Adventure #39: Good-bye Roomie...Hello October

My roommate moved out today :( She moved into her new house where she will be living with her new husband who she is marrying in two weeks!

I'm so excited for her and all the changes that are coming up in her life, but I am sad too. The apartment is so empty without her and all her stuff here :) Staring at bare walls all day is rather depressing! But its exciting too I guess; I get to decorate the apartment again :) And its not like I'll never see her again- we still teach right across the hall from each other and there will be plenty of times to have dinner together and go shopping together.

Life is speeding by as usual. I can hardly believe it is October 1st already! Parent teacher conferences were last week and then I went to a women's retreat in Prescott, AZ. The weather was so beautiful there and it was a beautiful camp. It was nice to get away for a weekend and spend some time in the nice cool mountains :)

One more week of school before Fall Break! The kids are starting to get a little antsy, but we'll make it through one more week...I hope :) Then I'll be on a plane back to Minnesota to enjoy some beautiful fall weather and Ashley's wedding! How the time flies!!

Adventure #38: An Update on Life

My 11 year old sister, Megan has been bugging me for a while now that I need to update my blog :) So this is for you Megs!

Not too much new going on in Arizona...the weather is finally cooling down here which is awesome! I love being able to stand outside on recess duty and not be dripping sweat by the time I'm done. School is continuing to go well. I am really enjoying getting to know my students this year and watching them learn. Its weird to think back to this point last year and remember how many hours I spent after school working on this, that, and the other thing! This year I feel so much more orgainized and it takes way less time to get everything done at the end of the day. It is so wonderful to have time in the evenings to read books for fun and work on other projects and hang out with people without feeling guilty about needing to get things done!

Next week will be a busy week! Parent-Teacher Conferences are Thursday and Friday after school and then next weekend I am going to a women's retreat with church! Will be a busy week, but it should be a good one! Hope your week goes well!

Adventure #37: My Favorite Kind of Day

Today was my favorite kind of day. One of those days where most things run pretty smoothly, where my kids say funny things, where my kids remind me why I love this job. The morning started off a little crazy, which is pretty normal I guess, running to the office to make copies of this, talking to collegues to figure out how to solve this problem, and trying to get this, that, and the other thing ready in my classroom.

We are learning about declarative sentences in grammar and we were doing a worksheet where the students had to answers questions with complete sentences. One of the questions was who is your teacher so I had written "Miss Parkinson" on the board so they would know how to spell it. One of my students says "It says Miss because you're married!" to which I replied, "No, I'm not married. If I was married my name would be Mrs. Parkinson," to which my students responded with lots of questions about where I live and who I live with. I love conversations like this that are so random and give me such a picture of how they think. My favorite question was, "If you're not married, who wakes you up in the morning?" It was so cute; made even cuter when I told them my alarm clock wakes me up which they thought was hilarious!

We have a record breaking heat wave going on right now, so recess had to be in our classrooms today. Many of the kids choose to play school and it was so funny to sit and listen to them repeat, almost word for word, what I say to them everyday at Math Meeting or during story time. Its a wonderful reminder of how much they catch and are paying attention to my every action.

Then a little later in the day, this note appears on my desk:


It came from one of my boys who is so cute, but is a little stinker. His card is on orange or yellow more often than green. He gets distracted and starts talking to his neighbors, he puts crayons in his water bottle and then dumps all the water into the trash can trying to get it out, he plays in the sink at the bathroom, and chases all the little girls on the playground. Some days with him are really rough, but those are not the ones he remembers. He remembers the days where he was on green all day and gets rewarded with a high five and good job today! That's what I love about kids. Sometimes you have to punish them and remind them rather sternly again and again that they are not supposed to be talking while I am, and they need to raise their hand to speak, but even when it seems like that's all you do, they don't remember the yelling. They remember the smiles, and the joking, and the high-fives.

Days like these are good reminders of why I wake up with the sun every morning and spend hours and hours at school and then at home working on things and preparing lessons. Because my students are wonderful kids who are excited about learning and they deserve the opportunity to learn and be successful! I'm so glad I get to wake up everyday and be a part of their lives!

Adventure #36: First Two Weeks...Done!

Lexi, Reese, and I on the first day of school!

