Winding Down?

I'm thinking I might stop writing in this blog soon. I find myself running out of ideas. If you look back in my posts over the past month (which I haven't yet) you will probably see almost all of them dealing with school or my books. I'm guessing my 2 readers (if that) per blog post are getting bored with that. I'm going to try to stick it out to 1,000 blog posts, but we will see what happens!

Free Money

About 2 weeks ago, I had a meeting after school that I was required to go to. It was a 20 minute training on how to proctor a test we are giving tomorrow. I'm not even giving the test. The ELA teachers are giving it to the ones who need it and I take the rest and teach them math. It's for some reading program that parents volunteered their kids for. I had nothing to do with this program because it started last year when I wasn't at the school. However, just for going to the training and teaching a group of kids while the others are taking the test tomorrow during the school day, I get $100. So you're telling me I had to go to a 20 minute meeting after school and then do what I always do at work and I get $100 for my troubles? I know, I know, it's awful, but somebody has to do it! It's nice to get extra money for doing practically nothing more than I already do!

Birthday Presents

I am the most boring person in the world when it comes to giving people presents. I have no creativity. I typically give people gift cards. My mom's birthday is next Monday. I typically get her Pandora charms, flowers, or gift cards. I decided to get her chocolate dipped strawberries from Edible Arrangements this year. Of course it's insanely overpriced because they can, but I didn't have many options since I'm so far away from her. I'm sure she will like it.

Discounts

One perk of being a teacher in North Carolina is that many places give teachers discounts. I went golfing today and the weekend price is $36. Being a teacher and going a little later in the day, I was able to pay just $20 for 18 holes and a golf cart! You absolutely cannot beat that price. I can get a discount when I get a haircut too. A. C. Moore and Hobby Lobby also give discounts to teachers. It's nice to know that some places care about teachers.

Squirrels in Roof

I haven't had enough problems with my apartment so I wanted more. I got home from working out today and my neighbor asked me if I had heard any noises on the roof. I told him no and he explained that there's a hole in the roof and a family of squirrels live there. He showed me and sure enough, the squirrels were poking their heads out. I showed him the stain on my ceiling that I thought was a water leak. He told me that it wasn't water, it was rodent urine. There is some green fungus growing on the stain too. I had a pretty bad week at work and this wasn't what I wanted to come home to! Apparently my neighbors have been contacting the company in charge of our apartment and they have done nothing. I emailed the company with the pics and we will see what happens... Sigh...

Pinterest

Pinterest is such a great website. I go on there for teaching tools and more importantly, new recipes to try. Many people post their ideas and hand made teacher materials that they have used. It's pretty awesome. I found a few recipes I'll be trying next Wednesday when my friends come over for dinner: chicken bacon ranch pasta and garlic biscuits stuffed with cheese. It will be a very healthy, but delicious meal!

Flu Shot

I got my flu shot the other day. I only got it because I was able to get it for free from my district. I've only had the flu shot 2 times in my life, unless I got some when I was a baby, which I'm sure I did. I got one last year and this year. Everyone always cautions me because they say you will get sick from flu shots. I was fine last year and so far I'm fine this year. I'm glad I got it over with because being around hundreds of kids coughing, sneezing, and being gross every day is not exactly the healthiest situation to be in.

Killing Trees

Most teachers must not care about the environment at all. The amount of photocopies we make every day is insane. I probably make between 50-100 and day, and that's pretty low compared to some teachers! The hot times for the copier are first thing in the morning and immediately after school. If you want to make copies Monday morning or Friday afternoon, forget it. That's when teachers are being proactive or procrastinating. Naturally only 1 out of the 2 copiers will work at that time. One is always inevitably jammed. #teacherproblems It would be nice if there was a way we wouldn't have to use so much paper. I'm going to start using a math workbook for some of my homework. The kids can write in it since we won't use the book anymore after this year. It's still common core aligned, which is good. The less paper we use, the better it is for our environment. Save trees!

