Veterans Day Program

Veterans Day at my school was so fun! I wanted to really instill in the students

a real sense of pride for their county and to understand how important it is

that we honor the people who serve in the military. I made it a big deal last year

at my school, and it has always been important to me. This year, it took on a new

meaning, since now my husband is in fact, in the military. I know he hasn't been in 

very long, but I know there will be many sacrifices made for this decision down the

road. I was so thrilled to see the students actually excited about Veterans Day.

As it got closer, we started decorating the cafeteria and putting streamers everywhere, etc.

and the students would walk in and say 'ahhh! whoa, cool! wow, etc' it was neat to hear

 them. One teacher has a student in first grade at our school. She came up to me the Monday before

Veterans day and said this, "Mrs. Carl, do you know what Elliot said when I woke him up

this morning?", I said, "What?" She goes, "He said to me-'mommy, do you know what

today is? Its the week of Veterans Day!'" He was so excited and actually knew what

Veterans Day was. I was so glad to hear it, it really made me glad for all the work and hours

I had put into this thing! =) I was happy to do it though, its the least we can do!

So there was a lot of decorating that went on:

Here are all the branches of the military posters I made-don't laugh at the Air Force one!

It's harder than it looks!!

thank you Cricut for the letters above=)

BIG THANK YOU to Jordan for getting on the top of a ladder to put those flag streamers up

when he had a test coming up!!!

This is from the back of the cafeteria looking at the stage.

We made a humongous floor to ceiling American Flag on the stage out of butcher paper!!

One of the teachers at our school did the balloon pillars=)

Red white and blue streamers:

The Dickinson VFW came and let us use their flags for decoration and

they were a great help before it started. Great men! 

The Dickinson High School JR ROTC came to perform for the program!

It was really cool. They had a huge part in making the program very cool.

The Veterans Day Program (yes I see the typo...long story)

People are arriving-it was getting full!!

I had the students fill out a survey back in September of whether or not they had a Veteran

in their family. They filled it out and gave it back to me with a picture. 

I then proceeded to get the address of the Veteran and we send them each a personalized

invitation (on this flag paper) that invited them to come to the event. 

Then we took their picture and I made a slideshow of all the Veterans stating

their name, branch, rank and what student they are related to at our school. We showed

that slideshow after the Poem Reading on there. (There were over 150 pictures!)

passing out programs to the Veterans.

(you can see Phil in the background=)

It was a full house-standing room in the back!!!

Some Veterans are standing b/c they heard their branch being called.

We handed out the 'buddy poppies' to them as well=)

Presentation of the colors at the beginning.

If you look at our 'flag' we used students at our school with parents in the military-

their handprints were used to make the stars=)

Every grade level (PreK-4th grade) performed that night.

And each grade wore a certain color (red, white or blue) 

This is first grade singing 'Oh, I love America' with their A-M-E-R-I-C-A signs!

(sorry I have to make it small!)

Doing their drills with the replica guns. It was really neat when they spun 'em around

and they threw them in the air!

walking up in silence.

The folding of the flag (with taps) was a the end. It was so powerful.

We did this right after the slideshow of all the Veterans. The whole cafeteria was completely

silent, it was so neat. So many Veterans teared up, and were touched. I was so proud of the

students and the great job everyone did!

Yay my husband came, and Phil and Amanda. I was so glad they were there!! 

He brought me beautiful flowers too, which was exciting=)

Guess who else surprised me and came??? Jordan's mom!!! Mrs. Carl

drove down and totally surprised me to come to the program! It was 

so cool when I looked over and saw her in the audience!!! (I have a blog about this

to come soon!=) It was really neat.

At the end of the program, apparently my school had all

pitched in and they presented these beautiful flowers to me !!!

Of course, I had no idea this was coming, and I started crying in front of 

everyone=) It was already an emotional program, and then seeing Mrs. Carl

and everything, I just kind of lost it. But I was pleasantly surprised

by their sweetness! I did not expect anything, so it was very kind of them.

They were beautiful in my classroom.

The flowers from Jordan were beautiful in our home=) 

It was overall a great performance and experience. I couldn't have done such a big

performance without all the help! I was so humbled to see so many people there. 

The Superintendent of my district came, as well as the Director of Fine Arts! So

I was a little stressed, but it turned out so wonderfully! The Veterans Day 

Program is my favorite one to put on all year, but I am thankful now 

it is over=) I can relax.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to thank our military!

thank goodness for medications....

