School Teacher Update

I thought blending families would be the most difficult part of my marriage to David.  It hasn't been.  The only difficult result of my marriage has been teaching in Idaho.  As most of my readers know, I have taught in many schools.  I've taught in Hawaii, Malaysia and 2 districts in Utah.  Altogether I have taught in 8 elementary schools.  Each school has had great things happening and some had room for tweaking.  In this district in Idaho, the employees brag that "it is the best district in the state".  I feel like I have taken a time machine back to 2000.  There are so many areas in need of improvement and progress.  Positive behavior modification guidelines and school-wide systems of expectation along with professional learning communities are difficult to identify.  It's been depressing.

Nevertheless, I love my students and my classroom.  It is a warm, safe place where students encourage each other and monitor each other for success.  We have fully implemented the 7 Habits in my classroom.  The learners are talkers and workers and forgivers.

Today we had a pancake party because my 2nd graders had earned enough synergy points before the end of the month.  It was held during our math block, so I had the students work to figure out how many cups of mix and water we would need to make 48 pancakes instead of just 6 like the recipe produced.  They did so much thinking to convert 2 cups and 1 1/3 cups into the huge recipe.  There were debates, model drawing, full pictures, toolboxes full of manipulatives.  I didn't offer any help at all as they struggled and taught themselves all the while hungry for pancakes.

When there was agreement at the whiteboard in several colors of dry erase markers, I was ready to mix.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring measuring cups (doh!).  I didn't tell them that though.  They had put so much time and effort into the exact number of cups needed of mix and water, I would not disappoint them.  SO, I announced that it was math game time.  While they excitedly grabbed materials for card, dice or domino top-it, I snuck into the back of the room for pancake creating.  I just dumped the whole box of mix and then added water until it arrived at the right consistency.  Voila!!

After that, I assigned two apple experts to segment the apples, one hot chocolate specialist to monitor the huge thermos of cocoa and 2 pancake cookers.  The party was a huge 20 minute success.  We cleaned up and then I arranged for another 30 minute session of math learning while my principal observed the kids for my formal observation.

Later in the day, seven of the students taught science lessons that they had prepared because they were ahead of the rest of the class.  Those seven scientist did an amazing job--they have better management skills than many of the college interns that have worked in my classroom.  One 8 year old taught about the solar system and had a total choreographed performance of people as planets spinning and moving as other people as stars stood fixed.  Another 8 year old had the class members make musical stringed instruments out of different widths of rubber bands and box lids to discuss sound waves.  One 7 year old taught the phases of the moon better than I ever could.  He checked to make sure every learner understood that the moon DOES NOT produce its own light.  He was really intense ;-).  Watching those young teachers, I realized what a privilege it is to teach.  Regardless of the system or the district.  I love my students and I'm grateful to create a safe, positive learning space for them. I'm really going to miss these little friends during Thanksgiving break.

"Mom, you STILL have a huge crush on David"--Emerson

David and I had our 1 year anniversary on June 22nd.  His kids were away that Saturday, so we got a babysitter for a couple of hours for my girls.  We rode our bikes all over and had a picnic lunch near a small branch of the Snake River.  While we were dating, we both wanted to have active nature dates. We both felt like you get to know someone better when you're doing stuff instead of simply spending money and calling it a date. Both of us came from former marriages where our spouses liked and expected restaurant and a movie or a hotel get-away kind of date.  We don't.  We had a blast.

(Written the end of July) This last weekend, David's kids were away and mine were away with their dad and his family at a resort, so we had Thursday evening until Monday morning to ourselves.  We missed our kids a bunch, but we had a wonderful time together.  Originally, David wanted to go overnight camping. Yep.  He wanted to backpack and survive in the wilderness.  We negotiated.  We ended up camping one night in the back country of the Cache National Forest with cows, snakes, sheep and wild chickens and then we reconnected with civilization.  The Utah Opera Festival was going on in Logan so we stayed at the most budget-friendly motel for 2 nights and saw Fiddler on the Roof.  We ate mostly the fruits and vegetables that we brought from our home and garden, but we did go to Tandoori Oven.  It was delicious!  Another meal we ate tacos from a street vendor.  Also really good.  We hit the Pepperidge Farm factory store to stock up on fishy crackers for the kids.  After visiting a congregation on Sunday, we packed up and went to Tony Grove in Logan Canyon.  It was gorgeous!  We inflated the rowboats and paddled around the small mountain lake.

I had quite a dopamine rush there on the quiet lake.  We were the only ones using the lake for the first hour and I heard only the sounds of nature.  David had paddled far enough away to do some scientist kind of observing.  I pulled my paddles into the boat and laid back.  I felt a powerful sense of God's love for us and for our family.  I felt peace there as every other lake experience we've had this summer has been filled with kids and I am the ever Lifeguard on Duty.  Now I only had to keep myself from drowning and I had the chance to just think and breathe deeply.  After a couple of hours of clear skies, dark clouds quickly took over.  We paddled to our shore as fast as we could and hiked up to our campsite.  We beat the rain and David covered our tent.  While it rained, we cuddled in the van and listened to the book To Kill A Mockingbird.