2,000

On January 28, I wrote about how I reached 1,000 book sales. It took me over a year and a half to get to 1,000 and I was quite proud of that. I just reached 2,000 book sales today not counting free books and borrows! It only took less than 8 months to get another 1,000 sales! I am blown away by how my books are selling right now. I've sold well over 100 a month (counting borrows) for 10 months in a row. I'm on pace to sell well over 200 this month alone! Maybe I can quit teaching soon and just sell books! I'm kidding, I would have to sell hundreds of books a day to get even close to quitting my job. Thank you for all of the support from everyone who has bought any of my books. I appreciate it!

Glasses

Yesterday, I picked up my new glasses. These are my first new pair of frames since 10th grade. I decided it was finally time for a change. My old frames were crooked and obviously very old. I signed up for eye insurance this year so that I wouldn't have to spend a ridiculous amount for new frames and lenses. After all is said and done with insurance and what I paid, I think I saved over $100 so that's good. Maybe I'll keep these new frames for over 10 years like I did my old ones.

Spelling Words

One of my biggest pet peeves as a teacher, no matter what grade, is when kids spell words incorrectly when it is written on the worksheet they are working on! I kind of understand when 1st graders mess this up, but not when 4th graders do this! I was correcting morning work today and so many kids spelled words incorrectly when it was on the paper! That's just pure laziness! Not only that, I go over morning work every single day. I collect it just to make sure they are doing it. I had to correct so many errors it was insane! If you can't do work correctly even when I go over it right after you do it, I don't know what more I can do for you! Also, spell words correctly when they are right in front of you!

Tom Petty and Steve Winwood

I saw Tom Petty last night for the 6th time! Steve Winwood opened for him. He only played 2 songs that I recognized, "Higher Love" and "Gimme Some Lovin". Tom Petty played for just under 2 hours. He played 18 songs including the encore. It was pretty much the same set list as last year when I saw him. As always, he was rocking it. He can still put on a show at almost 64 years old. I wish he would have played longer because he didn't play so many of his other big hits. I also understand that it's impossible to play every popular song he has since he has so many. I was able to get home from the concert in an hour and 20 minutes, which is really fast. I got home at 12:30AM. Today was rough, but it was worth it!

Math Conference

I'm trying to go to a math conference in Greensboro on October 30-31. Greensboro is about 2 hours from me. There's only one reason I want to go. Paul McCartney is performing in Greensboro on the 30th and I want to go. If I'm at this conference, that means that after the concert, I can just go to my hotel room instead of driving 2 hours home. It would be so much easier! However, there's a good chance I won't be going to the conference because of funding. My school might not have the money to send me to this professional development. If I do go, I might not go to Paul McCartney anyway because those tickets are more expensive than I want to pay right now. We will see what happens. I'm off to see Tom Petty in Raleigh right now!

America's Got Talent

My younger brother got me obsessed with this show a few years ago. Tonight was the finale of season 9. The winner was a magician for the first time ever. I was sure it was going to be a singer who I couldn't stand because of her old fashioned style. She ended up being runner up and I know she will go on to do great things. All 6 of the acts in the finals were incredible. Big Brother will be finishing next Wednesday. Then I'll have no TV shows to watch. I better find something so I don't consume my nights with nonstop school work!

Getting Much Better

I'm getting much better in all senses of the word. I started to feel sick on Thursday night. Sunday and yesterday were my worst days. I was coughing, sneezing, had a runny nose, and a sore throat. I went to bed early last night, took NyQuil and felt a million times better today. I'm still a little congested, but nothing like I was this past weekend or yesterday. I'm also getting much better at staying on top of things. I don't feel nearly as overwhelmed as I have been. I haven't stayed at school until 5:30 or so like I normally do. My new goal is to leave by 4 each day, which I think is very doable, unless I have a meeting in the afternoon. I also find myself not yelling at kids like I did last year. My mentor this year is very big about me not yelling at kids. Although I mostly don't agree with her on that, I am trying my best not to yell and it's making me happier. Overall, my experience at my new school has been 587349847 times better than last year!

