The Fortune Cookie from Hell

Today was my first experience with the TAKS test from an administrators point of view. I must say that I did not like it all. I found that today I was more irritable than normal. It was probably the unrealistic expectation for me to have 22 students remain quiet and still for at least 4 hours. I can't even do that myself for 4 minutes! Oh well, all I can do is hope for the best. Speaking of hoping for the best that reminds me of the mass amounts of Chinese food I consumed yesterday.

Last night I went over to my dad's house. His birthday, my step mom's birthday, and their anniversary are all in March. I planned on taking them out to a nice dinner. However that changed when I arrived. They decided that they wanted to eat in. I asked what they wanted and they were craving Chinese food. I called the Chinese restaurant on the corner and picked up every Chinese dish that could be made with chicken. It was rather delicious. Toward the end of the meal I started talking to my parents about the TAKS test and my kids. As I was talking I reached for my fortune cookie and cracked it open. Much to my dismay it read, "Hope for the best, but anticipate failure". I almost fell out of my chair! Was this a precursor for my class's TAKS scores! I was a wreck the rest of the night.

I hope they did well. We had a huge talk before the test about how much I believed in them and knew they could do it. 

After work today I took my computer to the Apple Store. Since Friday there was a flashing blue icon of a file folder and it would not do anything else. I found out that my hard drive pooped out and everything on my computer was lost. That was little disheartening since I can't remember if there was anything important on it. I hope that was the failure I was to anticipate. 

Off To The Races!!!!

Friday after school one of my students asked me to come to one of his Cub Scout Events on Saturday. It was a car race. I don't remember quite what he said but in my head I pictured the race where kids build their own go kart and race them.

On Saturday when I arrived, I was wrong. They were given a block of wood and made a car out of it to race. I was a little disappointed but I made the best of the situation. I found a familiar face and sat by them to watch the race. The familiar face was a parent of one of the kids. She is also an instructional aide at my school. I sat with her and waved at my student.

Minutes later the Den Leader of the scouts is center stage and calls for every one's attention. He calls my student up and I cheer. He asks my student who his special guest was. My stomach dropped. He said, "My teacher, Mr. Sosa". I blushed, smiled, and wave. I was glad when he handed the microphone back to the Den Leader because I thought I was off the hook. Then the Den Leader asked me to come up and say a few words. I felt my heart drop to my ankles with my stomach. I was a good sport and went up. I said that I was honored to be there and said that this was a really cool and fun event. Then I handed the mic back.

It did turn out to be a really cool event. All the different cars were pretty awesome.

Posting

Wow. I hadn't posted in a while because I thought I had nothing to say. I was wrong, yet again.

My, my, how could I resist ya?

Can you believe that the school year is already half way through? I can't! I am now a .5 year teacher. Yay me!

We ended the last week before break on a fairly good note. On Thursday we had our class holiday party. I was anticipating craziness and an exponential hair loss on my part. Boy was I wrong. It went surprisingly well and the kids listened and followed directions very well. We had a great time and I think it helped that we had several stations for the kids to rotate to. There was cookie decorating, ornament making, draddle game, tortilla making with Mr.Sosa, and then the food and drink station where they relaxed and chatted it up with friends. There were a few parents there and they were a tremendous help. I manned the tortillas and they did everything else. It is nice to have fantastic parent support in the classroom.

That evening I went to a "Dirty Santa" party with some of the younger/crazier teachers from my school. It was a blast. We enjoyed some adult beverages and some hearty conversation. Then we did the white elephant gift exchange. The gifts that were brought were up to the interpretation of what you thought "Dirty Santa" meant. Needless to say I headed home with my very first set of cock rings.

Friday was pretty much a bust as far as classroom management goes. The kids were done and ready for their vacation. Needless to say we did a lot of filler activities and spent some time in the computer lab. The free computer lab time was part of my gift to the kids and I think they liked that more than the gift I actually gave them. Which was a set of pencils with their names on them, a tiny ruler, and a legit hand lens for investigating.

The bell sounded and the students cleared out for their winter break. The faculty and staff were headed off to Chuy's for happy hour to celebrate a great 1/2 year. I headed over after putting my Christmas decorations away and tidying up my classroom a bit. When I got there I was amazed to see the entire bar area taken up by my school. It was pretty funny. As I walked in I was greeted by everyone with a "Yay Jesse is here!" I felt like a celebrity. A good time was had by all.

