Snow Day!

Ah the perks of being a teacher and having a snow day. This snow day was much needed and I thought we would have had one yesterday too. The snow started to fall early yesterday morning and continued throughout the day. Every school district but ours in the county was closed. Even though I teach at a Charter school we rely on the counties school district busing. So we base our days off of what they do. For some crazy reason the superintendent of the school decided to stay open and send the kids to school. It was a crazy drive and the story even made the news because of the numerous upset parents for the decision to have school. I had several students absent and most of the other classrooms did as well. It was a pretty low key day and our principal decided that not matter what the school district decides that Wednesday we would have no school regardless. Talk about exciting news! Knowing that before you go home you don't have to come to school the next day because of a snow day! I got home safely, made dinner, and then Chris and I decided to go outside and enjoy the new freshly fallen snow by making a snowman, and of course Sloopy had to help too.




We used blueberries to make the face and were able to find some twigs from the front bush for his arms. He may be little but he is cute.

It was nice to sleep in today and I even ventured out to return some movies and pick up some laundry detergent. I shoveled the driveway and walkway, which you can't tell now because of drifting and a little more snow, and I got caught up on some things around the house. It's been a productive and relaxing day and a much needed day off from school. The weather man is saying that the snow should stop and be done today but another storm is on its way Monday. So who knows, maybe I will get another snow day next week!

This Year's Classroom

I thought I'd post some pictures of my classroom set up this year. It isn't a very big room and with 20 kindergartners you need tons of space. So I have to make do with what I got. I like the set up this year and I finally figured out how to arrange it to maximize the space and still feel cozy.
This is a picture of the whole room. As you can see it's not that big.

So I divide it up into areas.

This is the cubbie area. The kids hang their coats and bookbags here. The milk jugs on top are going to be used to build an igloo in our classroom for the children to sit under in the reading corner.


The reading corner and my desk

This is where we have circle time and morning calendar. The sweet house use to be an M&M Christmas display that Chris brought home from work. The class loves to sit under it and read their books during center time.

The last two images are the students tables and the back wall. I also took a picture of my favorite tool in the classroom which is my projector. It's hooked up to the computer so if I want to show a movie or do a writing project I can show what's on my computer on the board. I love it and use it every day.


So as you can see there isn't much room but we make it work and the kids don't seem to mind. It's a cozy, homey place to be at during the day for learning. I like it and am hoping that next year I have a bigger room.
As a small side note, this is my 100th post of the blog. I can't believe I've written that much and it's funny that it's about my classroom which reflects one of my passions in life, teaching. I find it fitting.

Tickets Please..

Today kicked off the second annual Polar Express story telling in my classroom. This year Chris went and got a conductors hat and wore his suit to play the role of the conductor on the train. He also brought to my room a really neat cardboard house that I explained to the kids came from the north pole and will be spending some time in our classroom.

While we set up the house my class were in the computer lab for their class. When the bell rang I gave each of them their ticket to board the polar express as they entered the classroom.


Chris was standing there hole punching the tickets and getting them ready for their story.


It was super cute to see all the kids excited about the conductor and adorable to watch Chris interact with the class. He did a fantastic job of reading the story and then we all enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate and they each received the magic Christmas bell from him.


It was a really sweet and enjoyable afternoon and has geared the class up for pajama day tomorrow and watching the Polar Express movie. It is also the last day before Christmas break!

Oh Goodness..

I thought that it had only been a week since my last post, but apparently it's been two. I've been super busy with school and what not and had no idea how much time has passed. It seems right now that school is consuming all of my time this year and I am constantly working on stuff at home and doing some planning. It comes with the job and a teacher's work never seems to be done. Speaking of work. Can I just say I love my kids in my class this year. They are a great group who always keep me laughing and they are always eager to learn. It's nice to have such a great class and I am proud of the compliments they get from other teachers. It makes you feel good as a teacher. I'm glad that the class is great because lately there has been drama going on at school. It feels like at times that some of the people I work worth are not professional and act like junior kids. We are 20, 30 and 40 year old individuals who are educators, can't we be professional about things? I've already been through junior high and high school, I don't want my work place to feel like one to. I had to vent briefly about that because it's getting a bit ridiculous lately. Again, so thankful I have a great class. Today was a long day at school. It wasn't all bad and it was fun celebrating our harvest party in our class. We can't call it a Halloween party or have Halloween things, it has to be harvest. It's the only holiday we aren't allowed to do at my school. I'm just glad we can do Christmas!
When I haven't been busy with school I've tried to relax a little and do some other fun activities. I hosted a Longaberger party last weekend and am glad to purchase a new basket with the hostess rewards I got. I think the baskets are really neat and am exited about the super cute Christmas collection. Ok, I get excited about anything Christmas. So with it being Longaberger it makes it that much better. We also passed out candy to the trick-or-treaters last night and we even dressed Sloopy up. He wasn't to happy with us but he was super cute.



