Happy Birthday Ms. Damron!

Um...best birthday ever!

So I'm kind of ridiculous when it comes to my birthday. I love it when people tell me happy birthday. (Does that mean I'm shallow? haha) It's just more fun when people know!

On Friday, I told several friends at work that my birthday was on Monday and I expected cards and presents. (I told you, I'm completely ridiculous.) When I came into my room this morning, someone had left me a gift of colored goldfish and a card! So fun. Then when I got to PLC/faculty meeting, Leslie Zuber gave me a present and told me that that there was something in the bag that I needed to wear. (Oh dear. This is what I get myself into when I make my birthday a big deal!) Along with some more food (she got me cheez-its, a hershey chocolate bar, and goldfish), there was a pink, furry, sequin-y headband in the shape of a crown. It didn't say "Happy Birthday," so I think that some people were kind of confused. Leslie just cracked up when I put it on, so if it brought smiles to others, then it's all good!

The best thing that I did was write on my white board,

CAN YOU GUESS HOW OLD MS. DAMRON IS TODAY? IF YOU GET IT RIGHT, YOU GET A PIECE OF CANDY!

Oh my hilarious! There were only four students in my first period and these were their guesses: 23, 32, 26, 28. The only reason one of the students got the right answer is because she looked on my calendar! I did the same thing in my WolfPack (homeroom) and only 9 out of 22 students got the right answer. One student jokingly put 5,000. But a good portion of those guesses were in the 30s. In my second period, 3/11 got the right answer. Several girls put 24 though, so that wasn't too bad.

During WolfPack, I had another homeroom come in and sing me Happy Birthday! And then they gave me flowers! My favorite teacher, Lisa Fisher, came in after and said, "Read the card!" The card said, "...and you thought I forgot. Please. Happy Birthday old lady!" It was hilarious because I gave her a hard time about forgetting my birthday that morning. I told her the only reason she remembered it was my birthday was that I was wearing the little pink crown on my head. Bahahaha So great.

When I went to lunch, I told one teacher, Mr. Barker, that I was disappointed that none of his students had come and sung me Happy Birthday. (During faculty meeting that morning, he jokingly said that he was going to have his students come sing to me every period.) Well...second period I had a whole class come in and sing me Happy Birthday! One of my students said, "Ms. Damron! You did this for me?!" Yeah...no. haha
A little later on that period, some TA's from the main office brought me flowers! They said, "We don't know who these are from...some lady from a flower shop brought them." One of the girls in my second period said, before they said it was a girl, "Was it a boy with curly hair?!" She is always asking about Cameron! It's funny. I didn't know who sent it until I opened the card: Happy Birthday to our Audry! - Dad - So sweet. I have the best dad in the world!



All I can say is that it was a great day. I brought brownies to my team meeting, which was fun. (I love brownies. A lot.)

Happy Birthday to me!

-Ms. Damron-

Did you see that wildebeest herd go through the hall today?

I went across the hall and talked to one of my favorite teachers, Lisa Fisher, after school today. There was a student taking a test in her class, and we just chatted about random things. I'm pretty sure that student is convinced that teachers are completely insane (which we are, but still, why let that secret out?).

During our conversation, Lisa said, "Hey. Did you see that wildebeest herd come through the hall today? It was like Lion King!" I cracked up because yes and yes! I was standing outside my door and all of a sudden, a group of students stampeded right on by. I was in such shock that I couldn't even shout "No running in the halls!" It was crazy.

Here is the Lion King version of a wildebeest stampede. But I warn you, the video is sad, so you might only want to watch the first minute or so to get an idea of what ran through my hall.




Visit this website to see some amazing pictures of a wildebeest stampede.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2063219/Amazing-pictures-wildebeest-stampeding-Africa.html

-Ms. Damron-

A perfect day.

Days like today make me remember why I love teaching so much.


Today was such a good day. One of my good friends from BYU, Sarah (Killingsworth) Miller, volunteered from 8 - 12 today. She just might be one of the best volunteers I've had! She caught on to what the students were doing and came up with some great ideas when helping them with their assignments. I was so glad to have her because several of my 7th grade students needed serious helping working on their research essays from their English classes. The essay topic was on bullying and of course these students have had several weeks to work on their outline and type it out. One of the teachers had several research days in the computer lab, and yet they still didn't have a single thing written down on their outline packet!

