Life Skills

Last week I received many lovely birthday gifts, including this shirt from my parents.

While I appreciate the level of confidence they must have in my abilities to handle stuff, I was much less sure of my self. It seemed a bit like false advertising. I mean, sure: I can handle MANY things, but the shirt implies that I should be able to handle MOST things. I could feel the pressure mounting. I didn't know if I would ever be able to wear this awesome addition to my wardrobe outside of my home.

Luckily, a well-timed gift from my sister and her family saved the day:

Besides sharing many important dectective-ish information...

... this awesome book also contains a whole section on life skills!

I feel much more able to "handle" a wider variety of things now that I have read some of these helpful chapters. 

For example, I found some wonderful tips that can help me manage the kidlets and niblets.

And how many times would THIS information have come in handy during Relief Society lessons, teacher in-services, and making my weekly Wal-Mart run?

I am going to have to highlight sections of this chapter for when I finally get to live out my Downton Abby dreams.

As you can see, once I finish studying this little book, I will be able to more confidently sport my new shirt. But, just in case some situations beyond my handling ability do arise, I can always fall back on this chapter to help take some of the pressure off...

Never Boring

Life surrounded by 500 junior high students is never dull, but some days are a bit more exciting than others... and some are, well, just down right confusing. Case in point: The kidlets have started wearing garbage bags to school.

Garbage bags.

But not just garbage bags.

They top them off with fancy jewelry, sparkly belts, or colorful ribbon.

This new trash-chic look started out with one out-going kidlet...

... and has slowly spread throughout the school.

I don't know why the kidlets are wearing them.

In fact, I don't know if they know why they are wearing them, but that is all part of the junior high experience, right?

What I do know is that, in a week or two, garbage bags will be old news and they will have come up with some other way to fit in by standing out. Which is kind of what junior high is all about.

Walking in a Worksheet Wonderland

Today I started my first post-Relief-Society adventure: teaching the adult Sunday school class.

As you may recall, I held this same calling when I was in the singles branch, but this time around I am going to do things a little different. My goal for this stint as gospel doctrine teacher is to avoid the visual aid overload that ended up cluttering my life the last time. You do remember what happened the last time, right?

The Last Time I Taught Sunday School, THIS Happened...

I am pleased to say that I did a good job sticking to my visual-aid-less goal for my first lesson today. Of course, about an hour before Church started, I started jonesing for a poster fix. Seriously. It was like I could hear the poster board calling to me. I suddenly became convinced that there was no way I could effectively teach a lesson without the smell of marker fumes hanging in the air.

I  started making a baptismal covenant chart before I managed to pull myself together, but I am happy to say that when I pulled into the church parking lot, I didn't have a single visual aid in my car.

Not a one!

What I did have was a whole pile of worksheets!

Yes, worksheets are my new Sunday school obsession. They are just as fun to make, come in handy for the lessons, and are MUCH easier to store than a bunch of poster board thingies. How much do I love making Sunday school worksheets? 

 I don't teach again until the 15th, but I already have the lesson 7 worksheet done. 

Do I have a worksheet problem? Maybe.

Do I CARE that I might have a worksheet problem? Nope. Not one little bit.

If nothing else, it will give the kidlets a bit of a break from the English and communications and creative writing worksheets I make for them.

I'm sure the Sunday school folks can start expecting thank-you notes from the kidlets any day now.

As much as I enjoy this year's New Testament lessons, I have to admit that I am really looking forward to when the new Come-Follow-Me-esque lessons for adults.

LDS Adults To Get New Sunday School Class Outlines

Then I can steal even more ideas from Kar! Awesome Sunday School Lessons for Youth

Dance, Dance Revolution

As I may have mentioned before, my cute little junior high offers a wide variety of elective classes for the kidlets to choose from. Besides the usual shop, art, band, strings, choir, home ec, and Spanish, the kidlets can take creative writing, military history, science and tech lab, juvenile justice, service learning, family history/scrap-booking, computer programming, or drum-line.

And then, of course, there is the dancing.
A lot of dancing.
Besides an after school Spanish dancing club, the school offers two during school dance classes: World Dance and Spanish Folk Dancing. And the kids LOVE them.

I think the fact that our school offers dance classes is pretty awesome.

And having so many kids who WANT to dance at school?

Even MORE AWESOME.

But the most awesome thing of all is the KIND of dancing that goes on in our school.

Where else do they teach girls to dance while balancing lit candles on their heads?

Or teach boys to dance with machetes?

No joke. 

Actual MACHETES!

Open Flame? no problem.

Huge swords? Coolieo.

These kids are fearless!

Well, almost fearless.

