Its been a while....

Practicing some cursive...check out the last line...

 Wow! life has been more then a bit crazy lately. Time is blowing by (kind of like all the snow outside right now) and in a week from today, I (along with molly and laura) will be hitting the road to Ovido, Florida. AH!

So since its been so long since my last post here are just some mini post, and random thoughts of whats been going on!

***I hope that wherever I end up teaching, the school will have a faculty bathroom.
We don't have one at East Butler....and there is just something weird about it....like yesterday for example: (if your a boy you might not wanna read this little part (:  ). Molly and I were taking our usual morning bathroom break when good ol aunt flow decided to visit, i was not prepared, but thankfully molly was! So as Molly was taking a tampon out of her backpack  and handing it to me, 2 little kindergartners walked in. Myself, Molly and the tampon that was making the transition from her hand to mine, all froze. The girls just stood there and stared. AWKWARD!

Our Saguaros

       ***Its Future Farmers of America Week, and Wednesday was....yup you guessed it, DRIVE YOUR TRACTOR TO SCHOOL DAY!!!
       ***I have been doing a Sonoran Desert Unit with my kids and they are loving it. They just started their final project today, and we are hoping they finish them up and present them by next Tuesday. The kids had 6 different projects they could choose from, and 14 of the 18 kids chose to make a Desert Video. We will see how all those come out-should be pretty entertaining. Their enthusiasm for this project has been so uplifting! They have loved this whole Desert Unit, and I'm excited for them to show me what they've learned!
      ***Other funny comments/questions I had today while I took the kids on a little mini tour from Brainard to Mesa thanks to the use of Google Maps.

     *Why are the houses so close together?

      *Boy: "What are all those blue things one the map?"
         Me: "Those are pools ."

Reading about scorpions

        Boy: "So like every house has a pool? That is SO COOL!"

        *Boy2: "What are your neighbors names?"
          Me: "I don't know we don't really talk to our neighbors"
        Whole Class: "WHAT!?!?!? you really don't know their names??? weird!!!

          *Girl: "So do you have Christmas in Arizona, since you don't have snow and stuff?"
              Me: "We still have Christmas and get gifts, and eat lots of food, it is just warm outside."
          Girl 2: "Does Santa bring you gifts all the way in Arizona?"
               Me: "Yes he makes stops in Arizona, and brings me some pretty neat things."
           Girl 2: "I bet he gets hot when he goes their because of his big ol suit and stuff."

Lost desert animal posters

Those are most of the pretty funny ones, but i have also been ask if i have seen in real life a gila monster, road runner, rattlesnake, scorpion, tortoise, coyote, lizards, and almost any other desert animal you can think of! The other day, after reading the book "The Cactus Hotel," to them, i had girls at recess playing imaginary desert. They pretended to be in the desert, and that they were staying at the Cactus Hotel. And according to them their job was then to catch different desert animals and show them to me. It was cute to watch, made me feel good on the inside haha.  In our desert unit I also brought in a copy of the newspaper article about when my dad got lost in the desert. I did not tell them that the man in the article was my dad till after we read about it and talked about how scary that might be...but when i told them, i saw about 18 little jaws drop to the floor, and then it didn't take long for about 18 little hands to shoot up in the air with tons of questions...."Wait is this a real story?" "Is your dad still alive?" "You promise your not making this up?""Did he see any coyotes?" "So this was actually in the newspaper?" "Was he on the news?

Learning how to borrow & subtract

 "Can we see the news video?" and so on and so on.....

Soooo, now that brings us to today, A WEEK AWAY FROM LEAVING FOR FLORIDA. deep breath. I really haven't had time to even think much about it, because every time i do it just reminds me of all the things that need to happen before that, and then i normally freak out, and then i just stop thinking about it altogether. (: prayers are definitely appreciated :)
After all that being said, I will apologize now for my potential lack of posting, for I am currently and will continue to just try and keep my head above water! Enjoy the pics!






                  
                 

This Day Deserved a Blog!

I'm just going to get right to it....the comments spoken by some of my 2nd graders today....

        The guidance counselor comes in on Monday and Friday afternoons, and talks to the kids about life skills. Well today it was on 'self discipline' and the students were filling out a questionnaire....

        Guidance Counselor: "Next question, are you able to say No to peer pressure? What is peer pressure kids?

