3rd time is a charm

Exhausted.

That is the one word that describes the first day of my 3rd year of teaching. It was definitely great to see some new faces and sad to not see some others but it was a whirlwind of a day. It started with me waking up at 5:00 a.m. 30 minutes before my alarm was set to go off. I was having a nightmare that I was running late for the first day and my students were tearing apart my classroom. Since I was awake I decided to go to school early and make sure I was ready for the first day. We passed out schedules and attended the first day assembly. Then I didn't catch my breath until lunch. The afternoon was quick and then I went off to tennis practice.

When I got home and got on facebook this was the status on my side bar "On this day in 2010." It made me smile to see how excited I was a year ago. My sophomores have grown up and now have Coach Crosby, soon to be Coach Stein, and I think she is going to surprise them with how much more strict she is than I was!

The newest addition to Room 121

I saw a board in a store in New Orleans that had a list of things that were IN and OUT in society and I thought it was pretty cute. It inspired me to create this list of things that are IN and OUT in writing.

The end of Round 2

So this week marks the end of my second year of teaching. I have to say I'm relieved. I moved up with my students (which had its pros and cons) and I am really looking forward to NEW students next year. Not that I'm really looking forward to next year already, I'm just hoping my summer is rejuvenating.

I know as teachers we will get attached to students but this year's graduating class holds a special place in my heart. I went to elementary school with many of the students graduating this year and have definitely come accustomed to seeing their smiling faces in the hallways (not to mention the fact that they peek through my window, pop their heads in, plop down on my couch or park themselves at my desk). Next year will be hard without all of them just generally dropping by my classroom. Tomorrow is their last day on campus and I'm hoping they take advantage of my open door to come say hi one last time.

Looking back on this year I want to remember some of the highlights...

-Celebrating National Punctuation Day! Not only was it a department wide celebration, we decorated the halls, created a punctuation scavenger hunt, and had a pot luck lunch. The English Department is awesome and I look forward to next year's celebration being bigger and better!

-Reading Lord of the Flies! This is not noteworthy because it went amazingly well in my classroom but the kids put up with my love of the book and I believe they cooperated just for me. They ended up not enjoying it at all (despite all my efforts to make it awesome for them!)

-Reading A Midsummer Night's Dream! I was warned not to try to teach Shakespeare after the TAKS test but I was convinced I could do it. We just wrapped it up this past week and my students loved it. Granted, they thought it was all about forbidden love and sex (and they are kind of right) so of course it appealed to them.

-R.T.'s Pizza Hut All-Star Football Game! Definitely a good time when you're watching the future of college football playing a game. Even better when the west team breaks out their huddle by yelling "WEST SIDE"

-Breakfasts after mass at Sammy's! My Castroville family (The Hoog's and The Mangold's) really took me in this year and I have truly enjoyed going to 8:00 mass and eating breakfast at Sammy's afterwards. It is always funny when Mr. Hoog gets mad at us for having our phones out at the table (yes, we told him we were playing Words with Friends with each other--which is true). They have become my Castroville family and I will miss Amanda and R.T. when they head to college in the fall.

-Spring Tennis District Tournament! I was proud of all of my players. They did better than they expected to against very tough teams and I really enjoyed spending two days with them watching some stellar tennis.

Tennis 2011

Since I am really excited about this year's tennis season (even though I will have no life outside of school and tennis until April) I think I'm going to write (or try to keep up with) the progress of my team.

February 3: Tennis tournament was scheduled in Uvalde for tomorrow. The team was super pumped about opening the season but... it was canceled due to the weather. Next tournament is the SAISD tournament on Thursday and Friday.

*post-season report*
Apparently keeping up with the team didn't happen. The season turned out to be busier than I expected.

I'm teaching a quick poetry unit to my sophomores and this week I am having them write their own. In preparing for this exciting week I began searching for my Where I'm From poem that I wrote in high school. I stumbled across it today and it is still very true!

I'm from summer fish fries

I am from church picnics,

from hand-me-down quilts and treehouses.

I am from the acres of grass.

(Tall, blowing and leaning in the wind.)

I am from yellow lantana,

the Mesquite tree

with unclimbable branches,

sharp and pointy needles.

