Polar Express

Every year I have Polar Express Day for my students. This year Glenn dressed up as "Conductor Matthews" and came to check tickets and read the story to our second and third graders. I love the day because I get to wear my pjs to school and it was even more special to have Glenn there.

Ben's BIG News

On the last day of Ben's school year I received a phone call at work from his school. A few weeks earlier he had submitted an application and interview for the district's ROSETA (Richland One Student Experience To Africa) program. Each middle school in his district allows sixth graders to apply and they choose 2 per school from the applicant pool. Then, after a year of classes, fundraising, research and study those students travel to AFRICA the June after 7th grade for two weeks. There they visit Ghana and Morocco where they study culture, history, education, arts, etc.

Well......... Ben was selected as one of the two students to GO TO AFRICA in June 2012 from his school!!!!!!!! We are so excited for him!!! And, he absolutely can't wait to go!!

"It's All Greek To Me"

Last Thursday, one set of my in laws arrived in time to attend Ben's 6th grade drama production of "It's All Greek To Me" with us after a yummy sushi dinner at Saky. The play was terrific and Ben did a FABULOUS job as Posiedon. He is so dramatic and such a little actor! We were, of course, very proud of him!

The Wrights were here for the play!

Glenn high fiving the HAND hand! :)

Our New School!

In about six weeks we will finally get to move into our new building and I can't wait. I've been in a portable for 3 years now and I will be so nice to be back in a room in a traditional school building. We were given a chance to tour yesterday and its amazing how much has been done! Now, if they'll just hurry and finish!

First Day of Middle School

Today was the day....Ben's very first day of 6th grade, of middle school. He has been very excited about going and with his new North Face backpack loaded with supplies (and very nicely dressed, I might add) he headed off to his new

school this morning. According to him, he loved it and enjoyed it and met some new friends. I believe this is going to be a GREAT year for young Benjamin!

Middle Schooler

I really can't believe I have (another) middle schooler already. I seems like just yesterday that Ben was the little (well, not so little) 10 pounder in the nursery window! But, he is growing up and starting sixth grade a week from Monday. He is very excited. I think I may have already mentioned, but a friend of ours is a teacher at his school and even though we had missed the deadline by a good bit, helped us get him into the single gender program. Part of this included a camp all of last week. One day was "Camp Hornet" and single gender orientation to get the students acclimated to the school. The other four days were through USC for rising middle school students. They learned study skills, team building and more. One thing they had to do was read one of three books. Ben borrowed my Kindle to read Feathers by Jaqueline Woodson. Then, in groups, they did projects. On Friday the parents were invited for a snack lunch and presentations. Ben and his group (only one other was there that day) did a great job! Afterwards, the program director took them to their upcoming English class to display. He hasn't even started school and already completed his first project!

Now, we are waiting on his schedule to be sent out next week to find out all of his classes!

He can't wait!!

Is This Week Over YET??!!

After my first week back from spring break last week I was so ready for last weekend. And, it turned out to be pretty fun -- housewarming for a friend on Saturday and church on Sunday. I always love Sundays anymore because it just seems to start me week off "right" to worship in the morning and spend the day enjoying and resting.

Well, this week started off for sure...but I wouldn't say "right" was the word for it. First of all, being a teacher, we are ALL ready for summer break. This is that long stretch where everyone is cranky and exhausted. And, Mondays are the hardest. Every night and every morning one of the first things I do is check my online banking. I had checked it Sunday night and everything looked good. When I checked Monday morning...WHOA!!! My account was missing almost $300!! I almost stopped breathing (maybe I did for a few seconds, but I know my blood pressure went WAY up, WAY fast!) There was change labeled "AeroMexicano Internet Mexico". My debit card number had been stolen and used. I of course spent the first part of my morning welcoming students with a wave while working this out with the bank. It is indeed a fradualant charge --- my card had to be cancelled, a new one ordered and I've had to file a "dispute" with the bank. Hopefully, my money will be back in tonight or tomorrow at the latest.

Monday night was fun as we attended a Shandon Block Party for mayoral candidate, Kirkman Finley (who unfortunately did not win). It was complete with Doc's barb-que, snow cones, popcorn, cotton candy, a band and dancers from USC. Afterwards was dinner --for them-- with Belinda and a couple she is friends with at MoMo's. I'd eaten well on the Doc's but decided to have a snack. BEST. FRENCH. FRIES. EVER. (and the aoli sauce and curry ketchup were perfect!!)

