My Face Hurts!

I am so sick right now! It all started last week Thursday when I had a headache, well the headache lasted all the way until Sunday. Sunday morning when I woke up my throat also hurt. I knew this was the beginning of something horrible. Well I was correct! Monday at work I did not feel well at all and my stomach actually hurt too. I went home after work curled up in a ball and started to watch tv while laying in bed. At about 6:15 I decided it was time to drive over to urgent care. Well I came out of there with a prescription and four papers on what I had and how to take care of it! So the verdict was strep throat, double ear infections, bronchitis, and a viral respiratory illness! YIKES!!!! This is why my head had been hurting and my face hurts due to all of the pressure.

So I called in a sub for Tuesday and stayed home all day. I couldn't stay home for more than one day, I would get too behind at work, so here I am at work sitting in my chair. Luckily the antibiotics kicked in for today so I can actually breathe right now. :) I know the little things in life make me happy.

Hopefully this sickness goes away quickly because it is a bad one! On a good note, this is the first time this school year that I have gotten sick. That's an improvement for me.

Busy Bee

This week has been a little crazy...and I have definitely been wanting some desserts!

I have been very very busy all week! It all began Monday with Gift Avenue at work; a time for the students to purchase gifts for family and friends. This has been before school, at lunch and after school! Not only did we sell items, but dance tickets as well! I had cheer on Monday and Tuesday with games going until 5pm! And just when I thought I would be able to leave work early on Wednesday, I had a leadership meeting until after 4 and then plan for the rest of the week of Geometry. Today is the school dance and tomorrow I have cheer practice from 5-7. Even Saturday is going to be busy due to the cheer competition in Murrieta! Oh well...next week will be peaceful and quiet and I will not have anything to do. Yea right who am I kidding! :)

Hope all is well with everyone else!

First day back!

Well the first day back c ould be one of two things..work or blogging. :) Let's talk about yesterday in my classroom. The students were not the only ones that did not want to be back at school. I was exhausted from my week off of work which consisted of manual labor in my house. Not only was yesterday very cold, for us So Cal people, but my classroom was freezing as well. The high in my classroom was 68 degrees and that's only after three hours of the students in my classroom. Good thing I was dressed in multiple layers yesterday. Today I came prepared with my pea coat, but the heater was working today! That is until all the students left my room 2nd period and cold air started to blow out agian. :( Thank goodness it wasn't freezing in my room today, just cooler than normal. Better luck tomorrow!

Pumpkin Patch!

So on Sunday my parents, sister, niece and I all jumped in my parents' suburban and took a ride over to Cal Poly Pomona. My mom had heard about the pumpkin patch so we dressed up my niece and took a ride over there. There was a huge pumpkin patch where the pumpkins were only $5 and we took lots of pictures. Here are some..

Hiding in the corn...

Yes...I got a pumpkin!

"Adorable!"

This is the pumpkin patch from afar.

Hi all!

Well it's been two months since I last blogged and I have been soooooo busy and stressed out that I haven't had time. Here is me saying "HI!" to everyone and you will hear from me shortly. I will be doing old blogs and of course current ones, but I will start blogging! I promise!
See you all soon! :)

Teaching assignment & students

Well I haven't blogged in forever so I thought I would blog a little about my teaching assignment for this year. I am teaching all of eighth grade which is awesome because I do not personally like the 7th grade curriculum. Seventh graders are sometimes fun to teach, but the math isn't for me. I am also teaching a new class for me, Geometry. This means loads of planning and taking notes on the content before I actually teach it. I sometimes feel like a new teacher since I am re-teaching myself (with the help of Claudia) Geometry all over again. Last time I saw it was in 9th grade! YIKES!!!

As for my students this year, they all seem awesome and for the most part eager to learn. Of course they all are not super excited to be sitting in my math class, but they are pretty good overall. My double block is sometimes a challenge, but that's what a double block is for. :) Too bad I have them for two and a half hours because our advisory period is not running like it should. So I am keeping a positive attitude with them and I understand they are tired of me and I tired of them. Hopefully we can start to switch kids around because they need a change of environment and teacher as well.

