Success!

First, I must say that Planet Earth's "Ocean Deep" was a success. The fourth-grades in my classroom have already merited two more teacher compliments which count toward the next episode. I think we will be watching "Caves" next week!

Last night Jenny, Nathan, Grandpa Bezzant, my two roommates, Dan and I went to the BYU Choral Showcase to see Melinda in Women's Chorus. It was good to be back in the HFAC's de Jong Concert Hall--though it made me miss being on the other end of the stage. Women's chorus is one of the keenest pleasures I had in college, and I miss it. It was good to see Melinda in the choir, though. She came over just before her concert to get ready, and we shared some Balsamic Chicken Salad. I just love my family! It was so good to see Dan as well.

Tonight is the General Relief Society Broadcast. I am excited to go--this General Conference season is my favorite part of Fall. My roommates and I will attend a Stake Luncheon before the broadcast, and then we will attend the conference in the Marriot Center. Afterwards, the plan is to go to "Color Me Mine" and paint some of our own pottery. I am excited to spend the afternoon with them, as one of my roomates will be moving out by the first of next month. It will be good to spend some time together.

I am excited, yet can hardly believe, that October is only three days away! That means Christmas is less than three months away, though. I can't wait. Christmas at my home in VA is a lovely thing to see, indeed.

Sleepy Wednesday

Today was a full day. Apparently there can be two Mondays in one week; my students proved it today. I am hoping that tomorrow is like yesterday; it was a fun day and we had a lot more involvement in the lessons.

I have had some fun doing some quick assessments on my students this week. We are learning plotting coordinate pairs by putting points on a graphing plane. Yesterday and today we had "mystery pictures" that could only be revealed if they followed complete instructions and connected the right lines. We did an outline of Utah and a 3-d image of a house on the coordinate plane...and within about ten seconds, I could tell which ones weren't with me. I have been stressing the importance of following instructions in several of my routines (i.e., in my Morning Math Problem, I will show five plotted points and ask them to name THREE. Even with it underlined, they still don't read that I only want three points named...so I give them a "way to go, I am glad you can find all the coordinates, but I can only give you points if you followed all the directions." I think it is starting to sink in.

This is an interesting group to teach. None of them have ever worked with a textbook before (their math last year was primarily worksheets and packets, through a spiraled curriculum called "Excel Math") so I have been learning to teach skills like finding the directions to the problem set, how to organize the paper on which you write your answers...even how to navigate certain pages. It is quite the experience.

That's what's new... I love my work, and I am pretty energy-less by 4pm. Catch me on a Saturday at about 7 am...then I'll be a little more alert. Gone are the days of sleeping in, but I am kind of liking the targeted bedtime of ten o'clock.

Looks like tonight I am 18 minutes past curfew. Time to go to sleep.

Oh! But not before announcing, proudly, that my students earned the privilege of watching their first Planet Earth of the year! I'll let you know what they think.

Jungle Fever

Every few days my roommates Ashley, Kim, and I decide to chill and watch another episode of Planet Earth, as narrated by David Attenborough. Yes, we are in love with his syntax and intonation-- I don't know how I would be able to watch Fungi grow over time-lapse photography if not for his brilliantly British turn of phrase.

Tonight we watched Jungles... and I realized that my fear of deep ocean diving might also translate to a secret fear of intensely populated places with surrounding flora and fauna. Not claustrophobia, per se, but more of....I don't know if I could be in the Jungle for more than a few minutes unless I were wearing a biohazard suit or something. It's amazingly beautiful, but I was a little freaked out that fungi spores can grow out of ants and help control populations.

That's just the kind of detail my kids would go nuts over...all 25 of them. I am loving teaching school, and we are currently working on earning the watching of an episode of P.E. When the spell the title on the board (each letter earned when a teacher gives my class a compliment) then we get to watch the episode. Currently, they have three letters earned for "Ocean Deep." I thought we'd start off with a particularly interesting one. I just can't get over the "Wonderpus Octopus."

This world is crazy...and I love it. I love learning about its plants, microbes, animals...and most of all, its fourth graders. Teaching, while busy and slightly exhausting, is well worth every hour.

Planet Earth, Arrived!

Online I found a new copy of Planet Earth, by BBC, for only about 20 dollars! My roommates and I watched two episodes tonight...and already have plans to watch more. I can't wait to see all of the episodes... I have only seen 3 of the ten or so episodes. It is such a well-made series!

School this week was extremely tiring, but I have been enjoying it. I love my class, and I am starting to get to know my kids past their surface levels. I am often surprised by what they do-- and sometimes don't-- know. We have a lot to catch up on at the beginning of this fourth grade year, and there are great things that they are teaching me. With the challenges and the effort comes good dividends, and I am so glad to be a teacher. That said, I can't think of this whole year, because then I will get overwhelmed. I can do next week, though. A week at a time, we'll make it through in a glorious way; at least that's what my current motto is.

Props to Melinda who got into Women's Chorus this week! I am proud of her and I know she will love being under the tutelage of Jean Appolonie. I got to be in that chorus for three semesters, and as busy as they were, I miss it.