Treats for Our Sweets

Happy Halloween!  I've teamed up with my buddies over at Freebielicious for a fun freebie party . . .  I hope you're having fun trick or treating through our blogs!  (In the meantime, I will probably be getting off the couch every two minutes to answer the door and giving away candy that I want to keep.  Something is wrong here.)

I'm here to talk about a super cool management tool that I found over at What The Teacher Wants: Best of Behavior Management.  The idea comes from Stephany over at Primary Possibilities.  (As you can see, I was seriously blog hopping the day I found this, and ended up clicking here and then clicking there and ending up who knows where.  Does that ever happen to you?  At times, it can be dangerous because I'm afraid I won't find my way back home.)

Okay, so you can read all about the idea on Stephany's post, but I'm going to summarize it for you.

First of all, I already screwed it up a bit.  That's just my way.

I thought it was called "Mystery Student."  It's not.  Stephany calls it "Secret Student."

So . . . a little snafu there on my part.  I'm sorry about that -- I tend to just run with things as soon as I see them and then I look back and say, "Oops."  (Or I look back and say, "Did I do that?  Surely I didn't do that.  I better get the heck out of here.")  Stephany, I apologize.

The whole idea is that you pick a Mystery (Secret) Student at the beginning of the day.  And then all day long, you keep checking on your Mystery Student.

Some scenarios:

1.  It's too chatty during independent work time.  So you say, ever-so-casually, "Hmmm.  I wonder if my Mystery Student is working quietly . . . "  And BAM!  Silence.

2.  Your lines look like a crowd of six and seven year olds inside of a jump house.  So you say, ever-so-softly, "I better check and see if my Mystery Student is walking quietly."  Wait . . . for . . . it . . . Two Straight Lines.  Like that.  Likethat.

3.  You want to take your daily cat nap and centers are too noisy.  You say, ever-so-irritably-calmly, "How's my Mystery Student doing?"  You got it.  Peace.  Snooooooooooze.  

Stephany uses this great magnetic container with glitter inside of it -- and she puts a special note with the student's name in it and all of this is on her whiteboard.  It's magical.  Check it out on her post AND you can download her special note for free.

I, on the other hand, don't have all that.  I was desperate to kick off second trimester with this management tool so I went a different route.  We'll call it Bush League in the interest of time.  Either way, it's my freebie for ya.  Aren't ya glad you knocked on my door?   

Click the pic to download your freebie or

see 4 other options to choose from!

FOUR OTHER OPTIONS!!

I'm telling you, it's like you're getting the fancy

magnetic container with glitter for free if you use

your imagination really hard.

Really really hard.

I put magnets on the back of my card.  And then I write the student's name on a post it each morning.

Exhibit A

(Pretend it's a magnetic container

with glitter.  Thanks.)

Exhibit B

(That says that I keep it up there out

of reach.  And, yes, I have to stand on

my tiptoes to reach it.)

The only trouble I've had is that a couple of my first graders ask me all day long if they are the Mystery Student.  And a couple of others claim to know who it is.

If that sort of thing doesn't bother you, get under your skin, and/or you've learned to tune out little kid voices, you'll be all set.

I have been announcing my Mystery Student at the end of the day. If the student has had a great day, I give them 10 gold tags (my behavior plan).  If the student has not had such a great day, you don't announce the name.  You just tell the kids that the Mystery Student had some trouble and we'll try again tomorrow.

I am IN LOVE with this.

So there you go.  The clipart is from Scrappin Doodles and the font is from Nicole at Rowdy in Room 300.  You can get the font for FREE and she also has some other ones that are just as cute.

Well . . . that's about it.  

Happy Halloween!!  I can't end this post without mentioning that this is the 16th anniversary of my True Halloween Ghost Story.  If you haven't read it, be sure to check it out.  :)

Trick or Treat!!!

Click on the button below to go to the next blog!  :)

Alright, alright!

Hey people!

I worked a whole day today.

THE WHOLE DAY.

It was good.  We were all a little sleepy.

And no one mentioned the H word.  (Halloween)

We did have a little bit of excitement when we had an out-of-the-blue lock down.