Overall I feel both positive and excited for this year. I feel like a brand new teacher at times (geo) but I also feel that I am becoming a better teacher with the way we are presenting the material. Hopefully I keep up this positive attitude for the rest of the school year. :)

Aquarium of the Pacific

So my sister had two tickets to the Aquarium, so we decided to all go and enjoy the Sunday in Long Beach. It was all of our first time to the Aquarium so it was a great experience. Watching Audrey get super excited about all of the animals was very funny and it was even more exciting to watch her when the ray came up in the water right by her. She laughed and said "that's funny!". She was even more excited when she walked by the "Nemo and Dorry" tank full of fish. So my sister had two tickets to the Aquarium, so we decided to all go and enjoy the Sunday in Long Beach. It was all of our first time to the Aquarium so it was a great experience. Watching Audrey get super excited about all of the animals was very funny and it was even more exciting to watch her when the ray came up in the water right by her. She laughed and said "that's funny!". She was even more excited when she walked by the "Nemo and Dorry" tank full of fish.

Our next trip is definitely Sea World!!!! We want to see all of the shows!’

We ended the day with dinner at Bubba Gump’s…it was delicious!

Let's Go Fly a Kite!!!!

My dad had purchased a kite from Costco a couple of years ago thinking that he would take it with us up to June Lake, CA when we go every summer. Well every year we forget that we have it and we go up there and then remember...Hey we forgot the kite. So now that Audrey is old enough we decided to fly the kite outside one day. My parents have a half acre of land so we had plenty of room to fly it.

It took many attempts to get it up in the air, but we finally did it! Audrey thought it was the greatest thing that Nemo was flying up in the air!

Fruit trees

So my house has many surprises as many of you already know, the latest surprise is that I have a couple of fruit trees. I knew that I had a tangelo tree (orange and tangerine mix) and my friend Claudia figured out that I had a persimmon tree as well. ( I have no idea what to do with persimmons.) I have now discovered that I have a peach tree as well (apparently it's a late bloomer) and I have purchased a nectaplum tree as well. (nectarine and plum mix...delicious!)

So I am going to have lots of fruit with a little extra in some cases. :)

Peaches!!!

Persimmons

Master's in Education X 2

Well as many of you know I have finished my second master's degree in Education Administration. I finished my first master's degree last year in 2009 and during the winter session in '09, Jennifer talked me into starting the second master's degree. I complained A LOT since I really didn't think that I could be a principal or even a vice-principal. I still do not know if this is the path I am supposed to follow, but I do know that if I do I have the master's behind me so I don't have to go back to school.

There are many times when I sit and think, Wow I have two master's degree and there are many teachers out there that do not even have one! I know I am thankful and blessed that I have had the time, money (kinda...thank you Direct Loans), and the support to finish all that I have. So THANK YOU JENNIFER for making me work on the second degree. I know one day it might come in handy and I will be very grateful that I finished it back when I was only 28. :) (After 23 years of school, since kindergarten, I am officially done!!!)

Master's in Education, Curriculum & Instruction 2009

Master's in Education, Education Administration

My family

The "Fab Four"

Arizionians

Math Buddies

She was practicing holding a college degree!

:)

Memorial Day Weekend

So I am finally blogging about my camping (not really camping) trip to June Lake, CA. My parents decided to drive up there for the weekend and I wanted to go as well because I wanted to see it with snow! Well there sure was snow and freezing weather...well not freezing, but sure darn cold! Here are some of the pictures to capture how lovely it was up there.

Chuck E. Cheese

Since I did not blog very much this school year and I have lots of time off, I'm taking the time to blog events that happened this year. The first one is when my mom and I took my niece to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time. She was excited and scared at the same time. She loved the music, games and food, but not so much the dancing puppets on the stage or Chuck E. Cheese.

Here are some pictures to enjoy...

My mom making sure she didn't get too scared.

She is dancing to the music, but she would not get any closer.

We told her we were going to go play games and she took off running.

I made her stop and smile!

She loved this ride!

Staring at the screen in concentration.

Her cheesy smile...

She was amazed with the balloons.

She had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back again! :)

BUGS!!!!

Well this is going to be a little gross so if you don't want to read anymore that's okay. I'm going to rant about the bug issue in my classroom.

