Full Circle

Wow, what a school year (or at least 3/4 of one). I can't believe that today is my last day of teaching high schoolers for hopefully a long time. It's funny thinking about how at the beginning of the year for a few days before school started I cried a ton. I was feeling miserable already and not sure I could handle teaching. I was sick a lot, exhausted and completely unsure of my ability to teach and be pregnant. But, by of the grace and strength of God I actually handled it. It hasn't been easy waking up every morning and throwing up, giving patience to my students, and believing God knows what is best for me. But it has been good. I by no means think my discomforts are worse or unique to anyone else. But, God used them to teach me some lessons this year. I better understand what it means to have God by my side supporting me. I also thank God everyday for the wonderful husband he has given me. Matt has served me with much enthusiasm and joy over these last several months. And now, here we are one month before our first child is born. I'm feeling blessed, emotional, excited about my new career and grieving the end of an era. I cannot wait to stay home with my baby. I am 100% sure that God has called me to this place, but today is a day of closure too. Things have gone full circle and now I keep fighting back tears and will probably cry a lot this weekend. I am so thankful for how God has molded me and used me as a teacher and because of this great experience I will shed some tears. But I'm ready and I'm excited to move on to the next great adventure!

The Bathroom

As my pregnancy and days as a high school teacher are winding down I've been thinking a lot about the plethora of time I've spent in the bathroom lately. I really don't mind going to the bathroom a lot unless I'm at work or sometimes when I'm sleeping. Most nights I get up at least 4 times and half the time I feel like I'm stuck so it just takes me a while to maneuver my body our of bed. Other than that I wander aimlessly to the toilet, go, and wander back to bed where I usually quickly fall back asleep. But its the times spent in my school bathroom that I just want to curse the fact that my baby is sitting on, kicking, and sometimes I'm convinced somehow squeezing my bladder. The 5 main reasons I hate my school bathroom are...

1. It is dirty (even dirtier than the bathroom at my house that I keep putting off cleaning).

2. It smells like sewage thanks to the not so wonderful system at my school.

3. I can't help but fart when I pee these days so when students are in there I admit I'm a little embarrassed.

4. If I have to go twosies, I have to go right then. Because with pregnancy also comes constipation so I work hard and take a little more time than usual in my stall. This can also lead to more embarrassing moments.

5. High school girls love to put on make-up, gossip, text message (against school rules), and look in the mirror for very very long periods of time in the bathroom. That is just plain annoying.

On a positive note though, I have been privileged to witness several pre-schoolers doing funny things in the bathroom lately. One of the classes at our school is the high schoolers run a preschool for area kids. Today one of said preschoolers was in the bathroom and wandered out of the stall with his pants down (pretty normal). The high school girl accompanying him said, "pull your pants up." Then he proceeded to say very loudly with a laugh, "you pull up your pants." You gotta love preschool humor.

Lunch Duty?

For those of you who don't know the story here is the low down. At my school we get one semester with 2 free periods and one semester with a duty and a free period. Most of the time the duty is study hall in your classroom. This is slightly annoying because you have to supervise kids but overall it is not that big of a deal. You can grade papers, work on lesson plans, work at your computer etc. My first year teaching I had a study hall in my classroom, my second year teaching I had lunch duty, and my third year I had study hall in the auditorium 4th hour. Let me tell you, lunch duty was not fun. I had to supervise teenagers eating lunch for 64 minutes everyday. Yuck! But, I really worked hard at putting in my time without complaining too much because I knew everyone had to do it sometime. Well then things got annoying...not much happened with schedules so when I had 4th hour free again last year I was worried I would get lunch duty. Thank goodness I didn't but I had to supervise an 80 person study hall in the auitorium that was 30 min., lunch and then 30 more min. So, I had to take attendance twice, calm the kids down twice and be super strict. I liked it better than lunch duty but it was still the 2nd worst duty I could have had.

After putting in 2 bad years of duties I was really hoping this year would be better. Well in August when the schedules came out I had lunch duty again. What?! Not only was I annoyed because of lunch duty (someone else needed a turn) I was sick and miserable because of being pregnant. The last thing I could handle was school food, being on my feet and morning (all-day) sickness. Thankfully a co-worker of mine switched with me so I could do it 2nd semester. The bright side was I would only have half the semester of duty because of my maternity leave and I wouldn't be as sick. The down side was I'd be 6 months pregnant and growing at the start of lunch duty. Well, here is where the story gets good. Another co-worker of mine volunteered to give me his study hall and take my lunch duty so I wouldn't have to be on my feet for 64 extra minutes a day. And the study hall is even going to be in my classroom. I can work on sub plans and be seated at my desk for that extra time. I didn't even have to ask either. I just am so grateful that God provided me with this kind person who took me into consideration. It might seem like a silly thing to you readers but it is a big deal to me. I've been praying about this situation and God has answered it in the best way possible.

So the answer to my question Lunch Duty? is not this year!

Final Exams

Ah, the last 2 days before break in complete silence. What a treat. I always love that we have finals right before Christmas break and I have to force the kids to be quiet. They are generally pretty burnt out too so they're subdued. Anyway, I always let the kids fill out a notecard for the final with important formulas and such. The best notecard I've ever seen is one I got today...

"You will do good on this test. Focus. Stop tapping your pencil. This is your last final of the first day. Your going to pass. Your going to pass. Your going to pass. Oh yea tie your shoes.

10x^3-40x
10x(x+2)(x-2)"

This notecard was not edited for spelling errors. The kid will do fine on the test and is doing fine in the class overall, but I loved the pep talk he gave himself.

