June: Week 2

Well, here it is. My first official week off of school. I rediscovered:

nature

friends, The Sandlot, and outdoor movies

the TRUE American sport, baseball

and packing summer days full of people and random events :)

I love summer...

June: Week 1

My second year of teaching is up and I seriously can't believe it. Here is a preview of the last few days...

I really, really loved this year. I fell in love with my students (as a collective whole, not individually, don't you worry). I'll miss the girls coming in to chat with me next year and all the "interesting" conversations we shared.
We made a quote wall. Here's an explanation of the few of them from an earlier post:

I made them say the contries names over and over as I pointed to them. Then one of my students said, "I'm going on strike!" jokingly. I slipped back, "I'll strike you!" Whoops. It was hilarious.

Then, I pointed to Moldova and pulled the whole SNL teacher skit. "What country is this? Mmmmmmoooo...." They yelled, Macedonia, Montenegro, Montague!" I replied, "Montague?! This is not Romeo and Juliet..."

Haha ok. Moving on.

I asked, "Raise your hand if enjoy learning about the Holocaust." Well I raised my hand to model that I wanted them to raise their hands, but apparently it was a little firm because the girl in the front row said, "Do you enjoy learning about the Holocaust, Miss Anderson?" I looked at them confused. Then about 7 of them "mirrored" my out stretched arm. So basically, I suddenly saw all these "Heil Hitler" responses coming from my students and then recognized that I myself had been doing the Nazi salute. Another student said, "She does have blonde hair and blue eyes." I replied, "Actually, they are green, but you have blonde hair and blue eyes. Hmmmm..." haha. Whoops.

Here are a few teachers from my school. Every year, 9th grade students go to our local amusement park, Lagoon. Well, some teachers are needed to "chaperone" them. This is what happens. We all ditch the kids at the door when they have to stand in line for tickets and we hang out for a few hours until we meet them back on the bus. It's great :) Here are the teachers of my school (Poore, Nielsen, me, Blank, Terkhorn, Terkhorn's sister, and Briggs. Unfortunately, Baily is semi-cut out. I'll blame that on the photographer. If you only knew...
This is a picture of my hand. Why do I have a huge cut? Why, let me tell you.

Setting: Last day of school, only about 15 9th graders showed up, in a classroom, with the desks pushed up against the wall.

Story: So this teacher was jokingly trying to tackle one of my favorite female students. Apparently she had done it before and she was going for round 2. Well I decided to help this student in need by trying to pull Harward off of her. Harward turned and tried to tackle me (please note that I was also eating Doritos. And yes, I realize that I should have been in my own room chaperoning during this time...). Well, Harward is larger (and apparently more powerful) than I am. She tackled me to the floor, straddled me, pinned down my arms and pretended like I was a human typewriter. So imagine tap, tap, tap, tap (on my chest), slap (my face), tap, tap, tap, tap (on my chest), slap (my face), tap, tap, tap, tap (on my chest), slap (my face). Also remember, there are like 15 students watching and my mouth is full of Doritos. Somehow, her wedding ring sliced open my hand.

I dramatically and jokingly insisted that I was going to go tell the principal. I rushed up to the office and the principal filled out a "Notice of Suspension" form and checked the physical assault box which I later dramatically hand delivered to her. It was funny.

Why do I have this picture, well I took a picture of it and sent it to her the other day "just thinking of you..." Oh man...
I decided to have a rebellious streak (or 5). Kind of fun... I love Katchie (she's my hair stylist).
My good friend Ann gave me tickets to see Ellipse. Her husband is in the band and she is just so generous to always think to invite me. I love going. Cynthia from work came with me (though she refused to be photographed). It was such a fun night and so nice to finally be outside.
Here is the cute math teacher turned stay at home mom. I miss her across the wall (coincidentally, her class room is the room I was turned into a human type writer. I was abused much less when she was in that room)
Here is her adorable little guy! One of the most precious, happy children I've ever seen! Thanks again Ann!
Well, I don't really know how to flip this sideways, but I made this. My best friend, Coralie, invited me to this little temple picture frame project. We made these!! It's huge. Please observe my toes and how small they are in comparison to my huge temple picture. Cool, huh?
On a less relevant note, I saw this homeless person. I know, I shouldn't have taken a picture. He might not have even been homeless. He was holding a sign across the street and he has 2 dogs. Most importantly, he was wearing a HUGE stuffed (pretend, I presume) dog head on top of his head which made hip appear like 7 1/2 feet tall! Crazy. I will now go wash my car windshield...

