Day 5, 25 to go

I Wanna be a Rock Star


My brother and sister-in-law frequently pack along Rockstars to drink whenever we go on vacation. Particularly a lemonade flavored, low calorie variety. They always say it is really delicious, and it has piqued my curiousity. So, today's new thing was to drink a Rockstar. On my way from Provo to Salt Lake to enjoy an evening with a friend, I stopped at a gas station and picked one up.

Don't Drink and Drive!!


It was really good! Tasted like a pretty sweet Country Time Lemonade. I was now waiting to see if I would get a "buzz" or worse. No shaky, anxious feelings though. Probably because I am sl used to caffeine due to my Diet Code addiction... I did feel pretty good, however, a good amount of energy and no sluggishness at all.




Caffeine + B-vitamins = a natural high.

After I downed the entire thing, I had two concerns: That I would be wired and unable to sleep or that I would have a bad crash after it wore off. To my surprise, neither effect. Now my worry is that I have found a new addiction to get me through the day... Gotta get my vitamins somehow!!!

Day 4: 26 to go

Berets, Snaps, and Poetry

Today, I decided to get my beret, notebook, annd pencil, and do some writing. I have never in my life written a poem unless it was some sort of school assignment, so I thought I would try my hand at poetry. I felt somewhat bohemian as I sat down in my chair in the quiet to just write some poetry. I didn't have any ideas of what to write about and no inspiration whatsoever. I was worried it would take me ALL night, but I had a thought and I just began to write. Before I share my finished product with you, I want to preface it by saying 2 things:
1. This poem in NO WAY whatsoever has anything to do with my real life. I honestly don't know how this idea came to me, but not from any experience in my own life.
2. I am not a writer. I wrote this fairly quickly, and as I said, I haven't ever written a poem just for me before, so it's somewhat scary to put it out there for the world to read.

Having said that, here goes:

WORDS

The words from your mouth race through the space between.
The death of a friendship I'd never foreseen.

The words from your mouth bring tears to my eyes.
So cruel, so hateful, so full of lies

The words from your mouth are knives in my back.
From so true a friend comes a vicious attack.

No more words from your mouth and as you turn away,
I see the knives in your back, from my words of yesterday.


Again, I don't know where this idea came from. I was just kind of intrigued by the idea that so many times we are unaware of how the things we say or do may hurt others. We are quick to blame and anger to those we love, but how many times are we at fault? Are we as quick to forgive as our loved ones may be? Are we impatient with others while they are patient with us? Anyway, It was actually quite fun to sit and write just for fun and expand on a random thought that came to me. All in all, a much better turn out than I expected when I decided I would write a poem.


***It's been a few days since I wrote the poem, but I realized where the idea came from. If you watched So You Think You Can Dance last season, you may remember a dance choreographed by Travis that Kent and Neal danced to. It was about two friends. One of them betrayed the other. In that dance, if I remember, one friend did betray the other and walked away. I was thinking about this piece and thought, what if the other friend was also at fault and was unaware? What if the betrayal was provoked? Anyway, that's what inspired my poem!

Day 3, 27 to go: Money, Money, Money

I have heard that money is one of the dirtiest, germiest, and all around disgusting things around. Have you ever wondered what happens to your money after you spend it???

So, today I did something super simple, but something I thought was kind of cool and wanted to do for a while. I entered all of the bills in my wallet on wheresgeorge.com (don't worry, there weren't that many!!!)
If you aren't familiar with this website, here's how it works. You enter in the serial number of your bill or bills, and then after you spend it, if someone else enters the bill online as well, you can track it to see where your money ends up. None of the bills in my wallet had been entered yet, but if someone else enters it, maybe I can see why money is so dirty!!!

Day 2: 28 to go. MUCHOS GRACIAS

So, today's new adventure is more educational than excitement, but new nonetheless.

I really enjoy learning other languages. I took four years of French in high school, between a few members of my family speaking Spanish and my students learning Spanish, plus sign time at school, I feel I have had somewhat of a well rounded exposure to foreign languages. I thought it would be fun to learn how to say thank you in 10 new languages. I already know French, Spanish, German, Japanese (thanks to Mr. Roboto) Hawaiian, American Sign Language, and Italian so here's a few more added to my list: I also added them phoneticaly in case you want to know how to say them yourself:

Arabic: shukran (shoe-krahn)
Finnish: kiitos (kee-toas)
Norweigian: takk (tahk)
Russian : (can't type it because it's different characters and my comp. won't let me copy and paste) but you say it: spah-see-boh
Swahili: asante (ah-sahn-teh)
Tagalog: salamat po (sah-lah-maht poh)
Polish: dziekuje (dsyen-koo-yeh
Swedish: tack (tahkk)
Hebrew: toda (toh-dah)

and my favorite:
Afrikaans: dankie (dahn-kee)

I hope you learned something new. I did today!

Day 1

I told you to stay tuned for my plan to not get totally sucked into the teacher void. Well, here is day 1! For the next 30 days, I am going to do something new each day and document my adventure here for all to read... I will try and blog the same day as I do my new thing, but let's be honest, some days I may not be at computer or have the time to both experience something new and write about it. I promise, however, that there will be 30 entries. Exciting, informative, creative, etc. I make no promises.

So, day 1, 29 to go. STAND IN THE GREAT SALT LAKE. A stinky beginning.

