8th Grade Trip to Savannah

I made my first 8th grade trip to Savannah! It was awesome (of course).

Day 1 -

We started the trip off at 5am in the morning. That's right, we had to meet at the school at 5 in the morning. I was so excited the day before, I kept waking up throughout the night! Joe dropped me off at the school and I went into the gym to find my bus number and get started. I was the first teacher for my bus there so I began checking in the students that had arrived (there were actually 2 there before me). After a while, all students on my bus were checked in, all teachers had arrived, and we began loading. I was in the middle of the bus.

We arrived in Savannah around noon and headed right to Tybee Island. They had lunch (pizza, brownies, and water) ready for us on a pier outside of the marina. After lunch, we went on a tour of the marina and the beach. We split up our bus into a girls group and a boys group and then split our teachers amongst them. I went with the boys group. The whole tour was really amazing! The students were really engaged and really interested in all the marine wildlife. On the tour of the beach, the boys were quick to find something new to explore.

After the beach tour, we headed back to Savannah and went to Fort Jackson. This is where our kids really showed their city-folkness. Gnats, native to anywhere in GA below the fall-line. And gnats were definitely present at Fort Jackson. You would've thought these children were being attacked by a 1000 bees by the way they were swatting, swinging, and dancing to combat the gnats. I would've giggled continuously but I had my "you must be still and respectful" teacher hat on. So we swatted our way through the presentations and all of our students were drafted into the civil war :) At the very end they shot a real civil war cannon off for us, that was really cool!

After Fort Jackson, we headed to our hotel to get ready for dinner and the dance. We went to the old railroad yard for the dinner and dance. It was pretty good, I think the students had a lot of fun. I think there was some serious drama going on at the beginning of the dance, but they seemed to get through that to have some fun. I spent most of the evening making sure students were not off cuddling in some corner. I spent very little time on the dance floor :(

Next Up: Day 2

Eeeeee

Congratulations Chelsea!!

Chelsea was invited to scholarship weekend at Oglethorpe University. This is a BIG DEAL!!! I mean a BIIIIIGGGGGG DEEEEAAAAAALLLLL!!!

Eeeeee

4 teacher observations...

Wow... I had my fourth teacher observation today and I must say it came at the weirdest time. I was MAD and I mean MAAAADDDD going into 8th period because 7th period has a large concentration of mean kids. You know the kind that flaunt their meanness. Totally irks me. And right at the beginning of 8th period, in walks the principal of the school for my unannounced observation.

There is nothing to do at this point, but to take a deep breath, swallow your irritations, and hit reboot on your emotions and approach. And that is what I did. The lesson went well, the kids were well behaved, the principal took notes (I will find out how it went in a few days). After the principal left, I shut the door to my class and we all took a moment to reiterate just how weird of a day it had been for all of us. And then we continued... not as if nothing happened, but as if we were are struggling to make it to the end of the day and if they could compromise with me, I would compromise with them.

This was a great lesson-learned for me. A reboot of my emotions needs to happen between EACH class. A fresh approach taken at the beginning of each class. Because if things are going kinda crappy throughout the day, there is no need repeating the same steps over again.

Eeeeee

Arrrrgggghhhhh....

Sometimes the simplest things in life seem to baffle other people. Take for instance, scheduling a CLASS and communicating to the people in that class.

Today, I drove to COBB county for the 2nd time, only to find out that I didn't have class tonite! Why publish dates in 3 different places not to go by those dates? Why email people so inconsistently that they have no idea if they were supposed to have class tonite or not.

It's not like Cobb county is a short drive for me. I have to leave school by 4:15pm to make it Cobb county by 6pm. It's the other side of the freakin world as far as I am concerned. I am still baffled why anyone lives in this county.... grrrr!

Eeeeee

I am a bit of a dork...

In case you hadn't noticed :)

I un-apologetically use terms that are too big for my students to understand. Like diligently, facetious, idiosyncrasies, exponential, etc. I am just as used to translating for them as I am for some of my peers. Sometimes, like my mom, I tell them to go look it up.

I get excited when I start talking about savings accounts, interest rates, growth potential, and other things that make most people anxious.

I love autumn and hiking and lately colder weather. I somehow inherited from my dad the ability to be my own personal furnace. I still have to protect my ears from wind and so sometimes I look dorkier than usual.

I don't understand people that feel like they have to smoke, drink, or other things to have fun or to let loose. I don't care that you do it, I just don't understand it. I seriously have the most fun jumping around making a fool outta myself dancing. It's fun... i look awful... but it's fun.

I have never felt this need to fit in with people and have lost friends that way. I'm ok with that.

I am on the surface a disorganized person, but underneath all the mess, know where to find things. I love to plan, I love to execute on the plan even more, and cleaning up the aftermath is someone else's job.

Eeeeee

I'm stressed...

I have an extraordinarily busy week ahead of me. I am stressed, unprepared, and a little overwhelmed. Don't be surprised if I don't return phone calls. Well even less than usual.

Love,
E

Twins, Third Day, Cool Factor...

This weekend I am keeping the twins. The awesome thing is that it gives me an excuse for not grading papers. The bad thing is that the papers never go away from needing to be graded! The twins are adorable as ever and starting to talk in phrases and sentences. Gracie comments on everything from the food to your clothes. Alex is a conversationalist as well, switching from talking with Gracie in their little language to talking with you.

I also went to the Third Day, Jars of Clay, Switchfoot, and Robert Randolf show this weekend! Joe was so awesome and got the group I went with Meet and Greet passes as well as Backstage passes. I was able to go backstage for a little while and hang with Joe :) :) :) (PS - they set up a kids area and had really cool toys... which I wanted to play with). Anyway, Christina and I went backstage and I kept pointing out different band people we'd pass after we'd pass by them. She kept saying, "I know.. I am trying not to stare :)"...

According to C, my cool factor went from awesome to wicked awesome.

Always happy to please :)

Me, Chels, and the twins headed to church this morning. In Xtreme they had part of the band Unhindered play. Those guys got us literally jumping all around! After church we went to Subway, then to the house to feed the cats, then back to my sisters house. By this point we were all ready for a nap... which is what we did.

Eeeeee

(PS - still haven't started grading papers... chose to write this blog instead)