August
- 18 - Back to School Night. I was so nervous meeting my future students and their parents. I mean, what do you say? AAAHHHH!!
- 20 - School starts. I was only hired on as an hourly teacher to teach from 9-11:30 everyday. We played some get to know you games, went over some of the basic rules and then jumped into our first math lesson of the year. I don't mess around!
- 21 - I become a contracted teacher. Now I work from 9 - 2:30 everyday. Still not full time, but close.
- 31 - sept. 2 - This was suppose to be our Clear Creek trip. I know, so close to the beginning of the year. We have only a week and a half down, now we're going to Clear Creek. Well, on Monday, the boys are all packed, on the bus, and ready to go when a "concerned" parent calls the school and asks if we are still going. She said there was a fire that started up that way over the weekend. Well our principal knew nothing of this, so he started making phone calls and since we didn't have enough time to contact all parents and make sure they were ok with the trip, ( the fire was over a mountain or 2, but parents only knew that it was by Clear Creek) the pricipal said we couldn't go and would have to reschedule. Since the kids were all too bummed to go back to class we went up Provo Canyon for the day and did most of the activities we were going to do at Clear Creek.
- 1 - Since the boys didn't get to go to Clear Creek, the girls didn't get to go either. We again took them up Provo Canyon and did the day activities we did with the boys. We made shrunken heads with potatoes (it was way awesome, if you want to know how, let me know, because it was a way fun activity for camping, especially since they would be ready just in time for Halloween). We did another art activity with the girls, which was making a magnet. We took about a mile hike and found a few snakes and beaver dams. We also played games, like volleyball, frisbee golf, and rope tying. It was a fun trip. Better with the girls, since we had a day to organize activities, unlike with the boys.
- 11 - school pictures. I had to show up at 7:30 to be in the faculty picture, but it was worth it. They gave free pictures to the staff and the airbrushed all of us too. I look so pretty in my single photo. My favorite picture yet, thanks to the touch ups.
- 18 - Cougar Crawl. This was the schools only fundraiser. Our theme this school year was "Finding our place in the world" So we made this a World's Fair. It was fun to see all the different cultures of people we had at Cascade. We also had BYU clubs come and set up booths. We had some of our students and their families perform in the auditorium. It was amazing! I was on the committee and had to make some posters for the event. Which made it into the year book on the front page. It was an awesome poster! I wish I had in scanned in, I guess if you want to see it, you'll have to stop by my house and look at the yearbook.
- 24 - I have a concern can on my desk that students can put notes in if they want to tattle. I have a strict no tattling to me during lessons, it gets super annoying! So Thursday after school I notice my first tattle in the can. The note says, "I'm getting threatening notes and I'm scared please help!!!" No name or anything, I guess this will have to wait until tomorrow.
- 25 - As soon as my last straggler makes it in, I address the class about the note. I just tell them that there was a note in my can and if they were the ones who put it there, I needed to talk to them before I can do anything, so please come see me sometime today. That was at 9:30. Right before recess, which is at 1:15 a girl comes up o me and says, "It was me." At first I was confused, then she said, "The note." Oh, I go to ask her if she has the threatening letter and she handed me the note she received and walked out the door. The note said, "I hate you!!! I know where you sleep and tonight I'm going to come and kill you!!!" My principal was gone for meetings both days, so I'm stuck solving this one on my own. I read the note to the class and talk about how serious the situation is. I ask that the person who wrote it, or if anyone knows who wrote it come see me. Nobody does. I'm hoping the 30 minute lecture scared them into not doing it again and I hope it will go away over the weekend.
