it's the most wonderful time of the year....

so here i sit, three days snowed in, bored out of my mind, eager to get out of this place! yea, you heard me, three snow days! can you believe it! sure, the first day was great! who doesn't enjoy a day off once and while, but three?! the fact that these will have to be made up in may just doesn't sit well with me. uh.....and it's not like i have accomplished very much while i have been away.

i did however clean my room, dig my car out, write our family christmas letter, watch season one of the big bang theory and season 2 of how i met your mother, figure out that my washed ipod had been resurrected, and do 5 loads of laundry. score!

preschool has been going pretty smoothly these past couple of weeks since thanksgiving season was upon us. i haven't had very many problems, except sick kids. :(
we have been really working hard on shapes for the past two weeks. and this is going to sound silly, but it is so wonderful to see these kids understand something that i am teaching them! i know, it's what teachers are supposed to do, but to see them comprehend something that i have been pouring into them is fascinating. i feel like a kid a christmas. actually, scratch that, i feel like it's christmas when it happens. i still become giddy at christmastime.

i suppose i should sign off and maybe get my student's gifts wrapped. don't tell them, but i got them all scarves and my mom embroidered their names on them. i hope they like it!

have a good day everyone and be safe if you are on the losing end of this wintery weather like me! and here's to at least two days of school this week!



[this is the family christmas letter that i wrote this year. enjoy!]


Greetings Family and Friends!

Merry Christmas! Can you believe that 2009 is coming to an end? It has been a year of blessings, challenges, and change for the Becker household and ever so faithfully God has brought us through it all. So, without further ado, sit back with a cup of hot cocoa in your hand, snuggle up under a warm blanket and enjoy catching up with us!

Russ is still hard at work at the power plant in Palo. Tammy continues to work for Linn-Mar high school as an associate and does part time respite work. And yes, she still tackles the occasional sewing/quilting project while Russ fixes sewing machines. This year, Tammy and Russ expanded their garden at the house, so they were very busy with it all summer. They also moved Elizabeth and Emily around the Midwest a few times, more on that soon. J In recent news, they have officially become members of New Covenant Bible Church, which, in their own words “we love it a lot.”

Elizabeth is currently living in Omaha, and no, she has not, and will not, become a Husker fan. She moved there in July after she accepted a teaching position for Council Bluffs Schools. She teaches preschool, and she isn’t quite sure if it’s keeping her sane or driving her insane. She always has entertaining stories to share, that’s for sure.

Emily is holding down central Iowa living in Des Moines. She is part hair stylist at Bombshell Betty’s, part Return/Exchange Associate at Hot Topic, part make-up artist for Hey Cupcake Photography, and part local superhero by night (except not that last part). She does stay pretty busy though. She has also taken in a cat that she has affectionately named Wednesday.

Leanne is the only remaining child left in that pleasant dome house in Toddville, that is, if you don’t count the dogs and cats. She is a senior at Linn-Mar High school and eager to graduate. She attends the youth group at New Covenant Bible Church where she has met many new friends. In her spare time she loves reading vampire love stories, in light of the recent teen infatuation with the Twilight series, and listening to music. We all wish her luck and guidance as this chapter in her life comes to an end.

Well, that’s 2009 for you here in the Becker household. We hope this letter finds you doing well this holiday season. From our house to yours, we wish you a Merry Christmas and bright New Year!

