Finally an update

I can't believe I did it again - I waited an entire week between posts! Sorry.

I wanted to give you a tip:

If you happen to teach first grade and you really want a confidence boost, do a fractions lesson with cookies. Yesterday, to introduce fractions, I cut up chocolate chip cookies into fourths, thrids, and halves. I told the kids that they were only going to get PART of a cookie, but that they got to choose how big that part was. I gave them a piece of paper and instructed them to write 1/2, 1/3, or 1/4 on it (with crayon - pencil can be erased)! Then I went around and gave them the size of piece that they wrote.

You see, they had all written 1/4 because 4 is a bigger number, thus they thought a bigger piece. They got really fired up about it! And by fired up, I mean ticked. So where does the confidence boost come in? When I surprised them after the lesson with a WHOLE cookie for each of them. Here are some of the comments I got:

-I LOVE first grade!
-I love you so much, Mrs. White!
-This is the best class EVER!

...and my favorite all time compliment:
YOU'RE THE COOLEST TEACHER ON THE TIME-SPACE CONTINUUM!

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Kevin is in Reno for the week for a sales conference with his company. I really miss him! Even though we don't spend that much time together during the weekdays, because of both of our demanding jobs and my grad school assignments, it's still nice just to be in the same house. He's coming back on Thursday night and I hope it comes fast! He's so busy at his conference and our hours don't match up very well, especially with the time change, so I havent talked to him much the last couple of days. It's weird that I miss him so much because for two years of our relationship we went 4 days every single week not seeing each other - I guess I've gotten spoiled.

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In other news, weather is pretty bad in the DFW area. There's a big ice storm coming through today and tonight. I woke up this morning expecting school to be cancelled, or at least delayed, but I was wrong. The district that I LIVE in was cancelled, as well as nearly every other district I drive through to get to the one I work in, but not mine. So I got dressed, braved the ice, and went to work. I was feeling really nervous about how I was going to get home though, because they were projecting it to get much worse throughout the day.

I was so happy when my nice, generous principal forced me to go home before the weather got too bad! I typed up a lesson plan for the day, and our awesome speech pathologist subbed for me all day. I threatened my students with buzz cards and color changes for not minding, and I was gone. I made it home safely and spent the day finishing this week's case study assignment and working on lesson plans for next week!

Now we'll see if we get a delayed start tomorrow!

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Question: Is 23 too old to be scared of the dark? Too bad if it is, because I am! With Kevin out of the house, every sound I hear freaks me out. The power just went out for a minute and I thought (for a second) that it was a bad guy cutting off the power so he could get me. I'm such a loser! Everywhere I walk in this house I make my big dog Tex go with me so he can protect me. I think I've watched too many scary movies and crime shows in my time.

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Well, that's it for now. Sorry this post was all over the place, but that's just how my mind is working tonight!