Culture Day

Today in my class we had 'Culture Day'.

Also known as 'Chaos Day'.

Also known as 'Awesome'.

For the past few weeks students have been working on projects about different countries around the world. Today they brought their projects to school along with a traditional food for a potluck lunch and a story, game, piece of music or something interactive from their culture to share with the class.

It was a fantastic day. The projects were really well done and the activities were fun. Some students (and obviously me) had on costumes, some made movies, some made activity sheets to go with their station. It was a great fun-filled day.

Our very last presentation did me in though. I laughed. We all laughed. We all went crazy. I'm still smiling thinking about the craziness that happened during the last presentation. How could a presentation on Australia get crazy you ask?

WELL, let me tell you.

Apparently, Cody Simpson is from Australia.

So when this student put on a CD for us to listen to some "Australian Music" - Cody Simpson blared out. (Ai ai ai ai).

And you can't listen to Cody Simpson and not dance. Especially if you are eleven... or twenty-nine...

So our multi-cultural day ended in a full-out dance party. And it was awesome.

Especially when the kid who did his project on India busted out some pretty fantastic Bollywood moves.

Top 10 Obsessions

1. Sharpies
2. Facebook
3. Pinterest
4. Thrift Stores
5. Crafts
6. Jericho
7. Warm Beds
8. Warmed-up bean bags (usually aids #7)
9. Slippers
10. Painting my nails

Fun/Whiplash - it's all the same thing.

I just wanted to share a picture of me having fun with some students. And by having fun I mean getting whip-lash. I like hanging out with these kids. They keep me young and make me laugh.

My Family is Pretty

On Sunday my family headed down to Kamloops lake to take some nice family pictures. They turned out really well. Here are some of my favourites.

Ew.

If you are a girl, you will most likely be able to relate to what I'm about to write about today. If you are a boy... hopefully you won't be too traumatized by what you are about to see. And if you are a boy (or my mom), I want you to understand that the picture and story I'm about to share with you, are in fact, your fault.

It all started when I was born.
A girl.
With hair.
That grew long.
And, lets be honest, pretty glorious. I have pretty nice hair.

The one time I decided I didn't want long, luxurious, curly hair. So in grade 10 I cut it off, whereupon people called me ugly until it grew back. Ever since then I have had long hair. And it's nice. I like it. People compliment me on it. In fact, last Sunday my hair was so nice that three (THREE!) random people (read: strangers) actually reached out and ran their fingers through my hair. I know. That's weird. Really weird. It has never happened before, but it did actually happen on Sunday and works well to illustrate my point. The point that I have nice hair.

I'll get to the point of my 'hair-raising' story (see what I did there? 'hair-raising' so clever). Because I'm a girl, with a lot of hair, I gotta tell you, I shed. Quite a lot. A LOT. And occasionally the train in my tub/shower gets clogged. With hair, and shaving cream, and product, and missing razors, toothpaste lids, all sorts of treasures. Last Thursday I realized it was just about time to unclog the drain. I'm fairly environmental, so I try to avoid products like Draino, and I have this fantastic product called the Turbo Snake that works amazingly. And it gets out EVERYTHING.

Now for the gross part. The stuff I found:




Ew.
Seriously. NASTY.

Hope you all have a good day! ;)

The best feeling in the world

The best feeling in the world (for today anyways):

Visiting a friend in the hospital and getting to hold her brand-new one-day-old baby as long as I wanted and not having to share her with anyone!

Seriously. I gotta get me one of those one of these days.

Grammar can be fun!

I had a good day at school today. The kind of day where you come home and pat yourself on the back and tell yourself that you did a smashing job and deserve a raise.

The reason I was such an awesome teacher today was that I made grammar class not just fun, but absolutely roll-on-the-floor hilarious. This post might not do it justice, but I'll try.