I guess it's always out-of-the-blue because you never know when some lunatic is going to go crazy.  Luckily, we all know when one of our teachers might go off the deep end . . . say, around parent conference time, or report card time, or progress report time, or Halloween on a Wednesday, just to name a few . . . but I'm talking about the general public lunatics.  You can never be too careful, you know.

My class was in the Computer Lab and my kids all had their head phones on, and I was diligently doing something worthwhile and not checking my email or TpT stats, that's for sure, when the announcement was made.

There wasn't a code or anything.

We have talked about a code before.  Something along the lines of "It's time to take out the trash because it stinks now."  Or "A red canary sings to the bluebird over on the bush."  We've thought of so many that I think the actual emergency just warranted a "Batten Down the Hatches" panicked announcement.

My kids had no clue.  None.  Turns out headphones have multiple purposes.

I went to the door to make sure it was locked.

It wasn't.

So I asked the computer lab aide if she could lock it.

She didn't have a key.  As a matter of fact, she doesn't even possess a key because she is a part time aide, and so the door is always open for her.

Well, I felt a little vulnerable, what with it being an ACTUAL LOCK DOWN, and our door was unlocked.

But I warmed up with my Tae-bo moves and practiced a few on the aide.  It didn't matter that it's been a few (a million) years since I faithfully did my Tae-bo tapes.  I've still got it.

HIGH-YAH!

Five minutes later, the trash had been taken out, the birds were no longer singing, and we were good to go.  

I still don't know what the issue was, but I'm thankful for it because instead of a 30 minute time period to read blogs  for my kids to learn and practice valuable computer skills, we had more of a 45 minute time period.

Yeah, buddy!  :)

Alright, alright!

Here I am.

Don't judge.

Good grief.

I don't think I look like Velma.

I'm not sure what I look like.

I think I look scary.

My twin and older sister said I look cute.

Hadar said I look cute.

So, fine.

I'm bowing to peer pressure.

The glasses drove me crazy.

So I took to wearing them on the top of my head.

Hubs says he likes me better as a blond.  I think I like me better as a NORMAL person that wears her NORMAL clothes and looks

like a NORMAL person.  You know, like the one couple at the party who did not dress up because they say they didn't get the memo that it was a Costume Party.  Uh huh.  Sure.  But that's how I like to look.  

I actually tried to forget my wig at home a few times and the hubs kept finding it.  I had a hard time explaining why it kept showing up in the hamper and the garage.   

And, just so you know, I did flat iron the wig.  I don't think it did anything to help the whole disaster that the wig was, but it didn't melt.  A lot of you were afraid of that, but I'm here to tell you that this fake hair is practically real.  Eighteen dollars well spent, I'll say.

Before I go bury my head in shame, I just wanted to answer a question that I got about my iPod.

I do not hook my iPod up to speakers, but I know another teacher who does, and that works fine.  I have a docking station.  It wasn't that expensive and I think I got it from Target.  Also, it isn't really an iPod.  It's my hubby's old iPhone.  I just use it as an iPod.  :)

So there.

I'll see ya later!

I'm running out of here as fast as I can because I feel embarrassed!

Scooby Doo (and a Sale)

Well, yesterday was our last half day.  We will not have one again until the last day of school (unless I play hooky and take a half day which I've never been known to do because, let's face it, if you're going to play hooky, you might as well take the whole day.)  I can't believe this next sentence is coming out of my mouth, but . . . I'm sort of looking forward to our normal routine.  I know.  Blasphemy.  

Anyways, the whole school was practically a ghost town by the time 1pm rolled around, so my friends and I decided we should bow to the peer pressure and get the heck out of there.  And, to be fair, we waited until about 1:45 to leave so I think we did our due diligence.  

Lunch was LONG.  And fun.  And filled with laughter.  Just the way I like it.  :)

Tonight, the hubby and I are going to a Halloween costume party.

People, I do not like dressing up.  I am always the party pooper.  Always.