- 28 - Monday morning I go into school early and clean out the girl's desk that was receiving the notes. It was extremely messy. I just wanted to see if she had anymore, and I was going to watch her desk. I stood in the back of the room, watching my students enter and watching her desk. Nobody goes near it. The bell rings and I start my day. The girl comes in 15 minutes late to school and a minute later she comes up to me with another threatening note saying, "You told huh. Now you're really going to get it!!! I'm going to kill you!!!" ( the 3 !!! is important later on) My principal is still gone in meetings! AH! I'm thinking, "How did this note get in there, I watched so carefully." I stop and talk to the class again. Most of them look concerned and scared. I tell them that if they know anything about who it might be they needed to let me know, whether they wrote it down and out it in the concern can, or they come and talk to me. (No, I couldn't tell by the handwriting, they disguised it). I also took away their recess for lying and not coming forward. I make them sit for 10 minutes with their heads down thinking about who may have done this and what they should do if it was them. I know it's mean and I felt so bad, because I know more than 4/5 of my class wouldn't do something like that. I have a really great class. I get a note in my concern can right before recess that says, "I think it's Kaydin, she wrote this note to me." attached was a note that said, "Stop calling my friends a webblo!!! I'm going to kill you if you do it again!!!" Now Kaydin's the girl who has been receiving the threatening notes, so that didn't apply. I've now asked the other teachers on my team and they say I need to involve Doug (the principal) since I've done everything we could think of. I write an email to the principal about the situation and asks if he can come talk to my class.
- 29 - I had asked Kaydin where the note was found yesterday and she said in my math journal. So with that in mind I cleaned out all her notebooks and everything, then I watched her desk, again, like a hawk! I'm going to figure out once and for all who is doing this. Again, nobody goes near her desk, and again she is late. Instead of starting my day, I stay in the back till she arrives, watching her desk. She comes in 15 minutes late again, as soon as she sits in her desk I start our lesson. As soon as my lesson finished she raises her hand and says she got another note. It was in her Math journal. Now she doesn't know I've been watching her desk and I've been checking it daily. Her math journal was not in her desk that morning, so she must have had it in her backpack, or at home. I'm thinking, "There's no way this was one of my students, it's her, it's got to be her." We have NOVA that morning (it's the DARE program, but improved), and I pull aside Sgt. Wakamatsu before he comes in and ask him to talk to my class about the effects of this note. He comes back in after lunch and talks to my students about the notes and how wrong it is. He also tells them that he knows someone knows who is writing them and they need to come forward because they are committing a crime by not telling. He tells them that if they don't come forward by tomorrow morning he will have to take it to the next step which is processing it and doing investigations, dusting for fingerprints, solving it. He explained that he would solve it, it might take a while, but it would be solved and that person will be punished not only by the school, but also in court. He also said that if anyone knew about it, and they find out once it goes into investigation mode, then they would be charged as well for obstructing justice. WOW! he really scared it into them. My whole class stands around at recess shocked! Well, it's parent teacher conferences that night, so I was going to talk to Kaydin's mother there, since it's bee going on a few days and it's not being resolved. Kaydin comes into class during recess and says, "I just called my mom and she's upset to hear about the notes and is going to come in to ask why you haven't called her about them." I'm thinking, "You didn't tell her last week when you got the first note? Why did you wait till now to tell?" She also said she thinks it's Victoria writing the notes, a girl in the other class. I know it's not her because she hadn't been in m room when this started. Kaydin's mother comes in and it's while I'm talking to Sgt. Wakamatsu. I explain what I have been doing and how long it's been going on and that I'm positive it's not coming from anyone in my class. Now they think it's someone from another class, but that would be impossible, since they only come in for an hour and I watched her desk and checked it after they left. We talk to her about what we're doing to solve the situation. She seamed fine with this and said she would talk to Kaydin at home about the notes appearing when I've checked and watched her desk so carefully. I tell Sgt. Wakamatsu that I think it's Kaydin writing these note to herself because the "i" is written with big circles for the dots in the letters and in her daily writing, also she uses 3 explanation points in every note she writes and they appear in these notes. And the fact that I have been watching her desk like a hawk and yet these letters are making it into her desk magically. He says he talked to her about it and she seemed genuinely scared about these notes. Most kids are not good at lying, especially to an officer in uniform who carries a gun with him. I don't know I still think it's her. Since it's parent teacher conferences and we've scared the living daylights out of my students, every parent I meet with asks about the notes and if the person receiving them is ok, some even know it's Kaydin getting them. One girl was crying about it, she was so worried. I told her it's all being taken care of and we think we know who wrote them and they will be punished accordingly. I was already nervous, being the first time I'm formally meeting with parents and this whole ordeal is what's on every parents mind. Judging how I'm handling it. Luckily in their eyes I'm doing everything possible. WOW these conferences SUCK!!!!
