1,000 and Done

This is officially my 1,000th and final blog post. I have had a very hard time coming up with something to write lately. Therefore, I figured my 1,000th blog post would be a great number to end on. I mean I've written in this blog pretty much every single day for almost 3 years now. I'd say that's pretty impressive. I know I've gotten very repetitive at times. That's another reason I am stopping. I'm having writer's block. It doesn't necessarily mean I'll never write in this blog again. Who knows? Maybe I'll get some inspiration down the road. But for now, this will be my last post for awhile. It's been a good run. I'm not going to say "Good bye" because in the movie John Q, they don't like good bye. They prefer, "See you later." So, I'll see you later.

How do I write my books?

Whenever I tell people I have written books, I almost always hear, "I've always wanted to write a book." How do I write my books? It's rather simple. Well, it's not. I just write them one word at a time. My biggest advice is to write what you know. Of course you can write fiction. 3 of my 4 books are fiction. However, I wrote about what I knew...school. Come up with a title, outline the book, write it, edit it, edit it, edit it, edit it, edit it, have a friend edit it, have a family member edit it, edit it again, then when you think it's perfect, edit it again, have a friend edit it, then edit it again, and edit it 17 more times, then again edit it, and then edit it, then it might be good to publish. It's that simple! haha. I don't know if I have the courage or emotional stability to write a book to prepare first year teachers for what they are about to experience. If I did and found the right publisher, I bet it would sell really well. I don't care how much college you go to, nothing prepares you for teaching until you actually get into it.

That Was Awful

My 5K run today did NOT go well. What did I expect? I didn't run all week to prepare for it. I finished 19th out of I think 77. Last year in the same race I finished 6th out of around 180. I'm not sure why there were so few runners this time. My time last year was 22:47. This year it was 25:17. I walked three times today all on the last stretch of he race. It was humid this morning. I had a horrible week at work leading up to the race. I can make excuses until I'm blue in the face. The fact of the matter is simply that I didn't have it today. Hopefully I'll do better in the color run at the end of May.

Not Prepared

I have a 5K race tomorrow and I am NOT prepared AT ALL. Every day when I get home from work, I plan on running. That never seems to happen because I come up with too many excuses: I was at work later than usual, I'm tired, I have papers to grade, I have to cook dinner. I'm so full of excuses it's pathetic. Of course I have high expectations for myself for my run tomorrow and will be disappointed if I don't get a good time. I shouldn't be disappointed though. I didn't really train for this. I ran the race in 22:47 last year, which is my best 5K time. I finished 6th overall and 1st in my age group. This year, it's the same course as last year. I'm not sure what my goal is for this race. I'll be happy with anything under 24 minutes I guess, which is 8 minutes a mile. We will see what happens!

I need a Bubble

I've decided that after the money I've spent the last 5 days especially, I need my own personal bubble. I need to find a location where I have no computer access, no access to my phone, and no access to purchase anything at all! I need to stop spending money immediately! Obviously that is impossible. I've seen shows where people are able to spend very, very little money in a month by doing this that and the other thing. Some of these people are amazing at saving money. Right now, I don't have that capability. My credit card is crying right now. It's exhausted even though it hasn't been swiped much. It's more like me punching its numbers in online instead of going to the store where they swipe the card. Someone help me find this bubble so I can maybe save a buck or two!

The Rolling Stones!

I will be the first person to admit, I have serious issues. Ever since I moved to North Carolina, I have gone to so many basketball games and concerts. I feel like I'm addicted to them. On Saturday, I booked a cruise. On Sunday, I bought tickets to see The Who next Tuesday. I also bought tickets to see Styx at the Bahamas on the cruise. On Monday, tickets to the Rolling Stones went on sale. I wanted to buy two tickets and fly my mom down here so we can see the Rolling Stones together. She has never seen them and has wanted to forever. Unfortunately, I tried to get them at 10:07 when they went on sale at 10 and the lowest price tickets were gone. The price left was out of my range. I checked yesterday, the price was even higher. I checked today and the price was the second lowest ticket price. I asked my dad if I should get those tickets. He said yes and I bought them. A few minutes later, I went on Skype to video chat with my mom and tell her about her early Mother's Day present. I worded it something like this. "So I was thinking about your Mother's Day present and I figured you don't want chocolate, flowers, or edible arrangements." She said, "That's right." I continued, "I figured I'd get you something better. Something that will leave a memory for the rest of your life. Something like flying you down to Raleigh on July 1st and going to the Rolling Stones concert!" As I said the last part, I held up the tickets to the screen. She said, "Oh my god! Are you serious?" I don't think I've ever seen my mom so excited. I have so many things to look forward to over the next couple of months. I have seen some legendary concerts in my year here. I've seen Billy Joel, Tom Petty, Paul McCartney, Elton John, and I'm about to see The Who, Styx, and The Rolling Stones. It doesn't get much better than that!

Everything Happens for a Reason

I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Of course I have no idea what that reason is. However, every little thing that happens in life happens for a specific reason. I am where I am for a reason. Just like yesterday's post, I haven't figured out the reason yet. I might spend my entire life searching for that reason. I might just burst out into P!nk and say, "Just give me a reason just a little bit's enough" because I am certifiably crazy and I always just randomly burst out into song. I don't know. I just need answers and I need them quickly!

Sign

I'm at the point where I feel like I need a sign telling me the right thing to do. Of course I don't mean a poster board saying, "Hey, do this!" I'm saying something needs to happen to help me make the right decision. I just feel like I haven't made the right decision sometimes, even though I've wanted this all my life. I want there to be something, anything to tell me I have made the right choice (or wrong choice, who knows?). I have no idea what that someone or something or event might be. Maybe it'll happen soon. Maybe it won't happen at all. I just need that sign because right now I'm lost.

Cruise #7

The day after I returned from my spring vacation, I booked a vacation for the day after school is done. I'm going on a cruise out of Charleston on June 13 for a week! I got a really good price so I jumped all over it. Now I have something to look forward to. I cannot get enough of cruises or recommend them enough. There is something about being on the top deck, looking out to the water and seeing nothing but water on all 4 sides of the ship. It's so relaxing to me. A lot of people don't cruise for that reason. They get nervous if they see nothing but water. Not me. I love it! I cannot wait to sit out on deck first thing in the morning until right before dinner on days at sea, then enjoying the shows and gambling at night. Sigh, 62 days until I'm in paradise!

Lacrosse Game

As you know, I pretty much love all sports. I don't like lacrosse though. I don't hate it, I just never got into it. My friend is a big lacrosse fan and a big Syracuse fan. Today, they came to play UNC. Since tickets were only $5, I decided to go with him. I found the game to be boring. I don't know why. There was a lot of running around and penalties with players checking each other like in hockey. It's funny that I find a slow moving game like golf more exciting than lacrosse. UNC did beat Syracuse, so that was good. I just never really got into the game. I probably wouldn't go to another one if he invited me to it.

