The Exciting Life of a Teacher

The Joys of Being a Teacher

2011-11-18T15:07:00.000-08:00

The librarian had the students write thank you letters to all the faculty members in our school (custodians, secretaries, aides, teachers, etc.) I received one from almost all my students and here are some of my most favorite quotes (direct quotes with spelling and punctuation):

"Thank you so much for being so patcient with me in math I have always hated math & I was never good at it and all thanks to you I still am not getting very good scores but I am understanding it perfect and I'm starting to like it alot and I'm looking forward to it every day."

"Your style rocks this world."

"Thanks for helping me with my strugels."

"Thank you for spending long nights correcting our tests and homework."

(referring to what he tells his brother about me) "She is well dressed. She is fun to have with us. I wish she was my sister."

"This is like the first year I've really liked math."

"You make me laugh"

"You make stuff fun and easy."

"You've already inspired me to like math. Because last year I hated math. But you make math and other subjects fun!"

"I think your nice and you care for thoughs around you and you do whats best for every one."

"You have inspierd me someday I'll be a sixth grade teacher because of you. You make it look so easy."

"Thank you for making this year so fun and exciting and easy to under stand unlike my handwrighting right now."

"Thank you for read us good books you inspired me to read a lot more so thank you very much. You are very very smart."

"You are the best teacher ever and that makes a huge difference to make me be more nice."

"You make things organized and fun."

"I love you like a child loves spongebob."

This last one is the whole note...It was so sweet it made me cry and I just have to share the whole thing:

"Dear Miss Weathers,

I think you are the most beautiful gril. I love your smile and laugh and the only bad thing about the weekend is I won't see you for 2 days and 2 days is long for me!!! You are the best teacher in the school I was hoping that I would get you for 6th grade. Well you are the best teacher ever and I love you so much.

Love, _________ (your favorite students)"

This is what teaching is all about. Some days I wonder if I am really making a big enough difference in their lives. But when I get notes like these I know that I am doing something right. My kids are so great and they bring me so much happiness. I love what I do!

2011-11-08T14:54:00.000-08:00

So there is a big hype about this "Pinterest" thing. My friend signed up for it a few weeks back and I was glancing at it with her. From those few minutes of glancing I found an awesome idea to help me organize my plethora (I just like that word) of necklaces:

$4 curtain rod + $4 shower hooks + $4 shower hooks = $12 necklace organizer.

I love it!

And...I might have spent close to an hour looking at Pinterest last night, instead of doing school work, and found more awesome ideas for things...oops.

Ouch!

2011-11-04T12:58:00.000-07:00

At school we are learning about heat. They learn that heat can be transfered in three diffe
rent ways:

Conductions - through contact

Radiation - through air

Convection - through mixing/hot and cold cycling

I wanted to do something fun to help them remember these three things. I decided to make popcorn for them. You can make popcorn through each of the ways heat transfers:

Conduction - on the stove

Radiation - in the microwave

Convection - an air popcorn machine

I set each of these up on the table and plugged them all in. I then continue to talk to the class about how these represent each of the three heat transfers.

Touching the microwave "What kind of transfer is used to pop popcorn in the microwave?"

"Radiation!"

"Yes!"

Touching the popcorn machine "What kind is used when popping in the air-pop machine?"

"Convection!"

"Exactly!"

Reaching to touch the hot plate stove "What method is used when...AHHHHHHH!" (a yell/gasp)

Little did I know that the hot plate was left on, so when I plugged it in, it had heated up to the highest setting. It only took that microsecond of touch it to give me a nice 2nd degree burn. I immediately put cold water on it and a student went and got me a bag of ice. I continued with the lesson.

If I do not have the bag of ice on my hand, it burns! Of course it was my right hand, so it will have a few nice blisters that will make it hard to do anything with that hand.

I had to continue teaching through the day. It sure was hard to write anything on the board. I tried doing some with my left hand and eventually figured out I could write pretty good with holding the ice bag and the pen in the same hand. I didn't wa

nt to try and give a huge long math lesson so I gave a shortened version and gave them extra time to work on their assignment. One of my girls came up to me and says "I know this sounds mean, but could burn your hand every day so we can have extra time to do our math homework?" Oh thanks for the sympathy.

So here is my wound:

Fall Fun

2011-11-03T21:42:00.000-07:00

I've had a chance to do a few fun things this fall.

Enjoying fall colors:

I have been up the Provo canyon a number of times to enjoy the beautiful fall colors. This is me, Courtney, and Maren enjoying a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Another one was this:

This is Courtney and I being scared to fly in a little 4-seater airplane. Courtney has a friend who is a pilot, owns a plane, and lives in a hangar. He was so nice to take us up for a flight over Bountiful at sunset. It was great. We weren't really scared...at least I wasn't.

Another adventure:

This is Shalene, Heather, Courtney and I getting ready to embark on a halloween voyage down the Provo River. By voyage I mean sitting on benches on a flat boat, being moved down the river by a cheesy guy pulling a rope, listening to "scary stories", looking at hand-carved jack-o-lanterns along the shore and lights in the trees. It was geared toward a younger audience, but it was a fun experience and I enjoyed it with some great ladies.

I love fall and sadly it is quickly leaving. I will sure miss you.

Not Much Updating...Starting Anew

2011-11-03T21:30:00.001-07:00

I realized today that I have yet to post anything in the year of 2011. I thought at least one post would be good. Bulleted version of my life over the past year and a half:

Taught 6th grade at Westfield Elementary in Alpine, UT
Moved into a house with my sister Angela
Lost a close friend of mine
Gained many new friends
Enjoyed a whole summer off (no EFY)
Took a trip to California with friends
Gained a new niece and nephew
Tried to get a job in Arizona with no luck
Got a job at Eaglecrest Elementary in Lehi, UT teaching 6th grade

I think those are the most important things.

So where my life is now....I am living in southwest Provo with Angela. I am teaching at Eaglecrest and I love my kiddos. Yes I have had my fair share of drama to deal with and issues to solve, but overal they are awesome kids and soooo much fun! I love going to school every day (most days). It is a nice change. I haven't liked my class this much for a few years.

I will see if my blog stays updated, but no promises...I'll do my best :)

A Short Update

2010-06-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

Where has life brought me in the last few months you ask? Lots of places.

Life was crazy at the end of the school year. Long story short...I quit my job and am returning to school in the fall. The details are still in the works, but the plan is to take courses to get a math endorsement and try my hand at teaching Jr. High math classes. I am feeling good about the decisions and hopefully it all works out. I had a few moments where I realized I won't be at my school next year and won't have a class at all and it brought tears to my eyes. Mt. Loafer Elementary is my teaching home. I did my student teaching there along with my first three years of teaching. It was hard to leave. I also just love having "my kids". I think it is something I need in my life. A group of kids that partially rely on me for knowledge and growth. It will be hard not having that.

We had lots of fun activities at the end of the year and I made sure to enjoy every minute. We had a wonderful graduation program and I sent my kids on their way to conquer Jr. High. I had a bunch of bawling girls and lots of kids ready to get out of there. The last day of school was bitter sweet. I got lots of hugs from my girls along with some "I love you Miss Weathers". I had to talk some boys into giving me a high five (which they have refused to do all year). It was a good end to the year. I actually got a facebook message from a student of mine. I don't add students as friends on facebook for obvious reason, but this girl got on her brothers account, looked me up, and sent me a message. All she pretty much wanted to tell me is that she missed me so much. I love getting notes like that. She has to be one of my favorite students I have ever had. That is if I had favorites :)

The day after school my sister Kim and I headed to Texas. We took two days to travel and I spent a few days there. We went to Six Flags, swam at the pool, shopped, watched movies, ate out, and tried to survive the heat and humidity. There was a really cool lightning storm there the day before I left.

After Texas I flew out to Indiana to visit my sister and her three kids. I have only been here for two days and will be here for 5 more. So far we went to the mall, played outside, watched movies, and had a lemonade stand. It's fun being here to play and help out. The kids are adorable (when they aren't grumpy) and I'm excited for the adventures we will still have.

Next stop is Houston, Texas where my best friend/roommate Samantha gets married. My friends keep doing that on me! I'm way excited for her and I'm excited to get to be there. Another stop in Texas!

I'm enjoying my travels and look forward to a few weeks off when I get home to relax along with finishing moving out of my classroom and possibly moving out of my apartment into the house my sister bought. We shall see if that happens.

Well, there is a short update for any who care. there will be more to come.

What??

2010-03-29T15:53:00.000-07:00

A comment I overhead from one of my students today:

"Nothing is impossible. Heavenly Father could rip off both your arms!"

Okay...what!?

Oh sixth-graders.

Teachers are suppose to teach?

