Battle of the Books

Thunder Cake, by Patricia Polacco!  Good Night Gorilla, by Peggy Rathmann!  Wiggle-Waggle-Woof, by Cherie B. Stihler!  That is just a taste of what I heard in the library yesterday as my kids went into their Battle of the Books battle for 2010.  They read the 10 books for this year over and over and over again.  We quizzed the titles and authors.  I drilled them with practice questions (which, by the way, aren't nearly as hard as the actual battle questions).  They played a game matching titles and authors, trying to see which team could get the most correct.  These books have been an integral part of our classroom since about October.  I was a little concerned on Friday morning.  The battle was in the afternoon, after school let out for the day (we have minimum days on Friday - students go home early and we teachers get some time to work/have meetings/etc.), and I didn't know how many kids would remember to come back.  I shouldn't have worried.  All 9 kids that were in school that morning, made it back for the afternoon.  My other concern was teamwork.  These kids are all very competitive and very stubborn.  We've been trying to work together as a team, but there always seems to be one person who doesn't want to agree and isn't compromising, leading to fights and hurt feelings.  Again, I shouldn't have worried.  They came to quick agreement on every question. 

All that hard work paid off.  These kids rocked it!  They only missed 3 questions, giving them a score of 104, with the highest possible score being 128!  I've never had a team score that high before!  I am so proud of them!  I don't know how they stacked up against the other teams in the district because the district librarian was doing the battles in groups (we were in the 3rd group to battle) and hadn't posted scores as of the time I left school on Friday, but I don't really care.  They had fun and that's what it's all about - getting kids excited about reading and introducing them to quality literature.  Even if they had a score of 30 (or worse!), I would be cheering just as loud.  They gave it their all, and the fact that they scored so high is the frosting on the cake.  It was a rough week for all of us, but it ended with a sweet victory!

Best quote of the day. . .

"Let's play 'I spy the guy with the red light sabers.'"  --said by the kid sitting in the row in front of me as we were waiting to taxi away from the gate in Seattle.

Christmas 2009

I'm sitting in the Anchorage airport, unsuccessfully trying to fill 8 hours of layover.  I'm on my way back to Elim after a trip home.

(Home is such a relative term.  Boise will always be home because that's where I grew up, that's where my family lives, that's the very definition of familiar and safe.  Camp is home for many different reasons.  Elim is home because that's where I live now.  But I digress. . .)

I started the trip with almost 30 hours of travel to get from Elim to Portland.  Long trip, but no red-eye flights and no overnighting in an airport.  (I spent a night in a hotel in Nome instead.)  I decided that I wasn't going to stress about it, but just take whatever life decided to throw at me.  Luckily, life didn't decide to test me on that point, and all the flights went smoothly.  I spent a wonderful day in Portland with a good friend before finally flying home to Boise.  By the time I arrived at my final destination, I had been traveling for over 50 hours. 

The next few days until Christmas were a blur of activity, most of it involving unhealthy food.  I threw the diet out the window and resolved to enjoy food for the holiday season.  I'll get back on the wagon in January. :-)  My sister and I baked waaaaaay too many cookies (we were actually told to cut our volume in half for next year). 

What you don't see is the 3 other kinds of cookies and the 3 gingerbread houses that we were also making that day.  You also don't see the stress that it was causing Mom, who was attempting to make pies at the same time. :-)

Christmas came and went, highly anticipated but ending with a let-down, as usual.  What I really want for Christmas can't be wrapped and put under the tree.  Santa can't bring it in his sled.  To be married and have a family of my own is something that I especially longed for this holiday season, but it's a desire that is a long way from being fulfilled.  That's not to say that I didn't enjoy being with my family, though:

Note the matching pajama pants. :-)

Yes, I got my little brother a marshmallow gun for Christmas. 

After we convinced the dog to come out of the bedroom where she was hiding from aforementioned marshmallow gun, she decided to sit on Vicki's lap.

A couple of days after Christmas, we headed up to Baker for our annual ski trip at Anthony Lakes.  I can't downhill ski to save my life, but they have a nice little nordic area for crazy cross-country types like myself to explore.  It was a lot of fun, but resulted in popped blisters and raw skin that will continue to give me trouble for awhile. 

Gunsight Trail runs along the base of its namesake, Gunsight Mountain.

Yeah, I skied UP that.  Several times, in fact.

That's her "angry face."  She wasn't too happy with me for taking her picture.

But she was really too tired to care.

After we got home from that trip, it was mass chaos (or at least felt like it) as I tried to do laundry, clean my room, and make sure I had everything I needed to come back to Alaska for 5 more months.  I hate good-byes and I've said more of them lately than I care to count.  There are times when moving back to the Pacific Northwest sounds like a very good idea, times when I question whether all the travel and good-byes are worth it, times when I start to wonder about my future.  But I know from past experience that the question "Is it worth it?" will be answered with a resounding yes when my kids start trickling into my classroom on Monday morning.  It will be a resounding yes as they overflow with excitement, telling me about what they did over break.  It will be a resounding yes as they make me laugh with their fun, innocent comments.  I still wonder about the future (think back to my unfulfilled Christmas wish), but for now, my future is in this cold, dark state that is nonetheless filled with joyful moments. 

Earlier this week, I was having the kids do a quarterly math assessment.  Part of that assessment is almost 100 addition and subtraction problems.  The kids had been quietly working and it was time to clean up for recess.  I told them to double-check for their names on the front pages and bring the packets to me.  As each test was handed to me, I checked for a name.  One girl handed me her test and I didn't see a name so I said, "Where is your name?"  She grabbed the test back and said, "In your pocket." 