-The Becker Family

it's always sunny in miss becker's room

ha! she wishes! more like cloudy with a chance of crazy!

most of the time things go quite smoothly in that preschool classroom of mine.

i've been having a bit of trouble with one of my students. she is just.....exhausting. stubborn, goes rag-doll on me, shows no sympathy towards others, no respect for authority, and she's only 4. but, she can be one of the sweetest, most helpful, and intelligent students in my class, whenever it's convenient for her. like i said, exhausting. some days i just don't feel like going to school. wouldn't it be nice if we had a choice every morning? as if it was socially acceptable to not go to work...? that kind of place needs to exist.

i have a couple friends from des moines coming to visit me this weekend. this will be good. i need friends outside of school/omaha right now. sometimes, it's just too much. not saying that my omaha friends aren't great, i just miss the good ol' days of des moines. they were simple times. less complex. less drama. less miss becker and more miss elizabeth. i miss miss elizabeth. i miss ccyc. it was comfortable. easy-going. good good people.

ok, without further ado, i give you a picture-update-montage:

this is the house that preschool built. out of the millions of boxes in my room.

this is the window inside the house that preschool built.

door decorating contest. we did a mad lib. well, my preschoolers wrote it. i am just the middle man.

top

bottom

our jack-0-latern. don't worry he has eyebrows.

pumpkin bowling as jackie kennedy during the halloween party

audrey, jackie, and cruella. gloved ladies.

the end of a good thing

so this may not be about teaching, but lately, this has been a big part of my life. well, my social life. and maybe my nerves.

baseball regular season is over. well, almost. i am currently watching a nail-bitter al central tiebreaker between the twins and the tigers. guh. top of the 12th. man alive.

moving to omaha has stoked the coals of love for the kc royals and now there's a real fire going. they have their own network here. yes please.

but, sunday was the end of the royals 2009 season. maybe next year? probably not. but maybe, if they keep greinke. that's if the yankees don't steal him. dumb

well, in teaching news we have been talking about apples this week. yesterday we made hand-painted apple trees. today we had our apple taste test. we tried yellow, green, and red. it was very funny.
i will be gone tomorrow at new preschool teacher meetings. i called up a really good sub, so hopefully things go well.

well, now the bases are loaded with two outs in the top of the 12th. this game is out of control.

we shall see how things pan out.
i love baseball.
1. royals.
2. twins [mauer]

Time Marches On....

Well, goodbye September. Hello October! And hello fall!
Let me just say, we are very excited about that in preschool. We have been on a walk about the block to see the leaves starting to change. Good stuff.

We are starting to become a community in Miss Becker's class. We know what our classroom jobs are and what it means to take care of our room and each other. Yea, we aren't perfect, but that's the beauty of learning.

Here are a few shots of the good times we had this week

and all of a sudden, it's the middle of september

well, that happened.

I have been teaching for a month! can you believe it?
i do. :)

remember when i made promises about keeping my blog up?
i do. and i am sorry.

life is crazy. life is tiring. life is.

all is quiet on the preschool front. my students are sinking in the groove of things, which has been quite nice. we have been working pretty hard here at longfellow prek. we have a large interest in bugs so we are working on the letter b and learning all about bugs, butterflies, bees, etc.

my roommate and i have also been working hard in our apt to make it a happy home. we stopped by the nebraska furniture mart and were given quite a deal on furniture just for being teachers! i knew it paid to be an educator! :)
anyway, pictures of our hip new place to come.

and my purchasing some tables will make for a brand new toy at school. the box! hello preschool apartment complex or spaceship. looking forward to that.

i hope this post finds everyone doing well. fall is just around the corner and man, am i excited! leaves, sweaters, bonfires, apples, pumpkins, petting zoo, goats, homecoming. it's all a little bit magical, right?

enjoy the rest of september! ah!

and without further ado....

hello avid ccyc readers and others! :)
i guess i didn't realize i had such a large fan base following my blog! sorry everyone! i will try to do better!

school is going pretty well. the awkward phase is over and now the true colors are a showin'! this past week went by a little too fast for me. on friday we went on a nature walk around the block. everyone got their own magnifying glass. of course. i asked them to remember the things they saw so we could make a list later. here are a few things we saw that they added to the list [in their exact words]:

old cicada
dead cicada
dragonflyer -ha!
ants crawling all over a brain looking thing
poop
holes next to cracks in the sidewalk
a lot of grass, some yellow and some green
fungii [which i was suprised they remembered this one]

gotta love preschool.

