Things Kids Said on a Monday

 "Miss Minster. I like your face." :) Thanks, kid.


 I heard (and saw) "Do it for the vine!" "I ain't gon do it!" about a million times. My kids are adorable dancers, so it was okay.

If they weren't doing it for the vine, they were doing the NaeNae (a random example). Also adorable.


Our room grandma and another room grandma were speaking quietly in the hallway with one another. One of my girl's said, "Ms. McElwee, why are they whispering and telling secrets? That's very disrespectful." (We've been talking about respect and how to be respectful a lot lately- it gets confusing. Sometimes whispering, like when in the hallway, is respectful. Sometimes whispering, like to a friend when the teacher is talking, is not. She'll get the hang of it eventually! And at least she's thinking about it!)


"Ms. McElwee is a magical girl. . . " (I fixed a rainbow loom bracelet)


A girl made a bunch of squares on a piece of paper and was going around trying to get other kids to do something with it. She was obviously getting frustrated that they didn't understand what she wanted them to do and she shouted, "It's just like the weather helper. You just color. it. in."  (We color a square by the type of weather during calendar time to graph the weather for the month). Someone finally understood what she wanted and colored a few squares for her.


"What are all those dots on your arms and cheeks? Are you sick?" Nope. They are freckles. Some people have them and some people don't.


A girl came up to me, wiggled her tongue all around her mouth, and said, "I feel something in my mouth when I do that. I think it's skin."


During choice time, a boy asked me  how to spell a bunch of words. The list included Mom, Dad, juice, music, airplane, and someone's last name that I could neither understand nor spell. He then folded up the paper, unfolded it, and asked if I could put it in a girl's folder to give to her parents. Sure. They will be confused, but sure :)


"Lemme see your armpit!" - I have no context clues. Sometimes they just say weird things that make me laugh.


During group time, a girl started whispering "cats. cats. cats." When no one payed attention to her, she gradually got louder. "cats. cats. Cats. CAts. CATs. CATS. CATS!"  Still, no one really acknowledged her (like I said, they just say weird things sometimes)  so she stopped.

Weekend Goodness

This weekend was a crazy busy one! 

Clouds on the way home from the grocery store 

Dan doing his fish fry thing.
(Dogs are supervising, of course)

We checked out a coffee shop by our house that we've never been to before. I felt like I was in the show Portlandia while I was there. My mocha was delish though. 

This picture does not show how pretty Dan's beer looked sitting on the window sill.
The light shining through made it look SO red. 

 On Saturday, we stopped over at Dan's mom's house for a little while. We (finally) switched our phones to a family plan and Dan got a new phone. Meagan, my sister, called me to see if I wanted to meet her at an outlet mall to do some shopping. Sure! After some shopping (and no good finds) I stopped at my parent's house on the way back home.

Wee Seamus is getting bigger! 

Our friend, Caitlin, fairly recently moved to Milwaukee after living in La Crosse and Illinois. We took her out to a weird but fun bar. Here's half our group. 

Here's the other half! 

We got a couple knobs for our dresser to update it a little. Now I need to find some pulls for the middle that I like (and that fit)! 

Strawberry rhubarb pie in the oven.
It should be done in about 15 more minutes and then I can enjoy!

We Went to the Grocery Store for Coleslaw. . .

Dan makes the best fish fries ever. I happen to make delicious coleslaw. What goes better together than fish fries and coleslaw? We make a  pretty great pair :) Anyways. . . 

We went to the grocery store for coleslaw. I was browsing through the veggie section and because I could live on fruits alone, I had to check out the fruit section too. As usual, we picked up some delish and interesting finds. 

Dragon fruit before. 

Dragon fruit after.
It has crisp texture with a very mild kiwi taste. 

Rhubarb.
When I was at the grocery store a few days ago, I had a craving for strawberry rhubarb pie but didn't do anything about it. When I saw the rhubarb today, I knew it was meant to be! Haha! I guess I'll be baking a strawb-rhubarb pie this weekend. 

Passion fruit before. 

Passion fruit after.
It's tangy and sweet and has kind of a weird texture, but I like it! 

If it weren't for my family, friends, the awesome seasons Wisconsin has, and Dan's dislike of tropical temperatures, I would definitely move somewhere that has a wide variety of fruits more readily available for me :) Now I have the world's best fish fry to get to!

Observation #3- the Results

I had kind of been putting off my post observation meeting for observation #3- I was a little nervous about being critiqued, especially when observations haven't gone so well in the past- but yesterday I checked off my "schedule meeting" box on my sticky note.

I met with my supervisor right after my AM class was over. Their day went well, which helped me stay in a positive mood, and I reminded myself that the kids asked to do the lesson again the next day.

We started going over the rubric and my supervisor said she didn't see any actual evidence that I met the standards. Luckily, she takes running records of the lessons she observes. I went through the record  and used what I had said, how the kids reacted, and the things they said to prove I did meet the standards.