Anyway, you get the idea. So as soon as Sarah came in this morning, I assigned her to help a girl on the essay. They worked really well together and got most of the outline packet filled out. I had Sarah work with a 7th grade boy in my 2nd period and that went well too. **Just so you get a picture of what we're dealing with here, the 7th grade boy, we'll call him Bobby, has THE HARDEST time accomplishing work on his own. According to his mom, he moves like molasses. He is just slow at everything. He doesn't even show a lot of emotion! If he's happy/sad/grumpy/whatever I couldn't tell the difference. So, this essay has been stressing me out because unless he has one-on-one help, he doesn't do anything. Now, before you get the wrong idea, it is not because he is defiant or non-compliant, he just zones out and has a hard time processing things and then getting his ideas out of his head.

Well, Sarah helped him as much as she could. We even pulled him out of his 4th period so that Sarah could help him. Still, we didn't quite finish the essay before Sarah had to leave.
Once students filled out their outline, they had to type their essay into a program called Utah Write. (It actually scores the essay, which is really cool.) The highest score you can get is a 30. Bobby's teacher wouldn't accept anything less than a 22, so it was important to make sure all the right components were included.

I was really impressed with Bobby because, as I've mentioned, he doesn't usually show a lot of motivation to get things done. Well, I had mentioned that I might pull him out of his 5th period (which was dance) so that he could finish the essay. Before 4th period ended, he asked me if I was going to pull him out because he is going to be gone tomorrow and he wanted to get the essay done. Wow! Talk about being proactive.

Well, Sarah ended up staying for lunch and when her husband, Marty, came to pick her up, we all ended up talking. So, it wasn't until about half way through the period that I remembered that I had promised to pick up Bobby and the girl Sarah worked with in 1st period! EEEK! I called the Special Ed team room and had one of the paras go pick up these two diligent student. We had about 20 minutes left in the period and guess what...BOBBY FINISHED HIS ESSAY! Lisa, one of the paras, helped him finish it. She had been typing while he dictated the essay to her. When it was finished, she said, Alright Bobby, let's have you click the submit button.

When he clicked submit and saw his score, his face lit up. Bobby received a 24 all on his own! I have never seen a smile full of so much joy! My heart was singing! And every time we praised him and told him how great he did, that same huge smile popped up on his face. It was the most inspiring moment.

I want to make a shout out to parents, teachers, anyone who works with children and youth. Be positive! Help them and let them see what they can accomplish! I promise the feeling you will get when you see their joy is like nothing else you will experience.

-Ms. Damron-

Get Married!

Bahahaha

I love my students. In my second period today we were talking about something random and my students asked me if I was married. When I said I wasn't, they were all shocked. I wear a ring on my right ring-finger, but it seems to confuse them and half of them think I'm married.

Well, when I corrected them and let them know that I was not married, on girl said, quite forcefully, "Get married!"

I cracked up over this. Another girl said, "Aren't you dating that boy with the curly hair?"
When I said that we broke up, she said, "Oh. Well you can do better. He had weird hair."

Another girl said, "He looks like that guy from Twilight - the one who always looked like he was in pain."


Oh my hilarious. I was seriously cracking up. I wouldn't say I could "do better" because I think Cameron is a very attractive man. And I highly disagree that he looks like what's-his-name from Twilight, but that was such a funny conversation! (Cameron would die if he knew he had been compared to someone from Twilight.) It had to be shared. :)

-Ms. Damron-

Parent-Teacher Conferences February Style

So we're at another Parent-Teacher Conference (PTC)! Hip hip HOORAY! It's been four hours, which means we only have two more hours left.

Fortunately, I'm sitting next to my two favorite teachers: Kenyon Christen and Lisa Fisher. They are both first-year teachers as well and we are partying it up! When we parent-teacher conferences last September, it was total chaos. There was a constant flow and some teachers didn't have a single break the entire six hours. I did. :)

Anyway, we're holding PTC in the cafeteria so that parents can more easily go from teacher to teacher. Kenyon and I are sharing a table and right next to the laminated paper that says his name, is a sign with a picture of kids and this phrase underneath:

"Always use your best manners in front of your peers. You may want to date them one way."

