steve urkle is in the house

Yesterday was field day. It was hot - more than 90 degrees. I might have been a little less than joyful about spending nearly the entire day outside.

During our first event of Steal the Bacon (hilarious game!), I notice this....

These three boys were participating with full gusto with their shirts tucked in and their shorts pulled up to their earlobes. The one on the left was flailing wildly around, but still able to be athletic about it.

I giggled to myself about it for a little while. I asked the one on the right what they were up to.  He gave me a nerdy smile and said it makes him run faster.

These boys were trend setters, let me tell you. Pretty soon I had a class full of boys trying to wear their shorts like halter tops.

Very interesting day, indeed.

I even managed to make it through the day without sunburn (thank you spf 55) and without a migraine (thank you preventative excedrin and lots of water).

     

teacher appreciation sale!

All of us teachers could use a little more appreciation, don't you think? How about a sale!

Most items in my TpT shop will be 20% from May 6th to May 8th. And even better, if you enter the coupon code TAD12 at check out, TpT will give you an additional 10% off your purchase.

Happy shopping!

     

may currently

It's May! That means is also time to link up with Farley. 

Were you ever in a pageant?

I never have been.  Now I can have my very own title. Greg and I watched the first season of Last Comic Standing years ago and some of those references still sneak their way into our lives. During the challenge at the end of each episode, everyone had to get into the confessional photo booth and say, "I know I'm funnier than ___." Now we always tell each other that we are funnier than the other.

Greg tells me I wasn't funny before I met him. I tell him I have always been funny.

I'm right.

A word about state testing ~ blech!!!

Prior to this year, I taught 2nd grade for 5 years. Before that I taught 4th grade for 8 years. In all of the time I taught 4th grade previously, I have never been so wound up about testing! Our school gets more and more wound up every year. It is a miracle we are not all on anxiety meds.

Maybe everyone else already is on them.

Maybe I need some.

Anyway, the Saturday before testing our school hosted a testing boot camp. We were told to invite about 10 of our kids who were "bubble" kids or who we thought might have testing anxiety.

During one of the sessions, our Literacy Specialist read Testing Mrs. Malarky to the students and talked about how teachers have test anxiety too. Then she had them write us notes of encouragement.

Monday I found these notes in my box. So sweet.

I had a little teary moment as I read these.

So now the state testing is over and in about a week we have district testing. District testing is not nearly as long, as scary, or as high stakes.

But still.

We also have DRA testing and Aimsweb testing.

Maybe we should throw a little genetic testing in there for good measure as well.

I know, I know ~ we get all kinds of useful data from theses tests. Blah, blah, blah.

Only 23 more days of school.