Last Day as Miss H

This is my last day of school with my maiden name! Hard to believe it. 

Our last day of school in 2022 was also filled with curveballs... The weather forecast for the next three days includes a winter storm warning, blizzard warning, and wind chill warning. Fun fun. It's up in the air whether we'll have our Christmas program Friday and Saturday or not. Just in case, we still had practice.

We got the news at 8:45 that New Ulm was letting out at noon. That mixed up our whole morning schedule... We moved chapel an hour earlier as well as program practice and lunch. The all-school movie got cancelled and we had to open presents before chapel. 

My rule is all your homework has to be turned in before you can open your present. Getting out of school early killed that rule. They had no time to work on anything. Ugh. Most got their spelling done. Most did not finish their handwriting. We pushed off a bunch of assignments to be due in the new year. I had planned to correct all my papers during the movie. Guess I'll be spending the afternoon doing that. Bummer. 

Nicollet didn't call off school until the middle of program practice. Those kids are getting picked up at 1pm, so we're keeping an eye on them an extra hour. I have everything I didn't bring over to Mankato packed up in my car and I'm heading over there as soon as the last kid leaves. Right now it's snowing big fluffy flakes. No wind so far, but when it does come up, it's going to be yucky. 

T-1 or T-6?

I'm not sure which countdown I'm more looking forward to... the last day of school this week or my wedding day. 😜 Program practice today went well. I think we're ready. We'd be even better off with our practice tomorrow, but we'll be okay if not.

Update: I only had the top paragraph written by the time I left school. I had planned to finish writing it later last night, but I got thrown a few curveballs! My car has been leaking coolant very noticeably. I had planned to have someone check it out when they had time, but a few people came into school to tell my there was a puddle under my car. So G called a place for me to drop my car off after school. I only made it a few miles. My low coolant light came on, but the temperature stayed steady until all of a sudden lights flashed and my car said to pull over immediately. 

I couldn't tell if the engine was smoking or just venting steam in the -4 degree weather. So I popped my hood, planning to wait a while and then fill up the coolant. A friendly passerby offered to send her husband over to help. He came fairly quickly and we filled up the coolant. But it dripped out right away. My car wouldn't start either. So, I called the place I was going to have it fixed at, but they didn't have a tow service. The one they recommended had a one hour waiting list. G was my next call; he called Triple A who said they'd send someone between 4:30-6:30. So much for marriage counseling at 4pm. 

The Good Samaritan let me sit in his truck with him and his son and we had a nice chat waiting for G to arrive. G and I waited about an hour before we got a call from the tow service... they were in the wrong place. They told us we didn't need to wait at the car, so G and I went to my house for me to pack for the rest of this week. (With a blizzard in the forecast for the next few days, I wanted to make sure all my wedding stuff got to Mankato ahead of time. And then it wouldn't need to sit in a frigid car all day.) We got another call from the tow truck; their tow wasn't working. 

G and I went to Mankato to run last minute school/wedding errands and got another call from the tow service around 8pm that they were finally bringing my car to the shop. Whew! What a day! I drove G's car back to my house and that's what I've been driving today.

Christmas Crabbies

I haven't had too many crabby days this December... except today. My kids were pills, picking at each other, messing with stuff, muttering comments under their breath. Ugh. It drove me batty. 

Program practice didn't go as well as it did last week. I found out another storm is rolling in starting either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning lasting until Friday or Saturday. So, there's a chance for a snow day Wednesday which would cancel our last program practice and make us miss our class party. We don't have school Thursday and Friday, but our first program is Friday night. I wonder if that will be cancelled if it's bad enough... 

On a happier note, my wedding is just one week away! There's not too much on the to-do list yet. We have one more marriage counseling session tomorrow and we need to finalize our dance playlist and seating chart. Aside from that, just little things. I've been distracting myself with writing a marriage themed hymn verse for one of our songs... "By Faith" by the Gettys. Stay tuned! Just one week away! 😁

Stuck in My Head

I've been waking up singing Christmas program songs in my head... it's that time of year! After today's practice, we only have three more practices before our performance. 

