I am SO bad at keeping this up to date!

Well..I can honestly say that not very many exciting things have happened since I last updated this:) Here's the short version of the last few months:

1) I had my last observation and I have a job next year! Woohoo! Well, possibly I am speaking too soon. There is a chance the district will decide to cut positions, at which point I am on the bottom of the totem pole, although I am really hoping that won't be true, and according to the school board, is at the bottom of their list. It does sound like we will be following suit with so many districts around the state and declaring a financial emergency. I love my school. I'd like to teach there for a long time. Although I do not want a cut in pay, I'll take one if it means I still have a job and that I get to stay at a school I love. I really do feel like I have found the right school for me. I'm attached to both the students and the staff and I feel blessed that it's such a positive environment. This year as been a hard one. I was very afraid I'd lose myself, and I think that teaching has really kept me grounded.

2) My students are in the midst of ISATS. This has been incredibly stressful! I had no idea that I would stress this much over ISATS, but I have. We just did our first round of them on Wednesday, and when I arrived at school, I really thought I was going to make myself sick to my stomach with nerves. My kids are doing well though and I'm proud of them. On whole, they are putting forth their best effort and that's all that I can really ask for. They have made a lot of growth. There were quite a few yesterday that went from basic to proficient and that was really neat to see. There were also quite a few that made me ache because the tried incredibly hard and worked really hard this year, but their growth wasn't accurately measured on the ISATs. I have another group testing tomorrow, and then we have a little over a week until we take the Language Usage test. I'll be happy when we're done and school can go back to normal.

3) We built an arbor and bought grapes! Well, Ken built an arbor:) We haven't planted the grapes yet, and we really won't have any this year, but I'm looking forward to having them in the future. We're hoping to try our hand at wine making:)

4) I finished "The Hunger Games" and it's sequel and they were amazing! I have yet to get really into a book since. They were phenomenal!

Hmmm...sadly, that's about it:) I usually have a funny story or two from school each day, but I'm drawing a blank today. I did actually send a student on a mission to find my stapler (that she borrowed from me during advisory) only to have her find it on the corner of my desk, buried under papers. That was after I sent out of my classroom to look for it. I laughed at myself when we found it, although I think I was possibly the only one that was amused:)