It has been forever since I last posted.



** A miracle happened to me this week. A lot of you might not care, but it was a big deal to me... I decided to give the kids a rock challenge, they had to memorize the 10 Utah rocks, in all the igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary families.  I told them that I would host them a pizza party. They were stoked!! And California Pizza Kitchen is hosting these parties for free! So I was stoked!

I gave them a week to study. I had 32/34 in my class pass and 22/35 in Mr. Leeper's class pass. To most teachers, that's pretty good! I called CPK and ordered 32 personal pan pizzas for my class and 22 for Mr. Leeper's.

But I couldn't stop there.

I wrestled and wrestled over it. Then, in an act of faith, I called back CPK and said, "Can you change my order to 34 pizzas for my class and 35 for Mr. Leeper's? "

I want every single student to succeed. Not by lowering my standards but by bringing kids up to mine.

So the next day, I pulled those kids aside and said, "In my hand, I have your invitations to our pizza party. More than anything, I want you guys to come. But....you have to get an 100% on all the rocks. I have students in my class who are willing to stay in from recess and tutor you. You in?" They all were.

So 2 days ago, I had 14 failures in the 4th grade, and today I can proudly say,  I have 0. Every single student has passed the rock test. And I couldn't be happier. Anyone know where I could rent a karaoke machine? :)

To me, it's more than memorizing the rocks (though that will definitely help them next week in testing), but I want each student to leave 4th grade with some shred of success.

Recently, I found out, teachers at my school are not getting a salary increase, and if we want to keep our insurance benefits, we now pay a premium. So next year, I am getting paid less, and getting more students. The part time teacher that helps us will not be with us next year because they don't have money to hire her back.

Despite all of this, I love being a teacher because I love helping kids feel happy, successful and smart.

So take that, government budget cuts!!