“If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance”

“If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance”

Delay!

We had lots more snow this week and lucked out with a delay on Thursday. If you were up at 5:30am and listened ever so slightly, you could hear someone singing the Hallelujah chorus in 4 part harmony…that was me! It felt so great to sleep a little more. I wish school had been cancelled though, since I slid straight through a stop sign, but I would rather not add any extra days onto this summer. I will include the awesome picture of Alayna holding a chunk of ice.

(ALayna playing in snow in basketball court with beautiful sunset)

Whistle while you work

Marisa worked 3 days this week. I forgot to get a picture of her in her Hyvee clothes, so I just got one with her tag. She said she really loves it but has noticed how her legs and feet hurt from standing so long.

Date Night

Bob and I had to go renew our temple recommends at the stake center this week, so we took the opportunity to go out on an ice cream date. On Friday night, Tyler was at a friend’s birthday slumber party, Kayla had a bowling meet, and then the girls went to a huge Christmas Party, so Bob, Alayna and I thought we should party too! So, we went out for dinner and Alayna was in heaven with her soda, chips and salsa, and pepperoni pizza.

All the other stuff

Marisa had another wonderful orchestra concert on Monday night.

The kids had a great time at a very fun joint activity on Wednesday night. Alayna made a beautiful candle holder for Activity Days.

Alayna was Star Student of the week so she was able to bring in pictures and share all her favorite things with her class. They also got to wear PJs to school on Friday and watch a movie.

Tyler gave his very 1^st talk in sacrament meeting today and did such a great job! He also had his board of review and has earned his Tenderfoot and 2^nd Class in scouts! Whoo hoo Tyler!

Our whole family sang with the ward choir today for the Christmas Program.

Weak Things become strong

Just wanted to share something cool I learned. I heard from another teacher, that every year during the summer, she takes whatever unit she taught during the past year that she didn’t love and fix it until it becomes the best unit. Well, I teach Geography Terms, Canada, Latin America, and then US Government (which I have HATED). So, I decided to give it a shot.

First, I ended up discovering an AWESOME website from another teacher. Its called www.icivics.org and after each branch of the government that we studied, we would get the laptops for the day and play the games such as being president for the day, running your own law firm where you match up clients with lawyers according to what amendment fits, etc. It was such a huge success that most kids went and played it at home and MANY parents were playing along with us. Now how cool is that??

Then, instead of the test I usually give, we had a Table Team Tournament (proud to say this was all my idea). So, it was a big competition. Each team had to answer a page of questions about the Executive Branch. If they got all questions right, they earned a task card where they had to build the Capitol building in 3 colors of play dough and include the 3 main parts of the building. Then they had to answer questions for the Legislative Branch and if they got them right, they earned another task card where they each had to cover their desktops in shaving cream and using their finger to list the 3 types of court cases. Lastly, they answered questions about the Judicial Branch and then earned a task card where they had to count out as many beans as we have US Senators. There was a bonus round of Daily Geography Questions and then they had to build a volcano, lake, and plateau out of play dough. It was a HUGE success and guess what? They almost all listed this as their favorite unit on the 1^st semester survey. Now how cool is that??

The Balance of Life

I had another really strange thing happen at work this week. Last week, I had a student completely lie to his parents about something and the whole issue kind of blew up and I spent Friday night in tears. (Sometimes that’s the crappy part about being a teacher, but thank goodness I am meticulous at documenting behavior.) But this week, I had 4 different kids bring me in a little special treat just for me. One boy even made me a ceramic cup that he painted in red for “Mrs.Heart”. How sweet is that? The ultimate though, which completely touched my heart, was a letter I got in my mailbox at school. Apparently, the 8^th grade health teacher assigned all her students to write a letter to someone who was been very influential and made a difference in their lives. I got a beautiful letter from a student I had 2 years ago. I have to remind myself that life usually balances itself out and this week my sweet students made that possible.