A little of this and a little of that

Equals a house full of wonderful smelling Christmas cookies!!  


Mom, Matthew, and I headed out the door earlier this morning with our plan of attack.  First stop...flu shots.  Second stop...Kohls to get some dress pants for Matthew.  Third stop...GROCERY STORE!!  We picked up all the things we would need to make our list of Christmas cookies.  Before we knew it, we were on our way home ready for an afternoon filled with baking as the snow began to fall outside. Too perfect?  Well just maybe.


Obviously this is not Mom and I's first time baking Christmas cookies; however, this year was definitely different than any other year.  See we have this new monster in our house.  He eats everything, yes EVERYTHING, and goes by the name of Matthew.  The entire time mom and I were baking, he was breathing down our necks and into the cookies.  He kept asking how much longer till each new cookie would be ready to eat and then tried to convince us he wouldn't eat ALL the cookies...just most of them.  So, although I would love to share some of our cookies made with lots of love....there will be none for me to share with you.  I guess there will be none to share with Santa either...hmm we'll see just how many presents he gets from Santa this year!


Below are a few pictures I snapped to share our fun.

Here you see tea balls, pretzels with peppermint kisses and rolos topped with m&m's, and this popcorn mix recipe my mom got from someone at work.  There is also sugar cookie dough hidden in the fridge when I took this.

What does one need when making Christmas cookies?  Butter by the bucket loads!!!!

All this fun helped keep my mind off my cold.  Being a teacher = a whole bunch of germs.  "Good morning Miss Shupert." SNEEZE  snot flies everywhere.  "Good morning to you too sweetheart!" Oh well it is what it is.  I just really hope it's better by Monday, because I have my last observation by my supervisor!! 


Hope you're having a great, snowy weekend!!!
Amanda 

Let it rain....tears

I know, I know, the title doesn't sound good.  Well it's not good.  It was just one of those days.  If you walked into our room any time during the morning, you would have thought Miss Shupert is the meanest teacher in the entire world! 


Incident 1: Miss Shupert is helping a girl with her math worksheet.  This girl happens to have a long history of hitting.  Girl gets mad and frustrated at Miss Shupert during the process of helping her.  Girl hits Miss Shupert.  So naturally I had to speak with this girl about why we don't hit, about how some day someone will hit her back when she hits them, and what we can do instead of hit.  As if on a cue, she begins to cry because she feels bad.  She promised me she wouldn't hit anymore (remember this promise).


Incident 2: Only about 5 minutes later.  All of math work time Miss Shupert explained to a girl over and over that  she already knew how to do the math worksheet and therefore would not do it for the girl, but would be more than happy to help.  Girl chose to be angry and stubborn and not complete the sheet because it was too hard (this girl is smart enough to do this sheet without any help btw). So naturally once again I had to have a talk.  I asked the girl what she would like me to tell her parents when they see that her work is not completed.  She answered, "I have an attitude."  I gave her credit for a perfect answer.  We talked about how she would fix the rest of her day and I thought it was fine.  Not more than two seconds after I stood up the tears began.  She felt very bad for wasting all of math with a bad attitude, but I reassured her that she now had a clean slate and could change her day.  Sure enough she turned her day around.  We did a wonderful calendar time and went to specialist.


Incident 3: I'm enjoying my wonderful prep hour correcting homework and filling folders with the new homework when my CT and I hear very loud cries coming down the hall.  I got that woman's intuition that this cry was headed for our room.  I couldn't have been more right.  Sure enough in walks hitting girl from incident 1 with the teacher who deals with many behavior problems.  She hit a boy in the eye at specialist.  UGH!!!  I said, "Girl's name you promised me you wouldn't hit anymore!!"  Less than an hour after her promise, she broke it.  She's crying hysterically and my CT and I are once again explaining how bad this behavior is and next time she will be suspended for a day, which they almost never do with 1st graders.  A call was made home and mom ended up coming in at the end of the day and talking with my CT.  The problem is until she is hit back by a student, no one thinks this behavior will change.


All of this happened between 9:30 and 10:30.  Seriously, enough tears for our whole class within an hour time period.  Yes indeed, you never know what will happen next.  So even though these tears were because of bad behavior, I still am too soft to not feel horrible.  After school I was reminded that maybe I'm not so horrible after all.