- 30 - Kaydin comes in right when the bell rings with a another note and her brother's journal. She says, "I think it's my brother, look at his handwriting in his journal and this note I found on my pillow at home. It's got to be my brother, so it's not coming from anyone here, no worries." Well, we call the mom later that day and tell her of Kaydin's discoveries. She comes in and says, "It's not my son, it's not my son, it's my daughter doing this. I knew we took her out of therapy too soon. It's Kaydin. I'll get the truth out of her tonight."
- 1 - Kaydin comes into school and hands me a note. It's an apology for all the trouble she has caused. She meets with the principal and they decide that she has to do 20 hours of community service at the school. Everyday for the next 20 days, she'll stay after school and help me, or the janitors with anything we need help with. What an exhausting week! I'm ready for a break, but oh wait, I have more parent conferences tonight! UUHHGG! They are concerned with the same stuff as last time, but at least I can say we have found our culprit and they are being dealt with by Mr. Finch. We had also been having our Book Fair all week and some students bought me some really cute books for our room.
- 4-9 - It's Green Ribbon Week! We got to practice evacuating a bus, and had a bicycle safety night. A lot of safe information about the web was given in an assembly. It was a safe, fun week.
- 15-16 - Fall Break. Well, all of October, Drew and I worked at Hee Haws. It was fun, but I wished we could have gone to Moab instead.
- 19 - 23 - Red and Purple Ribbon Week! All week was about saying no to drugs and violence.
- 30 - We had our annual Halloween Parade. This is where the whole school walks around campus looking at everyone's costumes. It was a long, but fun day. We had our class party after lunch, so fun! They played limbo, eating to donut off the string with no hands, played speed scrabble, and decorated cookies. So messy and noisy!
- 2-6 - Everyday My class worked on a project they could turn in for the Reflections contest. We were one of the only classes to receive 100% participation for Reflections. We had won a pizza party for it. The Daily Herald also interviewed me about getting 100% participation. I think 5 of my students won awards for their entries. It was fun and educational.
- 13 - This was our Arts and Entertainment Fair. The Reflection winners performed their entries, if they were performable, and the rest were displayed around the campus. We have some talented kids at Cascade!
- 14-15 - My family decided to wake up really early Sat. Morning and drive to Vegas for the Air Show. It was amazing! I miss Air Shows! If you've never been to one, I'd highly recommend it! Best weekend by far this year!
- 17 - Our anniversary and Drew is in Wyoming. Lucky for me he made his buddy Alex take me out for sushi that night.
- 25-27 - Thanksgiving Break! We stayed at home this weekend and hung out with family.
- 4 - Christmas Around the World at BYU. The 6th graders got to go to BYU to watch their Christmas Around the World performance. It was fun watching all the dances from around the world. The girls loved it, while the boys thought it was boring. Although, everyone loved the stick dance. I enjoyed it.
- 18 - Sing to Parents Assembly. Our principal asked that we do songs from around the World to incorporate the school year's theme. I guess it's tradition that the 6th graders remake the 12 Days of Christmas song using the teachers at the school. It was fun having them come up with lyrics, since they know the teachers better. Then I had to find a song from another country. Let me tell ya, it was difficult. I found Santa Claus is coming to town in Japanese. So we sung the original the first verse, then in Japanese the second, and the third time we broke in half and half sang in English, the other half in Japanese. It sounded so good.
- 21 - Holiday Assembly. Since Friday we sang just to the parents, this was a way for the school to hear every other grades songs. We basically sat around a circle and sang our songs. Some of the grades were so cute!