I always love passing out candy and seeing all the creative and cute costumes the kids have. My favorite this year was a one year old who was dressed as Nemo. So stinking cute this little girl was! I can't wait for the day when I have kids to take trick-or-treating.
With school and everything else going on I feel I've not had the chance to talk to some of my friends and am hoping to catch up this weekend. I miss my girls and hope to see them soon. I also am looking forward to watching what will hopefully be a shutout with the Buckeye game tomorrow and an early birthday celebration on Sunday with my parents. Chris baked my favorite funfetti cake in preparation for Sunday tonight. Love it! So here's hoping to a great weekend and a fresh start on Monday. My birthday is on Thursday and we are going to the Penn State game this weekend with a bunch of friends. It's going to be a great week ahead.

Germies..

Can I just say that I love teaching and I love being a teacher. However, I do not love getting sick and constant exposure to all kinds of germies my kids bring into the room. Over the years I've had everything under the sun in terms of sickness and it's always a guessing game of what I'm going to get next and when I'm going to get it. This time it's been a nasty chest cold accompanied with aches and topped off with a fever. I've had several students out this past week so it was only inevitable that I would catch it next, and I did. Luckily after sleeping in until 12:20 today, taking a hot shower, staying in my pajamas, and not leaving the heating blanket, I feel much better. I also enjoyed watching Elf today. I do realize that it is not Christmas yet, but anybody who knows me knows I am rather obsessed with Christmas and could celebrate or watch Christmas movies all year long. It's always nice to watch a fun, cheery movie when you feel ill. Elf makes me laugh no matter how many times I watch it and I love me a festive holiday movie. My temperature has broken and I'm feeling a little better. I will be heading back to work tomorrow and continue to obsessively disinfect my classroom again. I go through a bottle of hand sanitizer a week with my kids and a container of Clorox wipes with all the disinfecting and cleaning we do. Lets hope that no more sickness enters my room!

Back to School

So it's been ten day since my last posting. I think this is the longest I've gone. I have good reason for it. I've been running around like a mad women preparing for my new group of kiddos to arrive in my kindergarten class. It would be nice if teachers also got paid by the hour for each hour we spent setting up and preparing for our classrooms, because I definitely clocked more then 30 hours in prep time this year. But, it comes with being a teacher. All of the preparation went well and I have to say that I love the layout of my classroom this year and the way I decorated it. It made the room feel bigger and has a more open and homier vibe to it. It all went well and I am eager to announce that today was the first day of school and it was a spectacular day. I was so impressed with the behaviour of my class and that they all know how to write and recognize their names. This is a huge deal for anyone who teaches kindergarten! I also only had 17 show up instead of the whole 24 that were on my roster. 17 is a great class size and I'm hoping it stays that way. I enjoyed getting to the know the kids and can't wait to fully see their personalities and all their little quirks. Kindergartners are so darn cute and when well behaved they are great to be around. I'm looking forward to a great year ahead and am hoping that they continue to progress positively from here on out. I've took some pictures of my classroom and will post them in the next couple of days. It's back to school again and Mrs. Hallstrom is hopeful for wonderful things to happen this year!

