SAGE (part 1)

This is going to take some explaining to get to the point of this blog but here goes: 

As most of up you know, I have moved to first grade this year. At first I was forced to move due to allocation and the decision of my boss, but then I came to an understanding, got over myself, accepted it and have grown to love the change. With the placement of students from kindergarten group into first grade, I ended up with about half my students from last year. They are good kids, mean well despite some home lives and we understand each other. They know me and my expectations of them and my rules, and I know them, their family lives, what I can expect of them and what they want to expect from me. I consider myself to be lucky because I love all my kids and I think we have a good community vibe amongst all of us. However, I do have 20 students and that is two over the SAGE limit (18). 

SAGE is when your school is over 70% poverty all classrooms K-3 are 18 or under. It used to be 15, then it was 16, and now the limit is 18. The idea behind it is good because when we have a higher poverty school - which means more social, emotional, behavioral and trauma experienced children - we need a smaller teacher to student ratio so we can do our best to meet those needs of each and every student. 

At the beginning of each year we have what is called a "third-Friday-count." It is exactly what it says:  the third Friday in September the district does a count of all the kids in each grade in each school (all 44 elementary, 8 middle, and 5 high school). Based on those numbers, they allocate (distribute) that amount of teachers at each school. Sometimes they have to add or take away teachers depending on the number of teachers already there. For example, if a school had 15-16 students in 2 classrooms at 3rd Friday, they would decide that for the rest of the year there would only need to be 2 classrooms - no extra teachers. On our third friday count we had 17-17-16 in each first grade classroom (3 classrooms). With the limit at 18 those numbers are a bit high because our transient/mobile numbers are usually very high throughout the year. We gain and lose students every first of the month....all year...

So in summary so far, our numbers are reaching SAGE limit at third Friday count and the district decides to keep us where we are. We are thankful we did not lose any teachers. Little did we know, that from September until now we would be WAY OVER....in more ways than one...

Lawyer Up!

A couple weeks back some friends and I were at the bar Hodie in Middleton. The group of us enjoyed the live band playing cover songs, some shuffle board games and some darts. It was a good evening and one of the guys in the group ended up getting my number. In the next hour after that, I come to find out that he is a really weird guy and that one of the girls in my group actually hooked up with him - ok then I'm not interested...

We were sitting at one of the high tables chatting when I made eye contact with a guy at the next table. We made some more eye contact and I realized it wasn't just me. The next time I looked he was leaning over to look at me, so I smiled and waved him over. He came over, we introduced ourselves and started chatting. He was a really good listener, asked lots of questions, has a great laugh and is SO attractive - let's call him Brent (the lawyer). While we are talking, I notice out of the corner of my eye the other guy gets kind of upset and leaves abruptly - oh well. Brent asks if he can take me out sometime and I said I would like that. He got my number and as we continued to chat the lights came on - signaling bar time (2:00). We said our goodbyes and I went home hoping he'd call (not all of them do). 

As I get home, I get a text from Brent telling me that he definitely plans to call me soon to go out and that he hopes I got home ok. That was really sweet of him - girls like it when guys do that - FYI. More next time on how our date went and what's hopefully to come 😉

Craigslist Killer over

So an update on what has been happening lately! 

Craigslist guy (Ben) and I went out and it was a good first date! We got along well and had a good time. He did end up driving here for work so he was in town, but otherwise he would have had to drive 2.5 hours! That's quite a ways away for a date. 

About a week went by and even though we chatted on the phone frequently I was not sure I wanted to continue as he was so far away. He and I were texting one night and I decided to tell him that I wasn't feeling it. We went back and forth and because I don't like lying about this stuff, I told him that it was pretty much the distance and that I don't like driving long distances for dating. Well he didn't like that answer and in a nice way, refused that answer. He said "I didn't put an ad on Craigslist to give up right away because of distance." He drives for his work and said he didn't mind driving. He made a good point so I agreed to do a second date. This time he wanted to drive to Madison for our date. We went to dinner and stayed for about 4 hours talking. We said our goodbyes and he drove all the way home at 10:30. Yes, he drove 5 hours round trip for a 4 hour date! He was really sweet. 

We ended up doing a third date as well. I decided that because he drove all the way for the second date, that I would meet him halfway this next time. A coworker of mine said he better be worth that much driving! I've never driven this far for a date. We met in Rockford, Illinois and had dinner and watched the Bears game. It was a good time but I did not enjoy driving an hour and a half back and forth! 