He made a joke about it because he's 28 and not married.

I work with the best people.

-Ms. Damron-

Ode to Donovan

I have been really blessed this year to have several volunteers from BYU. A lot of them have been friends that I went to Jerusalem with. They are education majors (history teacher, English teaching, etc.) who are taking a class on students with disabilities and they fulfill their volunteer hours with me! I absolutely love it because it's so helpful to have an extra person in the classroom. It's amazing how many students need one-on-one help or at the least small group instruction.
I had a lot of volunteers last semester, but I haven't really run into anyone this semester who is taking the class. This all changed when I randomly went to another classroom to clarify a homework assignment during 1st period about 5-6 weeks ago. Guess who I saw in the hall working with some students? A good JC friend, Donovan Sanchez! I could hardly believe it (he was pretty surprised to see me too!). I found out he was taking that class, and I invited him to volunteer in my classroom! He had to take work off, but he volunteered every Tuesday from 8-11. Sadly this last Tuesday was his last day. (Something about fulfilling the hours he needed to and going back to work...what ere.)

I loved having him in my classroom because he worked so well with the kids! There were several boys who worked really well for him. Yes! This last Tuesday, Donovan told me that one of the boys he had helped found out he was done and wouldn't be coming back and he said, "No! I like you." Then he said something about Donovan being awesome. Isn't that great?!

I love it when soon-to-be educators volunteer in my classroom because they get to see what happens with assignments that general ed teachers give students with disabilities. It generally takes them longer and it is harder for them to finish large and long assignments. I know Donovan will be a great teacher.

Just because I love pictures, I have to add these. If you remember, I took pictures of all of my WolfPack (homeroom) kids and put them on my door. Well, I gave students the chance to re-take their pictures at the beginning of the semester. I decided to re-take mine as well. So, before Donovan left last week, I asked him to take a quick picture of me. Now, from previous experience in Jerusalem, I know Donovan can be a bit...tricky when it comes to taking pictures. (He took several pictures that were not attractive due to the fact that they were zoomed in so much!) So I took an example picture of him and showed him what I wanted my picture to look like. Here are the results:





Not bad, eh?

-Ms. Damron-

Life is good.

On Friday we had an assembly. There was a talent show and they split up which homerooms watched which half depending on which lunch we had. I have first lunch, so my homeroom (WolfPack) watched the first half of the show. I was so impressed with what some students did! My favorite act was when 8 or so students dressed in black and wore glow sticks. Then they did a dance, in the dark, which made them look like dancing stick figures! So fun.
After the first half, we returned and tied fleece blankets as a service project. The boys took a blanket and the girls took a blanket. The boys claimed that their blanket looked like a disaster (and parts of it did) and the girls' blanket was pretty and neat. It made me laugh.
After the assembly, we had shortened periods for the rest of the day. One of my students in homeroom asked me to teach her/help her draw angel wings on an apple for an art assignment. So I googled "how to draw angel wings" and we drew some angel wings! She was really impressed that I drew the wings just from looking at the computer screen. We took some pictures for your enjoyment. :)



Her apple pre-winged.




Her sainted, angelic apple.

Apparently her apple is crying because the other apple got squished by a shoe (which she hasn't drawn yet).

During that first period, I had a surprise visit from a district Special Ed woman. It's called a "Walk Through." I was freaking out a little bit because the period was shortened, so we were working on homework versus me teaching a lesson. But I got the results back and these were some of the comments:

"Teacher is engaged withs students. Students are all on task. Teacher keeps students moving from task to task. No misbehavior."

"Classroom is a happy place to be. Clean and organized. Not too cluttered. Teacher is pleasant."

"Audryn gives constant specific positive praise to students. Her students are very respectful. There is much positive interaction."

Yahoooooo!
It was an excellent review, but then again, they are my golden class period, so I got lucky. There are some other class periods that are in serious need of behavior management. I was told that these "walk throughs" will happen at least once a month, so I need to work on some things. But I felt pretty good!

-Ms. Damron-