I love to clean and organize.

This week was Fall break so I didn't have school Thursday or Friday. I am not use to having so much free time on my hands. I decided I would use every minute I had wisely so I: cleaned up my house, organized everything in sight, washed my car, went to the Temple, hung out with friends, played basketball, read, did some school work, made some delicious food, wrote a personal history, etc. Nothing too exciting, but I was able to do things that I normally am too busy to do.

Lock Down

What a crazy week! On Thursday my students came in from lunch recess and where doing workshop, meaning that I was teaching a small group while all the other students were working on different things. The room was quiet when the principal announced on the intercom, "This is a lock down. This is a real lock down." I quickly said to my students, "Go over there," as I pointed towards the corner. I ran frantically to get my keys and scrambled through my bag to find my classroom key. I raced over to lock the door. I shut off the lights and covered the door's window with cardboard. While doing this my students were huddled in the corner, quiet. I raced for the windows to close the blinds. The corner where my students were huddled, doesn't have blinds yet. So I whispered to my students, "Quietly, run to that corner." They did exactly what I said. I think they could tell by my voice that this was a serious matter. I got my students calm and after 10 minutes I read some books. Our blinds aren't the greatest so we could see a little out of the windows. We were able to see cops drive by and walk by. During this whole time we had no idea what was going on. I didn't know if the bad people where inside or outside the school. All I knew was that I had 23 little kids who I was in charge of keeping safe and not scared. I thought hard about how I could make my students not so scared. Some of my students were starting to cry so I had them come closer to me. I then gave them all bubble gum to keep them quiet and give them something to do (chew)! I was amazed at how well gum works! I then decided to tell them a story. At BYU my roommates and I would tell each other bed time stories to work on developing skills in story telling. I thought of this practice and realized that if there was one time when I have to be a good story teller it had to be then. If my story was good enough, my students would be quiet. I told a Halloween story about my students dressing up as me for Halloween and coming to school. I continued the story by having a grandmother of one of my students coming to school to talk to me about her grandson. The grandmother kept talking to my students (thinking they were me). I tried using every student's name to keep them interested and I would pause at just the right moments to build suspension. After a little over an hour the principal announced on the intercom that everything was safe and we could go outside. My students wanted me to finish the story, however. I finished the story and then let the students play outside for 30 minutes.
The reason we had to be put in lock down was because of the following:

Cops: Trio arrested in West Jordan man's beating death

Article Last Updated: 10/10/2008 03:30:08 PM MDT

Updated: 11:21 AM- West Valley police have arrested three people in connection with the beating death of a man who died not long after he was found gagged, bound, battered and bloody inside a shed.
Police took one man into custody Thursday afternoon, a second Thursday night, and the third had been booked into jail by early Friday morning.
Those arrests followed the death of Jay Wolfinjer, a 32.
Pailate Lomu, 42, was booked into Salt Lake County jail on suspicion of one count of aggravated kidnapping and one count of aggravated homicide. Police said Friday the shed where Wolfinjer's body was found was attached to a home that Lomu had apparently owned.
Ooleanui Salanoa, 25, and Tuusao Ama, 42, were also later booked for their alleged participation in the crime.
Dispatchers got a call around 6:30 a.m. Thursday reporting a suspicious circumstance at the Broadmoor Village apartments, near 3375 W. 7800 South in West Jordan, according to Sgt. Greg Butler of West Jordan police.
Police learned from witnesses that two males and a female had kicked in the door of an apartment, assaulted a man and taken him from the area against his will.
Authorities, responding to a call for medical help around noon, found the man bound and gagged inside a shed at a West Valley City home near 4500 South and 3500 West, Butler said. He was found with injuries, but McLachlan would not discuss them. McLachlan and Butler refused to discuss whether weapons appeared to have been used.
McLachlan also would not discuss the caller who led police to the victim.
Wolfinjer was taken to Intermountain Medical Center, where he died, McLachlan said. McLachlan would not discuss possible motives in the attack or whether the victim was able to speak to authorities before he died.
West Valley's Robert Frost Elementary, which is near the home where the body was found, was put on lockdown for about an hour Thursday afternoon to protect the children.

Cooking

So I am a huge fan of cooking and baking. I really want to create a recipe book that has pictures in it. I have taken a few pictures of things I have made lately.

My Classroom

I have spent many hours trying to get my class organized and inviting for my second graders. Here is what it looked like as of three weeks ago. I am constantly trying to get it more organized and cute. If you can't tell, my classroom has a theme of monkeys.

I finally joined the blogging world!

I finally decided to join the blogger world. I have been wanting to start blogging for a while, but have never found the time to figure out how it works. We will see if I actually am able to keep my blog updated.

I just finished my third week of teaching 2nd grade. Each day I feel more prepared to teach and feel more capable of teaching. Last Wednesday and Thursday I had parent teacher conferences, which meant I worked from 7:30 am to 8:30 pm. Although I worked long days, it was very enjoyble. It is great getting to know my students' families and be able to better understand my students' personalities. I have 23 students, 14 boys and 9 girls. They all have a lot of energy and love talking. I am starting to figure my students out and how to get them behaving how they should be.