2010-02-23T10:56:00.001-08:00

Over the past 6-7 weeks I have had a student teacher in my classroom. Being what is called a "BYU cooperating school" we receive many student teachers, interns, and cohort students from BYU. Last year I had a cohort (a step bellow a student teacher) and this year they decided to give me a student teacher. There are ups and downs to having a student teacher, but the last few weeks have definitely been an up. I spent the first few weeks, modeling for her, helping her plan lessons, observing her teaching, giving her pointers, etc. Then near the end of student teaching (the past few weeks) she is suppose to completely take over the class as though it is her own. They encourage me, the actual teacher, to stay out of the classroom as much as possible. This is for a number of reasons. One is that we just can't help ourselves in there and must manage the students and correct them. They want to student teacher to have to deal with ALL problems that occur in a classroom. Also, from my experience being a student teacher, you can act more yourself and do your own thing when there isn't someone in there watching you. So what have I been doing the past few weeks since I am not in the classroom? Nothing! Okay, not quite nothing. Being in my third year of teaching I have to turn in a "portfolio" in order to receive a level two liscence and continue teaching. This is what I have been doing a lot of the time. I have also graded assignments and project, created a classroom blog, made classroom signs, and wasted perhaps a little too much time doing things not really even related to school at all. The other teacher and I have set up office in a vacant room between our two classrooms. Here is what it looks like:
Ah yes, a wonderful work area. You can see the set of electric pianos in the back that were taken out of the piano lab we use to have here (they are for sale if anyone would like one). So, my portfolio is due at the end of this week and it is just about finished. I however, have a hard time working on it for a long time. I will work on it for a while, then take a break, then go back to it, then take a break, and on and on. Tomorrow I start teaching a few lessons and will be back in the classroom completely by next week. I have sure enjoyed this time away from teaching, but I'll be glad to be back with the students again. Wish me luck!

"The Boy"

2010-02-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

Well...I guess I should introduce "the boy". After Christmas break I started dating this young man. Things are going well. His name is Micah Massey. He grew up in Las Vegas but his family now lives in St. George. We met each other back in the fall of 2006 when we were in the same ward in Glenwood Apartments. We have stayed in contact with each other over the past few years and just decided we were meant to be together...err...something. I just wanted to introduce him and show you a picture of us. That's all!

This was on Valentine's Day northwest of Salt Lake

Thoughts from school

2010-01-15T11:12:00.000-08:00

Well, it's a teacher work day and I am not in the mood to work right now, so I thought I'd write a few thoughts. This year has been an interesting one. We went from three 6th grade teachers to two. Giving me 33 students in my class. I had to get rid of my teacher desk, kidney table, and reading corner in order to fit all the desks in my classroom. That is just the beginning of my interesting year. I am not completely loving my class this year as I did last year. I have tried to really pinpoint what it is that is making it this way and I have come up with a few reasons. One is the personalities of the kids. Last year I had such funny and sweet kids. They were bright and knew when it was time to work. This year I have some kids with great personalities and they are mostly sweet and funny, but something is just off. I think it is there ability to recognize when it is time to be serious and get to work. This is also the first year I have students that I feel really don't like me. I mean, I won't say that I am so wonderful that everyone loves me. But, I have never felt that I student just flat out didn't like me. I get that this year. It's hard for me. I also have realized that these students are as close and friendly with each other as my class last year was. I think the class size has a lot to do with that. But there are so many in my class that just flat out don't like each other. You would also think it was the end of the world if I paired up boys and girls. Last year my boys and girls were friends and would hang out together. I loved it! Before you start judging me as a teacher, understand that I am trying to make this a great year. I have a positive attitude and I treat these students much the same as I treated my students last year. But I am not absolutely loving coming to school everyday. I honestly loved being at school last year (of course I had my days). It has been hard for me to really get over this and try to enjoy the year as much as possible. It is a work in progress.

Another thing that has been hard for me this year is some of the issues my students are dealing with. If you don't know, the school I work at is in a middle to upper class area. It is about 99% Mormon families. Most of these kids have very structured and supportive family lives. I had a student last year whose parents had trouble with the law and that was hard to deal with. This year however, I have had other issues. Back in October one of my students found out her mom had brain cancer. That is a hard thing for a 12 year-old girl. I have talked with the dad a few times (who is a doctor) and from what I can pick up from what he says, things aren't going too well. She is in her 2nd round of chemo and it is pretty miserable for her. The parents are trying to not pull the kids into it too much and make them worried. Every time I ask this girl how her mom is doing she says "she's good". I hear they have given her not much longer to live. It just breaks my heart. I have another student who lost his dad in a car accident over Christmas break. He is one of 2 sons in the family, him being the oldest of the two. How hard would it be to loose your dad at such a critical time in his life. These are the years that dad's build their sons into who they are going to be. There are scouting trips, sports games, man-to-man talks, and teaching him the ways of the world. I was completely heart broken when I heard the news. It was then very difficult for me to figure out what I was going to say and do for this boy. If it was one of the girls in my class I would probably have taken her in my arms and cried (which I pretty much did when my girl found out her mom had cancer). With this boy it is different. He's a 12-year old boy who doesn't let his feelings show. I did after about a week of being back in class have a little chat with him. I got all teary eyed and just let him know I was hurting for him and that I really cared about him. That if he ever needed anything to let me know and I would be there for him. He seemed to really appreciate it. These are two very difficult situations for me. I get very emotionally involved and attached to people and situations. My heart goes out of them and I want to do anything and everything I can to be there for them and help them. I don't know if I am doing enough. We'll see how things play out.

It has also been an interesting journey with it being my 3rd year of teaching. My teaching license expires this year and I have to do a handful of things to renew it. Being the procrastinator that I am, I have put it all off. It is now down to about a month when it is all due and I have only touched the surface of it. Along with that, they now trust me with a student teacher. She came into my classroom the week after Christmas break and will be here until the end of February. As I am trying to get my things squared away with renewing my license I am also trying to help her with her teacher work sample and all the things she has to do to receive her first license. Things have just been a little crazy.

In all, this year has been an adventure. It is halfway over, which seems very weird. As crazy as it can get and as much as a suffer through some days, I absolutely love what I do. I wouldn't have it any other way. The classroom is where I belong. I love interacting with children (more so pre-teens with me) and just watching them learn and grow and let their personalities shine. I love knowing that I might have some kind of impact on their life and will hopefully be remembered years down the road. This is what I am suppose to do. I just hope that I can do it to the best of my ability. To make every day and every year count. To find that one child who really needs me and make a difference in their life. I am often afraid that I am not doing all that I can. In a meeting today we read this quote:

"I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming." - Goethe

It is so true. I just hope I am that teacher that makes life joyous not miserable, that inspires and does not torture, and heals not hurts. I want to help make this kids into the people they can become.

Near Death Experience

2009-11-30T20:34:00.000-08:00

Ok...so that might be a slight over-exaggeration, but that's what it felt like. This experience brought me back to my blog to share it with the oh so many people that follow my blog. So here it goes...

Sunday, November 15 was a not so ordinary Sunday. I spent the day up in Syracuse, UT seeing family I haven't seen in about 8 years. We gathered together for a baby shower for my cousin. Now, this isn't really the point. This particular Sunday I began feeling a little sickness in me. A very slight sore throat. Nothing unusual, this is how most of my "colds" begin.

Monday, November 16 I went to work as usual. Because of a late night picking up a roommate at the airport, I was a little tired. The day ended and I had a meeting after school. During this meeting I began to realize that this was more than just tiredness. My head hurt, a felt a bit warm, and my body was starting to ache. Great, I thought! I left school soon after this and stopped by the store on the way home to get a thermometer. If I had a fever I was for sure taking the next day off. I came home and took my temperature...no fever. As the night progressed and realized that this sickness was getting the better of me. My whole body was aching and I was just plain exhausted. I realized that I was going to have to take a sick day (which I had not taken one sick day in all of my 2 1/2 years of teaching). I put in for a sub and wrote up so sub plans (the worst part of taking a day off) and went to bed.

Tuesday, November 17. Spent the day in bed. My body ached from the top of my head to my feet and my throat was feeling progressively worse. Looking in my throat there was a great deal of "white stuff" on my tonsils. Continuously took my temperature and had a slight fever mostly around 100 degrees. By the end of the day I had a feeling that I had strep throat.

Wednesday, November 18. Woke up to a massive sore throat and decided to go take a trip to the Urgent Care. The closest one didn't open until 10 am (lame, I know!), so I found one a little further away that opened at 8. I got there at opening time and got myself in to be check. the took a swab from my throat and tested for step...it came back negative. The doctor said it was most likely just a virus and I just had to wait it out. He said that the flu wouldn't infect my tonsils like that and that there was a slight chance it could be mono, but they can't test for that until it has been about a week after the symptoms started. I went home, laid in bed all day with slight body aches and a mild fever.

Thursday, November 19. Took another day off work and laid in bed all day. Body aches were mostly gone, but my throat was killing me. I decided to take a trip to the local health food store and get some good throat spray and herbal tea in hopes of soothing my throat. Also picked up some Tylenol PM to help me sleep.

Friday, November 20. I had a training meeting I was supposed to be at and decided to try and make it. I went to my school early to get things ready for the sub and went to my training. I felt alright for the first half of the day, but by the time it reached lunch time my body wasn't too happy with me. I began getting a headache and was achey and extremely tired. I came home and crashed. I tried to sleep through the night. Tried it the key word. I took Tylenol PM as often as I safely could and it did nothing to soothe my throat. It turned from an achey throat to throbbing pain all through my throat, ear, mouth, neck, pretty much my whole left side of my face. I tried to stick it out through the night with hopes of going back to the urgent care in the morning. After many very restless and painful hours I decided I could not handle it anymore. I woke up my ever so kind roommate at 5 am and asked her to drive me to the ER.