So every year I have dealt with the issue of killing cockroaches almost every day. The always appear when the weather starts to get a little warm and the bugs start to come out. Well this year was no exception and beginning end of April the roaches started to appear. So every morning there would be a couple of roaches in my classroom and a student would come in and kill them for me. It became a routine so every morning I would open my door and look outside for one of the two boys that would kill them and then would walk right over. Some days they would already know and open the door with me and start killing them. I would reward them with food, drinks or candy (after they washed their hands of course).

One day during 5th period I picked up the phone and screamed (yes screamed) when a roach came out from under the phone. So when the secretary asked if there were any classrooms that needed to be sprayed because of bugs I emailed her right away!

So last Wednesday I went to work for cheer practice and went to my classroom to pass out shoes to the girls. The lights were off and when we turned them on there was about 50 roaches all over the floor that were dead. The custodian came and vacuumed them up and that was the end of that. Well today I went back and there was more!!!!! UGH!!!! So in closing I am leaving you with a picture so you can understand......

Mind you this is not nearly as bad and only a portion of the floor.

House Update...Kitchen

Well I haven't updated everyone on my house in a really long time so I thought that I would do so now. When I purchased my house I only wanted to remodel the hall bathroom. Well this turned into me changing out both bathrooms and adding an entry way and then doing the kitchen/dining room as well. After finishing these items I thought I was almost done...until my dad really looked at my kitchen and said "Well...we can change the cabinets." When looking at the kitchen cabinets with the lovely new diamond tile it was difficult to think I would have to live with my Andy's Mint cabinets. So we decided to take out the cabinets and are now waiting for the cabinets to be finished. Here are some pictures to take you along the process...

The kitchen when I purchased it (before my new tile)

Day 1...most of the kitchen is out (only the soffett and uppers remain)

Day 2...all of the cabinets are out!

Now it is time for my cousin to come in and do all the drywall work and the cabinets to be installed. I can't wait!!!!

Patience

Well there are only 12 more days of school and I have run very low on my patience. I know it's the end of the year, but the students are annoying me more everyday. They have decided that since "testing" is over they are done with school. Unfortunately this is definitely not the case! I have been fighting their lack of motivation for over a week now and I have completely lost my patience! I need to stop and try and be positive everyday, every period, every minute but it is sometimes too difficult. So I am asking for all of you to pray for me to have this patience with my kiddos for the next 12 days. Without this help, I might say something that I will regret!

Why I love teaching...

So this week has been a little bit of a rough week with my students. We have started testing and I know their brains are fried, but then again so is mine. So I have been exhausted all week and my patience was running thin. Today I went to my box (where you find all sort of things for you) and found a green paper with my name and the schools name. It was stapled shut so I was curious as to what it was.

It read:
Dear Ms. Recendez,
This past week we watched the movie Tuesdays with Morrie. It made me think about some of my past teachers. I wanted to thank you because not only were you an excelent teacher, but your class showed me that you can express yourself, have a fun time, and learn a great deal of work. As I thought back to all my classes and teachers yours is the one that stood out to me the most. I am also glad that I was in your class right before high school because it prepared me a lot for these four years that are now soon going to end. Thank you again.

This was a great thing for me to get after this week. It makes me feel good to know that I have influenced someone's life. As a teacher it is difficult to know if you are making a difference in someone's life temporarily or permenantly. This student was from my first year of teaching. For those of you that know...that was one rough year! I was still able to make a difference! :)

Testing...

So testing has begun...the CST has finally arrived! I am still stressing out about it since I am not done reviewing in my Algebra courses, but I'm hoping they will suprise me and do awesome! Well not suprise me, but do me proud! I have been reviewing and reviewing and reviewing with 7th grade math which has made my life boring for the last month and a half. I am ready to start teaching again and I can't wait until testing is done.

F0r the first time ever I am not testing my own students. This was difficult for me to put my head around since I have always had my own students and I feel that sometimes they do better with me in the room. I know I can't help them and they know that too, but it puts them at ease that I am in the room. So I am testing my friend Renee's 7th grade honors class and it is an experience. Not only do I not know their names, but I do not know their personalities either.

