Do you think I am excited!

Today a student told the other students that she could tell I was excited to go home because I had been talking about it since Thursday. I guess I didn't realize how excited I am until she pointed it out to me.

Wise beyond her years

Here is a conversation that made me laugh.

Zack: Ms. Jones, is math going to be fun today?
Me: Everything we do in this class is fun Zack!
Allyson: Well Ms. Jones tries to make everything fun, but some of you people are hard to please!

She is not lying there! There are just some things you can't make fun.

Tender Moment!

So today as I was driving, I saw an old man carrying a black briefcase just like one that my grandpa used to carry around and, for some reason, I got really homesick for my grandpa. He has been gone now for a while, but I still have my moments where I really miss him. He was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but he was a good man. I can still hear him like it was yesterday saying, "Here she is, Ms. America," every time me or my sister or any of my girl cousins entered the room, even if I had just woken up and did not look beautiful at all.

Anyway, he carried that briefcase around like a woman carries a purse around. I never saw him without it. It made me chuckle to think about it and then I spent a couple minutes reminiscing. So I thought I would write a blog tribute to him.

After all one of the greatest accomplishments of his life was bringing my dad into the world!

Awkward 4th grade moment of the day!

Student: Ms. Jones, what is a quickie?
Me: (almost choking on my diet coke) excuse me? A what?
Student: It is spelled q-u-i-c-h-e.
Me: (more relieved than I have been in a long time) Oh, a quiche! It is a really good food that is a pie and it can have all sorts of things in it.
Student: Oh ok. Thanks Ms. Jones.

Oh the joys of being a teacher!

Breakfast of champions!

Or a breakfast for a teacher right before Christmas break who is slowly wilting in energy.

The countdown has begun!

I get to see these beautiful people in 8 days! I am so ready for a break. We had two major breakdowns in class today from kids that I have never even see cry. I am pretty sure they are as ready for the break as I am.

Happy Birthday Trevor!

He is the one on the left ;)

What fun it is being a teacher because all 22 of my kids were so excited about skyping with "Mr. Trevor" this morning and singing him happy birthday. They even got to ask him random questions like what is his favorite color and what is his favorite animal.

Because I am such a high strung person, one of my favorite things about Trevor is his ability to be chill about life. He just goes with the flow and does not sweat the small stuff. He is also a very loving person. He was always hugging on me and following me when we were little. Now he just hugs on me. ;)

Happy 22nd Trevor! I hope it was an amazing day for you!

Favorite quote of the month!

Ms. Jones you are the best teacher. They should make 4th of July 4th of Ms. Jones day! Sometimes it is so great to have a fan club of 22 people!

I am so proud of myself...

that I stayed calm in my first encounter with blood today. I mean I have had the occasional bloody noses, but none like this one. Recess was just ending and we were lining up to go to an assembly when one of my students walks in with blood dripping out of his mouth. He has his hands cupped to catch the blood and he says to me, "I think I am bleeding." I felt my knees go weak, but then I reacted very well I thought. He must have been in shock because I have never seen him act the way he did. He washed out his mouth with water so that I could see where the blood was coming from. Little did I know that he still had little shreds of tooth in his mouth. He had slipped out on the ice coming in and had consequently bitten a chunk out of his lip and chipped his front tooth in the process.

After cleaning up a little, I took him to the office where he called his mom and I went on to the assembly. Lets hope that I never have anything worse than that happen!

What do you think?

I spent the weekend in St. George with my grandma and I had a ton of people in her ward come up and say, "Oh, you are Kevin's daughter." I would give a smile and a nod and then they would say, "I knew because you look just like him." I don't really see it, but maybe you can help me out. Do you think we look a lot alike?

The new Bachlorette pad!

It is definitely still in the works as far as furniture and decorations go, but I am starting to call it home and I love it! I feel so grown up. :)

Things that make me happy part 4!