Saying Numbers

I'm spending about a quarter of the year this year on place value and rounding. Part of that is how to say numbers, write them in expanded form, and write them in word form. I try very hard to teach my kids that they do not say the word "and" in numbers. The number 467 is four hundred sixty-seven, not four hundred AND sixty-seven. The and means decimal point. I will be teaching that later in the year. It's very hard to teach my kids this when adults all over the place say and in their numbers. Even on videos that are supposed to teach kids, adults say and! Seriously? I hear it all of the time in sports and in other news stories. It's not that difficult. When you deal with money, you say $26 and 15 cents. Why? Because there's a decimal point after the dollar amount. There's no decimal point in the number 529. Do me a favor and say your numbers correctly for your kids sake!

Eating Challenge

I've always wanted to try an eating challenge. I was looking at a menu today of a place that I go to when I'm in Raleigh. It's right across from PNC Arena so it's convenient. I'll be seeing Tom Petty there this Thursday. I will not be trying this challenge for two reasons. One, I'll be incredibly full and feel sick during the concert. Two, it's gross! It's a 2 pound burger with a pound of pork on top, a large amount of slaw on top of that, a pound of fries, and a gallon of sweet tea. The sweet tea kills it for me. I don't like tea. Plus, a gallon of any drink in one hour with that much food is not easy. I would feel soooo sick if I even tried. No thank you! Maybe I'll try another challenge another time.

Special Guest

The afternoon after I taught the kids about 9-11, I got a parent call. Her first words were, "I heard you taught the kids about 9-11." My thoughts were, great, a parent complaint already. "I wish you would have told me. My step father was one of the first responders when the plane crashed in Pennsylvania." She then told me the story. I thought it was so cool! Her step dad emailed me pictures and she came in yesterday and explained the pictures to the kids. Then we got her step dad on speaker phone and he answered the kids questions. The kids weren't very excited just because they still don't understand the significance of 9-11. I was so excited. I had never talked to anyone who played a huge role in the clean up of 9-11. He found the driver's license of one of the hijackers! How crazy is that? That was by far the coolest lesson I've ever given. Too bad I appreciated it more than the kids.

Teaching 9-11

I made the choice to teach my class about September 11 even though I know none of them had been born yet. My logic was simple, I was taught about WW 1, 2 and many other events when I wasn't born yet either. Kids need to know about this horrific event. It was not easy to talk about. It was also very hard for the kids to understand, but they asked some good questions and I thought the lesson went extremely well. Tomorrow, I'll tell you about the exciting aftermath of teaching them about 9-11. Today, I had a special guest talk about the events to the class. More on that tomorrow.

3 Parents

We had curriculum night tonight. That's when we go over what we will be teaching the children all year. It's different than open house because at open house, we typically just give them paperwork and go over our homework policy and stuff like that. All four 4th grade teachers combined in one room to house all of the parents. By all of the parents, I mean the 3 that showed up out of about 80. No, I am not under exaggerating. 3 parents showed up. It was frustrating to put so much work into it when no one showed up. Oh well.

Stories

One of my favorite parts about getting together with my group of teacher friends is the stories we share with one another. Kids will say and do the most hilarious things. Typically at the time it happens, it isn't funny. Later once things are taken care of, it's hilarious. Today, I had a situation that upset me greatly at the time. I called all parents of students involved and hopefully the issue will be resolved. Tonight at dinner, we laughed about it. Clearly I won't share the story here because you would need to hear it in person to understand it. That's one great thing about teaching. There is never a dull moment!

Smoke Detector

We all know that if the battery dies in the smoke detector, it makes a beep noise every minute or so to let you know to change your battery. Not mine! It makes a long beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep noise about every 10 seconds. I legit thought there might have been a fire in my house. Once I got to the detector, I couldn't figure out how to take off the back to get the battery out. It took me a minute or two of listening to that obnoxious beep until I finally got it. I better get a battery soon so that I don't wake up dead because the smoke detector didn't alert me that there's a fire in my house.