so we are heading in to week 3 in good ol' council bluffs. starting a new month. oh man!

to those of you in des moines!
it was so good to see you at bailey's thing. you have no idea how much it made my day! that is actually an understatement. how wonderful is it to be surrounded by good people and good conversation?! thank you parents for being willing to bring your children to a purse boutique. :)

and carrie, you are more than welcome to comment. :)
thank you to all for continually supporting me in omaha. it means a lot to know people believe in me.

a moment to spare

well, they are all asleep! that's right! my preschool crazies are sleeping and i have 10 minutes to spare! whew!
so, today is day three in this journey. so far so good. no major issues of missing mommies and daddies. no major naughtiness. no major crying. a miracle? let's just wait a week or three before we start labeling.
we are very much still in the honeymoon period. but i really hope things stay relatively calm. we are still learning how preschool works, so who knows what will happen. good things, right? yes.

thanks for everyone's support as i have gone from des moines to omaha and started school. it means a lot to me that you would care so much! i hope everyone is having a good start to their year!

i've been roaming around, i've been looking down at all i see

whoa nellie! what a week it has been!
monday: class roster, call parents, do preschool stuff
tuesday: continue setting up room, freak out some
wednesday: all district meeting, get id badge, find out i currently don't have an associate, open house, realize what i am getting myself into
thursday: school starts for everyone else, corrall kindergarteners, meet and make friends with bella, age 5, go on a few home visits, again realize what i am getting into
friday: no home visits, have my first breakdown, eat some chocolate, label everything in my room, stand in awe of my completed room
saturday: slept in til 10, took a well-deserved bubble bath, watched 2 movies, didnt leave the apt
today: went to church, participated in step out: omaha, grilled out with some nwc folks, went into a food coma, sitting here posting new entry

ok, so i start school on tuesday! oh my my oh my! but it's cool, right? i'm good to go, right? i can do this. i've been doing it for a year.

lord, grant me the strength to make it through this week, for there is a kc royals game to attend to on saturday. amen.

Officially Informed to Death

I apologize to any and all who read this and have been disappointed with my lack of blogging skills lately. As you can tell by the title of this post I have been informed to no end. This past week was spent at the Ameristar Hotel in beautiful Council Bluffs, IA learning all about what it's going to look like being a first year/new to the district teacher at CB. The first thing the superintendent said to the group was 'we are Council Bluffs Community School District. Our middle name is Community and we hold tight to that'. I knew I was in the right place. I have been longing for a place of community since graduating from Northwestern and I think I've found it. I have already met wonderful, supportive people who are willing to lend me a helping hand or advice at any time. This is the calm amidst the storm of standards, benchmarks, lamination, ethics, ah! My brain is on fire with education information. But, I am ready for those preschoolers. I get my class list tomorrow and I feel like a kid at Christmas all over again. These 13 kids will be mine to love and listen to. To comfort and to guide. To open up their eyes to the amazing world they are living in. Oy, it's such a great feeling. Bring it on CB, I've been waiting a long time for this.

Qua?!

Week one in Omaha....done!

I have survived my first week here in sunny Omaha. It actually hasn't been too bad. I have had a wonderful support group of people willing to take me in and show me the ropes. Thursday night several of us went downtown and ate at the Old Market. I could get used to places like that, such a romantic, captivating place.

I had my first official order of teaching business on Friday at the home office of Council Bluffs CSD. It was a preschool literacy class designed for High Scope curriculum. I actually met the other new preschool teacher in the district...or one of them at least. It was nice to be in a new environment together. We were able to meet several of the other preschool teachers and staff. I felt a bit more relieved and less overwhelmed after this day. Long day...yes. Helpful...yes. Productive....maybe. Tour of Council Bluffs...yes. People call it Council-Tucky...yes. Insult to Kentucky...yes. Kentucky is a grand state....yes.