Over the break Mal's little sister gave me a makeover. She learned how tender I am when she tried to pluck my eye brows and my eyes started watering profusely. She even learned how my hair does what it wants when it wants.

Another thing that makes me extremely happy is my students. One of our spelling words this week is nationwide and right when I said it they, almost in unison, sang the commercial from tv, "nationwide is on your side." It made me chuckle.

Also today a girl decided that she wanted to wear a fake lip ring out on the playground. It was fine until a girl accidentally pushed her on the zipline and the ring got stuck in her mouth. While I did not laugh at the girl's pain, once it was all over, I had to sit back and chuckle to myself.

I can now empathize...

With Brendon and Ann. Either my new upstairs neighbor runs across the apartment to work out or they have a lot of friends over or they are really really fat and like to walk really hard. Either way, they might be getting a broom handle, that is if I had a broom! :)

Things that make me rise and shout!

So everyone who reads this should know that I am a die hard BYU fan. My parents both went there and I came out of the womb wearing BYU clothes so it just makes sense that I got my degree from there and love to watch the football team in motion. Yesterday was no exception especially since it was rivalry week. I am glad my cougs pulled through and won and I am proud of them.

I also posted Georgia because this win made me happy too. I love watching all the rivalry games during rivalry week and I especially love when the under dog wins (another trait inherited from my dad). So to see Georgia do so well made my heart happy.

Then I went and saw Blind Side and it just topped off an amazing day filled with football!

Things that make me happy part 3!

It is so hard to be happy when you are away from your family on holidays and this holiday in particular makes me extra homesick. I just wanted to be home doing our traditions. This family pictured here did a great job of filling in for my family! The food was great and so was the company so that is why they make me happy!

Things that make me happy part 2!

Today my students make me happy. Most days they do. We have only had a couple days where we just don't like being with each other all day. They are so full of life and they just make me smile!

New Series!

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY!

I decided to do a series of things that make me happy. There are so many things and Thanksgiving is a perfect time to think about the things that make you happy. Today's thing is trivial, but it still did the trick. In and Out has come to Utah and is in Draper which is really close to my school. It just ended my day in a perfectly unhealthy way! ;)

If you are thinking about...

becoming a substitute teacher, here are a few pointers for you from a teacher.

1. Don't touch the teachers stuff and don't put your feet up on the desk.

2. Don't fall asleep while "watching" the kids.

3. Know how to read and do basic math.

4. Follow the lesson plans that the teacher gives you so that she does not have to try to fit two days of instruction into one on the next day.

5. Please don't let the kids do whatever they want such as, but not limited to, wrestling on the floor, drawing on the board, jumping off their desks, making lists of who is on team edward or team jacob.

6. Also don't let the girls write their names as so and so Black on their math packets.

If you can not follow these simple rules, please don't be a substitute teacher. I hear that there are other places that are hiring!


p.s. funny quote of the day from one of my die hard Ute fans in my class. "Ms. Jones, I have to like BYU a little because Brigham Young was a prophet." Now that is great logic!

I'm back!

Sorry about my absence. I have been setting up my classroom blog and website and it has been consuming all my time...oh and the 8 hours of teaching I do everyday;) So a funny quote of the week. One of my students, in the middle of them working quietly, looks up at me and says, "Ms. Jones, did you know that Austin is Asian?" It made me chuckle because he is definitely Asian. I just love how kids don't measure each other by their different skin colors or their different family situations. They are so cute!

They make it their business to know...

EVERYTHING! One thing I have learned so far is that the students talk to each other about everything. I will move someone's desk while they are gone and they will walk into the classroom the next day already knowing where their new seat is. Also, this week I have had bus duty and so I stand and make the kids walk and stay away from the street when they come in the morning and when they leave in the afternoon. Random students that I have never seen before in my life walk up and say, "Hi Ms. Jones!" as if I were their best friend or their teacher. One first grader came and said, "I want you to be my teacher in 4th grade!" I just replied with a smile. Who knows? Maybe I will be!

