Tough Start

Rough start to my morning... 

I brought home a bunch of papers to correct last night and only had a few of them finished. So I corrected the rest over breakfast this morning. Then I fell into the, "Just one more thing!" habit and left a few minutes later than I wanted to. Of course that was the day the key wasn't in the car in the garage. 

Back into the house I went. Maybe it was in G's backpack. It took a couple tries, but I located it and sped back to the garage. 

My drive to school is seven minutes on average. It can be down to five if I hit the lights right. Of course today I hit the lights wrong and it was closer to seven minutes. I got to school right at 7:30 (when teacher devotions begin). And that's when I realized I wore a different jacket to school than normal. So my fob to the school doors were at home. 

The school doesn't unlock until 7:45am on the dot. I went to the office door, thinking the secretary could buzz me in. She wasn't at her desk. No one else was in sight. I texted Mrs. L and asked her to let me in. Before she could respond, one of the pastors saw me and let me in. Whew! 

I sped to my classroom thinking if I walked quickly, I could make it in time for at least part of the devotions... My classroom door was locked. I still don't have a key for it, so I'm at the mercy of others. Giving up, I dumped my stuff at the door, whipped off my coat, and went down to devotions. 

After that my day was much calmer. A different aid let me into my room, and I had a few moments to gather myself before the kids came in. I had brought a new bunch of graphic novels and book requests from my home library to school. We created a mini Mrs. H lending library in the corner of the classroom (a crate on its side on top of the paper holder). The kids LOVE going over to look through the books. Unfortunately, they now think I have any book they might possibly want to read. I told them I brought so many to tide them over until I get back in two weeks. 

They were glad I was coming back. The other class of 5th graders had some fun parting words for me: "Bring me back a souvenir!" one girl commented. Another said, "Don't touch any cacti!" 

My day ended by finishing our class read-aloud book and starting the next one. It's another short book I hope to finish in the month before Mrs. M comes back (she is hopeful about coming back after Easter/Spring Break the beginning of April). 

After the kids left, Mrs. L and I went over classroom stuff to prepare her for taking over for two weeks. Boy, that's a lot for a brain to handle. Making sure my stuff is wrapped up, leaving stuff for her to pick up where I left off, trying to think of everything that might go wrong or that she would need to know NOW just in case I'm not available to answer her questions in the moment... I'm sure it will be fine. My "be prepared" nature is just coming to light.

It was a quick turnaround after school. We worked until shortly before 4pm, I dashed off to a quick chiropractor appointment, hustled back to school for more instructions, then headed home around 5pm so G and I could go to a friend's "new job launch party" in New Ulm. After an hour we drove back to Mankato to catch the second half of an MSU hockey game (a different friend gave G free tickets). Whew! Fun night, just a lot to orchestrate. 

Now to rest up/finish up loose ends before we head to AZ on Monday!

Missing Pieces

My brain got stretched to the max today. 

I'm prepping as much as I can for Mrs. L next week. She is teaching for me for the two weeks I'm gone in AZ. That involves showing her where everything is, teaching her how to access the documents on the computer, and planning ahead for future lessons/tests/study materials. We are still figuring out who will do the parent communication. Crafting the weekly notes Mrs. M does takes some computer finesse and that's not her strong suit. I stayed late after school getting four weekly notes ready ahead of time (the one for this week, the two for the weeks I'm gone, and the one for the week I come back to teaching).

Also on my mind are the students who will be gone in the next few weeks. I thought everyone would be around, but now there are at least three students who will be gone for up to a week! Yikes! That's a lot to keep track of...

Then there's packing for our trip, tidying the house after our remodel wrap up, cleaning the house, doing the dishes, laundry, cooking. G has been picking up where my "homesteading" duties have slacked with my teaching gig. This morning he packed my lunch for me and he cooked supper the past two nights (a layered squash, kale, cabbage, corn, beef ensemble and tonight a potato hash with spinach and taco meat). We make a good team.

It's hard to believe in a few days all those stressors will have been dealt with (or postponed to later because we ran out of time 😅)!

Worshipful Wednesday

I love chapel days at Mt. Olive. They use the same singing liturgy each service (one my church doesn't use, but I know from growing up at my parents' church). It warms my heart every Wednesday. 

The 7-8th graders are gone for the day on a field trip, so we have some adjustments to make in our schedule. First, the 5th graders needed to be buddies with the kindergarteners. We left our classroom shortly after 8am to pick them up, met a traffic jam of other classes in the hallway, and then discovered the other class of 5th graders had beat us to the room, so there were only ten kindergarteners to match up with my class of 18. My kids had been super excited to be be buddies with them, so I was bummed not all of them got partners. 

