boy they have a lot of questions about how bodies work. We're learning about the reproductive system later this year, but if they have questions now, it's still related, so we've been going down the rabbit hole. Today they had question after question and asked them for forty five minutes straight. They would've kept going, but I cut them off so they'd have time for study hall. 

Stressed = Desserts Spelled Backwards

That's the story of my life today, minus desserts, unless you count Halloween candy my kids gave me. 

More closing details are coming out, such as paperwork from the USDA, but not the right paperwork that tells me how much money I need to close. There's a number, but it might change. You wouldn't think that's a problem, except if I'm going to pay that money, a check has to be dropped off TODAY so there's enough time for it to clear the bank before closing. Or the money has to be wired. Well, that shouldn't be too much of a problem... except I bank out of town, you have to request a wire transfer in person, and I don't know how much money I need to request when I'm around my bank tomorrow. I'll have to make a special trip after school next week after I know my final numbers and I gotta make it before the bank closes. It's going to be tight. Sigh. Just what I wanted to do after school next week. 

Today was a fun day, but also stressful. Figuring out sub plans for next Friday, figuring out singing practice schedule/setting up Pork Chop Dinner stuff at church, figuring out Fall Carnival set up, while also juggling closing details with Habitat. Holy cow am I glad it's Friday!

All that being said, the set up at church went super fast and super smooth with the kids. We even had time to practice bells. Music practice was also good; our songs sound beautiful. The fall carnival went off without a hitch. My kids were great hosts to the younger grades! And my classroom is mostly tidy after all that. 😆

Lost Has Been Found, and BIG News

Picking up the bookshelves yesterday went moderately smoothly. We spent more time at the Mapleton school than Good Thunder and got over to Good Thunder five minutes before they shut down for the day. My bookshelf pickup took about 15min. On the way back, we went out to eat at the Thunder Bar. After unloading at school, I took a look at the goodies left on the two bookshelves. There were lots of puzzles, math manipulatives, and games. Lost of lower grade level stuff I set out for the other teachers to pick over. A few things I chose to keep. There's still a bin of things I need to sort through, but it was getting late and I made myself go home. A task for another day!

I've been missing the tiny garbage can right next to my door. It disappeared one day, nowhere to be found. I can't believe how much I miss that thing! My kids too. So often little scraps get tossed in there as we walk out the door or work at the folding table next to it. It's probably our most used garbage can. I finally wrote a note on the board in the office to see if anyone has seen it. The 1-2nd grade teacher said a tiny black recycling bin appeared in her room recently, was that mine? Yes! Woohoo! She said she'd switch to using a box for her bin. My kids will be so excited.

The bigger news is... I have a closing date! Next Friday, November 4th. It stinks because they have to do it during the day. Another stink is that the only time that works that day is 9am. The 5-8th graders are going to a play in Fairmont in the afternoon so none of those options worked. Mr. E will take my class for the morning until I get back. Pastor is showing a movie in confirmation class, so my class can watch that for part of the morning. I'll probably only get back with a half an hour to spare before we need to leave. Boy, that will be a crazy day. 

I won't be able to move in until the following Monday. G and I have plans to visit his friends in the Cities and attend another friend's wedding. Thankfully I don't have school Monday! Hopefully I'll be able to find enough help. So far, it seems doable...

Oops

After school today Mr. E, a retired grandparent, and I are hustling over to Maple River schools to pick up our auction items. The way it was worded on the website, I thought it was optional to sign up for a time. I thought you could just show up between the times listed and get your stuff. Apparently, everyone is supposed to sign up for a time. Oops. I only found out because I called the on-site guy to make sure we wouldn't be locked out since the time ends at 5pm. Mr. E thought it was six. Another oops. 

Mr. E found out that some of the stuff he bid on is at a different school than the other stuff both of us bought. Oops. Still, even with all that, we should be able to make it... as long as our ride shows up on time!

Tech Support

Another tough technical day in 5-6th grade. It took practically all morning for my kids to take their spelling tests with the audiofiles. 🙄 They were trying to access them through Microsoft Teams, but it took them to a page they didn't have access to and I couldn't give them access to it. And the IT guys didn't answer their phones. Again. Sigh. I tried texting after school and he did respond to one of my questions. He didn't say much about the other two. 

The other big news of the day was the online auction of the contents of a nearby middle school. I heard about it from a lady at one of the volleyball games (from the other team!) and passed on the info to Dan. Both of us bid on a few things. I had more luck than him. I won four super sturdy, high quality bookshelves. They'll be perfect in my basement for my books. The start of wall to wall bookshelves! One will be a great bench in my entryway closet. Now, where to put them until I can move in? 