OBX

I just got home from the Outer Banks. The 4 hour ride each way was not fun! Other than that, the trip was awesome! Monday and Tuesday were great because we laid on the beach all day. Wednesday and yesterday were very cold. We didn't go to the beach either day. We went shopping Wednesday and then to a lighthouse and shopping yesterday. On Tuesday, we went to a bar and I sang 2 songs for karaoke while my friends laughed hysterically at me. The nice part about the beach was that it was a block from our condo so we could walk there. Today was the best day of all. We laid on the beach from 9:30-4. We left at 4 because we knew we still had a long drive ahead of us. Today's temperature was around 75 degrees. The trip was great. I look forward to going back in the future.

Packing

I just packed for my 5 day trip to the Outer Banks. We are staying in a condo, so we need to pack our own sheets, blankets, pillows,  and food. There are 4 of us going in one car. I have no idea how we are going to fit everyone and everything into someone's car. I looked at the stuff I have sitting on the floor and it is a lot! I'm a guy. We have 2 guys and 2 girls going. Typically girls have more stuff packed than guys. It's going to be interesting to see how and if everything is going to fit. Either way, I look forward to having a great time!

Not Productive Work Day

I love teacher work days because I typically get a lot done. Unfortunately, that was not the case today. Today's work day was scheduled for 8-2. I was fairly productive until about 10. At that point, out of nowhere, the electricity went out. Then a teacher yelled for someone to call 911. A pick up truck had run into a power pole and the traffic light at the intersection of our school. The truck was on its side. Within minutes, firefighters, EMS, and police were there. They had to break the glass, then cut off the roof to get the guy out. Thankfully he was alright. We didn't do work for at least half an hour to watch what was going on. After that, we couldn't make copies or go on the Internet or anything. My friends and I went to lunch and because of power outages on that street, the traffic was intense. It took us over an hour and a half to have our lunch break. By the time we got back, the principal was walking out the door. We just caught him in time. All of our stuff was still in our classrooms. I had so much to do today but unfortunately because of something out of my control, I didn't get to most of it.

Kirby

I don't know why I always get myself into these predicaments. I got home around 3:45, and laid down after a rough day (as usual unfortunately). Only seconds later, my doorbell rings. I answer it and a man and woman are there. The guy says they can clean my carpet for free and give me free paper towels for doing it. Obviously they were trying to sell my a product. I stupidly said sure. And I said yes for free paper towels? Really? what is wrong with me?!?!? The lady comes in and takes over an hour showing me the Kirby vacuum and how powerful it is. It was gross to see how much dust it picks up. Of course she tried really hard to sell me this $3,000 lifetime guarantee vacuum. I said no because of money and she tried to lower it and I still said no. What a waste of my time. I need to be more assertive and say no before these people waste mine and their time!

Loaded Potato Buffalo Chicken Casserole

I'm always looking for new things to make for dinner. I get bored of the same things over and over again. I also get bored of having chicken all of the time. However, it's pretty simple to make and fairly inexpensive. Our Wednesday night dinners have become the one million ways to make chicken dinners. I found a loaded potato buffalo chicken casserole dish on Pinterest. I made it today for our dinner and it was amazing! It was a lot of work with peeling and cutting the potatoes, but it was worth it. I wonder what chicken creation we will have next Wednesday dinner.

Island

In the education world, teachers call "a desk that is on its own" an island. That desk is away from any other student. We put students on an island if they are distracting others in hopes to end that behavior. A week or two ago, a student comes up to me and asks if I can tell another student to move his desk back because when he swings his feet, it kicks her desk and bothers her. A few minutes later, that student comes up to me and says, "I don't want to go to an island." I say, "Who said you're going on an island?" He said, "You did." I said, "I never said that. However, I'd give anything to be on an island right now. I don't care if it's Jamaica, Bahamas, Aruba, Bermuda, or Hawaii. I don't know about you, but I'd love to be on an island at this very moment." He didn't respond to that and walked away. I tend to go off on tangents that have nothing to do with the issue at hand if I feel it is minor and I shouldn't have to deal with it. I thought that was the perfect response to my students' "island" issue. Needless to say, he didn't like it, and I'm still not on an island and neither is he.

Confidence

How can I preach confidence to my students if I don't have confidence in myself. At this moment, my confidence in my classroom management abilities are in the gutter. I just feel like nothing works. I can't show that lack of confidence to my students. I need to keep pushing and pushing and showing them who is in charge in a respectful way. I need to keep doing character building activities to get all students on the right path. It's going to happen. It's going to work! That's the confidence I need to have each and every day!

Home Alone

I'm not into Christmas movies. However, Home Alone is a Christmas classic that was popular when I was a kid. After the basketball games tonight, I was flipping through channels and found Home Alone on TV. I'm not sure why they are playing it since we are nowhere near Christmas. Whatever. I'll continue to enjoy the movie until I go to bed.

Brwery Tours

I went on two brewery tours yesterday. I've never been on one before until yesterday. They were interesting. The first guy talked way over my head about the process of how beer is made. Breweries are unique in that they don't make the typical big name beer. They put their heart and soul into the beer they make. We got an amazing deal. The first tour cost $7. That got us the tour, 5 5 ounce beer samples, a glass, and a bottle opener. All of that would typically cost much more than $7. The second tour cost $8. That got us a free beer, a free 6 pack of beer, a glass and some bumper stickers. We made out really well. It was a ton of fun besides the fact that I missed the college basketball games because of the tours haha.

Wallet

For whatever reason, most men put their wallet in their back right pocket. I refuse to do that. I do not want to sit on my wallet. How is that comfortable? I put my wallet in my front right pocket. Therefore I don't sit on it. I'm not sure where that tradition started. Because I'm weird, I like to break tradition.

3rd Quarter

Today was the last day of the 3rd quarter of the school year. I feel like this quarter went by faster than the first two. I can't believe I'm 3/4ths of the way done with my first year of teaching. I think it went by so quickly because of the snow days we had. It's strange that it ended on a Thursday and not a Friday. The scary part is that I only have about 30 more school days to prepare my kids for the end of year math test. I'm getting more nervous about that as the days go by!

Motivation Breakthrough

A teacher in my school sent me a link to a selection of YouTube clips called Motivation Breakthrough. I didn't plan on watching all of the videos that lasted over an hour total in one sitting, but I did. It talked about the many unique types of motivation for kids. Kids aren't lazy. They are motivated to do what they do. Everyone does whatever they do for a specific reason. They are motivated to make that decision. The guy also talked about how there are kids who need power and are argumentative. He gave us little tips for how to give them a little bit of power and to avoid confrontations with them. He talked about how if a kid is hungry, he/she will not be motivated. If they have to go to the bathroom or they are thirsty, they won't be motivated. It made me look at what I'm doing differently. As a teacher, it's so hard to give kids those freedoms of using the bathroom when they have to, letting them get water when they are thirsty, etc. He recommended buying snacks and bringing them in for hungry students. However, if I feed one, I have to feed all. That would get extremely pricey to buy snacks for 21 kids every single day. Every single person in the world has different motivations. As teachers, we try to motivate kids based on what motivates us. It doesn't work that way. I'm glad I watched those videos.

