I only started school on Wednesday.  It hasn't even been a full week, but my energy was zapped out of me since the first day of school!  Every day after work, I was in bed by 9pm.  I slept.  No "slept" is not the word, it's more like I was commatose!  I also have a longer commute, so I have to wake up earlier and be out the door by 6am. 

I do not have the ELD (English Language Learner) cluster this year.  I think that the teachers in my grade level saw how I've always dealt with those kids, no complaints.  So they decided to make our classes more equitable this year.  They decided to split up the ELD's and take on the challenges this year.  I get to take a break from the ELD kids.  They are the well-behaved group of kids, so I know those teachers won't really have any run-ins with the principal.  I do, however have a sprinkle of the undermotivated and behavior problem students.  The school counselor already gave me the heads up on a couple of the students that he will be working with from week to week.  Some of them he has counseled since the first grade! 

I do have a pretty manageable group of kids this year, although some of them scored Far Below Basic on the CST's.  Some of them took a huge nose-dive, meaning they we're already Proficient coming from 3rd grade and then their scores plummeted to Below Basic and Far Below Basic.  It was as if a dark cloud was looming over the 4th grade teachers last year, definitely many hardships occured.  I was well aware of some personal issues that some of the 4th grade teachers were experiencing last year that may have affected their ability to focus on teaching.  It was almost as if the students were better off getting a solid long-term substitute teacher and to give the poor teachers some time to recollect, I personally thought.  So I really don't know if it was the student who didn't do a good job of learning; or was was it the teacher that didn't do a good job of teaching?  I can't make a clear judgement of what kind of year this will bring to me.  It will be a challenge, but that's nothing new.

A student who is known to have a "serious behavior problem" was assigned to my classroom.  So far we're in honeymoon season, baby!  The kid is a bit sneaky, already testing me to see what he can and cannot get away with.  He's far too busy to cause problems in my classroom.  I'm on him like a hawk in the sky!  The kid does have a sense of humor, a witty one.  He's the one of the few who catches on to my sarcasm and laughs at my jokes.  He loves sports and a good competition, so I hold P.E. over his head.  I figure that if he gives me a really hard time during the day or misses homework, we're gonna duke it out at basketball.  It's ON! 

I have a lot of "sibling" students this year.  I've had their older siblings and worked with their parents before, so they are well aware of how much homework I give and how I love throwing classroom parties as a reward.  Their parents really liked what I did with their elder children, so they requested that their younger siblings also be assigned to my class.  I'm so thankful for those supportive parents who help me in the classroom as much as they can give.  There's not that much parental involvement in the school where I teach at, so finding a family who respects me as their child's teacher makes a difference.

I also noticed that I have a few kids who are really good at drawing and coloring.  I think this is the most artistic class I've had!  I'm glad, because I do a lot of art activities.  I may have to kick it up a notch with this group of kids, because they're into their artwork.  Whooohooo!  Who doesn't love a beautiful classroom?  I'll be taking lots of pictures and saving their samples.

The real surprise was their reading fluency.  A lot of them weren't too bad with their reading fluency.  Some are slightly below benchmark, but when I listen to how they read it's obvious that they apply the decoding strategies.  It's pretty sad that in the 5th grade I have come across a lot of kids who cannot blend and decode if their lives depended on it.  This year it seems like they are stronger in fluency, which means we can really focus on the comprehension strategies.  Each year, I get a couple kids who don't have their phonics in place.  I have always had to go back to 1st grade sound-by-sound, syllable-by-syllable and borrow 1st or even 2nd grade decodables to try to get the kid up to speed.  I've never had major success with students who've fallen that far behind.  They give up on reading, even with incentives. This year is a lot different.  I'm glad these kids can read.  So sad, but true!

So what's the verdict?  It may not show up in their CST scores, but I get really good vibes from this class.  I have a well-rounded bunch this year.  I think that's important to have model students in every aspect.  They are pretty nice kids and they work well together.  I also see they caught on to the daily routines pretty fast.  I have some pretty athletic kids this year, as well as some great artists.  It's going to be a different kind of challenge trying to help these kids shape their talents.

