Have You Thanked a Teacher Lately?

Here are snippets of our weekend- we were very, very productive, thanks to Lu and Chris coming to lend a big hand. If you ever need a bulletin board decorated call Ben's mom, and if you ever need any form of gunk or goo scraped off of any surface, please call his brother!

The before shots did not do those desks justice. Lets just say that whatever kids used them last, they created a really sticky, stubborn surface to remove. Yum. With a little elbow grease and an ice scraper, Chris had them shining by Friday night (And I love a guy who is confid

ent enough to wear hot pink rubber gloves).

So now Ben has several fun areas for his kids to start working with; there is a "Saluting Our Troops" board so that they can bring pictures of family in the military in, there is a "Trucker Buddy" map that will be used to track routes and learn geography and math while hearing about the adventures of their real trucker buddies on the road each month, there is a reading area that will soon have a life size cut out of Dr. Seuss on the wall, and a "Meet the Stars" board, among many other things.

Okay, so we weren't all work and no play this weekend... (in the school, and out)

I think this was when Chris and I were hungry and this was the only way we could get Ben and LuAnn out of the classroom...

Saturday afternoon we played 18 holes and I realized I wish I would have listened to my father a little more and improved my swing. I got some good coaching from Benj though, and made contact a few times. I had forgotten how much fun I had playing golf, which was apparently music to Ben's ears since it is his favorite past time, so I have a feeling we will be doing this a little more often! Except for next time I will take tylenol and wear a glove. My arms feel like I wrestled a bear, and I have one mother of a blood blister. And I promise you, my swing is not worth all of that.

So we had a great time, almost finished Ben's classroom, played a little golf, and ate a lot of food (you have got to go try the new cedar-plank grilled salmon at O'Charleys. Not even kidding, we never go there and went on Friday night... it was outstanding. Butter. Melt in your mouth. I will go back for just that. And those sinful rolls...).

After seeing a little of Ben's world this weekend, I realized that being a teacher entails way more than just throwing together a lesson plan.

Being a teacher means you are a interior decorator/janitor/bookkeeper/event coordinator/office supply store investor/well-read personal life coach/tech guru/kid-loving dedicated employee of the state. And thats even before the kids arrive for the first day of school.

So, my plan is to make 376 sugar cookies or however many it takes sometime this week to give to every teacher at Scales elementary, because I sure don't know how they do it, but they do an outstanding job.

Here's to colorful posters and clean desks,

xoxo

Dae