My closing date tomorrow is officially cancelled. However, I did get word that the problem with the county has been ironed out and the title work was hopefully sent off to the USDA today (or whoever needed it submitted). Habitat is hopeful it will get moved through quickly since the other organizations involved know how long I've been waiting. I'm skeptical that it will be quick, but maybe I'll be wrong. 🤷‍♀️ Now my hope is to be moved in before the snow flies!

Busy

Boy it was hard for me to come back to school this morning after being off for three days last week. It was a great break. I tent camped with my travel buddy; the weather even cooperated! I got a few things done at home, mostly making dried apples/applesauce/fruit leather. And participated in the Heintz sisters' favorite day of the year: Dollar Bag Day.

My shoe twin donated another pair of shoes in my size and my style, a black pair of flats. I wore them to school today and multiple students thought I had forgotten to put on shoes and was in my sock feet. Apparently they blend in with my socks. I found a bunch of things for friends with kids, a few things for school, and a bunch of new clothes. I really need to go through my closet now... too bad most of it is still packed away. 

I haven't heard anything new about my closing date which means it's not happening this Wednesday. Habitat said they're working on a plan to get me into my house very soon, but it has to be approved by their board, which meets tonight. I'm still skeptical the plan will be approved/actually work. So we'll see. No news yet. 

This week will be crammed with Christmas program prep, bible study and an internet safety night hosted by school, and finally the annual Pork Chop Dinner and Silent Auction this Sunday. Whew. I better make sure I get to bed on time...

Defeated

My house closing is probably pushed off again. It's not 100% official, but the county found something wrong with the title work and it's been slow going to fix it. Habitat told me it would be good to plan on it being postponed and they'd let me know when they get the official word. Sigh.

Another low from today is that I left my computer glasses at home. I thought about driving back to get them but decided to tough it out for a day. I've had a mild headache almost all day, probably from the computer work. Something about this screen...

On the plus side, today is the last day of school for the week! Thank goodness. My kids were crazy again today. One went home sick with a bad cold/no energy. I had energy until I read the email from Habitat. But, I have all my lessons prepped for next week and not too many papers to correct, so at least I'll be able to take the weekend off from teacher stuff. 

This morning my kids (with a little help from me) made black eyed peas, a recipe from one of our read-aloud books (a version of the princess and the pea story). Each student brought an ingredient or two. Everyone arrived at school early, so we got them started around 8:10am. They were pretty good, although we didn't cook the peas long enough. I'd make the recipe again.

Bell practice also went very well. Our songs are sounding really good, both songs for October and the ones for November! I wanted to start our Christmas songs, but ran out of time. Mrs. E and I met yesterday to rough plan the Christmas program. It won't be our best, but it will be decent, in my opinion. The school board voted to have the Christmas Eve program at 2pm instead of 4pm since Christmas Eve is on a Saturday. Sounds like a good idea! Another change this year is Mrs. E and I decided to make it optional for everyone to be at both services, even bell people. If we're missing someone, we'll have to record the bells and play the video on the screen. Not great, but such is life. Maybe that will convince the congregation we should only have one service. Ha!

Snow

Just a hint of flurries in the air yesterday and today. Of course my students freaked out and ran to the window (that was yesterday). Today, we were outside at afternoon recess when the barest hint of flakes descended. 

It was a pretty quiet day today, aside from that. The preK-2nd graders were off on a field trip all day. No reading buddies. My kids were super excited to skip that. For whatever reason, this class does not enjoy reading with the 1-2nd graders. My class caught up on NaNo prep, learned next week's spelling, and said memory work. 

We made litmus paper from that blue butterfly pea flower tea. It's a pale blue on the paper, so I'm skeptical that the color will change much. Maybe we'll have to dye it twice. Right now the paper is drying on the table. One 6th grader is certain the table will be stained. I'm not worried about it; it's pretty light. Although, it's a bit darker than it was when we first put it down. Guess we'll see on Monday!

Dishes vs Papers

I've discovered I am choosing between staying current on correcting papers or staying current on my dishes. No time for both. Well, there probably is, but then there's no time for fun stuff. 

What's changed from last year? My best guess is latchkey, or after school care. I'm supervising one day per week until 5:30 (like last year), and a second day I supervise from 3:45-3:30 until the high school girl we hired can arrive. Somehow that extra forty five minutes pushes me back so much!

