Aaron and I in DC

So, as many of you know, my boyfriend Aaron came out to visit me for Thanksgiving (did I mention I have the best boyfriend on the planet?). We had an amazing time. An AMAZING time!

We spent our Thanksgiving together cooking ALL DAY, watching BBC documentaries, funny holiday movies and making each other laugh. My favorite thing we made that day, a double decker pumpkin cheesecake. Yes it was as amazing as it sounds.

The next day we went sight seeing. We hit up Arlington Cemetery and watched the changing of the guard and the wreathe ceremony. Aaron and I also discovered the grave of Abraham Lincolns son, Robert Todd Lincoln, as well as one of my relatives headstones. From there we decided to walk across the Potomac River to get to the monuments (yes I said walk, we walked from Arlington Cemetery to the National Mall). It was really beautiful, than we went and saw all the monuments (Washington, Lincoln, World War II, Vietnam, Korean War, White House, National Christmas Tree). We calculated it later on, we walked about 10 miles that day! When we got home I was exhausted, we took a quick nap and than made home made pizza for dinner and watched Emperors New groove.

The next day was our day of museums:) We hit up the Library of Congress, toured the Capitol Building, went through the Air and Space Museum, saw the Natural History Museum, and than dropped by the American History Museum. My favorite part of this day was watching Aaron in the Air and Space Museum. I had no idea how fascinated he was with flight as a kid, and even now. He knew what everything was in that museum without reading the tags. He seriously had a permagrin the entire time, I used a bunch of the stuff he taught me about it all in a lesson the following week with my kids. When we finally arrived home at the end of the day, changed and got ready to out into the city. We went out to Serendipity (it's a famous restaurant in Washington DC, if you've seen the movie you know what I'm talking about), hit up a bookstore and walked around the city streets.

Sunday and Monday were pretty relaxed, I introduced Aaron to quite a few people at church, we cooked pumpkin rolls, played scrabble and a little bit of Nintendo. The weekend was perfect:) I'm so glad he came and I can't wait to see him in 3 weeks!!!

Thanksgiving: My Kids CAN READ!

Well ladies and gents the life of a teacher moves on. The month of November was fun, filled with lots of transportation (that's the theme for our 2nd unit), turkeys, and gratitude. We had a huge thanksgiving feast for the parents and kids to share in, they made Native American hats and traced their hands to make turkeys. We learned what it was to be thankful and each of the kids shared. The items they were grateful for ranged from siblings and food to (my favorite quote) "I'm thankful my mom takes me to target":)

The week after Thanksgiving, I found out something- my kids can READ!! That's right my 5 year old baby kindergartners are little baby geniuses and I'm so proud of them. They've grown SO MUCH! One of my sweet girls who speaks very little English (and rarely says anything) read- "You can go on a boat". She pointed to each word and READ IT! (except she said in instead of on) She's AMAZING! I'm so proud of the progress they're making, everything's clicking and because of these results I revamped my reading groups (my highest group is going to try reading at a C level this next week! That's where they're supposed to be by the end of the year!). My two shy kids have finally started talking in sentences,  my three kids who say random things (For example, ask what does the word b-b-b-boat start with? One of these kids would say, "My mom went to the store and we saw a boat and I wanted to go on it but...") have clued in and started answering my questions. The classroom is coming together guys, it only took till the end of November but everything's clicking and things are moving.

Amusing Anecdote:

So, you know my crazy kid? The one who has beat me up and used to have fits in the classroom, notice I said USED to. His fits have decreased significantly, and this past week he had ZERO! None. Nada. Zip. His fits usually occur in writing, because his fine motor skills are behind a lot of the other kids and he feels like he's not good at it, but this week he wrote a sentence almost EVERY SINGLE DAY! The day we did underwater transportation I showed the students a clip of the Great Reef in Australia, and than we all pretended we were traveling in a submarine. They each got their own submarine and were supposed to write a sentence about something they saw. This crazy kid of mine wrote "I sow a sc!" (I saw a shark). He wrote I SAW A SHARK! The kids a genius. I literally picked him up and spun him in a circle because I was so proud.

Living the Hurrican Life

Hey all! So not much has really changed since I last posted, other than surviving a HURRICANE! Everyone's fine here, we stocked up on water (although I got stuck with juice and vitamin waters since all the water was sold out- woops!) and basically cooked the whole weekend. We never lost power and Washington D.C. didn't get hit super bad. Someone in our ward lost power for 12 hours but that's the worst I've heard.

