So Blessed

I am thankful for my savior...
     who loves me unconditionally and perfectly
     whose peace surpasses all understanding
     who longs to have a relationship with me
     despite my imperfection
     who forgives me over and over and over again
     who gives me strength each day
     whose will is perfect
     who has plans for my life better than any plan
     I could come up with

I am thankful for parents...
     that love the Lord
     that love each other
     that love me and my sister
     that cared for me
     that taught me good morals
     that paid attention to me
I've seen too many cases of students who don't have this to take my parents for granted.

I am thankful for co-workers...
     that love their jobs
     that encourage one another
     that care for their students
     that have positive attitudes

I am thankful for my students...
     that make me laugh everyday
     that randomly let me know they enjoy my class
     that humble me often

I am thankful for my fiance...
     who loves me
     who makes me laugh
     who loves the Lord
     who loves his momma
     who is silly
     who does things when he gets ready to
     who can be messy and unorganized
     who has some quirky tendencies

I am thankful for my sister...
     who I can laugh with
     who has the creative skills that I lack
     who is fun to hang out with
     who knows what I'm thinking with a quick
     glance across the table

I am thankful for my friends...
     who support me
     who are always there for me
     who are just a phone call away
     who I'm proud to call my friends
     who I can cry and laugh with
     whose strength is a daily encouragement to me

I am thankful for my family...
     which isn't perfect
     who have taught me how to endure through thick and thin
     who love one another
     who laugh often
     who support me and one another
     who are proud of me

I am thankful for sunlight in my classroom windows

I am thankful for sweet tea

I am thankful for good books

I am thankful for my dog

I am thankful for a reliable car

I am thankful for my job

I am thankful for comfortable sweat pants

I am thankful for a safe place to live 

I am thankful for food in the fridge 
and home cooked meals

"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!" Psalm 107: 1

Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all!

Duty Free

We had duty free lunch on Wednesday. That means the administration watched our students and we, the teachers, got to eat a home cooked meal in the quiet of the library. It was glorious and much appreciated! I may have had to be called back to my kids because I tried to extend my lunch as long as possible. Whoops!

We did a jumping jack project in class this past week. We're beginning to work on functions, function tables, and linear equations. So, we were filling in a function table for number of jumping jacks in a 90 second time period, dividing it into 10 second sections. It was quite a complicated experiment as many things were going on at one time, but the students enjoyed it. And, it was hilarious! I don't know how you make it to 7th grade without learning how to do a jumping jack, but many of my students have. And, I'm okay with that because it was so funny to watch! Their coordination, or lack thereof, could win me a million dollars on America's Funniest Home Videos; if only I'd had a video camera.

In this experiment, each group had four people. One to jump; one to count; one to record; and one to keep time. I was helping one group keep time because they couldn't figure out how to keep track of 10 seconds. So, as I'm watching the clock, this is what I hear, "...61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 40!" I looked at him confused and he goes, "...72, 73, 74..." and keeps on going. He said 40 so assertively and confidently like it has always come after 69, but wasted no time continuing with the 70s.

It's getting cold outside and the weather change this time of year makes all of our skin a little dried out and itchy feeling. My students have been all about asking for lotion this past week. In the middle of anything and everything this is what I hear, "Ms. Hemric, you got any lotion?" I don't keep lotion for students to use so I quickly answer no and move on. Well, during this jumping jack project the other day, a boy asks me for some lotion and I tell him I don't have any. A few minutes later I hear someone say, "That's NOT lotion!" I turn around and this young man is rubbing this all over his arms.

And, yes, this does look like soap, but if you look closely, you will notice this is in fact soap. I considered not even telling him it was soap, but figured that would cause him to get even more itchy as the day went on. So, after fussing at him for touching my stuff (that is not allowed in my class room), I let him go wash his arms. At least he smelled good the rest of the day and killed all the germs on his arms!


