One Week Down...39 More to Go

The first week of school was exciting, stressful, hot, and fun. I am SO glad that it's over. I think the first week is the hardest. Here are the highlights:

-We have no air conditioning (despite the construction all summer at my school to put it in, no cold air just lots of dust and nails on the floor) and this week was one of record breaking heat in ole' Salt Lake City. Many schools in the valley made attendance "optional" and my sister substituted for a teacher who had heat stroke. Us? We just trudged thorough in a 95 degree classroom. Those poor kids begged me not to send them to recess. We're crossing our fingers for air after this week.

-I've got 29 students: 46% hispanic, 40% white, 7% polynesian, and 7% black. That's a bit more diverse than last year. The biggest difference between my last class and this one though is not their ethnicity. Last year I had an academically high class. This class is...a little less than high. I've only got 11 students that tested to be "on grade-level" this week, that is "on grade-level" for the beginning of the year, not where they need to be by the end. I have several resource and ESL students and two little autistic boys. I've got my work cut out for me.

-At the end of the first day we wrote in our journals about the first day and coming back to school. I think almost every student wrote that they were happy to have a nice teacher, maybe it was just too soon. I got several hugs. One of my students said I was like Miss Honey from Matilda, now that I have reached teaching perfection I'm just not sure where to go from here.

Take a look at the new room (looks a lot like the old room considering it's still all the same stuff but the rooms in the building are a bit more spacious than the old portables):

This American Life

With school starting back up soon, I've recommenced the commute to West Valley. On a good day I can make it in about 25 minutes each way. On a bad day...it can be rough. I've gone through cycles of what I do during that time: radio, books on CD, general conference talks, podcasts, mormon channel, ipod music, silence, calling people and having long conversations, etc. The best of all the game is This American Life.

Heather introduced me to this podcast years ago and it was a life saver during occasional long hours of data entry at the Admissions Office where I worked through college. I hooked the rest of the office onto them and we'd all search through the archives and write our favorite ones down for each other. I am confident that I have listened to almost every episode. 

The point of the podcast is just to tell stories. They pick a theme and then find stories from people's "American Lives" that go along with the theme. It is incredibly entertaining. 

After years of research, I suggest one of the following to begin with:

Something For Nothing, Break-Up, or Mistakes Were Made. Please enjoy and let me know what you think. 

Back to Reality

This week I went from the dreamiest summer...

Back to the ole' grind stone. Monday was the first day I was able to go into my school all summer. We've been getting new air conditioning in the building so the last day I was in was the day I packed up my old room, dropped off my boxes, and frolicked off for summer vacation. It was overwhelming and depressing to go back in to a room covered in a healthy layer of construction dust, boxes to unpack, and cabinets still full of other teachers left behind junk. It's been a long two days but things are coming along (pictures to come when it actually looks presentable, probably next week).

Umm, Jayme, is that a piano in your room? Why yes, yes it is. What a prize for me to get to push around my classroom.

Raise the Debt Ceiling

Bernanke makes it rain.

Girls Camp

Last week I got to spend the whole week at girls camp. What an experience. We had just under 30 young women and about 5 leaders at any given time. I was stinky and greasy and so ready to come home by the end but we had a great time. 

We crafted...so many crafts (not my forte)

We acted...skit night, very interesting

We hunted...snipes, we caught a few

We served...tutus and hat flowers for little girls with cancer, cutest service project

We hiked... unfortunately I was not able to pass along my love of hiking to the girls, this was (almost) the worst hike ever

All of the leaders in all of our glory. The ones that look cute are the ones that just came up for this night, the rest of us have...inner beauty, lots of dirt, little sleep

I can't believe I'm saying it but it has been a few days, I hope I get to go again next year!