I hate dressing up.  Really.  I also hate when invitations to showers dictate what I should wear.  As in, "The bride's favorite color is purple, so please dress accordingly."  

WHAT?!

As in, "The shower begins at 1pm and we will be having tea.  Please wear a big, gargantuan hat that does not fit your freakishly-small head."

WHAT?!

Not only do I have to give up my Saturday (or, more recently, Sunday) to go to this function while my husband stays home on the couch eating snacks and watching TV, I have to dress up???  

Yep.  That's me.  The girl with the bad attitude.

I've expressed my feelings to many of my closest friends and they all seem to understand where I'm coming from . . . but they still make me go shopping and try on stuff.

I'm like a surly teenager.

Anywho, the hosts of this Halloween party are our good friends, and the wife decided we should get a group together and be the Scooby Doo gang.

Except she gets to be the beautiful Daffanie (I had to look that up).

And I'm stuck being the nerdy Velma.  (It doesn't matter that this is true in real life and how I see myself.)

I was down in the dumps about it until I saw this costume on Amazon:

{source}

I thought this little girl looked cute.

So I ordered the child's size costume for $18.  

Sometimes, being Teeny Tiny pays off.

Actually, some parts of the costume are too big.  The skirt is really long on me and the shirt is super baggy.  It does not look like the picture even though it says it's the official Hasbro Scooby Doo Velma costume.

I replaced the shirt with another one I found (and that I can wear again) and I bought red knee socks.  The end.

The hubby freaks out when I put the wig on.  He says I don't look like myself and that my eyeballs pop out.

He says this to me as he's wearing this:

{source}

I mean, the nerve.

(Our single friend, who is tall and skinny and shaggy, is going to be Shaggy.)

If I am brave, I will post a pic of me in my costume.  But the pic will have to meet my standards.  

I will have to look cute.

And you will have to agree.

Those are my terms.  Take it or leave it.

My agenda for today is to figure out if I can flat iron my wig.  It's a little messy on one side from the packaging.  I just don't know what kind of material this wig is made from, and if using the flat iron will set it on fire or not.

I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, I'm having a sale.

Because everyone else is.

Click the pic to go to my kiosk.  Everything is on sale - enjoy.

I'd leave you with something that Velma always says, but I don't know what she says.  So . . . 

See ya.  :)

Heidi Songs

Hey chicks and peeps!

Today was wonderful!  

Wait.

Let me rephrase.

Today became wonderful when 12:30 hit.

Until that point, my kids were basically unraveling.  I'm pretty sure these half days make my kids think we're on vacation.  Or headed in that direction.  

Or they're just taking advantage of me because they've clued in to the ear plugs I've started wearing because I'm too worn out to go through my bag of tricks and make them stop talking.  

And, anyhow, I can't find my bag of tricks.

So . . . it was a bit of a rough day, but nothing that ear plugs, sunglasses, and wearing a hula hoop (You can't get any closer than this hula hoop - don't even try, I said a million times) can't take care of.

Besides the kids acting like a major holiday is just around the corner (I sure haven't told them so I don't know who did!), the Curriculum Cops have been out in full force.

FULL FORCE.

As in, every single day this week.  Like clockwork.

Today, we were just about to stomple all over each other to get back to our seats while talking to one another at the top of our lungs  to transition to our seats when I saw a cop through my window.

Rather than show off how wonderfully managed my transitions are, I thought I should show off some Heidi songs.

Heidi songs have saved my life.

I put on a sight word song ("have" to be exact, from the cd below) and we were singing when the cop entered.

The cop smiled.  The cop was IMPRESSED.  I could tell.  I know these things because I've been pulled over a lot.

So I had to play another one.

We sang "come" from this cd:

That one's kind of long which is why I played it.  

It worked - the cop left.

I have Heidi's cds on my iPod which makes it super easy to find the songs I want.  I alphabetized them and also put them in weekly playlists to match our curriculum words . . . I'm telling you, Heidi is BRILLIANT.

She has all kinds of cds - not just sight words.

She sent me this one to try out:

Heidi caught my Question post and thought I might need her "Is It a Question or a Story" song.  She was right.  I needed it.