Oh my gosh!  4:30am and I'm already wide awake instead of waiting for the alarm to go off at 5:45am.  I tossed and turned and decided to just start my day.  Don't you hate it when your internal alarm clock is way off?

My summer vacation flew by too fast.  It's time to go back to work today.  Fortunately it's a pupil free day.  I am not fully prepared to go back to work, even though my classroom is done.  It's a mental thing.  I would still like to extend my summer break just a few more days.

Wish everyone else going back to work today a great school year.  180 school days, and counting down...

It's tomato season.  I am not complaining.  My in-laws and my friends all grow tomatoes in their backyard.  They've both given me shopping bags full of fresh-picked tomatoes. 

I love them!

How about you?  Which vegetable do you enjoy?

Sarah Palin is McCain's Vice President!  Definitely, she's a dark horse, but someone who'll get things done!  Cheers to Palin!

And cheers to all the educators who are whole-heartedly serving a new year in public education.  Teaching can be considered such a thankless career by others, but I definitely know that it's where you can really make a difference in somebody's life.

Goodness, for a Friday afternoon I'm so inspired to work hard, RIGHT NOW!!!

We've been really watching how we eat and the exercise, especially because my husband
came back from his cardiology checkup.  He visited his
cardiologist, and the doc's feedback didn't sound very good.  He's trying to downplay it, but I'm not down with that.  It scares me.  So we're making even more changes to our eating habits.  Veggies, veggies, veggies!

Fresh produce makes such a huge difference in your cooking.  You don't have to add too much salt to bring out the flavor if the veggies and meat if everything you use is fresh.  It's even more ideal if you can train your tastebuds to eat foods by it.  This is a such challenge, but I'm slowly weening myself off the stuff that makes the food absolutely delicious.  Cutting down salt and grease makes me feel like a chain smoker trying to quit a lifelong habit of smoking.  The only way to enjoy veggies is to eat them at their peak stage of freshness.

Off I went food shopping after visiting the chiropractor, who also reminded me about staying healthy.

I judge the Asian markets, not by how cheap the cans of Ligo Sardines
and Libby's Corned Beef are sold, but by how fresh and cheap their
produce is.  The veggies in our household cooking are a bigger highlight than the meats, especially now that the cardiologist is on Erwil's case.

So for the first time, I went to a Filipino grocery store in the neighborhood which I shall
keep nameless.  It was one of the "closer" Filipino food stores in this
town of BP mentioned by a couple folks.  So I went there for a just for quick stop to grab some veggies.  I
never had such a scary experience.  The place reeked of fish.  But
that's totally a given, whenever you walk into an Asian market that
sells fresh seafood.  Then again, I should have known better to walk out
of it upon a smelly entrance.

The worst thing about this Filipino food store was the produce section. 
Hey, I have high expectations!  Unfortunately, I can't always afford the produce
at Trader Joe's, Henry's or Whole Foods.  I only had $10 in my wallet.  That would only get me very little at one of those organic markets.

The plan was foolproof: find onions and other few veggies.  I was looking for onions.  Alas, not a single onion was fresh.  The layers were soft and and the paper thin layer of the onions were gone.  Naked onions, I tell you! Obviously, you can tell they've been slowly rotting there for days, since the fruit flies were swarming on them. 

The bananas were trying their best to look tropical, but all I saw was large black spots.  It looked more like a cheetah than Chiquitah bananas! 

The cabbages and string beans were dry, not water crisp. 

It was such a severe disaster!  That store needs help.  I lost my appetite.  I am almost discouraged to shop around this Cerritos area. 

I think I'm sticking with Carson Filipino stores, since it's most familiar to me.  Heck yah, I'll pay for the extra gas if it means that I can avoid a night of severe flatulence and heartburn.