Incident 4:  Sure I get all the pictures and letters that students give their teachers just like everyone else.  During the after school program I especially get a lot since they have a lot of free time.  But, none of this is what made my heart melt.  A little boy in my after school class always gets picked up early.  I was playing chess with him when his adult walked in the door to pick him up.  After moaning, he gets up to get his coat and backpack.  He then runs over to me and asks, "Miss Shupert, can I give you a hug?"  I answered him with an, "ALWAYS." He then proceeds to give me the world's biggest hug from the world's smallest 2nd grader and thank me for playing chess with him.  


I hope quite often that God will bless me with children some day.  I have heard that their is no greater love (other than God's love for us) than what a parent feels for their child.  I can't even imagine how this will feel if I already feel so much love towards my students.  My students mean the world to me.  I love walking down the hall just so I can hear students calling my name. If they see me, they insist on stopping whatever they are doing to give me a hug and say hi even though they will see me in a matter of hours, sometimes minutes.  To them, it is worth any reprimanding they will receive for getting out of line in the hall.  I hope you understand now why my heart melts.


I know this one was kind of long, but I hope you got a few laughs and a few smiles.  May your holiday season heart feel the same joy as mine!!! Now off to lesson plan so I can enjoy my weekend of baking!

Game face on?...Check!

I realize I haven't posted anything in awhile, but this is definitely worth telling about.  For the past 3 years I have worked at Bath and Body Works for black Friday.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I had a lot of fun working black Friday each of those 3 times and talking with some pretty crazy people.  But this year it was MY turn to be the crazy one!!! I was jumping around the house all Thanksgiving day because I was so excited.  After looking through all 4 pounds of sale fliers in the newspaper, mom and I made our list, checked it twice, and decided our starting location would be Best Buy at 11:30pm.  I decided I would attempt to catch a small cat nap before heading out.  Before I went to bed, I wrote on my facebook how excited I was and my friend Missy saw.  She asked if she could join us so she had someone to go with.  We said OF COURSE!!!  

So 11:20 (10 minutes ahead of schedule) the three of us camped out in the North Best Buy line.  We were wrapped about half way around the building in line.  So we waited and shared a few laughs.  12:00...the line started moving at a quick little pace.  When we got to the front of the building there were these boys, probably about college guys, who thought they could simply walk in front of me in line.  Everyone was yelling at them.  BUT it was LITTLE ME who actually put my hand out and pushed them aside.  I had my game face on and no one was getting in my way!!! We got in, got all the items on our list, and then I raced for the check out line.  I cut through aisles, dodged some boxes, and we got our spot in line.  The line went very quickly.  We were out by 12:30am!!!!  

Next we headed for Kohls.  This was the only store that tried to crash our party.  We kept our heads up though...even after standing in line for almost 2 hours!!!  People that is what I call dedication!!!  Then we headed for the mall.  We went to a few stores there including Bath & Body Works and Herbergers.  

At 4:30  we headed our for our next stake out destination....Sams Club.  We stood in the line outside for a half hour till they opened at 5.  Unfortunately we didn't get everything we had hoped for.  The people here were the most vicious.  We weren't very upset though because our bodies were starting to exclaim how tired they were.  After getting checked out, we took Missy home and said our good byes.  

The minute mom and I walked in the door  (at 6am) we headed straight for bed.  Was that enough shopping though? NO WAY.  After a few hours of sleep, mom and I got a refreshing shower and headed back out with my grandma and her sister.  We shopped from 10-2.  After that, I really was dead!!!  I had so much fun though.  I told mom though that next year we need to add a couple more friends to the crew and make matching shirts.  I have added a few pics of our time below :)

The line.

Our black friday crew!

Where it all began!

They had a food truck for before or after your shopping at Best Buy.

This picture turned out pretty dark, but it was the massive crowd at the front door.  All people thinking they could budge in line....I proved them wrong!

Third stop...mall bathroom.

Missy turned into a kid at a candy shop with the hand drier.

This morning wasn't a too bad ending to this big long break either.  Patrick and I went cake tasting this morning at Daube's.  12 SLICES OF CAKES PEOPLE!!!  I have never seen so many different cakes in my life!  It was a whole lot of fun.  We found a few favorites even though we're not positive we will go with them yet.  Definitely one of the high points in wedding planning.


