Recipe for a Perfect Day

What turns a regular, run-of-the-mill work day into something spectacular?! Well, I think I figured that out today. To begin, I woke up this morning at the regular 5:15am time. I quickly got ready and made it up to work by 7:00. So far, a regular day. But it was all about to change. Today was the scheduled PLAN test for all sophomores. Juniors and seniors didn't even have to show up until after lunch. What did this mean? While those kids were filling in bubbles, I got three extra hours to plan lessons and organize papers. Nice. As a teacher, we rarely get any downtime. It is so exciting when these opportunities come our way. Thank you, standardized testing!

At lunch, I pulled out some French cheese, boursin, to share with the other teachers. It was so fun to have something exciting like that to contribute. The teachers cut off small pieces of this delicious and creamy cheese and put it on everything from their potato wedges to their apple slices. I must have opened the door to sharing because soon everybody was trading food around the table. "I'll trade you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich square for two peach slices." I feel so much more bonded to my lunch crowd now.

As I was pulling out of the parking lot just after 3:00, a really cute English teacher, Bonnie, waved at me. I naturally pulled to a stop. She asked me when we were going to start our carpool! I have been excited to carpool with her ever since I heard that she lived in American Fork and figured out at lunch that she loves all the juicy gossip as much as me. It has seemed too busy to plan out, with all the student government activities, but I realized that our calendar is a bit empty for at least the next few days, so it is time to get started on this! We made a plan to carpool tomorrow! Fun! Saving on gas money as well as getting in a good early morning chat before school will definitely beat listening to the repetitive traffic and weather on the radio.

I was a bit tired tonight and not super anticipating an AATF planning meeting. AATF is a group of French teachers that I am a proud member of. We plan activities and get-togethers for French teachers and speakers around Utah. What I forgot to notice was that this planning meeting was scheduled for the hot tub of another French teacher's club house! All right! Planning time and hot tub time all at once! How often do teachers get time to share ideas in a hot tub?! Well, okay, I didn't actually get in the hot tub tonight, but it was sure nice to look at while we planned our upcoming Halloween Social. And I think I am going to put relaxing in a hot tub on my monthly To-Do List.



The moral of today: if you have to do something monotonous, figure out a way to spice it up!

You Turn my World Upside-Down

Wow! It has been a while since I have written. For me, the first few weeks of teaching each year completely wipe me out. Training myself to, once again, wake up at 5:15am, and now commute 40 minutes from Lehi to Copper Hills, has definitely taken some getting used to. My evenings usually consist of crashing in front of an episode of MasterChef or So You Think You Can Dance with a bowl of cereal and a nice pillow. Anyway, good news is I think I am getting into the swing of things again. Next week, I hope to get out and exercise after work. I actually found a really cool Hula class to try out at the local gym--but I guess I am getting sidetracked.

Anyway, I am really loving my students this year and most of the days, I have a super fun time at work. Last Tuesday, I went to Mentor Training at the District Office. It was a long day of learning techniques to help these new teachers want to stay in the profession. I found a really fun, retired French teacher substitute for my students that day. I was happy to know that they would be learning French in my absence and that everything was under control.

When I arrived on Wednesday morning, there was a sign in my classroom window. It was in broken French and read something like, "Miss Van Wagenen, you turn my world upside-down." How sweet. I always like getting notes. You don't get many of those in high school. I opened my classroom door...and what did I see?! Oh yes--everything was turned upside-down!! Every single desk. My tables. My clock. My computer. Many of my posters. I scanned the room and my mouth just dropped completely open. Seriously?!! My initial reaction was to be upset at the sub. I thought to myself that he must have told my last class period of the day to play a trick on me and turn everything upside-down right before leaving. I was furious. Why would he do that? A second later, I noticed an student body officer's sweater, sitting on a chair in front. Of course! This is something that the SBOs would do. They love pranks. The other SBO advisor loves pranks as well. I don't. I am not a prankster at all. I knew he must have put them up to it.

My mind reflected back to two years ago. I was called down to the principal's office during class. When I got down there, the secretary said, "Oh, he doesn't need to talk to you anymore." I made the long trip back to my classroom to see a sign on the door: We love you so much that we all pitched in to get you a new chair. I thought to myself, "How sweet. I could use one of those." I opened the classroom door to see...a free-standing toilet, right behind my desk!!! Really?! The SBOs burst in, laughing hysterically. "Open up the lid!" one boy shouted. I opened up the lid to see a Baby Ruth candybar sitting at the bottom of the toilet bowl. Gross! Who picks up toilets and hauls them into schools?!

Back to last Wednesday morning: I tracked down the SBOs. I brought in those smiling, guilty faces and had them help turn every desk and paper back right-side-up. The only thing that wasn't mentioned was my LCD projector screen. The French 1 kids came in and when I wanted to project some pictures of my trip to France for them to see, they were all upside down!!! The student officers forgot to mention that they had put my projector in upside-down mode as well as everything else. I took a deep breath and told myself that, even though this is not my personal love language, I think that picking on me, somehow shows that these students care. So, what about you? Do you enjoy planning epic practical jokes for others? Do you find things like this amusing or annoying?