a compliment and a sneaky little boy

there are five very important colors in my classroom.

green, orange, blue, purple, red.

it's my classroom management system. when i give you several warnings and you do not change your action, you change a color.

you start each day on green. if you end on green, it means you've had a fabulous day. orange means you have a "serious warning." it's gets much worse from there.

i have a little boy who happens to be quite, ahem...active (as kdp put it). he had to pull a color and get an orange dot put in his take home folder on the second day of school. it just so happens that on the third day of school, we had a parent orientation in which i covered many aspects of the school and my classroom. one of the issues i covered was that of the colors and behaviors chart. at the end of my little behavior schpeel, this boy's dad, looks up with a grin and says,

"ian told me it was a compliment."

"uh...huh?" (that was me)

"Yeah, ian told me that an orange dot was a compliment."

we laughed and i explained that orange was unfortunately not a compliment. poor little guy.

poor teacher. he's yet to get another green.

sick.

i'm sick. i'm just plain sick.

i'll organize anything. if i see it, and it's near me for any extended period of time, i'll organize it. it's a disease that has no cure.

you don't believe me? i have proof.

last night at the store, i bought a nice little plastic container of q-tips. the perfect thing for michael and i in our one bedroom living state. i opened the package last night so that i wouldn't make any noise for michael while i was getting ready.

this morning, i reached for the q-tips on the dresser (from the floor), i grabbed the lid and as i pulled the container off of the dresser, the lid popped open, spilling the 14 million q-tips to the ground.

"crap."

i stuff them all back in in a way that wouldn't even permit the lid to close. so, tonight, i'm sitting here watching tv and i catch a glimpse of the box, next to the mirror, overrun with q-tips. i brought the box to the bed, dumped out the tips and began replacing them.

when i was finished, i shut the lid with a smile...and clapped.

exhibit A:

told ya so.

just stuff.

• things are going well at school. there are a few kids that i'm worried about being totally annoyed with throughout the year; but for the most part, i think it's gonna be good.

• michael and i are still living in one bedroom in his co-workers house.

• we are eating out for every meal.

• we are ready for a home-cooked meal or just a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with hot cheetos (the spicy kind) and milk.

• we are trying to decide between an apartment and just spending a little more money for a rent house.

• our house still hasn't sold and i've built a wall so far between me and the selling of the house, that i usually don't even remember that we have a house on the market in san angelo.

• i have new blisters on my heels from new "more comfortable" shoes.

• living in a classroom without a printer is really, really hard.

• i miss marme and daddy, landon and sarah and ellie, matthew and mandy.

• i don't want to drive this weekend, but i wanna go home.

• when a window unit and a blow dryer are plugged in and turned on in a fan/lit room, you cannot have a cell phone charger plugged in as well without blowing a fuse.

• your husband gets cranky when you ask him to get out of bed at 5:45 to go flip the switch to a blown fuse.

• we miss our dogs.

• ocean's eleven is a really good movie.

• my new bed time is about...uh...right now.
  

you know what's scary?

watching kids practice writing their abc's. especially when they look to the board after each letter to see what comes next.

whoa.

now that is scary.

first day flowers

i fell in love with one of my little boys the first time i saw him at meet the teacher. he is really short, tanned little face and white blond hair (he reminds me of my handsome mason!). his name is shaun. he came to school crying the first day. it's a little hard to leave mom after being with her for a whole summer, ya know?! he came to school crying, but he brought me this beautiful rose. how lucky am i?



i got an apple too! first day of school, first apple this year, from the girl who threw up after the first lunch. poor courtney. uh...yeah, story to follow...

right now. story is following right now.

we go to recess directly after lunch. someone usually cries at least once every other week at recess. everyone is always "hurt" and something is always "wrong". josh came over to tell me that courtney was hurt. she eventually found her way over to me. she wasn't hurt, she was just crying hysterically and saying she missed her mom. i kept trying to calm her down and eventually told her to go in and go to the restroom. i let her take another girl with her. i watched them as they walked towards the door and back out to the playground, back towards the door and back to the playground once again. by this time, it was time for us to line up and go inside.