I have a boy in my class who is very quiet and rarely says anything. I gradually got him to at least say, "Good" when I ask him how he is when he comes in class. Well, the other week I put students in pairs to work. All of the sudden I hear someone raising his voice. I turn around to fuss at who ever is fussing at his partner and it's this student who never says anything. He and his partner were arguing about which terms you could combine in the expression. The quiet boy is saying, "YOU HAVE TO ADD THE X's AND YOU CAN'T ADD THEM TO THE Y'!s" I was so excited that he was participating so actively. Since he was on task, I didn't have to ask him to be quiet. Well, Wednesday we had an even bigger break through. You see this boy never raises his hand in class. He's smart and usually knows the answer, but has never volunteered to answer a question. And, he never shares good things because he is that shy. But, Wednesday he did! He raised his hand and told me he was getting to go to the Carolina Hurricanes game this weekend. I, of course, acted like it was no big deal that he shared a good thing, while inside I was so excited to see this young man come out of his shell!!

Dad and I have been listening to Christmas music a lot lately! I LOVE the holiday season. I'm excited to share all of the excitement with my students this year and am excited that next year, Stephen and I will get to begin our own holiday traditions!

I know you're all wondering why mine and Stephen's face were not plastered all over the news when we got engaged like Prince Charles and Kate's have been this week. Before you go boycotting the media, you should know that Stephen and I turned down the media and interviews. They obviously couldn't get a hold of our story fast enough, but we asked them to hold off.

PS only two more days of school until Thanksgiving break! I can. not. wait! The kids AND teachers are more than ready for three days off!

Nothing in Particular

sorry it's been so long...

lists
This blog started out as a list of things for me to write about. That is how my life operates. If something doesn't get put on my list, I will forget it. I must be getting old or something. I always feel bad when I tell my students I will do something, and then don't. I've learned that I have to right it down when I say I will do it. Sometimes I will forget by the time I get to my desk to write it down. I'm trying though and I'm getting better...slowly but surely.

new car
I bought a new car last week. A 2008 Nissan Sentra. My Honda (98 with 185,000+ miles on it) lasted me four and a half years. When it began to fall apart, it did so quickly. It would go through spells of being fine and then something major would happen. This last time it began over heating and was leaking oil some where...which has been going on for a while. But, water was also beginning to get in where the oil was supposed to be. Oil and water shouldn't mix in a car. The weekend after dad "fixed" it, I was scared the whole 2 miles from home to school as I drove in the pouring rain not sure I'd make it out of the middle of Roxboro Rd. I went to the bank immediately after school on Monday and applied for a loan. I've been looking at cars off and on for several months without ever seriously going forward with the purchase because I didn't want the car payment. When your car could literally die at any moment, you get a little more serious about a new mode of transportation. Tuesday I got approved, Wednesday I went and picked out a car, and Thursday I went and finalized the sale. To top it all off, they gave me $1500 for my car!! Dad didn't think we'd get $1000 for it. It's nice to get in the car and not have to worry about any light on the dashboard coming on. I plan to drive this thing for a while!

 

how do you spell x
Last week we were learning about algebraic expressions. So, we were writing expressions from phrases and phrases from expressions. For example, 2x means two times x. Four less than y is y - 4.
On several occasions I would have students raise their hand and say, "How do you spell x?" Or, "How do you spell y?"
Oh seventh graders...


hero
I had my windows open the other day and 2 yellow jackets decided they would rather be in my classroom than outside in the nice fresh fall weather. Flying, buzzing pests have the potential to cause a lot of commotion. You have people who are scared of them, then those who get scared when the flying thing decides to randomly fly into their face; some are scared of them because they are allergic, and then there are the boys who want to follow the things around and try to kill them. Well, not only did two bees decide to enter my classroom, they chose my craziest class to come in on. Things went from crazy to crazier in that class. Three boys were up chasing the bees while the girls were screaming and running from the bees. One boy finally killed the first one with his finger...this is the same boy who decided to play with a snake at the football game earlier this year. I wasn't too worried about him killing it when he chases after snakes to play with. Then, the other bee thing decided to hang out at the top of my windows not really bothering anyone, but still provided a major distraction as everyone is trying to watch its every move. The next thing I know the snake handler, bee killing boy is on my counter trying to kill the other one. I started to just let him until the bee came toward him and naturally his reflexes made him jump back causing him to almost fall. I quickly made him get down before he got hurt and I got sued before Christmas of my first year of teaching. This little bee was still crawling around my window. So, to take the distraction away, I decided to climb on the counter and kill it with my shoe. When I did, you would have thought I had just won a good medal by the cheers from my students. It's the little things in life...