    Girl #1: "Its when you say no to drugs and other bad things people do"

    Guidance Counselor: "That is correct, it is important that we say no to things that are wrong, like drugs. Boy #1 I see you have your hand up, what do you think peer pressure is?"

     Boy #1: "Well actually I was going to say, (these are his most commonly used words, he always has his hand raised as if he was going to answer the question, but normally he has some fact/story to share about the topic you are discussing).. I was actually going to say that when I am older, I am going to grow my own marijuana and sell it."

     At this point I am sitting on the other side of the room behind a group of girls to keep them on task, and as if Boy #1's comment wasn't enough to make my jaw drop, I proceeded to here the girl in front of me whisper to her friend: "oh marijuana.... ya my dad does that stuff." 

    If my jaw wasn't already on the floor, it was now! These kids are 8 YEARS OLD! 

If your wondering what the Guidance Counselors response was to Boy #1's growing and selling marijuana....

  Guidance Counselor: "Um, well honey if you do that you will end up in jail, so that probably is not the best choice. Alright next question on the worksheet is ......"

    But even though they moved on to the next question, the comments did not stop just quite yet.

   Guidance Counselor: "Next question is, do you touch, take, or play with something that is not yours? Could somebody give us an example of something that is not theirs that they should not touch, like your sisters doll, or mom's cell phone?"

    Girl (who just told her friend about her dad smoking marijuana): "You shouldn't touch your parents smokes, or else they will yell bad words at you."

   Guidance Counselor: "Ok, that is one, but I was thinking more like toys or stuff like that."

I didn't really know what to do with myself all these comments occurred in about a 3 min span...my initial response was shock, pure SHOCK, and then some laughter not because they were necessarily funny but more so because I just didn't know what else to even make of such comments....but it didn't take long for my heart to just feel for some of those kids. Who knows what their lives are at home, and its hard to think that leave school and go home some pretty negative places. 

The hardest thing I think I've encountered in the classroom thus far has not even occurred in the classroom, but its knowing some of the stuff that goes on in their lives outside the classroom.

Anyways. Ya. Wow. 

Couple other recent funny quotes:

     -After I taught science and was handing out their assignment...."Wow Mrs. Krieger, your almost like a real teacher now."

     -After sharing with some kids some information on Arizona......"Mrs. Krieger, did you know that a Saguaro is not only type of cactus, but it is also a Mexican Hat." 

     -When I ask one boy what he did this past weekend...."Mrs. Krieger, that is none of your beeswax."

     -While celebrating a kids bday, the kids thought it would be fun to guess my age....."20? 19? 21? 22?" "You got it I'm 22!" "Wow, you look so young, but you are just so old."

friday...already? YES!!!!

Ok, technically it is Thursday afternoon. To me however,  the 3:30 bell not only means school is out, but it rings in celebration and in honor of being one day away from the weekend!!! I love Fridays....we have early release AND we get to wear jeans. So since Fridays are just plain awesome, i think they should maybe last a little longer then the rest of the weekdays. Hence why, my Fridays, start with that lovely Thursday afternoon bell!

Molly, Laura and I in front of East Butler

       Anyways, I make it sounds like it hate being school, but i don't, promise. And as far as this week goes, i really have NO reason to complain. I've already had a weekend in the middle of my week. If I HAD to say I love the snow and the cold, it would be for one reason and one reason only---SNOW DAYS!!!! And this week sure consisted of its fair share of them!

         Monday it was icing, and the storm rolled in which meant an early release. The snow and wind picked up throughout the evening, and sure enough that night, I was able to experience for the first time all the joy in reading your schools name on the "Closed" list! Tuesday was bitter cold...with wind chills in the negative 30s, and the actual temps not getting out of the single digits! The snow fell, and the wind blew it....EVERYWHERE. It continued into Wednesday meaning, YES another SNOW DAY! It was a nice break in the week! And now, Thursday is already over! Now that is my kind of week!

        Today I had my first observation and evaluation. It went well!!! The kids loved the lesson, definitely helped make me look good :) I am currently teaching Science and Math, and will pick up Social Studies next week! 

Here are some pictures Molly, Laura and I took around Brainard last Friday, when it wasn't blizzarding and was actually a nice tolerable 45 degrees out! Ew listen to me, saying that 45 is tolerable...gross. Since when did I let my weather expectations drop so low!? not good.