TOTY....

No not me. Do you remember the TOTY award? I learned the term from "Happy Days" in the later episodes when The Fonz was a teacher at a tech school and was up for the TOTY award. TOTY, in case you don't know stands for Teacher Of The Year. Anyway, I don't believe I'll ever be nominated or voted TOTY, but I did come across the blog of the NC TOTY today. It's really a nice one if you are interested in teacher's lives. I love it. If you want to visit her blog (Cindy Rigsbee is her name) the address is http://thedreamteacher.blogspot.com/. I'm also adding this to my list on the right of "other cool blogs".



Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

The last....

FRIDAY OF THE SCHOOL YEAR! The students get out on Thursday so we don't have any more Friday's. For the Friday song this morning I played "Let's Get It Started" by the Black-Eyed Peas.

WOO HOO!!!!!!

String Art

For the last few days my students have been working on a string art project. It's very complicated and I don't want to bore anyone with the mathematical logistics, but let's just say that most adults probably can't tell you how to find the central angle of a circle, much less use angles of a circle to create a polygon! :) So if that confused you just a little bit, put yourself in 7th grade...way hard for them. ANYWAY...they did it. Some of them are still working on their projects, but I've seen the beginning of them all and they are going to be great. Here are just a few...I couldn't load them all at once. Aren't these GREAT?!?!?!?!?!

Leave the man alone!!!!

This blog is devoted to issues I feel strongly about. Tonight's post is no exception. Periodically I have commented on Nate, Tricia and Gwyneth Lawrenson...I have been following their story for several months and I believe that two or three posts ago I mentioned that they are all home together. If you'd like to read this miraculous story you can click here to go to Nate's blog. Now on to my point...

Nate Lawrenson has so openly shared his family's story, giving God glory all the while. Today he posted a sweet story about what a fantastic role model Steven Curtis Chapman has been for him throughout his life. The Chapman family is suffering tremendous grief after one of their adopted children was accidently run over and killed by one of their biological children. Nate mentioned, just as I did, the word "adopted." Would you believe that he received an email from someone who was offended? Nate then went back, blogged an apology for offending.

What is wrong with us??? Why...WHY would anyone feel as though they need to email, or even comment if they were offended by his post? Throughout the whole time I've followed their story, Nate has demonstrated love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control. He has exhibited, in copious amounts, each of the fruits of the spirit. Nate has, more than once, felt that he had to defend his posts on HIS blog! It is not anyone's blog but Nate's and he has every right to share, or not share, what HE chooses.

So think....if you read Nate's blog and you don't like what he's said, scream into your pillow or write it on your own blog, or better yet, share whatever your issue is with God and ask him to clear it all up in your mind. But for Pete's sake, leave Nathan Lawrenson alone.

There's MY gripe on MY blog!

Tuesday and counting

Here we are 11 school days from the end. We are still PACT testing this week. They are working hard, but I feel very sorry for the students. They tested like this three days last week. They're doing it three days this week. I know they're getting tired.

I am so excited about moving to STMS. I've already conferenced with some of the teachers over there and we are planning to start a group for girls where we teach them about personal hygiene, exercise, make-up, etiquette, etc. I am SO excited! I think the teachers there will be forward thinking and they have already been very kind to me.

On another note, here are more of my students...they are so ready for school to be over...and SO AM I!

It's been Monday all day...

I am sick...I've been sick since Friday with a sore throat, stuffy/runny nose, cough, etc. So I woke up this morning sicker. I won't go into detail, but let's just say I was rotten. Anyway, I slog to the shower and get semi awake, do the make up, iron the clothes, get the kids out the door, etc. and get in the car to go to work. I decide to stop at McDonald's to get a drink. I sit the drink in my cup holder and as I pull out onto Cherry the drink falls over and spills all over my pants. UGH...too late to go home so I figure they'll dry and I'll be ok.

