It's Been So Long ...

I know it has been so long ... I am not even sure why I stopped blogging, so, I will not give an excuse ...

School is going very well and I am very proud of my students. We just had Parent-Teacher conferences and they are so uplifting. I love meeting with the parents and students and bragging about them to their parents or helping their parents figure out a way to get them back on track. I have spent a good part of this weekend putting together a brand new organizational system for one of my students from last year, K. He is going to be so thrilled with the binder and systems we are going to put in place. This is a kid who has so much potential and drive, but, lacks in the organizational area and motivation. He loves supplies and pencils and stuff like that, and I am hoping that this will get him back on track. He needs someone to check in on him and remind him of how incredible he is daily - and I am going to try my best to check in with him each day.

I went home for part of Mid-Winter break and had a fabulous time with my parents and friends. The trip went by quickly as I was busy with friends and my mom and dad. I started to watch the Olympics at home with them and fell in love with the sports!! My mom prepared such great food for me and made sure I was taken care of! :) I spent some great quality time with LB and hope that it lasts until we are reunited once again! I was able to rekindle a friendship with a friend from Middle School/High School while at home and we continue to talk - I hope we do forever!

SLM went on his first business trip this past week and loved it - except for the part where he was snowed out of NYC until Saturday am (he was supposed to be back home on Thursday pm).

I have applied for the School Operations Manager position at the NYC TFA Institute for the summer and had my phone interview this past week and hope that I got it! I find out March 23 and am keeping my fingers crossed!! I would love this position and I know that I would excel at it as well!

Steve bought a snowboard, bindings, boots, and a helmet. We were supposed to go this weekend, but, that fell through when he was stuck out of NYC in FL.

The kittens are doing great - their stomach hair is growing back where they were shaved from when they got spayed. They are still ridiculously insane, but, let us sleep at night more. Isabelle has gotten into this habit of walking on me while I sleep and doing a broken, death-sounding meow to wake me so that I will pet her. I call her an name, pet her a few minutes and then roll over only to be woken again after about 20 minutes. She is spoiled and irritating, but, I love her!

This week is Spirit Week at school and I will take pics to post of me and the teachers (I am not supposed to post pics of my students on the Internet).
Monday: College Day
Tuesday: Twin Day
Wednesday: Wacky Tacky Day
Thursday: Backwards Day
Friday: Sports Day

SLM's birthday is next week!!!

I will update again soon ... :)

SnOw DaY!!!

Today was declared a snow day and it was fantastic! Pepsi HQ were actually shut down as well so SLM got to stay home from work too. I slept in until 6:30 am - about an hour past my usual time. We lounged for quite awhile with the girls and then ventured out into the wintery madness to Dunkin Donuts. I did some work today as well and finished up my 2nd quarter grades. SLM played golf video games most of the day. We had venison tacos for dinner which were super delicious. Our power went out to the TV and refrigerator - we are going to loose all our food which is really awful. I am having a High Honor Award celebration for 11 students - all of whom were the only ones to turn in every singed assignment and homework and they all have A's for 2nd quarter. I created really nice certificates, will make them cookies, get them nice mechanical pencils (hot ticket item) and then let them pick a prize. The prizes come from this warehouse that our school got to "raid". I picked up many books, DVDs, comics, iPod covers, toy figurines, etc. The kids will freak!!

Last weekend we had a nice wine and cheese evening with Dave and Giselle. We had wine and I made baked clams, mint brownies, summer sausage and a cheese tray. We watched The Orphan and had a ton of fun!!! I had grad school last Saturday. I am taking Ethics and Art and think this will be my most enjoyable semester yet!! I mixed my own colors and created my own color wheel of all the primary, secondary and tertiary colors!!! I will take a pic and post it!!

The girls are back to normal terrorizing each other and getting into everything. I am expecting low attendance tomorrow and have a meeting at McKinsey until late and then have to come home and bake cookies for Friday's celebration.

I leave for STL on Saturday and return on Thursday and then SLM leaves for FL on Sunday and returns the following Thursday :(

A friend from TFA and grad school showed me her planner and I ordered one the next day - it is by MoleSkine and on the left is a weekly planner and on the right it is a notebook for notes and the back cover has a pocket to hold things!!! I am excited to get it in the mail!!! I highly recommend it!!! :)

Foul Mouth

Today was interesting. I was teaching after school and two of my female students started bickering and cursing at each other in Spanish and in English and then one of the girls told the other girl to "Suck my D%^&". It was horrendous. I started screaming at both of them to "SHUT YOUR MOUTHS" and "STOP IT". I have never yelled like I did today. I haven't yelled at students at all this year. My Principal was walking by and storms in to my rescue. He screams, "WHO IS DISRESPECTING MY MS. BELZ?!" and then he goes on and questions everyone about why I am yelling and that "Ms. Belz NEVER yells". Long story short, both students were removed. I felt very supported and rescued.

I came home ready to relax and blocking the door was the cat's house. Isabelle decided it was time to move again. She gets bored of scenery and surroundings easily.

We made chili last night and because I am a genius I thought I could you ceyenne pepper in place of chili powder and added 2 Tablespoons of ceyenne pepper on top of the black pepper and red pepper flakes. It was so HOTTT. We had trouble eating it all without our mouths exploding. Note to self: never replace anything with ceyenne pepper.

Despite all the stresses this week had to offer and the fact that I feel like I am going to fall over from exhaustion whenever I stand up - I am pretty happy with the way this week has turned out.