North Carolina Zoo

We took the 4th graders to the zoo yesterday. We didn't have a ton of time. The zoo is about 5 miles of walking. Let me tell you, it is not easy to walk through a large zoo with 10 young kids with you. It was fun, but we needed more time. It was so quick that we were like, "Hey kids, look, an elephant, okay, let's go see the next animal." We literally had to move that quickly. Then at about 1:45, we got horribly lost when we had to be back at the bus at 2. We went in a circle. We didn't get back to the bus until 2:30 and therefore got back to school 30 minutes later than we were supposed to. I want to go back to the zoo on my own time when I can take time to read about each animal and have time to really see them.

Change of Seats

As I said yesterday, there was another reason yesterday was so memorable. After getting pulled over, the rest of the trip went smoothly, even though the cop followed me for about 10 miles. We get to the arena at about 10:45. The first game didn't start until 12:10. We decide to just go into the arena to walk around and stuff. We hand our tickets to the person scanning. She scans mine and I hear a buzzer sound that means no entrance. I also see an X on her scanner. I nearly have a panic attack because I had just bought the tickets the day before from a reliable website. She said the message on her scanner said that our seats were moved. We had to go to the box office and get new tickets. Those new tickets worked. We go to our new seats and see that we are one section over to the left from where we were, but we are row C instead of G, so closer. Not only that, we have the seats that they put behind the rail for handicapped fans. They are comfortable chairs, spaced out, and lots of walking room behind us. I have never had that before! Normally you are put in so tightly that you have no choice but to rub up against the person next to you. These new seats were so much better! The games themselves were a little boring. In the first game, there were too many fouls. In game two, Duke blew out San Diego State. However, it was still an amazing experience and one I won't forget anytime soon.

Memorable Day

There are two reasons this has been a day I won't forget. I'll tell you one reason today and one tomorrow. My friend and I bought tickets to the NCAA tournament in Charlotte since today's games were at 12:10 and 2:40. I got home at about 8:30. If the games were any later, we would not have gone. I was nice and drove us both the 2 and a half hours each way. We were probably about 20 miles into the trip when I see flashing lights behind me. I pull to the side assuming the cop wants to pass me. Nope. He pulls behind me. Oh no. I have never been pulled over in my 11 years of driving until today. He asks me why he pulled me over and then he said it was because I was going 70 in a 55. He asks me if there is anything on my license that would cause me to go out in cuffs. I tell him no. He says that he would check and if it's clean then I'd go on my way with a warning. He comes back about 5 minutes later and says, "Do you want the bad news or the good news first? The bad news is that you have two warrants out for your arrest. The good news is that I'm just kidding. Drive slower out there and have a good day." Phew! I got lucky. He then followed me for about 10 miles where I went no faster than one mile over the speed limit. I'll tell you the second part of why it was such a memorable day tomorrow.

Forgetfullness

I am so forgetful sometimes. Earlier today, I thought about what I wanted to blog about tonight. I was pretty sure it was something I haven't written in my previous 970 posts. Unfortunately, like most things, it just went out of my head. It could have been something really insightful and useful to you. My old age must be catching up to me. Maybe I'll remember it tomorrow.

Points

I reached the points I needed to reach! I purchased a Southwest credit card shortly after I moved in January. I should have done it before I moved since I used my credit card a lot for the move. The promotion they were having was if you spend $2,000 in 3 months on that credit card, they will give you 50,000 points. That's almost enough for 2 free round trip flights! I was told by my apartment management that I could use my credit card to pay for rent without an insane fee. They were wrong. They wanted to charge an extra $21 on top of my rent to use my credit card. That wasn't happening. I thought that there would be no way I would spend $2,000 in three months. Then I bought new golf clubs, paid property tax on my car, got it inspected and an oil change, and paid for a condo in the Outer Banks. I easily spent that $2,000 in three months. I now have that 50,000 point bonus, which means I can have at least one round trip flight somewhere for free. It was worth it!

Tickets to NCAA

Some of the NCAA tournament games are in Charlotte, which is about 2 and a half hours from me. There are games there tomorrow afternoon, night, and Sunday. I just looked at tickets and they were insanely cheap! If you buy one session, you get 2 games! They are so cheap that they are only like $5 more than I typivally pay for 1 game! However, I have to work tomorrow like s responsible adult. We will see what time the games are in Sunday and how much they cost.

Dinner With Friends

I know I've written about this before, but I need to write about it again. Starting at the beginning of this school year, a group of 4-6 of us get together every Wednesday for dinner. We take turns hosting one Wednesday. We have gotten together every single Wednesday during the school year! The only few Wednesday's we have missed were the day before Thanksgiving for obvious reasons and of course Christmas break. I look forward to these dinners. We spend the entire time laughing and joking about everything. Today, I laughed so much I was almost in tears. We like having them on Wednesday's because it breaks up the week nicely. We are all teachers so we get to discuss our, um, strategies for handling the unique situations that we deal with on a daily basis. That's pretty much the root of our laughter. Wednesday night dinners with my friends is one thing that keeps me sane each week!

Parking

I am probably the world's worst car parker. No, really, I am. Today, I pulled into a parking space in my apartment parking lot with NO CARS AROUND ME and had to back up and try it again so I could stay in the lines neatly. It's pathetic. My friends make fun of me all the time for how poorly I park. I don't know how I passed my driver's test because I messed up parallel parking the first time and the guy just had me try it again. Maybe I'll become a good parker one day.

Washed my Car

My friend texted me yesterday and said he washed his car and cleaned the inside of it. He motivated me to do the same since it had been so long. Now that it's almost spring, pollen is in the air. It's as if I never cleaned it! I have yellow all over my car. It felt good to clean up the car though. I used to be good about cleaning it more often, but then it got cold. Although cleaning anything is no fun, after you finish cleaning, whatever you cleaned sure looks good, even if it is for a short amount of time.

Selection Sunday

The best day of the year is here. It's selection Sunday! That's when the teams for the college basketball NCAA tournament get selected. I'm trying to get tickets to the games in Charlotte next Sunday, but am waiting to see what time the games will take place and how cheap I can get tickets. Charlotte is 2 and a half hours from me. If the games are Sunday night, I'm not going because I won't get back until well after midnight. I'll wait and see what happens. I'm just excited to pick the teams for my bracket. Everyone's going to have Kentucky winning it all. It's just a matter of who they have before that. Whoever has the best bracket before that will win, assuming Kentucky wins it all. I love March madness!

Pi Day!

Today is Pi day. Pi is a math term that I definitely don't teach in 4th grade. The number is 3.1415926535 and keeps going and going and going. I used to be able to name a lot of numbers for pi because in high school in one of my math classes, the teacher had a lot of numbers listed for pi on the wall. Instead of paying attention to her teach, I would try to memorize pi. Today is the ultimate pi day since the first 5 digits are 3.1415 and today is 3/14/15. That won't happen again for another 100 years. All this talk about pi makes me want to eat pie! Unfortunately I don't have any here right now.

