We are readers!

Every January at my school we start this program called Jazz reading. We set a goal for how many minutes we want our whole school to read in one month, then we get going. K-2 has a goal of 180 minutes per week, and 3-6 I believe is 360 minutes per week. Our school goal was slight over 550,000 minutes read in one month. We reached our goal, plus some. I believe our final count was over 781,000 minutes! SWEET! We are such great readers. The top 12 schools participating in this program with the most minutes get to have a Utah Jazz basketball player come and visit. Even though we were way over our goal, we came in 10th place!!! Crazy. So, we got rookie Kosta Koufos-a Greek American. He's 7 ft. tall and told us that the next tallest person in his family is 5'10". WOW!! Anyway, here are some pictures and video from our fun day with Kosta.
Kosta making his entrance! You have to touch the Kindergartener's hands! Isn't that the rule?


One of my students, Hannah, reading with Kosta. She is a great reader and has actually done a commercial with another Jazz player, Carlos Boozer.

Another student of mine, Kayden. Also a great reader; hasn't done a commercial. :)


Kosta reading to us.



Then, all of the grade levels got their picture taken with the big guy! What a great day! After, we went back to our classrooms and each student and teacher got their own PINT of ice cream to eat. Yeah, let's just say my kids enjoyed that. Wouldn't you?

Oh, and the only married first grade teachers (Amy and I) found a cute Kyle Korver (another Jazz player whom everyone says looks like Ashton Kutcher) in the office and decided to flirt a bit!

not too exciting

Yes, I know blogging without pictures is lame and boring, but our internet at home doesn't work so I can't put the pictures on yet. Ironically, the district just cleared blogspot.com to go through the district filters so I am taking advantage, though I wish I had facebook.

Just want everyone to know I'm still alive, just suffering from temporary internet outage at home. See ya!

Since I have a day off, why not blog? I am feeling so much better, thanks to beloved amoxicillin. It will be nice to go to school not feeling like I just want to lay down on the floor and take a nap--or just die!

It's not even 11:00 and I've already cleaned the bathroom and "exercised." One of my many secret ambitions is to be a dancer. I just love dancing; it makes me so happy despite the fact that I know very little about dancing. Several ballroom dance classes, beginning modern dance, and beginning jazz dance by no means make me any kind of expert in the field of dance. Yet, I still adore it! And that was my "exercise" today. In our small living room, I danced my heart out for a good 20 minutes. I have this killer miscellaneous playlist on my iPod that I listen to whenever I get the chance and some of the music is absolutely fabulous for dancing. There's Kelly Clarkson (she's more for jamming than dancing), Melanie C (her song "If That Were Me" is amazing), Dr. IZ's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and more. Oh, you can't leave out Bon Jovi "You Wanna Make a Memory." Whew! I love that playlist and I love to just secretly dance. I wish I could take actual dance lessons and choreograph something for a performance. That would be so cool!!!!

It feels really good to be productive. I think I'll go be more productive. See ya!

Spoiled

So, the story about my CUTE boots...

I've been looking for some boots for a while and found some off brand of UGG boots at Payless. They're cute, but I held off wearing them because I had seen boots that I REALLY liked at Tradehome shoes in the mall. The problem was those boots were $130! Eh, I'll wait. So, I continued my search and even went back to Tradehome when they were having a sale. Sold out of the boots. Sad!! :( My search continued once again, still not wearing the boots I had found at Payless for $35. A couple weeks ago, Kory and I were in the mall. I decided while he looked in his store I would go two doors down and look in Forever Young Shoes. They have great prices on shoes. They had boots! I saw the pair in the picture and they were $38. THEN, I heard one of the sales associates tell someone "The boots are on sale, buy one pair get another pair of boots free." Doth my ears deceive me? Did I hear that correctly? I looked at the sign on the wall by the boots and it said "Buy one pair of boots, get another pair free!" Oooooh, sweet! Kory came in then and I showed him the deal. He pretty much MADE me buy two pairs of boots. My only problem with that was choosing the colors! Obviously I ended up with the tan pair, and after about 10 minutes of debating, I chose the same boots in black. They had other styles of boots, but I didn't like any of the other ones. Yeah, two super cute (and warm, I must say) pairs of boots for $40. Can't beat that with a stick, as Kory would say!
Now, onto the flowers. Yesterday, I was sitting at my back table in my classroom with six of my students, giving them their weekly reading test, on the computer (yeah, that's an ordeal!). In walks Rachel, our amazingly wonderful school secretary, with a big green box marked Proflowers. "This came for you." Rachel is so great. She made me open it right then. "Not like you have anything better to do," she says jokingly. So, while my kids are super confused about how to submit their test, she helps them and I open my box. Can you guess what was inside? A dozen gorgeous tulips and a note from Kory. I was totally surprised!! He completely made my day. If any men read this, let me tell you, the element of surprise in the form of flowers at work is a sure win! Rachel took the flowers from me and arranged them in their vase while I finished getting my students squared away and other students started on their test. She was so happy to put my flowers in water for me; that's why I love Rachel. I was so happy the whole day. One of my students said: "Mrs. S., who are those flowers from?" "They're from my husband," I tell her. In a very matter-of-fact voice she said "I thought so." That's my Hannah!