Yesterday was a snow day. A well needed day. I feel much more rested after having a day at home to putter in the kitchen, sleep in, and go to bed early! Today was a two hour late start, so another day to sleep in... I should've checked my driveway sooner. It looked clear from my living room window, but when I went to leave, there was a drift in my way. Not a super tall one, but one that took about 15 minutes to shovel away. So I got to school later than I wanted to.

Yesterday was also supposed to be our first program practice at church. Both Mrs. E and I were nervous about the kids being ready with one less session, but really, they nailed it today! The parts sounded good. The songs sounded good. People weren't horsing around during rehearsal. All in all, a solid practice.

Christmas Christmas Christmas

My classroom looks like Christmas exploded. Well, that's how it feels anyway. My kiddos have been making parent presents this week, which means we've taken almost all the art supplies out of the closet and cupboards and turned the kids loose on them. While I've attempted to keep the art supplies contained, some areas just won't comply... the lab area for instance. So many things left out, partly because the students are going to work on them the next day and can't put them away. 

It's funny how a few kids just don't register how many messes they're making as they're working. It'll be close to lunchtime and I'll point out areas to tidy and everyone will say, "That's from [student]." How about over here? "That's [student's] mess too." I'll point out another place... Pretty soon he'll chime in, "Oh yeah, that's mine too." 

I think we're just about set for the Christmas program. Mr. E's class set up risers today; we'll set up bells tomorrow. I have the bulletin out for approval before I send it over to church for printing. The AV coordinator has the program to make her slides. We finalized the preservice music line-up. So, I just need to look over the seating chart and bring a few more things over to church. Woo!

In other news, my new fridge is working great! I like the way the door shelves are laid out in this fridge much better than my old one. Plenty of space for things. Now, I need to grocery shop to fill it back up... 

Extra Time

It's especially these dog days of December I wish I had a pause button. If I had a little more time, I could... sneak home before marriage counseling to put my food (currently in the garage) in my new fridge... pick up a present for my school secret santa (HC initials stand for Hot Chocolate, I think)... finally turn the apples I picked months ago into dried apples/apple sauce... correct papers... finish the Christmas program bulletin... read a book! But, I can only work with the time I have. So, I'll get done what I can!

After school, Mrs. E and I created a Christmas program seating chart. Boy, that is a tough one. Which kids can handle sitting next to which of their classmates? Which ones have to have an easy way out to pop down for solos? Which kids are going to have to maneuver around costumes? Another factor: we have 19 bible school kids coming for Friday's performance and three on Christmas Eve. Yes, that's correct. Just three. There's only so much room on the risers, so we're setting up a row of chairs in front for the first performance. Again, we do the best with what we have!

Slow Start

My day started out with fridge troubles, which then threw me off for the rest of the day. I noticed condensation on the ceiling of the fridge and it felt kind of warm in there, so I put a thermometer in. Within a few minutes it had climbed to 60 degrees. Great. Thankfully, not much in there was absolutely critical to keep cold, so I moved everything to the garage or the freezer. I am so thankful for that tiny freezer... I don't know what I'd be doing without it. I texted Habitat and they said they'd go to the appliance store today. Long story short, a fridge is being delivered tomorrow morning. A better quality one than my original with a warranty! So, all's well that ends well. 

Moving all the food took extra time, so I got to school later than I wanted to. I didn't have time to set out all the art supplies for making parent presents, nor did I remember that we had program practice right away in the morning. Thankfully, all that worked out and everything went fine, but boy was my head in a loop for most of the day! I hope I'm not getting sick... I had two kids out for the count today.

The second half of the day went better. Miss K, my student teacher, taught the 7-8th graders and helped set up the 5-6th lab. We went outside for recess even with the bracing wind, which helped me wake up a bit more. Now, on to the next thing! G and I are applying for our marriage license today after school. Just two weeks to go!

