The Adventures of Miss England: "Dont not"

For you grammar Nazis who just had a stroke over my title...no it is not a typo.  I actually read something today that a student wrote, and it contained "dont not." I had a stroke.  I am by no means a grammar Nazis, but there are some things that drive me insane: double negatives, too, to, and two, there and their, were and where. GRRRRRRR.
Now I know we all make mistakes, and sometimes we write different things then what our minds think.  I get that, BUT writing has gone down the drain! I have made it my goal to force my students to do some type of writing activity outside of taking notes. Hopefully it helps.

We also had issues with the word suffrage. The students were assigned to create their own word map.  For those of you who do not know, word maps help the students define the word, and they draw a picture to represent the word....my students thought suffrage=suffering. Sigh. I promise we corrected them.

Also, my students thought that Uncle Sam was a human being...sorry to disappoint everyone be he was definitely created for advertisement.  We corrected them.

However, I do see a slight improvement in SOME of their work.  I think that having two teachers in the classroom has greatly helped certain students.  If only this could be possible for every classroom. 

But on the other hand, there are students (actually just one class) that I have no idea what to do to get them motivated.  Even the fear of failing the EOCT does not encourage them to listen or study...Sigh. Any pointers?


On a completely different note, I have been on a hard core diet..I know aren't we all surprised.  For those of you who can, you should definitely download My Fitness Pal on your phone.  It helps you keep up with your calorie intake and how much you exercise.  I have also being using a Jilliam Michaels' video...it kicks my butt every time, but I love it!!

6 months

This past Saturday was exactly six months till the big day! Josh and I were in complete amazement when this dawned on us.  Sunday we met with Margie from Trevitt Hall.  I had originally wanted to have the reception their but thought it was going to be WAY too expensive.  But I knew that I wanted her to do the decorations.  So we sat down with her and talked about how much it would be to have it somewhere else and her still do the decorations. She told us that it would be twice as much because she would have to find chairs and tables, and we would have to add in extra money for gas and labor cost......So we decided to have the reception at Trevitt Hall!!!! The place is gorgeous and very much how I imagined my reception to be.  She showed me different table arrangements and what my sweetheart table would look like. We also met with person who is catering the food and picked out what we wanted to eat.  I love the fact that they will do EVERYTHING for us! It makes it ten times less stressful. EEKKKK!!!!!

The only thing we have left to do is find a D.J. finish getting bridesmaid dresses, get tux,pay for Discovery Cove, and get the decorations for the church! 

I also realized that the Friday before one of my showers is Friday the 13th and the Friday before my wedding is Friday the 13th....how weird is that?

The Return of Miss England

Yes she has returned...and it was LONG over due. 

I am back at NMHS with Mrs. McClary, and I am LOVING IT! I missed the first day of school thinks to a wonderful UTI, but I was there bright and early the next morning.  These tenth graders are definitely a challenge for me. When I was out Southeast and Bagley I had some of the brightest students.  My seventh graders knew WAY more than about the Middle East than I do (they are also the ones who encourage me to read The Hunger Games).  I do have two classes of AP students, but the other four are regular students....this means you get some really smart ones, ones who try, ones who hate school, and ones who cannot find their way out of a brown paper bag.  BUT I do feel like I needed this.  I work well the students who are really trying but just aren't there yet.  It excites me to see the smile on their face when the finally do complete an assignment.  However there are those moments where I am like, "Did that really just happen?"  For an example:
Last Friday I was sitting at Mrs. McClary's desk grading tests.  Mrs. McClary was going over their warm-ups, when out of the corner of my eye I see a student stand-up raise his leg, and Chuck Norris kick are girl's water bottle off her desk. I thought he was trying to kick the girl, but apparently he was aiming for the water bottle....thank God he has good aim.
Mrs. McClary looked at him and said, "What demonic being possessed you into thinking that it was okay to do that!?!"
I of course did the inappropriate thing...I fell over laughing.  Keep in mind this was the VERY last class of the day and the very last day of the week. I was exhausted.

Speaking of exhaustion...I think body has found a whole new level of exhaustion.  7 a.m.- 4:15 p.m. is a long school day.  I also still have my Senior Seminar class and a Special Ed course that I have to take.  Last Friday I literally came home and was in bed by 8.  Actaully I think I have gone to bed at about 8 every night in the past week. Sigh......

2012..

Oh how I have waited for you! You might just be my favorite year!

We are officially wedding planning.  My aunts pretty much have my shower planned.  I have mixed feeling about this.  I hate being the center of attention, but I really want new stuff for the house. Speaking of house..Lisa bought me a bunch of picture frames and a shelving unit for our house, so it looks like someone actually lives there...besides Joshua.

Josh and I are finally going to register this weekend..he is just as excited about this as I am, probably because it is the only time that he gets a say so in this wedding.  We will have our honeymoon paid for by the end of this month. EEEKKKK!!! Please let the next six months FLY by!

With all the good things that will happen in 2012, this year has not started of the best.  My poor papa backed all into my car.  I have gone almost seven years without having so much as a scratch on any of my vehicles.  Then I chipped my tooth by biting down on a fork.  Nope it is not the same tooth that I just had the root canal on.  And today I woke up at 4 in the morning in severe pain from a UTI....GREAT!!!!!