The other big change was that we ate lunch in our classrooms today instead of the fellowship hall. The 7-8th graders set up and take down the tables and since they weren't around, that was our solution. I was a mean teacher and made them sit in their desks instead of being able to sit by friends. My reasoning: much cleaner if they weren't sharing desks with others plus the friendship drama might get stirred up again if the girls were allowed to comingle. The 5th graders wanted to watch a movie during lunch. Mean teacher strikes again... I said no. I put on a youtube playlist called "lunch music" which was basically jazz. None of them liked the music and wanted it off. 

They ended up going back to their first grade days playing "raise your hand if you...". They turned it into a game and went up and down the rows one at a time asking a question. 

"Raise your hand if you think dogs are the best pets." 

"Raise your hand if you like long hair."

"Wait... on yourself or on other people?"

"Uh..."

"Raise your hand if you like dogs better than cats."

"You did that one already!"

"No, I said if they are the best pets."

"Raise your hand if you like pizza."

And so it went. It was pretty interesting to see what they came up with, both questions and answers. 

I've been bringing a few books from home to school for my nonreaders. Today I brought five more books and four of the five got snatched up. I wrote a "book request" space on the board to help me tailor my offerings. The list for books about: dragons, the Civil War, survival, babysitters club, you choose books, and graphic novels. Now I need to peruse my shelves!

Our church counsel Lenten chili cookoff was a hit. I made labels for each item with G's direction: Bill's mom's chili recipe won first place by a landslide. Pastor's (definitely NOT made by his wife) white chicken chili got second. G's (stolen recipe from his mom) noodle-infused chili (don't knock it until you try it) got third, and Greg's vegetarian (google AI generated) recipe got fourth. Honorable mentions with one vote each were the garlic bread (bought from Walmart) and the chocolate chip chunk cookies (made by me). People loved trying a little bit of each kind so they could vote responsibly. 

My lemon bars turned out strange. I think I didn't put enough flour in the crust. It ended up floating to the top of the lemon mixture, so when I took them out of the pan, they had to be flipped upside down. A few turned out the right way, so their sign read "upside down or right side up lemon bars". Even though they were deconstructed a bit, they were also a hit. 

After church, I sent eggs home with our future goat watcher who will do chores for us in a couple weeks. We got sidetracked talking about tapping maple trees. He got all of his stuff for it off Amazon and encouraged me to try tapping a few of our trees. It's a 10:1 for getting syrup. So you tap 100 gallons of maple sap to make 10 gallons of maple syrup. You can store the sap in food grade garbage cans, then boil it all at once when you've built up a supply. He showed me a cool outdoor boiling station made from cement cinder blocks and stainless steel roasting trays (like they use in catering). You make a little hut with the trays on top, a chimney on the end, and space for a fire underneath. Yep. I definitely want to try that someday. Probably better not start that now when I'm teaching full-time and we're going to Arizona in less than a week...

Draggin'

Holy buckets, I was dragging today. First, I stayed up too late last night with G cooking/baking. The church council is doing the Lenten meal tomorrow night; they're having a chili cookoff. G made two recipes: his mom's usual Christmas Eve chili recipe and his brother's artificial intelligence generated vegan chili recipe (G's brother is not a cook, so he used the Google chatbot to make him a recipe. It actually turned out pretty good.). Pastor's wife is making a white chicken chili, and the other council member is making a traditional tomato-based chili. G had me bake desserts: chocolate chip cookies (a double batch) and two batches of lemon bars. I'm still getting used to this oven, so the bakes didn't turn out as consistently as I would've liked. They'll still taste good though. G has a plan to sort the cookies based on doneness so it's easier for people to pick out the kind they like. His dedication to excellence knows no bounds! 😁

All that being said, we went to bed much later than we wanted to. 

The kids were dragging too, although their mouths weren't. Very chatty all day. 

In PE we started a lawn games unit. Today's activity was bean bags, aka cornhole. The school had two sets and a few parents brought in theirs from home so we had enough to go around. I was satisfied with the lesson. We'll do bean bags for at least one other day, then ladder ball, then spike ball. Maybe bocce ball once the weather gets nicer and we can be outside. 

Another win today was silent reading time. A handful of kids had struggled to find a book to read last week, sitting at their desks hoping I wouldn't notice them not reading... Well, I emailed each of their parents a list of books I thought they might enjoy (encouraging them to visit the public library) and today I brought a few books from my home library hoping they would get hooked. Most of the non-readers either brought books from home or picked one from my stack! The only downside is that I need a new stack of books to bring tomorrow...