- 22 - Common Day. Everyone was there from 8 - 2:15. We had our Christmas party. My room parents did everything for our class parties.
- 23-31 - Winter Break. Drew came home for both weeks, which was awesome! It was a relaxing week. On the 29th, I got a phone call from my mom saying we are leaving for California in 2 hours if you want to come, be here! So we're off to California!
- 1-3 - Still on break in California. We decided to get 2 day park hopper passes to Disneyland for New Years Day. My dad had to work, but we hung out at Disneyland all day and night. The fireworks at midnight were so fun! I love Disneyland!
- 8 - We're are only back for a week, then term ends! It was hectic getting all my grades done after a two week vacation, but I managed.
- 15-18 - I'm off to Wyoming to visit Drew. Bea books my flight for 7:30 with Frontier. (By the way, don't ever fly with Frontier worse experience ever.) I get to the airport for them to tell me that all flights are grounded out of Salt Lake due to the fog. Now it was foggy, but not that bad. They tell me the earliest they can get me o a flight is Sat. at 1:30. I'm pissed. That's half of my day gone! I didn't even want to go at that point. As we leave the airport I see a plane take off. I'm like, "What!?! All planes are grounded, why did that one just take off?" Then another plane takes off. I'm pissed. Apparently only the 1 plane for Frontier isn't taking off, but the lady lied to me because she didn't want to deal with it (there were a lot of people complaining in front of me). The flight I wanted to be on, Southwest at 9:30 still left). When I got home I checked flights with Frontier and they had planes leaving at 9:30 and 10:30 and 12:30, and they had about 10 seats opened on both flights. I was fuming now! She double lied to me! So I go to the airport early and get on a flight standby. Drew and I met up with my cousin for lunch, ate at a sushi place in Denver. Then we went back to Wyoming that night to see the sight in Cheyenne. Yeah, there are no sights to see, so I got to see where Drew works and the place he sends the walls to once he's done building them. We also went to the pound and to the train museum and some other museum. Monday we went sight seeing in Denver and let me tell ya, there is way more to do there than in Cheyenne. We went to every stadium. All 4 were within a mile radius of each other. I wish I could have gone into the Rockies stadium, it looks like so much fun! I want to go see the Angels play there now. I also wanted to get an avalanche foam hand, they were great! The Avalanche were even playing that night, but I had to fly home. Boo!
- 28 - Family Fun Night. We had Social Studies games. Each grade level had to come up with a game and then set up a room and host the game for the night. The school had also gotten a magician and a reptile company to come in and do performances. I had to help the reptile guy. I loved one of his snakes, it was so pretty! He also had a ginormous snake that he had about 15 kids come up and hold. Then they set it down and everyone got to pet it on their way out the door. The company was called Scales and Tails Utah. If you have a son (or daughter) that loves snakes, I'd check the company out. It was amazing! They'll be at the Freedom Festival all day Sat, if you want to check it out. I'd suggest going!
- 1-4 - We had another book fair and Parent Teacher Conferences. They went much better this time around! I got more books from my students and I won a gift certificate for $10 to spend their. My class library is getting a little it bigger.
- 12- We had our Valentines Party. It was a lot of fun and the parents did an excellent job with this party. They played read my lips, spoons, and a couple of other games but those 2 were the favorites.
- My principal was suppose to observe me 2 times this year. My first observation was suppose to be at the end of January. I decided that I wanted to be the first to get it over with. Well, the principal didn't show up, so I had to re-schedule. I rescheduled for the 16th of Feb, and guess what . . . he was a no show again! Finally at the end of the month, he made it. Third times a charm. Then he came back a couple of days later and observed me again. What a stressful time! I wish he would have remembered the first day.
- 3 - The 6th graders got to go to Canyon View Jr. High for Orientation. I can't believe it's that time of year already. It flew by so quickly. Basically it was an assembly to let the kids know about the rules and the things they can participate in. They also shared some differences about Elementary and Jr. High. Then at the end the student council came out with glow sticks taped onto their clothes to make it look like stick figures and they did a dance, then threw out glow sticks and candy. I almost had my eye poked out. Not a smart idea to throw candy at people wen you have the lights turned off.