But it also has The Tattling Song and The Smarty Pants Dance.  It is awesome.

It also includes the Potty Dance which I know quite well because I am always doing that dance.  It's due to my teeny tiny bladder.

Heidi also sent me the Phonics cd:

We're not ready for this one yet, but I'm super excited that it has those hard to learn phonics spelling patterns like ar, ee, au/aw, etc.

All the cds have matching dvds with movements.  If you don't have these, or have never heard about them, or want to check them out, click on any of the pics.  

Oh, and the following story happened at a conference, too.  And it's a TRUE STORY which is why I decided I needed to blog about Heidi songs.  

Me:  Your child really knows their sight words.

Parents:  I know!  She's always making up songs for them!

Me:  What?

Parents:  Yeah, she's always singing these great songs for how to spell and say them.

Me:  Uh, no.  I'm playing Heidi songs in the classroom.

Parents:  What?

Me:  Well, for example, does she sing the word "where" like this?  Oh where, oh where has my candy bar gone?  W-h-e-r-e . . . I left it there by my daddy's chair . . . W-h-e-r-e."

Parents:  Yes!  Isn't it cute???  We just love her creativity.

I had to burst their bubble before they tried to have their six year old audition for America's Got Talent or Ellen.

I ended up giving them Heidi's website.

And a shameless plug that I have met Heidi.

And that we're FB friends.

And since she's famous, I must be, too.

Thank you, Heidi.  :)

Parent Conferences - No, You Didn't!

Hello, how are ya, whatcha up to, I'm finished with all of my conferences!

Hooray!

Tomorrow looks bright, and sunny, and easy, and the kids go home at 12:30.  I can't believe it.

I have high hopes of . . . I think I'm going to work on . . . maybe I'll organize my . . . 

Who am I kidding?  

I'm going out to lunch!

(Actually, that's not true, and you didn't hear it here, and we're probably doing that on Friday, not Thursday, anyhow.)

In any case, I'm all finished.

But I barely made it out alive yesterday.

Wanna know why?

Huh?  Do ya?

Okay.  Listen to this.

I probably had the worst conference in my entire 16 year career.

I can't go into all the details.

But.

Here's the deal.

I could not crack this mom.  She was as cold as ice.  Hard.  Sharp.  No soft edges.  

Grumpy Gus, if you will.

Her child is high.  Smart.  Brilliant.  Well behaved.

I was singing all his praises and bluebirds were joining in, and puppies were playing and their puppy-smell was intoxicating and and and and and . . . 

Nothing.

Nada.

Zip.

Zilch.

I was sweating.  Bending over backward is hard work, people.  And I got a crick in my neck.

I was happy when it was almost over.  I could see the finish line. 

And then.

Listen to this.

Just listen.

Everyone, be quiet!

LISTEN!

She said, and I quote, "My child hates Junie B.  When will you be done?"

I know.

Let's all just sit for a minute and let that sink in.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

That's my heart pounding.  From the back bending and the shock.

I said, "Excuse me?"  

I said, "Who do you think you are?"  

I said, "Those words are fightin' words!"

I said, "Security!  Escort her out now!"

I said nothing.

Cleared my throat.

"Um, well," I stammered.  "Your child seems to enjoy Junie B. when I'm reading.  Your child laughs all the time."

She said, "Can't you read Captain Underpants or something?"

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

"Well, um . . . see, the thing is . . . well," I articulately replied.

She said, "Or Magic Tree House?  They're soooo educational."

I have no idea what I said.  Something along the lines of I read Junie B. the last five minutes of the day and I don't want to educate anymore because I'm super tired and it's almost my nap time.  And I'm hungry.

So I basically said nothing and then she left.  I think she got the best of me, people.   Waaaaa.

I held my Junie B. doll and rocked her because the poor little dear heard the whole thing.  I ran right next door and vented to my partner.  She was up in arms for me.  (She is a good friend.  We see eye to eye all the time.  We are right.  Everyone else is wrong.  It's a very good partnership.)

I don't know what your take on Junie B. is, but here's my take.