Saturday, November 21 (continuation of Friday night). I arrived at the ER. I have not been there since I was 3 years old and fell from the top of my garage and landed head first on the cement (I was first in line at the ER, which is hard to do). They took my basic vitals and gave me a cool bracelet thing with my name and birthday on it. I headed to a back room (area divided by a curtain) and sat around forever until someone FINALLY came to see me. There were about a million workers there and NO other patients. I have no idea why it took so long. They tested me for both strep and mono, and you guessed it, both came back negative. They gave me some steroids to help with the swelling and some pain meds and sent me home with a prescription for pain meds. I came home and crashed and slept most of the day away.

Sunday, November 22. I decided to try and make it to part of church. I got up and ready and went to church at 9am. I was feeling alright, just really tired and weak. I only stayed the first hour and then came home to rest. I laid in bed and took it easy. By the afternoon my throat was really acting up. I was taking pain meds as often as I was allowed and it was doing nothing to ease the pain. I was in tears it hurt so bad. Around 5 pm I finally decided I needed to go back in. My other two loving roommates took me into the instacare attached to the hospital to see a doctor yet another time. I told him I had been tested for strep twice and for mono and all were negative. He took a look at my throat and poked around a little and decided that he thinks I have an abscess. He sends me over the radiology in the hospital to get a CT scan. The put me on this bed, stick and IV in my arm and tell me the liquid stuff they put in me will make me feel like I am wetting myself (it totally does). The scan takes just a few short minutes and then I have to wait around for the results. Finally, I get the results and what do you know? I have an abscess. For those of you who don't know what this is (don't worry I didn't either), pretty much what happens is you get a tonsil infect and usually that stays contained to your tonsils, however, sometimes it breaks through to the other areas of your throat and essentially fills it full of puss. I head back to the instacare where they give me a shot on one side of my backside of pain killers and another on the other side of antibiotics. They prescribe me antibiotics and stronger pain meds. The antibiotics shot killed! My whole leg ached the rest of the night. The doctor gave me a name and number of and ear, nose, and throat specialist that I am suppose to call in the morning to get in and see him. We head to Walgreen's and pick up the new meds and head home. After the shots they gave me I am feeling a bit better and I am actually able to sleep.

Monday, November 23. I wake up quite early and call the office the second it opens. They can't get me in until almost 4 that afternoon. Not wanting to suffer the day in pain I decide to take two of my pain meds. Now, it says on the instructions that you can take 1-2 every 4 hours as needed for pain. I had only been taking one. After that I decided to just stick to one. Two was too much for my body. I felt...I guess you could say, "high". Now, by this time in this whole adventure my throat hurts so bad and is swollen so much that I can barely talk, swallow, let alone eat anything. The doctor gave me these horse-pill antibiotics I need to take, which should be taken with food. I force an all fruit Popsicle down and take the pill, hoping that was enough. I was wrong. A while later my stomach was not too happy with me and that pill didn't stay in my system. By the time I was to go to the doctors I was still feeling uneasy in my stomach and could barely talk. My ever so loving bishop's wife came and picked me up and took me to the doctors. I suffered as I had to fill out numerous pages of paper work. They finally get me back and I swear I am going to loose the nothingness in my stomach any minute. The doctor sees me and lets me know what he plans to do. He needs to stick this needle in my throat and "drain" the abscess. In other words, jab me with a needle and suck out the puss. I tell him to give me a minute, because, as I said, I feel as though I am going to loose it. After about ten minutes of waiting nothing comes up and he says he is just going to go for it. Now, I am sure you have all been pricked with needles, but have you ever had a needle jabbed in your throat with no numbing what-so-ever? I didn't think so. It is not a fun feeling. He does this, as I am just breathing heavily and barring it. He shows me the lovely liquid he pulls from my throat and says there is about 3 1/2 cc (cubic centimeters) of "puss". He tells me he wants to see me tomorrow just after 3 to check and see if he needs to do it again. I am still feeling rather sick and can barely even stand up. I end up lying in their lunch room on a couch for quite a while until I felt like I could take the car trip back to my apartment. I finally decide I can survive and head back to my place. I rest the rest of the night and am feeling only slightly better. I do force down some soup (pretty much just the broth), in order to take my antibiotics.

Tuesday, November 24. I am still feeling pretty swollen in my throat and still have some pain. It is a little easier to swallow and talk, but only slightly. I eat half a yogurt. Just enough to take my pill. I think later on I ate more of the soup. I head back to the doctor (with a ride from a wonderful girl in my ward) and he takes another look. He says he thinks he should drain it some more. Another needle in my throat and this time he comes out with twice as much as he did the first time (7 cc). I immediately can feel the difference in my throat. I tell him that I am down to the last few of my pain meds and he prescribes me some more (not as strong as the ones I had) and tells me that it should get significantly better over the next 36 hours and if it doesn't, or it gets worse, to page him. I take the rest of the day easy and sleep.

Wednesday, November 25. I wake up feeling so much better. I finally get out of bed and clean my room and do some laundry. I was feeling pretty tired and weak but a whole lot better than I had been feeling. By this time I have lost about 10 lbs. from not being able to eat. I was able to eat more soup and mashed potatoes, but my stomach was still a little uneasy. I took the day pretty easy but got by with only one pain pill the whole day. I was able to drive up to Salt Lake that night to stay with my sister.

Thursday, November 26 (Thanksgiving). Spent the day at my sister's in Salt Lake and I was able to eat EVERYTHING that there was for dinner. You will not believe how wonderful it felt to eat real food. I was feeling almost 100% better.

Now: I am feeling just great! I returned to school after not being there for two weeks. I was glad to hear that my students did miss me...well, most of them. It was good to be back, but it sure made for a long day. I am not use to working all day long. I left school a bit tired, but man am I glad to be back! I am still taking my antibiotics and still have a slight sore throat and white stuff on my tonsils, but it is all nothing to what I was experiencing before. I now just wait for all the medical bills that will be coming my way. Ugh!

Through this all I am grateful for many things. For a mommy that loves and and made sure to check up on me at least three times a day, even though she works full time. For my great health that I usually have. For a job that gives me good health insurance (this was my first time using it). For doctors that finally figured out what was wrong with me and helped me get better. For pain meds! No, I am not addicted, don't worry. Modern medicine. In the olden days, I probably would have died. For many people in my ward that love me. I had numerous guys come give me blessings, people willing to take me to the doctors, and a bishop who continually checked up on me. Great roommates who bought me food, took me to the doctors, and always asked how I was feeling. Co-workers who helped me get by with very poor, if any, sub plans. Subs who were able and willing to work with my poor sub plans. My students, who I missed dearly and my job that I missed dearly.

So even though I felt as though I was near death, I am alive and well and am very blessed!

The EFY Life

2009-06-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

School got out on Friday May 29, I went to an EFY training on Saturday and began my EFY journey on Sunday. I was originally only suppose to work two weeks, but on Saturday of last week they called me up and asked if I would work that next week as well. I was more than willing to! I have just been loving it up this year!

I have worked with the same team all three weeks and have become very fond of them. Aaron and Jessica are the ones that run the show. They are amazing people that I look up to. Jessica inspires me! She is so knowledgeable and can teach with such power! I adore that girl! The BC (building counselor) team is also amazing. I have had the same BC for two of my weeks, Catherine. She is an adorable girl and I just love her! I also have become close to the health counselors, especially "Health Counselor Katelyn". She is so much fun and we have had some great times together! Each week has brought its own challenges, adventures, and rewards.

BC Catherine

"Health Counselor Katelyn"

Week one:

I had a whopping group of 12 girls. It is a lot of girls to keep track of and get to know. We had a company of 24 girls and 12 boys. There were some in our group that were so much fun and great kids, and others that challenged us throughout the week. That was also the week of sickness. There was a virus that was spreading that week and people were getting sick right and left. My roommate, co-counselor, three of my girls, and four of my co's girls all got sick. Needless to say, that is where my friendship with the health counselors began.

My company "What Ye Have Heard"

Week two:

I had my group of 8 girls. It was a lot nicer than the 12 girls. We had a company of 16 girls and 12 boys. I loved my co-counselors that week and overall we had an awesome company. There were a few here and there that caused a little trouble, but not much. One of my co's girls, Jessica, I just adored! She reminded me a lot of myself and we had some really good times together.

My company "Fellow Beings"

My darling Jessica

Week three:

Only six girls for me! I loved it! One of my girls was very visually impaired and it made for a neat experience. She was very open about her impairment and was a very outgoing girl. People in our company were so willing to help which I loved seeing! My girls were great girls and really didn't cause problems at all. There were my six girls and then my co's eight boys. It was a small company which I loved. We had four just amazing boys and four that were a bit of trouble. The four that were trouble acted like they were too cool for everything and were not making the most of the week. I just tried to show them love and by the end of the week they loosened up a little and I was able to have some neat experiences with them.

