Teaching: Year 2

Sometimes I want to blog. Then I read everyone else's blogs and they're fun and funny and cool and interesting....and I don't want to blog anymore.

But I'll do it anyway. Fine.

School has started so once again my life is consumed by 7th and 8th graders.

(My "reading corner" I'm attempting)

I've instated a zero tolerance for negativity expectation in my classroom. It's interesting to see how they respond to it because I think it's ingrained into all adolescents to think everything sucks. They're not allowed to groan, complain, or say any negative words to themselves or others, even as a joke. And if they do, I'm on it in a heartbeat. You see, after graduation and becoming a teacher they give you hawk ears (hawks have good ears, right?). I hear everything. So, when I hear a negative anything, I make them back track and find a positive way to say whatever they are feeling. They struggle with this but I give them some ideas such as: if they hate JB, they can just say, "Justin Bieber is a singer." Or, "You're reading Twilight? I like other books."

We're working on it...

This happened last year:

So I'm attempting to be more strict. (that picture happened the very last day of school. It was orchestrated with my teacher-friend across the hall) This year, these kids ain't getting away with shiz. But I'm taking the positive angle. Being disrespectful isn't very positive. Are you talking while I'm talking?! You should't be! Are you throwing toilet paper across the classroom!? You shouldn't be!

It's already been a week and no vandalism! Also, I'm starting to learn some interesting things about my students. Here are a few examples:

Innocence or Ignorance?

The class had to make alliteration name tags. One girl, Kortney, wanted to find a really cool word, "Not 'kind' or something like that," she said. So, while looking through the dictionary she came across the word "kinky." "Oh! What does that word mean? (reading the definition)...out of the ordinary...? I like that word!" So, her name tag said "Kinky Kortney". I didn't have the heart to tell her...

Strange Interests

While going around, presenting name tags: "I'm Legit Luke. I like football and moose."

Incidental Hilariousness

Introducing herself to a fellow classmate: "I'm Katrina. But I was born before the hurricane."

Fanatics

One boy told the class he knew how to speak Ardalambion (a language from Lord of the Rings). Pretty sure that kid rules.

And now... a list of interesting names I've come across so far this year (In case you're looking for that perfect baby name):

Griffin (Gryffindor)

Rush (as in that band I don't really care for)

Jagger (as in Mc?)

Jaycie (I have 2 girls named this. Is this a real name now?)

Fetatusi (Tongan. Cool name.)

Bronston (the T is silent)

Kirk (as in Captain)

Maizen (as in Corn Maizen)

Dayton (as in Ohio)

Caysen (as in Casey wasn't good enough)

Aniston (guessing the mom was a Friends fan?)

Ivory (I'm hoping she has a sister named Ebony)

Dallas (girl name)

In other news, Kelly and I watched a thunder and lightning storm from our back porch tonight. It was breathtaking. I only captured one of the many fascinating lightning moments. Enjoy:

Well, bloggers and stalkers, here I am. Back to tell you about my life.

So, life has been picking up the pace recently:

School starts in 20 days

Doug gets married in 11 days

Kelly and I move to Sandy in 2 days

I'm already bored of blogging.

I'll never write a book.

Summer Time

Everyone is blogging, and yet I haven't felt the need. Probably because it's summer and I don't want to do any work at all, even if it's fake work. But alas, here I am.

Here's our summer so far in a bulleted list:

• Waking up at 10:30 even though our alarms were set for 8.
• Reading Harry Potter/Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/anything we want because the library rules.
• Running on treadmills. I like to listen to Ke$ha and watch TV and pretend the commercials are her music videos.
• Going to Real Salt Lake soccer games and selecting a rude player on the opposing team to BOOO every time he even gets near the ball.
• Playing tennis with our fancy new racquets we found in the dumpster behind WalMart.
• Visiting the allergist to find out why Kelly can't seem to survive without wheezing, itching or sneezing. They poked his back 42 times and told him he's allergic to everything. Even dogs.
• Visiting the library to return movies/TV shows and pick up more movies/TV shows. The Salt Lake County library system is amazing and we feel like we have the world at our fingertips. Anything we want...BAM! we get.
• Eating more otter pops than we intend to.
• Watching more Star Trek (original series) on Netflix than we intend to.
• Playing a lot of card games in our living room, just like we intended to.
• Playing darts on our newly hung dart board. We try hard not to hit the wall too much.
• Eating popcorn out of our big popcorn bucket that says "POPCORN" on it that we got as a wedding gift.
• Going to Weight Watchers (me, not Kelly) to be reminded to eat more than just otter pops and popcorn. I've miraculously lost 10 pounds! I think it's because I stopped eating a gallon of chocolate ice cream every night (which I miss).
• Staying up until midnight and then saying, "Wanna watch something while we play cards?" and then staying up until 2.
• Playing pinball until there are blisters on our fingers and we complain of carpal tunnel.
• Playing guitar at all times of the day and receiving complaints from the neighbors. "Sounds like an instrument playing late at night." Very observant, guy.

