On Wednesday night we had a combined RS and YW activity it was a charcuterie board and paint night. We painted Christ! Here's Ashlyn's picture, it turned out great!
Ashlyn started learning Saber! It's painful, I'm glad that I got her gloves!
I bought Abby a book at our conference last weekend and left it at school, so she finally got to see it on Monday. The author signed the sharpie that she signed the book with and gave the sharpie to me for her! She was so excited, they've been reading the book in her class.
My picture turned out a little wonky, but still ok! It was a fun night!
We got lots of rain this last week and we got snow on the mountains!
It's such a cool sight to see snow in the desert!
Snow on the mountain right by our school!
Ashlyn and I went to our neighbor Emilie's choir concert this last week and she sang a solo from Anastasia!
Abby got to go to Red mountain high school to meet her pen pal and they painted friendship rocks and then hid them at the park. She had lots of fun!
Haley's been getting lots of snow, and they made a walking path into a snow cave!
It was Grandma Johnson's birthday on Monday and she sent me a pic in the pants we got her!
They got to go to an aquarium near them on their p-day...
They're loving their mission!
One thing that I want to remember about this week was that I had my 2nd observation for the year. For the first 3 years a teacher is on probationary status and has to be observed 2 times a year, if they hit a certain threshold after 3 years you only have to be observed once a year. So my first observation was done in October when I was still a brand new teacher, I still feel like I'm pretty much brand new but anyway my observation was with my 4th graders and it didn't go great. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. So I wasn't expecting much from this observation and was sure that I would bomb again. I couldn't sleep for the week coming up on my observation. I didn't even tell my family that it was coming up because I didn't want them to worry for me. Anyway, my time for my observation started and my principal wasn't there, but I had to start my lesson anyway so I started rolling with my lesson and 10 minutes go by, still no principal. At that point I was like, I guess she's not coming and I was dreading having to plan a new lesson all over again. But then lo and behold she comes in my room! At that point I was pretty relaxed and just figured whatever will be will be, so maybe it was a good thing she was late. ha. So, I kept going with my lesson and this time it was with my kinders. Of course, everything that could go wrong goes wrong again. But this time I've had a little more practice and knew how to redirect the kids and get them back on track and keep them engaged the whole time. Well the lesson was over and I always let them have a few minutes at the end to play before they go back to class. My kinders are so cute because instead of playing, they always play this game that I taught them months ago but they just love it. I have a hopscotch on my carpet and every time we learn a new letter, I add that letter to our hopscotch. So anyway, the game goes like this a child tells the other children to go stand on the letter that says (the letter sound) and they have to go stand on that letter. Or they'll say, go stand on the letter p and they have to go find the letter p. It's a simple game but they love it. So anyway, they're playing this game and then the timer goes off and I have them line up and walk back to class. When I shut the door after saying goodbye to them I was expecting my principal to start outlining all the things that had gone wrong.....but instead she was smiling so big and she said, Lindsey you did a phenomenal job!! You were amazing!! She went on to list all of the things that I had done right and I basically started crying because I just never thought I would get that kind of praise from her so I was kind of overwhelmed. It was very exciting to be recognized for working so hard to connect with my students and help them to remain on track during the lessons so they can learn. It was the best day ever! As soon as she left my class she went to my mentors classroom and was raving about me and how well I had done!! I was shocked when I heard that. It felt like a huge weight off of my shoulders and a morale boost! I can do this, it's super hard and scary and overwhelming but I can do this!
Also, Jacob got his permit!! Rick is out driving with him, but it feels too soon! He's too young!