Daisy Award

No school on Monday. G and I had planned to hang out at the farm all day helping Dad clean up Shady Acres, but that was not to be. 

I got word last Thursday that a nurse I had nominated for an award had been selected for the award! Months ago, on one of my follow-up visits to the hospital after Bekhor was born, I saw a poster for the Daisy Award, given to nurses/staff who go above and beyond the call of duty as a nurse. The main nurse who had helped me when Bekhor fit that description and I wanted to recognize her for it. So I had filled out the application and kind of forgot about it. 

A nominating committee member had left me a voicemail letting me know Becca had been selected. Tears instantly began pouring. G thought something was seriously wrong when he saw me. 

"No, it's nothing bad!" 

"Then why are you crying?"

"I think these are happy tears?" Definitely a blend of emotions. 

We found out the award is given quarterly to three individuals (one nurse, one supervisor, one educator) across about 3,000 hospitals in the region. Typically there are around 50 nominees. The ones selected are usually ones where the nominator was able to be specific about things the nurse did that went above and beyond. G and I got thanked over and over again for submitting our nomination and being willing to share our story. They wanted me to read the story I had submitted (the one that won her the award). I was sure I would be crying too much to do it, but I was willing to try. 

The awards are a surprise, so we had to keep it a secret until Monday morning. We met at the hospital a little before 9am and then went up to floor 5 to surprise her. Five Mayo Clinic leadership team members who comprise the Daisy award selection committee came with us. We waited down the hall, trying to be unobtrusive and unnoticeable while they gathered as many nurses on the floor as they could. I saw our nurse and immediately turned my head the other way, not sure if she would recognize me or not. I heard her talking to the other nurses, "Uh-oh, someone is in trouble!" (she was joking) "...who do you think it is?" (I think by that point they had all realized someone on their floor was receiving the award).

The leaders came forward to announce that someone was being awarded the Daisy award and it was... Becca! She was so shocked. No idea it would be she who won. I stepped forward as the one who had nominated her and she immediately grabbed me for a hug. "I never thought I'd see you again!" she said through tears. "How are you guys doing? I think about you and Bekhor every day. I pray for you [and Galen] every day." More thank-yous for the nomination. And an, "I wish I could've done more." Again, this lady is so very worthy of the nomination and selection.

Then it was time to read my story. Here's what I had submitted: Becca went above and beyond the call of duty as a nurse when I gave birth to my 16-week-old son in her delivery room. I had come into the ER after my water broke unexpectedly, and my husband and I got sent up to the Labor Delivery floor knowing that our baby would not live long after birth or might be born dead. We had planned to use a midwife for the birth, so this was the first time we had met any of the people on staff here. Becca was so kind. She knew we were in a difficult situation and made sure my husband and I were both as comfortable as possible. She explained things clearly and with detail, so I always knew what was going on and why we were doing them. When my hair came out of its bun, she braided it for me. She made sure not only I had snacks, but my husband and pastor as well. When we prayed, she stopped what she was doing (either to show respect for our beliefs or to pray with us, she didn't say, but we appreciated it). When my son was born, she had the other nurses wait a few extra minutes before clamping the cord, which allowed him to live a full eight minutes... long enough to be baptized and for his grandparents to meet him before he died. All this is on top of her competent nursing care expected and given at Mayo. Thank you, Becca, for everything!

I made it through with fewer tears than I thought! 

In addition to a copy of my story, she received a hand-carved sculpture from Africa, reimbursement for continuing education classes, a bouquet of daisies, sweet rolls for the whole floor, and more things I'm forgetting. It's a pretty awesome award.

We took pictures after that and she whispered to me, "I should've washed my hair today." Proof she had no idea it was coming. I love it. 

There is a video of the surprise and presentation. If you are interested in seeing it, let me know and I'll send it to you. :)

No School, But Kind Of

No school for Mt. Olive today, but I am still teaching. I had a previous obligation to the Christian high school in town, so I showed up bright and early to get myself acclimated to another new classroom.

This one was an English classroom. I was supposed to teach yesterday too, but they found someone else so I could teach at Mt. Olive. Today I taught two classes. I'm already done for the day! They use a block schedule and have about 20 kids in the whole school, so there aren't many classes to teach.

It went pretty well. The teacher left projects for the students to work on, so I was able to get some 'book keeping' tasks accomplished as I supervised. 