when we made our way back in, we stopped at the restrooms for a break. courtney was next in line and had quieted her crying quite a bit (because i told her too because she was loud in the hallway) when out of nowhere, she throws up all over the floor. gross!

poor baby. i don't think she was really sick. i think she just worked herself into a frenzy and made herself sick. i felt really badly for her. her mom said she was fine the rest of the day.

i never did eat that apple.

classroom kotze

okay, i know. it's about time. and it is, it's the exact time. it's school time.

my first day in first grade at steubing elementary was a little crazy. i think the craziest part was just the schedule. it's just that we have our rotation (like pe and music) time at 9:30 in the morning. that should always be an afternoon time for young kids. especially because they're the most awake in the mornings and that's the best time for teaching, not physical activity. but, oh well, we're stuck with what they give us.

anyway, the first day wasn't too bad, just a little less organized than i usually prefer my classroom. the second day was much better and today seems like things are starting to get normal. by the end of the week, i am hoping for a normal day fulfilling all of the parts of my schedule. i'll let you know how that goes.

i've ended up with 18 kids and it feels great! that's a pretty low number for me. i'm used to the full enchilada (22) all year long. 10 girls. 8 boys. perfect. too many boys=too much chaos. too many girls=too much drama. this might be a pretty good combination. seems to be so far. i'll let you know how that goes too.

my coworkers are really awesome and i'm enjoying getting to know them. i do miss my friends from lamar though. i don't know if i'll ever forget them, they're so wonderful. but these gals sure make good friends.

one really great thing (although i was only around the corner and 3 minutes from work in san angelo) is in the midst of san antonio, it still only takes me 15 minutes to get to work. i'm heading away from the major traffic pile ups (thank goodness!)

so, for the first three days of first grade 2007-2008 i'm pretty happy. now, pictures of my classroom.

the view of classroom kotze from the door.
(that's a math wall, if you were wondering, i know you were!)
the view from the reading station.

the front of the room.my little nook (it took me forever to figure out what to do.
i kept wanting to change it but nothing else ever worked!) i like it now!

there ya go...classroom kotze in a nutshell.

teachers

have a great first day of school. hope it all goes well!

i'm thinking of you...in my spare time of course.

marme

i miss you.

school

well, i stayed at the school all day today. i worked as much as i could and, of course, my classroom still isn't all the way ready. i really am ready for it to be done. i am hoping to get everything finished by tomorrow at 4:30. that's meet-the-teacher time. it lasts until 6 and then michael will be going to san angelo. i am hoping to be able to go with him.

home.

one last weekend before school starts. i'm hoping for one last weekend at home before i begin another year.

you may not realize this, but teachers could probably spend two weeks straight, 10 hours a day in their classrooms before school starts and they probably still wouldn't be ready for the first day. i need more time.

I NEED MORE TIME!!!!!

also-NISD held our convocation today. we were the last one to be held for the 07-08 school year. there were 8 before us. 12 schools attended each convocation. that's alot of schools! there are 80,000+ students in northside. this is the fourth largest district in the state. it's way different than san angelo. but, in it's own way, it's cool.

the superintendent here is really good. he takes everything very seriously. i was just really impressed with him today. he led the whole thing. there wasn't someone else there in charge with him as the guest speaker, he was IT. he did the whole thing. it was like a huge pep rally and it was really cool.

it was fun. i had fun.

but, I NEED MORE TIME!

missing ellie

there are days when i just really miss my sister. today (and the past few days) is just one of those times. she is my first sister and the best one i could wish for.

however, today i am missing ellie too. i need to see them. it's time for a girl's weekend so we can shop and hang out and just sit around and do nothing but talk (sarah and i are really good at that!). i can't wait until we get to do that again. i hope it's soon!

i was just going through my pictures and i found this one of my sweet ellie belle. isn't she sweet? just so you know, she's smiling at me! ;)


sister- i miss you so much. you are so special to me and i am truly blessed to have you in my life. thanks for being who you are and for being such a wonderfully, fabulous friend. you're the best. i love you so much and can't wait until we can get together again. it's time for some serious talking about nothing serious. ;) i love you, sister.