Fall Festival

Change of tactics. After a full month of Typing work it was time for reckoning this week. Last week I spent my prep time emailing the teachers with my plan for Computer Lab, procedures and expectations. After each class finished their typing for the day I pulled the classes’ report. If a student is not progressing the program does not report their time until the student finishes a lesson. Only 15-16 students out of 400 met the time requirement of 15 minutes for 2-3rd grades and 20 minutes for 4-5th grades. The previous teachers made up “Fun Friday” an expectation for the classes I see on Monday. We have 4 rotations so if I see a class on Monday they come again on Friday. This Friday students were sorely disappointed to learn they had to make up typing time. I renamed “Fun Friday/Free Time” to Burger Time. Students can earn Ketchup (catch up work), Mustard (must do group activities), Mayo (May I do Stem Time), or Pickles (Pick an approved computer-based activity). The groans were music to my ears! Even Josie tried to bat her eyes at me to get out of her work. Nope! Go get to that typing! Evelyn was one of the students that met her time requirement, she had 13 minutes out of 15 so was able to quickly get a lessons done. Mrs Harp, the librarian, noticed a group of Kinders playing with some play dough. It was smooth, elastic, and POOP. Some kid pulled it out of their undies and played with it as a group activity. Ewwwww. I finally got the gigantic keyboard up in my classroom. It looks very fun and festive. 

Evelyn enjoyed lunch with me on Monday. We did not get to have lunch on Friday because of the teacher work day. We sat on the floor and enjoyed our strange lunches. The girls don’t have much time the morning for fancy lunches, so they just throw in whatever items are available. Evelyn had peanut butter sandwich (plain), chips, yogurt, jerky, candy, and a drink. She helped wipe down tables and collect trays when it was my turn to monitor the lunchroom. That was quite fun to have her helping. She made herself a name badge. Evelyn became Miss Evelyn, teacher extraordinaire! She requested her hair in a bun, wore blue light glasses, and waaalaaa! Teacher Evelyn.  

Phillip grabbed the wrong phone from MCO this week. He thought no one else in the state had a Bark phone. Well, turns out another MCO kid also has that phone. He was very surprised to turn on the phone at HOME and find a silly profile pic staring back at him. Justin saved the day with his Dad skills. He noticed the weather was set for Payette, ID. Using Phillip’s location pings sent to Justin’s phone he was able to get within 2-3 homes radius. He chose the home that looked most MCO, aka Latter-day Saint. It was the right home! Swapped phones and headed home. Phillip was very, very relieved to have his precious audio books back. That one day was near torture for him. 

Friday was the Fall Festival PTA party at Ronald Reagan. I volunteered Phillip and Everett to come help staff the games. Little stinkers did not show up and I could not leave to get them. Amelia, Sara, and Justin were all gone so they got to vegetate at home instead. It was a very looooong day for the little girls and I. We were at school from 7:30 am until 8 pm. Evelyn wore her Laura Ingalls dress all dress. The temperature was hovering in the 80s but she quipped, “If Laura had to wear dresses and long-sleeves I can do it too!” She wore the outfit all day at school, I love her tenacity and confidence! I’d be afraid someone would make fun of me if I were the same age. By 7:45 we were starving so I got fancy ice creams and hot dogs before the food trucks left. All the kids loved the train ride. An older gentleman in the community will do “train” rides for free! I hardly saw Evelyn or Josie, they were busy running around collecting prizes and playing games. 

Justin is quite frustrated with the upper management at work. They make any changes feel like he is killing their personal projects. He was worked up Saturday getting a necessary spreadsheet completed so others could get their contributions completed. It is a delicate dance. I photographed a multi-generational family Saturday morning. Three of the children are at Reagan! That was fun. I directly went grocery shopping, home, cleaned the fridge and tidied the pantry. The girls got out their winter clothes last week. We could hardly walk into their room because of the mess they created. Took me 3 hours to get their drawers switched from summer to winter and the excess packed away. They get to finish the job of cleaning the rest of their mess. I worked on editing a session from two weeks ago and laundry to round out the evening. 

Amelia was asked to speak in Stake Conference today. She was the first speaker! Amelia was so nervous last night and this morning. Her topic was How to Live Like a Disciple of Christ. She pulled out C.S. Lewis quotes, President Nelson, and Elder Hales knowledge and wisdom. Amelia listened to the spirit and delivered a wonderful talk. Now to survive tomorrow…she is playing piano for the choir and singing a solo at school.