Now I'm off to the garden center to hang out for the rest of the day; I'm getting some plant therapy, haha. G said they're in the midst of seeding plants and need extra hands. Tonight we're going to a multi-day virtual trivia challenge at a friend's house in Vernon Center. G works tomorrow and I'll probably go back for more trivia during the day. We're heading to Fulda after he's finished with work to enjoy the rest of the long weekend... no school for Mt. Olive Monday either!

Blue and White Day

Blue and White Day. I've been used to blue and gold, so my typical outfit needed an adjustment. Today I wore jeans, a white tank top, and a blue sweater. Simple but elegant.

We had a normal morning followed by an out-of-the-ordinary afternoon. Well, I thought it would be normal. Only two kids were ready for their memory work hymn quiz. Also, I couldn't find the printed out copies. Next week's quiz is "Jesus Loves Me", so I decided to swap them. We did "Jesus Loves Me" on the fly and saved "Dear Christians One and All Rejoice" for next week.

I was supposed to do PE with Mr. N's class, but there were signs on the gym doors saying the gym was off-limits because it was set up for the afternoon's pep fest. Hmm. Okay. Plan B? Could we use part of the gym for our parachute game? No. Instruments everywhere. I let the class vote on playing games in the classroom or going outside for recess. Outdoor recess won. It snowed a few inches yesterday, so we actually had snow for once! 

In the afternoon, I mixed up the schedule to maximize our time. We did devotions and practiced our hymn for next week, then wrapped up a few questions of Social Studies we hadn't gotten to earlier in the week. Mr. N's class is a little behind then, but they're usually quicker to finish things, so I'm sure I can get them caught up next week. Cheerleaders had to get ready at 1pm, band members at 1:15, pep fest at 1:30. I had one cheerleader and two band members. So for the rest of the class...

I gave them time to finish their optical illusion art project, work on handwriting, or play a game called Whatchamadrawit. The kids who played LOVED it and asked me to leave it at school so they could play next week. It has cards that give drawing prompts (they used their whiteboards) such as a pig riding a bike with an ice cream cone, or a frog riding on an airplane. Silly things that are challenging but fun to draw.

The pep fest was okay. I like Immanuel's better. We had each class do a cheer and then the players played some games on the court. Today's had no games and no class cheers; the cheer squad led the cheers. There were some really neat parts, like the band playing the Star Spangled Banner along with a few pep band cheer songs. The cheerleaders were also great. They had a floor routine with gymnastic tricks and small pyramids. Very impressive. 

They led the school in rousing cheers too. Two particularly rowdy cheers: one side says "We've got spirit, yes we do, we've got spirit, how about you?" and the other side says the same thing. The only problem is, no one knew when to quit, so they kept doing it over and over for about five minutes. The cheer coach tried to step in and get them to stop, but they didn't pay attention. Neither did the crowd. Finally she got the cheerleaders to wave their pompoms and run to the other side of the gym so they could usher the basketball players in. 

The second was the "who can be the loudest?" cheer, also known as the battle cry cheer. Class by class, the cheerleaders ask to hear their battle cry. Mr. Z uses a decibel tracker on his phone to see who the loudest is. One of the kids said it was rigged, the 8th graders always win (confirmed by the principal), but this year (maybe because of that conversation), the 5th graders won. It wasn't announced very well.

I also expected them to announce winners of the door decorating or which class dressed up the most during the week (we had to keep track of numbers). Nope. All he said was 90% of students dressed up the whole week. That's still an impressive number!

Impersonation Day

I dressed like Rosie the Riveter today (red bandana, Grandpa's old blue coveralls, brown boots). I was surprised a few kids actually knew who I was! Some didn't know the name, but recognized the character. A few girls dressed as boys (and impersonated their brothers). A few teachers all dressed alike. One teacher dressed like his dad and wore socks with sandals. Some kids impersonated characters. Very creative!

The morning began with Pastries with Parents in the gym before school. Basically everyone (parents) comes to have donuts and fruit in the gym with their kids. Teachers are expected to make an appearance, so I popped in and wandered until I found the teacher table. The line was super long to get food, so I just drank my tea and chatted. 

We exchanged Valentine's treats at snack time. I was pleasantly surprised that a few kids brought me special valentines. One brought a huge solid chocolate kiss, another gave me a chocolate rose, another gave me a gift bag that feels heavy (haven't looked in it yet), and then a bunch of random candy. The funniest thing was a nose pencil sharpener with a card that says, "I'll always pick you Valentine." Hilarious.

