sad news

I can't believe Paul Newman died. He is and was so hott. His blue eyes are unbelievably amazing. Who wants to have a Paul Newman movie marathon?

Santa Claus

This is another story about the crying polka dot girl in my class. Well we were casually talking about Santa Claus in class for some reason. We talked about him not being real, thinking this was no big deal and for sure everyone should know that by now!

The next day Megan came in and said she went straight to her mom when she saw her at home and said to her, "Mom, tell me the honest truth. Who puts out those presents on Christmas? Is Santa Claus real?!!" Her mom replied seriously, "Yes Megan, there is no Santa Claus. We are the ones who put those presents out under the tree." She told me she was a little upset/devastated /sad.

I don't remember if she said she was upset, devastated, or sad; but I thought it was better that she knew.

Santa Claus is not real.

spelling word: squirrel.

I haven't posted since Tuesday. bad me. you know my days are not that exciting so sometimes there is just not even one line to write about.

This story is a shout out to the people who were with me on fourth of july 2 years ago...
I was actually grading my kids spelling sentences in the car yesterday. (fyi...I was not driving) So, I'm reading through the sentences and one of the words was "squirrel." My student, Tyler, writes: "I act like a squirrel sometimes." I lol-ed. Now this is a kid after my own blood. I made no comment on the sentence I just gave him a 100% and laughed.

the fat boy and the "flower of youth"

Who saw Warren Sapp on Dancing with the Stars? funniest thing i've seen in a while. This guy is a 300 lb. football player who is dancing the quick step with a 120 lb. girl. Picture a Great Dane with a poodle or a Rhino with a flamingo. Then picture this Rhino actually moving his feet as fast as the flamingo and flinging the pink thing around like it's nothing but a feather. Go Great Dane Rhino! You've got my vote.

Then there is this Cody kid- the exact opposite of Warren. Right when he came on the screen my mom says, "what is he, a highschool musical weirdo?!" The judge called him "the flower of youth." I'm still not sure who he is. Does anyone?! Cody is his name, and he says he's "super excited." haha.

My mom just said again, "Whoo iiis he?!"





i love sprinklers.

too many points may be a bad thing

Wait a second! I just got 27,643 points on my tetris game. That's pretty good. I have too much time on my hands, oh dear. nah, being good at tetris should be a priority.

computer games

Here's something that maybe no one knows I do almost every week for the past 3 years, and I wish I did every day... I play tetris on my computer. Well Missy and Jess may know because they may have seen me do it at my desk. I'm not that good, I think the highest I've gotten is about 25,000 points. It is so addicting though. I make those silly noises like, "aheheheh." "ugh." "joooodi!" "why did you do that?" then of course my back and neck always kill at the end of it because i haven't moved my head an inch because you have to concentrate so hard on what you are going to do with that next tetris piece. ooh! I have a game that is so cool. I'll find it tomorrow and then add it. it's a really cool brain teaser game. I love any kind of puzzle thing. I did an entire puzzle last Sunday in one day. pretty good.

the beat of marley

I've been listening to Bob Marley. What is it about Bob Marley that makes you think that everything will actually be okay?
I think I know. It's the beat. I remember that beat when I was in Belize. Belize was the only time in my life where my top ten favorite thing I've done lasted only 2.5 hours. Dancing in Belize in the middle of the day on the ocean was that one time. My other top 9 were 24 hour events of good things all in one day.

Do you have to know where I am?

I was just mapping out running routes on http://www.usatf.org/. It's pretty cool if you want to try it out! You map out your route and it tells you exactly the distance you are going to run or just did run. It got me thinking that you could tell people where you are at all times. Running and Camping... those are the two places that you can actually escape and people not know where you are. But NOW.. you can map it out and tell people where you are. I could go running and leave the map out for people to know where I am going. I actually did that when Sparky and I went winter camping this past winter. I left a little map out for Jess and told her what time we would be hiking and exactly what hike we were going to be on. Of course I trusted Sparky to keep me alive in the freezing cold weather, but you just never know.

