5. Remember I have a blog. {hello's, goals, and rambles}

Ok, let's skip to the good stuff. 

I know I haven't blogged since the end of September, but here we go!

I am actually going to post blogs in a bit of  random order, which is weird for me because I like to have a plan and like my posts to seem organized. This is one of my goals this year (read on); to post when I feel like it, no matter if they aren't in order or on schedule.

Reflecting is awesome. I do it a lot, actually. It makes you think about your life, not just what people see on the outside through Instagram and Facebook posts, but what your life really is. Bringing in the New Year is always a time where people reflect, make goals, and want a fresh start. I am actually going to write my goals down this year, because Lord knows...and my husband, my memory is of a 107 year old fish. 

When I make my goals, I want to refrain from using the words not or don't, and use words like; do, be, create, and achieve. I want to remain as positive as possible, and I feel sticking to positive goals is much easier :)

1. Be more silly. 

Some of you are wondering how this could possibly be a goal, because when it comes to silliness, sometimes I take the cake. (and I will probably eat the cake). But here is where I want silliness to prevail: in bad situations, in my classroom, and with my husband.. Sometimes I spend a lot of my days stressed and worried. I am not sure how I became like that, but that's just how it happened. Sometimes the smallest things can stress me out, and I feel if I had more silliness in my life, it would take away some of this stress. I need to add more silliness in my classroom. There is SO MUCH we need to teach our kiddos, so much testing, observations, discipline that sometimes I forget I have 7/8 year old eyeballs staring at me. And they are funny! A child's laughter is just the medicine teachers need to make it through the day. And of course, with the Hubs. What's a marriage without silliness and laughter? Jus, let's be more silly :) 

2. Do more fitness. 

This goes back to the silliness and stress a little bit. Sometimes, I get so bogged down with work, that I skip the gym. I am so exhausted from my long work day and my brain is so fried, that I just want to go home and lay in bed until the next day. And that's ok! But fitness is a huge part of my life. It's always been a huge part, ever since I was running the 50 m dash in my diapers at Hayward Field. I like fitness. I need to remember that. I LIKE IT! haha! I want to find all sorts of fitness to do this year. Running, rock climbing, swimming, dancing, kayaking, I want to do it all. 

3. Reach out to others.

I just want to help people. I want to make a difference in this world. However I find a way to do that, that's how I want to do it. I have a heart for helping others, and it's time I start putting it to good use.

4. Pray every day.

I believe wholeheartedly in the power of prayer. God hears us when we cry out to Him. Even on the busiest of days, I want to pray. Pray for you, pray for me, give thanks, and speak my heart. In everything; just pray.

5. Remember I have a blog.

Plain and simple. Hello, you're here! How about post more than once in 3 months :)

6. Leave work at work.

Teaching is one of those professions that can consume your life if you let it. Sometimes, I am up all night thinking about how I am going to get my 7 Level 1 ELL speakers to understand tomorrow's social studies lesson, while still challenging those kids who are ready for more. It's hard. It's a lot of work. And it's hard to walk out your classroom door and leave it all behind. But to keep my sanity, I need to learn to leave it at school. When it's time go to, go. I really need to work on this one.   

7. Love hard.

This one doesn't need a lengthy explanation. Do you love it? Than go crazy for it. Go crazy-mad-in-love for it.

8. Be present.

It is so very hard to be present in this day and age. Technology rules the world and we need to be caught up with what's happening. I love technology, I do, obviously because I have a blog. But it takes away so much time we could be learning from others, making memories, and exploring life. On weekdays at 8:30 pm my phone is going to sit on the nightstand and not be touched unless I am:

 1. setting my alarm. 2. receiving a text I need to reply to. End. Of. Story. 

9. Drink more water.

Water does wonders, it's healthy, and I need it.

10. Fall back in love with baking.

It's time I get creative, fearless, and hungry in the kitchen again. You're welcome, Justin.

God Bless :)

Inspired and overwhelmed teacher in her last week of school!

I know I don't have a TON of teachers that read my blog, so you can just bare with me :) I love teacher blogs. Ok, that is an understatement, I live for teacher blogs. And Pinterest. And teacherspayteachers. Those three resources have saved me numerous times when it has come to planning, worksheets, freebies, management, seriously everything. I love the idea of teachers sharing their awesome ideas with others and sharing the knowledge they have learned over the years.