While under the reign of this Hurricane Sandy (or Frankenstorm as the locals are so affectionately calling it) I went a little stir crazy, after about 3 hours I literally had nothing to do. I had finished all my work stuff on Saturday anticipating no power and had cooked my meals for the week as well (vegetable packed Cheese Tortellini soup-a ton of it). I finally decided to deep clean my bedroom and bathroom, but after that I became Crazy Hurricane Heather. I took tons of not so great pictures, since during a hurricane you literally can't see anything going on outside. I also bugged my oh so wonderful boyfriend to death with texts and ridiculous phone calls (a few were made while hanging upside down on a couch downstairs), while my roommates bustled about cooking random goodies (pretty sure I gained 5lbs from this extended weekend). Stayed in sweats and jammies the whole time, and at one point even stared at the neighbors (as you can see above). One cool thing, it snowed! Or sleeted I guess is the more appropriate term. As you can see by the white things floating in the elegant picture on the right.

 Ahhhh the hurricane life...

FIELDTRIP!!!!!!!!!

Wow! Hello everyone and what a whirlwind. 7 weeks have already passed, the first unit is over and it's October! This past week has been so much fun, we went to Cox Farms and carved a class pumpkin. Part of their incentive to behave well is that they get a certain amount of candy for the color they end up on as well  this month, so it's been a real party. :) I'm learning that being a teacher is exhausting and taking care of yourself is really important. For example, you can't just cut out sleep and healthy food and think your going to feel great. You won't. This past week I decided to go and get some food, I grabbed random stuff.  A soda, some chips and candy to snack on. As I'm eating my chips during lunch, a couple of my kids came up to me. "Ms. Boatwright you know you're eating junk right?", "Ms. Boatwright if you eat too much junk your stomache is going to hurt". Sure, sure kids (I thought to myself) that's what your parents tell you. But really it's fine. It is not fine. When all you give your body to eat is junk, you feel like junk. Spent the rest of the day with a massive headache and overwhelming nausea. Moral of the story- eat healthy and listen to the children. They know.

4th Week: I like to move it, move it

Well the improvement continues. My class is really coming together, not too much insanity (no crazy fits, my two students are rocking the socks off my behavior chart too!). And this week we had some characters and funny things happen.

                                                 Amusing Anecdote of the Week: Mandy

Mandy is a student in my class who is always bringing little things from home in her backpack, they are always hidden and unexpected. One day she brought a pen with a giant stuffed tigger on the end of it, yesterday she brought Hello Kitty crayons that she wanted to use (the answer to these questions is almost always "No"-but somehow they appear out of nowhere in her hands at her desk. The girls a magician I swear). Today it was the sunglasses, she asked if she could wear them at recess. I told her yes, that would be just fine as long as she didn't wear them in the classroom. (Her response to my answer was "Hurray I'm going to wear them to a 3-D movie!" as she skipped to her cubby). She goes to put them in her cubby until recess, and comes back without a shirt. (What?! Yes that's what I said, no shirt.) Underneath her white school uniform approved shirt, she had been wearing a stylish white undershirt that (while at her cubby) she decided she wanted to show instead. When asked where her shirt was her answer was "I da know". I'm not gonna lie (while completely inappropriate) me and Ms.Griffin couldn't help but smile at her and chuckle a little bit. She's too cute for her own good. When asked to put her shirt back on, she came back with this red shirt (which by the way was on backwards when she first walked out- the girls freakin adorable). Where did this red shirt come from? I have no idea. Did I let her keep it on for the rest of the day? Yes. Yes I did. Haha

As apart of my trying to whip my students into shape, at one point during the day this last Friday I had all my students put their heads down. We weren't moving on until it was silent, when it was almost perfectly quiet- one of my kids started singing "I like to move it, move it. I like to move it, move it. I like to move it, move it. We like to MOVE IT!" I literally had to turn around and face the  white board and cover my mouth because I was laughing and was trying not to let them see it. I freakin love these kids. They rock.