Why do we like to keep constant tabs on ourselves and make sure people know where we are? In case we die? Well, you're dead so it doesn't matter. I guess maybe in case you get kidnapped.. because then they know what point you were taken from. What's the probability that I would actually get kidnapped? hmm.. i'm sure that is online somewhere... there is probably a map of the different probablilities of getting kidnapped around the US.

you, me, him... who?

One of my students found this note in the hall and I actually had to draw the people out and point arrows to figure out what she/he was talking about.

note: "Sexi mexi I dk if it's true but did you tell ryan marten to ask me out for you."

It seemed like a simple sentence, and I instantly thought that she like Ryan Marten. But then I decided to sit down and figure out who "me," "you," "ryan marten," and "sexi mexi" all had to do with each other.

I dare you to figure it out. I did.

a girl that deserves her own blog all on her own.

I have another girl who constantly constantly constantly wants your attention. I could probably tell several stories about .along with all of this... she always wants to show your her pet rock who talks, in the middle of math she'll want to go to the computer and work on her newsletter, in the middle of spelling, reading, science, read-aloud.. anytime really she'll want to go to the bathroom, in the middle of social studies she'll feel like she is going to throw up, in the middle of science she'll want to go copy her newsletter, in the middle or reading she'll want me to get yarn out, in the middle of who knows what she'll want to show me something she brought from home, in the middle of math she'll want to tell me that we won't be needing our folders in music today, right before lunch she'll want to call her mom because she is still going to throw up, in the morning she'll want to tell me about her rock collection or the locker she made, during reading groups she wants to show me her Pippi Longstocking and friends popsicle sticks she has made and if I think there hair is the right color, She burns wood chips outside with her magnifying glass, she won't leave school just in case we will be watching Bill Nye the Science Guy, at the end of the day she'll want to show me her new book and she'll want to do ANYTHING to get an Aaron's Allowance.
You may think I'm joking or exaggerating, but this all happened today, and I don't even have a good enough memory to actually remember everything.

my kids

I think my kids are funny. My kids... meaning my 5th graders.
I have one kid who when at recess swings on the swings and sings opera on the top of his lungs. I love to listen to him. I wish I could sing opera on the top of my lungs everyday.
I have one kid who on the very first 5 minutes of meeting him ... he said, "Miss Aaron, I went to a Lego Camp this summer and I have been desperately trying to find a lego league. Could you find one for me?!!"
I have another kid who when he looks at you, I swear to God he looks like the cat from Shrek. He is the most adorable creature alive.
Of course I have already discussed my fly lover and my polka dot bathroom sobber.
I have another kid who when anything surprises him he yells, "Holy Cow!"

This is a shout out to all of my friends who are Buckeye fans,
One of my kids came in this morning with a plastic bag. He brought a buckeye for every student in the classroom for good luck on the test. He's one of the leaders of the class. I have never believed in luck and today these buckeyes did not disprove my theory. The buckeyes did not help them on their math tests.

me vs. Rachel Ray

I was making corn salsa tonight, thinking this would be quick. I start with the cherry tomatoes, the most essential ingredient for salsa. One by one I take a tomato and slice it longways, then take one of the halves and slice that in half. Then I picked up the other half and sliced that side in half. Good! 4 little pieces. Halfway through the carton, I thought Rachel Ray would have been finished with the entire salsa by now, and probably even would have moved onto the next dish by now. Well maybe I can't cook an entire Rachel Ray meal in 30 minutes for 5 people, but I sure can cute tomatoes in 30 minutes. Go me!