Les Mes

Ever since living with my 2 roommates, I've been excited to see Les Mes. We saw it once before in DC, but it wasn't so great. Months ago, we accidentally purchased the matinee tickets instead of the evening tickets, so Kristen wasn't able to go :( We missed her, but I felt like she was there in spirit. It was incredible. If it comes to a theatre near you, you must see it!!!

Oh, did I mention that President Monson even loves it (well I don't know if that's true...but he quoted it here:)

One of the longest-running musicals in history is Les Miserables. The story is set in the period of the French Revolution. The principal character in the musical is Jean Valjean. In his heartfelt concern for the young man, Marius, who is going off to battle, he expresses in song a sincere prayer:

God on high,

Hear my prayer;

In my need

You have always been there.

He is young,

He’s afraid;

Let him rest,

Heaven blessed.

Bring him home. …

Bring him peace,

Bring him joy.

He is young;

He is only a boy.

You can take,

You can give;

Let him be,

Let him live.

If I die, let me die,

Let him live.

Bring him home. ⁹

MOAB

This weekend, our neighbors, Wade and Justin, organized such a great trip to Moab. It was filled with tons of "firsts."
It was my first trip with these ladies.
It was the first time I rented a bike.
It was the first time I slept in a 4 man tent with 7 girls. (Just for the record, Jenny and I had a great idea. We took Annie's blow-up mattress and put it in the back of Wades truck so we could sleep on it and have room to move. Well, as you know, the beds of trucks have the little seats that cover the wheels. So we let out the air so we could squish it down around it. This caused us to roll in toward the center and we were ultra close--but it was SOOOO much better! So here it is, the first time I slept under the stars.
First time I climbed a steep rock wall (ok...that's a lie. Didn't climb this.)
First time riding/falling off of a bike in the wilderness.
First time I rode a bike with 20 other ward members up a mountain.
First time getting sunburned this year...
First time falling off a cliff...
First time pulling someone else off a cliff...
First time meeting an adorable little French couple (were they a couple? Who knows?) on a cliff.
First time seeing (sort of) Delicate Arch...
First time hiking it with 30 others in pitch darkness...
First time watching the stars under the arch...
First time sleeping in a mummy bag (thanks Annie) on a blow up mattress (thanks Annie) in the back of a truck (thanks Wade) near obnoxious neighbors (thanks drunk people).

What a great trip!

Quotable Quotes

Student sings "Bad boys, bad boys, whattcha gon' do, whattcha gon' do when they come for you..."

The following is this students little "stream of consciousness":

--Man, I used to love watching that show. I'd sit with my mom and watch it and think that I was just going to be the best cop in the world. sings Bad boys, bad boys, whattcha gon' do...
--Wait! Oh my gosh! I used to sit talking about how I'd be a cop chasin' people, then I turned into the one bein' chased?! How'd that happen? I'd be the one seeing the cops 2-3 times a week. How'd that happen?
--Man! I should've run. I always just went up to them with my hands together for the hand cuffs. That was dumb.
--sings. Bad boys, bad boys, whattcha gon' do?...

This would've been a great time for me to teach an inspirational lesson...but we were all laughing too hard.