My company "According to the Flesh"

I would have loved to have worked this week (and it was very likely that I could have), but I have so much to do before I leave for my vacation in a week. I went shopping yesterday and picked up some items, but there is still more shopping to do. I still need to get my backpack and figure out what is necessary to pack, so that my bag doesn't weigh a ton. I also need to figure out what we will be doing in Munich, Germany, and according to Wendy, I still need to learn German. I'll be spending this week getting everything done. But let me tell you, I miss EFY already.

This past Saturday a group of counselors and I went to a Rodeo. It was a lot of fun. We had to remind ourselves however, that we were not at EFY, therefore, acting crazy is not normal. Haha. I really enjoyed being "real friends" with the friends I have made at EFY.

Me, Colby and Katelyn's brother Garrett

Isaac, Katelyn, and Jordan

Life has been great and I look forward to the adventures that await me this summer!

Roller coaster ride

2009-05-10T09:44:00.000-07:00

If you have been wondering where I have been, I have been on a rollercoaster. Life lately has been having so many ups and downs. Where shall I start? The school year is coming to an end, and therefore, the kids, along with myself, are so ready for summer! Even my angle children have been acting up lately. I didn't know that reading time was an okay time for them to create paper boxes at their table, or that it was okay to wander the classroom and chat with friends during the time they should be working. My patience is about ran up and I am trying hard to just enjoy these last three weeks. We do have a some nice breaks throughout the last few weeks. Next week we have a day for "Hershey Track" where we go to the High School and the kids run in track events against other Elementary schools. It should be fun. I think the weather is suppose to be very nice, unlike last year where it SNOWED the day we went. The week after that we have a half day where we get to go down to Salem Pond to participate in some fun activities. This past month all the Salem schools took part in the "Salem Reading challenge" where they have to read set number of minutes for five nights a week and then their reward is this fun outing to the pond. Also that week we will have our 6th grade talent show. It is always very entertaining. The last week of school we have our 6th grade graduation. It is always quite the event. And the day before school gets out the 6th grade is going to Boondocks (a fun center) for a end-of-the-year-reward/celebration. It is so close to summer I can taste it!

In other events with school. Back in early April we got the word that we would have to cut back to only two 6th grade teachers next year. We were pretty devastated because we were told not too long before that, that we were set to keep the three of us. We knew it was going to be either Debbie or me that was going to have to go. We were stressing over it for a while, thinking one of us was going to lose our job. We had a talk with our principal and she let us know that yes, one of us would be leaving, but that they would place us somewhere else in the district. She said they would soon know which jobs were available in the district and then let us know and see if one job was appealing to one of us and we could make a decision on who would be leaving. A few days later our principal informed us that we had no choice in who was leaving or where we would be placed and she would let us know the next week. I was completely torn apart by the whole thing. It was affecting my teaching and my mood. The next week I was called down to the office right before school began and was informed that it was me who was to be leaving and I was placed in a 5th grade at Art City Elementary. I was definitely prepared to hear news that I would be leaving and thought I was ready to handle it, but boy was I wrong. I just broke down. It was very convenient considering that I had to begin class right then. I went and talked to one of my 5th grade teachers and she came and took over for a little while while I went out and composed myself. Now there was good and bad in this news. For one thing, Art City is much close to Provo and I did my 2nd half of student teaching there and really liked the school and really liked the principal. The bad news, I was going to have to switch grades and I absolutely love Mt. Loafer and didn't want to leave. Throughout the next week I was scoping the website to try and see if there was any 6th grade positions in the district that I could try and snatch. If I had to move schools I didn't really want to have to go through having to switch grades as well. There were a few places opened, but I was so torn between going to an unknown school, with an unknown principal, further away, yet staying in 6th grade or going to a school I knew, a principal I knew, and much closer, but switching grades. Debbie, one of the other 6th grade teachers, had been looking at this 6th grade opening at a school in South Santaquin (the most south school in the district). She had a friend that works there and it would be MUCH closer for her. Right now it takes her around 35 minutes to drive to work, driving to that school would take 15. Along with that, she would be able to carpool with this friend of her. It would cut back on how much she spends on gas immensely. She eventually decided it was the right thing to do, so she applied for a transfer. It was still up in the air for a few days while all the paper work went through and things were finalized. It finally was finalized and I am officially staying where I am. Now there are a few down sides to that. I will have a class of at least 32 children (7 more than I have now) and there will only be us two teachers, which will mess up our rotation set-up we had. I am grateful that I am able to stay however.

Besides school, life has been a roller coaster in other areas. One which involves a boy. I won't go into too much detail, but I'll give a brief summary. I started hanging out with a boy in my ward back in the middle of March. Things were great and I really liked him. I then got to my "freak-out stage". I have finally figured it out. I will start liking a boy and get those new and exciting feelings for him and that will cause me to jump into a relationship probably too quickly. Then a few weeks down the road I get to the point where the new and exciting feelings are gone and I kind of freak out. I am worried that I got myself into a situation I am not sure I want to be in. That is when I usually jump out of the relationship. So about two weeks into this relationship I kind of started questioning it. I wasn't sure exactly how "in" I was, and I was beginning to worry that I may have gotten myself into something I wasn't sure I wanted to be in. About three weeks into the relationship he wanted to define us as dating. I was honest with him and told him I wasn't sure if I was ready for that. The first few days after that were a bit rocky but I quickly decided I was being dumb and that nothing was wrong with the relationship so I had no reason to be afraid of it. I spent the next two weeks pretty much making up for me being lame and I thought things were going great. Key words, "I thought". Turns out he wasn't on the same page. Ever since I told him I wasn't sure about it, he kind of backed out a bit and it went downhill for him since then. Things were very rocky for a few days because of some events that took place and there were some hard feelings. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) my heart is just too good and I am quick to forgive. We ended things on a good note and we keep in touch. But let me tell you, it was quite the rollercoaster of emotions for me.

One other thing that has been a ride lately is my summer plans. The plan for the summer was for me and my sister(s) to take a trip to New York and then over to Europe. There is a bit of planning that has to be involved to make that possible. I am still in the process of knowing whether or not I can get a passport. You see....I don't have a name on my birth certificate. Whenever you have to answer those getting to know you questions like "what is something interesting about you?" I always use this one. My parents didn't name me until after they took me home from the hospital and they never got around to going back. Now that I am over the age of 18, I have to actually go through a legal court order name change. So I have been trying to get other documents in order to get a passport. I finally just sent some things in and should be hearing back from them shortly and they will either tell me that I am good and can have my passport, or they will let me know exactly what other items I need to send in. Hopefully this will all work out before the trip. We have been going back and forth between the time we want to travel. We were hoping to meet up with other family in New York as a fun family outing, but everyone's vacations are different. We did finally decided on a time and we finally booked our tickets. Since I did just spend around $1000 in plane tickets, I sure hope my passport works out. There is still a lot to do however. We still need to set in place or travel plans within Europe and places we will be staying. I am leaving most of that to Wendy and Angela, since they have traveled before and actually know what they are doing. According to Wendy, my job is to learn German. HA! We'll see how well that goes.

Other updates in my life...BYU has let out for the summer and many of my friends have left. Provo has calmed down immensely and my ward is about half the size it use to be. I received a new calling. I was on the Enrichment committee in relief society, but I am now a relief society teacher. EEK! I have never had a teaching calling and it is a little intimidating. I know you are all thinking, "You are a teacher, you know how to teach!" but teaching my peers about a gospel topic is MUCH different than teaching 11 and 12 year olds about math, science, etc. We'll see how it goes. I am staying where I am for the summer, however, I do not know where I will be living in the fall. That is still to be decided and figured out. I am thinking I'll probably stay where I am (that is, if it is still available). I did get accepted to be an EFY counselor again this summer. However, I did not apply for as many, since I will be traveling. So far I am only scheduled to do one week. I am excited to do it again, but a little disappointed to only have one week. We'll see if I can pick up any other weeks when I'm around this summer. I absolutely loved doing it last summer and not only was it great to help the youth, but it really helped me as well.

Shout out to my mommy on this mother's day. I love you very very much! You have made me into the person I am today and I could never say thank you enough. I am so grateful for the sacrifices you made for me growing up and that you continue to make. I love being able to call and talk to you whenever I want. I love that you care so much about what is happening in my life and always lend a listening ear. I hope to one day be the amazing mother that you are! I LOVE YOU!

This is what I like to do...just sit and chat with my mommy. This was from my first year back at home from college for Christmas.

This blog is probably more than anyone wants to read. I'm sorry it is so long, but it has been around four months since I have written on here. I'm sorry there are really no pictures. Perhaps next time. Once again, no matter how chaotic my life is, I always feel amazingly blessed for everything I have!

Non photogenic me

2009-01-24T21:29:00.000-08:00

Remember how I put my school picture up here and said how my sisters use to make fun of me because I could never pose a smile and I looked constipated? Well...here it is. I think this is my 8th grade picture. Yup...I couldn't smile. Enjoy!

I have a dream...