Today I did nothing for the most part. I was unable to get into school, so I took advantage of a lazy Saturday and slept in like a real person. So GOOD! I woke up about 11 did my usual, watch Friends while cutting lamination. My sister Emily called about 145 and said she was coming to visit me...random. So, that happened. I was invited to my cousin's house in Gretna, which is about 20 minutes away, for dinner. Emily and I went and had a splendid time! It is so great to have family around here! I am very grateful for that! Then after several rounds of Wii sports and some darn good popcorn we said our goodbyes and headed to a good-bye party in Omaha. I am not to familiar with the girl who was being said goodbye to, but, fun and 4-square were had, so all is well.

As I look towards next week I feel so....ready. Qua?! Did I just say ready? I think so. My first official new teacher meetings start Monday and are on Thursday and Friday. Man oh man. Bring it on!
Also!!! I found out that preschool doesn't start until the 18th. Regular classes begin the 13th. Bet all you teachers wish you would have chosen pre-k, eh? However, during those days we will be making home visits because this is the 1950s. Just so you know. I will definitely let you know how that goes down. yikes.

You are my Everest!!!

Well here it is...my preschool classroom...post moving

i really don't know what happened to the pictures i took pre-moving. eh, all well. but, this is it. i think. i am sure i will move things around, but who knows, maybe i won't! bam!

i went to school yesterday to begin arranging but ended up standing still in my room looking around for like 20 minutes. and then finally i just took the plunge and started moving stuff around. i have so much darned furniture in my room it's insane! i am lucky i have enough room to fit it all in.

today i went to school and brought all my 'teacher' stuff in. bulletin board business, calendar, puzzles, random stuff, art supplies, the works.

i also made friends with the office secretary. she's going to laminate some stuff for me. yay lamination! i also met the janitorial staff in the building. one guy was a little bit open about his life within the first minute of our introduction...it was awkward, yes. he warned me about staying away from him during breaks b/c of all the bad things that happen to him during them....? it was weird, to say the least.
so, tomorrow i head back in for round 3.
it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock-n-roll.

Saying Goodbye

I had my last day at CCYC. I packed up my life and moved to Omaha...and honestly, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Ok, wait, that sounded bad. I mean, I will whole-heartedly miss being at CCYc. I will miss those kids so much. I will miss being in Des Moines. I will miss the people, But I think knowing that I have future here and that I have something so exciting and new makes me feel at peace. I am sad to be leaving Des Moines. I am sad to be moving further from home and family. I am happy to be in a new city starting fresh with a new job just around the corner. I am happy to be around people who were at once a phone call away, but now they are just a few miles away. Bittersweet Omaha.

In other news, I put my IKEA desk together yesterday afternoon after my family left me for unpackingness. It was quite the accomplishment. One of many I feel...

Tomorrow I am going to school for my first official day of teachery. I will be in my classroom tackling an overwhelming pile of preschool business. eek!

Ok, I will be posting pictures soon of classroom, apt, the works. And your definition of soon may be different than mine.

-Miss Becker
[just thought I'd throw that out there, I've been Miss Elizabeth for a year and I need to start getting used to my own last name]

Oh!maha

I have six days left in Des Moines! My my, how time flies.

In the beginning...

Ok, here's the thing, I wanted to begin a blog so that all of you can share in my first year teaching experience. Your welcome! And so, without further ado, I present to the worldwide web my blog. May it bring you joy, laughter, encouragement, updates, answers, and questions.

My first day of school related business is the 3rd of August and then I have new teacher training on August 6th and 7th. And............the big day is August 13th! Oh my! I will be teaching Preschool at Longfellow Elementary in Council Bluffs, IA.

Well, I suppose I will also blog about my moving to Omaha and things of the like. Sounds neat, eh?

So, until next time, keep your eyes open for post number two! Enjoy the rest of your summer! It's going by crazy fast!