1.  She's funny!
2.  She makes poor choices and we talk about the choices she should have made.  And she's funny.
3.  I have a special Junie B. voice that I use when I read.  The kids want to know how I sound like her.  
4.  Junie B. makes them want to read!  They buy the books, borrow the books, whatever, they bring the books to school and follow along while I read!  They want to get to the AR shelf that holds the Junie B. books!
5.  She's funny!

And, anyways, I thought the parent conference was supposed to be about the child and how their child is doing, and not about what they hate in my class when they pretend to like things, and would never say that to my face in a million years.  A million years!

And, really, Junie B. is like a kid in our class!  Now I have to call her mom and let her know what's going on.

My hubby told me not to give it another thought.  Not one more thought, Kristin.  

He thinks my thoughts can be controlled.  Ha!

You'd think he'd know me by now, but apparently not.

I can rest easy, though, because my other families were warm, fuzzy, and they brought me gifts!

Yes!  One parent brought me a Chanel lip gloss.

CHANEL.

She said I could exchange the color, but I like the color.  It's basically a natural lip color and just shows up shiny.  I will be sad when it's gone because I'm assuming a Chanel lip gloss costs about a thousand dollars.

And, not to brag, but another parent brought me honey.  As in, "Thank you for BEE-ing my child's teacher."

And also, not to brag any further, but another parent brought me two whole reams of copy paper.

Cha-ching!

So it's really all okay.  I think.  I don't know.  I can't stop thinking about it.  (Hubby doesn't know I'm still thinking about it, though, so nobody tell him.) 

On a different note, I want to introduce a new bloggy friend!  Her name is Amy and her blog is "Little Miss Organized".  She is SUPER SWEET and leaves me the nicest comments and emails.

Check out her new blog and be sure to follow her - it's really adorable!  She has great ideas, too!

So . . . there you have it.

And, just for the record, I'm never finished with Junie B.  I have never been able to read the whole series in a school year.

So there!!!!!!!!

First Year Bliss Linky

I {almost} can't talk.

Nine parent conferences about did me in on a Monday.  

But I survived.  I said lots of the same things over and over and over again.  

Here are some highlights:  

I love your child.

He is doing amazing!

Your child is above grade level!

He makes me laugh.

I love that your child compliments me.  

 Ditto for his identical twin.

:)

It would all be fine, and a reason to celebrate now that I'm home, except that tomorrow I have fourteen conferences.

Uh huh.

Yep. 

Today was just the warm up.

In the meantime, I'm joining the 3AM Teacher's Linky Party.  Check it out!

Michelle is having her blogiversary and wants us to share a memory about our first year of blogging.

So . . . 

It's hard to pick just one.  You know me.  I'm nothing if not thorough.

Here are a few (several, many, every.single.one) of  my favorite memories.

Kimberly at Funky First Grade Fun introduced me to the bloggy world (because I emailed her and basically begged her to because I thought she seemed so nice, and would do it) and I was so excited that she went through with it and actually did it!  (I have an eye for sweet people who will do things for you against their will.  Let me know if you're ever in need of the same in the future and I'll hook you up.)

Hadar at Miss Kindergarten found me all on her own.  On day one . . . and the rest is history.  Now we don't go a day without texting.  She keeps me sane in this virtual world where I feel like I have no clue what I'm doing.

Can you tell I have no clue what I'm doing?

People started saying that they liked my writing.  This made my heart tingle because I have always wanted to be a writer.  

You started leaving comments on my posts.  Like, GOBS of them.  I LOVE comments!

I finally told my Halloween story and I wasn't arrested.  

Two bloggy meet ups.  No spinach in my teeth.  Delicious french fries and cheesecake, in that order.  Oh, and bloggers.

Bloggy friends.  Sweet, amazing, helpful, wonderful, think-about-them and pray-for-them bloggy friends.

Linky parties.  Currentlys.

Talk About It Tuesdays!!!!  :)

Emails from sweet followers that say the nicest-things-ever.

Companies giving me FREE STUFF!!!!!

Companies giving YOU FREE STUFF!!!!