My students can find the area of a sector of a circle - the hardest 6th grade standard! YAY :)

What A Monday!

Today was quite busy at work. I literally did not stop from 7:30 am until 6 pm. I had a ton of stuff to get ready for the Acuity Predictive Assessment. I was actually able to get it done more quickly than I thought. The student who cheated will be suspended and I way very pleased with the amount of support I had from the AP.

I taught the hardest standard in math today and the students actually got really into it and loved it - I think they were very excited about how much work they had to do to arrive at answer and then when they got it they were soooo excited! I even had students ask for extra problems to do tonight on their own!

I was nominated and made Co-Chairperson of our Student Leadership Team and I was put forward to the next round of interviews for the SOM position with TFA this summer at the NYC Institute.

I am supposed to be sharpening 150 pencils right now but the sharpener won't work. That part sucks.

The girls are back to normal for the most part. I am hoping Isabelle's cuddling will last forever. She is such a sweetie when she is cuddly. Although, she was not a sweetie when SLM came home from work and found her on top of the bookshelf where she is not supposed to be.

I hope this week is productive and goes by quickly!!!

What a Weekend

The girls got spayed, got rabies shots, their nails clipped, a treatment for their ear mites, and a comprehensive exam all on Friday. I felt sooooo terrible for them!!! They came home and were soooo out of it. They were like drunk trying to walk. They did the splits with their back legs every time they tried to walk across the hard wood floors. They are still even exhausted and out of it today.

So the week came to a close with me catching one of my 6th graders cheating on an extra credit assignment. I was soooo upset. It is just terrible that an 11 year old feels they need to cheat to get by and then lie about it repeatedly ...

Friday night was great - I watched "The Hangover" with my mom, Aunt Gail and Aunt Shookie. We had a blast - that movie is hilarious!!! Saturday my mom and I went to get coffee and had an incredible talk and then we went shopping to Old Navy and Banana Republic. I got a great shirt at Old Navy for $5.60!!! Then, at Banana we didn't find anything in my size. I took mom to the airport which was really sad, but, I get to see her and dad in two weeks (13 days from today!). I met Steve in the city after I went to Banana at Grand Central Station and got a high waisted pencil skirt and a top for $35!!!! It was great!!! I will wear this outfit on either my graduation or my brother's graduation. SLM and I met at Heartland Brewery for a few drinks before walking in the freezing cold to Otto for dinner - which was fabulous! We stopped at Whole Foods before catching the train back. When we got home I went straight into bed to cuddle with Isabelle and it was the sweetest moments I have ever had with her. She laid and contoured her body to my arms and laid her little face on my chest and shoulder - it was soooo sweet. She stayed the whole night with me and was always cuddled up right next to me. At one point I woke up in the middle of the night and she was under the covers with me and I have no idea how she managed to get under them! Today we went grocery shopping and to the movies and saw "When In Rome" which was dece ... I would give it about a 7 out of 10.

Looking forward to this week going quickly.

Below is a short video of Isabelle trying to walk to her home right after she was brought home from the Vet.

Mom in Town!

The end of last week could not have come quick enough! My mom came into town and I very much enjoyed spending time with her and my Grandma on Saturday. We had a quiet evening at home in LI on Saturday. On Sunday, I went to breakfast with Aunt Gail and Mindy. I spent some time with my mom shopping for a dress for Giselle's wedding and after about 8 dresses, no luck. We will keep searching when I go to STL in February. Chinese take out was had by all on Sunday night for dinner!!!

My mom came to school with me on Monday! Surprisingly, I was not nervous with her in my classroom at all. My students were very eager to meet her and to have class that day!!! It was very exciting for my mom to see my students and my classroom since she hears all about it all the time - now she has faces to place with names! We enjoyed a lovely dinner at Otto (my favorite restaurant) and mom loved their Dark Chocolate Gelato!

I have been super well planned for the week and have all my lesson plans ready for the entire week!!!

I finally finished the winter session at grad school and turned in my final assignments and project this evening! Yay! Spring semester starts Feb. 6! One last semester to go! Woo hoo!!

This evening Isabelle did something quite hilarious ... she moved their "home" from one location in the apartment to another. I have uploaded it for your enjoyment. The plot goes as follows: Begins to move home ... stops for a makeout session with her sister Chloe, goes back to home to attack it, returns to moving it into the kitchen where it now resides ...
Enjoy!

cRaZy WeEk!

This is one crazy week - regular school days and lesson plans and grades to do, I'm conducting TFA phone interviews, and I have this crazy Grad School class that isn't over yet!

I am getting really exhausted and tired and irritable!

However, we started our circle unit this week and I am very happy with it so far!

I passed out Progress Reports to the students yesterday and made about 8 students cry - it was bad. I have designed an Extra Credit packet for them to complete - but, I will not be reminding them or hounding them for it - it is their responsibility. I gave a 15 minute speech yesterday to each class about how getting anything below a "B" in 6th grade is absolutely unacceptable and inexcusable.

I will be applying to work for TFA this summer and really hope I get it!

The cats are crazier than ever and are breaking tons of crap.

On Monday night, I woke up because Isabelle bit my face and was sitting on my chest meowing at me so that I would pet/play with her. I pushed her off the bed and whispered/yelled at her. She ran away and then wouldn't leave me alone when I actually woke up and went to the bathroom.

That is all the updates for now! :)