I teach a split 5/6 class - which is a challenge, but also has it's bright spots. I try to do separate lessons as much as possible so that the curriculum and IRPs get covered. Today after setting the 6th graders to their work (wahoo subordinate clauses - bleh), I started working with the 5's on sentence types. Seriously guys, grammar is not exciting. Whenever I have a super boring grammar lesson I always apologize to my students and say, "I'm sorry guys, sometimes we just have to learn things and it's not exciting. And we have to do it cus' the government says we have to. So don't get moody with me, be mad at the government. Write Stephen Harper a letter or something to complain, don't whine to me, I can't do anything about it."

But today it was hilarious. So hilarious that most of the 6's ignored their subordinate clauses and participated with the 5's in a lesson they had already done last year. Because it was funny and they wanted to be a part of the hilarity. Why so funny? Because I used funny examples.

Declarative Sentences: State a fact.
e.g. Zac Efron is dreamy.
Then they all groaned so I crossed out Zac Efron and wrote Taylor Lautner. (More groaning)
Zane can't stop talking.
Then they all groaned so I crossed out his name and wrote Nathan. Then crossed it out and wrote Caleb, and kept doing that about 8 times going through the kids who talk all the time. It was funny. And everyone was laughing and getting all defensive (in a good funny way) so I crossed off 'can't stop talking' and wrote in 'is very smart and pretty.' (which was funny because it was mostly boys.) then as they were laughing I added more. 'But only between 7 and 8am. The rest of the time he smells. A lot.'

Interoggative Sentences: Ask a question.
e.g. Why isn't Zac Efron Miss. G's boyfriend yet?
How come people think Taylor Lautner is cool, when he clearly isn't?

Exclamatory Sentences: Express strong emotion.
I love Zac Efron! (Do you sense a theme yet?)


Imperative Sentences: State a command.
(by this time we were out of control having fun and laughing so I wrote...)
Be quiet!
Get to work!
Do your homework!

and one of my students yelled out:

Stop being bossy! (Which made us laugh more, because I was being bossy, and it was an imperative sentence.)

So I wrote it on the board and added to the end

"Stop being bossy!" said Owen. In detention.

Oh we laughed.

It was so good to be reviewing and learning, but laughing so hard. And it's so good to have a relationship with my students where I can healthily tease them and they can tease me back. Laughter is good. Relationships are good. Being a teacher is not always about being the boss, it's about being a role model, and encourager, an entertainer, an advisor, a discipler, and a trainer.

And today I was.

Just when I thought it couldn't get worse.

Monday was one of 'those' days.

It's taken me five days to calm down, and now I can look back and see that it wasn't really that terrible. It was still terrible, but not THAT terrible.

It all started when I woke up and it was still dark out. Nobody likes that.
My students were crazy.
I had to leave school right away at 2:40 beacuse I had a meeting all the way up the moutain AND across town. So I didn't get to clean up, or do marking, or leave feeling prepared.
Went to my meeting - which was good.
Drove 1/2 way down the mountain to church. Where I realized I forgot my purse at my meeting location 15 minutes away. And no one was going to be there the rest of the night.
Cooked dinner for 40 young adults at church, even though I didn't want to.
Drove back to get my purse.
Drove ALL the way home at the very bottom of the mountain on the other side of town.
The door was locked.
We NEVER lock the door.
EVER.
My cell phone was dead.
The neighbours were all out trick-or-treating.
I was tired and crabby and just wanted to go to bed. I went over to my friend Gracie's house to use her phone. But do you think I have my sister's phone number memorized? No. Why would I? It's on speed dial.
Called the wrong number.
Called my mom to get my sister's number.
Called my sister. She didn't pick up.
Thought I'd call the church where I left her.
I worked at the church for 5 years. Do you think I have that number memorized? No. I ended up calling my pastors home instead.
Called the church. Talked to my sister and told her to come let me in the house.
Eventually made it home, way past my bedtime.

And just when I thought my night couldn't get worse....



My dog died.

Back inthe day when Sandy was a puppy... and alive... :(