I Was Destined to be a Squirrel (and a Freebie)

First,
thank you all so much for your yay-hoos and "hollas" on my eval and my door! You are all so sweet:)

Update on Red and her door-mates.....they still do not have legs! They are creepy floating ghosts! I was going to get it done this morning while my boys were making CHA CHING from me over the paper....but I got cornered by "HER". You know who it is, that one precious colleauge whom everyone tries to NOT get caught up with when you have something important to do.....or when you have to pee really bad and you have 3 minutes til you pick up your brood, or when you just aren't in the mood!
"She" is in every school, we all have one ...bad news ladies....if you can't think of who "she" is in your building....it's you! Just kidding!!!!

Anyhoo...."she" consumed my morning, so Red and the crew "hovered" on the door all day!( I hope they can "land" tomorrow.)


I rec'd  an apology letter from "--------" this morning for the glasses. And she returned them..... Although she returned them in the wrong order, so he was unable to read the letter!  ha ha ha BUt then he did AFTER he got his glasses back!


THE FREEBIE

I had a couple of ladies ask me about that reflection letter that was in a post and a couple of emails asking me to elaborate on my behavior chart that I am so thankful for.....so I am putting that up here. The images are from Microsoft Office 2008 that came with my Mac, I cannot take credit for the clipart....but I do take pride in the way I used it .

Yes, my final product IS large....but you could modify it if you like it. And could really switch it up. The reason I created mine as large as I did (in the I am so THankful Post) was because it accentuated the positive part of everyday being new, being able to talk about what has happened, taking ownership for their own actions....the list goes on.....I am attempting to link and add from google doc:

Behavior Reflection Letter
WIndows
Weather for WIndows

For the reflection letter...if a child is anything other than "sunny" by the last hour of our day.....he or she completes this. The blank after "Today was_________" is filled with their weather for the day! and then you can understand the rest I am sure.....(and there are some who only write 1 letter, ever)

And now for something so amazing, I mean really, I am posting so late because I have been on the phone telling everyone about this!

(You will be fortunate enough to get the short version)

I was in a box in the office closet that has not been opened since we moved here 8 years ago.(the box, not the closet) I kind of knew what was in it....some of the junk precious memories from my attic in the old house that had once been in my  parent's attic that they insisted I remove forever ago.....
The box was in my way because I was looking for something else, and if you read my previoius post, I have the attn span of a gerbil, so I started going through it.



My rattle, my Baby Beans doll and my diaper stacker (yes they made those 38 years ago) were in the box. This is my diaper stacker:

It is wrinkled....it has only been in the box FOREVER. Can you see the design? Let me zoom in for you (you are going to FREAK OUT!)

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!?!?!

I WOKE THE MR UP AND MADE HIM LOOK AT IT! I still can't believe it! Almost 40 years ago, my mom was in store in GA and saw this and bought it! IT'S MISS SQUIRRELS!!!!!

I just can't get over it!  I joke about the name all the time, but this is just nuts (pun intended)!


I tried to show and  tell a very groggy Mr Squirrels how we were just meant to be! but he asked me to turn the light out and not forget to set the coffee pot up for the morning.......

I am taking it to school tomorrow and showing it to my class and my team....and then I am going to probably end up paying one of the boys to make legs for the people on my door!


Goodnight!

Support team?

Good evening, muchachas!

Does your school have a support team? Maybe it goes by another name, but it is a group of teachers who meet and discuss ways to help individual students who are struggling. We have to fill out what we call "The Blue Folder" and you recommend that the team meets to help you. (Sort of like a "tribal council" for 7 year olds- "cept we aren't allowed to vote anyone off). So you go through the hoops and red tape and you do all you can to see if "testing" is an option for one of your sweeties.

We do.

And I think I am going to  recommend myself. I am going to have one of my neighboring teachers fill out a "blue Folder" on me and  put myself out there so they can meet and decide if I need further testing.I have seriously lost my mind....no seriously- it's gone...if you come across it, please put it in the nearest mailbox and it will be returned to the owner!