Parachutes for PE again. Mrs. M's class likes to complain, but they actually did pretty well with today's game. We played a game where everyone uses the parachute to launch a ball at targets on the gym floor. To lower the complaining, I let them earn class points for every target they hit. It turned into a cooperative learning game... they had to work together to get the ball to even get off the parachute! Then they tried to aim it! They earned five points. I'm curious how many the other class will earn. My guess is more than five; they seem to be better at working together.

Mrs. M and her husband came to talk to the class after lunch recess. The kids were so excited, they all immediately gave her a hug. She thought she was going to cry, but she did really well and was able to answer all their questions, show them pictures, and even showed a few videos while keeping it together. I had told the class not to ask her when she would be coming back, but when she didn't hear the question, at the very end she said, "Is someone going to ask the question I'm sure you're all wondering about?" The whole class looked at me, nonverbally asking me permission. I said yes. Mrs. M's answer, "I'm not sure when I'll be coming back. I might seem like I'm doing fine now, but grief is a process. Some days are better than others. And right now I'm having more bad days than good days. So, I'd like to wait to come back to school until I'm having more good days consistently. That might be in two weeks, or maybe a month. I don't know." Her answer seemed to satisfy the class.

We went straight from the talk into the Valentine's Day party. It was completely chaotic. I was going to say "a bit chaotic", but Valentine's Day is sugary enough I won't sugarcoat it more. Mr. N's class came to our room. We moved all the desks out of the way (although we could've left them in place). Parents sent snacks to school (cheese and crackers, veggies and dip, fruit kebabs, popcorn, juice pouches) and another parent led BINGO and cookie decorating. I thought we might need more filler, like a movie or extra recess outside, but the kids enjoyed BINGO until the end of the school day. We cleaned up and then I sent them home. Whew! I am pooped.

Tonight's agenda: Ash Wednesday service and a Lenten meal beforehand. 

The best exciting news of the day is that the buyers' closing this morning went off without a hitch! G and I are officially down to just one mortgage! Since it happened in New Ulm, the lawyer's office has to bring the check to Mankato for us, which won't happen until tomorrow. So, we wait one more day to get the funds from the sale in the bank. Praise the Lord for getting us through this process smoothly!

Blast From the Past Day

I wore my 70s era dollar bag day dress to school today with leggings and a sweater. It's orange, brown, and green floral. All but three of my students dressed up today too. Lots of side ponytails, neon colors, a few Michael Jordan jerseys, one windbreaker, and a few kids who went waaaay in the past and dressed up like Jesus and his disciples. Creative!

Our special activity today was zoom pictionary. The 8th graders took turns drawing on their class whiteboard in their classroom, the screen shared with us by their teacher. The rest of us tried to guess what they drew while sitting in our own desks in our own classrooms. The 8th graders were pretty good drawers! Most of the kids got 15 or more out of 19 correct!

The other big news of the day is, G and I are signing the papers to sell my house! So, I need to dash off to meet him before the office closes. The buyers are signing papers tomorrow morning, so that is the official date of the house closing. Whew! It will be a huge relief to get those papers signed!

Comfy Day

It's Mt. Olive Week, and with that come dress up days and special activities. Today I wore my comfy lounge pants/pj pants and a "Catch a Keeper at Your Library" shirt. 

Our morning was normal, but starting at 1pm, the parents take over our classrooms for an in-house snow day. Teachers can leave, students stay and play games. I'm not sure what they're all doing, but hide and seek with the principal, gym time, cookie decorating, and movie time are on the agenda. 

I thought I'd get to leave at 1pm too, but I have a meeting with the MLC graduate who will probably be taking over the classroom. We're all still hopeful Mrs. M will come back soon, but in case not, we need a backup plan since I leave for Arizona February 26th. Hopefully it will be a short meeting and I can head home early!

One funny thing before signing off... a student in the other classroom got a haircut over the weekend. I hardly recognized him! Other kids didn't either. In the lunchroom, I heard a kid from a different grade say, "Hey! Another new kid! Oh wait, that's just [this student]." 

Friday

I am so thankful it's Friday. Everyone needs to go home, get off each others' nerves, and rest/heal up. 

The social studies test went okay. A bunch of kids only got one or two questions wrong, but because there weren't a lot of questions, they got an A-. Just a few didn't do too great. A few more kids were out sick, so they'll need to test on Monday. 

It was another rambunctious day in 5th grade. We had to finish decorating our classroom door for Mt. Olive Week festivities next week and we made Valentine's Day boxes. A parent donated all the supplies to make them, so that was our art project for the week. Nice. Our floor is now littered with glitter stickers and sticker backs and plastic sleeves from stickers. The boxes are all on top of their lockers for the time being, so at least they aren't cluttering the classroom. 