3rd Week: The Claws have come out

Hey all! So the honeymoon period in the classroom is over and the real people are coming out. Am I still in love with my job? YES! In the picture on the right, that's me and my paraprofessional Ms. Griffin- she helps me out in the classroom and is wonderful. Are there crazy things that happen? Yes. I mentioned in a previous post that I have a couple students who tend to throw fits or tantrums, one of them has really improved. He had a couple really amazing days and his mom rewarded him, and I praised the guts out of him! He loves that positive praise and energy and craves it now, the other one...has had some rough days.

Last week we went to do literacy centers and he didn't want to start in rhyming, he wanted to play with blocks. When I told him he couldn't play with blocks- complete melt down. Screaming, crying, rolling on the floor. During this time he moved his name down to red, and started losing recess time. He ended up losing his whole recess. He calmed down eventually and we talked about appropriate behavior in the classroom but the real insanity happened at recess when he realized he'd really lost it. I asked him to sit on the bench at recess and the insanity started up again but this time like 10 times worse. He was outside so if he were to throw himself on the floor he could really hurt himself, consequently I had to restrain him on the bench. He kicked and punched me, Indian burned my arm and screamed "Let me go! I want my MAMA!!! MAMA!!!". There was more but you get the idea. It was bad.

Now for the good news. Nothing he did changed his consequence. He sat out the whole recess on the bench, with me. Consequently, he now behaves much better! The next few meltdowns he's had have been resolved quickly (as a result of some Heavenly inspiration, I started having students ask him to join them at the right center or at the table- the rest of the kids in the class are super helpful and willing!), he's starting to really behave like a normal student. He's started acting out a little after recess, but that is just for attention. So if I ignore him and make sure that he knows nothing is going to change unless he acts like he should- he behaves! MIRACLE OF MIRACLES! He lost fun friday and didn't even complain, he knew why and knew he didn't deserve it. He sat and put his head down the whole time. I'm so proud of him and the progress he's made, he's becoming such an amazing student. 

Rainbows and Unicorns: the 2nd Week

Well there's never a dull moment in my classroom that's for sure. I'm still loving it and so excited to go back on Monday. Have you ever had one of those moments where you just stare in shock thinking, "Did that really just happen?". That definitely happened to me this past week.

So it was a normal day at recess, the kids were racing around and having a blast. I had required one student  to sit out with me part of his recess on the bench because of his behavior in the classroom. This, of course, sent him into a fit on the floor where he proceeded to crawl away from me underneath the play structure (this isn't the crazy part). As I'm kneeling down explaining to him that he had two choices, he could choose to cry and have a fit on the floor of the playground for the entire recess or he could choose to sit with me for five minutes on the bench and than enjoy the rest of his time with his friends, I hear a hissing sound behind me. I turned around and one of my male students had decided that this was the time he needed to go to the bathroom. Oh yes, he was peeing on the play structure right near my foot. The situation was dealt with but needless to say, at first I was very shocked. 

In a writing lesson the other day, we were talking about how to draw real people and pictures that tell stories. As an example I drew a picture of when I was jumping on my parents bed and fell off and cracked my head open, great story right? Anyways, we were brainstorming what to put in the room because rooms are more than just a bed. We put a closet, a dresser, a lamp and than a student raised her hand and said "Rainbows and unicorns!". Adorable right? So of course I explained that while my parents room didn't have rainbows and unicorns I'd put them in there just for fun.

Lesson of the week: I need to be better about parent communication. If a student wets themselves, even if they already have an extra pair of clothes there, I need to call and let the parent know. If there's an incident of any type that is out of the ordinary, I need to let the parent know. They like to be involved and know what happens with their kids at school.

My first week...

Well ladies and gents, I completed my first week as a Kindergarten teacher. Can you believe it? It was definitely a little bit crazy. The week before school started I set up my classroom, the theme of my classroom is "Reach for the Stars", so everything is space themed. I have a bulletin board with an Alien and UFO. There are rockets, stars, and planets EVERYWHERE! (Sorry there's only two not so great pictures, I'll add more later- my camera died) In the picture on the right you can see my library, math and dramatic play center. Below is the guided reading area. This week was a little bit stressful, there was A LOT to get done. But it all got completed and I'm happy with the finished product. I have an amazing paraprofessional whose a fantastic worker and has helped me so much. I literally don't know what I would do in the classroom without her. She's a 6ft tall African American woman and I'm a little white girl, so we look pretty hilarious next to each other. She's awesome.