We are supposed to decorate our doors for AR kickoff week...I have no problem with that- Our grade level voted (actually, I felt slightly bullied into the idea, but on paper it looked like a vote) and we are all doing Red Hen or GIngerbread Man, Three Little Pigs, etc....I chose Red Riding Hood.

My door is the door that all 900 children (and teachers) see EVERYDAY because I am the door right across from the cafe where they all line up to go in....so I always feel a little pressure when it comes to my displays and I end up making a ton of work for myself!

It started out simple enough....found some cute pics, and I thought "Hey , it will be cool if I don't color it, but instead layer it with colored construction and scrapbooking paper for depth and dimension."

OMG! Then I thought "Hey, what if it is all 3-D-ish and stands out from the wall!"

Then I thought "Hey, this closet with my construction paper in it is a MESS! I can't start a project like this until I straighten it up...

so I pulled all of it out.

Holy Crapazoli, Batman! It is 3:30pm what are you thinking?!?!?!

And then I thought, "Hey, why are there sooooo many different shades of these colors.....I can't start until I have organized them!"

Good Gravy! Why are there so many shades of orange!?!?! (It is now 4:30pm)

And then I thought "Hey, dummy, this has to be finished by Friday, you have a Math test to create, a Data Chat tomorrow, you have to type up the minutes from the Leadership Meeting this morning, you are in charge of Secret Santa, (and so on and so forth....) SO GET ON THE BALL LADY AND QUIT THINKING SO MUCH!"

So this is the pic that I took at 8:00pm tonight:

Almost done, when I go in in the morning, I have to make feet and a few flowers for the bottom.

(Pay special attn to the little guys at the Woodsmans feet)...hee hee!

The Mr asked where the "paw print" was bc it looks like Blue's house.

Then I thought Red's Basket of flowers looked dopey so I sat down and made these:

Very cutie patootie....and not too difficult after I made 15 of them that looked like doo-doo!

 And when all of that was done I had to clean up that huge mess that was on the floor- but before I could start I thought "Hey, I should check my email!" (Dumb idea! I am going to copy and paste the actual words that were in an email from a parent):

Hi Mrs. Squrriels,

I wanted to know if the glasses "-----" brought home from school were actually hers?  She said she got them out of the treasure box, but she was acting so sheepish about it that I thought maybe she took them from a class mate or something.

I just wanted to make sure they were truely hers b/c if they are not then some poor kid can't see and "---------" is stealing which will have to be dealt with.

Really? They are prescription glasses!!!!!!! Why would I have prescription glasses in my treasure box?!??!?! I'm getting low on funds, but geesh!

At this point it is getting closer to nine, I am pooped, my room is a  mess, there is a child out there tonight who cannot see, and none of the characters on my door have feet.... I decided that I was done for the day. 

I wrote back the mom, put a sign on my door that said "project in progress- no need to vacuum tonight", locked my door and came home. And then I showed the picture to my boys and bribed them both ($5 each) to put all that paper away in the morning. I made a cup of coffee, put on my slippers and logged into my bloggy world.  

And quite frankly- I no longer care if my oranges are mixed up....!

"An Eval, a Christmas Wish and Pac-Man all walk into a bar..."

First, Whew!
How glad are you that today is OVER!?!?!

I have 18 students- 10 of them had to write a reflection letter today~ it was a madhouse, I tell ya! And it was some of my golden ones too.

But I smiled and I laughed and I enjoyed my day...why? Because at 1:05pm I had my Post Conference for that eval that I had 2 hours before the break....here's how that went:


I was sooooo nervous! I was hoping that I would come down with a case of malaria or explosive diarrhea (really) or maybe a firstie would vomit on me so I would have to go home. Man, I DID NOT want to walk in that office.

