I love my babies.

Really. Love them so much. I can't get enough of them! They came to hang out while their mom and dad went "house hunting" and we went up to the school to play on the playground. Here are a few pictures. . . and don't think that I like Audrey better, I was just watching her the closest so she got the most pictures.





I'm soo ready for Spring! It was beautiful today!

Free at Last! Free at Last!

Yesterday was really bittersweet. It was my last day of student teaching at Glendale and I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, I was super excited to be done and that much closer to graduation, plus I get to not work for the next few months (aside from weddings and stuff.) On the other hand, I'm going to be so lonely and sad to not see my students every day! My last day was really nice, the students were finishing their poetry books and watching Fresh Prince of Bel Air. My students all signed a poster for me and gave it to me in 6th period. Some of them wrote me cute little notes and my "tagger" drew me a "Ms. Paul" and it almost made me cry! I'll have to see if I can scan it, it's so cool. He really is so talented! After school was out, I finished up my grading and left around 3:30 (it was a short day.) It was totally surreal, and it probably won't feel real until I don't have to wake up ever on Monday.
I feel so blessed to have had such an amazing student teaching experience. A friend of mine is teaching at a different junior high and she has had her tires slashed and a chair thrown at her. I can't even imagine! I had my own issues, but overall, I had such a great time. I am glad that even though I got angry and frustrated, they never made me cry! I don't know if that was the meds, though. . . Ha ha.
So, friends, I'm a free girl. Well, after two more night classes and finishing my action research project. Yahoooooooooooooooo!

Who Doesn't L-O-V-E Prom?

Last Thursday, Tracie was asked to Jr. Prom by a nice young man named Zack. She was so excited! She didn't even care that prom was one week and one day away. On Saturday, Tracie, my Mom and I went to David's Bridal, "just to check out the selection." We raided the clearance rack and took a bunch or dresses to the dressing room. I will now show you the prom process in pictures.

This is how sad Tracie was that she didn't have a dress yet.

I loved the brown one. It had pockets!

This dress was so pretty, in both colors. It reminded me of "How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days"

Not such a big fan of this one. You can't tell here, but it was a pretty light green. She said it reminded her of yogurt. mmm...key lime pie...

I told her that the gray dress made her look like death because it didn't have any color. She didn't like that. She really liked the color and the dress.

This is what she narrowed it down to. Which one do you think she should choose? You don't really have a say, since the dance was last night.

This was THE ONE! And it was only $59! Before. . .

After! My mom is a sewing GENIUS! She is so amazing, she cut off the bubble hem (it was cute, but you couldn't really tell, it just looked too long) and put on the sleeves so Tracie would be Marvelously Modest! (at the dance, a guy friend of hers told her, "Tracie, that dress is great. Thank you!")

And with Zack. He was a very nice boy, we were all impressed. I would like you to pay special attention to his boutonniere. Who wants a white rose when you can have a classic calla lily? It was a hit! Tracie looked amazing and she had a blast! She came home around 10:30 to change and sat to talk with Dad, Mom and I in the living room for a minute, and at the end of the conversation, she said, "oh, and by the way, I got second attendant. But I didn't get a crown or anything." Like that's is such small news! My mom and I cracked up that she was so ho-hum about it. Hooray for big dances!

Fight Story

So I guess I should tell you what happened instead of that little teaser. I got to my classroom after lunch for 5th period, and there was a group around my door. That's never a good sign. I walked up and could see that two of my girls, we'll say their names are Sasha and Fierce, were calling names back and forth. I told them to knock it off, to not even look at each other, and I turned Sasha away from the group as I went to unlock the door. I herded everyone inside and told them again not to talk to each other or anything. We walked in and they both sat at their seats. I walked back towards the door because the boys in my class (there are only 4 of them, out of 12. . . ESL class) like to stand in the doorway and not let anyone in. I told them, for the 50th time, to get out of the doorway and into the class. As I was at the door, I heard a commotion and a "Miss Paul!" I turned around and Sasha and Fierce are going at it. They knocked over a desk I had to stumble over as I ran over (I'm wearing a skirt, by the way) and I start pulling Fierce off of Sasha. They have each other by the hair and Sasha had just finished pummeling Fierce's head. Really, who does that? The hair, I get, but really. We got them separated (a guy teacher came in from the hall) and he took Sasha out into the hall while I kept Fierce away. Of course, as with any sort of kerfuffle, there had gathered an enormous crowd and there were tons of kids in my room so I totally broke out the yell and hollered at everyone to get out of my class. My students were milling around so I yelled at them to get in their seats or they were all getting an after school detention.
Later, I found out that Fierce kept saying things to Sasha and she retorted with a "your mama" and Fierce attacked. It was so crazy, and I couldn't believe it because not only are (were) these girls friends, but they're such good students!
Anyway. The rumor by 6th period was that I had stepped in to break things up and got punched. I thought that was pretty exciting.
Drama, drama, drama!
(by the way, this was the third girl fight of the day. . . remember how it was Friday the 13th?)

Holy Cow!

Only two more weeks! I can't believe it.

Oh yeah. I had to break up a fight in my class on Friday. It was crazy. A girl fight, even. But they were mean, knocking over desks and punching heads. Seriously.