Saturday is where my blog title comes from. Jackie and Katie are the 2 friends I hang out most with so we were going to get together to have our mini Christmas gift exchange. Katie and Jackie came over to my apartment and we had lunch before opening presents for each other. I was certain that I would get the movie "Mamma Mia" from one of them, but to my dismay I didn't. I did get a lot of nice gifts from them. When we were done somehow we got into talking about how I needed a puppy. We talked about how we all saw a sign down the road from me that advertised puppies. We decided to check it out. I really hadn't anticipated getting a puppy, but boy was I wrong. They were in a little trailer on the side of the road and I was skeptical. However, they were pretty legit. They had their papers and were up to date on their shots. They even gave a bag of dog food away with the pup. We were playing with a few of them. Jackie got out a little boy pup and Katie and I got out little girl pups. One of the girls we got out was the littlest of the litter, however she had spunk. She was beating up all the other dogs who were bigger than her. I fell in love. Jackie got the boy she had picked out, and I took the spunky, feisty little girl. I named her Mia. I knew I would be getting some type of Mamma Mia that day. My Mia Farrah is a salt and pepper miniature schnauzer. Pictures will be posted soon!

Las Posadas!

The past 2 weeks the third graders at my school have been studying different Christmas type holidays for different cultures. There are 5 Third Grade teachers so each of us took a different holiday. There was Hanukkah, Diwali, Kwanzaa, Traditional Christmas, and of course Las Posadas. I was in charge of teaching the entire 3rd grade about the Hispanic tradition of Las Posadas.
Here is basically the synopsis of Las Posadas taken from Wikipedia:

"Las Posadas (Spanish for "the inns") is a nine-day celebration with origins in Spain beginning December 16 and ending December 24. It is a yearly tradition for many Catholic Mexicans and some other Latin Americans and symbolizes the trials which Mary and Joseph endured before finding a place to stay where Jesus could be born, based on the passage in the New Testament, the Gospel of Luke (2:1-9):

"Now, at this time Caesar Augustus issued a decree for a census of the whole world to be taken. This census -- the first -- took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria, and everyone went to his home town to be registered. So Joseph set out from the town of Nazareth in Galilee and traveled up to Judaea, to the town of David called Bethlehem, since he was of David's House and lineage, in order to be registered together with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to a son, her first-born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them at the inn. In the countryside close by there were shepherds who lived in the fields and took turns to watch their flocks during the night. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them."^[1]

Typically, each family in a neighborhood will schedule a night for the Posada to be held at their home, starting on the 12th of December and finishing on the 24th. Every home has a nativity scene and the hosts of the Posada act as the innkeepers. The neighborhood children and adults are the pilgrims (peregrinos), who have to request lodging by going house to house singing a traditional song about the pilgrims. All the pilgrims carry small lit candles in their hands, and four people carry small statues of Joseph leading a donkey, on which Mary is riding. The head of the procession will have a candle inside a paper lamp shade. At each house, the resident responds by refusing lodging (also in song), until the weary travelers reach the designated site for the party, where Mary and Joseph are finally recognized and allowed to enter. Once the "innkeepers" let them in, the group of guests come into the home and kneel around the Nativity scene to pray (typically, the Rosary). Latin American countries have continued to celebrate this holiday to this day, with very few changes to the tradition. In some places, the final location may be a church instead of a home. Individuals may actually play the various parts of Mary (María) and Joseph with the expectant mother riding a real donkey (burro), with attendants such as angels and shepherds acquired along the way, or the pilgrims may carry images of the holy personages instead. At the end of the long journey, there will be Christmas carols (villancicos), children will break open piñatas by striking these colorful papier-maché objects with bats while blindfolded to obtain candy hidden inside, and there will be a feast. Traditionally, it is expected to meet all the invitees in a previous procession."

I had a great time teaching them about Las Posadas. We even read a book by Tomie dePoala called "The Night of Las Posadas". I had each class for 2 days. Day 1 we learned and read about Las Posadas. Day 2 we had to come up with an activity to do to go along with Las Posadas. I had us make tortillas. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it. It was funny to see how some of them made their tortillas who had never experienced one. A few of them thought that after you rolled it out it was ready to eat. The did like the dough, but really enjoyed it after we took what was left and cooked it on a griddle.