Competition

A few of my students have been having a friendly competition playing the game Brickbreaker on their cellphones. I guess all Blackberry cellphones have this game so when my students found out I was a proud owner of a Blackberry (just the phone and not the fancy Blackberry services) they convinced me to try out the game. So, I tried it a couple times and thought it was ok. I'm not really into playing electronic games so I'm not very good at it but it wasted some time. Anyway, my students decided to keep track of high scores on my chalkboard. Here are the results so far....

BRICKBREAK HIGH SCORES*

1. Ethan - 30,170

2. Austin - 27,090

3. Aaron - 25,980

4. Mrs. Ahrens - 910

Ummmm, I have a long way to go! Yikes!

*I never let the students play Brickbreaker in class. It is just a place to record their high scores.

Lost and Found

Found:

1 pair of lacy red thong underwear on my classroom floor today after first hour. If you are or know the owner of these please pass along this message...
Don't bring that to school or at the very least zip your backpack so they don't fall out!

Telling the Students

Yesterday I told all of my students that I was pregnant and got an array of sweet and funny reactions. Most kids were really excited so it was fun to share with them. Here are my favorites though...

Student: "So, you're going to have a baby in 9 months?"
Me: "Well actually 6, most people wait a little while to tell others."

Student: "Did you just find out this weekend?"
Me: "Nope, I've been keeping it a secret since before school started."

Student: "Are we going to get a good sub?"
Me: "Of course, and I'm sure they'll be a way better teacher than I've been since school started."

Student: "Does your husband want a baby?"
Me: "Yes, he is just as excited as me."

And many students suggested we name the baby after them. Ha ha, that is the main reason I don't like names because of students I've had.

Side Note: I put a pregnancy ticker at the top of this blog so you can see how far along I am. For all you Google Reader folks this means you'll have to actually look at our blog. So, I understand if you're not interested.

School Lunch

Today I enjoyed school lunch for the first time since I started teaching 4 years ago. I never ate the school lunch or even ventured into the cafeteria when I taught in Champaign and I've never bought lunch for myself in the 3 years I've taught at Mahomet. I have spent way too many hours in the cafeteria though since I had lunch duty last year, but I don't want to talk about that painful memory. But today the stars alligned and I bought myself a school lunch. Several conditions had to be just right and they all were. I had cash, I had no food at home, I was too lazy to drive to Arby's, and a friend and co-worker who frequents the lunch line agreed to help me get through this ordeal. So, at 10:55am I ventured to the lunch line quickly picked up an iceburg lettuce salad with ranch and a soft pretzel with cheese (maybe) and paid the cashier $3.40 for the fine cuisine. This combination of items was not the "school lunch" but that looked very weird. The lunch at my school is not very good and many kids brown bag it. Although, it's good to know I have options even if they aren't too tasty.

In other news regarding previous posts...

1. Matt snores.

2. I'm still having some issues getting recertified because I tried to do it online. I figure we live in the 2000's so I should have no problem doing it online. But to make a long story short the certification specialist emailed me and said she was confused. So that makes me a little nervous. I have until June 30th though so I'm not sweating yet.

I hate forms!

Ok, so I'm not a stupid person (at least I don't think so), I have at least a small handful of common sense, I know how to read and write but I stress out to the max whenever I have to do any kind of paperwork. Matt can't believe I've never done my own taxes (thanks Mom and now Matt). Thank goodness my job does not require too much paper work or I'd have to quit. Speaking of having to quit a job, if I don't figure out how to apply for my next teaching certificate in 2 months I might have to quit because I won't be certified anymore. I have spent at least 2 hours total reading the instructions and trying to understand all of the steps necessary to get my new certificate but I've only gotten as far at changing my name and address. Which by the way all the name change stuff this last year was stressful for me too, but totally worth it. Anyway, I'm just venting because today one of my coworkers had an envelope ready to send off for her certificate so now I'm feeling behind. I think my problem is I'm trying to do everything online and I should just mail away an envelope. Ahhh....I'll pay someone to do this for me. Please!

Math and Art

Ah....9:50am and I just got out of the shower after getting up 30 min. ago and going to bed 11 hours before that. 11 hours of sleep, yes read it and weep. I am now on Christmas break and plan on enjoying many nights of > 9 hours of sleep. Something happens to me the minute school lets out for Christmas, my body just crashes and wants to sleep and lay on the couch A LOT. Anyway, on to the point of this post. I am going to tell a school story so here it goes....

The last couple of days I have been giving final exams in my classes at school. A few days prior to the final exam I give all of my students a take home final/review that really helps them study for the final. I also stress that this review is worth 10% of the final exam grade, so get it done!!! It is only a completion grade so it is easy to get those points. Most of my students finished and turned the review assignment in, but a few didn't quite get it done. Some of those kids are lazy, going to fail anyway, didn't really need the points to earn the grade they want in my class. But, one of my students who didn't turn in her review is notorious for turning around to get a paper out of her bag and then never looking for it because she forgot what she was doing. So I went and asked her about it while she was working on her final and she said, "I did it, but it is not with me. I have a really good reason, but I don't want to talk to you about it with other students around. I'll talk to you after class."

After class came and up to my desk came the student. This is what she said. "So, I really enjoyed the review assignment. I think it helped me a lot. I did the whole thing and it really helped me a lot. It was great that you gave it to us. But, the thing is I left it at home. I was using it in an art project and I really need it for that." I didn't even know how to respond. I think I just smiled and said, "Have a great Christmas break!"