5 for Friday

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If you caught my post yesterday, you know it has been one heck of a week, actually I'm going to go with month.   I'm exhausted and finally hitting the acceptance stage when it comes to realizing that it is almost summer break!  Not that I am not ready for it.... I just have SO much left to teach and do before the school year is over.  With that said, I'm going to start my five for Friday so you can see what I checked off our list this week!  Thank you Kasey for hosting the linky! :)

1.  The most exciting news about this week... I officially finished ALL of my end of the year assessments!! MClass (math), TPRI (state reading), and Fountus and Pinnell (our district reading assessment) are D-O-N-E!  I don't have to listen to the story about the firefighters, sharks, or Nathan for well .... a good 3ish months at least!!   My favorite part of the assessments.... wait the only think I enjoyed about the assessments was when my kids would read one of the assessment books for our F&P assessment... The book was called The Thing About Nathan.... in the first line it uses the word "crazy".... and if you've read my blog enough times, you know that CRAZY is NOT a word that is allowed in my classroom.  (Confused click here to read more on it.)  EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. one of my kids got to that word... their eyes got big and they looked to me with hesitation before saying it... I had to reassure them that it was "ok" to say it just this time! haha I think that they loved that part the most too!

It is literally in the first line of the first page!

2. I've hit my spring cleaning mode in my classroom.  I have managed to be the last one to leave multiple times this week on my team.... which is usually not the case.  Gwen and Diana ALWAYS stay later than me, but this week I outlasted them twice due to my spring cleaning freak out!  Eventually, maybe one day, I will have my room so nice and organized that I will not have this freak out EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR!  I have a feeling that I will be waiting quite a while too... Especially since Gwen, my co-worker who has lived next to me for 3 years, supported me, and taken me under her wing is moving to another position and leaving me a TON of her awesome stuff!! While I'm still bitter she is leaving our team, I'm happy for her!  This will leave only 2 of the original 8 that were on the team when I began 3 years ago.  So sad.

The mess. 

The organization.  My tracer templates have doubled thanks to Gwen! I am now super organized too! I labeled the boxes with the templates inside, then inside of the boxes they are in JUMBO ziploc bags organized by seasons or subject!  Makes me happy! :)

3.  With all the stress of this week has brought on... I've successfully, please don't confuse that with proudly, managed to empty this once full jar of peanut m&m's and down a pepsi.... everyday this week.  Thankfully I haven't gained any weight due to the fact that my room is like a sauna and I seem to have sweat out all the extra calories I consumed this week.

4. Once I finally made it home on the evenings, I've savored every moment.  We've spent a lot of time outside this week.  Her favorite thing this week has been the park though, this little girl would stay out there all day if she could!!

5. I was contacted the other day by a reader.  Her name is Heather Von St. James. Heather had a very touching story, she was diagnosed with Mesothelioma when her daughter was was just three and a half weeks home.   Heather's story hit me hard, one because I think about how devastating it would be to be told I only have a little over a year to live when my sweet baby has just been born.  I couldn't imagine, even now having to deal with the fact that I wouldn't be able to see my little angel grow up.  When I learned that it was Mesothelioma though, it hit me even harder.  My grandfather died almost 10 years ago.  I still have very vivid memories of him.  My grandfather worked for a company called Alcoa for about 40 years after he got out of the Navy.  Alcoa was a company that used products with Asbestos, even though they were aware of the harmful side effects.  While I don't have memories of my grandfather working there, my mom explained to me that workers had to change clothes when they arrived, shower after they were done working, and change back into their normal clothing.  My grandfather died due to a heart condition, however it was a condition that he could have had surgery for to fix, except for the fact that his lungs were too weak due to the exposure and effects of the Asbestos.  It is believed that is health declined so rapidly and his lungs were so week due to Mesothelioma, however it was never officially confirmed.  The purpose of sharing all of this is because Heather has asked me to share her video on my blog.  Not for donations, not for any other reason, but to make people aware.  If you have a moment, it is a very touching story.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!! For some of you, I am super JEALOUS... you have less days than me... Only 12 more school days!! :)

Oh & one more thing... I don't know about you, but when I get my book order boxes from Scholastic, I'm in what I like to call Book Heaven!  My kids are hilarious and now say it when we get boxes in!! My new favorite thing from Scholastic are their Knowledge Quest sets that are a mix of fiction and non-fiction books within a specific category!  Love.  I ordered almost $300 worth of Knowledge Quest sets with grant money!! Yippee, I'm obviously a little bit excited!! :)