My family went to the Great Salt for pictures. I have never really been there before so I was excited! I think I have been to Saltair but never close to the actual water. I have smelled the smell before. Grossey!!! So, as I got out of the car, I was expecting a nasal assualt of epic proportions. It actually wasn't that bad. Don't get me wrong, it was nasty, but not unbearable. We were all dressed in light blue, white, and khaki and we strolled onto the beach. PS, if you are ever on the beach at the Great Salt Lake, don't think about what the sand actually is. Two words: shrimp and waste. I was even more happy when I was asked to kneel in it for the photo. Oh well, it was fun and I think that they turned out great. After the photo shoot on the beach, I waded into the salt/brine shrimp/water solution for the first time ever. Here are a few facts about big salty:

The largest natural lake west of the Mississippi.
75 miles long, 35 miles wide
Estimated brine fly population: 100 billion
3 major rivers deposit into the Great Salt Lake: Bear River, Jordan River, and Weber River. The extreme saltiness is due to the fact that there is no outlet besides evaporation.
The salinity of the lake varies from 5-27%. On average, oceans are 3.3%. The dead sea is 33%

A picture of me enjoying our local phenomenon is forthcoming. And I promise that future entries won't be quite so lengthy. I do have ideas for new things to do, but I would welcome other suggestions. Enjoy!

Here's the pic of me in the lake. It was taken on my sister's camera and I just got it from her:

First two weeks

So, I have survived the first two weeks of school - and so have my students!

Here are a few highlights and lowlights

Amazing, on-top-of-it new principal. I really think he will do some amazing things for our school. Also, he wears a tie every day and the kids love it! They need to know what tie Dr. Morris is wearing today. It's great to know that the kids are liking him so much already.

Today I was reading a story to the class about a boy who said that he had a "dumb third grade teacher" I stopped and said that I hope none of my students will ever say that. One boy, who is particularly hyper and active just said "No way! You're the nicest teacher!" It was so sincere and adorable coming from him! Also, another girl has already showered me with pictures (most of them depict me with a ponytail and no hair on the sides of my head) and "I love you, Miss Gray" letters. I really think I have such a great class this year and hope they continue to work as hard and well as they have been so far. I'm feeling good about third grade this year.

Sign time. We have a deaf student in third grade who has a full time interpreter and she teaches us sign language twice a week for 1/2 an hour. I wasn't sure we could make it work at the beginning of the year and I am so glad we did. It's awesome! The kids love it and the teacher is great. We have learned the pledge of allegiance and how to "sing" happy birthday and lots of other words. Plus, it's some prep time for me. Win win win.

Completing the first of FOUR conferences this year. Tonight at 7:00 I walked out of the classroom after 3 hours of conferences plus teaching for seven hours. Long day = exhaustion. (it will be beditme soon). The best part was that it was still daylight when I left. That is unusual for conferences. I'm accustomed to walking out in pitch black and driving home in a blizzard in January. Ugh. Can't think about that now. Right now, I am the furthest away I will ever be from conferences. Good thoughts.... good thoughts... good thoughts...


LOWLIGHTS

Waking up at 6:00 every morning. Definitely the top of the low list. Not a morning person and will never get used to teacher morning hours.

Long days. Working from basically 7:30 to 6 at night -a little work at home after managing, teaching, chasing, etc. 17 kids all day. TIRING!!!! Especially after almost 3 months of summer relaxing and just chillin'. Quite a rude awakening.


No more late, warm, summer nights with shaved ice. Yummy. See you next summer.

Not as much time to hang with my friends. I miss seeing them so often and being able to take off with them at a moment's notice. See you next summer.

I have a plan of attack to not get sucked in to the teacher void. Check back within the next couple of weeks to see my documentation of this plan!!!!

Last the best

It's officially the last week of summer. Fellow teachers are stressing, planning, setting up rooms, training, agonizing over class lists, getting folders, pencils, paper, dry erase markers, books, etc. etc. I am so lucky to be in a job that allows me to live a little like a kid and to go "back to school". Remember how exciting it was as a kid to find out who your new teacher is, get new clothes, buy a new back pack, see all your friends again... etc. Well, is it really as exciting as a teacher to go back to school? hmmm. I'll leave that question up to all of you to answer... I am pretty excited this year though. We will have a new principal and lots of new staff to meet, and I am looking forward to meeting and working with a lot of great people. I also think that I have a pretty good class for next year along with several new students. I'm excited about changes I have made to my room. After starting a brand new year twice already, I hope that I am getting better at it!!! Well, hopefully after a week, the newness and adreneline won't wear off too much.

I have been trying to enjoy my last week off and get those last minute things done that I know I won't be able to get around to for a while: a really good cleaning, shopping and other errands, etc. Not to mention some fun too. I have been to 3 movies this week (yes during the week!!! That doesn't happen often during the school year). They have all been dollar movies - yeah! I have to admit that I saw Prince of Persia, again. That makes 4 times. Such a good movie! Here's a few words to describe how much I love it: Jake Gyllenhaal and Parkour. Go see it if you haven't.

The best news of all this week, and maybe the summer, has to be this: I no longer need to go to Iowa for the Thirty Seconds to Mars and Neon Trees concert. They are coming here!!! More specifically to UVU, right in my backyard, almost. Does it get any better than that? I should say not. I got tickets yesterday and its official. My sister was saying that her husband was playing some 30 Seconds to Mars for her off of his IPOD and was surprised that she knew a lot of the songs. You might be too! Well, I'm super excited and of you who want to come - it'll be a fabulous, rockin' night. It's general admission, so let's go early and get front row!!! It's always good to have something to look forward to as the summer ends. Goodbye summer, hello Jared Leto and Tyler Glenn.