Mean Mrs. Hallstrom

Today, oh today, what a day. You can always tell when the weather is warm outside and the school year is coming to an end. My kids are out of control and I feel like I'm trying to tame a classroom full of monkeys. All week long it's been sit down, stop talking, be nice, make good choices, and keep hands to yourself. I feel like I'm a broken record and it probably would be easier to record these few phrases and just press play when needed. I have an incentive jar in my room were by making good choices and turning homework and things in they earn marbles to place in the jar. They have plenty of opportunities to earn their marbles. When the jar is filled they get an ice cream sundae party. The jar was almost filled and today it got dumped. I warned them until I was blue in the face that they needed to listen and calm down or the jar would get dumped. Well, needless to say, they didn't listen and I dumped the jar. The looks on their faces was priceless and hopefully they will now take me seriously and listen. I was mean Mrs. Hallstrom today and I hope I don't have to bring her back to school with me.
I spent the rest of the day mulching the front of the house, reading the new People magazine, and then took a shower. I'm getting ready to make a frozen strawberry spumonte drink and watch Greys from last night. I hear that I need some Kleenex because it's a real tear jerker. I love that show and can't wait to see what next session might bring. Chris and I have a quiet weekend planned with nothing to fancy but relaxing and getting some things done around the house. Sunday we are going to go to the Funny Bone to see J. Medicine Hat with a group of friends. I love that guy and laugh so hard I almost pee my pants every time I go. It's good that Chris and I can get a good laugh to help keep our mind off of things. And, yes, we are still waiting to hear from the doctors on how the test went last Friday and the results from his heart monitor. Hopefully Monday we will find out. Until then I'm not going to worry about it and am going to sit back, sleep in, and enjoy the weekend ahead.

"Cookie" and Lilacs

Today I had a student bring me Lilacs because she said they smelled good and it matched Cookie. Cookie is our class pet and he is a purple Betta fish. The flowers looked beautiful and made the whole room smell great. I made sure to place them right next to Cookie because she said that things that matched had to be next to each other. She is going to have great fashion sense someday. I thought the day was going to be great because of the wonderful start in the morning. It quickly went down hill at 10:00 and didn't get much better. Days like these really make you think why you want to be a teacher and how much patience you really do have. It took everything in my being to remain calm with two students who had major meltdowns, not once, but three times each today. I had to keep telling myself that I can make it through this day, I can make it through this day. I think we are given days like this to evaluate why we want to do something or why we have so much patience. I feel I handled it well and don't worry I still love teaching and even the little kiddies who kept me on my toes today.
When I arrived home I quickly went into distress mode. Here are some tidbits of what helps me to distress and get calm.
* A hot shower
* Making cards or scrapbooking
* Blogging
* Starbucks peppermint mocha
* A good magazine

There are many more things that I could add to the list but I thought I'd list my top favs. What helps you distress?

The Down Side of Teaching

I can honestly say that the best job in the world for me is teaching. I love opening my little student's minds to new ideas and expanding their learning and education. With this job does come a down side and that is getting sick. Teaching 20 children five days a week will cause for anybody to catch germs and get ill here and there. I have become a clean freak in my room with constantly spraying Lysol and Clorox wiping everything every day. However some of the pesky little germy bugs still get past all of my obsessive cleaning and cause sickness. This has been the first time this year where I have been really sick. They say each year you teach your immune system gets stronger and you don't get sick as often. This has been true in the three years I've been teaching. I've been much healthier and not getting very sick this year then I have in years past. This time around I caught a very bad stomach bug which required me and the bathroom to become great companions for 24 hours. I've spent most of the day sleeping and recuperating from the pesky germy and am starting to feel close to my normal self again. I am glad to be going back to school tomorrow and am looking forward to seeing the kids again. I will however do another massive round of Lysol and Clorox before I leave tomorrow hoping that being gone over the weekend will knock out any germs left in the room. I know my sickness isn't an exciting topic to read about but I love to blog and this little tidbit helps me feel a little better :)

My Classroom

I have had some people ask what my classroom looked like. I decided to take some pictures and post them. It is a small room but I made the best of the space by sectioning off sections for different purposes. I have 20 children in my Kindergarten class :)

Festive Weekend..

