"detox" tea

Made up a batch of tea with lots of ingredients that are supposed to boost immunity and detox the body. I'm not sure how much it will actually do those things but after indulgent holiday eating and being around lots of sick people, I'm willing to try. I steeped 2 bags of Yogi Berry Detox Tea and a finger of chopped ginger (which I strained out when I removed the tea bags) in about 4 cups of water. I added 2 T of honey, 3 T of lemon juice, and 3 cups of cranberry juice. If nothing else, it's really yummy!

Home Again

After only a week of traveling, we're back home.  It feels strange (and awesome!) to be home and still have a week of break left. I have a mile long to-do list and plans with friends every day of the week. 

Video Games with Uncle Brian

Christmas Morning

Korra got a guitar.  My aunt, uncle and cousin visited from Wisconsin. We ate a lot of bacon.  Listening to Santaland Diaries. 

Baby and VR

Today we arrived in Asheville. I got to cuddle a brand new baby, eat delicious food, take a nap, and watch my mom try out a VR headset.

Tee KO

We had pizza and played games (Jackbox) with some friends. Their kids (5 and 8) and Korra played along. The gist of one game, called Tee KO is that everyone draws random pictures on their electronic devices, then they all type a bunch of random phrases. Then You get a selection of pictures and phrases from everyone in the game and you match them up to make tshirts. Korra drew the picture. Nate wrote the phrase. I put them together. It was amazing. Did I mention you can order the shirts online?  So tempting...

Skating

I taught a fellow teacher how to skate and came in 3rd place in a skating race. 

Legos

Korra followed the instructions and built this Lego kit all by herself!

It's finally here!

I'm more excited about the last day of school that I am about Christmas (maybe that's because we already opened all our presents?) Potluck breakfast and Secret Santa reveal with my coworkers before school, field trip to the skating rink for kids with good behavior in the morning, hot cocoa with Korra's class in the afternoon, White Elephant exchange with my class and then we're done for 2 weeks!

Unstructured Work Time

Today we worked on Christmas writing prompts, played with tangrams and story cards, and created 2018 mobiles to hang from the ceiling. It was actually a pretty good day considering how exhausted we all are. 

Dawali

Korra's class did a Dawali presentation for Curriculum Night. 

Long day

Curriculum Night/PTA meeting after school. Then going straight to a friend's house to watch the Survivor finale. Saturday needs to hurry up and get here. 

I need my break

I know it's time for Christmas break because I'm crying about my students. Emotion overload. 

Reading Buddies

Today was a tough day (why are we still in school?!) A bright spot was our first attempt at reading buddies. We read books to a first grade class. The first graders then put on a puppet show for us. I'm looking forward to doing reading buddies again soon. 

End of Quarter Test

It's painful to watch my students take the end of quarter exam.  2 of them finished writing their argumentative essay in less than 10 minutes.  God help me.  

Early Christmas

Nate and I were feeling stressed out so we decided to have open all the Christmas presents tonight- hot cocoa, Christmas music and all. It turned out to be a wonderful idea!  

Holliday Store

Today was the Holiday Store for Korra's dance class. She's been earning points all semester for good behavior during dance class and today she gets to spend the points to buy gifts. She came out with 3 huge bags- gifts for some of her cousins, all her grandparents, me, Nate, both of her teachers, plus 7 for herself. 

Pageant

During carols on the steps, Korra fell hard and smacked her chin on the concrete steps. Thankfully not hard enough to need stitches or to knock out a tooth, but enough to leave a gash and a decent bruise. It didn't stop her from being an adorable sheep or from soaking up the attention of her uncle Todd who made a last minute trip to join us for church. 

And yes, that is Nate dressed as an angel playing the trumpet. 

5am alarm

The cat wakes me up every morning before my alarm by meowing and pawing at our bedroom door. I've had all I can take. I need more sleep. I've decided to try giving her a whole days worth of food at night (rather than getting her twice a day) in the hopes that we can break her of the habit of expecting to be fed first thing in the morning.  Day 1 of the experiment: the cat still woke me up early. She's pissed I am up but not feeding her. I can't wait to go to church so she'll stip harassing me. 

More weird dreams

On Friday night I dreamed there were a whole bunch of snakes loose in our house. Last night I dreamed Hillary Clinton came to my classroom and I cried as I told her how disappointed I was with American politics.

Holiday preparation

Last night we made a big batch of chocolate covered pretzels (Korra enjoyed adding sprinkles). This morning I'm baking cookies (white and dark chocolate chip with pecans). While they are in the oven in writing cards to each of my students. Then we're going to church for carols on the steps and the Christmas pageant. Definitely feeling a lot like Christmas. 

Cocoa and Carols

Nate's preschool had their winter fundraiser this afternoon. What's better than hot cocoa and toddlers?  So sticky and loud!  I'm currently hiding out in the sanctuary after spending most of the event hiding in the kitchen. 

Breakfast

Met a friend (former coworker from Chatt Hills) for breakfast and had a wonderful time catching up. His Facebook post totally captures his personality and our friendship. 

My classroom

Here's what my classroom like like. I share it with my partner teacher. We each teach 6-7 kids at the same time, in the same room, with only a bookshelf divider. It's way less noisy/distracting than you'd think. I love having another teacher in the room. I especially love my partner teacher. She's amazing and we make a great team. 