Woo hoo!!

Weekend Goodness- Easter Edition

This wall has been bare since we moved here. 

My mom came over to (finally) help me get some things up there! 

#froyosispic

Seriously, the best sunsets happen at my parents' house. 

Science.
My brother brought some cool polymorph stuff home for us to play with. I made a mold of my nose (then Meagan threw it back in the boiling water and it melted back to a pliable blob). 

Happy birthday, Sean! 

I rearranged our room and switched to more springy colors while Dan was away. I like the new set up! 

Sisters! 

It was 77 degrees here today! It was the prefect day to have lunch outside with my family, take the dogs to the dog park, and grill out for dinner. 

Happy Easter! 

Phone Call from Vegas

Yesterday I got a ton of calls from an 866 number and since I was teaching, I was unable to answer my phone. They didn't leave a message but when I did a reverse phone number look up, I found out they were some agency that collects past due money for gym memberships. I don't have a gym membership.

Fast forward to this morning. I was laying in bed (sleeping) when I heard my phone ring. It was about the time I usually get up to get ready for school (about 6 AM), so at first I thought it was my alarm. Then I panicked a little bit that I was really supposed to go to school today (instead of having the day off). Then I realized it was a number I didn't recognize. In my groggy state, I thought 'good- I'll tell these 866 people to stop calling me. I don't go to a gym'. So, I answered the phone. 

A guy with an Irish accent said, "Hello, is this Nora?" and I asked who it was. He said, "Your ex-friend, Steph, wanted me to call you cuz I'm Irish and you're Irish!" 

A detail you need to know: My friend, Steph, is in Vegas with some of her friends for a bachelorette party. There is a two hour time difference between Vegas and Wisconsin. While I was snug in my bed at 6 AM on a Friday morning, Steph was just about to call it a night at 4 AM in Vegas. 

So back to the phone call- I was half awake, not really sure what was going on, and talking to some Irish guy about how he's from Ireland, how Steph made him call me, and how she's probably not my friend anymore because I was sleeping. 

In my sleepy state, I asked him where in Ireland he was from, but before I got an answer Steph was on the phone. She was excited I answered the phone, said they were all thinking about me, and then hung up. 

I couldn't fall asleep after that, but that's okay because I ended up having a very productive day off. 

I did LOTS of spring cleaning. I updated my resume, organized and cleaned the kitchen,  repotted some plants,  dusted, vacuumed, cleaned and rearranged our bedroom, and even had time to go to Target :) Whew! Tomorrow my mom is coming over to help me hang up some photos and art. Dan, who is hunting, is not even going to recognize this place! 

Thanks for thinking of me, Steph. Your phone call reminded me of this incident from our college days:

 :) Don't worry, I'm still your friend. 

Top Songs the 4Kers Sing

If you ever want to find my classroom (at least in the afternoon), it's the one that is full of kids singing. All the time. We sing a hello song, a month song, a days of the week song, a weather song, a clean up song, transition songs, and songs about the topic of the week. When we aren't singing songs as a class, the kids sing songs they know from outside of school. 

Some of their favorites lately: 

1. Let It Go from Frozen. The song reached it's peak a couple weeks ago, but they still break into the chorus at least once a day. I'm not sure I can take it much longer :) 

2. Red Nose by Sage the Gemini. This one is super inappropriate for kids. They only sing "like a red nose" over and over. A couple girls were singing it today and I asked them if their mom's knew they sang that song. They said yes, so I asked them what the song was about. One of them said, "You know that reindeer? He has the red nose? I think he's Rudolph. It's about him dancing. You know, shake it like the red nose." 

3. Like Me from Teen Beach Movie. I've never seen it. I feel like it's the modern day High School Musical haha

4. Gas Pedal- another one by Sage the Gemini. Also super inappropriate for kids. They only sing the "gas pedal, gas pedal" part over and over. It creeps me out a little bit when they sing songs like this, but I know they have no idea what they are singing about. They probably think this one is about a car. I remember when I was younger, I would sing along to songs on the radio and thought I knew what the song was about. As I got older, I realized what the songs were really about. 

5. Boom Chicka Boom is a song we dance to a couple times a week. They love it and dance to it and it's adorable. 

6. Church songs. A bunch of my kids go to the same church and some of the other kids sing the same songs at their churches. They break out in church songs pretty often. 

7. Any of these Have Fun Teaching songs. This week, our letter was Q. These songs are catchy and get stuck in my head all the time. I woke up this morning singing, "Q is a constant, a letter in the alphabet!" 

I had a kid throw up in my room today. She said she ate too much McDonald's and then started to cry. I got the other kids settled with an activity and then helped the sick little one. As I was calling her grandma to come pick her up, the class burst into a top-of -their-lungs rendition of Let It Go. After hearing that song for the 50 millionth time, I feel like throwing up too :) Haha

Observation #3

As I mentioned yesterday, I had my final observation today. I'm feeling pretty confident about it for two reasons.

