This Is The Song That Never Ends...

Literally how my life has been feeling for the past two months a.k.a. SINCE I STARTED MY FIRST TEACHING JOB SAY WHAT this is crazy. I feel crazy. Is that normal for a teacher? Also, I'm talking to myself a lot more…A LOT more. I've survived 5 weeks of summer in Arizona, teaching on a reservation at Gila River Crossing, weeks of DOE trainings (oh joy), lack of curriculum, my first IEP meetings, and now my first month of reading intervention class is coming to an end (YAY FALL BREAK!) I haven't done a Five for Friday in so long (a few months, to be exact) and I'm honestly going to be more diligent about this blogging thing, so here we go!

I GOT A HAIRCUT!!! This may not seem like a big life-changing event, but trust me, it is. I grew up dancing hula, and the longer the hair, the better a dancer you are. That's not exactly how it works, but I swear there's some sort of power in having long hair. I haven't cut my hair at home in a littler over 4 years, since I've only gotten cuts in Portland while I was in college. I found this cute salon that opened right by my house, told one of the stylists my whole life story (hair story? whatever…) and told her that I wanted a change that made me look a little more mature, especially since I'm the youngest teacher at the school. Needless to say, I'm so thrilled with my hair cut. Like, BEYOND happy. So if you live on Oahu and want to get an amazing cut, with a super friendly staff that takes care of you like you're part of the family, head on over to Jese Salon in Kaneohe next to Times Supermarket! They're even having a special for the entire month of October that gives you 10% off on any chemical service if you book your appointment for a Monday or Tuesday.

Why was there no college course offered in classroom set-up? I feel like I would've done pretty well in that class, considering how quickly I cleaned, vacuumed, organized, and created my classroom environment before the school year began! My room was used for storage last year and as a result, the entire room was filled with broken furniture, desks stacked on each other, and lots of random bookshelves, carts, rolling cubbies, and every other type of classroom furniture you could imagine. On top of that, the walls and corners were covered with lizard poop. Hawaii has a gecko (lizard) infestation, and I think the mother nest was located in my classroom. I was not a happy camper. So I had to move all of the furniture by myself to another storage location, clean up most of the lizard poop, and chase very large and fast-moving lizards out of my classroom. Not fun. But on Monday morning, the kiddos were welcomed into a clean, organized classroom, complete with their own attendance board. Trying to make 5 and 6-year olds independent and accountable starts with small tasks, so I thought that this would be a great starting point for the year! 

  

This is the work of one of my darling Kindergarteners. His handwriting is less than stellar, but his attitude and joy in the classroom makes my heart happy. I've been working with him and a few other of his classmates to practice our handwriting, starting by tracing all of the letters in their name, written by me, and then slowly writing more of the letters in their name until they write their whole name by themselves. Yesterday was the closest we've gotten so far to making recognizable letters, and I was so dang proud of the little peanut that I had to share this photo! Yay progress!

I've become the mother to two wonderful succulent nuggets thanks to the Made in Hawaii festival this past August, and the little guy on the right is ready for propagation! Basically, ready to make new keiki (child) succulents!

I started my propagation on Wednesday after school, and now they're sitting out on my windowsill, waiting for the ends to dry. I can't wait for the babies to start growing…my impatience and my green thumb are in constant battle with each other sometimes...

TONIGHT I'M FLYING TO LA TO SEE MY ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS THAT I HAVEN'T SEEN SINCE MAY AND I COULDN'T BE MORE EXCITED!!!! Can you tell? Just a little bit? It's so hard to be in a long distance relationship with your best friends (I'm in Hawaii, one is in LA, the other is in Chicago), but since we have Fall Break this coming week, I thought that would be the perfect time to blow a paycheck and take a much-needed trip to see LoRo (pictured on the left). AND we're going to Disneyland on Monday. I'm practically squealing with excitement.

Thanks for sticking with me through my long absences. I promise that's going to change (for real this time…)

x's and o's and Mickeys and Minnies,