Reaon to be thankful

I do not really know exactly how I would like to start this post, so here it goes. I have lots of reasons to be grateful this Christmas.

1. I am grateful for Justin and Melissa. They picked me up from the airport at 2:30 am when they were not expecting me and then took me back to the airport the next night and didn't go home until they knew I was on a plane. They are great.

2. Mom and Dad. They were nice enough to pick me up from the airport after I finally made it into Anchorage.

3. Daniel S. This is the ticket agent who "cheated as much as he could" to put me as number 1 on the standby list for the flight to Anchorage instead of number 20. May you be blessed all you life.

4. The thought that I will not be as sad if I get stuck for longer on the way back to Colorado. It just doesn't seem like it will be quite as huge of a problem if I am stuck in Alaska as it would have been being stuck in Colorado.

5. It is Christmas. That means I get a break, I get to come home, I get to be with family and friends, and I have earned the name nit-nee. Thank you Mateo.


Now for the story. Yes like many of the holiday travelers out there I got stuck in the mess trying to get home for christmas. It began in Denver, where I was just a couple minutes to late to catch the early flight to Salt Lake. Had I been just 30 minutes earlier none of the madness would have happened. As it was however, I was not 30 minutes early and well that is where the story begins. I was sitting in the airport waiting for the flight to take off. I was really early so I was reading a really weird book. Then what to my wondering eyes should appear but a notice saying my 6:45 flight was delayed until 9:40. Not good news since my connection inSalt Late was supposed to take off at 8:50. So talking to the ticket agent she said she would put me on standby for the 5:05 flight that was for Salt Lake. Unknown to me she did not put me on standby, she just confirmed me on the flight. That would have been fine, until about 4:30 when the announcement came on the loudspeaker that they did not know where the plane was, that it had not landed in Salt Lake, and they were trying to find the plane. They did reassure us that they still thought they knen where the plane was, but that the flight for now was just delayed until 7:40. I was still okay and could still make the connection if all went well. Especially since the AK flight was delayed until 10.

Well life does not always work perfectly, and instead of ever finding the plane, they just canceled the flight. I thought I was still fine since I had a ticket on the 9:40 flight, but apparently the ticket agent who had put me on "stand-by" instead confirmed my seat, meaning that I had to be put on standby for my origional flight. I was very blessed to make it on that origional flight, and after another delay on the runway, we took off for Salt Lake, where I called my brother casue I had for sure missed my plane. Getting into SLC, I stood in line to talk to an agent about getting a flight to AK, but the agent kept on leaving. Finally tired, hungary, and yes, rather grumpy, I went to find my bag. During this whole time I had fun talking to Justin about when I was going to be in SLC. He of course was just laughing. Making my now moring better, I found out that I had to wait in another line to find my bag. Then another 35 minutes for them to go and get me my bag once alerted to the issues of me needing it. So at 2:30 am I went to Justins.

The next day I felt really good about putting myself on the now 20 person standby list. Justin now sure that I would be spending a couple more nights with them kept telling me that it was no use. But once I got to the airport a nice ticket agent listened as I told him what happened (except I couldn't remember which airport I had flown in from), and he did what he could to make me the most important person on the standby list. It worked, and after pacing in front of the screen that shows the standby list and the cleared list for what seemed like forever I was on. what a relief. It is amusing to see me on the standby list because it shows up PIE/B.

When we landed in AK, it was a relief to see mom. She was waiting. And then we got to wait for another hour for my luggage, so at 2:30 am we were home. Yeah. I love Christmas.

Thank you to everyone who helped me get home and I hope everyone out there had a very merry christmas.

Why I love teaching middle school and nursery

I was reading the different blogs that I keep track of, and I realized that it was time for me to post. It also just happened that I have two experiences that have made me laugh.

Middle school:

Student: "Miss Pierce, can I go and get a band-aid, cause I am bleeding?"
Me: "Where are you bleeding?"
Student: "Right here (showing me a finger tip that is NOT bleeding)."
Me: "You are not bleeding."
Student: "Yes I am."
Me: "No, you are not bleeding, you might have been bleeding before, but your finger is not bleeding."
Student: "I am still bleeding under my skin!"
Me: "No."