Yeah, so pretty much I'm spoiled by my husband.

Good stuff!

It certainly has been a while since I blogged. Some of that is due to the fact that I've been sick with a nasty cold that turned into a sinus infection. Thankfully, I got antibiotics and am feeling better. I actually have started using Web MD and really like it. When my cold wasn't getting any better, I looked up my symptoms on Web MD an had about half of the symptoms of a sinus infection. But, I decided it would be best to at least visit the doctor, since I have had a sinus infection before and pneumonia when I was young. Plus, the other first grade teachers have been sick. Our whole section should just be under quarantine. It has taken Amy 3 weeks to get over whatever she had. She's guessing it was either bronchitis or walking pneumonia. Since we meet together so often as a first grade team, I figured seeing the doctor was probably a great idea. Getting my amoxicillian free wasn't too bad, either. Thanks SelectMed insurance!

I have implemented some of the suggestions from my previous blog and am slowly seeing a change. It's making life a little less stressful, but my kids get annoyed from practicing procedures so much. I remind them that if they follow directions exactly how I give them, they won't have to practice. Most of them get it, but some still think it's funny to not follow directions. Then they don't think it's funny to miss P.E. or recess to practice. Hee hee!! (That was my evil laugh!)

I would blog about my screaming deal I got on my new boots, but I want to post the picture I took, which is not yet uploaded onto my computer. So, that will be for another time.

suggestions

I certainly don't want to bore you with all of my mental notes I took today while talking to our Facilitator (a.k.a. "Vice-Prinicpal"), but I am completely grateful for her input, even if our meeting went almost too long. I made it out of her office in just enough time to bring Kory his Carl's Jr. birthday dinner, by request. He had Carl's mostly because we have two shows we LOVE to watch on Monday evenings: "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" (yeah, yeah. No commentary, please) and "24".

So, just for my sake, I will make note of some of the things I can remember from my meeting with Le Ann. Read on, if you wish. Oh, just a little background: I have a really tough group of kids to manage every other week. Today they were completely INSANE! They could not calm down. So, since my day made me feel like garbage and inadequate, I sought help and wound up with Le Ann, who is absolutely amazing. Here are some of her suggestions for a happier, healthier classroom.

*Golden Arrows (golden-rod colored pieces of paper that are like GOLD to the students)
*set deadlines for earning rewards
*go through procedures until the kids get it right--even if it means practicing lining up the entire day. I WILL WIN THAT BATTLE!
*Give children the opportunity to work wherever they want to in the classroom. The kids don't necessarily have to have their feet flat on the floor or be sitting in their chairs. She used a great analogy for this one: When you read for pleasure, where do you read? At your desk, hunched over a book? My answer was on the couch or bed because that's what is comfortable for me. It's not comfortable to sit flat in a hard chair all day! I liked this idea.
*Playing 3/4 time music (classical) as the kids walk into the classroom. I've heard classical music flows with the same natural rhythm of the body so it's calming.

Other suggestions where student-specific but I was thoroughly enlightened by our whole conversation and feel much better. Good-night.

Check out the coolness!

On Saturday, Kory and I went to the SLC car expo in Sandy. There were some cool cars there!
This was an OLD Camaro. I don't remember what year, but it sure was sweet.



'69 Stang. Beautiful.


In the 'Vette...Corvette convertible. Kory LOVES Corvettes.

Apparently, this was my car before I was married. Hee hee. It's actually kind of UGLY! But hey, I'll take it for free.

This is the one I really want. If I purchase a new car, the Honda Fit would be close to the top of my list. Very economical and roomy, plus how can one resist the cuteness of the hatchback?


A Viper. Oooooooooooh!




This was called a Tomahawk. It don't know who created it, but it's pretty sweet.

Yeah, so that was the car show. Apparently Jase went earlier that day with his mom and dad. He told me tonight that there weren't any pink or purple cars. Sad!

It will be nice to have a "day off" tomorrow. I have to work because I didn't spend enough time on Friday preparing for this upcoming school week.

I have a new calling in the ward: Primary Song Leader. It's been kind of scary the past two weeks, but today one of the Primary teachers told me that singing time has greatly improved since I've been there. Apparently they've had a hard time keeping a Primary chorister. I was very touched and grateful that Heavenly Father gave me an answer to my prayers about being so scared about my calling. He really does hear our prayers.