Yay for the First Week of School

Why has it been so hard for me to update my blog lately? No idea. Lots of exciting things have been happening over the last month

First of all, Derek's shoulder is slowly healing. His stitches are out, and although he still has butterfly stitches over that area of his shoulder, the skin is mostly healed. He still is in his padded sling, making it nearly impossible to hug him, or let him sleep anywhere but the couch, but the pain isn't anywhere near as bad as it was after the surgery. We finally ran out of Lortab, so Derek hasn't had the best week, but overall he is doing SO much better. We go to the Doctor's on the 16th, and we should know how successful the surgery was after we look at the x rays.

Second of all, school started 2 weeks ago! I have a fun class full of cute kids this year. Here are a few highlights of the last couple of week

* I asked Brooklyn to draw organic matter. She asked what it was and I said "something that was once living". What did she draw? A zombie.

* As one of my math centers, I let the kids listen to "skip counting raps". They were so excited about it that they begged me to play it later that afternoon, where Eliza proceeded to dance for the whole class...the more people laughed the funnier her dancing got. I almost peed my pants laughing

* My mom came in to make a craft with my class...and told them that I used to eat chalk when I was in elementary school. Thanks mom. At least when we went to update our class blog, they were so excited about the skip counting raps that they all voted on writing about Math rather than my mom's visit.

* I taught my class the "Cowboy Cheer" which is where they put their fingers in their belt loops, pretend to spit, and then pretend to swing a rope while saying "yeeee-haaaa". We did it 5 times in a row...by request.

* Every student earned 100% on the Estimation quiz!!! I couldn't believe my eyes!! I swear, math games made all the difference!!

* There is not a SINGLE piece of missing Math homework from the past 2 weeks!!! It is so nice to have RESPONSIBLE kids. It makes my job as a teacher so much easier.

* When I told my class we were doing doing book reports, and told them about the one page requirement, I had a couple of students ask if they could write 2 or 3 pages. Oh bless my heart!!

So far, this year is turning out to be a great one...rather than focusing on extrinsic rewards, I'm focusing on intrinsic rewards, and it has made all the difference. Really...the kids are stepping up to the plate, and there are no complaints about it. Rather than rewarding students with prizes or food, I reward them with praise, time to work on in class projects, and math games. You would be amazed how hard students work with no expectations.

Okay, so the 3rd great thing that happened in the last month is my Mama came from Michigan to come visit. She even bought me 2 great outfits from the DI!! She really is a great shopper...how did I not inherit her eye for fashion? Every time I wear something cute, She has bought it... It was fun having her here to talk to and hang out with though...except when the entire Apartment Complex, mysteriously reeked of pot for a half hour. THE ENTIRE COMPLEX. I love my mom!!

The last great thing that happened this month was I got a new carpool job... Instead of standing at the crosswalk, I get to call out carpool names over the radio. Now I actually have a purpose at carpool. Score!!