Blogging, in general.  Just the fact that I can get on here and tell stories.  Like this one or this one.

People still read my blog even though half the time I don't talk about teaching.  

For example, you don't care if I talk about my mammogram or a silly dress debacle.

Beginning to sell on Teachers Pay Teachers and people don't hate me for it.  Instead, they buy my stuff and thank me for making it (aside from the one or two comments I've received stating that I have an error which makes me feel like I'm going to throw up and/or have diarrhea, and then I re-think why I started selling in the first place because I feel like I'm in way over my head, and I want to quit, but I don't quit because I'm kind of addicted and I have a problem).

I feel like I should mention all of the great curriculum, ideas, activities, etc. that I've come across.

So, yeah, there's that, too.  But I almost forgot to say it so I feel like I might just be saying it to sound good.  Does it sound good?

And, well . . . on that note, there's my First Year Bliss of Blogging.

If you can't tell, it's been truly blissful.  :)

Be sure to link up with the 3AM Teacher . . . It's good memories!  (Also, I would appreciate it if someone else could go completely overboard and not follow the directions, as well.)

"/>

Parent Conferences

Happy Saturday!

I am very refreshed.  I slept A LOT last night.  I won't post the number of hours in fear that you may unfollow me.  Or think less of me.  Or, heaven forbid, think I'm lazy.  

Just for the record, I am lazy.  But only on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, summer vacations, hooky days, evenings, mornings, and around lunch time.  That's all.

This coming week is Parent Conference Week.

Glory Be.

I love it.

I told you last year that we get half days on Parent Conference Week.  HALF DAYS.  

We even squeeze in a 15 minute recess and a 30 minute lunch even though the kids go home at 12:30.  I know!!!!  It's the best.  We're having a review week because there is time for little else after the recess and lunch times, super long read aloud, a song or two, and maybe a funny story.

I have crammed my conferences into 3 days.  On purpose.

My first one on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning begins at 7:20am and the last one ends at about 5:30pm.  

Typical day, in my opinion.

So Thursday and Friday, after my kids go home at 12:30, I am going to prep and organize and nap and polish my fingernails.

Anywho, as far as the Parent Conferences go, I conduct my sessions the way a friend (my North Carolina friend) taught me to.

I do not go over the report card, as I used to.

Nope.  I stopped that after I switched schools and the parents no longer said, "Si, Maestra" to whatever it was I think I told them in my choppy Spanish.

The parents at my current school might (maybe, I don't know, I haven't given them a chance to find out) argue about a report card grade.    So I can't show them the report card.  

I just can't.

Instead, I type up notes that pretty much follow the report card.  I go in order of the report card, and show all the data I have, but they never actually see the report card.

They see this:

This is an example.

This student does NOT exist.

And I forgot to add PE because you know I do it every day.

For the required minutes.

I can't believe I forgot it.

After I've gone through all my notes on the page, and showed my data, and all that fun stuff, it's been about 25 minutes and I've gone over my time limit.  As always.

So then I stand up, grab the report card that has been hiding at the bottom of the file folder, hand it over, and say, "Thanks so much for coming!  The report card reflects everything we just talked about."  Meanwhile, I'm walking.  Pretty quickly.  And I may or may not have my hand on their back.  

Then I swing open the door and greet the next parent.

I have neverevereverever had a parent come back to me about a report card grade.

I love it.

You can grab the editable template {HERE}.

And just in case you're wondering about the Sight Words List and Math Fluency Levels, you can check out these programs by clicking on the red links.  :)

I had a couple of questions about the font on my previous post.  It's also the font I used in my example above.

It's from Fonts 4 Teachers.  It's called ABC Teacher.  I also enjoy the ABC Print font.  It's a toss up as to which one is my all time favorite.  I don't like the exclamation point on ABC Teacher and since I'm usually yelling, screaming, or super excited about stuff, this can be a problem.

You can check it out {HERE}.  I have heard a couple of people talk about problems with the downloading . . . I don't know.  I bought mine at a teacher supply store a hundred years ago and it works fine.  So I can't speak for the downloading.

