One busy day at a time...

I feel lucky to have now taught on both sides of the elementary teaching spectrum.  From kinder all the way to third grade.  Though I miss kinder, I feel like third grade fits too.  Now if I can only figure out how to balance teaching third grade and blogging.  So I ask for your grace as I run through some of the thing that have happened second semester at K.E.S. in room 203!

For the 100th Day at KES "Old Man Flores" made a reappearance!  My costume worked so well that some students and staff didn't even recognize me.  Most of my students dressed up and those who didn't were transformed when they arrived at school.  We had computer lab and our Achieve 3000 assessments on the 100th day, students who made a 100 on the 100th day took a picture and received 100 jellybeans.

At the end of February I attended the Cowtown Children's 5K with our running club (shout out to coach Lewis).  I went to the race early so I could decorate our booth, since last year I saw so many other schools had done the same.  Just my Cricut and paper plates for the banner, in front of a black table cloth.  Unfortunately we we not able to run.  Anyone who is from Fort Worth knows Mother Nature loves to make an appearance at most outdoor events.  It stormed and it poured delaying the race for almost 3 hours.  This ran into our parent pick up time, so we had to go home.  At least we had fun at the warm-up!

After that we had benchmarks, then fast-forward to Spring Break.  Our school chess team made it to state!  Through the guidance of  the chess coach Mr. Agosto and hard work from the students, they qualified for the state tournament.  It was a race to get district approval for a trek across the state, but it came through!  Our wonderful parents drove their children to Houston to make this an experience they will never forget.  We gathered snacks, raised money, and even had one of our local news channels to run a story about them.  The competition was though in Houston, but they played hard and made us proud.  I'm happy I was able to be there to support them.

Time out from all if these school events to present to you my adorable baby niece Gemma Eloise Chavez.  We are all CRAZY about her!  Aaaaaaaa, she's so adorable!

This school year I had the honor of being chosen by our staff as The Kirkpatrick Elementary "Teacher of the Year."  It is not something I take lightly.  I work with many hardworking and passionate people who have on many occasions helped me get through the journey from Kindergarten to third.  I appreciate their kind words and help whenever I needed it.  Thank you to my administrators for supporting me and mostly thank you to my third grade team.  As a small token of my appreciation I made the staff some banana pudding.

 Now we're in full STAAR countdown mode!  The pressure is on and the kids are taking on the challenge.  Our principal, in efforts to alleviate the stress of keeping up with bulletin boards, let us put up inspirational bulletin boards.  I used a the Pinterest inspired board.  My student's names are on each star. The scrapbook paper squares are to spotlight any students showing use of their test taking strategies.  Our principal was excited with their work and sent us some pictures.  They could not believe we had received a text from her!  Now my STAAR countdown chain has 9 links left...We can see the finish line and we're working hard to get there.

-Cindy❤