good things
Everyday at the beginning of class we share good things. Students can share any good thing about school, life, friends, etc. They love it and always have something they want to share with me. It has been a great way to build relationships with them as I get a glimpse into things about them outside of the math classroom. Well, the other day one of my boys raised his hand for good things and said, "Lil Wayne gets out of jail today!" He was so excited about that. Although it made me question his decision making in regards to who he looks up to, that was the most excited I have seen this boy all year. So, Lil Wayne, if you ever read my blog, make smart choices. You've got impressionable seventh graders watching you.


fall
This is my current view outside of my classroom window. Hello, fall!

hot chocolate
I got this cute coffee cup from our fall fundraiser. It was a total rip off. However, I have quite enjoyed my hot chocolate in the mornings out of it.

short weeks
Last week we had a teacher workday on Monday. Although I technically still had a 5-day work week, it is SO nice to have a whole day to myself with no kids at school. I didn't get as much done this teacher work day as I did on the last one, but it was still nice to have the day. Then, this week, we had Thursday off. I thought it was going to be so nice having two short weeks in a row. And, as nice as it was to have a day off, the three days leading up to that day off were so loooooong. However, that day off was so nice! Sleeping in in the middle of a week is something unheard of these days


extra hour of sleep
I had gotten used to the pitch blackness of the morning. I knew exactly how many steps to take before the steps started and exactly how many steps it is to the bottom to ensure I didn't fall in the morning as I left the house. But, turning the clocks back last week did provide a nice extra hour of sleep. During good things earlier this week, one girl said, "I love getting an extra hour of sleep every night now!" I said, "You know you only got that extra hour one night." Her response was, "You mean we don't get an extra hour every night now?!?" Me: "Nope." Her: "Ohh."


annoyed
I have to be honest. Even though I shouldn't be, I have been very annoyed lately. You see, Algebra was and still is my favorite part of math. I like it; I get it; It's fun for me. It's hard for me to understand that it is hard for some people to get. So, after explaining the same concepts what feels like hundreds of times, I have gotten very annoyed when I get called over to answer a question that I feel like I have clearly explained a million times already. Part of me just wants to scream, "HOW CAN YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THIS??" However, that is only part...and a small part...of my annoyance. The other part is: one, they don't try and just want me to tell them the answer and two, they don't listen when I do go over it and over it and over it and over it AND over it. If you truly don't get it, I will gladly explain it again. But, when you just stare at me waiting for me to give you the answer, I occasionally want to scream. I especially want to scream after I've said, "Listen to this so you know how to do it." Then. the second I say, "Okay, begin," I have at least 3 hands raised saying, "I don't get it!" "I don't know what to do." UGH! Okay, thanks for letting me vent. Sometimes its necessary. I love my students; I really do. Some days they just really annoy me.


North Carolina Middle School Journal
I have a quote in the North Carolina Middle School Journal this issue! The professor I worked for last year was a guest editor for this issue and wrote an article in honor of one of the Founding Fathers of the Middle School Movement and who I had the honor of studying under at App. Check it out:
North Carolina Middle School Association Journal
In this article (page 5, second column, about half way down):
"C. Kenneth McEwin: North Carolina Middle Grades Education Groundbreaker, Trailblazer, and Caretaker"


wedding
Things I have checked off the to-do list:
(in no particular order)
Book ceremony site
Book reception site
Book photographer
Pick out bridesmaids dresses
Make a wedding gown appointment
Book the DJ
Book the florist
Set the date
Ask attendants
Make guest list
Set the budget
Choose our cake person
Schedule engagement session
Make inspiration notebook
Began wedding website--not ready to debut quite yet


All of the credit for these things goes to Mom and Allyson! This wedding won't come together without them. Even though the attention will be on me July 30, 2011, they should be the ones getting the credit!

