shrek

Here we are, at the end of another week. Now, there are only 14 days left of school. Instead of going slower, time seems to be speeding up. This is a good thing and I will not complain about it.

I suppose last time I posted, I was anxiously awaiting the results of my students CRTs. The good news is I had many, many students who scored in the 70-90 percentile. The actual CRT score will be different, but for my class, I scored as percents. The bad news is that I also had many, many students who scored in the 30-40 percentile. I was, however, extremely relieved that I did have several do very well and that it kind of/basically looks as if I'm a "good" teacher. It was nice to see some of the more successful scorers feel down-right proud of their percent. It also didn't hurt my teaching-ego too much, either.

I decided we'd take a little breather from testing, as the students have been taking tests in one period each day for two weeks. So, yesterday I brought in a few movies and all my classes decided on watching Shrek 2. I typically am a Shrek fan (did you hear about Shrek the Halls, coming around Christmas time?), and I'm super stoked to see the 3rd installment. But, I'll tell you what, after watching it 6 times, I am currently happy if I never see the movie again! We watched 45 minutes of it yesterday and then watched 35 minutes of it today; there are still a few more minutes left, but I probably won't have them finish it on Monday. While the movie thing gives me a break and them some relaxation, it's definitely not something I'd want to do every day from now until June 1. The kids get bored by the 2nd day, I get sick of the movie, and they automatically think it's free time and they can do whatever.

It has been National Teacher Appreciation Week and we've had a nice surprise in our mail boxes every day. One day it was a pack of oatmeal (I know, please stop me from jumping up and down), another day we got a granola bar. Wednesday they gave us a really cool highlighter with post-it-notes inside; yesterday we got a pack of gum. Today, to finish up the week, the principal hand-delivered a bottle Gatorade to each teacher. Also on Wednesday, the PTA provided breakfast and Thursday, the principal provided a nice dutch oven catered lunch.

This has been my first week riding my bike to school. It was so spectacular! I ended up only riding two days because I had a bunch of stuff to take to school yesterday. I leave my house around 6:30 and ride the semi-down hill route to school, crossing over, yes, OVER Bangerter Highway on a little bridge. It's quite scary riding over moving cars and I keep telling myself if I'm not careful I'll run into the fence and fall...but, don't worry, I'm careful. The ride home has been a bit more challenging because it's semi up-hill and way hot. I love it, however, because it's great exercise and I have time to take in fresh air. My students guffaw at the idea and wonder why, in my right mind, I would ride my bike from Kearns to WL. They laugh because they think I don't have a car and, oh, how sad Mrs. Hubert is forced to ride her bike...how embarrassing! I told them that with gas at the price it is, it's a small way to save some $$ AND that I like riding my bike AND it's good exercise. I've had a few tell me that my bike is "pimpin," or "sweet." I'd have to agree. I just roll my bike into my room and it props up against the closet. Today the Gatorade from the principal came in handy on the way home!

Last night I rode TRAX up to my mom's work to meet her and some old family friends for dinner. These friends lived in Utah when I was younger, but moved back to their home state of Louisiana quite a few years ago. As I got off TRAX to make the transfer to the U, I found myself in a very swanky, trendy part of SLC and actually loved just sitting there taking it all in. It felt very city-girl of me to be sitting amongst these artistic individuals. My favorite part was a sign I saw. I tried to capture the sign in a picture on my phone, but alas phone cameras kind of stink so it didn't turn out, but it read: The road less traveled is a bike lane. The sign was attached to an old bike, spray painted blue, and the bike was firmly affixed to a light post. I looked up and down the street and saw many of these homages to biking and felt very proud.

Here's a picture I took of myself as I waited to get back on TRAX (yes, my nose is huge, I know, and sorry for the nostril shot...):

And again, the whole camera phone thing didn't really help as we were at dinner with these friends, so I will wait to post pictures of the evening when they e-mail me copies. But none the less, I had a good time with Ginger and McKenna, and Ashley and Janet and my best friend, my mom.

I guess that's it for tonight. Currently mom and dad Hubert are on their way to Germany to see Oma and Opa Hubert on their mission in Freiburg. They will be gone for two weeks and I'm uber jealous! Happy weekend, all!