Snoofy

Lots of drippy, snoofy noses in class today. The 7-8th graders took a test with me and the room was completely silent save for the sniffles. 

Today was all sorts of messed up... We had a two hour late start for Nicollet, but it wasn't announced until 6:45am, which is very late. Since New Ulm was on time, I had to get to school pretty much at the usual time. It only snowed an inch or two, so my driveway wasn't too hard to shovel. G is coming over later and volunteered to shovel the rest, so I just scooped out two tire tracks in the driveway. 😆

Most of my kids arrived by 8:15. Two of mine are teacher's kids who show up when she shows up. Three ride the New Ulm bus. Two of my Nicollet bus riders were out sick. I told my class whenever the last student showed up, we'd start class. So they had about an hour and a half study hall. I worked on lesson plans for the next three weeks and got pretty far. 

It was a pretty quiet morning. A pretty quiet day overall, I should say. We started a new read-aloud book, one about a Christmas pageant that gets taken over by a family with the worst kids in the school (The Best Christmas Pageant Ever). It's a great book. We made it halfway or so and will definitely finish before Christmas break. Not sure if we'll start another book or if we'll read choose your own adventures or Encyclopedia Brown stories to tide us over...

On The Edge

I have a 6th grader whose voice is dropping. I've never had that happen before! It either happens over the summer after 6th grade or sometime while they're in 7-8th grade. He commented on it first and said he hates it, how his voice is cracking. 

Today was an emotion-filled day at ILS. Lots of tears and near blow-ups. Is it the full moon? Changing weather? Parents on vacation? Trouble at home? Maybe all of the above... 

A 6th grade boy and a 7th grade girl got into it after school over putting stuff away in the gym shed. They yelled at each other and hit each other. With cones, without cones. I don't know. All reported by various classmates. 

Then a 6th grade girl was in tears because she brought a colorful sports bra for the game and her jersey doesn't cover it up all the way. The other girls were making mean comments about it and she was afraid of what the boys would say. So she stayed in my room (the girls' 'locker room') for fifteen minutes trying to be brave enough to go out into the gym. I had some safety pins in my desk, so we pinned her up a little bit, which made it better. My one 5th grade girl, bless her heart, was such a help. She voiced a second opinion, "I think it looks fine now. No one will notice." And said she'd go with the basketball player out to the gym when she was too nervous to go by herself. Whew.

Glad we got that sorted out. And glad tomorrow is Friday!

STEM Time

It's been a long time since we did a STEM activity. Since I forgot to buy alternative colors of glue for our next science lab, I whipped together a STEM project. Today's topic was "how many times can you do this in a minute?" They estimated ahead of time, then timed each other. They loved it. There were a few things they had to do (write their name, jumping jacks, stand/sit in a chair, draw a square) plus one they could choose. A lot chose to run laps. It was a great physical activity too! I need to remember to pull this out again later this year...

Sickness has hit our school. Influenza A, B, and covid. My class has been doing pretty good. We haven't had anyone home sick; it's been concentrated in the younger grades. Except one stayed home today. Another boy was absent in the morning so he could sell steers with his dad. I remember those days... not getting to skip school to do them, but going with Dad on 'farm field trips'. 

Fort Builders

Today was a much better day. Everyone was much calmer and got along better, although there were still a few dustups. Very minor though.

Tuesdays and Thursdays we've been going outside for noon recess. We haven't been following that routine very long, and I have mixed feelings about the outside part because it usually takes me time into recess to eat my lunch. Thinking about that ahead of time, I started eating my lunch at my desk a little early so I wouldn't have to eat it outside in the cold. It worked! I had enough time to eat all my lunch inside! Not sure I'll be able to do that every Tuesday/Thursday, but maybe if I bring lunches smartly...