After the third date I decided to end it for real this time. Just couldn't do it not only for the distance but also because we had some different beliefs. He is way more religious than I am (almost pushy), and his family doesn't drink because of something that happened in the past. He doesn't even have a sip of a drink in front of his family. So you're saying holidays are a snooze?! 

I don't think he was very happy about it, and I did feel bad about it because he really was a nice guy and quite attractive, he just wasn't what I am looking for right now. 

iPads in the classroom

Here are some of my students working on my new donated iPads! They absolutely LOVE it and are so engaged!! 

Craigslist killer

I know the tittle sounds crazy but this is a good story...

In my last blog I told you how I met with a friend for drinks at The Great Dane and that I saw my ex. Well there is also something else that I didn't mention that continues this story...

As my friend and I were sitting at the table having drinks and catching up, I noticed there was quite an attractive guy sitting at a table next to us. Throughout the evening he and I made eye contact quite a bit. After a while, he and his friend got up to leave. He looked at me for a long minute and then left. I was disappointed that he didn't say hi but forgot about it after that.

The next night I'm at home relaxing and watching tv. I start to think about that guy from the night before and I decide that I'm just going to wander onto the Craigslist site "Missed Connections." Probably will never happen but you never know! Sure enough there was an ad for me on there! I took a picture of it and it's attached below. 

I ended up responding and we've been talking ever since. We are going on a date tomorrow as he will be in town (lives two hours away😕). We call each other the creepy Craigslist killer even though it's nothing like that - but it is funny! 

I'll keep you posted on the date! 

Run in

Last night I met for drinks with an old friend from hgh school. It was so good to see her and catch up! We were there for a while and about after an hour or more, I glance up and see my ex coming in to sit at the bar. 

Let me preface this by the fact that he messages me two nights before asking: "will be in town on Wednesday if you wanna grab a cocktail?" I said "Thanks but I have plans." I would have had "plans" even if I didn't! P

Anyways he walks in and doesn't see me or if he does, he plays it off well. I kind if freak out because I don't know what to do. I don't want to talk to him or see him but I want him to recognize that we're in the same room and I want him to feel uncomfortable. But then I remember he doesn't really know the truth about why I REALLY broke up with him (refer to blogs 'Time heals all wounds' and 'the phone call'). So my friend helps me out and tells me when I can move my stool so my back is to him. It's hard not to look but as she and I chatted more, I realized it was not worth it. We said our goodbyes and I drove 2 blocks down to another friends' place to tell her all about it! 

I have such great friends... 😄

33 of 180

Today we had our first field trip of the year. We went to the overture Center for a show called Doktor Kaboom! I had never heard of him before but when I looked up the synopsis of what his show would be like it's described with fun science experiments, explosions, and audience participation. The kids were super pumped about the field trip and couldn't wait to go! 

We got to the Overture Center and had to drive around in our bus to find a parking spot in the rain. When you get to the overture Center it is always crazy and full of people walking in the doors all at the same time. It seems like mass chaos - trying to corral all of our 32 kids and keeping track of them is quite stressful. We finally get to our seats in the Capitol theater and I am sweating like crazy! 

The lights go down and Doktor Kaboom walks out onto the stage. We are all pumped and waiting in excitement for what he is going to do...are you as excited to find out as we were?! Well don't be...

He came on to the stage and started chatting about science and what it means. He then proceeded to do an experiment where a rubber glove is sucked into a jar - example of a vacuum. That's cool and all, but from where we were sitting, it wasn't much. This also took 15 minutes because he explained it all along with personal stories - we don't care, just show us more stuff! More than half of what he said went over the kids heads. Next experiment was a catapult. Sounds cool but when he tries to shoot 25 pieces of banana into a girls mouth and it doesn't work, there should have been a time to let it go and move on! That took another 20 minutes. The last two science experiments were about the same. The worst part of the show was his constant jibber jabber at an excessive speed in a German accent - the kids just could not keep up! 

During the show the kids got really antsy - I couldn't blame them - I was texting a fellow teacher up a couple rows! One of my students asked me about mid-show: "can we go home yet?" We all know that when a student asks you to go back to school to do work instead of being on a field trip means this SUCKS. After a bit longer, another one of my students asks me when we can leave. Thank goodness it was only 5 minutes longer! The show was an hour and the Doktor did only 4 experiments. We were hoping for some explosions or fire! Your name is KABOOM for goodness sakes! 

When we got back to school I sat the kids down and we discussed how you can have expectations and hopes and how they might not always be what you thought. I told them that we would make a rocket (like the Doktor did) late on in the year and they got pretty excited about that.

You can't win 'em all and I am so proud of my students for doing the best they could!