I really like the new PAL-but she does make me really, really, really a little nervous. I did my first three years with those ton of evals with my first PAL, and the turnstile of ASST PALS we have had in the past with no problem..... I have no idea why she makes me so jittery.

OK, remember the Let's be greedy and take all the money    Race to the Top thing I told you about? Well this was my first one for the new eval system. The rubric for the instructional one is three pages FRONT AND BACK! and I am not kidding! There was a lot of preparation for this one.

And I was determined to stick to my guns  and do what I do- not the fluffy for show stuff. And I did. It was a great lesson! And I hit all the points I was "apost" to (I love when my kiddos write that in their journals).... so even though I felt good about it, there were still those things that made me worry....like when "Quinton" spun himself around UPSIDE DOWN in his chair with his feet straight up in the air while I was teaching.....and when "Jamaraqui" went to the bathroom and while he was waiting for nature to take it's course decided to start singing "Tonight, tonight, there's a party on the rooftop top of the world" in our small tile bathroom with wonderful acoustics.....

(At that particular moment I was pretty sure that aliens had taken all of my children at lunch and replaced them with evil beings from another planet) ! All I could do was watch her type away feverishly on her laptop and think about which factory I was going to apply at this summer.

But I went in today with my post conference notes waiting for the worst, while hoping for the best,  and it was AWESOME!

I got all threes and fours (3s are where we are "apost" to be and 4s are way better! Actually on the 12 points of the Instructional Rubric, I had 7 fours!!!)

She loved my rapport with the children. I kept them engaged and active (they were actively engaging in watching the circus act and listening to the Top 40 from the crapper), but they were all working!  I was so relieved!

So when I picked them up from PE we read an extra chapter of Junie B. and I set the timer for 15 mins and let them each share a craft basket! It was beautiful!

I even stayed way later than I normally do so that I can work on  decorating my door (will post details about that tomorrow).

Now for the Christmas Wish...I posted two goofy squirrel pics last night so I thought I would wait until today and I am adding it to this one ....I can tell right now that if there is a bloggy jail, I will end up there for more than one post in a day.....too many things go on in my head at once to remember all that I wanted to say the first time. And sometimes if I don't say it (or write it) when it is right there....it is lost forever!

So here is the first thing on my Christmas list:

Found it on Pinterest.... I want it and I will wear it every Thursday!!!!

Is that not atrocious!!! I am pretty convinced that the designer of this sweater is either married to or related to the "squirrel-on-a-nut-candy-dish-guy"! (see Squirrels Gone Wild post)

And finally, this is where Pac Man comes in:

There was a "ruckus" before lunch today over in the reading corner....lots of laughter....uncontrollable giggles...you know the sound.....the one that means no one in the reading corner is reading!
So I go over to get in on the joke break it up and "Jamaraqui" (yes, the potty crooner) informs me that if you put one finger in your ear and while it is in there, scratch it with a finger from the other hand- it sounds like the game Pac Man.....really- this is what they were doing......so I told them this was not the time, go wash your hands, get back to reading.....and then I headed back over to my desk.....

where I pretended to pick something up off the floor on the other side and I stuck one finger in my ear, scratched it, and SON OF A BISCUIT EATER!!!! It sounds JUST like Pac Man when he is chomping......(I'll wait while you try it) ........tick, tock, tick, tock....

Ok, do three things for me please.....give me a "hip hip hurray" in your head for my eval, google and find out where I can get that  #@&%* sweater (ha ha ) and go show someone the finger in the ear trick (and if they are under 15 - explain who pac man is)!!!

Have a great night! I am off to TPT to do some shopping!

This will be my look when I have stopped listening to someone!

(I promise to post something with a purpose tomorrow....but right now, these squirrels are just cracking me up!)

"I can't hear you!!!"

This will be my new look when I am freaking out about something!

 

Guys! Guys! Listen.. Come on Guys! GUYS!