When I was a kid, my mom and dad let me and my two younger brothers run down the kids aisle in the shoe store to find one new pair of sneakers for the new school year and a black pair of shoes for Sunday School.  Of course, all we could afford back then were Pro Wings and Highlights from Payless.  Although popular, I didn't know anything about L.A. Gear, Reeboks or Nike back in the 80's.  Those brand name labels held no significance to me as a kid.  We were taught not to be label conscious, and still, we loved and appreciated our parents because they were sensible about what really counts.  Even though we were came from a poor family, our teachers didn't see us come to school with ratty shoes, dirty socks and blistered feet.

I still shop at Payless and now Target when the price and comfort is right for my feet.  (In fact my uber-comfortable wedding shoes were bought from Payless and nobody wanted to believe me until I showed them the generic shoe box it came in!)

My favorite pair of "teacher shoes" are still the Sketchers ones that
my mom bought for me three years ago at Sketchers in the Camarillo Outlets--"Buy 2 get the 2nd pair half off".  She bought a white pair because she works in a hospital.  She called and asked for my shoe size, got me the same pair in black. 

After a test run, I immediately bought another pair in dark brown and a lighter brown one, because I love the look and feel of these shoes for work.  Now, I
see a couple of the teachers at my elementary school wearing these
shoes.  They should be the teacher's official classroom shoes because they're so popular!

Dear Sketchers,

Why don't you sponsor my feet?  I love wearing these shoes around campus. 

Sincerely,
Ms. Liz

The funny thing was that my husband found my shoe rack with this armada of Sketchers in line formation--all the same exact style, in different colors.  It's another quirk that he needed to know about me.  If Sketchers ever decides to discontinue this style, I think I've got plenty in stock for myself.  No need to worry.

1.  Now that I live with my hubby, I think my newest peeve are those telemarketers calling our land line every waking hour of the day.  How do you get rid of them? 

2.  I can't stand Raven Symone's acting. She was cute on the Cosby show, but I am not into her exaggerated acting. She's a little bit too much for me.

3.  I stayed home all day yesterday and didn't move my car from its spot.  What a parking mess I found this morning, even though there's plenty of parking spaces!  I can't stand the neighbors and that realtor who don't parallel park their cars with consideration when they are visiting property.  There's a huge Ford monster truck with a baby car seat in the back and a Century 21 sign on it that is tightly squeezed right next to my car this morning.  On the other side, the neighbor with a black Mercedes Benz parked too close to the right of my SUV, when he knows that the space to the right of him is wide open to where no cars are allowed to park.  I'm blocked in from both sides.  Now I can't get into either side of my car and to run errands and work on my classroom.  If I get desperate, I may have to climb into the car from the back tailgate door! 

Dear Sleep-That-I-Need,

Where heck are you?  It's almost 3 a.m.  I think I'm having an episode of "Back To School Jitters" again.  It's either that, or I just had a long-lasting reaction to the caffeine from my post-dinner mint mocha chip frappuccino.  Or maybe it's a combination of both! 

First of all, inside my school mailbox, my principal hand wrote a thank you card to me
over the summer.  I thought it was very encouraging.  I'm glad that he
noticed my efforts throughout this year. I've saved all of his
handwritten note cards as a visual reminder for me to keep on pushing
myself in the classroom.  I can't believe he has that kind of time to
handwrite personal notes to all his teachers!  Mine was really nice. The other really cute and nice thing that my principal kept doing on Friday was practicing my new last name.  Everytime we passed each other in the hallways, he kept saying my last name over and over again.  I know it's an indigenous 3-syllable tongue twister, but he will get it pronounced clearly by the time school begins.  He's such a good principal/administrator to all the staff!  I'm so glad he's on board with us for another year!