2009-01-21T14:29:00.001-08:00

In celebration on Martin Luther King Junior's birthday/holiday, I have been focusing some of my lessons and activities on him. My class watched a video that was about a group of 6th grade kids who went back in time to the time of Martin Luther King and learned all about him. We discussed his life a little and talked about how life might be if it wasn't for him. I then had the kids write their own "I have a dream" paper. Some of the kids really struggled and sat there for a long time. Apparently they think we have a perfect world. Some of them really touched me with the things they wrote. I was particularly impressed by one of my girls' and wanted to share with you what she wrote. Here it is:

"I have a dream that one day there will be peach throughout this world. That everyone will be treated equal and kind. I wish that nobody would judge by their outer beauty but by their inner beauty. I have a dream that one day every mouth on this planet will be fed, that their stomachs will be fulled for the very first time. I have a dream that everyone would be happy with their appearance and with who they are and be satisfied with the way God has created them. I have a dream that everyone will be happy with that they have and not grieve over what they want. I have a dream that everyone will one day get along and that there will be no jealousy, no hate, no racism. I have a dream that this world will become a better place for every nation, kindred, and tongue. I have a dream!"

Is that not so sweet? I can tell that she really did think about it. Many of my kids put great things like no more war, no bad in the world, enough money to support their family, no more drugs, no more killing animals and trees, that everyone will get along, etc. One kid even said that he has a dream that there will one day be peace on all planets. It is about time that we had peace with the aliens! Their papers really did touch me and they are such good kids.

Another thing we did is read a book called "Martin's Big Words". It mostly told of his life and talked about his "big words". This included things he stood for and fought for and the things he said such as: peace, freedom and love. I then made a poster that said "Miss Weathers Class' BIG Words" and they all wrote on note cards their "big words". Some wrote single words and others wrote quotes. I told them that if they wrote a quote it had to be their own, not one they have heard somewhere before. I am pretty sure that some still did ones they got from somewhere else, but oh well. They wrote some really cute things. Anything from family to courage to standing out and being a good friend. Perhaps I'll take a picture of our wall of "big words" and post it up here for you to see.

In all I think they have really enjoyed learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and what he fought for and what he stood for. I have enjoyed learning along with them. He really was an amazing man. Nothing could stop him. He knew that everyone deserved equal rights and he was not going to step down until they received those rights. It was a terrible way of life back in those times and I am so grateful that he helped change it for the better. Happy Birthday Martin Luther King Junior!

6th grade quote of the week

2009-01-18T10:50:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't written in a long time and I will do more of it. I even have a new years post saved that I just need to look over and then post. But I wast thinking about what one of my boys said this week and I thought it was too funny not to share. Before I tell it though, you have to understand that kind of relationship I have with my kids. We have a pretty teasing friendly relationship, meaning, I tease them a lot and give them a hard time and often times they tease me back. I think that a lot of 6th graders personalities work well with that kind of relationship. Well...Thursday we had our spelling test (since we had no school Friday) and I read the words to them and then put the word in a sentence. Well, sometimes I like to try to be funny and make the sentences amusing. The word was "attractive" so my sentence was "I am very attractive". My intentions to somewhat amuse the kids and get a laugh. Well one of my boys took it upon himself to humor the situation even more with a comeback comment of "If you were you'd be married by now." WHAT!? Now this kid is not the mean type at all. He is really a sweet boy, so I knew he wasn't really meaning it to hurt me. Many of the kids were shocked at his comment and thought I was pretty harsh. I got a bit of a laugh out of it, but made sure he knew the rest of the day that it wasn't a very nice comment. I made him do things for me to make-up for it. It was also so convenient that parent/teacher conferences were that night. We also have our students come for those. I told his mom about the little incident (not in a way that he was in trouble, just that I thought it was somewhat amusing and thought she would want to know) and she made a point in reminding my boy that his dad was not married until he was 32. Haha. I also told some of the faculty about it and they found it quite amusing as well. There you have it...my 6th grade quote of the week. Maybe I'll find one of these every week. I am pretty sure with the group of kids I have, it would not be a hard thing to do.

6th grade debate

2008-11-06T14:41:00.000-08:00

Every week at school the kids have a list of spelling words along with 8 vocab words. These vocab words are what they call "real world" vocabulary and are based on one specific real world topic. For example, last week our words were based on the atmosphere and included: ozone, stratosphere, exosphere, etc. Well this week our words were based around the subject of "debate". Our words included: Orator, conviction, controversial, argument, philosophy, consideration, rebuttal, and persuasive. I wanted a way to help the kids remember these terms so I decided to apply them to our own classroom and hold a debate. One thing in 6th grade that is a very controversial issue is that 6th graders don't get morning recess. I split my class in half and had one side in favor of having morning recess and the other in favor of not having it. The half that I told was on the side of not having recess wasn't too thrilled about it at first because they all want recess. I gave them some time yesterday to come up with all their philosophy and all their reasons to support their argument, making sure they were applying the vocab terms. This morning I had them gather up the rest of their thoughts and then we held a debate. They had an orator give their first thoughts and then I let anyone else put in their two cents. It was SOOOO funny! Who knew watching 6th graders argue over having morning recess would be so entertaining. I even had my few quiet kids standing up and giving their opinion (I made them stand up when they were speaking). There was even a few "I objects" and pounding of fists on desks. By the end of the debate each half of my class was fully convinced that their way was right. Even that half that were suppose to argue in favor of not having morning recess convinced themselves that that was what they really thought. One girl had so much fun with it all that she told me she wants to be a lawyer now. I think it did help them with the vocabulary words because every time one came up during the debate I would hold up a card with that word on it and tell them why that term matched the situation. We'll see how they do on the test tomorrow. Anyway, I just thought it was too funny and wanted to share that with you all.

Some day my prince will come

2008-11-05T07:36:00.000-08:00

Every girl has their Disney Princess. The one they look like the most or the one they just like the most. Mine has always been Snow White. I think this princess fits me in many different ways.
One of the most obvious reasons why she is my princess is because I resemble her in looks. I have the pale skin (unfortunately) and the shorter dark (not black!) hair.
Another reason is that she has her 7 little dwarfs. They sing and dance with her yet do all her cleaning and work around the house. Well, I have it even better than her, I have 24 dwarfs. I sing and dance with them and they do my cleaning and work around school. Pretty great I know! Here are my dwarfs:

Dopey: Have lots of Dopeys. He was always my favorite dwarf and I have lots of favorite students. I don't think I could pick one Dopey.

Grumpy: I don't have many grumpy kids. If I had to pick one I would probably say Ben who never seems to be happy. He's a good kid though.

Doc: I have a quite a few Docs as well. I have some stinking smart kids! There is definitely Trevor, Sierra, Joe, and quite a few others.

Happy: Allie is definitely one of my Happys, Sierra as well, and others depending on the day.

Bashful: I have a few kids that are a little more bashful than the others. There is Jared who is quite reserved and Esther who is just so quiet, but so sweet.

Sneezy: This is my Christian, he is sneezing all the time!

Sleepy: all 24 of my students! Haha. Depends on the day who is my Sleepy.

Another reason that I am Snow White is because "I'm wishing for the one I love to find me today". As the title says, "some day my prince will come". Hopefully I don't have to eat a poison apple and fall into a deep sleep in order for him to come. But I wouldn't mind waking up to a handsome prince kissing me!
I wouldn't say I am as big of an animal fan as Snow White is, but I do really like rabbits. So I guess I am kind of like Snow White in that way.
When I was a freshman in college all 6 of us were Disney Princesses and I of course was Snow White. Also last year a group of the girls in my class who decided they were all Disney Princesses and they also decided that I was Snow White.
So...this year for Halloween I bet you can guess what I was...

School picture!

2008-10-24T22:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, I still get school pictures. In fact, I get LOTS of school pictures. Being a teacher we are forced to get out picture taken, but I don't mind it as much now as I did when I was actually in school. Growing up I had a really hard time posing a natural looking smile. My family always told me I looked constipated. Haha. Well, I think I finally grew out of it and can make myself look somewhat decent in a picture. So here is my 2008-2009 school picture. And check out the package they give to teachers (I don't pick it or pay for it):

1 - 8x10
4 - 5x7 (one with some white boarder thing and "Allison" written on the bottom and another one that is black and white)
4 - 4x6
16 - wallets

What am I ever going to do with all those pictures? If you want one, let me know and you are more than welcome to have one. I thought it'd be a good idea to write my number on the back of them and pass them out to good looking boys. Haha. Ok I am done now. By the way, it is a picture of a picture, so it's not that great of quality. Oh, and you can see my short new haircut if you haven't seen it.

I have great kids!