Nursery:

We were learning about the 10 lepers, and being thankful for all our blessings.

Me: "Today we are going to learn about 10 people who were really sick that Jesus bless and helped."
Child: "I know this story."
Me: "You you this story?"
Child: "Yeah, I know what happens."
Me: "Well do you know why these 10 people were really sick?"
Child: "Uh-huh, they were all really sick because they ate to many sandwiches!"
Me: "Oh."

Da Vinci Days art

I had my students complete art work as we were studying Da Vinci. I told you I would post pictures of the completed art, so here they are.

I especially like the expression on the "stroke" face.

What do you think, any of the students have a future as famous artists?

I'm a winner!

So down here, there is an annual contest among all the sixth graders and all the sixth grade teachers. It involves the Conservation agency, and all of the different types of energy conservation. Each year they sponser an energy conservation poster. This year the theme was "Water is Life" and we had to create posters on this theme. Each of my students was supposed to participate, and all of my students submitted posters for considerations. The prizes for this contest was money, and so all of my students put lots of effort into completeing this poster.

Well my students all told me that I was not going to win because the teacher who was in Stratton before I, was also going to be in the contest, and he was "really good at posters." So I told my students that I would not give in and that I was going to win. Well you probably guessed it, but yes I won. That is what the picture is, my winning poster.

The most boring post ever

This is not going to be a long post, due to the fact that there is really not much to update, but I am feeling a little like Justin about posting so infrequently. Anyway, here is the news.

In 8th grade we build a rollercoaster, and I even took a picture of it, but I cannot post the picture because my students all jumped into the picture. The photo, showes exactly what they are like, but you are going to have to take my word on it.

In 7th grade we learned all about Da Vinci, and what he did. They spent a whole week drawing like he did, and I will have to take a picture of their art. It is hanging in the hall, so I can take a photo while they are all in other classes. Look forward to that on a different post.

In 6th grade we are almost finished with Biology. I am really excited. We all had to create posters for the department of conservation, and they are going to be judged later this week. The people in the conservation office told me that I also had to make a poster, and so I did. If I win the contest than I get 50 dollars and free dinner. I do not know what I would do with all that extra cash, but it would for sure be something exciting.

That in reality is life. Sorry that it is not more interesting. Maybe later this week it will be better.

Over heard at the volley ball game

This is the conversation that I heard, and I will admit to laughing out loud. Luckily for me, I was in front, and so they did not hear and they were not offended. When you read this conversation, please make sure you do so with a mid-west/farmer accent.

Jack: Girls, you need to move your feet!
Grandma: Jack, you can't say that, you're not the coach.
Jack: Well, they do!

The field trip of the year

In this particular school, they take one field trip per year. Yes I know it seems funny for all of us who were on the unlimited field trip plan, but that is just they way it goes sometimes. Anyway this morning bright and yearly at 6:30 am, the students were on the bus and we were on our way to the museum of Nature and Science. Our special tour was to start at 9:30 where we would see the dinosaur exhibit, and then following that we were going to see a planetarium show about black holes. I was excited, but then again I had never been to this museum before.

To recap the trip for all of you, making this a much shorter post, the students had all been to the museum before. I got to see almost all of the exhibits, and it didn't take much time at all. I also was not allowed to stop and read any of the signs, do any of the activities or ask questions of any of the members of museum staff. The 7 boys that were assigned to me, just wanted to see all their favorite things. So we took about 1/2 hour to see the dinosaurs, then we listened to a presentation on liquid nitrogen for about 15 minutes, we went through the space odyssey exhibit in about 10 minutes, then it was off to the gems and minerals. I took about 5.3 minutes to get through that exhibit because I was trying in vain to keep up (there were some of my students that went through twice in that time), and in the last 15 minutes of our time before the planetarium we went to find some illusive memory exhibit. Well turns out it was closed, but I was lucky enough to listen to an explanation of what the exhibit will look like next April (I was definitely abandoned for that), at which point they determined they wanted to see the mummies of Egypt. So off to the mummies we went. By the time I got into the exhibit, they were done, but I told them that they couldn't leave until I got to see at least one thing. It didn't take long because we had 5 minutes of time left, and we were done. So we went to the animals exhibit. Where they spent the next 3 minutes riding on non moving wooden llamas. I am still surprised at what will interest the students.