I am always amazed at how quickly a week flies by when you are in the midst of a routine. I wake up every morning (except weekends) at about 5:30, get dressed, pack a lunch, and head to school to spend the next 9 or 10 hours going through the routine of school and all that is involved in that, I come home to relax and get geared up for the next day and then start it all over again. Some days, especially about 1 o'clock when my kids are tired and I'm tired; the day seems to be taking forever. But almost always, by the end of the week, I'm amazed that another week has passed!

My first two weeks of school have gone pretty well. There were bumps in the road; for example the first two days of school we stood outside in 110 degree heat for an hour trying to get all the kids home! But all in all, its been a great start to the year. Its so nice to have a good idea of what I'm doing and to not have to spend hours at school trying to get ready for the next day. It fascinating to see how different my class is this year. I wasn't really expecting that, but when I think about it it makes complete sense. This is a new group of kids with different experiences and backgrounds so of course they are going to be different! It has been a little bit of an adjustment because I was so used to how my students acted at the end of last year and compared to that, my new students seem like babies. It is a great reminder of how much they grow up and mature in first grade. I am so excited to watch this new class grow and learn and to see how far they will come by the end of the year!

Every day is a new adventure and I can't wait to see what the days will hold. Off to start today's adventure: hanging out by the pool soaking up the hot Arizona sun :)

Adventure #35:And So it Begins...Again!

Tomorrow begins my second year of teaching! I can hardly believe its here! It seems like just yesterday I was saying good-bye to my first class, and just the day before that I was starting my first year! Time sure has flown by!

I am excited for this new year to start! I got to meet most of my students on Friday night at Meet the Teacher; they were all very excited for school to start and were very sweet! Our new principals and staff are awesome and I think it is going to be a great year!

Here goes another year!

Adventure #34: Week 1 of Training!

I survived one week of Spalding II training! Most of you probably have no idea what this means, so I'll explain :) Spalding is the language arts curriculum our school uses and there are trainings teachers have to go through in order to be certified in the curriculum. We went through the first training last summer and now comes part 2. We have to drive an hour each way to one of the other school campuses so it gets to be kind of a long day, but its been fun to get to spend some time with the other teachers from our school and catch up after the summer. We have one more week of Spalding training and then a week of district training. I'm kind of ready for it to be over, but its not too terrible!

I also have been able to spend some time in my classroom this week, which has been awesome. Last year was so rushed and crazy that it is so wonderful to be able to have almost three weeks to set my classroom up this year. I'm excited to get everything in place and to start a new year!

Well, I better go do my homework before class tomorrow! Have a wonderful week :)

Adventure #33: My Summer Vacations

Its hard to believe, but my summer is coming near to its end. We really only had 6 weeks of a summer and I spent 4 of them traveling which makes it go rather quickly! There were many adventures in my travels- so here's the story:

My first trip was with the Light family to California. We went for Reese's 5th birthday to go to Disneyland and we took in a few other sights while we were there like Hollywood :)



I really enjoyed Disneyland- although the lines got a little long sometimes :) It was fun to ride on all the rides and watch Reese and Lexi get to dance with the princesses! Hollywood was interesting- it was cool to see all the sights you hear about like the walk of fame and the Kodak Theatre but it was really crowded and dirty too. It was cool to say I've been there, but I have no desire to return anytime soon :)

After that trip I was home for a few days before heading to Philadelphia to meet Travis and visit his sister for a few days. We had a wonderful time hanging out with Tami and seeing all the sights.



It was really cool to walk around downtown Philly and see all these historical sights that have been around for hundreds of years. We found a book in one of the shops that showed pictures of buildings in the late 1800s and early 1900s and then pictures of the same building today; it was so cool to see how many of the buildings looked exactly the same! It was amazing to see how intricate and complex the buildings were and to think about how long it must have taken to build them without the tools and technology we have today. It was also great to spend some time with Travis and his sister relaxing and catching up. All in all, it was a great trip

After Philly I flew with Travis back to Minneapolis to spend a couple weeks in Minnesota. I enjoyed spending time with my family, going to a few marching band parades to cheer on my sister Amy, catching up with friends, and doing wonderful Minnesota summer things like hanging out at the cabin and the lake and going to a Twins game!



I miss lakes and hanging out at them all summer long! It was great to get a chance to spend some time at the lake tubing and swimming and going for boat rides! It was another great trip :)

Now I am back in hot Arizona! I have one week left before I go back for training. I'm kind of excited to get back to work- I really enjoy my job and my students and the people I work with and I am excited to get back into that routine! But I am enjoying the last days of summer :) Hope all your summers are going well!!