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Wow, what a day. Frazzled is the word that comes to mind...

I swung by church to pick up the bells, tone chimes, and music stored there after the Christmas Eve service. At school, I looked over the notes from yesterday's sub (the piano teacher Mrs. O, it went great). I had a lot to catch up on from missing a day (this is why I don't take days off... more work to be gone than to be at school). 

When my kids arrived, we discovered the interactive board isn't working. Great. I tried all my usual tricks and nothing worked. One phone call to the IT guys and... they actually answered! Except then I was stuck on the phone with them for a half an hour. No solution. He was going to check on a few more things and swing by school after he finished a different appointment. Okay, well there's that. 

So school started late and we eliminated the interactive board part of our morning. Ugh. We can use the board, but you have to use the computer mouse to do anything on it. Not efficient at all. 

Aside from that, the rest of the day was good. We finished our read-aloud and started a new one, Prisoner B-3087, which has a ton of WWII history in it. We spent more time building background knowledge than actually reading today. One of our previous books this year briefly touched on the holocaust, so they know a little. I have a few picture books that introduce the topic, so we read one of those. Then I showed them a map of Poland and we looked at a few pictures of Krakow, the setting of the story. Man, I love this book!

The 7-8th graders are convinced we won't have school tomorrow. A winter weather advisory takes effect tonight, followed by 3in of snow and lots of wind. Lovely. Good thing I have lots to work on at home...

We had a two hour staff meeting after school. Now my to-do list is jam packed... National Lutheran Schools Week, February I Love to Read Month, Young Writers and Artists Conference, along with spending money from donations. Plus my regular school stuff. Maybe I should have a day off just to catch up! 

Other updates: The IT guys never came to school to fix my projector. Surprise, surprise. Day 2 of my Whole 30 eating challenge/experiment is going well. I have soup in the crockpot waiting for me at home! The water heater for my apartment building is still broken; it went out yesterday, and last night the water was barely tepid. They ordered one, and if all goes well they'll fix it tomorrow. Sigh. I'm afraid the weather won't cooperate with that plan...

Party

Hooray! It's Christmas break! Although, technically I'm not off duty for another three days since we have one more Christmas program. Practice went well; we worked out a few kinks. Presents went well; my kids seemed to like their word clouds. 

I got some cool stuff too: a blanket with an outline of a stack of books/tea/plants/Miss H made by a student and her mom, some treats, a giftcard to Applebees (my kids told me I should go there on a date night and sing the Applebee's Date Night song while I'm on my date... The song is called "Fancy Like" and it was all the rage a few months ago), a tea travel mug perfect for loose leaf tea, tea, and a hot cocoa bomb. Some kids said they forgot their presents and they'll give them to me next year, haha. 

We watched Monsters Inc as our all school movie in the afternoon. Such a good movie. One of my favorites. I got almost all my papers corrected during it! 

After school we had our staff present exchange. My initials were LB for lunch box, and I got 'luxurious booties' aka fuzzy slippers, lemon bar mix, little baby ornament (Jesus in the manger), and a Love Bug toy car. Cute! I had Mrs. E who's initials were SC, and I gave her scarlet cord (red yarn), two santa claus ornaments, and a scented candle. 

Questions and Comments

Only two days of school this week, and the kids are definitely excited. So many jittery bodies and mouths! 

My class had a normal day for once. Well, they presented their planet powerpoints to the 1-4th graders, so that was abnormal. Some groups made worksheets for the kids to follow along. They were surprised how much the audience struggled to keep up. Great teachable moment! Two kids present tomorrow, and since we talked about what went well and what didn't, those kids are going to tweak their presentations to make it go even better! Overall, the lower grades had a good time learning about the planets. 

My kids really tested me in religion today. They had super thought-provoking questions, so I asked if they wanted me to email Issues Etc. to see what their answer was. They said YES! (Earlier this year we submitted a question about angels which they answered on air, so my class is hoping for another on air 'appearance'). The question was, "We know God talks to us through the bible, but why doesn't God talk to us the way he talked to people in the Old Testament? When and why did he stop?" Before the end of the day, I had an email saying they might answer that question in today's comment line!

Before the end of religion, they came up with another stumper (except now that school is over I think I came up with an answer). This time, we called and left a message. Maybe they'll play the clip on the comment line. This question was, "Jesus tells the thief on the cross 'today you'll be with me in paradise,' except he goes to hell for three days, so did the thief go to hell with him too? Or how does that work?" We'll see if they play that one too! 