Another interesting development in the friendship saga: the girl being left out (S#1) told a different classmate (S#2) that she (S#2) couldn't be friends with the group that was picking on her (S#1). I found out because one of the group of pickers wrote me a note. And she only found out because S#2 told her. Ugh! Girls! Keep your mouths shut! I had a chance to pull S#2 aside today and talked to her about gossip, spreading information that doesn't need to be spread, and the wisdom of letting information stop at you. Hopefully it sunk in. She definitely passed on information that didn't need to be shared. S#1 has been home sick since Wednesday, so we haven't had any new developments besides this. We also haven't been able to see if any progress is being made among the girls. We shall see!

House update: There has been huge progress made at our house! I think just one more day and we will be COMPLETELY finished! The last of the tile was grouted, the plumber installed the sink faucet, and the bathroom mirror was installed. Now G and I just need to paint and hang pictures... 

In other news, this weekend we're getting together for supper with relatives from the Cities passing through on their way to Fulda. I'm celebrating February birthdays with two close college friends (their birthdays are exactly one week apart!), and G and I are hosting a Superbowl party for his high school friends. Good incentive to get the house clean. 😉

Kahoot

Social studies test Friday= Kahoot game to study. Each class had enough times to do it twice, although the second round had to be quick or we'd run out of time. It was my first experience doing a Kahoot with more than 10 people in person. Very fun and very rowdy. 

I sent a link to the Kahoot via email to their parents so they could study at home if they wanted. They did. I got a message from a parent later that night saying she couldn't get in to the Kahoot. Apparently they have a 40 person limit and we had reached it. Whoa! I sent a second link out hoping that would fix the problem.

Dropping Like Flies

Even though the weather has been absolutely glorious, sickness is still rampant. One student was absent for a second day in a row, and then two other students went home early because their stomachs hurt. Take your vitamins people! Me too.

We played with parachutes for PE, specifically the shark game. All the students sit on the floor with their legs under the parachute. Two classmates hide underneath and tug students under. When they are under, they become sharks too. Two classmates race around the circle as lifeguards trying to save their classmates when the sharks are tugging. The sharks win almost every time. Mrs. M's class was not as thrilled about playing as Mr. N's class was. In fact, there were some complainers! I remember parachute gym day was the best day ever. My how kids have changed.

It's quite interesting to analyze the dynamics between the two groups of students. Mrs. M's class are chattier, there's more of them, and they like to have free time to work or talk. Mr. N's class is usually more focused and they ask me to do extra read-aloud. In fact, tomorrow we will likely finish the book I started with them my first day at Mt. Olive. I already have a second book picked out.

Sorry

After yesterday's lunch fiasco, there were a bunch of apologies made. One girl brought me a mint tea from Starbucks and an apology note. It was very well-written:

"Dear Mrs. H, I'm so sorry for all the drama that is happening. We should not have given her a mushy banana! It wasn't the right thing to do. I'm sorry that you had to come into all of this. You have been my favorite sub ever! I love all the voices you do! Thank you so much for being an awesome sub!! I'm sorry for everything! Love, [the student]." I wrote her a note accepting her apology, forgiving her, and thanking her for the tea. (Earlier in the week she had asked me if I liked coffee. She was so surprised when I said no! Then she asked my favorite tea. I thought it was maybe for a Valentine or something. Maybe it was but the information got used sooner, haha.)

The group of four met with me at morning break (their request) so they could share their side of things. More of the same they've been saying. Also, complaining how a different teacher interacts with them. We talked through everything as best we could with our limited time. I assured them that if they weren't doing anything wrong, they wouldn't be able to get in trouble. Common sense right? Hopefully that sunk in.

Chatty Monday

Oof, the kids were pretty chatty today. In my experience, Mondays tend to be that way. But today felt a little extra. Maybe the weather is changing? Probably not. The forecast says mid-40s all week.

The girl drama continues to be a rollercoaster. I thought the day had been going fairly well, and then lunch happened. The other 5th grade teacher caught the group of four sending a male classmate to give their target a squished banana wrapped in a napkin. We can't make this up, folks! The principal had a chat with the ladies, I sent an email to parents, and hopefully things will be better after this. 

Some good news: I'll be teaching at Mt. Olive for another two weeks (up until G and I leave for Arizona to visit his parents there). The teacher I'm covering for had emailed the principal saying she wasn't sure when she'd be ready to come back, so I'm continuing my teaching to buy the school a bit more time. Maybe she'll be ready by the time I need to leave. That's what we're all hoping, I think.