One thing about teacher blogs is...I get overwhelemed. Sometimes All the time, I look at blogs like The Insipred Apple, Primary Graffiti, Erica Bohrer, Step Into Second Grade, The First Grade Parade, Mrs. Jump's Class, and Second Grade Shenanigans and I get SO overwhelmed by their experience and great ideas. I just want to have everything from each of their classes and copy every. little. thing.

Do I have any teachers out there who struggle to find their own way? If everyone else is doing it so well, why don't we just do the same!? UGH. I was so inspired by this post from The Insipired Apple, I just had to share. Check it out.

I will have my own one day.

As our hard drive gets larger with the freebies and downloads, I am growing more confident into the teacher I want to be. I am still waiting to be "unleased", but learning along the way. These two years of teaching have made me grow so much as a person and as a teacher. I am very thankful for the experience and opporunities I was given. On to bigger and better things, here we come!!

4 more teaching days and 9 days until we're home! I can smell the fresh air already.

 

 

A hopeful teacher.

Teaching is hard. There are so many things you need your kiddos to understand by the end of the year (I mean the Common Core has laid them out for us), but it's especially hard when your teaching to second language learners. I have one little girl with a hearing aide, but I still think she can't hear me, I have a sweetie pie who has, I think, about 25% vision in both eyes (and will be blind in a few years), and one little one who still doesn't know her abc's. There are so many different types of kiddos in your class and so many different types of learning styles, you just feel so helpless trying to reach them all. I am not complaining. AT ALL! I love my kiddos, you just never really know how difficult it is until you are in it, knees deep.

I want to be a great teacher. On my breaks, if I am not grading papers you will find me on Pinterest looking up different activities and lessons that others have posted. I am obsessed with blogs. Teaching blogs are stinking awesome. I would love to be so proud of my work. These ladies have it down! They know how to run a classroom.

I can't wait until I am that type of teacher that knows exactly what she wants to teach and exactly how she wants to teach it. What behavior management strategies I am going to use and which ones work. I am enjoying learning and figuring out which way I want to go and what way I want to teach, but I can't wait until I have been teaching 5-6 years and I have it all down. I can't wait to share my experiences with others so they can learn from me. I feel the more effort you put into your job, the more you will enjoy it. If I didn't invest any time into my kiddos or my lessons, it would be just another day job. But my kiddos depend on me. Their learning is in my hands. If I don't do my job the best I can or at least try to, I am failing them.
Talk about pressure! A lot of people think that teaching is an easy job. Trust me, it's not. There are days that are easier than others, but overall its exhausting. If I counted how many questions a day I answered, it would be in the multi-hundreds. I have 25 kiddos in my class and each one has a different set of needs and a different set of questions. By the end of the day, I am pooped. We have to be the nurses, the mommy's, the teachers, the discipliners (not a word, I know), the attorneys, the helpers, the consistency, and most importantly the Jesus to these kiddos each and everyday. My job is hard. But, I wouldn't have it any other way.

God bless!

If you want to see some of my daily reads and get a few great ideas, here ya go! :)

Step into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons
What the teacher wants!
The Teacher Wife

National Day.

We had so much fun in 2G on National Day! I love seeing the kiddos all dressed up each year. They definitely go all out with hair do's, makeup, dresses and candoras. My kids were the cutest with their toothless grins! :)

We had the morning planned with different activities, an assembly, and tug-a-war between the Grade 2 classes, and even throwing sponges at Mr. Justin.

Here are some of my favorite pictures!

God bless!!

Quotes of the Week. (more like month)

Because of my awesome memory that allows me forget something in 2 seconds (Dory, anyone?) I have started writing my kids' quotes down. It is quite funny when we're in the middle of a lesson and I have to pause it to write down a funny quote. But never the less, my kiddos keep saying the darnest things!

 

*When we were studying Native Americans we were discussing headdresses and how the main leader in the tribe would wear this to show his rank in power. One of my kids raised their hand and said, Miss I know who it is, he is the Chef!

 

*Also during our Native American studies I was telling them how there were no buildings or streets or malls or anything like we have today. (All of Abu Dhabi is man made so it is very hard for them to understand) Anything and everything they wanted they had to provide for themselves or make it themsevles. "Miss, why didn't they just have the workers do it for them?"