2008-10-24T19:41:00.000-07:00

Oh, you didn't know I had kids? Well I do. 23 of them in fact! Haha. Ok, so I like to call my students my kids. Funny thing about that...I teach the other two 6th grade classes science and I was telling one of the classes about how I told my "kids" something and apparently a few of them thought I really had children. Oops! I just had parent/teacher conferences. Except in our district they are called SEPs (Student Education Plan) and the students are suppose to be there. I think I like it that way. I don't think the kids enjoy it so much. Except for one of my girls that was saying how much she loves SEPs. Yes, I worry about her. Anyway, I had SEPs and I had a hard time finding many bad things to talk to the parents about. I have just a great bunch of kids! I pretty much just had a day where I got to tell the parents how great their kids are. Of course I have my few that had a few issues that needed to be brought up, but over all I don't have many problems. I have so many wonderful students! First of all, they are very bright kids! A good majority of them are reading above grade level and they LOVE to read! I could probably just have them read all day and they would do it! Not only do it, but they would love it! I really wish I had that love for reading when I was their age. It will be so beneficial for them throughout their whole life. I have so many smart, smart math students, which make me excited! On top of being really smart, my kids are so responsible! I rarely have to nag them about doing their work and turning in their homework. They are so on top of their school work and the things they need to do. It makes my job as their teacher so much easier! But the best part about my kids is that they are so fun! They really do bring so much joy into my life. I don't think one day goes by where they don't make me laugh. Some of the things these kids do just crack me up! I love seeing them at this age and just watching them grow and learn and have so much fun in life! They are just a wonderful bunch of kids that are going to go far in life, I know that! Last week was Red Ribbon week (drug prevention/awareness). Along with having fun dress up days, we also had an assembly. There is a guy that goes around to schools named Corbin White. He talks to the kids about a "natural high" and how that is where you are just having so much fun you don't want to stop and that is the kind of high you want. He just has a karaoke party with the kids and they have so much fun! I even had my shyest girl get up in front of all the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. Of course she wasn't up there alone, but still! It was fun to just see the kids be goofy and have a good time. After we went back to class there was about 5-10 minutes left before we needed to clean up to go home (the assembly didn't last as long as they said it would). So instead of getting into any class work or what not, I just decided to have a little dance party with my kids. Heck! Sometimes you just have to let loose and have fun with your students. I just put on some music and we all danced around the classroom (yes, even I did) and just had a lot of fun. I think it helps the kids to bond as a class and it helps me to bond with them. I even had some of my boys prancing about the classroom like ballerinas. It was quite the site! I had so much fun and I am sure the kids did too. I think that is something they will always remember. And hopefully all the school stuff I teach them too! Anyway, I just wanted to brag about my "kids"!

My Quirks!

2008-10-20T14:02:00.001-07:00

Everyone has weird things about them and I think I have quite a few. I read my sister's blog all about her quirks and felt like writing about my quirks!

My pajamas have to match. I will not wear navy blue pants with a black shirt, or even a white shirt with black writing. I will not wear my red pants with an all red shirt or my navy pants with an all navy shirt. I don't know why, no one really sees me in my PJs, but that's just the way it has to be.

My alarm clock with never be set to a normal increment of time. If I want to wake up at 7:00am it will be set for something such as 6:57 or 7:01. I won't ever set it to an even time or a multiple of 5. Again, I have no idea why.

Like my sister, I like the dishwasher loaded a certain way. I just think there is a very logical way to organize it so that you can fit as many dishes as possible and they will all still get clean. I have been known to completely unload a dishwasher to rearrange it. I hate it because I like it when my roommate clean up after themselves but it drives me nuts to put a dish into a poorly organized dishwasher.

I hate cupboards and drawers being opened. If I am sitting in the livingroom and a cupboard is opened I have been known to get up just to go close it. I just think it looks messy when they are opened.

I HATE it when people drink the milk out of their cereal bowl. I will not watch you do it and have been known to actually turn away or cover my eyes when someone is doing it. I don't like to drink milk in the first place and for some reason the cold cereal filled milk makes me want to vomit.

My movies have to be in alphabetical order. I have quite the collection of movies all on a nice little shelf and they are all alphabetized starting with numbers and going to Z. I know when a movie is out of place. My roommates have been known to watch my movies, and not realizing they are in a certain order will randomly put them away. Yes I will go move them to the correct place.

Now there are a number of things that bother me when it comes to my classroom and my students: (the ones I can think of right now, I'm sure there are more)

Messy desks and unorganized papers
Messy book shelves
Folding over page corners in books (I threaten my children if they do that!)
Not showing your work in math
Writing all the math problem numbers down and then expecting to fit all the work on that one little line
A messy turn in basket (papers not lined up nicely)
Crooked desks
Chairs not pushed in
Messy floor
My students calling me "teacher" instead of "Miss Weathers" (I just call them "student" back)
Papers with not names!
Misusing supplies
Not using common sense (I guess they are 6th graders)
Not reading the notes on the board
Not listening to directions or following directions
Disrespect of any kind (I will not tolerate it!)

I really am kind of weird where I like a lot of things done my way. I have a hard time letting other people do things for me because if they don't do it the way I like to I'll kind of be irritated or I'll do it all over again. I know it is lame and I wish I didn't feel that way because it would make life much easier, but I just can't help it!

Anyway...those are what I can think of right now. I hope you don't think less of me because of them! I think I am still a good person! Haha!

Kids say the darnedest things

2008-10-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

I decided last year to start keeping track of some of the funny things my students (kids) say and I picked it up again this year. I think 6th grade is such a fun year because the kids are starting to become teenagers and they just have so much personality. I find myself laughing at the things they say/do on a daily basis. Here are a few things for your enjoyment (I'd have more but they are saved on my computer at school):

From last year:

"Miss Weathers, you need to find yourself a lover!"
~Shania

"I'm in love with Lexi"
~Tyler
"No you're not, you don't even know what love is."
~Me
"Oh I do...I've felt it."
~Tyler

"It doesn't matter what you put, you are going to get it wrong...unless it's the right answer"
~Tyler

From this year:

"I'm a bird" (randomly as she flaps her jacket and heads to her seat)
~Allie

As we are talking about when I get married...
"All the girls can be bridesmaids"
~a girl in the class
"You can be flower girls"
~Me
"And the boys will be those guys that clean the pipe organs" WHAT???
~Jesh

"I'm hot!" (referring to temperature)
~Sierra
"Yeah you are!"
~Jesh

"Last night I had a dream I married a bubble!"
~Krista

"I tired to make a bear, but it didn't work...so I made a beaver"
~Bradley

Well, those are the ones I can remember right now. Some might not be as funny because they are probably "you had to be there" incidents. But maybe you get a laugh out of some of them. I just love 6th graders!

The World Today

2008-10-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

I watched this video in a technology teacher workshop I am taking. It was really interesting to me. I want to see what you think of it.

Interesting huh? Sometimes it is sad to think about how things have changed in the world today. That technology has been so useful yet so destructive. It can be used so affectively in the educational world, yet take away from student's learning. I don't know...I am really terrible at expressing my thoughts into words, but I just found it a very interesting video with a powerful message. So were we better off before all this technology or are we better off with all the advancements now?

2008-09-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

See what being a Utahan does to you? It makes you not write on your blog for months! I could probably write pages and pages of what has been going on since I last wrote, but you don't want to be bored to death, so I'll do a readers digest version. My summer went by in a flash! I finished of my six weeks of EFY and it was amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my summer. I got to play all summer, get paid and influence so many teenagers' lives. It was truly amazing! I had a whole four days off between EFY and being required to be in my classroom. I hurried and got everything ready and I like how my classroom turned out. I have a great group of kids. Unfortunately they are all pretty good friends, so they like to chat. But overall they are really sweet kids and hard workers. I have 24 little munchkins and I just adore them. I really couldn't ask for a better job. I love being with the kids and they seem to like me enough. Here is a picture of my little children celebrating International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I celebrated that last year and I had a great time! As a whole 6th grade we celebrated it and did some really fun things. I created probably the most amazing treasure hunt! They had to know how to follow an order pair on a coordinate grid which led them to different parts in the school. It was pretty great and they had a lot of fun sneaking around the school like pirates and of course they loved the treasure at the end! We also took regular nursery rhymes and gave them "piratude". I have some creative kids. So far this year we have done some great things. We had a beginning of the year kick off field trip. We went up a canyon near our school and were able to go on a hike and play some fun games together as sixth graders. It turned out wonderful! We also had our school's Fall Festival. It was a huge success and the kids loved the pie eating contests as you can tell from the picture.
Over the summer I was able to go to a rodeo and a demolition derby for the first time. They were so much fun! Who knew you could be entertained by animal cruelty and people destroying cars by slamming into each other.As of recently my friends are slowly dropping one by one into the death trap of marriage! They should learn from my and steer clear of that trap! Well, I had my friend that I've been friends with since was two, get married this weekend. My two best friends from high school are about all gone. One got married last summer and the other one is getting married this December. A guy friend of mine that I have liked since 9th grade is planning on getting married this year. One of my best friends from college got married last weekend. Slowly I am losing them. It makes me really happy that they have found that person they can spend eternity with, but it also makes me sad. Not only am I somewhat losing them as close friends (marriage does that to friendships), but it kind of makes me sad that I haven't found the "one". I'm not the kind to be obsessed with getting married, but when I see my friends so happy with someone you can't help but want the same for yourself. Well, my time will come when it comes. I'm not going to get all worked up over it. I was able to go to Nevada for Addie's wedding and it was wonderful! Here is a picture from that.

Addie, Scott, and me. Are they adorable?

My two best friends from high school, Ashli and Jessi

Kyle, my really good friend since 9th grade

Jenna and me, back when we were cute. Please admire our amazing outfits!