1. It went well! Except for one little guy who always responds negatively when someone out of the ordinary is in the room, the kids were engaged! I told them a story about how a bunch of dinosaur eggs got mixed up and they had to help the mama dinosaurs get their babies back. The only way they could make sure the eggs were in the right nest was to count the number of dots on each egg and match them to the corresponding nest. They were so into it. They were super talkative and excited when we talked as a whole group and they were quiet, hard workers in small groups.

2. I got an email from an administrator showing how the rubric used to critique me isn't appropriate based on the age group I teach. No wonder I've gotten lower 'scores' than I expected. Even if the current rubric is used to critique me this time, and even if I don't get the 'grade' I think I deserve based on the current rubric's criteria, feeling like someone understand my position makes it okay.

I'll meet with my supervisor once she's done evaluating me so we can talk about how it went. On one hand, I'm happy because I know the lesson went well. On the other hand, I still want to get a good 'grade' and I'm nervous that she won't see the good things that happened. I guess I will just have to wait and see!


And if she doesn't think I did well, I might just have to start leaving her copies of my favorite drawing all around her office!

Weekend Goodness

Friday evening was beautiful!

I love a good golden sunset :) 

Gilles for dinner! Mmmmm! 

Breaking in my new rain boots. Saturday started out very rainy. 

Dan and his friend, Tim, working on their brewery things. 

What a weird dog :)

Brewers game with some friends!
I don't know a lot about baseball. At one point during the game, I wanted to update Dan with what was going on. Before I texted him, asked a friend if saying "It's the bottom of the 6th" is the right thing to say- it was. So I texted that to Dan. He responded: "Ok cool. And you asked someone that. Not a chance in hell you knew it was the bottom of the 6th" I laughed so hard! He knows me too well :) 

Go racing sausages, go! 

Brunch with Daniel :) 

We got brunch at a place near us called Rocket Baby Bakery. It is delicious! Their bread is sooooo good. We both got croque madames. They were so rich I had to take half of it home, but definitely worth trying.

Wish me luck- I have my last observation tomorrow and I'm kind of nervous. The last one didn't go so hot, so I hope this one goes much better.

(Too Many) Things Confiscated on a Thursday

 I swear the 4K kids have a secret phone chain they use to call each other to plan weird things to do at school. They must have used this secret phone chain in order to get the word out that they should bring as many toys to school as they possibly could. I only got pictures of a few.

I don't really know what this is. It lights up and looks like it was in a McDonald's Happy Meal.

Batman just couldn't stay in a backpack. The kid conveniently left his backpack at daycare but somehow Batman made it to school. 

I hope these keys aren't important because the kid who brought them left them on my desk. 

Lip gloss is one of the most annoying things kids bring to school. I find little tubes of it everywhere. I save it for a day and if no one mentions that they lost their lipgloss or chapstick, it goes in the trash. 

The kid who snuck in this stress ball also snuck in a half eaten granola bar, some peanut m&ms,  a toy car, unsticky stickers, and wouldn't keep his shoes on today. 

This is probably my most favorite thing a kid brought to school today. If you punch it, it says things to you. It's a pretty big toy casually bring to school and then casually try to bring to the carpet.

Toys not pictured:

Baby doll

Sippy cup

Spongebob book

Lipgloss 

12 days of Christmas book

Camera

Pretend cell phone

Real cell phone

Kindle

Cars

Baby blanket

Some super hero I'm not cool enough to know about

Purse

Yo-yo

For most kids, the "That's so cool! I bet you would feel sad if it got lost or broken. You should put it in your backpack so it stays safe." spiel worked.  For one repeat offender, I started saying, "Oooo! That's a really cool toy! I like really cool toys and don't really have any at my house." Then they would wonder if I was going to take their toys and I would say, "I don't know- it is really cool. . . " And into the backpacks they would go. Unless they had to stay on my desk until the end of the day. 

Spring!

It's starting to actually feel a little like spring around here! Im probably jinxing myself by saying this- sorry if we get a snowstorm- but I feel like we are out of the melty-snow stage and into getting-green stage. I took Maggie for a walk this evening (while Dan picked up our dinner with Nella) and it was gorgeous! The sun was starting to set, which is my favorite time of day, and I was only slightly chilly with the sweater I was wearing. It even smells like spring! 

Oh and if you were wondering- Dan tied with two other people for #1 in our bracket. I was in 4th place! In m mind, this is basically 2nd place because there were three number 1s and then me. I did pretty good for picking teams based on colors, mascots, and gut feelings :) Haha! 

Weekend Goodness

Collectivo mocha and chocolate croissant. Mmmmm! 

Mint green shoes for spring :)

This is my mom and dad's cat, George. He comes when I call him :) 

Lunch at the public market. 

Maggie loves the dog park. 

Nella loves it even more! 

Brunch! 

This was such a happy weekend!