Perfect weekend

I found the perfect cute little one bedroom apartment in Murray. I will be taking over the lease for a young married couple. I will be moving in right before Christmas. Yay! I am so excited. I also had an amazing visit from a cute boy last night so I would say this weekend was pretty close to perfect! Pictures of the apartment will come when I move in and get settled. If anyone has any kitchen stuff they want to get rid of, I would love to take it off your hands. I also need a bed and pretty much any furniture so just let me know!

High self esteem.

So today are my first parent teacher conferences and, just my luck, I am sick. So I woke up feeling nasty and threw on a skirt and button up shirt to look professional for the parents. As I walked out to let the students in this morning, a boy from another class looked at me and said, "Ms. Jones, you look fabulous today." Not only did that make my day, but it boosted my self esteem just enough to make it through these next 12 two 12 hour days.

I'm not 5 (only mom and dad will appreciate this title)

So today I decided that maybe sometimes I do act a little immature. We had a class election today for election day and we talked about voting and democracy and we even voted for a class president and vice president. I was explaining what the jobs entailed and I said that the vice president would be responsible for helping the president perform his duties. When I said the word duties, the kids all started cracking up. Once I realized why they were laughing, I could not contain myself. I had a little chuckle about it too. Then we re focused and moved on with social studies. Immature? Yes. Fun? Absolutely YES!

My book is coming along!

So I have new quotes to add to my book! My students are hilarious. This story also happened in my 3rd grade student teaching class, but a little different. Today for our self starter they had to tell me how old Thomas Edison was when he died and he died in a different century than he was born in and this was hard for them. They were all born in 2001 or 2000 so it is easy for them to do the math. Since they already knew my age, I put my dad's age. So I wrote 2009-1957 on the board. They all gasped and one kid, said, "Ms. Jones, you are lying to us. There is no way your dad could have been born in that year." After doing the math, they all realized that, in fact, my dad was born in 1957. They insisted on doing my mom too and they thought it was so funny. It made me chuckle and it was fun to watch the light bulbs turn on when they realized that my parents are not that old.

I also had a funny one liner today. The office has been pulling out kids for testing today and they call them and then they don't come back. So the kids asked me where they were taking the kids and I said I didn't know. One of my kids looked at me and said, "I think they are calling us down one at a time to kill us."

My underground business!

So I am learning to love my talents this week. I am grateful for my knack for technology and my bartering skills. I work with a lot of older teachers and they are on the verge of tears trying to do their report cards. Well, I got mine done in less than an hour so I offered to do theirs for pay. I have done two teachers' report cards already and they each payed me $30 for an hour of work. They also have already asked me if I will do next terms report cards. I am definitely okay with making $30 an hour during report card time. I told them to spread the work, but keep it on the down low!

Candy Kills!

Pretty sure today is going to be one long day full of sugar filled children running around in costumes. Sometimes I love my job...okay, I always love my job! I get to have moms come in and play games with the kids while I watch and take pictures. Happy Halloween!

So I hung out with old friends from middle school last night and we looked at old pictures. In almost every picture my mouth was wide open laughing. So when I got home I started looking at more old pictures. There are a lot of pictures of me with my mouth wide open laughing. At first I was thinking, "what the heck? are there no normal pictures of me?" Then I thought, "how great that my posterity can look at pictures of me and think, wow, that was one happy lady."
It is so true. I am ridiculously happy with the life I have been given. I am not one to say that I never have my sad days because I am human, but I am so grateful to be happy and to be able to laugh through life. Let's be honest, I love to laugh, long and loud and clear. I love to laugh so that everybody can hear.

If you get that reference, you get bonus points!

Happh Birthday dad!