- 4-7 - Drew and I decided to rent a car and drive to California. We rented a little yellow Beetle. I loved it! We left Thursday after school and drove the 8 hours to California. We stayed at my friend Emalee's house. We decided to buy annual passes to Disneyland since we go so often. We got the premium pass which allows us to go everyday if we wanted to. For letting us stay at her house, we took Em's daughter Abbey to Disneyland, since she has a pass. It worked out perfectly since Em had to run errands. After she was done with her errands she met up with us. Abbey was so much fun to have at Disneyland. She is obsessed with maps and always had to stop to map out what we were going to do next. Drew and I also taught her some things to do at Disneyland when she goes next time with her dad, that might make him upset, nut oh well, we don't like the dad anyways. Ha! Ha! Ha!
- 17 - Maturation! Dun dun duuhhh! Not so bad when you're a 6th grade girl. We just learned about eating healthy and exercising properly. The boys, i hear. learned where babies come from.
- 22-26 - Literacy week. They had some activities everyday for students. Like come in early to read with your teacher and parents and get a donut. Read 30 minutes everyday and get a prize. Plus several more. We also had a contest on how many minutes they could read that week. I think some of my kids lied, or else they got no sleep all week because they were reading.
- 27 - Colorfest! So much fun hanging out with family and friends and throwing colorful chalk at them.
- 2 - We had our Spring Party. These parents decided to make it a luau. We had a hoola hoop contest, limbo, spoons, and food. It was fun.
- 5-9 - Spring Break! Drew came home and we drove to California. We spent 3 days at Disneyland. It was so much fun! We also went to LA to the Toy District. We got some cool toys and things there for way cheap! Drew enjoyed it, although I think he was shocked at all the bums on the street and how many Mexicans they had there. On that trip we also had to help a woman in Vegas set up her arcade. We moved some games around, my dad fixed some games, and we set up her crane machines with the things we got in LA.
- 16-18 - I flew out to Wyoming for Drew's birthday. I had called and talked to a couple of his roommates to plan my surprise for him. One of the guys lives in Denver (Bea's nephew Bryce) so he convinced Drew to come to his house Friday night for a party. I just asked him to get me from the airport and to not let Drew know what's going on. I guess Drew showed up early, so Bryce had texted his mom to call him and tell him he needed to pick up her friend from the airport. So Drew thought they were picking up some lady from Australia. His face was priceless as I came up the stairs. He looked so confused! It was the best surprise ever! I'm not very good at surprises. That weekend we hung out with my cousins in Denver and then hung out at Drew's apartment in Cheyenne, because again, there's nothing to do in Cheyenne. We bought some fireworks, and I got to meet some of the other people Drew talks about, like Brent, Kent, Wes, and their families. Then I flew home Sunday night.
- 26 - Clear Creek! Once again we attempt the Clear Creek Trip. This time we are taking everyone at the same time for a day trip. We left the school at 8:30 and returned to the school at 7:00. We went to the cemetery from the great mining explosion of 1900. We were there almost to date of it's 110 anniversary. It was neat hearing about the history of it. We saw the old jail. WOW! that's all I have to say about that. We also got to go to a current coal mine and hear about the machines and what they do. After about 20 minutes of listening some of the kids were getting restless. They were wondering why Mr. Jacob was asking so many questions. I told them it was because they needed to hear this because if they don't graduate they'll be getting a job there. One kid said he'd rather work at McDonalds his whole life than work in the mine. We went to the camp and ate lunch, then we started geo-caching. What a great experience for them. When they found a box, they had to pull out a bead from it. With the beads they found geo-caching, they made a bracelet. Then we went inside to carve soap. All I've got to say is for being soap, it sure was messy! Then we went and played on the ropes course. The students had so much fun with that. We went back to the cafeteria and ate dinner, then cleaned up and packed up to go home. It was such a fun day, but they were bummed that they didn't get to stay over night.