As I leave, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving that you got to enjoy with close family and/or friends! Have a great, much longer week :)

Getting older

Every minute of every day we grow older.  Today I think I passed this usual time elapse by a lot!!  You never know what a student is going to say...Example A: "Ms. Shupert, are you 40 years old?" HAHA!!  Finally!! Someone who thinks I'm older than 16.  I had to tell this student he was my favorite at that moment.  Another student than said, "No, she's 29 years old."  See told you I have the best class ever! Older than 16 and I decrease age in a matter of seconds.  During this time my supervisor had come in because I had my second observation today.  A student goes up to her and goes, "I bet you're 32."  My supervisor just had to look at him and say I wish I was.  I don't think the little boy understood why she wished that by the look on his puzzled face as he walked away.  I decided to end this crazy conversation by saying I would never tell and it would be a secret forever.  I think they were a little bummed.


Speaking of my second observation, I never shared how my first one went let alone my one today.  Short and sweet, they both went excellent to say the least.  She raved about my management because it is simply woven into my teaching.  She also expressed how things she is sure will be complete chaos before we do them, are always controlled and go smoothly.  She said many wonderful things about me, but really she should have been complimenting God on His job creating me.  I am so thankful God made my calling clear, that I am able to go to college and follow this dream, and for making me a wonderful teacher.  Yes, I do work hard on creating what I can only hope will be the perfect lesson,  but since I don't even realize I do some of the things I get complimented on, one can only point the finger to the One who made me. 


Satan makes it pretty hard sometimes though.  He filled my head with a lot of doubt before my lesson today, no matter how many times my CT told me I have nothing to worry about.  He also has had his hands at work on over half the other student teachers who say I go around bragging about my good observations. (I have only talked to one of these people) These student teachers are the ones getting not so good observations by the way. I'm truly sorry that not everyone can get great observations, but this cannot be taken out on me!  I ask that you pray that I can rise above the drama these teachers are trying to create and that these teachers may not feel hurt by me.  I am willing to do whatever I can to help them if they need it as a friend and fellow ST (I ask for help ALL the time), but by the lasers shooting into my eyes as I walk down the hall they don't tell me I have friends.  My CT backs me up though whenever someone says something, so I am thankful for him. I just ask for your prayers tonight as you count sheep.  


It's Friday soon!!! We can make it people :)  

It's tough being the good luck charm

This weekend was full of hockey! First, Saturday afternoon I went to my brother's hockey game against Albert Lea. They were excepted to come out on top and they did.  Final score was 5 to 3.  Matt did great and almost had a goal.  Second, Saturday night Patrick and I surprised Matt after the game and informed him we were taking him to the St Cloud State vs. Mankato hockey game.  After fixing a few problems, the game was AWESOME!  I have pictures to prove it. The start of the game says it all though.  At the start of the whistle, St Cloud took the first two shots and made both of them. 2 to 0 isn't a bad way to start.

All set for the start in our St Cloud gear! Aww too cute!

Ticket 

BOOO!!! The opponents

Matt got a puck during warm ups!

The KVSC boys...doing what they do best!

Celebrating a goal (I think this was the second one)

Let's Go Huskies!!!

Final score and shots on goal.  Notice we have a little over half but still won the game!

So after all that fun, Matt had another hockey game tonight (Sunday night) against New Ulm.  They have been known to be very physical, and they were!! There were lots of scary hits, but I was so proud of our boys.  They were either tied or in the lead throughout the whole game! I guess when it was tied at the end of the second period the coach said to skate harder or he would have them do it later.  Hmm if that isn't motivation I don't know what it.  The boys ended up winning 4 to 3.  Now, if that isn't exciting enough, Matt got the play of the game!! I was so proud of him.  He skated his butt off to keep a guy from scoring.  So, like I said it's tough being the good luck charm, because now I have to be at every game!


Although this weekend was great and a lot of fun, I can't help but have a heavy heart.  We found out at church today about a 12 year old boy from our church that got in ATV accident yesterday and went on life support.  The family found out that Hunter wasn't going to be able to pull through. There is another family that I had been following from some friends who's baby boy, Jude, just recently died after 67 days. As I have all this fun with my family, celebrate my brother's dreams coming true, and plan for the wedding of my dreams, there are children going to be with their Father in Heaven what we believe is far too soon (even though we trust it is God's plan) and families whose hearts must ache more than I could ever imagine.  Please keep these families in your prayers.  I don't know what God's plan for me is, but these stories remind me to take every day as a sweet treasure.


