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-

Nailing jello to a tree...

By the way, I searched "nailing jello to a tree" on google image search and these are some of the results. So great!











I hope you got a good laugh...because it's all so true! (Especially that Chuck Norris one.)

-Ms. Damron-

Halfway done with the year/new semester/no more 3rd period prep

Hopefully the title of this entry gave you an idea as to what is going on in my life right now!

Semester #1 ended on January 13th. We had two weeks to boost grades and get kids passing all of their classes. It was a bit of a mad rush and I am still tweaking things to be more efficient and help my students be more proactive and motivated when it comes to doing their homework (and classwork...you'd be amazed how many teachers tell me, "I give all of the answers in class, but he/she just sits there!). We helped a lot of students barely pass their classes, but it was a little too close if you ask me.

Now I'm going to throw a little wrench in the happiness that came with the end of a semester. Last Friday, POWERSCHOOL crashed. PowerSchool is the online grade book that Provo School District uses. The problem didn't stem from Provo School District though. It apparently was a huge server crash that can be traced all the way back to the big creators of PowerSchool. We were told that they weren't sure how much data could be saved, so we were all freaking out that the grades we had put in for all of Term 2 were gone! If you didn't back up your grades on something else on your computer or keep a hard copy in your teacher planner, then you were in BIG TROUBLE.
Thankfully they recovered all of the data from Term 2 with the exception of the last week of term. This was a relief, but in Resource Learning, the last week of the term is crucial because we are still running around like crazy getting our students to hand in missing assignments and late work. Hopefully teachers remember who handed in what and when!
Because PowerSchool has been down, Resource Learning is a bit tricky because I rely heavily on what is on PowerSchool. It's fun when you have a class based on homework help and you have to hope that your students are just bringing their homework and telling you what they need to do. (They should be doing this all the time, yet it rarely happens. Usually we are harping on them to get out the packet from history/science or finish that math assignment or study for this test...it's like nailing jello to a tree - very difficult!)

Moral of the story: technology is fantastic, but totally freaky when it doesn't work...

When the semester ended, I could hardly believe that the first half of my first year of teaching is over. Where in the world does the time go?! If the first half is already over, then I might as well start planning my summer because the school year is over. Another testament to how fast time goes is the fact that January is almost over. Seriously - time just flies by!

Second semester started after the three day break that came with Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The Friday before, I had checked my schedule and what do you know, my 3rd period had students...but only two! All of last semester, I was technically signed up for 3rd period Writing Skills, but there were no students assigned to the class. Therefore I had two prep periods. I relished those two prep periods. I could run errands for other Special Ed teachers (do observations, testing, etc.); observe other classroom teachers; take a break and get hot chocolate in the faculty lounge, EAT A SNACK BECAUSE I'M ALWAYS STARVING BY THAT TIME; etc. Imagine my dismay when I found out I was reduced to the alloted one prep period that every other teacher has. Thank heavens it's a Writing Skills class. Writing Skills isn't too difficult of a class to teach and I really enjoy it.
BUT ONLY TWO STUDENTS? They added five more students to my 6th period Writing Skills, but somehow only put two in my 3rd period. How did that work out? Oh well. I never realized how exhausting it is to teach for that many periods in a row, but I'm finally getting used to it. I certainly have to be more on top of my preparation because I have no breaks in between to plan a lesson or print off materials. It's been a good change and I'm excited to see how I can help these students learn to write better!

-Ms. Damron-

Funny(ish) jokes

So I found this piece of paper with some jokes I wrote down from an assembly back in September or October. Enjoy.

Why did the book fall off the desk?
Because there was an earthquake.

Why did the sign fall over?
Because the wind blew it down.

Why did the plane crash?
Because the pilot was a potato.

I know the jokes are a bit on the ridiculous/slightly not funny side, but they made me laugh. Especially the"pilot is a potato" one. At that same assembly, the Student Council put on a show in the cafeteria. I will never forget the sight of a little 7th or 8th grade boy who was kneeling down at the front row singing along with the Taylor Swift song that was playing. He was getting so into it and he know every single word! Man I love middle school

"You have Justin Bieber hair."

One day I was observing a student in an art class. Not dealing with the student I was watching, the teacher walked toward the white board at the back of the classroom and said, "Girls at the board..."
A male student turned around and said, "Hey!"
The teacher laughed and said, "Oh - I'm sorry. I saw you flip your hair and I thought...you were a girl."

Another student told that boy, "You have Justin Bieber hair."

Made. My. Day.

-Ms. Damron-

Back from break...

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. We're back from break!
I will admit I was a little bummed at how short Christmas break was, but I guess a shorter break means that we don't have to go back to school after Memorial Day in May. I'm still wondering if it's worth it though...

I woke up this morning with a stuffy nose. Awesome. I realized I probably caught it from my younger sister, Candyce. I slept in her room the past couple of days and she was sick. Great decision on my part.

