Random Thoughts on a Random Day

Feeling the need to update you on some key points in my life...not really feeling like crafting paragraphs so...here you are.

• DONE with school until Tuesday, January 12th. I felt weird leaving my classroom today for almost a month, but the break will be fabulous.
• Last day of school today - a mini earthquake hits Cali. The ground briefly shook during 2nd hour...awkward.
• Between Thursday and Friday my students shared with their classmates the projects they completed about slope. This is a project I used while student teaching and now, where I have students write me stories that explain why the slope of a line is positive, negative, zero or undefined. The students are supposed to inspire the students' creative sides and they are usually really fun to read.

Projects hung up in my classroom.

One specific project entitled "The romance of an unlikely future Mrs. Mauer" HILARIOUS.

PLEASE zoom in and read. This will give you an example of the project, how much my students know about my interests outside math, and their not-so-awesome English skills.

• Steph & I combined forces with our classes today in order to avoid the last day before break scenario where the kids are loopy and drive the teacher nuts. We had them compete against the other class in creating a dance, song, skit and racing to complete a word search and Sudoku puzzle. They did a nice job and we kept our sanity for one more day!

• Staff Christmas party this afternoon. As long as I am a teacher I don't think I will ever has as much fun at staff parties as I do here. Dancing + Poker beer + friends = perfect.
• I now have Christmas plans to go to Pasto, Colombia with a friend from school. I am taking a bus there for 8 hours then flying home on December 28th. Supposed to arrive in Cali at 1:05 pm.
• Allison is coming in TEN DAYS!!! Her plane gets in at 9:16 pm on the 28th.
• Since the Pasto airport is in the middle of the mountains, any fog or wind at all means the plane might not take off. Shoot...I better be here in Cali when Allison gets here. I am crafting extensive back up plans just in case.
• My students are killing me slowly with Christmas gifts in the form of cakes, cookies, baked goods, and truffles. Truffles are delicious.
• Ten of my students failed my class this semester. Ten out of 100. They need to get it together immediately. I am not that difficult of a teacher. I hope they get new attitudes for Christmas and learn that if you do your homework on a regular basis you will understand what the heck is going on in class.
• Second Christmas package arrived yesterday from my Grandpa in Seattle...taking an adventure up to northern Cali tomorrow in hopes of retrieving it.
• Since moving in with Steph & Hana I have seen 3 cockroachs. That is 3 too many. Also, did you know cockroachs fly? Learned this yesterday in a terrifying experience that almost brought me to tears.

The end. Happy Friday.