Have a treasure filled week!! <3 Me

257

It's November now, so I figured it was only fair for me to give you a new number...257! I know I can hardly believe it myself.  May I remind you I started at 499. We are really close to half of that number.  It sure doesn't feel like that could be the case!  All will be ready in time though thanks to my wonderful fiancee that gave us the long engagement I was hoping for (and KVSC for planning trivia when they did ;)


So this weekend was the start of hockey once again for Matthew! I love watching him play.  I can still remember was he was just a tiny little guy learning how to skate and watching games where it would take half the period for the kids to get to the other end of the rink.  It's so much fun to watch the boys check the other team and skate across the ice now in a matter of seconds.  The game on Saturday was a tough loss simply because of our own team's goalie.  Sunday I couldn't go to the game, but they only lost by a tiny bit.  From the first two games of an entire season to come, I can already tell it will be a great season for the boys.  Can't wait for the next two games this coming weekend!!!


They only thing I can't stand more than the sound of children trying to erase something with no eraser left....eye rolling.  You know how your parents tell you, "Some day you're going to have a kid just like you!"  Well unfortunately I have one before I have even had a kid!!! I must have been really bad to have one before I even have kids!  The girl is in after school....and boy is she talented!!  Every thing I say I get an eye roll.  I tell her to stop with the eye rolls and she does it again.  Teachers set goals all the time.  My newest one.  To get the eye rolling to stop, while still letting her know what a treasure she is.


While I'm trying to have patience with students such as that one, my heart is aching with new discoveries all the time.  Newest heartache follows.  We were talking during reading about bedtime routines (we're reading a book about bedtime). We asked the students what their bedtime routines were.  When students were talking about getting their bed ready with all their specials treasures or blankets, one students answered with this, "I get my palette ready."  While I think about finishing this post, talking to my man, and then climb into my warm covers and soft bed, I have a sweet boy from my class preparing his hard wood palette to sleep on and simply being thankful he has a bed to call his own.  Part of me has to push this to the back of my mind so I don't try to take him home with me, because sadly I know he's not the only one.  I can't say his name, for obvious reasons, but I ask that tonight or whenever you read this you pray for this little boy and all the others just like him.  And, I ask you thank God for the nice cozy bed you will get to crawl into.  Teachers are told not to become too attached...how do we not?  I can't go to school without my heart, it's impossible.


Sorry to end on a such a sad note, but this is life and I think it's good for us to get hit with reality every now and again.  As for my friends who read this that aren't in the inner city, this heartache is what I experience every day! But, one has to find joy and thankfulness for these sweet children ever entering the world!!


First observation tomorrow!!! I'm sure you'll hear about it soon!

Success!

This week I started student teaching full time throughout the week, instead of the Monday Thursday gig.  It was only a four day week for the kids because it is the end of the quarter, so the week with the kiddos ended today. I ended up thinking the week went pretty good. There are always some fun stories though...Today was "Thursday fun" because we didn't have Friday. We had a few students that had to sit out because of many poor choices throughout the week.  One of these boys in particular has a very large problem of keeping his body under control.  As he was sitting out watching his peers play, he began to cry sob and get very very angry.  My CT and I were talking to him, trying to help him understand that he feels angry now but that is how we feel when he doesn't listen to us teach.  In the midst of this heated discussion, he tells me, "I don't want to be in this class anymore.  I want to get a new teacher and new class."  My CT went on to dare him to find a new class where he would be given time to play after acting the way he did all week.  All of this was quite the scene let me tell you.  But, he did finish out the rest of the day well.  Was there a breakthrough? Well I guess I'll have to tell you Monday. I kinda doubt it, but I'm keeping an open mind and holding out hope.


The more time I spend with each of these children, the more I learn about them.  Is this a good thing? Not always! But sometimes it makes the job a whole bunch of fun.  We have everything in our class from the EXTREME pouter/crier to the EXTREMELY remorseful child.   Each personality is BIG and UNIQUE. The thing I love though, is that not matter what happened the day before, no matter how much trouble the child got in, each day is a new day.  Each day they walk in the door and tell me they missed me, even though is was only half a day, and express their happiness to be back. They are always excited to inform me of everything that happened in those few moments I wasn't with them. Only my CT and I know what those anxious little victims are in for that day.  The start of each day is for sure my favorite. (Wouldn't you think it would be the end?)


Tomorrow is my payment for every time I bragged to my teachers that I got the day off and they didn't.   Now, I am that teacher (granted my CT informed me we will be leaving at noon at the latest!).  I will go into school at 8am and prepare everything to teach my little bunch of personalities while they sleep in.  I will use all the  ideas that God smashed into my brain to make me a better teacher...and then get a few more ideas God put in my CT's brain.  


Why I love teaching....you NEVER EVER EVER know what will happen in the next 2 minutes (good or bad).  Thank you God for blessing me with this INCREDIBLE gift that I get to do for the rest of my life!