Well, I am going to actually put up a post with OUT pictures....and really, the only reason is b/c my camera is 'broken' temporarily and (thank goodness for warranties!) is being fixed.

I must say that I love being a teacher, but I am loathing the sicknesses that come along with it. I know its only supposed to be your 'first year' that you get really really sick, but I am definitely sick of being SICK! It would be different if we (as teachers) got to sit at our desks all day and feel miserable, but no, when you're sick-you still have to get up on your 'stage' and act the part-and that is what makes it so terrible to be sick. I hate that part of it. But, like my post says: thank goodness for medications, they are a wonderful thing. I have been taking a LOT of prescriptions and meds since Thur, but I think I am starting to feel their help today. Maybe by tomorrow I will feel more 'normal'. 

This weekend I got to sleep a LOT, and read! I finished the book I had been reading since (don't freak out) July. It was a great book, but I just hadn't been much of a reader until now. One of my New Year's resolutions was to read at LEAST one book a month. So first, I had to finish the one I was 'currently' reading-Mozart's Sister. I finally finished it Thursday night-since I had been sick in bed all evening. Then I started a new book (thanks to my good friend Lauren!) called Redeeming Love. OMW-this is a wonderful book! I can't seem to put it down. It actually made me somewhat happy I was sick b/c I could just lay there (with good reason) and read!! I am half way through it so far and hope to finish it before the month is over.

Anyway, sorry this post has a lot of 'quotes' and (parenthesis)....=0

Hopefully next time I post I will have my camera back=) 

jordan's 1st day as a sub...& my new instruments=)

So yesterday was Jordan's first day of substitute teaching in my district, Grand Prairie ISD. He taught 1st Grade-hahaha! He thought the kids were interesting and funny, but at the same time, they were trying to take "advantage" of the substitute. He had the same ups and downs all new teachers would say about all the disciplining and craziness that goes on-but at least he made it through the day. And on top of it today the teacher even asked him to come back and sub for 4 more days-so I guess he did good! 

The funniest thing that happened during the day, was while Jordan was reading the book, 'Ms. Nelson is missing', a little boy asked to go to the bathroom. Jordan's response was-'you can wait'....the poor little boy replied, 'no i can't mr. teacher, i gotta dookie!' and with that, he let him go.

Everything in my classroom is going pretty well. I have my instruments now and that is very exciting. I took some pictures of my r

oom with all the stuff I got in it-I added some risers for the students to practice singing on and then you can see all the instruments! The kids just LOVE playing them, every day they ask me if they can play instruments today. I think its great that they can be exposed to so many different kinds of music and instruments..I wish I had that when I was a kid, but oh well, I turned out ok=) And I second was Lauren said on her bl

og- I love teaching, but I am tired of ALL the disciplining that goes on...yeesh.

Welcome to our blog....

Well, here is our new blog! I know some people may never get on this and read our blog, but I know there are some of you that will find this an easy way to keep up with us and stay in touch=) Jordan and I have had a great summer-its been filled with way too many things that have kept us busy, and we have  just had a lot of fun! There have also been some struggles that have come along with the summer, but God is faithful and is seeing us through.

I probably won't take the time to post too many pictures from the summer just b/c I have too many to add, so I will kind of start fresh with what's going on now.

I just finished my "in service" teacher training and am hastily getting ready for Monday-the start of the new school year! Last night was our open house and I got to meet some of the kids and their families. We have a lot of cultural diversity and the kids are very nice. They see

med very excited to come to music class and they liked my room!! It was a huge reality check last night for me to see some of 

the kids...I feel like this whole teaching this has been surreal for the last few months-but now it is coming to life. I know it may sound weird, but I feel like I'm finally growing up, getting a real job and making a difference. I am excited to see what the Lord has for me this year and what He is going to teach me. I know patience and punctuality will already be on the list!! haha

Anyway, Jordan also starts back to school on Monday. He is going to be substitute teaching for Grand Prairie hopefully soon and still tutoring at the school AND working at church!!=) He is taking 8 hours, so he should hopefully have some free time.

Well, I just wanted to end with a little shout out to my friend Robin who helped make this blog possible=) Thanks robin for helping me with the picture thing!! and I loved your post on the recorders-haha.

And hopefully before Monday (since we're a new school there are some kinks to work out..) like a power cord for my keyboard...the loaner upright piano will show up...the computer will work....the curriculum books will come in....maybe I'll have some more kids instruments....lol. It's ok, we'll make do with what we have! At least our school is brand new and beautiful!

Until next time I hope everyone has a great weekend!