Get to school and go get the packs of protractors, compasses, rulers and so on to work on the string art project. I drop the whole box and plastic measuring devices go everywhere. After picking them up, I go over as much DRY AND BORING science as I can stomach and then move on to the project. As I am giving out the packs of measuring devices I realize I'm about 4 short!!! "Some of you will have to share" I say, and all the students grab their bags and act like it's food and they haven't eaten in about a year.

I explain and demonstrate and go and show again and then get everyone on the same page. And then I begin explaining how to divide the circles into equal angles and OH MY GOSH! It was really difficult for them to follow and understand and we all got frustrated.

Then I went to the dr. and found out that I do not have an infection and I have to let this stupid crud just work out. UGH! I went to the library to return books that my children checked out from the Book Mobile and had a book from their elementary school.

I'm with Kim on "one of those days." It's been one of those days...I'm ready to go to bed and start over tomorrow morning.

TGIF!

I may have used that as a title once before, but seriously!!!! T.G.I.F.!!!!! We (all the teachers and all the students) are growing weary of coming here and working. We really need a summer break! I wake up my students more and more with each passing day. I often wonder what they would do if I put my head down and went to sleep! :)

I am working with them on some really cool math projects...one is string art. Many of you may remember doind string art when you were in school...it never really goes out of style. The other is creating a stained glass window design using slope. It's fun, but difficult and the students have a love/hate relationship with the project. I plan to take pictures and post them early next week...be on the lookout!

On another note, Nate, Tricia, and Gwyneth Lawrenson are finally experiencing "family time" at home! Gwyneth is the micro-preemie who was born just shy of 25 weeks gestation to a mother with advanced CF disease. God has blessed Tricia with new lungs (thanks to an organ donor) and has protected Gwyneth from major complications. Please join me in continuing to pray for them as they grow together as a family!

Have a great weekend!

Ugh

We are PACT testing this week. We test on Tues., Wed., Thurs., make ups on Fri. Then again next week...Tues., Wed., Thurs., make ups on Fri. This is an incredibly boring week for me! I am praying that my students realize that they have the skills needed to complete the task before them. I told them yesterday before we started..."You may not have learned in my class every single thing you will see on this test, but you've been taught how to think it all through and be able to solve. Do your best and THINK, THINK, THINK!" I felt like a character from Disney's Winnie the Pooh and the Super Sleuths.

Anyway, I will try to take pics of the remainder of my students and get them posted today or tomorrow. They love this attention!

A few more...

M...isn't she cute?
D, K, and D
J...aka "CarrotTop"
E...very pretty girl
M&M...not the candy
A which stands for "ain't I cute?"
R...she is precious!

More of my students

Some of the rest of them were not nearly as camera shy as some of the first ones...

E...doing her BEST "Oh My GOD!" eye roll for me.

L...cutie pie

Thank you God...

I want to take today to thank God for giving me these two beautiful reasons to celebrate Mother's Day.
I'm blessed! Thank you God!

Take me out to the ballgame!!!

Many of you know that baseball is my FAVORITE game!!!! I really love it when I get to watch my favorite player, Caleb Madden. He's fantastic and I am a typical screaming mom!!! "Run, run, run...get the lead out!!!" "Get your head in the game!" "You got it...it's your now!" "RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN...DON'T LOOK AT THE BALL.....RUN!"

Here are some pics of what I get with my enthusiasm...he's much more calm than I am.

My students

I have taken some pictures of my students and promised them I would put them on my blog...so here they are.

B, J, and B....cute, huh?

S...Can you say camera shy???

T...this is the position you can find her in the most often...however she knows her stuff!

There will be more later, taking a break! See you soon!

Priceless

Load of freshly washed quarry rocks to fix the driveway..........$500

Hospital co-pay for stitches after getting hit with a rock........$100

The amount of fun they had playing on the rocks...........PRICELESS!

Seriously, nobody got hurt severely but they had a blast! You can see it on their faces.

I told them it looked they had gotten into war paint. This was a great day!!!!

Never Before

Today during my fourth period class (it's the last core class they have before electives) I gave up on my students. After 2 hours of trying to explain things to them, I had enough of talking over them and just said "the test is on Monday...you can figure out what it's on." This has never happened before in my teaching career. I've never given up on an entire class. This has been a hell-uva week.