It has been a great couple of days. Friday I had a Valentine's Party at school for my kindergartners. Valentine's sure has changes since I was their age in school. I can remember little cards that I would write each of my classmates name on, seal in an envelope, and take to school to pass out. These days the cards come with pencils, stickers, tatoos, candy, and who knows what else. They are all extremly cute and festive. The children had a wonderful time passing out their hand picked cards for each of their classmates. We then had a little party filled with cupcakes, candy, and punch. I was amazed at how many snacks parents sent in for our little Valentine's celebration. I'm glad we did the party on a Friday so I could send them home all sugared up and have a three day weekend for them to calm down :)
After school on Friday my husband and I celebrated our Valentine's date together. We went out to dinner at our favarite restaurant The Cheesecake Factory and then saw "He's Just Not That Into You." The dinner was really nice and the movie is very cute, funny, and packed full of great actors and acrtresses. It was a great movie to watch for our Valentine's date. We celebrated on Friday because one of my best friends from college came into town on Saturday with her husband to visit. I've not seen her since Christmas and she is pregnant and I was so excited to see her with her cute pregnant belly and hear how things are going. We had a wonderful time hanging out, catching up, and shopping for baby items. It was great seeing them again.
Today we celebrated my husbands 30th birthday with family. His actual birthday isn't unti tomorrow, but today we did the famly thing for his birhthdy. Dinner followed by cake and icecream at our house. It was a nice time to have both families together. Tomorrow I am off of school for President's Day and my husband took the day off for his birthday. We are going to go out to lunch and shop around. I am excited for him to enter this next milestone in his life and I hope his birthday is a great one. Next week I am throwing a big 30th birthday party for him at our house with all of his friends. It has been a busy weekend so far, but lots of fun!

What a Day...

Well what can I say, It's been one of those days. I came home feeling like I just ran a marathon and stressed to the max. The cause of this is my kindergarten class. I usually love teaching this bunch of kiddoes and always have something funny or interesting to report to my husband when I get home. Today on the other had was a different story. I think the cause of the kayos in the room is cabin fever. The weather has been down right chilly and filled with snow. Even though the temperature was fine to go outside today we couldn't because the ground is still covered in snow. Being cooped up in school all day every day for a while can cause anybody to act a little silly and squirmy. I tried to be patient and understanding but the children would not stop talking or acting up. I tried everything from taking things away to even bribing them, but, they didn't' want anything to do with it. I in the end had to take away indoor recess and their sticker for the day. I hope that tomorrow they will calm down a bit and we can get some work done, I am thinking positive but I don't know if it will work because tomorrow is Friday. Friday usually is an indication that the children will act up a little bit because it's the end of the week, I hope this isn't the case but time will tell.
I am having a better evening thanks to my wonderful husband. I came home to find flowers on the counter for me just because he wanted to say he loved me and he cooked dinner tonight. I am so thankful for the pick-me-up and amazing gesture he gave me. The flowers are beautiful and I enjoyed dinner. The evening will be topped off with my two favorite shows Greys Anatomy and Private Practice. A great way to end a stressful day!

Longest 35 Hours of My Life!

On Friday morning at 5.20 a.m. my alarm went off and it was time to get up. I got dressed and headed to school to pick up some other teachers and we headed up to Cleveland. Our school was attending a conference in Cleveland from Friday to Saturday at the Crown Plaza. I was excited to go and meet teachers from other schools as well as learn some new techniques for the classroom. Plus, a fancy hotel is always a nice place to be and stay. Right? Wrong!
Yes, the hotel was nice and it was neat to meet some of the other teachers but the conference was the biggest waste of time! I listened for almost three hours to a guy who talked about how he had it tough growing up and now he is basically fabulous and overcame all of these hardships. After him was another guy for almost two hours who again had the story of how he had a tough life and overcame all of these hardships, attended Harvard, and now is having a great life. All weekend this is what it was about. Pretty much the same story over and over again. What does this have to do with education? How does this help me become a better teacher? It was crazy!!! I guess what really irritates me is I had to be away from my husband and my sorority was having a reunion for homecoming back at BG. It has been so long since I've seen some of these girls, and I can't remember the last time we where all in the same place together at the same time. I'm glad that I am finally home and am enjoying what is left of the weekend. I hope the girls had fun in BG and next year I will be there partying Phi Mu style.

Finally!!

 They say that good things come to those who wait and if you stop fretting and thinking about something then good things will happen. This has finally happened to me. I am so excited to have a teaching job as a kindergarten teacher. I love this grade and have wanted to teach this age group since I had the opportunity through student teaching. I can't wait to meet the children and get my classroom put together. I have a feeling this is going to be a great year and I will finally get to complete my Praxis III. The next couple of weeks are going to be crazy busy. I am looking forward and welcoming this craziness because it comes with the territory of being a teacher. To me no job is rewarding then being a teacher and working with children every day.