Then, this kid came into my next period. He was trying to send an email to the penpal I gave him in Germany but he said it wouldn't work, he just got a red box that said he couldn't send it. I figured he just typed something in the "CC" box. I assigned this girl to go help him (my student can't read or write past a kindergarten level). So he comes back into the room and I asked how it went. He said, "(Insert female name here), just told me to write the letters H-E-Y in the box." Trying not to smile I said, "oh perfect! I'm glad she was able to help you with that." We exchanged smiles (and eventually laughs) when we realized he couldn't send it because nothing was in the subject box and even more so that the letters "H-E-Y" spelled "Hey" and he didn't realize that.

I love my job.

In the Life of a 9th Grade Teacher

This is pretty much how my 4th period went today:

Starter question:
Create a mnemonic device for the European countries that border Russia (Estonia, Latvia,Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey).

They came up with the mnemonic "I'll-stone-ya Later by-the-roof (in the) Cranium If-you-remain Bulgarizing Turkey's." (Estonia, Latvia,Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey)

I made them say the contries names over and over as I pointed to them. Then one of my students said, "I'm going on strike!" jokingly. I slipped back, "I'll strike you!" Whoops. It was hilarious.

Then, I pointed to Moldova and pulled the whole SNL teacher skit. "What country is this? Mmmmmmoooo...." They yelled, Macedonia, Montenegro, Montague!" I replied, "Montague?! This is not Romeo and Juliet..."

Haha ok. Moving on.

I asked, "Raise your hand if enjoy learning about the Holocaust." Well I raised my hand to model that I wanted them to raise their hands, but apparently it was a little firm because the girl in the front row said, "Do you enjoy learning about the Holocaust, Miss Anderson?" I looked at them confused. Then about 7 of them "mirrored" my out stretched arm. So basically, I suddenly saw all these "Heil Hitler" responses coming from my students and then recognized that I myself had been doing the Nazi salute. Another student said, "She does have blonde hair and blue eyes." I replied, "Actually, they are green, but you have blonde hair and blue eyes. Hmmmm..." haha. Whoops.

Only 10 more wake-ups. Can't believe it.

Red Dirt

When I was young, I wanted a tree house. It seemed like all the trees in our 3 acre yard were ridiculously tall, old trees, or very young, weak trees. My tree house dream seemed as if it would never become a reality. Well, I decided to do what any driven, imaginative child would do. I had a master plan. I would dig a hole in the ground. That's it. Dig a hole, large enough to be an "underground tree house" (well, minus the tree of course. And minus the house, too...). I set out to work. I employed everyone I knew to help me. My two best friends, R and S helped me daily. I'm sure I forced my brother to help as well.

We dug for months. Eventually, I kid you not, we had a huge rectangular hole. It was about 5 feet long by 4 feet wide and probably 4 feet deep. I kid you not. We dug, day after day in the solid Georgia clay as mosquitos and gnats flew about, birds chirped, and the pine needles fell. Season after season, we continued. My brilliant plan was to stack a foot or so of left over bricks from the house (cemented with mud--and yes, for some reason I thought mud would be a forever lasting mortar) and then easily lay a piece of plywood over the top, with a door cut into it, of course.

Why am I thinking of this at 1:17 AM on a school night? I have no clue. I guess I can learn many lessons from this childhood project.

#1--I would give almost anything to move back to those times. I loved that little city--the culture, the community, the weather. I love the South.

#2--I guess this is a reminder of how there are always more options. When a tree isn't available, the thick Georgia clay worked. I feel like I am making 42 decisions in my life right now. I'm not sure which one is right--but odds are, they will all work out perfectly.

#3--Some things are ok to leave unfinished. I never put the final piece of wood on the top of my "tree house." We sold the house (all the while, I'm certain that my mom thought it would be a sore spot and made me cover up the "grave" with pine straw) and left. I didn't see the finished product, but I learned a lot in the journey (not to mention I probably ruined TONS of T-shirts with the clay and burned tons of daylight). I wonder what things in my life I can just leave "unfinished" and move on to bigger and better things.

#4--I need to go to bed, so that is all. :) How's that for an abrupt finish of spewing my thoughts...?