So I am the bad daughter that forgot to blog on the actual day of that celebrated his birth, but I definitely did not forget. I got to teach Sunday school and it was pretty much a lesson about my parents because it was about being spiritually and temporally reliant so I got to talk about the way I was raised to be both of those. I showed my budget sheet and talked about how my dad always taught me to be smart with my money. These last couple of weeks, I have gained a greater appreciation for my dad and his knowledge of everything. I think I called him multiple times a day while I was trying to register my car, get benefits from my job, and any other random thing I needed help. Thanks for always being available to help me dad. I love you!

Cute Poem

One of my students handed this to me today on a little slip of paper and I thought I would share.

Ms. Jones, Ms. Jones
Never ever makes me moan
She's always always always nice
She's never ever mean
Not to mention she's also very lean
She makes things really fun
Makes me not want school done
I love the way she teaches, teaches
I love her as much as I love peaches, peaches
(and I love peaches)

P.s. I wore my glasses today and the kids acted like I had deceived them because I never told them I wear glasses. They are so funny sometimes.

The few, the proud!

I am now able to say that I have helped clean the Salt Lake city temple and what an experience it was. When we got there, we got put in a group with a boy in a ward who is a little mentally slow, but it was perfect because he turned to someone and said, "this is my first time cleaning the Lord's house." That is when I knew it would be a good night. I was always told that cleaning the temple is a very spiritual experience, but I just couldn't see how vacuuming could be spiritual. Man, was I wrong.
The temple worker that we got put with had a very strong accent so I asked him where he was from. He said the Dominican Republic. I went out on a limb and told him that I speak Spanish. He got so excited and started speaking in Spanish. I got embarrassed and went back to English quickly. He then told me that the Lord had given me the talent of speaking Spanish and that I should use it. I felt like someone had kicked me in the stomach.
At the end of our cleaning, the worker took us and showed us different things in the bottom of the temple. We got to see the original floor plans of the temple wrapped in a plastic covering to protect them. I thought Mal was going to start crying because of all the great history stuff that we got to see. We also got to see the youth center with all the fun toys.
After that we treated ourselves to a slurpy for all of our hard work. I would say it was a really good night.
I feel like I have been run over by a truck this morning because we didn't get in until 1am, but it was so worth it.

So on my way to school this morning I felt like I was getting my picture taken over and over again. It was dark on my drive and, all of a sudden, a bright flash would temporarily blind me and then a loud noise would make me jump a little. Some of the lightning looked like it was right in front of my car. It was really cool.

The Best Ward Activity Ever

I had so much fun on Saturday dressing up like a speakeasy owner from the 1920's. We went to a murder mystery dinner where we were given characters and we had to act like them all night. I was Iona Barr. It was so much fun. I just love how much effort our ward puts into the activities. Here are a few pictures of our fun.

Winter is coming!

Winter is slowly creeping its way into my life and I could not be more excited for it to come. I love this time of year right before fall ends and winter starts!

I love my job!

This is what we got to do for art yesterday. We made skeletons out of q-tips and they turned out so cute!
I also tried out i photo which I love!

I am officially a teacher!

So I realized today that I have not posted any pictures of my classroom. There is also a picture of my new MacBook which I love love love and a picture of my id that gets me into the school. I keep expecting someone to walk in and say, "Just kidding. You are not a real teacher." But I am and I am loving every second of it.

Some things never change

Just a quick thought of the day from my brain this morning. I was putting the lunch choices on the board for the kids and one of the choices tomorrow is "fish shapes." What does that even mean? All I know is that cafeteria lunch is still as gross now as it was when I was a kid. I am glad that I am a grownup now and get to have frozen dinners instead ;)

Who'da thunk it?

So I never imagined that I would end up teaching in Sandy. I am literally within five miles of our old house. I drove onto the street and recognized it instantly, even though it looks a little different. So mom, this picture is for you. I sure hope that family wasn't looking out their windows as I slowed down to take a picture of their house ;)

Weekend Wedding!