That's the UAE for ya.

 

*Before we went on our field trip we had a class meeting to discuss what we needed to bring and such. The kids started asking questions about The Zoo and what we would be doing there. "Miss, can we buy animals to take home at the zoo?"

 

*When we were doing an About Me poster for Lifeskills one of the questions was, What Is Your Favorite Food, "Miss, how do you spell KFC?"

 

*This week we are focusing on words ending in 'y' and 'ey'. One of our Spelling words is lady.

Salem: "Miss, you are a lady."

Me: "Yes, Salem, I am."

Aljeewan: "Mr. Justin's not a lady, he's a MAN!"

*While discussing irregular plural nouns (yes in 2nd grade) the word was woman.
Me:"Who can give me a sentence with the irregular plural noun for woman?"
Rakan: "I have 4 women."

*Before the National Day celebration we were talking about the activities we had planned for the day. This included darts, pony rides, henna tatoos, sponge toss...etc. I told them we would get to throw wet sponges at Mr. Justin to get him soaking wet.
Salem: "Justin Beiber is here!!??"

 

And that concludes my awesome class making me laugh pretty much all day.

 

God bless!

Last week in 2G.

We've had so much fun in 2G last week. We learned about spiders and black widows, made Wanted Posters that have the kids' adorbale "wanted face" on them, and painted our shoe boxes for our Native American project.

This week it was a review week for English so we picked our own story to read. It was Sophie's Masterpiece. Sophie is a spider...so I thought...spiders are so stinking cute why don't I add this as one of my center activities? We drew spiders onto construction paper and on the 8 legs we wrote 1 thing the children knew or learned about spiders this week. Some of them turned out so cute! And yes, some of them look like octopus and crabs, but they're still equally cute :)

Our Wanted Posters were a kick in the pants. I had each kid hold up a white board (drew by the hubs) and they took a picture holding it up while making their "angry/mean/scary face". Some of them really got into it, while some just stood there with deer in the headlight eyes. They wrote what they were wanted for, what the reward was, and a description of themselves. It was a little hard to grasp the concept of what a Wanted Poster really was, because this was the first time most of them had even heard of it, let alone seen one. But they still had fun with it!

We also finished painting our shoeboxes that are being made into a Native American diorama. The kiddos loved using paints, feathers, cutting papers and coloring their totem poles. I snapped a few pictures of them at work just to show you how into it they were!

I've loved these past few days with my kiddos. What a difference a year can make. Thank you Jesus for my amazing, fun class!

God Bless :)

In Grade TWO we go to the ZOO.

I know, my rhyming skills aren't as good as Dr. Seuss, but I tried.

Sunday was field trip day! It was our first field trip of the year and it couldn't have gone better! All 11 grade 2 classes piled onto 10 buses, drove the 1.5 hours to Al Ain and went to the Zoo!

Now. If you went to the zoo here in Abu Dhabi or Dubai you would want to call the police because of the state the animals are in. It's shocking. So I was a little nervous to see this zoo, but I figured since we were taking our kids there, it must not be too bad.

We started off with reptiles. Ew. I hate snakes. They scare me. They are planning to eat me when they look at me with those beady eyes. The man in charge basically threw the snake on me and I did not want to catch it! Gross.

We rode the train (too quickly) around the whole zoo, seeing the hippos, white lions, gorillas, gazelle, monkey's and my favorite giraffes. I love giraffes. They are so stinking cool. AND I got to feed them! Each kiddo was given a carrot stick and we got to go up to the gate and feed it to the giraffes. I only took one may have taken a few more carrot sticks from the pile then I was supposed to. I love them, I can't help it!

All in all it was such a good day with my kids. It was fun getting to "hang out" with them instead of forcing math problems down their throats. I got to laugh and smile with my silly kids and made some more memories over here in the UAE.

Here are some pics from our trip!

 My buddy Yousef and I on the bus.

 2G on the train!

I LOVE giraffes!

 Mr. Giraffe

 Silly boys.

God Bless!

Quotes of the Week + 6 Places

Here we go again with Quotes of the Week! (Say that with a loud booming voice)

My kids are seriously hilarious. And sometimes it's not even what they say, it's what they do. Of course, I wish I had videos, but I think I would get in trouble for that!