My kids have been on a fort building kick. They built their second one today and made it much more sturdy so they could keep it up all morning. It's in the reading corner and they love to sit in it during their Daily 5 rounds. 

In other news, my dishwasher is officially fixed. Hooray! My freezer is not, and Habitat said they are working on getting a replacement fridge for me. My car has been behaving itself so far this week. Let's hope the good news keeps up!

An Alexander Day

Not my favorite Monday of the school year... In fact, I would probably label it as a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, after the picture book. There were a few redeeming qualities, but overall, it was a rough one, folks. 

It started before the bell rang with a 5th grader taking a bite out of a cork stopper for some scientific vessel. Just because. So we had to have a conversation which ate up all my time for errands in the morning. We barely made it to program practice on time, making me further frazzled and grumpy. 

The same kid was playing games and chatting with classmates on the computer when he was supposed to be working, so I had to lay the hammer down again. Later I found out he sent swear words to a website "chat bot." Except it wasn't a robot; it was a real person on the other end.

Noon recess resulted in me eating my lunch on the bleachers again, watching kids play basketball, majorly foul each other, then get mad when I call them on it saying "you only ever see us! you never see the big kids foul! it's not fair! you're prejudice against us!" Ugh. 

Three kids in my class were on the verge of having meltdowns constantly through the day.

Class with the 7-8th graders was nice. They had a read-aloud workday and I started a new book with them, a continuation of the book we just finished but following a different character. I've never read it before. 

Afternoon recess was windy and chilly, but with my snowpants on, it wasn't too bad. Until my zipper got stuck. I tried working on it most of recess with little success. Thankfully, a pliers applied after recess inside worked and now the zipper is functioning. That was both my high and my low for the day. 😅

Stunt Man of ILS

The snow hill continues to grow taller... 

My kids have been having a blast at recess carving the snow into sledding channels for the most hair-raising rides. They use shovels to carve away bits and use sleds to transport gigantic snow clumps to add snow to better locations for making ramps. Then they use their feet to stomp drop offs into the snow. It's quite the operation. 

The smallest 5th grade boy always seems to be the first to test them. When I commented about that today, he said, "I guess I'm the official stunt man!" Once he got that idea in his head, he hammed it up. All serious, he asked a classmate, "Pass me my sled." They started to hand him one. He said, "No, orange. It's gotta be orange." 

Every time they try out a run, "Watch Miss H! We're making history!" Today, they wanted to film him. I didn't have my phone, but one of the 6th grade girls asked to grab hers. She likes making videos, so I said sure. The kids must've watched the video at least ten times. 

Speaking of videos, the music video script is making progress. At Christmas program practice this afternoon, our stunt man leaned over and whispered, "Our song is coming up!" Then later, "Should we tell them about our plan?" I said no, keep it a surprise. He loved that. His eyes lit up and he whispered back, "Boy they're not going to know what hit them!" We shared a secret eyebrow wiggle. 

It's so fun to watch them sing this song. It's called "O What a Glorious Night" by the Sidewalk Prophets. The kids clap and wiggle. Even my 5-6th graders dance, like actually moving their arms in dance moves from the heart, not making fun of someone. I love it.

Grand Plans

One of the Christmas program songs is super perky and catchy. It's definitely the clear favorite of the students. A 5th grader leaned over to me as practice wrapped up and whispered, "Man, I have such a good picture in my head of this. It's like a guy is in a dark room when the song starts, and then a spotlight gets on him, and then at the end of the song there's a ton of people singing with him. Wouldn't that be a cool video?"

I said yes. He asked if he could make a music video for the song. I said yes again. Who am I to stifle creativity? So he and a 6th grade computer nut are working on a script/screenplay now that their NaNos are done and all their classmates want in on it too. They asked me to be the director. The rest of the class agreed to act in it. If the momentum keeps going, we'll have a filming day at church. If it turns out really, really good, we might show it at church. I haven't officially agreed to that, but it might fly if they do a professional job of editing. 🤔 I have confidence in them!