It has been a fun three days of testing (2 days of testing & 1 day of testing block). The last two days they were actually testing for Language Arts. Today though was a different story. I was to entertain these students for 135 minutes! Yikes that's a long time. So I decided that we would do missing work/extra credit first. This worked out since most students finished at least one assignment. Then we were going to play Jepardy. I made a math one for first semester concepts and we played this for the next 45 minutes. Now I should have paid closer attention to the schedule and my math skills on counting time because we were only at an hour and a half (roughly). So I thought the students were about to leave my class when I looked at the schedule and realized YIKES, they have another half an hour with me. What to do what to do?!?!?!?

Well I decided let's play "Heads up, seven up!" They played this for the next 20 minutes when they started to get restless. A student asked if they would play "4 corners" and then they did this for the next ten minutes. All in all today was not too bad with these students that I do not know very well. It was a fun 2 hours and 15 minutes. :)

Spring Break

So the last week I have been off of work due to spring break! I love the fact that I get to still have spring break at the age of 28!! :) This year was the first year that I did not have to worry about starting school at CSUSB in the middle of the week, which was awesome! So I thought...maybe I would go somewhere. Well this did not happen....did I mention that I bought a house five months ago and I'm currently working on remodeling. So here is a list of some things I DID get to do during spring break...

• dinner and a movie with Robyn and Jennifer (Remember Me...it's soooooo sad)
• shopping trip to Lowe's and the Floor Liquidators store (picked out some flooring and priced windows)
• went to the movies with my mom (Our Family Wedding...it was good, made me laugh at the Mexican jokes)
• watched my brother give a presentation on his fieldwork for his masters degree (he passed...don't worry)
• spent a long time at the mall (5 hours to be exact)
• went to the movies with my mom and dad (The Last Song....sad too, made me cry a little)
• spent Saturday shopping at Costco and making confetti eggs for Easter
• spent Easter with a lot of my family at my Great-Aunt Jenny's

This is a short recap of the major things I did during spring break. I did have fun and it was quite relaxing...I'm now ready to conquer the last eight weeks of work and start my summer vacation. :)

Wheelchair to room 12...

Well it started out as a wonderful St. Patrick's day...the sunny was shinning and I was dressed up with a great t-shirt the kids loved along with a head band that had clover antlers. :) Then all of a sudden at the end of my 5th period (approx. 1:30 pm) I started to feel really bad.

I was getting an upset stomach and I thought I might have to run out to throw up, and my heart was pounding in my chest. I got really, really cold and I was still trying to teach to my students which was difficult at this point. My head started to feel really wierd and I thought to myself, I feeel a little dizzy and I think I might pass out. So in between 5th and 6th period, I walked outside to ask my neighbor teacher if I looked ok. She told me I looked a little pale and she asked if I was alright. She did tell me not to pass out on her though. :) Then a special education aide walked by and told me I looked like crap! Yes she said crap!

I then said I didn't feel right and she went to get the principal. The principal told me to sit down and then she radioed for the vice-principal. I then had two very tall adults that were looking at me and asking me if I needed a wheelchair. (I felt like a little kid) I told them I would be fine, but then the principal got on the walkie-talkie and said she needed a wheelchair to room 12. Yep that's right, I was wheeled away from my classroom in a wheelchair. I then had to sit in the office with an ice pack on my head and the principal took my temperature. :) I had to call my mom to come and pick me up (just like the students) and I sat there waiting. Thankfully my dear friend Burskey saw me and resuced my students for me being sitting with them. Oh the joys of having an inner ear infection that makes your ear not only congested, but inflammed!

Life Update!

Well I know that it has been FOREVER since I last blogged, but you know how life just gets in the way sometimes?!? I have been busy helping take care of my niece along with going to school, working, and having the soccer/softball season at work with the cheerleaders. But that was February and guess what...it's now March! Yikes!!!

So here is a list of some things that occured during the month of February to keep you all up to date....

• week off of work
• went to Universal Studio's with Jenni and her family
• family birthday parties
• school
• work
• soccer/softball games
• fieldwork hours for admin credential
• took care of my niece
• shopped at Lowe's/Home Depot
• who knows what else.....

That's February in a nutshelll now on with the wonderful month of March!

Wordless Wednesday