One Student at a Time

Almost any teacher will tell you they teach for one reason: to change children's lives. Of course the same goes for me. This past Monday, I gave the students an index card with some motivational words on them. I personalized each one to show them how much I care about them. Yesterday, one of my students came in and handed me a little slip saying I'm a great teacher. It was awesome. Then I saw her handing out slips to every student! I wanted to do cartwheels I was so excited! I guarantee she would not have done that if I didn't do it a few days earlier. It's moments like that that remind me why I'm a teacher. One down, many students to go!

Elton John

Before my two friends and I went to the concert, we went out to dinner. That took forever. For some reason, the service was slow. Oh well. When we got close to the arena, traffic was heavy as expected. Since I am weird, I would hold my tickets up to the window and try to get the car next to mine's attention to see if they were going to the show. I think I got three cars attention and some took out their tickets to show they were going too. It was a fun way to try to pass time. The concert was great! One problem was that I was yawning the entire time, not because it was boring, but because I was exhausted! He played for about 2 and a half hours. I tried to tape his last song, "Crocodile Rock" because that's the song I sang on the cruise ship in August 2013. Unfortunately, moments after I started recording, my phone said I didn't have enough storage to video tape anything else. It's funny because I used to hate "Crocodile Rock" before I sang it on the cruise. Now I love it. That's the song that I stood up at during the concert and jammed out to the most. After the concert, it took forever to get out of the arena. I didn't get home until about midnight. I felt like a zombie in the morning. Somehow, I ended up feeling like I have more energy at the end of the day even though I'm drained. I don't understand it. I'm hoping to go to another concert in April, but haven't bought tickets yet. We will see!

Concert

I'm off to my first concert since Paul McCartney in Greensboro on October 30. I've seen this guy in concert twice with Billy Joel. Tonight, Elton John is performing alone right in my home town! I don't have to travel an hour and a half to Raleigh to see him. The two teachers I'm going with are so worried about how tired they will be tomorrow. I've gone to sporting events or concerts in Raleigh numerous times and gotten home well past 11. This time, the concert's about 20 minutes from me. I should be home by 11-11:30. Even though I'm typically in bed by 9:30, it'll be fine. I can't wait to see Elton John in a few hours!

Focus T25

The teacher I work with everyday wanted us to do a workout after school. She wants us to do it like 3 times a week. We've been saying we would do it for a week or two now. We finally did it after tutoring today. Once the kids were gone, we changed into our workout clothes, popped the DVD into the computer, and did the workout. The program is called Focus T25. There are 11 different workouts. There are a few workouts under the Alpha program, which are lighter/easier workouts. Then there are a few under Beta, which are more challenging. I didn't know this until I just looked it up. We chose one out of the Beta program...ouch! Each workout is 25 minutes long. This video had us jogging in place, going to the ground, doing lunges, nonstop for 25 minutes. My legs are on fire right now! I was dripping bullets by the time it was done. I sprayed Lysol in my room before I left so it doesn't stink when I go in tomorrow. It was an intense workout. We aren't available to do it tomorrow and I can't do it Thursday. I think we are going to try to do this on Monday's, Wednesday's, and Friday's for now on. We will see!

Part of Whole

I made yet another math song for my kids. I changed the lyrics to Sam Smith's "Stay With Me". As usual, my kids laughed at me when I sang it to them. I also know that they weren't paying attention to the meaning of my lyrics. It's hard to do that when you're ignoring the song and talking to your friend while your teacher is singing... I digress. I had a friend suggest that I make a CD of my songs and sell it. I only have 3 songs so far. I'd have to make several more songs before I would sell a CD of them. I highly doubt I'll do that but ya never know!

Spring Ahead

In my 27 and a half years of living, I have never been awake when the clocks jump ahead an hour or lose an hour. I was very close last night. Normally bars are open until 2AM around here. Last night, they were open until 1 because of the clocks going ahead an hour. That makes no sense to me because if it closed at 2 as usual, then the clock would change to 3. Oh well, whatever. We stayed until 1. I got home at about 1:30 and then went right to bed. I was so close to watching the clock turn to an hour, but didn't make it. Maybe I will in the fall!

Gyro

I went to lunch today with a couple of the 4th grade teachers I work with. We went to a Greek restaurant that has gyros. A gyro is a pita bread with lamb meat, lettuce, tomato, feta cheese, onions, and cucumber sauce. I've had gyros before when I was in college, but knew it wasn't the best quality meat. I was a little skeptical today at first to have lamb. However, it was delicious! I would definitely go to that restaurant again.

Notes

I gave the notes I made to each student yesterday. Most of them asked what it was. I'm pretty sure I didn't receive one thank you from any of them. I was worried I would see some of them in the garbage can. Luckily I did not. I saw many of them under their desks. I'm trying like hell to get the kids on my side, but when it comes down to it, when they don't get the love and support they need at home, it's nearly impossible to keep them focused at school. I'm just going to keep doing the best I can possibly do...

The Brain

The brain is such a complex part of the body. We talked a lot about the brain today in my classroom management class. It takes 3 stages of 21 days each to repair any negative damage done to the brain. By that, I mean if I say something negative to a kid, it takes 63 to repair that and get the brain on positive thoughts. Wow, do I have work to do! I'm writing a personalized note to each student and handing it to them tomorrow. I've got to start somewhere. I have so much work to do to get my class back to where I need them to be. Wish me luck!

Filing Taxes

I went to my bank today to have them file my taxes since I finally received all the papers I needed. When I got there, they said they don't file taxes from other states. Since I moved here in January of 2014, I had a little bit of work in New York that I had to deal with. I went home and tried to file them on H&R Block's website which claimed to be free. They did say state tax would be $9.99 per state. Since I have royalty 1099 forms, I had to purchase this package that included the forms for $20...whatever. When I filed my state taxes, they wanted to charge me $37 per state. Because I bought the $20 package, state taxes were more expensive because of the package I bought. It makes no sense to me because state taxes have nothing to do with my royalty forms. Either way, I haven't officially filed them yet because I wanted to call H&R Block first to ask if there was a way around it. When I called, a computer said I could talk to him like he as a human. I didn't want that, I wanted to talk to an actual human. I was on hold for 15 minutes, then hung up because I had to leave. Ugh! I'll try again another time. But I don't want to pay $95 for my "free" taxes...

Positivity

It's so important to show positivity all of the time, especially as an elementary teacher. We forget that when kids act up kids will be kids. We forget where they are coming from. Most of my kids come from home lives that are far from "normal". They have probably dealt with things I have never or will never deal with. Being positive is also incredibly hard when kids aren't doing the right thing. That's one thing I absolutely have to work on. I have to have to HAVE TO be positive at all times so I can influence each and every child in my room!

Dress Up Routine

My friend and I are weird. We have a pattern of clothes we wear each week. On Mondays and Tuesdays, we wear shirt and tie. On Wednesdays, we wear polo shirts. On Thursdays, we just wear a dress shirt. On Fridays, we wear our dress down t-shirt. I'm sure no one has picked up on our pattern. This week, I have to throw my entire routine out. I'm going to do polo Wednesday tomorrow because this week on Wednesday, we have school pictures. I figure I should look good on Wednesday and wear shirt and tie. I gotta do what I gotta do.