So it has been quite the entertaining last couple of days. I have not shared a room with a sibling since I was in the 6th grade. There is a picture for you to be able to see how cramped we were. I will just leave it at this...Trevor snores, REALLY LOUD! The next day "Mr. Trevor" came into my classroom and I thought the little boys were going to pee themselves they were so excited to have him there. He played kick ball with us and graded lots of papers for me.

Then we drove down to St. George for Madison's wedding. It was so great to be with family and see her so happy. The best part of the weekend was that I caught the bouquet! I had to take out a couple of Cody's sisters, but it was worth it. Then I drove home by myself on Saturday because the excitement of the wedding had me feeling sick.

Wish you all could have been there.

It is all in the way you perceive life

I was standing in the cafeteria today waiting for my kids to get through the lunch line when I started up a conversation with a boy in one of the other 4th grades. When I teach him p.e. I notice that he dances a lot and sings a lot so I was asking him if he wanted to do that when he grows up. He said that he did. I told him he could try out for American Idol when he was 16. I then told him to remember me when he becomes famous so he can introduce me to cool people. He turned to me and said, "but when I try out you will already be dead."
I laughed really hard so then he tried to save himself by saying, "Or you will just be a really old lady."
Please keep in mind that when he is 16 I will only be 30. I love little kids.

For fun

So if you have time today, you can visit crescent.canyonsdistrict.org and click on faculty on the left hand side. If you scroll down to 4th grade you will see yours truly! It was exciting to me.

Food for thought

So I commute everyday now and have time to get lost in my thoughts. I thought I would let you into my head today. I was watching all the cars move in and out of lanes and it looked like we were all dancing our way to work. You have to slow down or speed up according to the rhythm of the traffic. You quickly or slowly move so that someone else can dance pass you. It made my commute a little more enjoyable. Plus now I make it a game to see if we are doing our "commute dance" to the beat of the song that I have playing on the radio. Am I weird? I think so, but there you have it. A day in the life of my crazy imagination :)

The small things matter!

So I went on an awesome date on Tuesday night and these beauties were given to me. We talked about how I wasn't impressed that he gave me flowers, but that he took the time to ask my best friend what my favorite flower and my favorite color was. It meant that much more. After dinner in the canyon, he took me to an old building that is now a church in Salt Lake and it was perfect. The wind was blowing just a little and the weather was a perfect temperature. The two ducks in the pond in front of us were flirting. We stood there and just got lost in our own thoughts for a second.

Even though I did not know Scott well, I know Katie and how she knew a lot of the little things about Scott. He also knew a lot of little things about her. It got me thinking that the little things really do matter. That is what sets us apart from each other. Heavenly Father designed us that way. I made it a goal to not only get to know the little things about others, but, more importantly, about myself. I also want to appreciate all the little things about me and live with more gratitude. I was so grateful for this realization and now the flowers are sitting on my bedside table, reminding me of that goal every time I look at them.

If only...

So today I was reminding my students that I would be gone next week because my cousin is getting married. One of my students proceeded to say, "everyone in your family is getting married Ms. Jones. Too bad you aren't."
I had no response for that, but luckily one of my sweet little girls saved me. She said, "It is okay Ms. Jones. How about we pick someone for you to marry. You should marry Jesse McCartney so that you can get us into his concerts for free."
Other suggestions were Barack Obama so we can see the white house, a millionaire so I don't have to teach anymore, and the i pod maker so that we could all get free ipods.
Then came the line that made my heart melt, "She can't marry any of those guys because Ms. Jones is going to marry her prince charming so he can treat her like a princess."

These kids just know the right things to say to make my heart melt and make me chuckle a little too!

My Family is a big deal!