Tuesday --- I started with voting for mayor before school. My school accepts only applicants and we have to go and observe each one. Yesterday's visit coincided with my usual lunch time so my principal agreed I could eat while I was out. Since I would be close, I decided on the BEST hot dogs in Columbia -- Jimmy's Mart. As I'm eating I get a notification on my BlackBerry that I have a Facebook message from Glenn. He NEVER sends FB messages to me, so when it didn't open (for some reason my BB is not accepting the new FB app) I wasn't too concerned. In short order I get a text from him telling me to not open anything from him on FB. His account was hacked, someone stole his password, spread a virus and was posting very un-Glenn-like messages! Within another five minutes I received a second one from Belinda (and later two more from her!), her account had been hacked, too! This day ended after 12 hours as we had
our PTO Annual Talent Show. Exhausted was not even close!

Now it is Wednesday and it seems a little calmer. I'm adding spices to my meatballs for the covered dish dinner tonight at church. And, in "only in Columbia" news --- the newly elected mayor of the town (not Finlay that we attended the event for) was in a car accident this morning at 5:45 a.m. How strange!!

Retirement Gala

On Friday night I joined my principal and one of our resource teachers for the district superintendent's retirement gala. It was

fun to see everyone all dressed up, but the program was really long and started a little too late for the length. There was a reception from 6 to 7, so it was pretty much stand around. Then dinner was served between 7 and 8. I ended up leaving early because I still needed to run errands for Saturday morning.

Ash Wednesday

Overhead today by two of my third grade students at the lunch table:

Student 1: I'm giving up chocolate milk, cupcakes and biting my nails. What are you giving up?

Student 2: Giving up? For what?

Student 1: For Lent.

Student 2: What's Lent?

Student 1: You know what God did for us, right?

Student 2: Yes.

Student 1: You know He gave up His son and let him die for us. Well, this way, during Lent, we can give up something for Him. Even though His was bigger.


I love how children can say a whole lot with simple words and to the point!!

Veteran's Day

On Tuesday, as our country celebrated Veteran's Day, my school was invited over to celebrate with Ben's school at an assembly. It was great for me because I was able to see Ben perform with his chorus. They did a great job singing patriotic songs!

Another Day's Work....

Today we went on our first field experience (what we used to call "field trips") as a whole school. All, 100 (+/-) and all staff except two assistants. We traveled about an hour to Brattonsville, which is in York County and great place to visit if you are a history buff. There are houses from the 1700s and the 1800s, including farm buildings and slave quarters. In addition, it is still a "working" farm complet with farm animals (and if you know that I have a weird fascination with farm animals --- for a city girl-- you will know that I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED seeing the sheep, horses and pigs!)

The site is very historical with the Battle of Huck's Defeat taking place during the Revolutionary War and parts of "The Patriot" were filmed on the location.

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It was a beautiful day for a field trip (a little chilly, but very sunny) and the kids were well-behaved.

All In A Day's Work

With the idea and blessing from my principal, I planned a "Pumpkin Caper" day for my class today. Tomorrow we have a field trip and Friday is a teacher in-service day, so I knew they would not be in for traditional learning. Instead we estimated and measured pumpkins for height, weight and circumference. Then I cut open the top, we scooped out the seeds (I'll be baking them for Monday) and counted the seeds. After it was all over, with parents help, we carved the faces and then wrote about our pumpkins.

Additionally, parents sent in pumpkin recipes, for us to use to put together a cook-book, and pumpkin treats --- we had pumpkin pie, pumpkin roll (yummy!!) and pumpkin bread.

It was a pumpkin-licious day!

the set up for pumpkin capers

me carving pumpkins...who would have known that I was getting a masters degree and would one day be carving pumpkins?!? (notice, however, my ability to dress to the occasion!)

Not bad if I do say so myself :)

First Days

This week was the first week of school for me, Ben and Clay. Clay started high school and he seems to really love it. Ben started at his new school in fourth grade and he too had a great few days. And, I started my new job which has, thus far, gone very well. Even though it was hard to give up the freedom of summer, it is nice to be back in a routine.