To let you know what I learned, it was actually a lot considering what time we spent in each exhibit.
1. I need some liquid nitrogen
2. Stegosaurus got embarrassed and his spikes probably turned red
3. The largest topaz stone is over 10,000 carats and was donated by Dali
4. The legend of Orsis
5. Some middle school boys do not do mummification well
6. I need to return to this museum on my own so that I can take my time
7. If I ever need a job, they offered me one
8. Sitting on a bus for 5 hours to be in a museum for 2.5 is not really worth it.

What a day. The planetarium was really cool. It was huge, a big plus, and I didn't have to sit next to the students, a relief, and the presentation was awesome. Even the students liked it. They were all talking to me about the movie after it was over. All in all this was I feel a success, and as a bonus, I now have a whole bag of plaster dinosaur teeth. Wanna know what you're getting for Christmas?

The 2 hour conversation....

Unlike what you might think, I do not really enjoy talking on the phone all that much. Which is why having a 2 hour conversation with the people from Orbiz, the bank, and Alaska Airlines was not a happy thing.

Needless to say I have learned a very important lesson.

Never book a flight through orbiz.

By the way, I still don't have a ticket home...

July or October

I was talking to Patience and her family on the phone the other night, and this story was told. In her comments on the last teaching experience she says that I should let you all in on this fun way to start a school year. So here it is.

In one of my classes on the first day of school, the students took a "teacher test." This is really a use-up-class-time type activity, but it can be fun too. What they students do is to take a test about their teacher to see what they do or do not know. Since I was a new teacher in the school, the students did not know anything about me. I was sure the responses to this test would be worth the time they would waste, so I went ahead with the questioning.

One of the questions on the test was "How old am I?"

The students tried to get me to tell them, but I wouldn't. Finally one of them asked me what month I was born in. Since this was not something ath would give anything away I freely told them.

At this point one of the students stopped and said, "wait, I thought you were from Alaska."

I responded that I was, and then he said, "Yeah, but I just didn't know that there was July in Alaska."

I couldn't help but let him in on the secret that the month of July is world wide, and that it doesn't really matter where you are from. He was stunned, but willing to laugh with the rest of us.

The best part of this story is the conversation I had with patience. I say this because I got to talk to all of her children. I happened to ask Chole what she wanted for her birthday. Patience told me later that Chole asked what month it was where I was at. She seemed a little stunned that it was September like in Alaska. Patience told me she had to explain the world wide concept to her as well.

So if this is news to you, let me be the first to tell you that no matter where you are, and where I am, the month is probably the same.

What people really think of me

I was covering a class for one of the football coaches yesterday, and the students and I got into a discussion in which I learned exactly what they thought of me. It went something like this:

By the way, these were the students I have in my normal class, so this wasn't all that odd for them to know who I was or for me to know them, but back to the story.

Them: "Miss Pierce, how old are you?"

Me: "How old do you think I am?"

Them: "I think you are 19, cause you don't look any older than that." "No, I think she is 20, are you 20 Miss Pierce?" "20, you have to be kidding, there is no way she is 20, if she is not 19 then she has to be 18." "I think she is probably older that that, so maybe 21, but no older than 22."

Me: "I am not 18, 19, 20, 21, or 22."

Them: "Well how old are you?"

Me (after some argument from them over this somewhat astonishing news): "I'm 26."

One of them: "Well you don't ACT 26!"

Thanks guys.

And the credit goes to...

As a first post on this new site for you to visit, I thought I would explain the name of the blog. The credit for the name should be shared. Justin gets credit for actually naming the blog, but it was Savannah and her need to say every vowel for creating the name in the first place.

Thank you both.