1st day of teaching

This is actually a story that happened to my friend Val. And to preface this story, we went to a private, Christian school where every student in the school was a car rider. You had to be a car rider.
This is Val's very first day of teaching ever. Miss Neil. The school did not give her a run through of how dismissal works at her school, I guess they thought it was obvious. The end of the first day came and the intercom comes on loud and clear and says, "The walkers may be dismissed." So several of her 7th graders stand up and start walking out of the room. "Oh no, they are not pulling one on me!" she thought. So she ran to the door and yelled at these rebellious students she had, "You cannot leave! NONE OF YOU HAVE WALKERS!!"
They had a good laugh as they explained that walkers were students that walked home. She of course was embarrased but laughed and admitted she thought there was a designated place for students with disabilities and walkers to walk out first. At least those students had something to tell their parents about their first day of 7th grade.

goals

jo's Goals… post suggestions for me if you can think of one for me!
-cake decorating
-blogging
-save me some $$$$
-clean my car often because I don’t have Sparky to clean it now
-be good at teaching
-keep running
-keep weight off
-play the clarinet in the local Peoria Band… I could, but I was just kidding on that one… I don't think i would meet an athletic guy there

dropped off

This is so my mom...

last week my mom didn't want to drop me off at home before her nail appointment. I said i didn't want to go to the nail appointment, and she pulls over on the busiest street in Peoria and just calls dad and tells him to come pick me up and then she drives off. The funny part of it is the mental picture of me standing there on the side of the road stranded for 5 to 10 minutes just because i got dumped on the side of the road. And my dad came and picked me up and didn't think it was weird at all. who drops someone off at the side of the road?! it was pretty funny.

a compliment

Yesterday it was 8:30 am, everyone should be in the room by this point. I had a girl or two missing. One of these girls comes in exasperated because Megan would not come out of the bathroom stall. People were making fun of her polka dot outfit and she said, "Even a 3rd grader said something!" The friend came back again and said she still wouldn't come back. So the class got a speech letting them know that there would be serious consequences if anything mean is said about her outfit from anyone.
She finally came in and I gave her a blanket to wear around her shoulders. Finally she got the guts to take it off and come to my desk for a question on whatever they were working on. One of the other boys was standing with her and said as serious and sincere as you can get, "Megan, I really like your outfit today." She looked at him and said, "Thanks."
The rest of the day she looked good, or at least she just felt good.

hot and cold lunch.

Hot and cold lunches. Pretty simple right? To Kindergarteners, not really. My mom took the time to explain both hot and cold lunches. "A hot lunch is a lunch you receive at school. A cold lunch you bring it from home." No one knew if they had a lunch in their backpack. So, they take a trip out to the hallway to check each backpack. They understood now. So, she starts the roll and asks them, "Hot or cold?" Everyone is doing good until she gets to a certain student, and she said, "Hot or Cold?" "Weeeeeellllll....." said the student and holding his head like this was the hardest question ever. "It's not really cold, and I believe it's not really that hot. I think... I think it is lukewarm."

haha. so, he sounds stupid but he is actually thinking too much. his lunch was lukewarm. somebody get that boy an ice pack for his lukewarm lunch!

one fly, two flies, no flies.

I thought I should start blogging again. Yesterday at school, there was a pet fly in my room. Well there was another one, but I hated that one because it would land on my head incessantly. The class started talking about the fly no. 2, the annoying one, and there was a couple girls who said, "Don't kill our pet fly!!" huh? "What do you mean you have a pet fly?" I said. So they go on to explain that they have been taking care of a fly that one of the boys had broken it's wing and the legs were mangled for two days. They named it and then they showed me where the fly was located. She brought it over to her desk. We all crowded around this littly fly and it was just chillin' by a little pool of water she made from droplets off her water bottle. The wing was bent and it was just lying there. Me and this other kid, (btw... my favorite student) looked at the fly closely and felt bad for it for a split second. I said sit down and while I read aloud the girl looked up what flies like to eat. So before recess she said that they like to eat saliva and blood and wanted to know if she could go to the restroom and spit in her hand for the fly. I told her she had a very compassionate heart which I liked about her, but no she may not spit in her hand to fead the dying, broken fly. I never saw the fly again. It probably has a mansion in my room somewhere. who knows. It even had a name. The fly we hated so much is definitely gone too.