Pizza

Everyone knows how delicious pizza is. I love the specialty pizzas more than the regular pepperoni or whatever. Today I had a pizza with red potatoes, bacon, sour cream, and spicy ranch on it. It was very different and amazing. I purposely didn't eat it all so I could have left overs tomorrow. Mmmmm pizza!

Vacuum Cleaner

I had a wrestling fight with the vacuum cleaner today. I got the middle part off no problem to empty the dust. I could not get it back on though! I'm not kidding you when I say it took me about 30 minutes to get the darn thing back on. I was getting so frustrated. I just bought it a week or two ago. I wanted to carefully put it back into place so I don't break it. When I moved in January, my friends saw how inept I am at doing things like fixing or putting stuff together. I really am! I need to hire a maid or something because of course I can afford that!

Karaoke

I remember a time when I would NEVER do karaoke. Then on my cruise in 2012, I badly wanted to sing in front of everyone for some reason even though I know my voice is atrocious. Ever since then, I've wanted to do karaoke all the time. There clearly aren't too many opportunities to do this around here. I looked it up and I could do it on week nights late at night. My bed time is like 9 o'clock on week nights. No thank you. I'll do karaoke again sometime.

Hwo to Say Numbers

When I was teaching place value to my kids earlier this year, I drilled in them how to say numbers. They would always say "and" in the number. For example: 42,357 they would say, "forty-two thousand three hundred AND fifty-seven. You don't say "and" if there is no decimal point! I often say and when saying numbers purposely to see if they are paying attention. If they are, they correct me. What typically happens is one person notices, and then when the rest of the class hears the one person say, "You said and" there's a 2 second delay, then the entire class says it. Because I had no idea they weren't paying attention. It's funny. It will be interesting when I teach decimals later in the year because you have to say and at the decimal point. That will throw them off! Just like I thought, I already wrote about this topic. Oh well. I'm running out of ideas after 952 posts!

Strangest Review Ever...

I check my books on Amazon often to see if someone reviewed one of them. I admit it, it's an obsession. I was very excited a few minutes ago that someone reviewed book 1. It had been a while since I'd gotten one. Then I saw it was a 1 star review and I was upset. Then I saw what it said and was very confused... "its pooop please dont buy!!! and sucks poopy with cheese sauce a waste even if it was two cents honestlyno joke a waste of 20 mins". If you're going to give the book a 1 star review, at least make it constructive instead of saying it's poop. That doesn't help me or people looking to buy my book. I'm guessing it's from a young kid whose mom made them read the book and they were mad at that. Whatever...very odd!

Bum

I was incredibly lazy today. It was originally going to be a work day for staff with no kids. As the weather got worse, they said school was closed for everyone. We got a whopping three inches of snow. We weren't supposed to get that much. That's a lot for this area. We are supposed to get more tomorrow night. School is closed again tomorrow for kids, but staff goes in 10-4. I don't think they will change that since tomorrow is supposed to be warm. I don't want to know when we will have to make these days up!

Outer Banks

I just booked my spring break to Outer Banks, North Carolina! I can't wait! It's a beach I haven't been to yet. The price we got for a condo was insanely cheap. Not only is it cheap, there are 5 of us going to split the price so we will be saving a lot of money. we are going to cook dinner most nights too to save money. We will be there 5 nights. Everyone keeps saying it will be cold there in April. I'm hoping for at least low 70's. It should be fine. Either way, it's going to be a blast and now I have something to look forward to!

Pitch Perfect

I saw Pitch Perfect for the first time last night. I'm not sure why I waited so long to see it. I love a cappella music. My friends and I enjoyed the movie. We plan on seeing Pitch Perfect 2 when it comes out on May 15. That seems like so far away. I know the time will go by quickly though.

Sauna

After running on the treadmill today, I decided to step into the sauna that is in my gym. I don't go in saunas often at all. I can't tell you the last time I went in one besides today of course. It's a room where they keep the temperatures pretty high so you can sweat. I think the point of it is for you to sweat so much that you lose weight. I wasn't in there too long. It was too hot for me. I'm also guessing it's not healthy to go in there often anyway. I just wanted to check it out for a bit since I've been pretty lazy all day. Normally I don't do stuff like that because I'm always on the go. Not today.

Make Up Days

I should really bite my tongue before I write this. As of now, my county doesn't have to make up any school days because of the two snow days we had this week. That was the only question my kids asked me yesterday. I didn't have an answer for them. Our county built in extra days throughout the year just in case we had snow days. My friends at another district have to go in tomorrow without kids. Haha. I don't mind teacher work days without kids, but I do on a Saturday! We are expecting bad weather net week too. We will see what happens.

Attention Span

Did you know that our attention span is half of our age in minutes? That goes for kids and adults. So I'm teaching a bunch of 10 year olds. They can only "focus" for 5 minutes until they get bored. It doesn't matter how engaging your lesson is. You need to change things up every 5 minutes to keep them focused. You need to teach something, them have them reflect on it. Then you have to somehow bring them back to attention and teach again. I learned that in my classroom management class today. I learned a lot of other good things too. I have to start taking the things I learned and put them into action. That's the only way my classroom environment will get better. I have to start with a positive attitude!

New and Improved

I hate seeing on TV that a product is new and improved. It can't be both! It can either be new or improved. I kind of understand why they say new and improved. I guess it's to make the product sound better than it actually is. But if you have improved an already existing product, clearly it's not new. That's my rant and I'm sticking to it!

Taylor Mali

I don't remember how, but I came across an inspirational teacher YouTube video called "What teachers make" by Taylor Mali. I urge all teachers to watch that video. I have watched it several times since the first time I watched it about a week ago and I love it more and more each time. He talks about what teachers make not in relation to money. He does it in a big, powerful voice in the form of poetry. He also has a book titled the same thing that I want to read one day. The last line of the video he says, "I make a goddamn difference. What about you?" It's an awesome video, go watch it.

Bed Bugs

My friends were talking about bed bugs the other day. I'm not sure how the conversation came up. Then a customer at a car shop I was at today was talking about bed bugs. Now I'm going to freak out about bed bugs. I remember as a kid parents would always say, "Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite." I always thought it was just a funny thing you said. No, I didn't just realize bed bugs were real. I've known since before college. You just never think they would happen to you. However, with my luck with bugs, I'll probably get them sooner or later.

Spontaneous Expensive Purchase

I went to my friends house in Greenville this weekend. Yesterday, we went to the mall. We walked into a sports store because we both love sports. I started looking at the golf section because I always do that. I had absolutely no plans on buying anything. Then I saw a set of golf clubs and bag for $250 which is very cheap. You can spend $4-500 on one club alone! I asked a worker to make sure these were a good set of golf clubs. I had been half wanting a new set of clubs just because mine are old and I played a lot of golf last year. We left the store and walked around the mall. We then went back to the sports store and I bought the clubs. It was a great deal. Did I need them? Of course not, but oh well. It was my single's awareness day present to myself. Now I can't wait to go to a driving range and test the clubs out!

