Everything is happenning so fast!

This will be a double update post.

1. Student teaching

I am halfway done. Yippeeeee! I know the hardest part is ahead of me. I solo teach starting next week. I feel like my classroom management skills are vastly improving. I have gotten a lot stricter. But I truly enjoy it.

Yesterday was Educator Recruitment Day at my school. I had nine (yes, nine!) interviews in one day. IMO, they all went well. I am confident that I'll get a least a couple of offers soon.

2. Wedding stuff!

Counting down the days! I'm so excited!!!! So far, I have arranged my church, reception location, the attire, bridesmaids-MOH is another story for another post, and the cake. Oh, and the invites, too. We just don't have any food LOL! We are working on it.

Lettuce is far more involved than I expected him to be. He selected the colors and is in charge of the food and the reception. Of course, I am monitoring him to make sure everything goes the way I want it to! If you haven't yet, please visit Crate & Barrel and vote for us! And tell your friends! Yay! We're only like 16,000 votes behind the leader!

I fibbed. This is a triple update

3. Family

Side salad is 2 years old! I can't believe it. He has a hilarious vocabulary. His favorite phrase is "I 'on know," something he picked up from the older sibs. Squirrel is sick and hasn't been to school in a couple of days. As you may know, my state is having an issue with a stomach virus. Not fun. Princess, the first grader, is now reading 3 grade level books. Astronaut, the third grader, is reading the Chronicles of Narnia on his own! Love those kids.

As a mama and an almost teacher, I know the importance of literacy. We have a gazillion books at my house and growing. I wanted to let you know about a giveaway at Muse Reviews for the books "Marshmallow."

It's about a bunny, making it perfect for Easter. Drop by and enter, but if you don't win, go buy it. It's $6.99 for paperback at B&N. Stick it a kid-you-know's Easter basket.

Sigh

The drama never ends when you are student teaching.

I am not a perfect person. I am far from it. And, I am not a real teacher yet-I'm still a college student.

Today I was teaching a spelling lesson and I made a mistake.

[My CT introduces spelling words by first giving the students the word pattern for the week, then letting them know the number of letters in the spelling word, and giving students the definition of the word. It gets their little brains going.]

The word was "quarreled" and I mean to say the word meant "argued" but I accidentally said quarreled. Big freakin' deal. I told the kids, "Whoops! I accidentally gave you the word. The final word is quarrel." I was getting ready to move on when this kid says, under his breath:

"Great job, Dum-dum."

Okay, I like "Night at the Museum" as much as the next person but that was just plain disrespectful. I turned and asked who the perp was. All his peers ratted him out. I wanted to laugh for a sec. The truth is, these kids are smart. They know when they go too far. I gave him a check and he'll be walking at least one lap for me tomorrow during recess. I am also going to send his parents a note.

I have a pet peeve about disrespectful kids. Am I going too far? Is the lap enough? If it were my kid, I'd want to know....

Why can't we just all get along?

So I am about 3 weeks into my student teaching [directed teaching]. It's my last stop before graduation. I have a class of 5th graders at-let's call it TAES or Totally Awesome Elementary School. One of my kids reminds me of me. She is so sweet, just a little awkward. Like me, she attended a different elementary school and came after all the friendships had been formed. She kinda hangs on the edges of the groups. I feel so bad for her sometimes because I remember how hard it was for me. I try to mak an extra effort to show her attention.

But today, my little misfit ended up in tears. Another girl wrote her a note saying she didn't want to be her friend anymore. It was just cruel. I wish I had the note, she would have been in deep doo-doo because that is kind of like bullying IMO. I mean seriously, why would someone do that? It's just plain mean.

Or maybe I see so much of me in this kid and I want to help her the way no one helped me.