Fire and Machetes, are no big deal, But touching hands with someone of the opposite gender?

That still gives them nightmares.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Losers and Winners

For the past five or six years, I have helped judge the Spanish Club's salsa contest. Every year, after the judging was over, I told the Spanish Club's adviser that I would enter the next year. The Spanish Club at our school is huge, but only a few kids ever entered the contest, so I figured I would have a pretty good shot at winning.

But this year, when I finally got organized enough to enter, FOURTEEN kidlets decided to throw their sombreros into the ring.

My salsa came in second, which would have made me quite happy if I hadn't become so accustomed to blue ribbons.

I guess the high number of entries is practically my fault, though, since I am in charge of the school news. Next year I am going to enter again, but I might not be quite as zealous with the pre-contest advertising...

I might have lost at school on Wednesday afternoon, but Thursday night sure saw a lot of winners. We had a great turn out at our family reading night and over twenty kids walked away with awesome prizes. The most coveted prizes, however, were those awesome NFL items. Seven kids went home REALLY happy last night, and the Bills gained even more Cow Town fans.

But even though only a few of the kidlets left with prizes, when the principal grills s'mores in the library courtyard, everybody is a winner!

Eyes on the Prizes

The junior high's Family Reading night is coming up, and my dear, sweet, NFL brother has once again sent some awesome prizes for the kidlets to win. The box containing those prizes arrived just as my 2B class was getting ready to take their final. We had already done a quick whole-group review, and the kidlets were working on getting their names and student numbers on their test forms, so I figured I would take the opportunity to crack the box open and see what he had sent.

Turns out, I should have waited. Once the kidlets found out from whence the box had come, they kind of freaked out. Just picture a classroom full of seventh graders doing the happy puppy dance...

So I thought that if I showed them what was in the box, they would get the wiggles out of their systems and then get down to the business of taking their test.

I showed them the hats... and they oohed and ahhhed.

.Then I showed them the gloves... and they squealed those high-pitched 7th grade squeals.

And when I say "they", I mean the 7th grade boys.

And when I showed them the cleats, they totally lost it.

I was sure I was going to have to call the custodians to have them clean up puddles of piddle from underneath their desks.

So the next ten minutes of what should have been testing time went something like this...

Every 7th Grade Boy: Can I try on a pair of the gloves?

Me: No. You need to take your test.

Every 7th Grade Boy: Can I wear one of the hats while I take my test?

Me: No. They are prizes for Family Reading Night. Only the people who win them get to wear them.

Every 7th Grade Boy: But I will do a lot better on my test if I am wearing one.

Me: You will do better on your test if you will actually TAKE your test. Now would be a good time to start.

Every 7th Grade Boy: Can I take of picture of the cleats with my phone?

Me: No. This is test time. Not shoe-selfie time.

Every 7th Grade Boy: If I hurry and take my test really fast, can I take a picture of the cleats with my phone.

Me: No. If you hurry and take your test really fast I will use the cleats to stand on your phone.

Eventually they did settle down and get down to business. And eventually I got the prizes moved out of my classroom and into the trophy case so they could stop distracting my kidlets from their tests... and start distracting the basketball team from getting on their bus on time.

While I am relieved to have the objects of so many kidlet's affection out of my classroom, and I am sure the custodians who who have clean the finger prints and nose prints off the glass, and mop up the pools of drool from the carpet.

So I guess it won't just be the winners who are happy when Family Reading Night ends Thursday night. Although they will certainly be the happiest. 

The End (of Course Assessment) Is Near!

First semester ends next week, which means one thing: End of Course Assessments!

Visitors to my classroom don't need a district calendar to tell them that finals week is nearly upon us. The signs of the testing season are everywhere.

My  bulletin  board is decked out with study guide propaganda. 

The ginormous testing schedule is posted.

My desk is overflowing with practice tests, study guides, study cards, and pre-assessment data analysis forms. 

And the notes have started to appear.

You know the notes I am talking about, right?

Those sweet, Crayola marker saturated hail Mary passes made by kidlets who are hoping that a little public relations work in the 11th hour will make up for a few academic hiccups earlier in the semester. 

I love those notes, and not just because I like it when people tell me I'm awesome. 

Yes, the papers aren't drenched in sincerity, but who cares?

I mean, who doesn't enjoy being the target of a little brown nosing every now and then?

But the main reason I enjoy those notes so much is because they are proof that my kids are still kidlets. Sure, they try to dress like big kids and talk like big kids, but as long as they still want to draw pictures for the nice teacher lady, they aren't as big as they think they are.

Of course, rumor has it that high school kids try to bribe their teachers with chocolate, so having a few big kids around might not be such a bad thing either...