*Sigh*...

...can it never be windy on a school day again? Oh, and if I'm busy putting in weather requests, I might also add that maybe we could never have a bad air quality alert again, at least not when I'm responsible for 31, 5th graders. Not allowing 10-year olds the pleasure of burning off accrued energy is literally a recipe for disaster. Maybe tomorrow will be better...yeah, October 31st sounds like it will be a pretty calm day...

Apparently I'm cool...

...or at least one of my students thinks so anyways.

(If you can't read it, it says, "Mrs. Wiebe rocks my world")

Picture Day...

...always provides great stories, and today was no exception.

Picture day always starts out innocently enough. My yard duty post was filled with many insightful observations:

1. The boy who can't seem to remember to turn in ANY homework has somehow managed to comb his hair AND wear a neatly pressed collared shirt.

2. The sweet little tomboy has curled her hair (Sound familiar Denise?)

3. There are still a few boys who managed to escape the house without running a comb through their hair.

4. Despite wearing their school day finest, none can be deterred from the magnetic pull of their respective recess activity preferences (football, basketball, soccer, chasing the girls into the bathroom, and the like)

The moment arrives:

So, when it was our turn to make our way into the multipurpose room, the madness began. You'd never think forming gender-specific lines would cause confusion, but on picture day, anything's possible. Once we managed to sort our lines correctly, we walked to the picture taking arena. Upon arrival, each student who wanted one (which was of course all of them) was given one of the ubiquitious black combs. The actual picture taking procedure went rather smoothly, but it was upon our return to class that things got a bit...hairy.

So those black combs...

One of my sweetest, most good-natured girls had a lovely hairstyle. Her mother had swept half of her hair back and had left a few thin whisps of hair hang free in the front. Well, during science, which immediately followed our pictures, my sweet, good-natured little girl had somehow managed to wind her hair through the comb in such a way that it was literally IMPOSSIBLE to remove. She wound it so tightly that it was securely stuck just past her forehead. I sent her to the bathroom with one of her friends to try to get it out...nothing. I sent her to call her mom...no one answered. Her friends worked on it again at lunch recess...still nothing. Finally, being the confident thing that she is, she decided that she would just wear the hood attached to her shirt until it was time to go home.

I have to give my class credit. No one really laughed at the situation, they just took the potential distraction in stride. My sweet little hooded student managed to make it through the day without an utterance of complaint. But... I am left to wonder if she will come to school with bangs tomorrow.

I love good sub notes...

...it's been awhile since I've gotten one.

Although the sub was only there for 2 hours (I had a meeting), my class received oodles of praise, and she even left her phone number with a message to "call her whenever I need her". *Sigh* I'm having a good year.

Holy Summer Sabbatical Batman!

4 hours left...It's almost too good to be true...to be on the cusp of 10 weeks of freedom. I thought only students counted down the days (er, hours). I guess the end of school euphoria doesn't escape the souls of the teachers either. It's going to be a marvelous break...

My kids took their writing assessment today...

...and I rearranged my sewing and family rooms. Is it summer yet?

It's that time again...

...our local major league affiliate has started their season and I actually asked John if he wanted to go to the game tonight. (It helped that the teachers at my school received free tickets as a result of student participation in a 10 books = 1 Bakersfield Blaze ticket reading campaign). I stumbled upon 2 of the best haircuts I've seen in awhile... I guess I have a thing for finding these things at baseball games. Luckily, I had my camera to capture them. A rather uneventful game from my perspective, but the off-the-field highlights can be found below.

The obligatory scorekeeping photo

My book of choice for the evening

John finds the font used on the Blaze jerseys apalling...he says it looks "bush league"

I've never seen a mohawk with a rat tail on the bottom. Sweet.

Check out that mullet!

Today...

...I had a kid hurdle a desk in the classroom. I just smiled and repeated my new mantra: "15 1/2 more days...15 1/2 more days...15 1/2 more days..."

State Testing...

...every teacher's favorite time of year. Listed right up there with Halloween (or the day after to be more specific), blustery days, lock-downs, picture day, and Spring (yes, the whole season). The kids know this is the culminating moment in their academic year, which begs the question, why have 5 more weeks after the assessment? If anyone has an answer let me know. Anyways, I knew my kids were going to struggle as soon as I asked the sample question (you know, the easy one that is supposed to make the students feel comfortable and confident). Well, the first 3 kids I called on missed it. *Sigh* It's going to be a long week...