Come Again Another Day

It's the last week of classes! Hooray!

Am I studying a ton, you ask? The answer is, No! Not even a little!

I haven't been studying, but I sure have been instagramming photos....

Never underestimate the power of handmade thank you notes. These are for the elementary school students and teachers I worked with this semester. This is how you get a good reputation, people!

Yesterday was my second to last day teaching my fourth grade mathematicians at Jefferson. Friday will be our final day. The students yesterday when I first walked in were like "Oh, Ms. Anderson, will you spell your last name on this piece of paper? Don't worry about it. It's for nothing." Not suspicious at all. They also asked, "Are you bringing us treats on Friday?!" and so I said, "Pshhhh No! Your learning is your treat, you lucky lucky students!" and then I laughed at their disappointment. (Do I sound like a good teacher, yet?) Joke's on them, I already made thank yous and bought the cutest pencils to give them. (Their teacher is SUPER anti-candy/edible treats... so pencils are as good as it gets, folks.) Also we're going to play a math game instead of learning partial quotients, so that's a huge treat in my opinion.

I called my dad and begged for a few bucks so that I could buy myself rain boots. It's been rainy and dreary for the past three days, and it's going to continue through the week! Luckily he agreed, except  asking for money stresses me out so bad that I accidentally ended up crying at Holly's. We went shopping for the boots (found at the ever fashionable Fleet Farm) and I think she felt so sorry for my pitiful blotchy crying self that she ended up treating me to them anyway. So now I'm a couple bucks ahead! Thanks Dad and Holly! You guys are the best. The boots are totally doing their job!

Today the rain turned into snow for a solid few hours. It even accumulated a little. The grass is all "I'm greeeeen and ready for SPRIIIING!" and the sky says, "LOLNOPESNOW"



PS - My very first blog post was exactly a year ago yesterday. Wanna see it again? Here you go.

Count Down

WOW. I am the worst blogger ever! Did you know that school is a lot of work? I've written approximately a million lessons plans since last we spoke. Highlights of teaching Jefferson fourth graders math have included:

The day we were making bar graphs and we went to label the y-axis "number (#) of kids" and one fourth grader says, "You mean like a hashtag?" And I had to admit, "yes, kinda like a hash tag."

The day I reluctantly came in with a lesson about partial quotient division that I thought was going to be way too hard, but they all loved the challenge and ate it up. They all become partial quotient division experts. Sweet.

The Monday I came in and asked about everyone's weekend and when I transitioned into my lesson and one shy kid goes, "Wait, Ms. Anderson, you didn't tell us about your weekend." (In a genuinely nice way, not a get-out-of-math-for-5-more-minutes way.)



So, other than lesson planning and other homework, I've been doing almost nothing. Although, I started watching Lost on Netflix and I'm already into the fourth season. I'm watching it at an embarrassingly fast pace.

Hey! Look at this dragon I made with a ton of kindergarteners from North Woods International School in LaCrosse! (And YES, it was my own lesson. Dang, I'm getting good.)

I like your sweet paper plate scales, Dragon.

I'm getting really excited to go home for Easter this next week. Friday classes are canceled, and because Winona public schools aren't open on Thursday I don't have to tutor my reading kids. I think that means I need to come home on Wednesday and skip my Thursday classes. I never skip classes... I deserve this. Right?

Last thing I have to tell you: I have this app on my phone where I put in all my countdowns. Here's the latest.

4 days until I come home for Easter
8 days until Easter
20 days until this semester's classes end
28 days until I come home for the summer
29 days until mother's day
35 days until uncle Dale's birthday
36 days until my favorite boyfriend Dan graduates college