The other thought is my spelling due dates are all mixed around. Since my class went to Camp Omega, we switched which days spelling workbooks and tests are due. Now they're due at different times than the 7-8th graders, so I have papers to correct every night. Not too many, but just enough to make a difference. Thankfully, we'll be back in sync after MEA. 

One other thing... today after watching latchkey, I found this cute note on my desk... Pretty sure it's from a 7th grader...

Fire Safety Day

In the course of our fire drills the past three days, we've learned my class can get out of our classroom quickly in the event of a fire. And back in. 

Today was cold and windy, and they're not in the habit of bringing coats, so they all huddled together for warmth. When Mr. E gave the all-clear, we were the first group back inside. It was a good thing too because my phone was ringing. Normally, I let the phone ring since it's not usually for me, but I knew no one else was back in the building yet, so I answered. Turns out, it was the official fire alarm people! No one had let them know it was a test, and our fire chief wasn't answering, so they called the school to see if there was actually a fire! Oops! 

I put my kids to work and went to find Mr. E/the fire chief. I ran into our fire chief first. Turns out, our not calling was a test from him to them because last year the call didn't go through! He wanted to make sure that chain of command worked. Whew!

The rest of the day passed quickly. 5-6th graders prepped characters some more. 7-8th graders had the first science test of the year. A lot of them said they failed it... I thought they knew the content pretty good, but some of the things they asked me about while taking the test, yikes, maybe they did. 😧 Not sure if I'll have time to correct them tonight.

5-6th graders did double science/social today. We did MN history first and then STEM, making paper airplanes. The boys have been on an airplane kick, so I thought we'd put it to good use. How many pennies can your airplane hold? The goal was to have the plane fly 8ft with at least two pennies attached. We turned it into a personal challenge: can you add more pennies or adjust the coins' positions to make the plane go farther? We found that yes, the placement of the pennies can either help or harm the distance it can fly. That lab was a lot of their highs for the day. Most of the lows were that we didn't get an afternoon recess.

OMG LOL, Eh?

Latchkey kiddos are all girls today. They are all either playing school or playing with dolls. Two kinds of dolls are their toys of choice: OMG dolls and LOL dolls. I can't tell which is which, but one of them is the size of a barbie doll but with a much bigger head. The other is super tiny, like maybe an inch and a half tall. They all have cute clothes and shoes and accessories. Fun stuff. I think they might be content to play in the classroom the whole time! And here I was scratching my head, trying to come up with something for myself to do while they played outside. Most of my work today is computer work. 

I'm getting a student teacher in November, just for the afternoon science/social studies classes. Her schedule is pretty rigid, and the only day she can come check things out here before her clinical is this Thursday. Normally I have the class schedule mapped out so we can pick out lessons for the teacher to teach and I have a class roster/textbooks set out. I can do all that, but I'm not sure where we'll be with lessons. Hmm. I suppose that can wait. Maybe I'll map things out and tell her it's subject to change. We'll see what she's like when we meet on Thursday.

The best part of the day was our guest speaker from Canada. She's a student at MLC and was an EXCELLENT teacher. Her talk was very engaging with lots of interaction; she has a great personality. I had planned to have bells after she spoke for an hour, but we ended up going the whole hour. The 6th graders came down at normal bell time, so they got to catch the last half an hour. Poor 5th graders, they were bummed they missed out. Oh well. Maybe another time!

Free

Today is my only 'free' night this week. Somehow, events have popped up all the rest of the week after school. Funny how that happens. And 'free' is in quotations because I need to run errands tonight. But after that, I'll have the evening to myself. The question is, do I work on school stuff to try to get ahead? Or do I make dried apples like I've been waiting to do for weeks? Hmm... guess we'll see what time I get home from errands...

School was a much better day today than last Friday. The kids were pretty restless and chatty, but we held it together and did some learning. My favorite part of the day was our NaNo prep in Writers Workshop time. Today we brainstormed story ideas. I have two kids who struggle with creativity, so I worked with them one on one and I think we came up with a pretty good idea for each of them. The trouble will be keeping them excited for the rest of the month until they can write their story in November...

Long Day

Holy cow this week was long and today was even longer. Hardly any of my kids had their memory work ready. They were crabby. I was crabby (but I hid my mood better). This week I had two parent incidents to deal with. Not major, but stressful. Today, I had a student swearing incident at lunch. Lunch recess featured a fifth grader crying because he couldn't get his memory work AND he forgot his math book at home. At afternoon cleanup after recess, I had a kid-throwing-something-at-a-classmate-to-be-silly incident. On top of that, tons of people emailed me, needing me to do something, multiplying my to-do list with things that don't take long, except you have to have time to do them.