boone
I got to go to Boone this weekend to see Steph accept her scholar athlete ring. The weather was perfect and the company was even better. Laura went with me and we had a great time doing more shopping and hanging out than watching football. We may have only made it to the football game for halftime and then left at the end of half time. Well, we did see about three minutes of the second quarter. In that three minutes App scored twice. And, they scored another time on our way out as the third quarter began. App won, Steph got her ring, Laura and I got to shop, we didn't have to ride the bus, and we had Daniel Boone Inn for dinner. I'd say Saturday was GREAT day! :) I really miss Boone. I don't have any copies of the pics of the three of us together...check out tagged pics on facebook soon for those. But, I did get to see Stephen some, which made the weekend that much better! Please pardon the ridiculous facial hair...it's no shave November.

In Awe

Last week we had a full moon. One morning when I was driving into work, the moon had almost completely set, but was still high enough for me to see. Although this picture is courtesy of Google images, this is about what I saw.

It was more orange than this and absolutely breathtaking. I'm not a morning person...especially these mornings when it is pitch black outside. However, I am beginning to appreciate these dark mornings because I get to enjoy the beauty of the Lord's creation. 

Since it is dark when I get to school, I get to watch the sunrise each morning. It peaks over the trees much like it is in the picture below. Each morning we have a literacy class. My day starts out with 20 minutes of silent reading. My students and I all read individually for 20 minutes. It's great! To monitor the class and still get to read myself, I sit on my counter at the front of the room. This puts me in the perfect spot to watch the sun come up over the trees. I love to see and experience God's creation and how beautiful it is. Everyday He amazed me with His creation when I lived in Boone. The sunrise each morning is quickly becoming one of my favorite times of the day as I get to sit and marvel at His awesomeness! I like to think it's His way of saying good morning to me each day. Sunrises on days when it's cloudy are even better because the sun creates all of these magnificent colors among the clouds. It's a great start to my often crazy days!

We studied coordinate planes last week. I love the picture graphs and was so excited to introduce these to my students. Most of them loved them too and wanted to keep doing them every free moment they had. So, to brag on them, I thought I would show you some of their work. Some classes got to do an ACC graph of either Duke, Carolina, NC State, or Wake Forest. I had many more Carolina graphs than Duke graphs. As much as it pained me to hang these on my wall, I did what I had to...

Quote of the Week:
From a boy: "What happens if I'm in the bathroom...you know...on the toilet...when the fire alarm goes off?"

Me: "Finish up as quickly as possible and get outside."
Him: "What if you know it's going to be a while and you can't just finish up?"
Me: "Then I guess you'll just burn up."

Picture of the Week:
To top that conversation: Please notice the picture graph below. I didn't see this until I was hanging it on my wall. And, yes, it is proudly hanging in my classroom right now. Please see that this boy's dog is drooling and has pooped! And, I might add, the dog seems very happy with himself with a smile on his face. haha

Fowl Play

A bird flew into my classroom window this week and killed itself.

I was helping a student with some work when I saw this white thing hit my window. Some students were in a group playing a game so they were facing the window and saw it. When I asked what it was, they informed me it was a bird. I thought someone was outside throwing something at my window. I still didn't really believe it was a bird...do birds really fly into windows?? So, I went over to look expecting to see a shoe or something laying outside my window. Sure enough, laying on its back, dead as a door nail was a bird. Of course, everyone had to come see. I went back and checked on several times throughout the day thinking maybe it had just knocked itself out. Nope. All day it laid there on its back, unmoving. My window isn't even clean! I don't know what made it decide to take a flight into the wall of a school. I'm just thankful my windows weren't open, which they usually are that time of day. Although, that might have made for a funnier story. I don't handle birds being inside too well...they freak me out when they are scared and frantically flying all over the place.