Giving Thanks

Just a few days ago people from all around the world took the time to give thanks for things in their lives. That allowed me the time to reflect and see what I am thankful for. There are so many things that I have to give thanks for. They can all fall into 1 of 3 categories: Family, Friends, and Work.

All 3 of these categories have not ceased to amaze and inspire me. Here are some examples of these situations.

Work:
The day before any break can be crazy in the classroom. I have heard it said that during these times all classroom management goes out the door. That was not the case in my class, I am proud to say. I was firm and did not let anything slide. Half way through the day the kids presented me with a pie for Thanksgiving. I was so touched. How many classrooms do this for their teacher? Within 20miles of my school that is a luxury that could never be afforded. I am thankful to be at a great school with a great class. I was so touched that at the end of the day I shared my pie with my kids. They loved it.

Family:
I drove to Fort Worth on Thanksgiving day to spend some time with my family. I only anticipated spending the day and driving back, but ended up spending the night anyways. Thanksgiving was at my older brother's house. My mom and brothers came over. It was nice to see everyone one together. I think the last time that happened was last Thanksgiving. I got to see my little nephew. I think he is turning a year soon or just turned a year. I hardly ever get to see him so I soaked in all the time I could with him. I had to teach him my name. It made me sad that I don't get to see him grow up since I am in another city. I wish I lived closer. I played light sabers with him, Hulk boxing, and guns. He was so cute. Especially when he put his Hulk gloves on and said, "Your making me angry!" I laughed so hard. It was funny to see him run and hide when it was diaper changing time. He tried to hide in the seat cushions, but his little booty was sticking up out of the cushions. I am lucky to have family that cares for each other. I am lucky to have a family. Period.

Friends:
While in town I got to see my best friend growing up. Holli! I went over to her apartment and we got the chance to chat it up. We hardly see each other, but no matter the length of time it's like we were never apart. We talked about all the changes in our life and the changes going on now. I love that girl so much.

Also while I was in town I drove over to Mesquite to visit by good friend and here family. She also has an adorable nephew. I got to see her family as well. She is lucky to have such great people in her life. I am lucky to have her to bring those great people into my life as well.

Upon returning to Austin I went to Llano so spend the weekend with some friends at my friend We Wu's ranch house. It was so much fun! As soon as I got there we went kayaking and paddle boating. We even had a ridiculous photo shoot at the lake. I will have to post some pictures. When we got back we played some ping pong, Foosball, and pool while We Wu's dad prepared for a festive feast. He called us over to his Hibachi grill while he cooked. It was good times. We drank and ate our hearts out. After dinner we karaoked some and played guitar hero. That was only a tidbit of what we did. I am thankful to have a great group of friends in my life. I don't know what I would do without them.

Remember to Use Your Words

I think I say that exact statement everyday to one particular child. Today I found myself saying that to my entire class. However, it was not for the reason you are probably thinking. We started a new writing topic focusing on the 6+1 writing trait of Word Choice. I emphasized the importance is using your words to keep your reader engaged and for them to actually visualize what you are trying to express in words.

Once I got them started I sat at the back table to read a few of their most recent writing samples before individual conferences were to commence. Our previous topic was, "If you had 8 eyes and 8 legs what would you do"? Here are a few of my favorite samples that I would like to share with you.

Sample 1-I love the beginning and end of this one.
"If I had 8 eyes and 8 legs I would get web insurance. I would get it from Speico. Then at dusk I would go to town scaring people. I would mock them when they dive behind a trash can. I would repeat this when they killed a spider. In fact, I would only do that when they killed a spider. I would also explore Spider Cove and the Temple of Spider where the Golden Spider resides. "

Sample 2-I love that I can hear this child's voice in their writing.
"If I had 8 eyes and 8 legs I would be Spider-John. Which means... butt kick'n time! Boya! I would love it! I would also live in a web. Hey, I can sell my web. Web! Web for sale! Aaaaaaaaaah, lady with a purse! Freak."

Sample 3- Another sample of voice.
"If I had 8 eyes and 8 legs it would be a disaster! How would I wear shirts? What about pants? What about shorts? I would be able to see in all directions, which is pretty cool. But I would look sooooo ugly!"


I love getting the chance to read my student's writing. Seeing how they are able to manipulate their words to create these unique masterpieces. Talking to them about their thinking and how they form their thoughts on paper. Look how different they are? No one the same. I love it.