So. Kind of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day kind of day. But, as Alexander's mom tells him in the book, "Some days are like that." 

I do have most of the piddly things finished. Some things I'll try to get done this weekend. Some things I'm pushing off until Monday. I'd say it's time for me to pack up and go home!

Butterfly Pea Flower Tea

G and I found some unique tea in an Asian market. When brewed, it's a bright blue. We discovered it turns pink when lemon juice is added, telling me it's an acid-base indicator. Thursday, my kids and I made some in class since we're learning about acids and bases. We're hoping to make our own litmus paper from the tea. 

They drank a little (before I officially made it "lab stuff" ending the edibility of the tea... no eating or drinking EVER in labs) and I don't think anyone liked it. It's a very bland tea. Tastes like water with a hint of grass. But it looks super cool. 

The way it reacts reminds me of cabbage juice. If it truly reacts the same, acids turn it pink and bases turn it green. Time will tell!

Shuffling

Funniest part of the day... Read aloud with the 7-8th graders. They took Joe out of his tank because he was scratchy. He ended up in the reading corner with the rest of us and one of the 8th graders plopped a small pillow on top of him. Then the pillow began creeping slowly across the floor... 

It was hilarious. Slowly, it shuffled over to my foot. We thought Joe was stuck, but he turned around under the pillow and changed direction... Slowly it creeped the other way. It looked like one of those scenes in a movie where the character hides under something and shuffles around trying to remain undetected!

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. A few kids forgot things in their suitcases/at home, but not as many as past years. The 5-6th graders and I planned the Fall Carnival and started prepping for our NaNos today. I had a two hour staff meeting after school followed by a bunch of internet work (the internet at home isn't working otherwise I would've gone home way sooner).

But the highlight of the day was videochatting with the Fulda fam to say hello/happy birthday to my goddaughter. Added bonus: watch her eat cake and open presents! A great ending to a long day. 😊

Camp Day Two

Last night was probably the best night of sleep I've gotten at Camp Omega. My kids slept until 7:15! I had to wake them up! Apparently I slept through a bit of whispering and a sleepwalking boy, but I didn't hear anyone tossing and turning at night except me (and the sound carries like crazy in the cabin). 

G was a chaperone for me. He had a meeting Monday night and left after shooting off the rockets. He hadn't planned to come back, but I guess he could tell I really wanted him to, so he came back for breakfast and stayed for canoeing. He dropped off a little surprise for me in my car... A bouquet of flowers! 

Canoeing and archery were the main events of the day. No one got super wet or super crabby canoeing. Success! We saw a bald eagle on our paddle. My canoe had a small leak, so there was a bunch of water in the bottom at the end, but not enough to make my shoes soggy. Archery also went well. They kids wanted to Robin Hood an arrow (where a second arrow splits the first). Crazy rare, but my kids were sure they'd be able to do it. Nope. Not even close. They weren't super accurate either.   Just one made a bullseye. But they had fun. 

The coolest thing of the day was the 5th grader getting to climb the rock climbing wall pole to get to his rocket at the top. His rocket launch broke a Camp Omega record! They've had rockets hit the wall before, but none have ever stayed stuck on top! This student was too young to climb the wall, but since his dad chaperoned and gave permission, Bob (camp director) allowed it. 

We ended our time at camp with another delicious meal, a bit of read to self time outside, and one last round of gaga ball. 

Camp Omega

Day one has been a success! I think most of the kiddos have settled down and are hopefully falling asleep... 

We had a blast exploring camp, building fires and pop bottle rockets, shooting them off, hatchet throwing, and of course playing Gaga ball. 

My favorite part of the day was the night hike out to the peninsula (suggested by Bob to burn energy off). The campfire was also great. We all built it together. Bob met us there and we sang a ton of camp songs, I did devotions, and we all said our highs and lows. Not many lows today! 

Oh yeah, my low was forgetting to bring our read aloud book. ☹️ I planned to read before bed, so I had to find a replacement on the fly. I have the audiobook version, but they didn't like the voices, so I picked a book from the library's Libby app. Unfortunately, I forgot that the book I picked gets kind of violent. Maaaybe not the best bedtime story! 😅 Thankfully I caught it in time and I stopped before I gave anyone nightmares. 

Only one girl got homesick. We called her mom a bit ago and it seemed to help. Praying we make it through the night without any incidents!