Super Weird Dream

I dreamed Nate and I were chosen to be "teachers in space."  So we both went to space where it turns out the astronauts were particularly interested to study how a normal married couple cope with the stresses on space travel. We stopped at space center that was a famous spot for male astronauts to go after their vasectomies. Then they discovered I had a cold so they dropped me off at a mall to get a Cold Remedy Smoothie and a bunch of vitamin C gummies. Then I had to climb this really tall building to get picked back up. 

Want vs Need

I want to lay in the couch and binge watch Parks and Rec for the 7th time. I need to grade papers or probably just go to sleep. 

Random acts of kindness

Today is Kindness Day at my school. The teachers have been doing little nice things for each other all day. I got a flower from my administrator and an extra long restroom break from my co teacher. It's the little things. 

All the Green Lights!

This morning, Korra and I had green lights the whole way to school.  26 in a row!  Here's hoping this means we have a lucky day ahead of us.

Blue Apron

We signed up for Blue Apron. Our box was supposed to be delivered yesterday. Still not here as of 9:30 pm today. We don't have any food left in the for for dinners because I was counting on these meals. So annoyed with FedEx. 

Parents

I met with 2 parents today, both were unexpected. The first parent informed me she wanted her son to hit other students if they hit him first. The second teared up. It was an emotional day. 

18!

Today I have all 13 of my students at once. And then they dropped off another 5 because a teacher is out and there's not a sub. It's amazing how quickly I've gotten used to only having 6 kids at a time. Only 3 months ago I had 20 every day. And before that I had 30.  

Totally Drained

For no specific reason I can pinpoint, by the end of the day I was completely drained. I had zero patience and listening to my students talk or even seeing them move around make me feel anxious and frustrated and overwhelmed. Maybe it's just that I teach 6th graders and it's almost Christmas break?

Teacher Christmas List

Here's what I'm hoping for for Christmas:

Dry erase markers

Tissues

Hand sanitizer

Pencils

Spiral-bound notebooks

Notebook paper

Sticky chart paper

Fever

Korra burst into tears as soon as she got into my room this afternoon. Turns out she felt sick most of the day but didn't want to bother her teachers (she is definitely our child). Got her home and she had a fever of 101. She asked to go to bed where she fell asleep immediately. Praying this isn't the awful flu we've been hearing about. 

Traffic Lights

This morning Korra and I counted how many traffic lights there are on our way to school. In the 5 mile drive, there are 26 lights. That explains why some days we can get there in 13 minutes and some days it's more than 20. 

Church all day

We arrived at church early because Nate played his trumpet for caroling on the steps. 

It's the first time I've ever seen/heard him play!

After the service, we went out for pizza (below is one of Korra's drawings she made during church) with 3 couples. 

Then we went right back to church for the kids' Advent party. Arrived back home just in time to put Korra to bed. 

All the county schools are closed tomorrow because there's still plenty of unmelted ice/snow there, but not here in the city. 10 more school days. 

Peach Secco

We had a wonderful dinner with a family from our church (chicken tiki marsala and fantastic conversation). On a side note, I drank a whole bottle of Trader Joe's peach prosecco by myself. 

Fashion Conscious

Korra just told Nate that she can't wear either pair of her glasses because they don't match her outfit. 

Neighborhood Snowball Fight

Christmas Mood

I lit a Christmas tree candle, put on Sufjan's Christmas album, wrapped all our presents, and now I'm making king costumes for our church Christmas pageant. 

Crocheting and Cocoa

It's still snowing so I'm cuddled on the couch drinking hot cocoa, crocheting, and watching Survivor. 

Early Dismissal

I took my class outside for recess in the snow (at 11:30) and while we were out I got a text from my admin that we are dismissing at 1:30!

Vocabulary

Since Thanksgiving, my ELA focus has been argumentative writing and my SS focus has been Latin American immigration. Obviously, the two are a natural match (even if all my kids are on the same side of that particular issue) and it's been pretty fun and engaging. Here are some of the new vocabulary words we've picked up in the past 2 weeks:

Mansplaining

Xenophobia

Cathartic

Delinquent

Retaliation

Ignorant

Grading

Grading papers for 12 students is proportionally less time consuming than grading papers for 80-110 students (which is how many students I had at my previous 2 teaching positions).  Have I mentioned lately how much happier and healthier I am in my new job?

Marvelous Mrs Maisel

In the past 2 weeks Nate and I watched the most wonderful show (it's on Amazon Prime): The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. I highly recommend it. I'm just really bummed there isn't another season yet. 

Jury Summons

 Just got a jury summons for the first day back to school after Christmas break. 

Intentional

I love being a part of a school that is so intentional. Today I have a half day of professional development that includes a feedback/focus group where the teachers are telling the director how we as teachers see and experience the school's mission. Yesterday I had a half day PD just to meet with the other middle school ELA teachers to learn from each other about teaching writing. I feel so supported and valued as a professional. 

Turkey Pot Pie

I made the turkey, veggies, and sauce. Nate made the biscuit topping. We brought it over to friends' house and enjoyed a wonderful weeknight dinner. 

Pecan Palace

While I was raking leaves, Korra used rocks, acorns, and pecans from the yard to build a castle. She called it "pecan palace." The pecan is the queen and all the acorns are knights. 

Kitty Cuddles

Nate was laying on the couch. Korra was pretending to be a cat and laid on him. Then the actual cat joined in. 

Musical Morning

Went to church this morning for a breakfast potluck and to learn all the Advent music. I love breakfast and Christmas music and my church people. 

Pink Moscato

I drank half of this bottle in the last 40 minutes on an empty stomach. I'm feeling quite warm. 

School Bus

On a bus for a field trip. Every school bus I've ever been on smells exactly the same.