Cold

Although it's insanely windy here right now, it's nothing like it is in New York. It's supposed to be in the negatives all day tomorrow! I can't even imagine temperatures that low even though I dealt with stuff like that in Potsdam for four years. When it's 30° here I'm freezing! I guess I'm starting to get used to the southern weather. If we had temperatures that low we'd be out of school for a week! As I've mentioned before, one thing I definitely don't miss from New York is the cold weather.

Another Massage

I got my first massage since April 12, 2013 today. I only remember the date because I just looked it up in this blog! I remember not really liking the last one. I enjoyed this one. I had a lot of tightness in my back and shoulders. In fact, I still feel tight now. Of course when I was done, the lady recommended I come once every 2 weeks for 2 hours each time to get rid of the tightness. They were trying to sell me massage packages and of course trying to knock down prices because I'm a teacher. I told them I'd sleep on it. I'm sure they knew that that was code for...no. Massages are nice, but I'm not paying $75 every 2 weeks to get one. No thank you. I'll probably get one every few months or something. We will see.

10 Year Anniversary

I cannot believe that I took my trip to Germany 10 years ago! That seems like forever ago. I went as a senior in high school as an exchange student. It was incredible. We went to Frankfurt, Berlin, and Darmstadt. I would love to go back to Berlin as well as Munich. We learned so much about the history of Germany. One thing is for sure, no one in Germany can go on the Atkins diet because they all eat bread with every meal, yet everyone there is thin. I think about this trip often because it was that amazing. Hopefully I'll go back sometime soon!

Being Out

Being out of work is more work than working. Making sub plans is extremely tedious. You have to write down everything. I make plans as if the sub has no idea what he or she is doing. I want the sub to know exactly what to expect at all times. I was a sub for 3 years. I always appreciated when plans were thorough. Although making sub plans is more work than being at school, it's also beneficial to take a day off for mental health reasons. That's what I'm doing Wednesday.

Fractions

I'm starting fractions tomorrow in math. I enjoy fractions. We are going to spend most of the rest of the year on fractions. I'm guessing that by the end of teaching it, I won't like them as much as I used to. We will see. I'm hoping to create a song about fractions since we are spending so much time on it and it's a large portion of the test at the end of the year. I just need to find a current song that isn't too fast and doesn't hit any high notes. I'll figure it out over the next week or two.

Run

I have to get back into shape, and I don't mean round. I need to start running more because there are some 5K's coming up. My friends and I will be doing the color run in May. There's typically a run around St. Patrick's Day. There's also a run I did last year in April that they have this year. I went on the treadmill again today but couldn't run fast at all. I had no endurance. I have to change that in order to compete in a 5K!

On Demand

Time Warner sent me two codes for free on demand movies. One code for January and one code for February. I didn't use the one in January because there was nothing interesting to watch. I'm sure I won't use the one in February for the same reason. I know it's free, but I'm not wasting my time watching something I'm not interested in. I don't watch movies too much anymore. I'm too exhausted each night and I don't have the attention span to sit still for a long period of time.

D

School report cards came out today. North Carolina schools were graded mainly on how the kids did on the EOG tests. My school received a D. Many schools in North Carolina received a D or F. Many of those schools are low poverty areas. It seems to be a direct correlation. We as teachers do everything we can to get our students ready for the real world. Testing is a skill that I didn't have either. It's a shame that our schools are being graded mainly on test scores of students.

Awards Day

I'm part of a group at work that has to set up for awards day tomorrow. Normally I get to work at 6:45 and am one of the first ones there. Tomorrow, I have to be there at 6:15 to set up chairs and stuff. In addition to that, I have a meeting about a student right before awards, then have to present awards, and then bring the kids down from that and teach. I've got this!

Last Game

My friend and I went to what we believe will be our last UNC game of the season last night. We weren't going to go to the game. The only reason we did is because he has a friend who is a referee. He reffed yesterday's game and got us FREE tickets! They were lower level behind the hoop. They were a $64 value. However, UNC played Virginia and looked AWFUL during the second half. They looked good in the first half, but didn't play the second. They lost by 11. That's their first 2 game losing streak of the season. They need to get their act together!

What Great Teachers Do Differently

My principal has us reading this book. We had to read the first 5 chapters for our staff meeting tomorrow. I have several teacher strategy books. All of them are dry and boring, this one included. I generally don't like these books. This one is the few I have read word for word so far. I really don't like this book because the author, who was a teacher and principal himself, sounds like he's talking down to us. He tells us what to do differently, but doesn't tell us how to do it differently. "Don't ever use sarcasm or yell at your kids. That makes you a poor teacher." I guess I'm a poor teacher. I don't even want to read the rest of this book, but know I have to eventually for my principal. We will see what other people think of this book when we discuss it at our faculty meeting tomorrow.

National Novel Month

I just looked at the certificate I printed for completing National Novel Writing Month in November 2013. That was two months before I moved. I didn't even consider participating in it last November. I would have had to write 50,000 words in a month. I didn't have any ideas for a new book. I also didn't have any time to write. With the amount of work I have for teaching, my writing career is on hiatus for awhile. My book sales are still doing very well and that's all that matters for now!

Tax Time

It's that time of year again! For the past 27 years, my mom has done my taxes for me. Thanks mom! All I have had to do was read the numbers to her while she plugged them in. I don't have mom here to help me this time. I don't have a clue how to do it. Luckily, my bank will do it for me. I heard someone say it was free for them to do this. I asked them yesterday and they said it depended on how much money I make. We will see. I am still waiting on some forms from places. My taxes will be a little challenging for whoever because I lived in New York for a few weeks and have a few W2 forms from there as well as my North Carolina forms. I hope I make some money back!

Error Given to Students

I was showing my kids a StudyJams video from Scholastic about classifying triangles today. They have a little test at the end of it. One of the questions was what type of triangle has three equal sides and three equal angles? The kids knew the answer to be equilateral triangle. I clicked that and the website said it was wrong. They said the correct answer was a scalene triangle. That is absolutely incorrect. I told the kids that. I also emailed Scholastic to tell them of the error and they immediately emailed me back apologizing. It surprises me that no one else has emailed them about the error. Hopefully they will fix this so other students don't get confused!

S'mores

Is there anything better than s'mores? A lot of things, but s'mores are delicious! I just hosted Wednesday night dinner. For dessert, I started a fire in my fireplace (without burning my place down) and we ate s'mores. It was a great night to cap a horrible day.

Syracuse at UNC

I went to the Syracuse UNC game last night. UNC didn't look good at all the first half. They were down 5 at half. They had 19 turnovers in the game. They really picked it up second half and ended up winning by 10. I fully realize that my friend and I have problems because we go to so many games. That was game 2 in three days. Now we have a long stretch until we go to our next game one week from yesterday. I'm just trying to enjoy everything I can while I can!