I’m from fishing in stock tanks and romping in creek beds,

from catching fire flys in old mason jars.

I’m from the Jak se mas

and homemade dresses,

from front porch swings and fields of cows.

I’m from the pageant on Christmas Eve

with pews full of family

and lines I can recite by heart.

I’m from Rio Medina and and Czechleslovkia,

homemade pickles and kolaches.

From checking the cows in the red farm truck

with Popo,

playing in hay barns and picking flowers.

The family gatherings

celebrating birthdays, holidays, or not much at all. Where the children play hide and seek, the adults gossip, and everyone slows down to enjoy the company.

My AMAZING family...

I have a huge family and one of my favorite things to do is spend time with them in La Grange.

I am the youngest out of the 17 grandchildren. Now that I'm a teacher my Momo constantly brags about me to all of her friends. I love it! But this blog isn't just about my family, it's about one of the most extravagant weddings La Grange has ever witnessed.

My cousin Andrea married this guy named Patrick on October 23rd. This wedding was beautiful as was the bride. But the best part of this wedding was that my family was all together. It started out with the realization that over 500 people had RSVP'd yes to the wedding and the church is tiny. So being the family we are we got to the church an hour ahead of time to save 2 pews (remember we have a lot of people). The ushers began to get frustrated with us because of course our family showed up right before the wedding but we wouldn't let anyone sit in our pews (duh, we're FAMILY)! The wedding was gorgeous, Mykayla was a cute flower girl, Rebecca was a dutiful maid of honor. Then we hit the reception.

RECEPTION...
We arrive and immediately hit the bar. There was an ice-sculpture with a tube and a funnel. They gave my uncle a full pitcher every time he went up (he didn't drink out of it, he walked around and continuously filled our cups). There was a grand march (my absolute favorite part of weddings, my partner was Jaime). The line was so long for the grand march we had to stand outside the hall. There was a ton of dancing and The Triumphs played. Apparently, this is a huge deal to people my parents age because this is the band they used to dance to when they were in high school. It was the highlight of many people's night. My aunts and uncles are adorable when they dance! My momo had a fabulous time and so did the rest of us.

THE NEXT DAY:
-the bride and groom had so much fun they missed their flight for their honeymoon! (don't worry, they caught a later flight)
-we had so much food left over so we enjoyed a great lunch

Inside my bag....

I was inspired by Abby's blog to reveal what is in my purse on an every day basis.

1. Blackberry... usually! My little wonderful phone (that never rings or receives texts because people rarely want to contact me) is usually in my purse unless I forget it at my apartment which happens often. I of course love my phone but weirdly sometimes love leaving it at home. Life seems more peaceful.





2. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie... it's the next novel my students are reading and I've been carrying around my copy to annotate and write notes in. I've been trying to think of creative ways to teach this novel and every time I get an idea I write it in there.





3. Koozie... more specifically a Gamma Phi Beta one. I like to carry this one for PR purposes which is a habit left over from sorority days. I promote G Phi where ever I go and I love the koozie. Mine is actually blue and says Aim High Gamma Phi but it is still G Phi.




4. iPOD.... in it's cute striped kate spade case. The only time this leaves my purse is to be played in the car, to be played during a workout, to be played on the speakers in my classroom or to be updated. kate goes with me every where with me... and yes she got her name from her case. Unoriginal but at least her name is on her!

5. A pen... but it's not just a pen it is the GREATEST pen in the whole wide world The Pilot G-2 0.38. It's super fine and perfect! I have tons of these pens all over my life such as my purse, my desk, my school bag, my tennis bag, etc. I absolutely can't live without these pens.

6. And my absolute favorite thing in my purse is a picture of my mom and a quote that I live by. These two items are found in my checkbook portion and they always bring a smile to my face. My mom is in 5th grade I think and is so cute in her little jacket! The quote is
"Be pretty if you can, be witty if you must, but be gracious if it kills you."

At times there have been weirder things in my purse such as beer to tailgate, shotglasses, other people's junk, cans of sodas, a dog leash, dog collar, etc. If there is anything unusual in there again I will add it to the blog!