- 26-30 - Teacher Appreciation Week. I got about 3 lbs of gummy bears and much much more! I love being a teacher during this week. A parent came and decorated my door so cutely! What a great week. Everyday the students were suppose to do something for their teacher. On Tuesday it was do something nice for you teacher. In Library the librarian read a book about a kid and teacher appreciation week. In the book the girl gave her teacher a dandelion, "because everybody knows that's a teacher's favorite flower." During dance festival practice, one of my students picked a dandelion and gave it to me, then giggled. I said, "My favorite, how did you know!" Then all my students laughed and brought in dandelions for me after practice. It was funny and I guess you just had to be there.
- 3-10 it's testing week! What an exhausting week!
- 9 - There was a massacre at my parents house last night. My sister and her boyfriend had gotten baby chickens and ducks a while back. Her boyfriend left for his mission this week and had brought up the chickens to my parents house a couple of weeks ago. Well the day before he leaves, the neighbors dog comes into our yard and attacks out chickens. He kills 2 of them and injured my sister's favorite one. Their was some words exchanged with the neighbors and they say they'll keep their dog locked up form now on. Well on Sat. night, my mom says to me, "have you seen the new coop we built for the chickens a few days ago?" I tell her no and she told me to go look in the morning. Well, morning comes and I go out to check out the chickens new home. As I start to walk up to the cage I see that they are laying on the ground, chickens don't lay that way. I run up to the fence and shake it calling out for any other chickens that may still be alive, because I only see 5 out of 7, but there's none. There's blood and feathers everywhere! I turn to go get my parents and almost step on a dead bunny. Not only did the dog jump the fence and kill all the chickens, but it ripped apart the bunny cage and killed the bunnies. Now with the bunny cage, only 2 dogs could have gotten the bunnies, because that cage was huge and there were 2 sides to it. If the dog was on one side, the bunnies could go to the other and vice versa. My dad calls the sheriff and he says they received 5 calls last night about disturbances of dogs. Well at 1:30 in the morning my mom wakes up to dogs barking. She has my dad go out and check our chickens. He came back in saying the barking was coming form the neighbors house who has 2 big dos living there. So he thought it was their dogs barking. Then around 3 my brother wakes up to barking and yelping, but he's lazy and doesn't think anything of it and goes back to sleep. At church we found out that all the neighbors chickens were killed that night as well. And the barking wasn't his dogs, because he's been locking them up at night in the garage instead of outside. We;re assuming his were killed first and the dogs we heard were the culprits and then ours were killed. Then the neighbor on the other side of us said that he got up at around 4 and saw 2 black labs with white markings in unusual places leave our yard. We're assuming these were the dogs that killed the animals. A week later we find out that another neighbor's cat was killed that night too. These dogs went on a killing spree, luckily I put away our dogs that night, or else they may have ended up killed as well. A week later, we get a phone call from a neighbor saying that there were 2 labs in her yard and going towards our yard. These dogs were chasing the neighbor girls, who are about 10 and viciously barking at them and trying to bite them. My mom and sister went out and helped the girls into their house. Then they call the sheriff. He comes back with animal control and picks them up. He said the dogs tried to bite him and he almost pulled out his guns to shoot them. He found them at their owners house chasing their horses around trying to bite them. When the neighbors go pick up their dogs, they have to pay $1,000 each to get them out of doggy jail. They were upset and said that their dogs are not vicious and never would attack anyone. We all must be lying because according to their owners, these are the best behaved dogs in the world. My dad has now set up cameras by the chicken coop since we got new chickens. And if any of you would like some eggs, since our family doesn't eat a dozen eggs a day and that's what we're getting, stop on by and ask. We're always giving away eggs.
- 11- We still have normal classes till the 24 and the kids have all shut off because testing is over with, thus school's over with. I will never understand why they test so early. For the rest of the week, we had a normal schedule, doing all the same type of assignments
- 17-24 - We decided as a 6th grade team to hold finals. We explained that as they get into Jr. High and High School, they will start getting end of the year finals, so we thought we'd prepare them for it. Some were super stressed out and others did not even care.