The cat....

...is now out of the bag, so I can write more about it. I interviewed for a job teaching 7th grade math at another middle school in Rock Hill and got the job. I will be teaching on a four person team beginning next school year...7th grade (my favorite) math. Not a huge change from what I teach now but I won't be teaching science. It's still in the same district, so I will still see the same people from time to time. I've never taught anywhere other than RRMS since I came to Rock Hill, so I'm kind of sad to leave "home" but change is good. And God opened the door for me to go here...I don't think it's a good idea to say no to God! :)

Can't wait to learn more about STMS and write about it here.

Progress Reports

Progress Reports go out today...mid-term grades for those of you who aren't familiar with educanese. So many of my students don't have all their grades done and have incompletes...they are VERY upset, mainly with me. Not my fault! But next week in the afternoons after PACT we will spend some time on make ups.

Job interview this afternoon! Wish me luck...more information to come later.

Exams (Part 2)

Written, re-read, and submitted!!!! YEE HAW!

Exams...

Any questions?

My Family

Yesterday I posted a photo of Caleb for my friend Kim. She left a comment that said that Caleb looks exactly like me, which I agree with. But many, many people say that Sarah looks just like me. So here's what I think...Caleb has the same facial features that I do, but has darker coloring like Greg.


Sarah, on the other hand, has coloring more like mine (check out her eyes), but the features of Greg's face.



What do you think? I have had someone drive by my house and see Sarah playing, and ask me about it later...thinking that Sarah looks just like me, not knowing where I live prior to the 'drive by' and being able to tell she was my daughter. I just don't see it. Let me know what you all think about this...just fun for me! :)

What ARE we teaching them???

This morning as I was getting ready for school I watched, as I always do, "Today on NBC." While I was watching I saw two things that really caught my attention. First was a story about a softball player who hit a homerun and then injured her knee on the way to first base. She couldn't run and it was against the rules for her teammates to carry her, so the opposing team carried her around the bases. Now I know that there are some people who maintain that she should've drug herself around the bases to score and not relied on anyone else...those people have the opinion that American's are too soft...we need to toughen up and "pick ourselves up by the boot straps and do it ourselves." I mean, after all, Kerri Strugg vaulted and landed without a hop, skip, or jump to clinch the gold medal for the American team in the 1996, and she had a broken foot, right?

What's wrong, though, with teaching our kids that it's ok to help someone? There's a saying that goes "It takes a village to raise a child"...well, I maintain that it takes a village just to survive. Our world is getting smaller and smaller and we are connected by the internet...why can't we go deeper than half-hearted communication and get involved with each other? Bravo to the girls who carried their opponent around the diamond! They just get it!

The second thing that caught my attention was this: A teenager (13 years old) was at home when two people broke into her house to burglarize it. The smart girl that she is decided that if the burglars were going to steel things they would go through the closet in her room, so she hid under the covers in her bed...I'm assuming that she has a big, fluffy comforter that could hide a person. Ok...I get that and I'm impressed that she thought about that. This is the part I don't get...rather than use her cell to call 911, she texts her mother...who is at work 15 minutes away. Why??? Why would she do that? I talked to my students about it because they are old enough to be at home alone now. I said "FIRST...be SURE all the doors are locked! SECOND...don't text your mom...call 911!" I explained that as a mother I would really want to know what was going on with my children, but that there were some instances that I'm not trained to help them in! I do not have a clue how to rescue my children from a fire safely, how to repair severly damaged body parts, or how to stop thieves or robbers from getting my stuff. I could ram their vehicle with mine...that's what this mom did...and I might even wrestle with someone, but I can't arrest them...I'm tough, but not that tough.

Please make sure you are talking to your kids about this stuff. It's a scary world we live in!

Kim...this one's for you!!!

Just as we were leaving to go to school this morning, I realized Caleb had his "Go Eagles" shirt on for the Winthrop Eagles. So I grabbed my phone and snapped a pic to post here for Kim! Hope you enjoy it, Kim!!!
Robin