For PE today we did jump roping again. A fairly large proportion of the class does not enjoy the jump ropes. Well tough. We all have to do things we don't like. We did our normal 'would you rather' warmups, did individual jumping challenges... "Mrs. H, can I jump and do the 'gritty'?" (that's an endzone football victory dance, and yes, he did indeed do it while jump roping)... then group long jump rope jumping. We ended with the helicopter game... That was a big hit. One person spins around in a circle holding a jump rope close to the ground and classmates need to jump over the spinning rope. If it hits them, they're out. Last man standing wins. 

The other class of 5th graders has a new student. He seems to be fitting in well. Doesn't seem like he's a super strong student. I'm basing that off one class period; he didn't jump right in to doing his English worksheet right away. Mt. Olive uses Shurley English, which is a pretty intense curriculum in grammar and diagramming sentences. I am barely figuring it out (thankfully the teacher manual is very detailed and easy to use), so I'm not sure how to teach this kid what to do. Maybe he'll just pick up on it? We have a test tomorrow. I'll probably need to be creative in how I grade it.

House update: the closing on my house in Nicollet is in just over a week! We have it scheduled for 9am on Valentine's Day. Since I'll be teaching, I'll have to go over the day before to sign the papers. G wants to have a welcome basket left at the house for the couple buying it from us. Good thought. We can drop that off on our way to sign papers. It will be such a relief to have that process behind us!

Donut Forget It's Friday Today

We made it through the week! Whew! Today was a much better day than yesterday. The kids seemed back to normal and we caught up on a few things from yesterday. 

I squeezed in a handwriting assignment after their math tests. Two kids who go to 6th grade for math were not happy that they had to do a math assignment AND a handwriting page. One kid used a homework pass on it. Works for me!

Lots of kids requested ice packs today... I forgot to mention yesterday that in addition to all the fuss, two girls smashed heads together at recess and one got a bad bloody nose. It dripped all over her pants and shoes, so she had to wear her basketball shorts until her mom could zip home over lunch to get a replacement pair. Today, she got an ice pack a few times. Another girl has a possible wrist fracture from basketball. Another girl fell on some rocks at recess and has a sore rear end. Thank goodness it's Friday.

Plans are in the works for the Valentine's party next week. A mom is brainstorming over the weekend and she will connect with us on Monday about her ideas. Another mom volunteered to find me help to decorate the classroom door for Mt. Olive Week. The theme is "We Love Our School!" I found some ideas online and the class voted between four. We settled on making a tree with all sorts of leaves in lots of colors. The leaves can have people's names written on them, blessings, things we like about Mt. Olive, etc. Helpers are going to put the backdrop and the tree trunk up and we'll take care of the leaves and words. Nice.

Another nice thing... one of the girls brought me a donut as a thank you for yesterday. Valentine pink with lots of sprinkles. So sweet literally and figuratively. 😊

A Watery Day

Uffdah. Today was a tough one. 

Last night at about 10pm, I got an email from the Mt. Olive principal that the little baby we've been praying for (daughter to the teacher I'm subbing for) had died that morning. Not unexpected; terribly sad nonetheless. It never occurred to me to think about how the classroom would function with that news. I should've thought about that more.

The tears began at the staff devotion before school. It was a timely devotion about grief, loss, and the joy of heaven. The kleenex box got passed down the line. We talked about how to break the news to the students. Many of their parents are friends with Mrs. M, so they would've seen her post. No one wanted the kids without connections to be finding out in the hallway. The principal decided we'd have an all-school assembly to share the news at 8:20. That would give us a bit of time in our classrooms to get everyone situated for the day. Most of us left in silence, dabbing away tears.

A few people came up to me afterwards, gave me a hug, and asked how I was doing with this situation/news. They knew about Bekhor. More tears. 

A few minutes later the students arrived. One boy already had red, puffy eyes. His classmate noticed and immediately worried, "What's wrong? Are you okay?" No response from the student who just put his head on his desk. "Mrs. H, there's something wrong with [the student]!" He was genuinely worried about his friend. I told him that it was okay and I knew what he was crying about; he would find out soon. A few others asked me, "Mrs. H, do you know?" 

We had about twenty minutes of religion. I debated telling the class before we went in to church, but decided not to. I did tell them they might want to grab a kleenex because we were about to hear some sad news. I think a lot of them figured it out then. A few were still in the dark. The chapel/devotion service was nice. We sang two hymns: one that was very comforting but almost made me cry, the other was "Jesus Loves Me" but with more verses than I'm familiar with. The principal gave a devotion. 