Chick Fil A

I'm not typically a fast food guy. I much prefer to go out to a sit down dinner. That has changed completely since I moved. I've been to Bojangles, Hardees, Chick Fil A, KFC, Zaxbys, and any other chicken fast food place you can think of far too many times. Today I went to Chick Fil A for one reason. My school was having a fundraiser. A portion of purchases went to my school. That was my excuse for getting fast food today. I helped raise money for my school!

Call Me, Maybe

How do you turn an incredibly awful song into something more bearable? You change the lyrics of course! Last night at about 10 o'clock, I was insanely tired. I was about to go to bed. Then all of a sudden, I decided to try to create a place value song for my students. I started doing this with the song "Irreplaceable" by Beyonce because the lyrics "To the left, to the left" relate to place value. I got a little ways through the song and realized that it was too fast of a song and way too high for me. Then I tried to think of another popular song. That's when "Call Me, Maybe" came to mind. Every kid knows that song. Changing the lyrics to that song wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I look forward to singing it to my kids tomorrow. As a teacher, you can't think about how goofy doing something might make you look. You have to do what's best for the kids. 8 days in and my kids already know I'm strange, so I don't care. Kids learn information easier when they hear it in song form. Let's hope this works!

It's Here!

Football season is back! It's the best time of the year. My Dallas Cowboys are going to be amazing. By amazing, I predict that they will go 3-13. They are going to be awful! I have no expectations for them. Their defense is projected to be 32nd out of 32 teams in the NFL. I'm going to be in for a long season. Whatever, at least football is back.

Perception of Words

It's really funny the difference between "Yes ma'am" or "Yes sir" in the northern states and in the southern states. If I were to say that to my parents, they'd smack me because they would think I was being sarcastic. If a student said that to a teacher, they would get in trouble for the same reason in the north. If you don't say "Yes ma'am" in the south, you will get smacked for being disrespectful. I now use that while teaching. If I am angry at a child and I want a response from them, I expect "Yes sir". It's amazing how moving from one state to another completely changes your views on certain phrases.

Murphy's Law

I'm telling you, I can't catch a break here! Murphy's Law states that whatever can go wrong will go wrong. Once something in my apartment is fixed, something else doesn't work. Yesterday my phone decided to not send iMessages or receive them. It also decides to use a lot of data whenever I don't use the phone. That makes sense, right? At least I was able to get on the phone and have it fixed today... for now!

Spider

There has been a spider right outside my door to my apartment every night for at least a month now. If I go out and come back at night, he is there in his web. The thing is huge! When it's day time, I see him on the ceiling sleeping in his web. Each morning when I leave for work, he is either still chilling in the middle of the air, or he is working his way back up to bed. What a simple life he lives. One day I'll take some spray and kill him. But for now, he's shockingly not bothering me so I'll let him be.

Recess

Up until today, I have never seen a group of kids want to go inside for recess! It was about 95° outside this afternoon. I know when I was in New York it never got that high. However, I still find it shocking that kids would want to go inside and do work instead of go outside for recess. I still held my ground and kept them outside because they don't realize that that time is also my break from teaching. It's going to be hot and stormy the rest of the week. Maybe it will rain tomorrow and the kids will have to stay inside. Then they will want to go out.

Tom Durkin

I'm sure that many people reading this post have no idea who Tom Durkin is. I of course do because I have an obsession with horse racing. I know you didn't know that. Tom Durkin was the track announcer at Saratoga for 24 years. He retired yesterday. He announced at tracks all over the nation in his 40+ year career. He is known as the best track announcer ever. He has such passion and enthusiasm when he calls races. He can be hilarious while calling too. I could give you many famous quotes from him but you wouldn't laugh unless you heard them on YouTube.He is one of the reasons I love horse racing so much. He will be greatly missed!