It took a long time to get my Parent Conference notes organized.  Let me tell you - it is not fun.  But it is totally worth it.  I am prepared, look professional, and no one is the wiser that I have no clue what I'm doing and I'm most likely thinking about food during our session time together.

Do you do something similar?  Or do you go over the report card?

I finished up all my notes on Thursday night.

That makes me pretty free today . . . it's a weird feeling.

So . . . lazy day, here I come.  :)

Freebielicious is Fabulicious

So I've sort of been drowning in everything at school and still trying to have a life outside of it . . . like dinner with a good friend (I adore this girl and she reads my blog faithfully so that when I go to catch her up on a story, she already knows the ending!) and bible study and TV, of course.  And let's not forget blogging.  

Drowning, I tell you.  But yesterday, I got a mini-break.  Woo hoo.

We had our Disaster Drill.

You know, in case the Big One hits.  

Earthquakes freak me out.  I grew up in Texas with hurricanes.  No problem.  Then I finished growing up in Oklahoma with tornadoes.  No problem.

You're warned.  You've got time to get ready.  You stand outside with your neighbors and talk about it.  It's all good.

Earthquakes?  

Well, they freak me out.  Not to the point of Aviva-phobia or anything like that, but we've got other things shaking in our house besides the chandelier (not that we have a chandelier, but we have some sort of light contraption that the builder put in that hangs above the table we never sit at for dinner, and it should be replaced, but instead, I buy clipart).  Besides that light contraption, I'm shaking.  Freaking out.  Running to a doorway.  Asking should I be in the doorway or should I duck and cover?  What am I supposed to do again?  And what are we supposed to do with Syd?  And meanwhile, the shaking has stopped in the house and the hubs is still sitting on the couch laughing at me.

So, yeah, we had this big Shake Out thing at school yesterday.  It lasts for about an hour or two or three because of all the fake after shocks.

I'm on the First Aid Team.

I have no idea why.  I think because I'm certified in CPR.  And maybe the Heimlich.  

I'm not certified to sew limbs back together.

Either way, it's a way better team to be on than student supervision, let me tell you.  I get to drop my kids off on the blacktop with some activities to do and walk away.  And other teachers have to supervise them.  I feel awfully sorry for them as I skip away to my station.

So I had a nice hour or two or three spent with the other four adults on my team.  In the shade.

Then it was time for lunch.

No joke. 

It was a nice break and I appreciated it.

Do you do anything like that at your school?  Besides the monthly required fire drills in which I have to repeat 1000 times, "Do not touch the tetherballs on our way out, or on our way back, or you will be in big trouble, mister, this is not recess, this is a fire drill."  Cling.  Clang.  "I just said do not touch the tetherballs!"  And then I also have to say to the requisite one as I hold their hand, "It's just pretend.  Everything is okay.  Please don't wipe your snot on my arm.  You're going to survive.  See that tetherball?  Maybe we can play tetherball after the drill."

I love fire drills, if you can't tell.

No drills here today.  Just a GIVEAWAY.  Remember how I just told you last week that I'm part of a new blog?  

Just last week?

Yeah, well, it's blown up.  It's crazy.  It has 1000 followers already.  So we all wanted to do something together and we're having a huge giveaway.  Check it out!

PS  The font below is ABC Teacher and I love it.  Heart it.  

Greetings friends! We are SO EXCITED to surpass 1,000 followers on Freebielicious. All of the FANTASTIC Freebielicious authors have teamed up for a giveaway like no other. We will pick three winners, one from each category. Giveaway ends Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. EST. GOOD LUCK and no matter what, EVERYONE WINS at Freebielicious!! 

*YOU HAVE TO COMMENT ON THE FREEBIELICIOUS BLOG TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY!! MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TOO. 
GOOD LUCK!

Check out these awesome donations!

Good Luck!

Now, HEAD OVER TO Freebielicious to enter. DO NOT ENTER HERE. YOU MUST ENTER ON THE FL BLOG! :)

Good luck!!  I hope one of my readers wins!

Happy Friday!