After my class got back to our room, we just kind of sat there. Some of them stunned. Some of them bawling. Some of them feeling normal, but weirded out by their classmates having such strong reactions. I admitted I didn't feel like finishing the religion lesson. They said they didn't either. We decided to sit in our sadness for a while. I read a psalm and then let everyone congregate and cry or talk. One girl requested that one of their pastors come talk with her/us. Another started to sing a hymn. I saw a few open up their bibles to read some more. A few flipped through their hymnals. 

It was very interesting to watch each of them experience their grief. One boy was mad. He was so mad, he hit himself in the forehead with his bible over and over again. Later, he tried to pull his hair out in his anger and frustration. Why did she have to die? He also was hit by the fact that he hadn't gotten baptized until he was four. What if she hadn't been baptized? Thankfully, I could answer that question. She had definitely been baptized. That seemed to help a bit.

Another student tried to make jokes (I sensed he was uncomfortable). A few others seemed normal and wanted to get back to doing our regular schedule. A bunch of them didn't have any reaction besides being quiet. A whole bunch couldn't stop sobbing. Thankfully the pastor arrived soon (actually a guy I went to BLC with back in the day). It was his day off (the pastor on duty hadn't made it back to town yet), but he was happy to come in and counsel. We all sat on the floor in the tiny reading corner, even pastor. He was there for about 45 minutes. 

During that time we made a giant pile of kleenex on the floor, they cried until tears wouldn't come anymore (thankfully I thought to make them drink some water), and they asked if they could go home. Uhhhh... no? The principal answered that firmly. "What are you going to be doing at home? Crying? By yourself? It's much better to be here where you can be surrounded by friends." He and I agreed a light academic day might be best. I think if they were forced to take their math test, they'd all probably bomb it. 

I could not keep them in the room with me. They kept needing to go to the bathroom or fill their water bottles. Really, I wondered if they were trying to congregate out in the hall where they could speak privately or to kids in other classrooms. Two boys came up to me concerned where their friend had gone. They were sure he hadn't been in the classroom for at least a half an hour. Two others had gone to look for him without telling me. I was a bit concerned until someone mentioned that kid had a band lesson on Thursday. They didn't believe me that that was probably where he was. The missing kids came back with a report that this one was actually at his band lesson.

Finally it was time for mid-morning break. I let them get their snack early (eating seemed to calm them) and go out to break early as well. Hopefully recess would be a good reset. Mr. N (the other 5th grade teacher who was having a much calmer, drier day) convened with me to make a plan for our class swapping schedule. 

Class with his kids was so much calmer. I didn't want them to get ahead of the other class, so we shared the stories we had written last week and I did some extra read-aloud time. Jump roping was our PE theme today. I wore my hair in a braid again since my bun didn't stay in last time. The braid didn't stay in very well today either.

Finally lunchtime and noon recess. Again, I didn't get much of a break because Mr. N and I discussed how the morning went and the plan for the afternoon. He said my class had calmed down a lot when they came back in, and they might be able to do some academic work in the afternoon. Hmm, I had already promised them a movie and I knew I'd have a revolt on my hands if I didn't deliver. 

Unfortunately, the movie I told them we would watch (a suggestion made by the principal, Inside Out, a movie they were all excited to watch) was not accessible. I had hoped Mrs. M had her login saved on her laptop. Nope. The principal's login was the backup. No response from him right away, so I got the kids started on making sympathy cards for Mrs. M while we waited. We listened to some Christian music, looked up bible verses on grief, and drew some really great pictures in the cards. Very calm worktime, aside from a few students clambering for the movie to be put on. 

I tried really hard to find the movie on youtube. No luck. Or an alternative movie. They complained about everything and I threatened to shut the movie off completely. On a last resort I texted my sister for her login... she got it to me and I was able to get the movie started! Whew! ...with only 45 minutes until we needed to switch classes again. Oh well. 

The end of the day I made cards with the other class and then we all went out for a little more extra recess. It was 48 degrees outside on February 1st! Who can argue with a bit more outside time on days like that?

And finally it was time to send everyone home. We were all wiped out and exhausted. I stayed at school the latest yet so I could draft a message to parents about the day and prep the Sunday newsletter note Mrs. M always sent out. Whew. When I got home, G and I went for a nice long walk around the pond, which helped to settle my thoughts. 

Tough day. Glad I could be there for those kids. I know tomorrow will be better.