Well, most of the periods went well today.
My first period was all asleep. They love to tell stories, so as soon as the bell rang, I told them they had five minutes to share stories with each other. Did anyone share any stories? Of course not. It took a good thirty minutes for them to finally warm up and get back to their usual selves, but they did get back to normal (normal being fairly scatter-brained at times and a wee bit on the chatty side). Still, my first period is my best behavior-wise, so I was fine.

Second period I was told that I was grumpy. One student said, "I hate Christmas break. You come back all grumpy and mean."

Fourth period was no different from normal. I count seconds for how long it takes them to be in their seat with their materials after the bell rings (ie if they are not in their seats when the bell rings, I count how long it takes them to get in their seats with the needed materials) and however many seconds it takes is how long I make them stay after class. This is quite painful for them because a lot of them have lunch right after. Well, one girl was late and she made everyone else get seconds. So what did my students say? "It was Christmas break!" "We forgot! Give us a break." "Let it be our Christmas gift..." And the list goes on. Don't worry, their cute faces and charming smiles didn't crack me.

During sixth period, one student had a terrible migraine and hammed it up quite a bit. This student can be fairly dramatic anyway, and when students were writing in their journals, he wrote, "I was thrown from my bike and have a terrible migraine." Then when I had students practice their spelling words, he wrote his a few times, and when I told everyone to clean up, he wrote "Shhhh" on his white board and held it up. He didn't say a single word the entire period. Something was definitely wrong. Poor kid!

Seventh period. What to say about seventh period? Sassy? Rude? Ridiculous? At the moment, yes. One boy, who I had seen earlier in the day, came in with a lip ring. Was it fake? Yes. Did he tell everyone it was real? Yes. When I first walked in the classroom, he whispered to me, "Don't tell anyone!" Then when he and his buddy were making a big deal about it, I said, "If it's going to be a big distraction..." and he immediately quieted down. Funny stuff.
One girl also dropped her binder and all of the papers fell out. Fortunately they were still in order, but she came up to me and said, "Ms. Damron? I dropped my binder and all of my papers fell out. They're still in order though! Can you put them back for me?" I laughed. OUT LOUD. "Are you serious?" I asked. She said yes. Bahahaha I just laughed and said no way. (She was really quite serious about me fixing her binder for her though. I'm a little curious what she gets away with at home...)
Another great story was when students were looking up their grades on PowerSchool. One student, who likes attention and procrastinates everything possible, said, quite loudly, "Ms. Damron - I forgot my lunch number." I flat out told him I didn't believe him and asked him what did he do for lunch. "I brought a home lunch." Maybe he did, but we all know he didn't forget his lunch number over break. I told him to figure it out and try really hard to remember. He loudly started shouting random numbers he was punching into the computer and when I came back, I said, "Here's what we can do to problem solve. Your lunch number is listed on the sign-out sheet. If you go over there, you can figure out which number is yours." While I was saying this, you could see on his face that he had no desire to actually get out of his seat and do something, so he "suddenly" remembered his lunch number. I finished my statement saying, "...unless you magically remember your lunch number." What did he say? "I...I magically remembered my lunch number." Riiiiight.

Oh it's good to be back.

-Ms. Damron-

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

It's hard to believe that Christmas break is a few hours away! We have school until noon tomorrow and then we are FREE!!! Can you tell I'm a little bit excited?

The Christmas season is certainly a magical one. I love being at work during Christmas time. Although we don't have a "work party" during December, we have two days specifically set aside to celebrate. They are dubbed the Centennial "PIG OUT" and faculty members sign up to bring food. All day long you can step into the faculty room and have a treat. It's absolutely wonderful. PIG OUT days were last Wednesday and Thursday (12/14 and 12/15). Thursday the 15th I had a special ed district training though. I was kind of sad I missed out because I heard that the food was very good that day. District training made up for it by having a potluck for new teachers. I brought Crunchy Chicken Salad and it was a hit! We all got to sit around and chat while eating yummy food. The best part was when Shauna Raby, one of the district ladies, showed us some videos she had made using our pictures. They were funny!

The man in the video, Joel, went through the Special Ed program at BYU with me and this video cracks me up.



The three guys in the video above are absolutely HILARIOUS.



The one you've all been waiting for! (Me.)



We got out around 1:00 that day. I had a full day sub because I didn't think there was any reason to go back for only two periods. Plus, if a sub works for more than half a day, they automatically get a full day's pay. Am I going to go back and let the sub leave and still get paid? No stinking way! So what did I do? Go Christmas shopping! The weekend is absolutely insane, so I had to go during the week. It was nice to get that out of the way.

Speaking of Christmas presents, I made caramel popcorn balls for coworkers on Sunday. I made two batches, which yielded between 50-60 popcorn balls! Thank heavens my sister and her friend were there to help me! Saran wrapping popcorn balls all by myself would have been tricky. They turned out wonderfully delicious. I felt like Santa Clause going around at work with my plastic bag full of popcorn balls. I think they were a hit though! I also received a mini loaf of bread from Lisa Fisher (history teacher), some homemade jam from Rae McAdams (math teacher), and a goody bag from Julie Hillman (fellow special ed teacher). I feel so loved!

Merry Christmas everyone!