I Did It

I had my kids start their journals today. I showed them this blog and told them I write everyday. I explained to them that my goal with this is for them to improve their writing and so theey can look back at this years from now and have memories. Like I said last night, they didn't like the idea. Then when they started creating their journals they got somewhat excited. Then when it came time to write, they said they didn't know what to write. It'll take some time but this will be good for them...I hope!

Maybe Tomorrow

I was just thinking about what I said in one of my first blog posts here. It was the blog post where I said I was going to start writing every single day. That post was on May 24, 2012. In that post, I said that when I got my own classroom, I was going to have my students write a few sentences each day in a journal. Unfortunately I did not do that this year. I didn't even think to do it. I was so busy and nervous at the beginning of the year that it slipped my mind. I guess I could start it now. I'm not sure. I think it would be a good idea. I know for a fact that my students wouldn't like it. I also know that if it turned out the way I hope it does, my students' writing will benefit from it. I'm going to talk to the other 4th grade teachers tomorrow and see what they think about the idea.

Game 1 of 3 in 10 days

I went to South Carolina today to see the number 1 ranked team Kentucky play at South Carolina. They looked vulnerable today. Their defense is unstoppable. They only let up 43 points. However, they looked sloppy at times. They missed a lot of free throws. They could have easily won by more than 15. There were times they looked brilliant though. South Carolina didn't want to shoot the ball today. They seemed scared every time they went down the court. They also missed a ton of shots. It was a great atmosphere since it was a sell out crowd of 18,000. I loved how it only cost $5 to park right near the arena. It's going to cost $10 to park at UNC Monday and we will have to walk quite a ways. I wish today's game was more competitive. It was for the first 16 minutes of the first half then Kentucky took over. I'm excited for Monday's game of Syracuse at UNC!

Flue

I learned a valuable lesson yesterday. I have to open the flue in order for the smoke to go up the chimney instead of all over my apartment! Like I said yesterday, I have never used a fireplace before so I had no idea what I was doing. If I had opened the flue, I would have been fine. I'm extremely lucky that I didn't burn the place down. My coat smelled so bad that when the kids walked into the room today they wondered what the smell was. I didn't answer them. I spent this afternoon after work fabreezing everything. Lesson learned!

Fireplace

This is my second apartment I have lived in and my second fireplace. I didn't touch the fireplace in my old apartment. My friends want me to start a fire when they come over next week for dinner. I was told I had to use a chimney cleaning log first. I bought that today and am currently burning it. I hope this isn't a preview of what's to come next week with a real starter log. It has been burning for about an hour and a half and the smoke is pouring all over the apartment. I have the windows open and the fans on. It hasn't done anything. My eyes are watering because they are burning! On the bright side, the fire alarm hasn't gone off. I hope this doesn't put a permanent stench into my furniture and clothes. I've never used a fireplace before but I'm not very happy with the start! We will see how next Wednesday goes.

Treadmill

I went to the gym for the first time in a LONG time yesterday and today. By gym, I mean the gym like place they have in my apartment complex. They have 2 treadmills and a few weight machines. I almost fell flat on my face while running the treadmill last night. It's not as wide as the ones I used at my previous gym. I went to the gym last night around 9. How I motivated myself to cook dinner, wash dishes, make lesson plans, then walk to the gym is beyond me. I sometimes get in those motivated moods. I'm proud of myself. Let's see how long this motivation will last.

Trying to Get Points

I bought a new credit card a few weeks ago. It's a Southwest credit card. I have to pay $69 a year for it. The things you buy earn points towards a free Southwest flight. The promotion they are running is if I spend $2,000 in three months, they will give me 50,000 points. That's pretty much enough for a free flight. I was told by the apartment manager that I could set up auto pay for my rent with my credit card. I tried and I can't. They only allow echeck to be auto pay. If I paid credit card individually by month, I'd have to pay $21 extra each time. No thanks! The lady suggested I paid with my credit card for a money order since that is only 70 cents. I'm trying to avoid extra fees. However, 70 cents isn't bad and I really want to spend $2,000 so I can get my 50,000 points. There's no way I'm spending $2,000 in 3 months on my credit card if I don't use it for rent. I gotta get those savings!

History

Charleston, South Carolina has so much history on every corner you turn. Yesterday, we added our own bit of history. My friend proposed to his girlfriend of seven years. I played a huge role in that. I had to hide puzzle pieces for a scavenger hunt. I nearly messed up the final puzzle piece. I was supposed to place it under a statue at a park. I couldn't find the statue because there were several around. Moments before his now fiance came to that clue, I found where it needed to go and ran away as quickly as possible. It worked out perfectly. Besides that excitement, the city was amazing. It was very old-fashioned. We took a tour of the jailhouse which is said to be haunted. The history of that jail was incredible to hear, but I don't believe in ghosts and spirits or stuff like that so the tour wasn't as scary for me as it was for some people. We did a lot of walking around and the weekend could not have had better weather. It was between 55-65 each day in January. I loved it! We might go back again during spring break.

Charleston, South Carolina

Since Martin Luther King Jr. Day is Monday, I have a 3 day weekend. My friends and I are going to Charleston, South Carolina. I'm really excited. It's something different for us. I'm so used to going to the beach or basketball games. Now we are going to an older city and checking out downtown. We have a lot of fun stuff planned (well, we don't really have anything planned, but I know it will be fun). We are leaving tomorrow morning and coming back sometime Monday. The bad part about that is that I had to spend tonight working on grades since they are due Wednesday. On the bright side, if I finish them tonight I won't have to worry about them when I get back from Charleston. I'll let you know how the trip went on Monday!

Life of a Teacher

When we work from 7AM-4PM and then come home and grade papers and make lesson plans, it's exhausting. When we work all day then come back to work to present to parents from 6-7:30 like I did today, it's even more draining. Of course we don't get paid overtime for this. I know many people will yell at me and say I have summers off. Fine. You can use that argument. Why don't you try teaching the future day in and day out when they give you attitude, don't listen to you, do whatever they feel like doing, sit there and do nothing, when you don't get parent support, when the kids come in with more baggage than you have ever dealt with in your life, when you are distracted by phone calls, parent walks ins while trying to teach, assemblies, paper work, etc. Then tell me about my summers off. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching. But man is it tiring!

Trivia Crack

A few weeks ago, my friend told me about the game Trivia Crack on iPhone. It's exactly what it sounds like. It's a trivia game that you play with your friends. It's addicting, hence why it's called crack. I've played so much and it's very surprising that I've only seen about a dozen repeat questions. I'm like my kids when I answer the question though. I forget the answer right after I answer it. That's not learning! The game is still very fun and distracts me from the work I should be doing.

9/11 Pictures

On 9/11 this past year, I taught my kids about it. That afternoon a parent called and said, "I wish you would have told me you were teaching that." I thought, great, my first parent complaint. It was the opposite. Her stepfather was a first responder at the scene of the crash in Pennsylvania. We were able to talk to him over the phone the next day. It was amazing! This students mother gave me a CD with pictures he took. I tried to load them on my Mac and it wouldn't work. I can load them on my Windows computer, but not my Mac. That's surprising because it's normally Windows computers that are awful. I hope I can load them on to the Windows, email them and open them in my Mac, since my Windows computer is the schools and not mine.