So today we had a couple minutes to spare at the end of the day so I decided to show my students a couple of the family blogs with pictures on them. These cute kids had a comment for everyone in our family so I thought I would share. They wanted to know everyone's age so while I was thinking of the age, they would slide in their comments.
Ann-This is my sister in law and she is...two boys look up and say, "pretty!"
Brendon-This is my brother and he..."looks nothing like you."
Mary Deane-This is my niece and she is almost one. I showed them the video of her driving and they said, "did she get her learner's permit first?"
Trevor-This is my little brother..."your little brother? Yeah right, he is huge!"
Katie-I showed her picture and they all go, "Is that your twin?"
And last, but not least. My favorite quote of the day. I show the picture of mom and dad on dad's blog and tell the kids that they are 51 and 49. "No way. Your parents do not look their age. Yeah they look like they are in their 20's!"

Then I went to tutoring and I was giving the girl her sight words and she comes up with sentences for the word. The word was prism and her sentence was, "My grandma visits the prism every Thursday to see my uncle." I said, "No honey that is prison, not prism."

I love my jobs!

Dear Fourth Graders,

Well we made it through our first week together! We had fun learning about variables this week in math and learning about immigrants in reading. We made class mascots in art and played kick ball in p.e. We learned a lot about each other.

You made me laugh when you told me that I was probably the youngest teacher that Crescent elementary has ever had. You also made me want to rip my hair out when you kept talking while I was talking.

For the most part though, I think we are a perfect fit. You are a great class and I am excited to be your teacher. Here is to a great year together!

Love,
Ms. Jones

I never forget!

So my family knows that I have a freak memory for numbers. I remember everyone's birthdays and anniversaries and all that fun stuff. I once helped my uncle set up our extended family website and I knew his own kids' birthdays better than he did. ;) Knowing this, my family should know that I would not forget my parent's 27th anniversary. There was just so excitement about me getting my first teaching job on the same day that my mind was elsewhere. So here is the blog just for them.
Yay for 27 years and here is to 27 more! Wow we are old. ;)

Dear Heavenly Father,

I could not bring myself to lay my sleepy head upon my pillow until I expressed some of the things that I am feeling. I did not know that one heart could feel so much gratitude. You and I had a heartfelt chat last night where I begged, if it be thy will, that I get this job. As I left my interview today, I just had a feeling that I got the job, but I knew that it was because of you and not me. I had done all that I could and you did the rest.
Feeling like I was as humbled as I could be, I started to call my family and friends. Wow was that a wake up call. Every person that I talked to on the phone told me that this was an answer to THEIR prayers. Other people besides me had been praying, probably more fervently than me, for this blessing to come into my life. I have never felt so much love and support from those around me.
Prayer works and I am never alone on this earth. With my renewed humility and confidence at the same time, I am ready to meet those 4th graders head on!
Thank you so much for teaching me so many lessons through this experience and allowing me to become a better person.

Love,
Ms. Jones ;)

You learn something new everyday!

So today I learned two lessons from my student that I will remember for the rest of my life. The first one happened while we were working on his problem with reversing letters. He specifically struggles with reversing the b's and d's so I was helping him come up with ways to remember the way that they go. He turned to me and said, "hey for the b I can just think of my teacher because she is pregnant!" I was very confused at this point and he continued to explain, "When she looks sideways, she looks like a b!" I wasn't about to tell him that if she turned the other way, she could look like a d too. I just had to chuckle to myself.

Then later in the lesson we heard a noise outside and he asked what it was. I told him that it was someone cutting the grass with a lawn mower outside. With great concern he turned to me and asked, "Doesn't that hurt the grass? Plants are living things too you know?"

It is amazing how quickly children can humble you!

More Faith Needed!

So I definitely went into Saturday's game just thinking that I would watch a good football game and that it would help us get ready for the season. I never expected us to win. I definitely need to have more faith in my cougs, especially the defense. They were on fire. We are now ranked #9! That will change next week, but let's life for the moment!

In the newspaper yesterday there was an article about how there were a ton of people that met the team at the Provo airport when they arrived home and 2am Sunday morning. Provo is crazy right now with excitement. So my faith is restored and hopefully it will help the cougars play another incredible game on Saturday.