5 More to break...ramble

I have decided this week, that next year...if I'm still teaching (who knows what the future holds)...I'm going do do a 12 days of Christmas in my classroom. I want to have some sort of Christmas activity each day for the 12 days leading up to Winter break. I have no idea what it will look like. Hopefully, I'll actually follow through. I really don't know how you fantastic teachers come up with units of study. I feel like I'm sinking in common core and testing.

But oh well..

Today, I taught my kids how to make snowflakes...and not the crappy square ones. It took the last 15 minutes of school to do it. I didn't send home folders. We just needed something fun to do. One girl said I was the best teacher ever and then asked for my autograph.

My best friend's brother is dying. He stopped breathing on Monday and hasn't had any brain activity in the last 24+ hours. She lost her mom about a year and a half ago to cancer. Her brother has had health issues all his life, but this is obviously the most serious thing to happen.

I told one of my kids about it today because I've been keeping my phone close during breaks. I told her that my friend's brother was very sick and in the hospital. She said that I need to go get him some vitamins and take them to the hospital so he could get better. How sweet!? I wish it was that easy.

The other day she told me that her head was going to explode with peas. I asked her if she had peas at lunch. She said..."no. Nachos." I laughed. Yesterday she told me her head was going to explode. I asked her with what this time. She says..."uh...lots of little Miss R___'s (my name)". I gave her the strangest look. Ha! I love that kid.

5 more school days to go. We so got this...and will somehow squeeze in a crazy amount of testing!

Monday, Monday.

Can we start summer break on Friday?

We started testing this week. My kiddos did fantastic...as I knew they could but was super stressed that they wouldn't. We went over about 20 minutes, which I think is pretty good since it was our first day. We'll tighten up tomorrow.

My one little friend who has been in our class for 4 days and who is only at a beginning kindergarten level(yikes!) struggled through the test. I figured that he would but was thankful that he didn't have a big meltdown or tantrum. He constantly said that he couldn't do it. I would push him to just do his best and make a choice. He guessed probably 65% of it right.

One of my ladies showed up 5 minutes after testing started. One of my gentlemen has to see the nurse to have his blood sugar checked. We took a break, and he went to the nurse. Turns out his blood sugar was WAY high, and he had to stay longer. What craziness?!

I'm really proud of my scholars. I think I almost cried as I was looking and making sure that they were filling in the circles. I have been very stressed about the test, getting two new scholars in two days, finishing my 2nd year teacher portfolio, lesson planning, end of 3rd quarter grades, planning/strategizing for the 4th quarter and just life in general. I need a break.

Hurry up, Summer!

34 more days to go!!