Finding Krissi

First thing Tuesday morning I was scheduled to meet my student teaching class. Monday night I went to bed excited and a tad nervous. Then I spent the entire night tossing, turning, and working myself up. By the time my alarm went off Tuesday morning I had myself seriously worked up. I am talking walking on an electric wire worked up. The morning seemed to dissaper in a blink and it was time for me to leave. I can't really tell you exactly what I was thinking as I drove to the school. I know I was trying all kinds of positive thinking. Only for every positive statement I made a nasty little negative comment would sneak in. For example: Positive Thought! "Calm down you already met the teacher and she seemed really nice. You are going to be just fine." Negative Thought!! "Well at least you thought she was nice maybe she isn't really nice maybe she is going to be totally evil, and she was just on pain meds the first time you met!" Positive ...

Yesterday I received an email with my student placement. When I opened my email and saw, “Student Placement,” my heart began to pound. Then as quick as quick I opened it up to find out where my final weeks of school would be. I was very excited to learn that I was going to be in a sixth grade classroom. I have to admit I love those sixth graders. I received the email (have to love my Iphone) while at Lowes with the hubby. Usually, while I am at Lowes my expression is one of extreme boredom and can we go yet! However, after reading the email I was dancing in the middle of the store. I could hardly contain my excitement. Then suddenly I was scared to death. A whole classroom of sixth graders not the eight I’m use to. A whole entire classroom of sixth graders! Common core… oh no sixth grade math changed this year they are doing the common core math… Oh and ancient Greek… do I know anything about ancient Romans and Greece? My brain began to race thinking about all the things I ...

A friend of mine is going through the process of gaining custody of an 18 month old little girl. There is evidence from the babies behaviors that she has been abused. Abused in the kind of ways that makes your gut clench and think of doing unspeakable things to another adult. Just listening to the evidence breaks your heart in a million pieces and makes you wonder, WHY? Today, I had a sit down talk with a 4th grade student. First of all I have to say he is one of those kids you just have to love. There is something about the way he talks to you, interacts with his peers, and looks at you that just makes you want to love him. During our activity today he was frustrated and just gave up. After all the other kids left I pulled him back to have a chat. A "You Can Do IT, I Know You Can Do IT Chat." As we talked he said to me, "I just have a lot of hard things in my life right now." I was as sympathetic as I could be and tried to tell him that he just had to try a...

In April of 1999, my little brother was a senior in high school. One afternoon as I ran around town doing errands the news broke in and reported a high school shooting. My heart froze as I listened to the details of the story unfold. My brain shouted, “What school, what school, what school?” The news reporter finally said, “Columbine High.” Is it wrong that my heart started to beat again? Is it wrong that I took a deep breath and thought, “Thank Goodness?” The massacre of Columbine High continued to be the top news story for weeks. Unbelievable stories of faith, courage, and sadness followed. The country mourned the loss of lives and we questioned repeatedly. “How could this happen?” “Why did this happen?” Some of us breathed deep sighs of relief that at least it did not happen to us. Today, I was working with a sixth grade group and we were discussing authors. Each of the students is doing a report on an author of their choice. All of them decided that a good question to research was ...

I have been hard at work. I have spent the weekend laboring. I'm pooped. In fact you could say I'm dog tired. What is it that I have been working on? Fractions! Adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, teaching, learning, answering.... Fractions, fractions, fractions! Leaving my brain thumping a tune at a 1/4 of 1/8 x3/16 divided by 9/-11 (Which I'm pretty sure is an improper fraction) (I think it is, at least I answered it was on a quiz.) I decided to go back to school! I decided to be a teacher! I forgot that meant I had to teach math. Fractions are part of math. Fraction equivalencies are part of math. Please forgive this post you could say my brain is feeling a little fractured . Okay, stopping now. Have a great week everyone. Prayers and Hugs,

Today at school a cute little girl stopped me our conversation follows: Cute Little Girl: Hi Me: Hi CLG: I’m going to be Mickey Mouse for Halloween Me: Mickey? Sounds good to me. CLG: (Looking at me confused) No, I said Minnie I’m going to be Minnie Mouse for Halloween. Me: Sounds even better. CLG: What are you going to be for Halloween? Me: I don’t know I haven’t thought about it. CLG: (Frowning) Oh, okay. By the way I like your hair. Me: You do, thanks! CLG: Okay I’m going to class now Me: Sounds like a good idea It was just too cute. I should mention I have no idea who she is. She isn’t in any of my clusters and I have only seen her around the school. Kids can be very entertaining.