Turkey Day love

Happy Thanksgiving Chicks!

I wish I was in 5 places all at once to celebrate with each of you.
I am in the middle of making deviled eggs for our Thanksgiving outreach here.
We have about 20 or so Italians coming to our lunch.
They think its so funny that we have a whole meal centered around a turkey.

Speaking of funny, since I can't be with all of you and laugh til it hurts, I thought I would just let you see this wonderful moment caught on film in Rome.



Its not everyday you see real, live monks.
And on thsoe days you do see them, they rarely run.
I really like that one of them has Nikes on.

Okay, so pretty much I wanted you all to know how much I love you and miss you.
I am thankful for you!!

sv

Moley, Moley, Moley....

I did it! Student teaching is over! To celebrate I went to Tyler to visit my favorite Forge chick! (note our matching tie-dye shirts...HA!)

I owe absolutely nothing to Texas A&M University. In fact, the roles have reversed...

They owe me my certification! Let's see how long that'll take!

Shortly after my last post about how much I wanted to wake up and be able to be the real teacher, I was approached my Lewisville ISD and asked to go into a classroom where the teacher was on maternity leave and, with the long term sub that was not certified to teach Chemistry, teach this regular Chemistry class for 5 weeks! Yeah, I know! God is soooooo good! So, about a week after I wrote that post, I headed down to Flower Mound High School to be "THE TEACHER"! Little did I know what I was getting myself into!

The first day on of my students called me "ClaireBorne".

About half of the students were failing when I got in there.

One of my students had already failed Chemistry twice and has absolutely zero motivation.

All of the football players, cheerleaders, and drill team members were in my classes.

Now to some of you teachers out there, this may sound normal, but you have to understand where I am coming from. At Marcus I taught Pre-AP students who were all in the band and who went and researched Nuclear Chemistry online before I taught it.

Are you kidding me????

So needless to say I had very different kids! But, I grew to love them so much! However, the first test I gave about half of my classes failed!

I wanted to cry.

Instead I gave all of them a retest to bring their grade up to a passing grade and then began to tackle "THE MOLE"! Some of you may remember the mole, and others of you may not, so let me take this time to re-educate you on the concept of the mole. The mole is a measurement of matter and it is Avogadro's number or 6.02 x 10^23. Remember yet?

Well, my kids were scared of the mole. They had heard from their brothers and sisters that the mole made you cry. They begged and begged me not to teach it, but of course, being "Mean" Ms. Borne, I had to! So, I decided to put a twist on it and do what my great high school chemistry teacher did with us and the mole--Make some moles! I know.....sounds dumb, but you wouldn't believe how much they got into it. The project was simple, make a stuffed mole (yes like the animal) or make a t-shirt with a mole on it and make a play on the word mole. My example to them was Tootsie "mole" like tootsie roll. So, they whined and complained like all students do, and then set out to make their projects. Only one of my students didn't do the project--that's really good for these kids! Below are some of the moles:

We have "Mole"sus, The "Mole"ing Stones, North "Mole", Ca"mole"flage, El"mole", Foot"mole" player, Rock'n'"mole", and many many more! The moles were a hit and I get to keep them to decorate my first real classroom! I was thrilled!

Oh, and might I add that only 7 of my students got a C on the mole test, everyone else got A's and B's! I was so excited that they thought I was on something!

So, I am finished student teaching! I will sub for the rest of the semester and am currently applying for a chemistry position that is open at FMHS in the spring! So, if you think about it, please pray for favor with the district! I really love teaching, and teaching chemistry (I know, who knew?), and I would love the job.

Another amazing feat has been accomplished in the life of Claire Elise Borne! I have all 10 fingernails in tact! You don't belive me? Well, see if you can guess which nail was busted just a few months ago. (Don't cheat and go look at the post from this summer!)
Pretty amazing hunh?

Other than finishing student teaching, there really isn't much news. Most of the time over here at 113 Sleepy Hollow, we hang out, watch LOST, watch Grey's, watch Gilmore Girls, work out, and of course we MISS SARAH! When Sarah is here, this house is full of life and laughter! Although, I have been trying very hard to fulfill that for P and D (yes, I have earned to right to call them that, you jealous?), Sarah just always seems to take the cake. SO, this particular night, we needed her very badly to make us laugh once again...Those of you who know Paula, just picture her laughing her amazing laugh very loudly for a very long time! It was an incredible night. Sarah came through for us, as usual!

Ok, that's it. I'm done! Sorry it's not funny. Like I said, I am not Sarah. Or Heather. I am just a girl, sitting in front of a computer, trying to be funny.

.cb.

FYI

I would like to announce that I posted on our blog.
I wrote it last week... I've been having some picture problems with it.
In the meantime Jess posted!
So, today I finally figured out my picture problems and I posted mine.
Well, b/c it was written prior to Jessica's it has been displayed below hers.
I appreciate bloggers commitment to chronological order.

**Somehow I feel the need to let you know that I contributed to the blog. I'm not the most clever or witty chick and definitely not the most frequent contributor, but I am trying to do my part. So now you are informed...

HH