As we are learning the phases of the moon...

Salem: "Miss, I went to the moon."

Me: "Or really, when?"

Salem: "Last night, me and my dad."

Me: "Wow, that was a quick trip!"

(He makes up stories like this all the time)

It is my TA's birthday today! She had to take one of our little girls down to the nurse and while she way away I told all the kids that when she came back, I would count to 3 and we would sing her Happy Birthday! So she came back, we sang it and gave her a card we all signed. About 2 hours later, one of my smallest boys, Mansoor was sitting at his desk taking a Math test. Farah and I are walking around checking on students and all of a sudden we hear Mansoor in the back of the room singing, "Happy birthday to yooouuuuu" (while dancing in his chair).

Imagine the Pillsbury Dough Boy with really short brown curly hair and that is Mansoor :)

For my 6 places I'll share with you some of my favorite places I have been!

1. Sao Paulo, Brazil. My cousin is adopted from Sao Paulo, so when she was old enough my Aunt and Uncle wanted to take a trip back to see her orphanage where she grew up and visit the friends they had made during the process of adoption. I go to tag along with my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and Dani. It was amazing!

2. Moscow, Russia. If you are in college and you have never heard of Camp Adventure, you need to look it up! Seriously, one of the best experiences of my life! It sent me to Moscow where I got to play with little 6 and 7 year olds all day. This was my first time traveling anywhere by myself. I grew up a lot and learned a lot about myself on this trip.

3. Hawaii. Do I really need to say anything more? Beautiful, gorgeous, amazing, stunning. I've been to Kauai and Maui. Go. Now.

4. Phi Phi Islands, Thailand. Justin and I traveled here last Spring Break for 5 days. We stayed in an awesome tree hut right on the beach and it was nothing short of amazing. It was so incredibly HOT. We had no AC in our tree hut, but the water was perfect and the nights cooled down a bit. Thailand is seriously so beautiful.

5. Home. My home will always be in Oregon. No matter where Justin and I go, no matter where we move to, Oregon will always be home to me. I, as well as many others have a love/hate relationship with Oregon. It grabs your attention when June hits the calendar and makes you fall in love when September rolls around. You start to not love it so much after Christmas, because after you're done being distracted by the holidays, you start to realize how gloomy and grey it is outside. Then the rain comes. 7 straight months of rain. And then you hate it. Though we go through this every single year, I wouldn't change the place I call home, ever.

6. The UAE. I don't even really consider this one of our destinations anymore, because we have been here so long! I can't believe whenever we go back home I will be able to stay I LIVED in the Middle East for __ years. This place is full of so many cultures, beautiful, over-the-top, completely nuts, adventurous, and stunning all at the same time. We have learned so much about ourselves and so much about each other since we have been here. God could not have given us a better opportunity to start our lives as husband and wife than he could've by sending us here. We have met lifelong friends and made lifelong memories. Though some days I want to pack up my bags and get on the next flight home, I know why I am here.

God bless :)

The teacher is the student.

Now that I am an experienced teacher and all, there are many things I have learned from my kiddos. I would like to share my new found wisdom with you. You know, just in case you decide to switch careers and move out to the Middle East to teach. 

1. If one person has to go to the bathroom it automatically sets off a light bulb to the other 24 kids that have to go to the bathroom.

2. Your kiddos will never call you by your real name. It's Miss.

3. Stickers are like gold.

4. Glasses are called eyes.

5. A Nutella sandwich is a "healthy lunch".

6. You will always have boys named Abdulla and Mohamed in your class.

7. If you do not follow through with a punishment, they will keep doing it. Over. And over.

8. Mr. Bean and Shaun the Sheep are the best shows on earth.

9. Over 500 kids in a enclosed area in the Middle East heat is never a good situation.

10. A bake sale consists of who can bring the most Dunkin Donuts.

11. Kids are freaking HILARIOUS.

12. The lights are "opened" and "closed" not turned on.

13. They win their opponent, not beat them.

14. If you make into a song, they will understand it.

15. Anything made out of sugar is called sweets.

16. No matter where you are in the world, there will always be kids that capture your heart.

Enjoy the rest of your week! Cheers to the weekend for us! BOOM!

God bless!!