Fool for the Pool

Yeah, you heard me.  I've gone to the pool three times this week.  Jealous?

TAKS was in full swing and that meant one glorious thing:  I got to leave school at 3:00 on the dot!  No staying late with kids, grading, or planning for the next day.  I went swimming on Wednesday and Thursday when I got home and stayed there until about 5.  It was relatively quiet and delightfully warm.  Today I went around 11 and didn't leave til 1:30.  After a quick dip in the pool, I was lulled to sleep by the warm breeze and the strangely soothing hum of 45 and Rayford Road...  Ahh sweet bliss.  Naps in the sun have got to be on my list of top 10 favorite things in the world.

Of course I had to text Rachel, Ben, Jackie, and my parents to tell them what I was doing...you know...to give them an opportunity to share in my joy.  Among the texts I got back were "wearing my boots waiting for more snow," "grrrrrrrrrrrrfd," "bragger," and my personal favorite:  "I hate you."  Love you too, Ben.  :)

~Hooks

TAKS Has Consumed My Life

So in case you haven't heard, Texas has its own set of standardized tests called the TAKS tests (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills)...kind of like the Regents for all you Yanks.  One big difference though.  The material my students are being tested on is mostly from LAST school year - not this year - because Texas is cool like that.  So I've spent all year teaching stuff that they'll be tested on next year, and the past two weeks madly trying to review everything they learned in 9th grade.  Should they remember it?  Yeah.  Do they?  Nope.

Anyway, TAKS starts taking control of your life about mid-March (hence no posts) and doesn't let go until after this week.  In fact, I'll probably even get in trouble for blogging right now instead of spending all my spare time thinking about and preparing for TAKS.  But I'm willing to risk it.  So here it is...the past month and a half of my life in 1000 words or less.

March 8 - March 15

• My family was in town!!!  My mom and dad came down with Ben to spend the week.  My grandpa picked them up at the airport and they stopped at my school to say hi and see where I worked.  At the time, my students had been doing a project my colleague and I had designed.  We had my room set up like Lowe's and her room set up like Home Depot, and the kids were allowed to go back and forth between our rooms to "shop" to "remodel" their houses for our area and perimeter unit.  While I was distracted with the fam, I started to notice that no students were actually coming to my room, so I went down the hall to see if they were all in my friend's room.  Nope.  I turned the corner and saw this...20 giggling 10th graders.  Dorks...I love them.  :)

• We went over to my grandparents' house for dinner on Thursday night.
• We went to Grimaldi's for dinner on Friday night, then Becca came over our apartment to celebrate her birthday with brownies...that she made (lol).
• On Saturday, my grandparents came over to eat dinner and play games/watch a movie with us.  Highlight of the night:  my mom had me make a 1-hour "express" bread in our bread maker, to be ready at 6:00 with the rest of dinner.  The only problem?  It was not an express recipe; it needed 3 hours to cook.  So we ended up having bread with our dessert.  :)
• We threw my mom a surprise 50th birthday party at my aunt's house on Sunday.  Basically the whole family was there!
• Monday: dinner with some of the extended fam at El Chaparro.  Mmm.
• Tuesday: RODEO!  We also saw Miranda Lambert but...ehh.  The rodeo was better.  This is the only picture I took, though.  Thanks, Uncle John, for the free tickets!

• On Wednesday, we shopped for patio furniture, and the best part was that my parents were treating!  Yay!  These were some of the sets we were considering.  ...Oh, and in case you're wondering, no, I am not lame enough to take pictures "just because." (Ok, actually I am, but that is not the case this time.)  No, I had to take pictures so I could TEXT THEM TO MY HUSBAND who was AT HOME BY HIMSELF being a boogerface. 

 ...and the winner...

• Thursday:  breakfast and The Logo Game at my grandparents' house.  Then it was time to say goodbye.  :(
• While they were here, my mom wrote down a list of memories from the trip.  Sorry blog readers, these are going to be a bit inside-joke-ish.  I feel a little bad about that, but it is my blog and I am writing this so that I will remember it in years to come.  Try to hang in there.  Here it is, verbatim:

1. "Where's the sudafed?!"
2. the backward, waving hand on the Statue of Liberty
3. "Can't you just put a plastic bag over your head and come down to the gate?"
4. losing an hour of vacation - thank you time change
5. "Where is Dad sleeping tonight?"
6. the USO Lounge
7. logos, jingles, and only 50 chips in a can of Pringles
8. "Mom!  That's not an express bread recipe!"  "Yes it is!"  (4 hours later) "No it ain't!"  [Oh hey, you guys understand that one!  See, I care about you a little bit.]
9. How do you make a cow move?
10. "You're in my butt space."
11. "I feel so safe here..."  "RAH!!!!"

Oh Mom...  :)

March 17

• Besides being my mom's birthday, Lee and I had to take a certification test.  Our 2nd of two...  When our results had posted, I got two texts from Lee before I had a chance to check them.  "283...beat that!" and "darn you!"  I had gotten a 289.  Ha.ha.ha.  Beat him twice.

March 22 - March 26

• Lee's parents came down for a long weekend visit.  We played a lot of games and watched a lot of tv (read: basketball).  On Saturday night, Becca and I went to see..........