Address Again

Remember when I said my apartment gave me the wrong address. Unfortunately, I was wrong! I was convinced that my road was Northsouth Rd. and not North South Dr. However, after I turn on Northsouth Rd., I have to then take a right on my road, which is North South Dr. It's unbelievably frustrating because I had already changed all addresses, including my drivers license, which cost $10, to Northsouth Rd. I'm in the process of changing them all back, besides my license. I will keep that the same because I don't feel like spending another $10 on it! Maybe I should have listened to property management in the first place!

Not a Good Day for the Lamps

I officially moved into my new place yesterday. It went much more smoothly than I expected. I got the U-Haul at about 9AM and got right to work with loading the truck. On only the second trip downstairs, we carried the mattress. All of a sudden, we heard a crash. We hit a lamp cover with the mattress and it shattered. Oops! It was on the outside of my old place. Oh well. Then we had to break apart he lamp I had. When I put it back together, it wouldn't turn on. I checked the cord and it ripped. It wasn't a good day for lamps! Other than that, the only other minor issues were a few small scratches on furniture. It went really well. My arms are killing me and I'm exhausted but I have amazing friends. Everything is pretty much put away except a few minor things. I will be doing that throughout the next couple of days.

Cleaning

Does anyone want to clean my apartment for me? I'm still busy doing laundry and packing for my move tomorrow. After everything is cleared out, I'm going to clean the entire house so I can get all of my security deposit back. I cannot tell you how upset I'd be if they dinged me a few bucks because there was a piece of dust on something. That would be my luck though. I just can't wait until this move is over and I'm settled in. Soon enough!

Delays

It was cold all over the nation today. Several districts in the area had two hour delays. The district I worked for last year had a 2 hour delay due to the cold. Normally the district I work for now and the district I worked for last year do the same thing in terms of delays and closings. That wasn't the case today. My district was open like a regular day. Their logic actually made sense. They didn't want to delay because the temperature was going to be about the same two hours later than when we arrived anyway. Another reason we didn't delay was because the high schools were testing. Both reasons are logical. My district in New York even had a two hour delay because they were so cold. They called it last night! They rarely call it that early! Oh well, I survived the day and my kids were really well behaved for the most part!

Wall

There are some days at work where I feel like if I talked to a wall, it would respond better than the kids. Today was one of those days. I don't know what it was, but I was not getting through to them today. My key players would not listen to me at all. One boy got upset over something and stopped doing work. I went up to him a few minutes later and said, "What would happen if I stopped teaching whenever I was angry?" I responded for him and said, "I would never teach!" That surprisingly got him to start working. Sometimes I just feel like I'm fighting an uphill battle. I just keep putting in my best effort because I am determined to get my students to learn what they need to learn in 4th grade!

Notre Dame at North Carolina

Two friends and I went to the ND at UNC game last night. On Veterans' Day, I saw a deal on the UNC fan page on Facebook. They had $11 tickets to this game! I knew it was going to be a big game that I couldn't refuse. When we went to the game against Robert Morris, there were only 13,579 people out of a possible 21.750. Last night, there were 20,604! The place was electrifying. ND is the 13th ranked team in the nation with only 1 loss. UNC is the 18th ranked team with 3 losses. UNC did not play very well. ND could not miss shots. UNC was very good at missing shots. They were down by as many as I think 12 points in the second half. They came all the way back to take the lead by one with 1:14 left. That was the last point they scored. ND took the lead and then UNC had a chance with 4.7 seconds left to score, but didn't. Although UNC didn't win, I couldn't have asked for a more exciting game. It was a great atmosphere to be at!

Playoff Win

Wow, that Dallas Cowboys game last night was ugly! They got so lucky to come back and win. They were down 14-0. Then in the 4th quarter, there was a penalty called on Dallas and then the refs decided to cancel the penalty call. Now everyone is saying it's a conspiracy theory. They say the NFL wanted Dallas to play Green Bay instead of Detroit winning. That's a load of garbage if you ask me. The refs pretty much did decide the game though. I don't care. A win is a win. I do know that if Dallas plays that pathetically this week against Green Bay, they don't stand a chance! They have to have a much better start than they did yesterday.

Stuart Scott

The world lost a legend today. Stuart Scott died of cancer at the extremely young age of 49. He was an anchor for SportsCenter. He also used to call Monday Night Football games before he became too sick to do that. He didn't fight cancer once or twice. He fought it three times! No one should have to do that! He fought it with as positive an attitude as he could have. He was an anchor on SportsCenter who pushed the limits. He took risks with the phrases he used to cover sports. I quote him all of the time. He has many catch phrases that many sports fans use on a daily basis. He is single-handedly the reason why SportsCenter is as popular as it is. It's a shame that cancer took his life away this morning. He will be greatly missed!

I suggested This?

When my friends and I went to the Cheesecake Factory a few weeks ago at the mall in Raleigh, we said we wanted to come back soon. I was the one that suggested we come again to the mall so we could walk around and shop. As you know, I despise shopping. The mall in Raleigh is huge though. I needed to get a little bit of clothes for work. Last time we were there, we came on the day after Black Friday and found a parking spot fairly easily. Today, it took me about 15 minutes to find a darn spot! It was ridiculous! We ate dinner at about 4:30 and then shopped for only about two hours. I got a few good things I needed. I feel like I should have gotten more work clothes though and retired some of the clothes I have. We should have gotten to the mall earlier to have more time to shop at the insane amount of stores they have. My favorite purchase was two pairs of shoes for under $50! They are pretty good shoes too. I have no fashion sense, but I like them and they met my friends approval so they must be halfway decent. My credit card has gotten a serious workout the last two days. I do not look forward to paying that bill at the end of the month.

Man on a Mission

I got back to my apartment at about 2:30 today. Since then, I have been surprisingly incredibly productive. I've been tired all day, but got right to work the moment I walked through the door. I have done laundry, paid a few bills, called for a new credit card, got a money order to pay my 1st month rent at my new apartment, shopped for groceries, and changed my address to my new apartment for several places that send me mail. Boom! I was half thinking of getting next weeks' math materials ready today, but I won't. It's 8:25 on a Friday so I have no interest in continuing to be productive. I'm proud of myself for accomplishing so much today in so little time. I'm relaxing the rest of the night. I'll get school stuff ready tomorrow morning before I go to the mall in Raleigh with my friends tomorrow afternoon.

Leaving

I'm leaving New York tomorrow morning to head back to home and reality. The only thing I can think about is all of the work I have to do for school Monday. I have no lesson plans done or anything. Oops! There's a very realistic possibility that I won't have any plans done for Monday when school picks up again. Is it bad that I don't care? Oh well. I had a ton of fun while visiting friends and family and way too much food. Back to North Carolina tomorrow!