Than the kids came, I was so excited. A little nervous but definitely excited. After some adding and losing of students, I now have 19 kids (YAY!! Hurray for small class sizes) and they're wonderful. I have a really shy sweet girl in my class who has a hard time asking for anything, she waited too long to ask to go to the bathroom and while waiting in line she...had an accident. Poor thing, she was so embarrassed. We fixed it pretty quick and none of the other students figured out what was going on so no harm done there. I had another student throw up on the playground (I think it was from the heat?) anyways, a different boy saw what happened and thought it'd be funny to make himself throw up in front of the class. It wasn't. He got in big trouble. In addition to these incidents I have two students who have meltdowns once or twice a day...sometimes three times. They're both having a hard time adjusting to being in Kindergarten and being in school in general I think.

Best moment of the week,  when we talked about our hopes and dreams for the future and one of my kids said "I hoped that I'd get the best Kindergarten teacher in the world, and I got it!". Yup, that's right- best kindergarten teacher EVER right here. Oh and also, when I asked my kids at the end of our math lesson what we had learned and they answered "We learned how to sort using size, shape and color". I almost cried I was so happy. The first day I taught sorting and I asked that question I was met with silence and a lot of stares.

Biggest lesson learned, follow my gut. It's good to listen to advice but if you foresee problems with that suggested plan, they'll probably become a reality.

Another lesson learned Kindergarten is WAYYYYYYYYYY different than 1st grade. The students are young, they're emotions are more raw, their developmental level is totally different. Everything's new for them. For example, you can't just tell them to turn and talk to the person next to them about what they did that summer- you'll be met with complete silence. Trust me. You have to explain what to do, model it with a student, have a couple students model it, draw a picture to remind them and THAN most of them will at least try. I'm also learning that explaining with just words is not nearly as effective as drawing out exactly what you want them to do. Physically seeing it, helps A LOT!





I have an amazing class, I really do. They are a great group of kids, I've got some challenging ones but I wouldn't change any of them out for the world.

Love freakin ROCKS!

Hey everyone, sorry it's been awhile. On April 23 I started dating Aaron and dropped off the face of the planet. Now I'm back and ready to roll, first things first- I HAVE A BOYFRIEND! His name is Aaron Whittle, we've been friends for the last 3 1/2 years and started talking about dating on Valentines Day of all things. He lives in Utah and, after months of talking and than a couple dates when I went to Utah to graduate, we chose to give it a shot. I spent my summer in Utah with him and it was amazing. By the end of the summer we chose to continue the relationship long distance and I couldn't be happier. We do a lot of skyping, texting, talking, and e-mailing (thank heaven for technology), along with sending each other letters and packages. He makes me so unbelievably happy. Love freakin rocks.

Day of D.C. Disney!

During the last couple weeks I was in D.C. I began going on adventures with a wonderful gal named Britt Curtis. On this day we decided to go to the top of the old Post Office building, the view was amazing and there was a bell tower inside...can you see where I'm going with this? Hunchback of Notre Dame!! Hello! When walking up to the old Post Office Building you see a huge clock at the top...similar to Big Ben but smaller...just like on...YOU GUESSED IT! Peter Pan- I don't what it was but on this day I was seeing everything through Disney goggles man.

On our way there we went through the Navy Memorial which coincidentally has poles and ropes rising from it that totally reminded me of the ship on the Little Mermaid.

 Afterwards spontaneously decided to get some food at Good Stuff Eatery. Good Stuff Eatery is a delicious spot, awesome atmosphere, burgers and shakes to die for. Fries that are so greasy they could move a fat kid down a slip n' slide, if you know what I mean;) Above you see Liz and Britt and behind them...the cow bell. Oh yea. Disney reference? Beauty and the Beast (ok a bit of a stretch I admit...)

After all of that tom fullery we went to see the Avengers! WICKED AWESOME MOVIE! If you haven't seen it you need too. Favorite part, hands down, is when Hulk thrashes Loqi. You'll know what I mean when you see it. Sorry the pictures so blurry, love our expressions though right?!

Nationals vs the Whacks.

 Most of you know that from mid-February to mid-May I was working as the front desk receptionist at Volunteers of America (I was technically a temp but they kept me on until they found someone more permanent). While I was there I made some great friends out of my boss and co-workers. We all decided to go to a Nationals game together. I WAS SO FREAKIN EXCITED! 