YAYAYAY!  We had superb seats, and the movie was amazing.  Need I say more?

• See Lee's blog for the other nitty gritty details.*  I'm running out of available words!  :)

April 1 - April 3

•  I went to the Student Council State Convention in Dallas.  Sa-weet!
• There were over 4500 kids there, and I got to see this guy live:  Evolution of Dance
• I had my own hotel room with a king size bed.  I was sleep deprived though, so I needed it.
• By the way, I saw the best invention ever.  This was inside of a women's bathroom at a rest stop.  WHY haven't they done this sooner?!  You know there are always huge lines and it'd be nice to sit while you wait, right ladies?

Various Saturday's

• Yard sales!  I've found a few good things for school:  a sentence strip hanger, some bins, an electric pencil sharpener, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul books, trinkets to be used as prizes, a bulletin board, giant push pins, and some other stuff.
• But by FAR the best thing we've seen...

Today

• THE 10TH GRADE MATH TAKS TEST!   Nervous!
• It's my bedtime and my computer is about to die so here's the long story short:  I was the only teacher who had to stay with the students who were finishing the tests after school (yeah, they have as long as they want to finish it).  And I stayed until 5:00 while most other teachers got to leave at 3:00.  I was told it was "initiation."  Grr.  I'm still a tad sore about it, but I guess it's all over now.
• While I was waiting for the laaaaaaast student to finish, I found out I am quite creative.

 

The Rest of the Week

• Movie Day
• Science Test
• Social Studies Test

Phew!  All caught up...  And I did it in 986.  If you don't know what I'm talking about because you've forgotten already, pat yourself on the back for not being a nerd.

...For those of you that are still with me, bask in your nerdy glory.  :)

~Hooks

*Lee does not actually have a blog; I was referring to the fact that he should so that he can update you more about things like that.  ...Plus, I just think it would be funny.  :)

So True

My school had this picture in a PowerPoint during our TAKS training sessions...amazing. :)

~Hooks

It Started with a Cold...

So last week I was super sick...like so sick I don't even know why I went to work. I had a cold or something and was coughing/sneezing/blowing my nose/trying to breathe for a week straight. My throat was killing me, my head felt like it was in a vice, and I was in a fog. Basically, I was living off Dayquil, Nyquil, and Advil.

As I'm sure you can imagine, everything about teaching was inconvenient. Kids' voices were grating, standing for 50 minutes each class was more than a small feat, and sneezing at the whiteboard meant an embarrassing walk cupping my nose to get a tissue from my desk. Ughh. Enter solution: a fanny pack!

I had been thinking about getting a fanny pack for a while, even before I was sick. It's so bothersome to have to walk back to my desk every time I need a pen, pencil, tissue, bathroom pass, eraser, sticker, stamp...you name it. I would constantly set my things down, then forget where I had put them. And unfortunately, one student had stolen my pretty whiteboard markers a few weeks before (yes, the ones David got me for Christmas - *tear*) ...So I had to keep those at my desk too, except when in use. But getting sick really sealed the deal. I began to daydream about having all of my essentials right at my fingertips. And then last weekend, I made the dream a reality.

Now, it's a funny thing, fanny pack shopping. Where does one go to actually purchase one? I walked into Target and asked myself that very question. I stood there at the door thinking about what section I should head to first. I decided to go to the accessories department, you know...with purses and all that. No luck. I was under a time constraint, so I had to leave without it. :( The next day, Lee and I went to do a little shopping and I asked if we could go to GoodWill. If any place had fanny packs, it was sure to be a second-hand shop, right? Nope. We left with some Chicken Soup books (for my students) and Dr. Seuss stories (for our future children), but no fanny pack. We went back to Target...surely they had to have them! I called Rachel, who knows just about everything there is to know about shopping for anything, and she suggested the travel section. Of course! Why didn't I think of that?! And there we found it...a beautiful, black fanny pack. (Apparently they're now called hip belts? Like that makes it better?) It looked something like this...

On Monday, I introduced it to each class: "Hey guys, you know how I told you I was thinking of getting a fanny pack? Well... [reach behind my desk to grab and put it on] I GOT ONE!!!" they all sounded like a bunch of dying-hyena-cows...kind of a laughing/moaning sound. I got a lot of comments like "NO, MISS!" and "Miss, you seriously can't wear that!" (They're so concerned with my image.) I think I saw the 5 stages of grief happen right in front of me that week. About halfway through, they were like, "You're still wearing that thing?" Uh DUH. Finally, by Friday, I had convinced one class to bring fanny packs back into style with me. Another class suggested that if I was going to keep it, I should at least "bedazzle" it or call it something cooler than a fanny pack.

Well ok then.

Guess what my project was that weekend... I borrowed my 6 year-old cousin's GeMagic kit and set out to bedazzle... Here is the final product, along with a pic of the contents on any given day. And yes, I've been wearing it ever since.


I have since been told that "swagg" should have 2 g's but oh well. It's my own type of swag. I like being the corny teacher, and I think the fanny pack may just be "my" thing for the rest of my teaching career. We'll see how that goes, but for now... I'm in love.

~Hooks