Outside of teaching and losing friends, life is really great. I moved into a new complex and have a new ward. So far I have really liked it. We have made some friends in the ward (guys of course) and have hung out with them quite a bit. Really overall life is great and I couldn't ask for more. Sometimes I am just amazed at how blessed I really am. Anyway...I think I'm done blabbing. I hope this satisfies some of you!

Traumatizing Experience

2008-06-25T10:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I had a very traumatizing experience this week. I had to give up a piece of myself. Here is what my car looked like as of a few days ago...

Here is what it looks like now...

See the difference? Yes, I have come that much closer to being a Utahan. It was a very sad day for me. I guess that's what I get for living and working in Utah for almost 2 years running. I will survive. I still have my Washington drivers license to tie me to my roots.

Where have I been?

2008-06-14T15:37:00.000-07:00

You are all probably thinking (the whole 5 of you that sometimes read this), where is Allie? Well my friends, I have been a lot of places over the last month or so. I have been a busy woman with a lot going on in life. I'm not even sure where to start...

Back in April for spring break, my friend Jessi and I were able to take a trip to California. It was amazing! We made a stop in Vegas and saw the strip. It's just something you have to do in your life time. We were then onto California where we were able to go to Disneyland, California Adventures, Hollywood and the beach. I have never experienced Disneyland and it really is the happiest place on earth. I wish I could tell you more but it would take forever. You'll just have to trust me that is was pretty great.

Jessi and I at the top of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas and at the "happiest place on earth"

May was very busy with the school year coming to an end. There were so many things I had to get done before I headed out. We enjoyed some fun last weeks of school with field day, a field trip and a PJ/game day. I love those kids so much and was so sad to leave them. I had one of my girls bawling at the end of the last day of school. They are just amazing children and I was sad and very excited to see them move on in their lives.

Some of my girls dancing in the rain on field day and almost all my kids the last day of school

The day I ended school I drove up to Rexburg for my sister Kim's wedding. Her and Tyler were married in the Rexburg temple on May 30th. It was very nice. We had a reception there that night, which was beautiful. Some of my family left that night to drive to Spokane and I drove with my parents early the next morning. Saturday we spent at our home in Spokane getting ready for the reception there. The reception was set up in our back yard and had a "tropical" feel. It all turned out very nice and with a little "rain dance" around the firest we were able to keep the rain away.

Tyler and Kim right after they got married and what the bridesmaids and groomsmen did to their car. They weren't very happy about that.

I flew back to Utah on Sunday, was home for about a half hour, enough time to pack, and then checked in to do EFY (Especially For Youth). That has consumed my life for the past two weeks. You check in Sunday and have a meeting that night at 7pm. From then until that next Saturday around 9am when the kids are gone and your meeting is over, you are on the job. It is the most rewarding and most draining job I think there could ever be. The first week I had the 16-18 year-olds, with a group of 12 amazing girls. I adored those girls and gained so much love for them. We had a "company" of 50 kids, 24 girls and 26 guys. They were all so great. This past week I had the 14-15 year-olds. I had 9 sweet girls and a company of 48 kids, 27 boys and 21 girls. It has really been an AMAZING two weeks. It is amazing how you can gain so much love for these kids in the 5 short days you work with them. I love to see their testimonies grow and the friendships they make. I think I have learned just as much, if not more, from my experience as they have. I wish I could tell you all everything that happened these past few weeks but it would take forever. If you want to know more just ask me, I could go on forever.

My group "Not Ashamed" from the first week and my co-counselors, Enrique, Jes, and Mark

My second group "Believeth" and my co-counselors Eric, Sydney, and Mitchell

If I had favorite kids from these past two weeks these would be them. My girl Calais (Cal-a) from my first week and my boy Dylan from my second week. Calais was an absolute sweetheart and so much fun. She called me "Coach" and I loved it. Dylan was an amazing young man. Struggling a little with the gospel, but I was able to really touch his life. I called him "Precious".

So there is my life in a nut shell; the VERY condensed version. I am alive and life is moving forward and a little too quickly if I do say so myself. But I'm happy and life is great!

I do live!

2008-05-05T20:26:00.000-07:00

No I am not dead...I just haven't written in almost a month. I have been wanting to write and post pictures about my spring break trip to California. Well, my camera battery has been dead and I keep forgetting to charge it. But it is on the charger as we speak (write). I just thought I'd write and let you know that I am still around. I was looking at what pictures I do have on my computer and I came across the ones when we had a guest visit our classroom. If any of you have ever looked and the Guinness Book of Wold Records (which 6th graders love!) you probably have seen the lady that has creepy long fingernails. Well, I had gotten one of these books to put in my classroom and it turns out that this lady is one of my girl's aunt! Well, one of my boys didn't believe her, even after she brought in picture, so she talked to her aunt and she made a visit to our classroom. It was fun for the kids and it caused quite the stir throughout the whole school. All of the students wanted an autograph and pictures taken with her. I felt really bad because it is a bit hard for her to sign her name and so I eventually told the kids no more. I had her sign my book and got some fun picture. So here she is if you haven't ever seen her picture.

Homemaker

2008-04-07T10:49:00.001-07:00

It is a tradition for Addie and I to make spring skirts during April Conference. Ok, so we have only done it two year out of the past four, but that's enough for a tradition. Saturday we went to Walmart to pick out a pattern and material. We were hoping for some cute $1 fabric, but they were lacking in that area. So we did have to spend a little more, but that's ok. Saturday during morning conference we cut out the fabric. Then between conferences we started on the skirts but ran into some trouble with Addie's sewing machine. We left to go watch the afternoon session and then returned to working on our skirts. We fixed the problem with the sewing machine and were off. I ran into some problems when I got to the zipper. I have never put a zipper into a skirt before. We then decided to go out to dinner with Erika and Samantha. We went to The Old Spaghetti Factory. I had never been there and it was quite good. We then went shopping (window shopping) and then returned to the skirts once more. I also came to a problem when trying to sew a ribbon around the bottom. I didn't want to pin it on because the pins snagged the ribbon but it was hard to get it in the right spot without pinning it. I decided to just hold it and have at it. It worked out quite well. The skirts weren't done until around 1:30am. But they were quite cute! I was proud of my work! The next day we were just going to go to Samantha's to watch conference, but we wanted to wear and show off our skits. So we decided to go up to Salt Lake and do standby. We headed up and met up with Jessi and her boyfriend Cameron. We stood in standby, got through security and were lined up on one of the outside balconies in the conference center. The sun came out and it was absolutely beautiful! I didn't even need to wear my jacket. We got some compliments on our skirts. We also got to see some friends we hadn't seen in a while. We did end up getting in and it was great! Addie and I then went to her grandma's house and enjoyed dinner. I decided to wear my skirt to school today as well and have gotten compliments on it once again. Man I'm good! I'm going to be a great wife! If only guys understood that! Haha. Well...here are the skirts and some pictures from conference.

Ignore the cheesy grins

The skirts poof out cool when you spin

I just pulled out my camera to take a picture and this is what they were all doing

All of us waiting to get in

The Northwest vs. Utah and My Life Ambition

2008-04-04T23:57:00.000-07:00

I love the northwest! I love trees, I love green, I love mountains. Being in Utah is a little hard for me considering it is a desert. I long for the tree covered mountains of the northwest. However, the mountains here have their own beauty. For one thing, they are huge and very close! They are mostly rock and pretty cool rock at that. The big mountains are to the east here in Provo, so during the wintertime at sunset the sun lights up the snow-covered mountains and makes them pink! It really only lasts a few minutes, but it is one of the most beautiful sights ever! I have caught those few minutes a few times on the way home from work (not lately because the sun is setting later). Every time I just can't help and stare. I am probably a danger to the drivers around me. I just love nature! I love God's creations. It really is amazing. Nature is one thing that I'm always in awe about. I could probably spend my whole life outside admiring God's creations. From the tiny bugs and leaves to the huge mountains and trees. Here are a couple of pictures I captured of the mountains at sunset.

Along the same lines. One of my life ambitions is photography. I think there are a few things that contribute to this interest of mine. For one, as I was saying, I love nature and I think there are so many beautiful images out their that should be captured. Another is that I'm a very sentimental person. I'll save a piece of string if it has sentimental meaning. Hopefully I'll soon be able to not be too crazy about it otherwise I'll have a house full of junk! Anyway...I love to capture the moment and be able to have those pictures that have sentimental meaning. And in general, I think photography is fun. I just wish I had a nice camera and then I would try to pursue it more. About a year ago I was able to take my friends' engagement pictures. I have never done such a thing, but she was nice enough to allow me to experiment and I was pretty proud of most of the results. There are a lot of things that I would still love to learn about the art of photography and much more practicing I need to do. But one day when I have the money and time I think that that is something I would really love to do. Here are a few pictures of my friends I took. That's all for now.