My answer, now that I've thought about it more is: God and the Holy Spirit were/are in heaven, so while Jesus was in hell, the other parts of the Trinity were in heaven so the thief could be with them right away. I'm curious if they'll answer both! Stay tuned!

Last Practice

Well, our last program practice went super! The bell songs weren't too fast, the singing songs sounded pretty, and the kids either remembered when to go or they were watching me for their cues. There's one song Mrs. L forgets where to come in, but she's going to count measures and make a note when she gets home.

My kids watched The Nativity Story all morning today. If you haven't seen it, you need to. It's the one thing that puts me in the Christmas spirit when I'm stressed with all the program prep. Since it has so much historical detail, we ended up pausing it a bunch so I could explain what was happening and why. My kids were really into it and asked if we could watch it again next year. Probably! 

This afternoon the kindergarteners invited my class to make gingerbread houses with them. Then we did a bit of bell practice at church, followed by our regular 1pm program practice. And that was the day. 

Only two days of school next week before Christmas break!

Extra

Practice went well today. It seemed like we didn't do too much else at school, but really we had a typical morning. After lunch, Mr. E asked if I'd run an errand in Mankato quick while he took the 5-8th graders for PE. He found a new mic stand that's easier to adjust (not so loud). So I popped over and was in and out of the store in 30 seconds. They had it waiting and will bill school, so that sped things up. 

After school, I got a call from the bible school teacher asking if I could come to their rescheduled practice tonight. So I stayed at school until 6, then ran through the program with them, and did all my errands afterwards and prepped for this weekend. Man, I am ready for a break. This week has been non stop! 

Slow Going

Wow, my brain is ready for a rest. It's been racing all day figuring out our regular day schedule to make room for Christmas program practice. The schedule got messed up more than usual because both bells and piano had to have practice over at church... right during math time. 

So... we had the 5th graders take math in the morning while I had study hall with the 7-8th graders. Then after lunch, we did 6th grade math and science with the 7-8th graders. It worked okay, but boy, my brain had to work hard to figure out all those moving parts. 

Practice today went all right. Even though we had a full hour, we still didn't make it all the way through the program. So tomorrow we're starting at 1pm. Wow. We've never had to start that early. I blame our snow day. And the new sound system. 

On the plus side, the stable is set up, the risers got moved, and we have just enough room for a little acting. The costume people now know their marks. Tomorrow is going to be the true test if everyone remembers their cues. Me too! 

Since we're starting so early, Mr. E and I are skipping each other's classes. The kids will be happy there's no math! I will probably do social studies in the 'spare' time since we've missed class because of practice. We've been doing parent art projects in the morning, so our reading/English time has been cut short this week too. Tis the season!

With the stress of planning the Christmas program, getting my students ready, prepping presents/cards for them to make for their parents, it's often hard to find joy in the Christmas season. Thankfully, there are Advent services. For once, I don't have to plan! I can just show up and rejoice in my Savior. Praise the Lord!

Good News and Bad News

Friday was a snow day! Good news at first, but the bad news is, it cut out one day of Christmas program practice and now we're really feeling crunched. We went over to church earlier than planned, but we still didn't make it through the program. Part of the problem was the IT guys installed a new sound system at church, but didn't teach anyone at school how to use it. Thankfully, they answered Mr. E's call and walked Mr. D through the basics. 

While they did that, I organized the kids in their spots and had them figure out which mic to use. We only made it halfway through the program doing that. Only four more practices. Yikes! I sure hope it all comes together. 

Unfortunately, the crabby-s are creeping up on me... My patience is very thin these days. 

I had to make a new cd for the program and iTunes wasn't working. Thankfully I figured out what I was doing wrong. Props have been found for the few speakers who need them. Costumes were tried on today for the nativity students. After school my basketball kids set up bells at church. We still don't have the bulletins to color. I should probably look into that. Maybe we can get them tomorrow.

Another sad thing today: I thought my class was getting along great, but one of the boys left his computer open with Teams up, and I noticed some not nice words in a chat between him and his classmate. Ugh. It started because they were talking about crushes and denying things, calling each other liars, etc. Sigh. So disheartening. Now I need to have some private conversations with them both. 

And the one 8th grade girl keeps using inappropriate language for school, I always hear her and call her out on it. She complains that the boys do it all the time and they never get in trouble. Not true. If I hear them, I get on their case. But the trouble is, I don't always hear it. Ugh. Is it Christmas break yet?

To end with good news, a grandma taught my class how to make gigantic snowflakes today. It was great. The kids had a good time problem solving how to build it, I had a little time to finish midterm grades, Grandma had a good time teaching the kids. A win all around.