We had phenomenal front row left field seats.(incidentally directly behind Bryce Harpers position...hmmm... for those of you who are unfamiliar with that name- Bryce Harper is 19 years old and on the Nationals baseball time. He's earned his spot there too, he's a phenomenal player. When I saw him I said I'd marry him if it turned out he was Mormon...huge news folks. HE IS! Haha), the game was on a dollar dog day AND I got to meet the Nationals Mascot! Abraham Lincoln. It was a total blast:) I was really confused for the first part of the game though because the Diamondbacks shirts all said Whacks on the front of them. When I asked my coworker, he said it said D-Backs...yes I am just that blonde apparently. 

Whole Foods Sells No PIES?!

 What?! TWO BLOG POSTS IN TWO DAYS! I know I'm spoiling you guys (you're all thinking, it's about TIME geez- does it kill you how well I can read your minds?). So during the month of April I not only graduated college but also had a birthday! I turned 23, my birthday day wasn't bad at all in Washington D.C. (I keep saying I live in D.C. really I live in Arlington, VA which is like a 5 minute metro into D.C. away, so it's close) My roomies made me lasagna (Stouffers, just as good as the homemade kind and made with just as much love) and we had a small chocolate cake to celebrate crammed with as many candles as we could fit. It's tradition that I have apple pie on my birthday but apparently whole foods doesn't sell them! Jerks. Haha I got TOTALLY spoiled in packages from my family, lots of presents, well wishes and love. It was a great day...not necessarily a great looking day for me but yea:) 

Graduated College and GOT A JOB! WHAT?!

Well ladies and gents, welcome to my humble never updated blog. Sorry it's literally been months since I have updated things. Lucky for you, the reason it wasn't updated was because there was a TON going on. And now you get to hear all about these awesome things.  Prepare yourself- this blog update is about to be jam packed with AWESOME news.

First things first, in April I flew out to Utah to walk for Graduation. Now I know some of you are thinking, "Graduation? Didn't she already graduate?"- why yes astute reader of mine, I did graduate in December. Unfortunately there aren't walking ceremonies mid year. You have to wait until April if you want to walk in a ceremony- which I did. Graduation weekend was awesome, my whole family came out, I saw lots of good frineds and when I got my diploma I epically tripped into the person offering it to me. Just kidding:) Haha I didn't trip, I came through it without an embarrassing moment other than I couldn't stop jumping up and down and waving at my family.

 

Upon returning home I began my job search with a renewed vigor. Determined to find a job by May 30, and if it didn't happen- I planned on moving back to Utah for good. I spent my days e-mailing school after school, attending job fairs, calling to check up on resumes and, when I was very lucky, interviewing. While doing all of this I began a full time nanny job for the remaining weeks I'd be in Washington D.C. The mother who I watched for was really flexible and willing to work with me so she'd let me go for job fairs and interviews without any monetary decrease. She was great (I watched 4 kids under the age of 5 for her, the three oldest were boys 5, 3 1/2 and 2. What I learned here is boys are insane, and patience is vital to raising children). Here are the two oldest.

May 25th rolled around and I attended my last job fair, and at this point I had had very little luck in finding a job. I had found several schools I was interested in but had heard back from almost none. This job fair was quite a bit smaller than the other ones had been, there were only 4 schools, one of which I had already spoken too and the other was only hiring for Early Childhood (I got my degree in Elementary Education, certified for 1-6th grade). After speaking to the two schools I hadn't spoken too yet, I decided to try again with HD Cooke Elementary School- to my surprise they remembered me and schedule an interview for the following Wednesday...which just so happened to be my deadline. I was to teach a mini-lesson to a group of students of my choice (2nd grade) and than an interview would happen directly afterwards.

May 30th rolled around and I prepared a short lesson on homophones. However, upon arriving to the school I was shown to a Kindergarten classroom...and than there were Kindergartner's outside the door. I freaked out, Kindergartners can't read! How in the world was I supposed to teach them about homophones? The Principal walked in and explained why there were Kindergartner's instead of 2nd graders, apparently when they met me they thought I "screamed  Early Childhood" and wanted to see how I worked with that age group. I accepted the challenge, adjusted my lesson, had the interview and GOT THE JOB! I will be a Kindergartner teacher at H.D. Cooke Elementary School this upcoming Fall. 


I'm still in shock about it and have begun preparation for this next year by organizing standards and curriculum. Wish me luck guys!!