I also picked up my class roster last Friday when I dropped off my truck-load of school supplies to my classroom.  It's rather surprising to find only 23 student names printed on my roster this year, instead of the usual 30 students or more.  I am also quite surprised that none of the students listed on my roster are ELD students.  I thought I had a few of them when we worked with the 4th grade teachers in re-distrubution of students.  There are no English-language learning students in my class this year?  Whoa!  What happened?  It seems so strange!  Could this be a mistake, or did the students magically get transferred over to a different classroom?  I knew that over the summer time the 5th-4th grade combo classroom was vacant. I'm not too sure if they've found a permanent teacher, or if they are
going to leave a long term substitute in there until Norm Day.  If they are closing that class down , will they be shuffling those teacher-less students to my class? 

Shocking!  I won't find out what is really going on until I see all my other teachers during our grade level meeting on September 2nd.  Not that I'm complaining though!  Don't get me wrong.  I'd love to keep only 23 students in my classroom.  Which upper grade teacher wouldn't want less kids to work with?  It's the ideal kind of classroom.  It leaves me a little skeptical though and wondering what is the catch?  It was such a hard year for me last year.  There's no use bringing up old memories because the fun summer vacation made up for all of it.  Having 23 kids on the roster is a really good compensation for all the weight I gained, hair that I shed, and pimples that scarred my face last year! 

On a terribly indulgent note, my thoughtful husband Erwil treated me to a really good ice blended mint mocha chip frappuccino after our post-dinner evening walk.  I know...slap me on the wrist! That's not how to do it!  Our evening walks are the newlywed attempt to ease ourselves back into the groove of exercise.  It's also the time we get to talk to each other.  He knows that it's so warm and dry out here in Buena Park and it's not what I'm use to.  I depend on the centralized AC to cool me down in the house during the daytime.  The warmth even lingers until the evening time here.  But I feel like now I'm paying for it because I'm all wired up, instead of sleeping like a drunk man passed out upstairs.

I know, I know what you're going to say already! But the chocolate syrup mixed into the ice blended frappuccino was so good that I almost could've licked the inside of the plastic cup like Mrs. Piggy.    Now how ghastly is that?  You know what's even more ghastly?  I presume it's the next electric bill for the AC, set automatically to keep the house a comfortable temperature of 72 degrees farenheit!  We have to share the responsibility of paying bills together.  Baby, it's all community property and all community responsibility from here on out! Oh, what joy it is to find those extra summer expenses adding up! 

Let me start counting sheep...I think I'm ready for fall season to begin.

I think I just tend to be a procrastinator by nature and then bang things out really fast at the last minute.  This is not good.  Part of my stress comes from procrastinating and taking on too many projects.  Part of staying stress free is learning how to just get started on my projects without dilly-dallying and also being choosy about what I need to do with my time.  I had to discipline myself into writing down what I plan to do, then crossing them off my list when done.  Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize!  The whole crossing off the list makes me feel good!  It's a visual thing for me to see that work is being finished. 

I used to really lose a lot of sleep at night and it really showed.  I would wake up in a startled state at 3am and then jump out of bed to work on lessons or worry about the unfinished laundry.  My hair was thinning and I could not get rid of pimples.  I remember my very first year of teaching elementary school, I just didn't handle the stress very well.  I placed too many high expectations and I would disappoint myself very easily if things didn't go my way. Everything use to really bug me when I was much younger and much more self-absorbed teacher, but now I've learn to just chill out and look at the big picture more.  I just reflect on my mistakes and give myself room for human error.  Then I look at what I can do differently.  That's all I can pretty much do.  I have to remind myself to be more forgiving of myself.

Nowadays, I'm not as over-compulsive as I used to be with things because I know that will work out as long as I keep focused and diligent to the task.  Less burning out that way.  It also allows for a glowing complexion and better sleep too! 

I just answered this Featured Question; you can answer it too!

I love reading magazines!  It seems like the only real chance I get to enjoy my magazine subscriptions is during the summer break.  I love reading fashion magazines because I get to tear out coupons, sample face creams and smell different fragrances.  I also enjoy reading celebrity magazines that my mom donates to me after she's done with them.  I really enjoy the magazine Real Simple, because it's got a little bit of everything that interests me.
 

I just answered this Featured Question; you can answer it too!