Welcome spring!...or maybe not

2008-03-30T12:29:00.000-07:00

Well it was an exciting day yesterday. I along with some other friends, attended The Festival of Colors at the Krishna Temple (I believe it's a Hindu temple). They have this big celebration to welcome in spring. It's a tradition for their culture and a big event here in the Provo area. Thousands of people attend including many of the college students around here. People end up having to park miles away and walk. I have heard of it before, but have never attended. It was very exciting. When we first got there we had to wait in a huge long line to buy "color". They sell these colored powders almost like flower. It is part of the tradition that when they light the "demon" on fire you then throw these colored powders all over each other. So we finally got our color. They also have this dancer that comes and live music. It was then time to light the fire. As soon as it was lit the hundreds of people started throwing this powder everywhere. For a good few minutes it was VERY hard to breathe. I also had to keep spitting it out of my mouth. It was pretty crazy. After pretty much all of the powder has been throw people get a little wild. There is crowd surfing, pushing, dancing, singing, chanting and lots of chaos. I almost got killed by two guys crowd surfing above me. I did survive the night and it was a lot of fun. We ended by going out to eat and getting some weird looks for people. However, we were not the only group of people there covered in colorful powder. It felt really nice to shower afterwards. So we welcomed in spring that night and then we woke up to a good few inches of snow the next morning. Apparently spring didn't want to be welcomed in. I was not very happy to see the snow as I am very ready for some warm weather. Oh well...it won't last too much longer. Enjoy the pictures of the madness!

Here is the huge long line. This was probably only about a third of the line.
Here is the Krishna Temple. It reminds me of Aladdin.Addie, me and Samantha in our "before" picture. We look all clean!
And this is right after all the color throwing madness. Not so clean anymore.
Here you can get an idea of how many people there were, how colorful it was, and a little bit of how crazy it was.
This was right before we left. I love the bright orange hand print on my face.
And this is the snow we woke up to this morning. Yay for spring!

My Life Update

2008-03-26T14:41:00.000-07:00

My sister brought it to my attention that I need to update my blog with a new post. I guess I just have nothing that exciting going on. Well, I'll do my best to put up something exciting. The most recent events in my life include: Field Trip, SEPs (parent teacher conferences), and Easter. Our whole school was able to take a trip to see an Amelia Badelia (sp?) Play. It was a good time. So here are just a few pictures of that.

It is always fun fitting 70 6th graders on one bus!

Some of my kids' faces crack me up!

Another recent event was Easter. A couple of room moms came in and had a game and a treat for the kids. We were able to go outside and enjoy the nice weather. The game they played was a tag game. Near the very end one of my boys was trying to tag one of my girls and he ended up smacking her really hard on the neck. She fell to the ground crying. It wasn't long until a bright red hand print showed up. Poor thing. She came later in the day for SEPs (around 7pm) and she still had a red mark. I had to make sure her parents knew it wasn't me abusing her. It was really fun for the kids and they had a good time. And of course they enjoyed the treats. Here are some picture from that.

The one on the left here is the girl that got smacked in the neck. It hadn't happened yet when this picture was taken. The girl on the right is my little dancer. She is actually wearing a shirt that she got when she danced at The Stadium of Fire show.

If you look a the far right of this picture, you can see one of my girls trying to tag one of my boys. It's great.

I enjoyed/suffered through another round of parent/teacher conferences. They call the SEPs here. It stands for Student (or maybe it's specialized) Education Plan. The students come along with their parents and we decide on goals for next term. We end school at 3:10 and begin conferencing at 3:30. We go all the way until 8:30 that night with just a half hour break in there for dinner. It is a pretty crazy night. And then the kids get the next day off and the teachers have to come to school and work. That really doesn't seem fair to me! I really don't mind SEPs because I have really good, supportive parents here. I love to brag about their kids. At least I can brag about most of them. But there are those few that there ends up being more negative than positive things said.

This past weekend I was able to head down to Bunkerville (Mesquite), Nevada. I went down with my roommate Addie to spend Easter with her family. She has a really great family and it is always a good time down there. This is my 3rd year spending Easter there in the 4 years that I have known her. We go there Friday evening and didn't return to Provo until late Sunday night. The weekend consisted of: Dying eggs, rolling eggs down a hill, having an egg toss, laying out in the sun, napping, playing basketball, eating really good food, watching enchanted, playing with LOTS of cousins and aunts and uncles, hunting for Easter baskets, going to church, eating more good food, getting fun things from her grandma, and enjoying lots and lots of sunshine! It was around 80 degrees there and I didn't want to come back to Provo where it was cooler. I also fell in love with her two-year-old cousin! He is one of the cutest kids! If only he was 20 years older. I'm kind of sad because it was most likely my last Easter I'll spend there. I guess life has to move on. I love how all of her family is so close, both in distance and in relationships. I never really had that with my aunts/uncles/cousin, so I love going down there and being part of their family. I would post pictures from that trip, but I didn't take any on my own camera so I'll have to hunt some down.

Well, there is what has been going on with me. I've been doing well and I am enjoying life!

One of those days

2008-03-07T11:13:00.001-08:00

Today is "one of those days". It kind of all started last night. I was on this "high" from hearing about EFY. I had friends over for dinner and it was great. Then I decided to sit down to a movie and I invited a friend over. Long story short, he was kind of a jerk and never end up coming. I didn't get to bed on time and therefore slept in this morning. I came to school not wanting to teach really at all. The morning started off by one of my students telling me that another kid got his head slammed in the door. Wonderful. So I got talked to this kid to see what happened and found out that 3 of my boys were trying to close the door to not let him and ended up closing his head in it. They then just left the kid outside crying and came into class as if nothing happened. I pulled these 3 boys out in the hall and they seemed to have no remorse or even act like they did anything wrong. So we had a little chat and I told them that they needed to apologize to this other student. Who knows if it happened. Then...my kids are just being very chatty and off task today. Our counselor has been coming into my class once a week to do an activity and have a chat with them to prepare them for next year. The kids were just being disrespectful and it was bugging me. The counselor was talking about good study habits including: keeping and assignment book, being responsible, turning in work, etc. And I was realizing how many of those things my kids don't do. She also said that there has been a trend in the USA that kids coming out of high school and college don't know how to "work". They are lazy! It is so true! So many of my kids are so stinking lazy! They want me to spoon feed them and get out of doing any of the work themselves. They don't read directions but expect me to explain everything step by step. They are all almost 12!!! You would think by this age they would know how to be more responsible for themselves. The term ends in a few weeks and there are so many of my kids that are missing so many assignments! I don't give a lot of homework! Most of this stuff is work we do in class and either they are so off task that they don't do it, or they do part of it and then never finish it and turn it in, or they do it and don't turn it in and then lose it! A big contributer to this is my 4 ADHD kids. One is on meds that don't work and they don't know what to do with them, one was taken off meds last year, one they took him off meds part way through this year to try a more "natural" method of dealing with it, I guess I only have 3 diagnosed with it, but I have another one that he is a good kid but can't control his mouth! It is like anything that comes to his head he has to say. Then I have another kid that is in his own little world half the time. Every morning they come in and do a sentence correction that is on the board, and every morning I go over to this kid and he is usually reading and when I ask if he did his work he goes something like "oh..." and looks around like he didn't know what he was suppose to be doing! Has he not been in my class for 6 months!? As you can see it's "one of those days". Right now my kids are silently reading and it feels so nice. After this it's spelling test then PE and then they are off to Art and Music where I don't have to deal with them. I get to stay in class and get all the things done that I need to. Oh the joys of being a teacher.

Good News Minute

2008-03-06T21:18:00.001-08:00

I found out some exciting news today! I am going to be an EFY (especially for youth) counselor! I was so excited! I had applied months and months ago and had an interview back in January and had to wait until now to find out. This was what I was planning on doing to fill my summer and couldn't plan the rest of my summer until I knew if and when I had gotten in. So now I don't have to worry and can plan ahead! I'll be dong six weeks of it. I am done with school at the end of May and I start EFY the next week and do two weeks, then two weeks off and then do the first two weeks of July and then two weeks off and then the first two weeks of August. After my last session the next week I get to start into school stuff again. It is going to be a crazy summer but I am way excited! From what I hear, EFY wears you out! I am use to getting up early every day and being with kids all day, but at EFY I miss out on the sleeping part. I was looking at the pamphlets and stuff I have to read, there are like 100 pages of stuff to read. It's going to be great! As for the weeks in between...I'm not sure what I'll be doing. Probably taking a trip home somewhere there and probably doing stuff to prepare for next school year. So there is my good news!

Who knows...

2008-03-02T19:24:00.000-08:00

I've always said that I am a computer person, so we'll see where this goes. I was just reading on my sister's blog and found out that another sister of mine has one and my sister Kristin said that now I need to get one, so here I am. As my title says, I have a boring/exciting life as a teacher here in Utah. I don't know if I'll ever have anything to put on here that people will actually be interested in reading, but we'll see. I enjoy reading other people's blogs, so perhaps they will enjoy reading mine. To start off I'll just show you what my life revolves around, my 26 amazing children. They really are a joy in my life no matter how hard a day I have had and how much I just want to kick them sometimes. At this age they are changing so much and going from little kids to teenagers and I absolutely love seeing it. They love being part of my life and are always asking me to tell them stories of things that happen to me or things I do, and I love being part of their lives. So here are my awesome kids! However...a few of these kids I don't have anymore and I gained a few more, but you get the picture. And this was in September, so a lot of them look quite a bit different. This picture was taken on "international talk like a pirate day". I let them dress up and we focused everything we did that day on pirates. It was a lot of fun!