Happy Halloween

So sometimes I pretend to stay on top of things but usually I fail (as evidenced by my last post being published over a year ago). It's not that I have no interest. It's just that I have no time, and I'm really not as clever a writer as I wish I was but you know who is? My students! They are quite the creative bunch. As it was Halloween I offered them a writing prompt for their writing time: What should Miss Fiso be for Halloween. I got some pretty great responses...

• "Miss Fiso should be a fairy because she already looks beautiful, all she needs is a dress and fairy wings."

• "Miss Fiso should be a bumbullbee because I think she kind of likes yellow."

• "Miss Fiso should be a ghost because she is the right size"

• "Miss Fiso should be a Killer Clown for Halloween. She should be a killer clown because I think it will scare all the tricker treaters away so she would get the candy."

As you can see we have great reasoning skill in third grade, though we are still working on our opinion writing. In reality, I dressed up like a minion because we were doing a school costume (Despicable Me themed). It turned out quite well! My yellow water bottle even joined the fun!

Kids and their jokes!

Is it bad if I get a kick out of the bad jokes my kids try to make up? If so, I may be a horrible person! It just makes me laugh when they come up to me with new jokes. We have been working on our animal reports in preparation for our trip to the aquarium and apparently I have aspiring comedians in my class...

"Miss Fiso, what did the jelly say to the fish? **Pause for effect** You are a jellyfish"

"Miss Fiso, what is a dart frog's favorite hobby? DARTS!"

"Miss Fiso, what did the shark do for a job? **Pause** She was a nurse shark!"

As you can see, they are still working on it. In other news, I love the clever answers I receive from my kids sometimes!

Thoughts

I decided to go to the Salt Lake Temple today. I hadn't been to the Salt Lake Temple and was excited for the experience. It was beautiful and a lovely experience! As I was leaving I decided to take a picture. The Sun was bright and I tried to focus my camera that I pushed in the wrong spot. When I did that the picture did not come out very well. So I pushed on the screen over the temple so that it would focus on the temple and everything became clear. It made me think about how important our focus is. It's important to have our goal in sight but if our focus is onanything other than our goal then things become fuzzy and we lose focus. When I was taking my pictures I knew that I wanted a picture of the temple but if I focused anywhere other than the temple my picture wasn't going to turn out very well. I think that's how life works as well. We need to keep our focus on the things that are important and everything else will fall into place. If we shift our focus at all then it's harder to see the full picture and we may not reach our goals.

Sunday Thoughts

I was grading some math homework and getting frustrated with my kids. I know that it is not rational to be so upset by students struggling with their math but when I assigned the homework I told the students to take home their math journal to use when doing their homework... It was clear to me as I graded that they did not heed my advice and left their math journal's unopened as far as homework was concerned. The help they needed to get their homework was right in front of them yet they did not use it. To me as a teacher it was a frustrating thing. I finished my grading and finished getting ready for church.
I was in Sacrament meeting when I made a connection. I was blaming my students for not using the help that was right within their reach but so often I forget to use all the tools and resources provided for me by a loving Heavenly Father. I have the answers. I may have to look for them and study to find them but the answers I need will always be there for me because He cares about me and wants me to be able to do my best. I'm sure when Heavenly Father sees us doing things the wrong way He thinks, "Just look! I have given you the answer!" I am going to work on finding the answers that He has given me. Studying the scriptures and asking for help when I need it because, just as I will always help a struggling student He will always help a struggling child.

Also, I know I've shown this before but I love it so much!

Life? Life is Good!

Things have been so busy recently.... I have been enjoying times with my new roommates and living so close to my school was a brilliant idea! School pictures came, I have to say, mine are much better than last year (and I have enough pictures of myself to last a thousand graduations, hahaha)!

Living so close to school I have found a lot of time to go visit the Temple and last week when I went to visit the Temple I had a great experience and was reminded of the purpose of this life! I woke uup early on Saturday morning and headed to the Draper Temple. When I got there there was a group of people, about my age ready to enter for baptisms. I had the thought of, "I should hurry and get there before them so I don't need to wait for them" but I decided to just enter the Temple after them (there was no reason for me to rush) I was so glad I waited. I watched as they checked in and realized that for one of the girls it was her first time. Everyone who had come with her had already been through the Temple and worked to find family names specifically so they could join her on her first trip to the Temple. As they turned the corner there was a rush of excitement and the girl who was the center of the trip turned to one of the Temple workers and said, "Those are my parents". She had surprised her parents by coming to the Temple during their shift but that wasn't the best part. It turns out that the people with her were her siblings. It was such a cool reminder of the power the Temples have and the importance of family in our lives. It was so sweet to see this family band together and see their happiness of all being in the Temple together for the first time!

As Stephanie likes to say... Life? Life is good! Although it will be better in a couple of weeks when I get to listen to the Prophet's voice during General Conference!

Wish me luck

You guys it's officially the last night of my Summer... Tomorrow is my third first day of third grade and I am finally ready for it!!!

Really though, I have put so much work this Summer into being organized. I have all kinds of things ready from last year I live much closer (Only a 10 minute drive to work) and I am so excited to meet my 25 lovely students tomorrow!

Also, I am kind of loving this new Taylor Swift song despite some of its eccentricities!

Goodbye Provo!

I'm sitting here procrastinating packing for my new move. It's happening, I am leaving Provo! I'm excited for this new adventure but had fun in my years here and after seeing a friends farewell to Provo I decided I wanted to do something similar and spend some time looking through old pictures of the years I spent in Provo... Here goes!

Wonderful roommates

Playing with friends

CES Firesides

Front row seats for President Uchtdorf

Dancing

Monday Movie Nights

Football games

...with the occasional proposal

Country Swing Dancing

Volleyball games Galore

Lu'aus

Temple Trips

Vacations

Some fun hairstyles, including my first attempt at bangs!

And of course some serious studying leading to graduation!