- 20-21 - We played Math games, since we were done with our Math Final. I taught my student Bunko and they loved it! The students also presented their Country Reports all week. I now want to go to Holland to get these waffle cookie things a student brought in. They are delicious! All of the items students brought in were neat. It was a fun week with the reports!
- 24 - Frog Dissection! The classes rotated every hour to dissect, while the other classes practiced our songs we were singing at graduation and the dance for the dance festival. If they looked good, then we played Basketball Bombers or other big group games like sharks and minnows, although they don't call it Sharks and Minnows when it's not in the water, but I don't know what it's called hear in Utah, maybe deers and hunters?
- 25 - we had our celebration assembly. This is awards given to students who Love to Learn, Show Respect, Do Their Best, and perfect attendance. We also did a walk through of the dance festival. This was also our school carnival day. It went from 5-7 and we had some rides, games, and food. We also had a dunk tank that a few teachers and myself volunteered to be in. I've got to say if it wasn't so dang cold outside, I might not have minded being in it. It was still fun though. Especially making fun of some of the student who didn't knock me in, especially the baseball kids who couldn't hit the target.
- 26 - Common Day/Field Day. We were outside all morning doing field games. The upper grades have races and relay races, while the lower grades play games. My class had the fastest boys out of all the 6th grade. A few of my girls were in the top 3 as well. After lunch we had the annual 6th grade vs faculty softball game. We were out in the field first and the principal was being so nice to the students, letting some of them get on base. We had also changed the way we played the game this year. Instead of 3 outs and you change, we let the whole inning bat through, no matter what. The students had gotten 1 run that inning. When we were up to bat, I hit the ball and made it onto base. I think I also got an RBI. I was on 2nd and Drew was up to bat. He swung at 2 crappy balls and some of the students started yelling, "Hey Mrs. Hoyt, how does it feel knowing your husband's going to be the first person to strike out!" Thankfully he hit the ball. I ran for home and tripped on a hole in the grass and went sprawling into home plate. Everyone was laughing at me rolling into home. I wish someone had gotten it on video because I'm sure it was hilarious! Well the teachers only had 1 out and we had 5 runs, so the secretary said we stop the teachers at 5 runs and we switched innings. I wished they wouldn't have done that because it was tough when the students got to bat through the inning. We were neck and neck with them the rest of the game. My last time at bat, I hit a fly ball and got out. This was the last inning too and we were down by one. Then both people after me got out as well and the teachers, for the first time in Cascade history lost the softball game.
- 27 - One of the parents/faculty members had taken a picture as the students realized they had won and then a big group photo of them on the hill. She had it printed and bought a mat and frame for it. All the students who played in the game got to sign the mat and it will be on the wall of Cascade for years to come, What a great legacy for those kids! This was our dance festival day. We set up the field, then gave the students time to sign yearbooks, then we were out on the field for dancing. Those younger grades were so cute with their dances. I especially loved the chicken dancers. Our 6th graders looked really good. I was impressed. After the Dance Festival it was lunch time and I only had 6 students in my room. Apparently the parents always like to take their kids out for lunch after the Dance Festival. After lunch we got ready for graduation. The librarian had made caps with tassels for the students. They looked so cute. We had 6 student speakers and then a couple of video presentations, we teachers each talked for a minute, then we handed them their certificates for moving onto the next grade. After the graduation, the students walked through the halls while the music played and all the other students stood outside their rooms clapping. It was cute. Then they had refreshments.
- 28 - yes we still had school after graduation. Weird I know! It was only an hour and a half long though. I was surprised to see that I was only missing 2 students. I thought more would be gone. We just played steal the flag with the other 6th grade classes. It was a fun way to end the year.
I know there is a lot more Drew and I did, like personal vacations and things outside of school. Plus there are several pictures you can find on facebook. But this was my year as best as I can remember it. Sorry it was so long, and I will try to be better about posting!