On another note, I love how I can instantly tell when a student has done something wrong. All I have to do is look up when I hear something and inevitably someone will have a guilty look on his/her face. Crime solved. However, there are some students who can keep their face stone cold and lie until they are blue in the face about what they did. Lucky for me, they are the ones who do things right in front of you and then still deny it. "I wasn't talking." "I didn't do it." Me: "I saw you." "I saw your lips moving." Them: "But, I wasn't talking." "It wasn't me." "I didn't do it." Why is it one extreme or the other? Do they learn how to lie like that because it seems the majority of them are really bad liars? Why do they feel like they need to lie? Oh the workings of a 7th grade brain...I have two degrees in middle grades education and they still puzzle me on a daily basis.

Wedding planning is moving right along thanks to my mom and sister. They seem to have more time to think about and research it. I think I'll let them handle it all and just give my opinion as needed. I did buy this big wedding organizer/planner this weekend. I love to have things organized so finding that was super exciting! Allyson is making me an inspiration notebook right now with all the pictures I have saved the past few months of things I like. I am meeting with a photographer this week and we hope to have the date set by the end of this week. Stephen is coming home this weekend for fall break. Yay!! We are going to sit down with our families and really get the ball rolling on some of the details Saturday. Happy wedding planning to us!

20 Questions...

...and then some

As requested, here are some of the questions that came flooding out of my mouth in the seconds and minutes after Stephen and I got engaged. I wish I could remember the order of them, but it all happened so quickly that in my mind they are all clumped together as one huge moment of curiosity. And, who better else to answer them other than my fiance himself. Please welcome guest blogger and my fiance, Stephen Snyder. His answers, straight from him, are in italics.

Stephen, is this for real?
Yes!  I'm for real this time.

This ring is real?
Nope, it's fake.  This is another joke. (Sarcasm)

You're serious right now?
Yes, I'm serious.

Did you ask my parents?
Do you think I'm stupid?  Of course I did.

When did you do that?
When I was in town for your Grand Dad's memorial service.

When did you get the ring?
Labor Day weekend.  The night you, Allyson, Michael Wilson, and I went to dinner at Chili's.  That's why we kept trying to push the time back and Michael and I were so late.

So, Michael Wilson knows?
Yep, I hung out with him last night when I went to Durham to get the ring.

Who else knows?
Everyone.

What do you mean everyone knows?
I told them.

Have they all seen the ring too?
No, just a hand full of people have seen it.  

You were in Durham last night?
Yep and thanks for telling me where you were going to eat dinner last night so I knew not to go there with my mom.

Does Steph know?
No, I haven't seen her.

Can we go tell her?
Sure.  But I thought you were hungry.

Can we go eat now? I'm starving.
Yes.

Does your mom know?
Yeah she does and she's ready to tell everyone.

Has your mom seen the ring?
Yeah, it's been sitting at our house for a few days.

This is really for real?
Yes.

We're actually going to get married?
Yes!

When?
When do you want to get married?

How did you ask my parents without me knowing?
I was at your house and you went to bed around 8:00. [Erin here. I did not go to bed at 8. It was probably more like 8:30 :) ]  I stayed over and watched the football game with your dad.  So after you went to bed, I asked them.

Does Allyson know?
She knows I have the ring, but doesn't know I was proposing tonight.

Has she seen the ring?
No.

So, when we get back to your apartment, everyone is going to know that we're engaged?
Yes.  There might even be a cake waiting for us.

How long have you had this planned?
I was planning on doing it later this month, but then earlier this week I found out I was planning on doing it on fall break so that wasn't going to work.  So I made plans to do it tonight. 

Typical boy answers...short and sweet. :) Stevo's not all into the mushy gushy. I hope you enjoyed hearing a little from his point of view. Kel, just because I wrote a post about this doesn't mean we don't need to get dinner soon. EKAD date soon??

Engagement Tree

So, because of all the excitement and my starvation, we forgot to take a picture of the tree we watched the sunset in. Well, lucky for us, this site is a favorite hang out spot among our friends. I found some pictures of the tree on facebook today and thought I would share.

 I love black and white pictures...especially of trees. This tree would make a perfect black and white image! So, that made this location even more perfect for me!

Coming Soon...A post about all the questions I had for Stephen after he proposed.

PS Go me for a mid-week post. Yea, I'm procrastinating when I should be grading papers, planning for next week, and getting about 100,000,000 other things done. But, this is more fun.