Happy Teacher

The past few years there has been a rumor floating around my school that I am the "mean teacher".  I have no idea where this even started!  Everyone I work with is baffled when they hear this!  The only things that I can think of are that I'm loud and I hold students responsible and actually expect them to do their work.  It went so far in that when I passed first graders in the hallway, I would either hear them whisper to their friends, "that's the small teacher," or, "that's the mean teacher."  Seriously?   Two years ago it was so bad, that I started off the year with this stigma from parents that transferred over to their students and I had the MOST HORRIBLE year I'd ever had in teaching.  I came home a couple of times and started looking for new career opportunities.

This year, things have been so much better!  (Last year was pretty good too, but this year has been great!) It all started with the confidence boost of parents and students telling me that they were hoping to be in my class.  When all was said and done, on the first day of school, one of my co-workers overheard a couple of students in the hall, "I don't get it, they all said she was mean, but she's not mean, she's awesome."  I don't get it either, friends.  I have students telling me and emailing me that they like me and are glad that they're in my class.  The biggest thing so far is that I ran into a parent today and she just went off on how much her son is enjoying my class and how happy they are that I'm her son's teacher this year.

How did I go from being this crazy teacher that no one wanted to everyone's favorite person?  I don't think I changed at all.  So friends, please do me a few favors:

1. Don't spread rumors about teachers especially if you don't know what you're talking about
2. If you think there is a problem in your student's class, talk to the teacher to find out what's going on and fill him/her in on what you know
3. If you like a teacher, let people know, including the teacher

I think most people just assume that others know that they are liked, but you never know when the positive never reaches that person or not.

At Least Something Right

I love it when I get emails from my students like this one:

It makes me feel like I'm doing at least something right.

Summer 2013

Today is my last day of summer vacation.  I go back to school tomorrow for meetings and prep work, students follow on Thursday.

I had a pretty good summer.  It started off with a bang, then slowed down a bit, and now I'm looking back wondering where all my time went.  Here's a recap of the things I did over the last three months:

* Trip to Guatemala with Michael and the parents
* Spent a couple of days in Los Angeles with Michael
* My nephew stayed with me for two weeks
* Ward camp out
* Family reunion at Lake Tahoe
* Lots of baking
* Demolition derby in Delta
* Julie song writing competition
* Helped film a music video for a Julie song
* Quick trip to Boise to see Colette and the roller derby tournament
* Trip home to see the family and the new baby
* Visit from Laura and Dirk while at home
* Day trip to Cedar City for the Shakespeare Festival (We saw Peter and the Starcatcher and King John)
* Hiked the Y 3 times (once at night)
* Finished reading 12 books


...I feel like I did more than that.  I know I did more than that!  I guess these are just the highlights.  Maybe I'll add to the list later.

The Julie Instruction Manual

There have been several times when I have wished that there was an instruction manual or user's guide for me so I could just hand it to people so they could understand me and why I do things.  It would make meeting new people a little easier and then maybe I wouldn't scare anyone away.  In being somewhat silly this evening, I decided to start drafting such a manual.  It's kind of funny to think about, but I'm also serious about it too.  I figure, if anything else, I'll understand myself a little better in the process.  Here's a small taste of what I have written.  I'm open to suggestions as to what needs to be included in such a manual.

So, you have decided to try to understand Julie.  We wish you luck in your endeavors and encourage you to see it through.  Not many have delved into the study of Julie and few have been successful in comprehending even small portions of Julie, but, hopefully, with this manual, you may be successful!

The first thing you need to know and understand about Julie is that she is not as she appears to most people.  This does not just refer to her size, but also her mannerisms, thoughts, and general actions especially in large groups and around people she does not already know.  As you read and refer to this manual, please keep an open mind and try to think outside of the box (although Julie may fit in a physical box, her personality does not).

Good luck and enjoy your Julie!

