lick a steak knife

Been a few days. I took a nice little break over the weekend; I did basically nothing and it felt great. With CRT's I haven't had to do lesson plans or make copies, so pretty much I have free time. During the day while my students are testing, I've read, done some research, caught up on grades, and prayed my little heart out for successful CRT results.

We didn't have testing on Friday and I wanted to do something different and fun. I put all the desks in a big circle and let the kids sit wherever. Then, we played the "telephone game," the one where one person starts a message and spreads the message by whisper to the next; by the time the message reaches the last person, the message is way off. Most of my classes really got into it and it was pretty funny. My favorite message started out as "don't lick a steak knife," and ended up as "don't like snakes tonight." There, of course, were plenty inappropriate messages that I'm convinced were purposefully changed. Oh well, they're teenagers!

In 2nd period, one of my students challenged me to a hand-stand contest. He seems to think he's the best at everything (I'll admit, he's a star on the basketball court and a down right genius at math...) and he didn't think an "old lady like" me could even do a hand stand. Since I had the big circle and lots of open room in the circle (and I was feeling lucky) I consented to the contest. Needless to say, I burst his little ego a bit when I beat him in not one, not two, but three rounds of the favorite playground game, "Hands up, Stands up." He was quite embarrassed having been beaten by "an old lady."

5th period Friday also brought a Mrs. Hubert class first: make-overs on the boys! I have several students in that class that are on the track team. They made a ridiculous bet; boys against girls, stating that if the girls won a race, they could put makeup on the boys. Apparently, things didn't go so well for the boys and the following picture is a result of the bet. This poor boy is getting done up to the nines with mascara and eyeliner. He was so ashamed, and I probably shouldn't have laughed so hard, but I couldn't resist taking the picture.

Friday we had faculty meeting, and surprisingly, it wasn't so bad. They fed us (SHREK Snickers--beware the green filling and trail mix) which was good. We also met next year's intern vice principal, coming to us from Park City. I presented a little info on yearbook day and we learned about the last month of school schedule. We were out of the meeting in less than an hour, a first for the year!

Today we started testing again. I'm super glad we had a little break over the weekend. Tomorrow my students will fill in an answer sheet for me and then on Wednesday we will correct their CRT's and see how well they did. Research shows that it is better to give immediate feedback, and I'm also anxious to see how they did. Cross your fingers that they do me proud!

This is a picture of a poster that the librarian gave to all the teachers to post in their rooms during CRT's. Mostly, the kids don't know who the picture is and when I say "Uncle Sam," they say, "Uncle Who?" Good thing we don't have CRT's in history yet!!

Some non-teaching related items:

My first real day as Primary President went fairly smooth. The 1st counselor did sharing time so I observed. No real drama. I think I can do it...I think.

I'm going to Las Vegas (Yay!) for my birthday. I'm flying out, thanks to my dad, on the 4th and spending the week down there. It'll be a nice break and refresher, because on the 11th, I start ESL classes.

Our puppy is now a teen. He likes girls. He's growing chin hair. Here's a picture of him last night at Ben's parents house. Despite the fact that he's still chewing everything in sight (including, at times, my arms) we love him.

I'm riding my bike to school tomorrow. My evening plans include a trial trip on my bike to make sure I can make it on time in the morning. I'm uber, uber thrilled!