A lot has happened since the last time I blogged. Some major events have happened I am currently the Relief Society President in my ward. Jordan has gone on and returned from a mission in Guatemala and I now teach in the 6th grade. (I love it by the way.) I guess I will talk about my teaching this time. I was teaching 5th grade with Linda Gladwell for a few years and then Linda got hurt in a car accident and was basically forced to retire. I wanted to just find a new partner and continue teaching in the 5th grade, but circumstances made that impossible. I was going to have to find part-time job at a different school than Pioneer elementary. I was worried. I knew everything was going to be okay, but I didn't know what to expect and that made me worried. Luckily for me the 6th grade teacher Mr. Jeffs had to retire at that time too in order to take care of a sick mother. I was able to take his spot in the 6th grade at Pioneer with my new partner Cassie Christensen (Scadden at the time). I was so happy to be able to stay where I was comfortable. I started teaching with the team of Phil Nestoryak and Mike Skeen. Mike was coming back to work as a teacher for a couple of years after retiring from the district level. He was the one who originally found me a part-time position at Pioneer over 12 years ago. Both of these men were great teachers and a great team to work with. Mike always said I could have what ever I wanted and Phil was good at keeping us on track. I had a great class and I really enjoyed being in 6th grade. The next year Mike had become our Principal again and we got a new teacher to take his place. Mrs. Sadie DeMille. She has made teaching 6th grade a blast. We spent the year sharing science ideas back and forth. She would try things and share them then I would try things and share them with her. It is great working together. She makes me laugh, and she is really good at what she does. She has become a good friend of mine. This year Sadie is still there but Phil left to become an intern - soon to become a principal - so we have another new teacher, Hillary Jensen. She is also very good at what she does. I see her as a new teacher the way I was when I first started teaching. She is very good with her kids. She is a friend to them and they really seam to like her. She is also easy to talk to and the three of us makes a really great team. It will be interesting to see what happens next year.
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| Cassie, Sadie and me (Hillary was outside with her class) |
Just this last Thursday we went on a field trip to the Environmental Center. It is a field trip the kids always seem to enjoy. We have had a really strange winter this year and the snow that has fallen has all melted away, but there was just enough snow this year to cross-country ski again this year. The kids love the skiing, even if they fall down again and again. They want to go keep going, but there is only enough skis for each class to have one rotation of 45 minutes worth of skiing, so while one class is skiing the other classes are snowshoeing or playing in the snow (sledding, digging etc.) Our class started with the playing in the snow this year.
Next we got to go skiing. I always get so nervous to ski. I have gone for the past five or six year skiing on President's Day at the Environmental Center and also for the past three years with school, but I still get nervous to go skiing. I crash at least once every year. You would think that by now I would be pretty good at it. I can only guess that it must be because I am getting old. It is really exciting to me, probably the most "X-factor" I get, for I have NO desire to ever go downhill skiing again. Those memories are too scary, but you can still convince me to cross-country ski. It is fun.
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After lunch it was our classes turn to do snowshoeing. I was the leader. I didn't really want the job, but neither did anyone else. I was head up a hollow but knew the kids probably wanted to go up on the ridge. So I turned around and asked and they wanted to go up. So I made a right angle turn and started up the mountain. I got us past the small stream and started up the mountain. The kids were in a hurry to climb, but I realized that it was a pretty steep place to climb and decided we need to go back down the way we came for a little ways and then head up the mountain. The three kids were already halfway up the mountain. I figured we would all meet in the same place so I told them to get on the ridge and follow the ridge until we met. I then took the one student who decided to follow me and we went back and then up. We were the first to get to the top of that group. The others who were behind me decided they need to follow the original three and do things the hard way. One of the kids couldn't make it up the hard way. The others told him to go back and follow me, but he wouldn't have it. Eventually, unfortunately, he got left. Everyone else met on top. We took pictures and yelled at the mountain to hear the echo. We could hear Uriel yell too but we thought he was back down at the base of the mountain. We had to hurry down the mountain because the buses would be leaving soon. Two of the boys that had come the hard way went back to find Uriel. I got back to the lodge and thought I might find him there. He wasn't there. I was thinking about going back out to find him (and the other two) when I saw him hobbling back along the path, visibly upset. He met us and was NOT happy. Apparently he had gotten stuck. He had to take off his snowshoe (sneaker and all) to get out. Instead of stopping and putting it back on he had chosen to walk - sock footed on one foot - all the way back to the lodge. Luckily for him the snow was hard and packed (we really didn't need snowshoes this year). I reassured him that we would not have left him and that I was about to come and look for him, but he was pretty upset (and rightly so). I look back on it now and he didn't get left all at once, but all of us - one at a time- left him. I felt really guilty. He was a great sport though. By school time on Friday he was laughing about it. He was still angry at his friends, but he was also laughing. I think it will be a memory - whether good or bad - for many years to come. I hope he will be able to laugh. I know I will.
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