Mel's Box of Chocolates

There's so much to catch up on. Where did the last two months go? My last few posts were all about graduating and middle school and gymnastics recitals and excitement that summer was finally here. Now summer is practically over. I go back to school in 13 days. If you follow me on Facebook and Twitter then you know that I got a new teaching position over the summer.  I will be cutting my old 45 minute one way commute in half this year.  It's nerve wracking thinking about starting all over, but I am so very excited about new opportunities.  Change has always been a good thing in my eyes and I can't wait to see what's ahead this year. Of course, with the excitement of the new position comes much worry as this will be the first year in six years that I haven't had my kids in my school or at least in the same district with me.  For six years they had ridden with me to and from school.  This year I will ride alone. For six years, I knew their teachers, the c...

How did this happen? Just the other day I was starting a blog as a way to record memories and my second post was " Dylan's Off to Kindergarten ". You really must click over to see the pictures then and compare to the pictures now.  {{sniff, sniff}} Now a few seconds later I'm writing about his 5th grade promotion. Yesterday, Dylan walked the red carpet to receive his promotion certificate.  He said goodbye to his elementary years and a new chapter is his life has been opened. He admitted he was a bit nervous waiting to walk, As the students walk across the red carpet the teachers share the activities the students were involved in throughout the year and an special accomplishments.  As a National Honor Society Member, Academic Scholar for all 3 trimesters, Student Council Secretary, Special Olympics Peer Partner, and member of band, his list was quite long.  He said he was embarrassed.  I was so very proud.  I think under that embarrassment he wa...

As soon as I heard the poor man who died in a construction accident was from Milford, I reacted as I always did.  I quickly ran my mind down all the names of my students to see if the last names matched, then started thinking if I knew any students in our school who had the same last name.  I couldn't match it up and with a sigh of relief went on with my life. Then I went to school yesterday and heard the news. The man, who was so young at only 47 years old, was the father of one of our 5th grade students.  The father of a young boy, my own son's age.  A father who had left his home Thursday morning to go to his job, just like every other day, taking for granted that the family would be back together that night. But they weren't. The little boy wasn't in school yesterday.  Nobody was surprised by that.  On the 8th he will walk the red carpet for our promotion ceremony bidding his elementary days goodbye and moving on to the next phase of his life....

After enjoying dinner out with my family I decided to leave the kids with Dave (we had met for dinner after school and work) and stop in for a quick tanning session before heading home.  I was telling everybody bye and that I'd see them in a few minutes and Dave, being the great husband that he was is told me to take my time. I mentioned that tanning only took 10 minutes so I'd be home soon and Dylan, being the great kid that he is, told me to stay for four hours. To which, Dave responded "she can't do that because she would come home smelling like burnt pork". It's sad when your kids realize the error of their dad's statement before he does.  Dylan with a look of mortification on his face, "Daaaaad. That was mean." Meanwhile I was trying to make heads and tails about what Dave was really trying to say.  He claims I think way to much into what he says.  But, really, I do believe my husband just called me a pig!  I mean, that is where ...

This may be the first time ever that I take my horoscope to heart. Time to take charge of me and make positive changes for me.

One of my favorite parts of being a teacher is that you have no clue what the day is going to bring. You are shut in a room with twenty-some little people, with very diverse lifestyles, personalities, strengths, needs...Every day is an adventure. For example today. After cleaning spilled cereal for breakfast (they eat in our classrooms), and milk splashed on the wall after missing the trashcan, referring a couple arguments, listening to books being read, and tutoring individuals who were struggling with some math concepts, it was time for science. Today's investigation was all about creating saturated solutions so we had water, salt, filters, funnels, bottles, syringes...a lot of materials.  After I got everything prepared during my planning period it was time to begin. No sooner had I begun with, "Today in science we are going..." when I hear the class moan and in unison say, "Ewwwwww." It was then that I made the mistake of looking. One of my s...

Summer break is inching closer and closer by the minute and I don't think anybody is more excited than I am.  It's been quite the year and as things are slowly starting to come to a close, I find myself breathing more and smiling often. Last week I officially ended my first year of teaching at the college level!  My college seniors turned in their final HUGE papers and for the past week or so I've been trying to grade the 50-80 page projects whenever I had a free moment.  My final grades have been posted and I've put my professor bag on the top shelf in the den, not to be looked at until at least August!  I'm happy to say that everybody passed, but not without some blood, sweat, and tears on both of our sides. I always thought that eventually teaching to pre-service teachers would be something I would like to do.  I was excited when I had the opportunity to teach sophomores in the fall and seniors in the spring.  Boy is there a difference between them!...