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It's been a dream so far.

In other news...

Moon day is in 8 days. THE DAY WE LANDED ON THE MOON!

Which also happens to be my birthday. So Kelly went out today, scavenging dumpsters for my birthday presents. We leave on Friday for a Seattle adventure so we've decided I can open one present a day until we leave. It's awesome. It's my birthday everyday.

Today I was surprised with the best gift of all...

SUGARY CEREAL!

This is the least blurry of the series because I was so excited. And because I kept yelling, "ROCKS YOUR WHOLE MOUTH!"

I can't wait to see what the next few days have in store!

Kirk out.

Teenage Notes

I found this note left in a classroom today:

"So I had decided that Ahhh! I love him with a pasion. I just don't know hwo to get him to notice me. Ugh :( It's so frusterating :/ So I really want to look pretty at the dance but it is going to take so much work :) I want so much to be pretty like all of the other girls, but have you seen me it will be impossible I mean
1. Im fat
2. Im not pretty
3. Do I have to list any more?
Well now that you get 'my point' :) AHHHH!!!
All I want is for him to notice me. Please help :("

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I laugh at the love-striking that comes in middle school and that emotocons have officially replaced punctuation. But then I want to cry that so many girls this age see themselves as not pretty and fat and the fact that this is obviously the most important thing in her life right now. I mean, look at all those exclamation makrs!!!

I think the #1 thing I take away from this note on the floor is this:
I love finding notes on the floor.

More posts...And more books

Sometimes I read a whole book in one night. Sometimes I don't. Tonight I did.

I have wanted to read this book since the last day of my Adolescent Literature class when Chris Crowe had all of these young adult books scattered on the carpet. Each person in the class chose one, judging from the back cover, and we played a type of white elephant exchange game. I ended up with some stupid book about wanting to "trade my little sister in!" or something. Someone else ended up with this book with an amazing cover called Peeled. I had no idea what the book was about, but I loved the cover art. Never judge a book by its cover? I think not. I do it all the time.

Every time I go to the library, I check to see if the book is available but it never is. I never thought to request it though....

Luckily for me, I live 5 minutes away from where Scholastic was having a warehouse book sale. I found a couple of books I've been wanting to read and Peeled was one of them. Hooray!

So I read it tonight. It was pretty interesting. It's about high school journalism and it made me suddenly very interested in journalism. It's not something I have really thought about before, but it sounded like so much fun and something with a lot of passion in it. I love books that infuse passion in me. Now, this one was nowhere near as passionate as Matched, but it was good to read a realistic YA novel after all the fantasy ones of late.

p.s. Dana, if you're out there, I picked up Lawn Boy purely on your recommendation ;) wink face.

The Immortal Series

Well, I finished this book:

Pretty much just like the others.

Lots of these lines in it:

"I press my lips together..."

"blah blah blah, But still, blah blah blah"

"I answer too quickly to ever be believed."

I actually just did a Google book search for the phrase "but still" in the her books and it came up with 38 results in Night Star. In Dark Flame, the book just before this one, she uses it apparently 43 times. I think that's too many times...

These books just have that lovely Stephanie Meyer touch to them, where the author just might have had a thesaurus out while writing it, giving her characters things to say that normal 16 year olds would never say.

I don't know how I've read 5 of the 6 books in this series so far. I cringe and make faces while I read them, and yet I keep thinking, well I have to know what happens I guess... so I keep getting them from the library and they keep getting read.

I think I keep convincing myself that since my 8th graders love this series I have to find out what they're reading and keep up with the in crowd. Except when they say, "I love this series! Have you read it?!" and then I don't know how to respond.... "Uh, yeah. I have...they're...great?"

My life

This is my life now. I'm not as awesome as this picture makes me look but I can play my scales and I'm building a repertoire of songs thanks to my husband who rules as a guitar player.