"My name is in your pocket?" 

"Yep!"

Just for Laughs

A couple of quotes from the last week or so that had me stifling giggles:

Victor said, "I'm going to color the fur now" (on his prop for the Christmas program).  Herb, down at the other end of the table, distractedly said, "I have hair. . . ."

After giving the spelling for the word "but," KayLynne said, "If you spelled it with 2 t's, then doom on you!"

A vacuum started up in the classroom next door to ours and John said, "It's a helicopter!"

I'm wearing off on these kids.  One of my students has taken to bursting out in random song, just like me.  It's quite hilarious to hear the songs he comes up with.  Sometimes he even modifies the lyrics to fit the situation.  Clever little 6-year-old. 

Field Trip

I feel so lucky this time of year.  Not only can I take my kids on a field trip that has absolutely no educational value, but I didn't have to mess with permission.  I told my kids on Monday that we were going and to bring the appropriate winter gear on Thursday, and then mentioned it to the principal on Tuesday morning.  It was that simple!  I was actually a little concerned about the principal's response (I hadn't had trouble in the past, but we have a new principal this year and he actually cares about what goes on in the elementary wing of the school); all he said was to make sure the secretary knew when we left. 

For the second year in a row, I could have picked a better day, weather-wise.  The wind was blowing close to 20 mph with stronger gusts, dropping the wind chill to well below zero.  We hardy Alaskans don't let the threat of frostbite daunt us, though, and we bundled up and set off.  I didn't really have a destination in mind.  I figured that if we wandered long enough, we'd come across something.  All I really knew was that this year's tree was going to be significantly smaller than last year's behemoth.

We ended up on the road to the airport, which is where we've ended up for 4 years in a row.  It's a road lined with trees.  Common sense, right?  Not quite. 

See, the trees aren't exactly right at the edge of the road.  There's a bit of land between the road and the tree line.  At this particular moment in time, the kids had convinced Doris (my first-grade aide) that they saw the perfect tree, so she and them trekked over to check it out.  I stayed on the road.  (One of my students has a bum ankle and was lagging behind, so I stayed on the road to keep him company. . . at least, that was my excuse.)  If you can't tell, they're sunk into loose snow almost up to their waists.  Not only did they not find the "perfect tree," but the kids couldn't even remember which tree they were so gung-ho about. :-)

Eventually, we found what Doris and I believed to be a decent tree.  The kids were not so enthusiastic about it.  After listening to a few complaints about how it was "a scrawny tree," I told them that "scrawny" is okay and asked if I needed to show them Charlie Brown to prove it.  The best part is that it's not even that scrawny; it a little bare in spots, but it's actually a cute little tree. 

I love this picture because it manages to capture just a bit of each individual personality, which is one of the things I love about this class.  Each student has a distinct personality that is very different from everyone else's, but they combine to form a group dynamic that is simply fun!  (The wind had momentarily died down to around 10 mph at this point and the snow wasn't blowing quite so bad, which is way this picture is lighter than the others.) 

After a couple of scuffles, the kids figured out how to take turns carrying the tree.  Walking back to the school was walking into the wind, so those of us not carrying anything were walking backwards to protect our faces.  It was actually quite humorous watching some of the less-coordinated ones.  My student with the bum ankle was quite tired, so I was bringing up the rear, cheerleading him on for most of the walk back. 

We had quite a bit of time left in the day when we got back to the school - over an hour.  With a little "help" from the kids, we got the tree in the stand and gave it a drink of water.  It's a little tilted, but I've got it tilted towards the wall, so it doesn't have far to fall. :-)

I put the lights on it after everyone had left for the day (including the kids in after-school tutoring - it turned into a long day).   I say we done good.  It's a cute little tree that adds a little festive touch to the room, and as an added bonus, my room smells like pine now!  (I'm blatantly ignoring the fact that I'm obviously allergic to it.) 

I'm Not That Girl
Wicked

Hands touch, eyes meet
Sudden silence, sudden heat
Hearts leap in a giddy whirl
He could be that boy
But I'm not that girl

Don't dream too far
Don't lose sight of who you are
Don't remember that rush of joy
He could be that boy
But I'm not that girl

Every so often we long to steal
To the land of what-might-have-been
But that doesn't soften the ache we feel
When reality sets back in

Blithe smile, lithe limb
She who's winsome, she wins him
Gold hair with a gentle curl
That's the girl he chose
And heaven knows
I'm not that girl

Don't wish, don't start
Wishing only wounds the heart
I wasn't born for the rose and pearl
There's a girl I know
He loves her so
I'm not that girl


So Close
Jon McLaughlin

You're in my arms
And all the world is calm
The music plays on for only two
So close together
And when I'm with you
So close to feeling alive

A life goes by
Romantic dreams must stop
So I bid mine good-bye and never knew
So close was waiting, waiting here with you
And now forever I know
All that I wanted was to hold you
So close

So close to reaching that famous happy end
And almost believing this was not pretend
Now you're beside me and look how far we've come
So far we are so close

How could I face the faceless days
If I should lose you now?

We're so close to reaching that famous happy end
And almost believing this was not pretend
Let's go on dreaming for know we are
So close
So close
And still so far

Just a couple of song lyrics that reflect the conflicted-ness I feel this morning. . . .