Sharing Thoughts

I've had a lot of thoughts lately and I'm sad that I haven't been as vigilant at recording them as I have in the past.  None of these thoughts are really all that earth shattering, but they did get me thinking.  Some are silly while others are a bit deep.  Since I've been in and out of town and working on random things, I keep thinking, "later, I'll write them down later," which then translates to forgotten and never done.  I'm going to see which ones I can remember and delve into the deep with them over the next week or so.

A few of my friends like to share their thoughts with others on a regular basis.  I'm not always apt to do such things, but when I am, I find that I have my own way of doing so.  My friends share their thoughts verbally and record/share them through their vlogs.  Sometimes, I wonder if I could have anything to share with others in this way, but I am not very eloquent when it comes to sharing my thoughts out loud.  I feel as though I can't truly convey my meaning as much as I'd want.  I've recognized more and more that I am very much a written word person as I've always been more visual than auditory.  Seeing my words helps me to realize what I'm really saying where I almost feel like I don't really hear the words as they come from my mouth.  I feel like I have more time to think about the words I want to say before I write or type them out and once they are down on paper or the screen, I can see and evaluate what I've said.  Writing is just so much easier for me than speaking.

I know this is probably true of a lot of people, I see it every day in my teaching.  I have students that excel through certain styles/types of learning that others don't.  I try to keep this in mind for each student with their assignments and options so that they can be successful.  Of course, I also try to push them to strengthen where they can use more practice.  There are some things that just aren't measured academically that are affected by such tendencies.  I can hold a conversation with a person, but I could write back and forth more comfortably and probably open up more in doing so, but that's not how you're supposed to interact with someone at a social event like a birthday party or date.

I guess this is one reason why I chose to blog.  I have a few friends that just don't understand why some people would want to put all these things out there about themselves.  I started out just wanting to chronicle my happenings, but part of the reason I continue to do this is because I feel like others can get to know me through my writing and adventures since I'm more open to actually share things through writing that I wouldn't necessarily verbally tell someone in a conversation.  I probably would if you caught me in my thinking, asked me my thoughts, and I spent enough time with you to feel comfortable sharing them.

Last Days of Guatemala

I figured I should finish this up so I can move on to other things...

The last full day we were in Guatemala, we checked out of our hotel in Antigua...

Then met up with our tour guide who took us to the temple in Guatemala City so we could do a session.  I opted to use the head phones as my "church" Spanish isn't as good as my "school" Spanish...I think I would have been ok without them though.  We met a few temple workers from the states who had only been there a few weeks.  They were really excited to speak and understand English with us.

We returned the rental car then spent a few hours driving around and touring Guatemala City.  One of the places we went to was a giant relief map we had been told about.  We all pictured a nice table top map someone had done, but no, this was huge!

It made some of the things we had talked about make a little more sense as we could see the difference between the flat lands of the north and the mountains, valleys, and volcanoes in the south.  IT even had the rivers carved out and water to go through them.  The scale was a little skewed though.

Our guide showed us that Guatemala City was basically just built on top of an old city.  These figures were found in a regular neighborhood.  If everyone dug up their yards they'd find evidence of the old city.  There is a law in the city that 10% of the ancient city must be preserved on their land if found, so a lot of places had "hills" in their backyards that were most likely a temple or structure of some sort.

We then tried to go to this park but got there as they were closing.  Don't worry, we slipped the guards 200Q and they let us run over to see this one set of ruins as they got everyone else out.  We really wanted to go here because it is thought to be the City of Nephi.

Old aqueducts found in the city (mostly I took this picture to show my students when we talk about "ancient" aqueducts)

We spent the night at a hotel in the city that had a shuttle to the airport the next morning.  We got back to Los Angeles with enough time for my brother and me to go to Sacrament meeting in his ward (of course that was after we found the flat tire on his car).  I flew back to Utah the next day.

So those were the highlights of my trip to Guatemala.  I would go again.  It was very pretty and there was a lot to see and learn about.  I wouldn't mind brushing up on my Spanish a bit more too.