Weekends go by too fast

School was good this past week. The kiddos got back into the schedule. I tried to get back into my sleep schedule, but didn't have too much luck. 

Friday Jeremy and I were able to go see Matt and Christa. They got married about a year ago and moved to California. It's been sad not having many friends (other than family) around the Gwinnett area anymore, but hopefully we will continue to make more. Burchfield also came into town from Huntsville, AL where he is working on his PhD in physics. He, Matt, and Jeremy are all really close. We all had fun chatting and catching up with each other, but I got pretty tired by 10:30 and we decided to leave the McFarland house. 

I am the coach of the Academic Team at my school and Saturday was our big regional competition. Being a coach is tough, even if it is a quiz bowl team. During a competition, I get so nervous for my kiddos. I also have a tough time subbing students in and out. I want to make sure everyone plays about the same amount. Yes, I know that is my first mistake, but still. If I could keep in some of the same people each time and not have a guilty conscious, I would, but I can't. I played basketball and I hated it when I never got to play in the game. How fun is it to sit and watch others the entire time? It's not, and I had my fair share of watching. So, instead of keeping my best players in the whole time, I let everyone play. I want to help make the students feel successful and be confident they do know stuff. This relates to my basketball situation too. If my coach had of decided to let me play more than 30 seconds or a minute I would have been able to feel like I was worth something. At home I practiced hours and hours every night improving my skills. I had a personal trainer work with me. My coach never let me prove myself to her because she'd put me in for a few seconds and take me out. Everyone needs to warm up. It's nerve-racking to get in the game and then get pulled out because you weren't adjusted. My students take time to warm up. I don't take them out when they aren't answering the questions. Instead, I let them play and gain confidence. They are doing so well! Both the students and the parents get into it as much as I do. Our school doesn't have a lot of money to go towards extra things, but the parents blew me away yesterday. They said they'd donate money to get a GOOD buzzer system and questions to study. It was so overwhelming to me that they'd help out. The kids asked if we would have practice this week. I asked them if they wanted to. They all said YES! It's so funny because sometimes I see it as just one more thing to do during the week, but they love every minute of it! The parents gave me hugs and thanked me over and over. WOW! That's so wild. I never thought it would be so rewarding. Although we only won 1 out of the 7 games, it was fun to see my kids get so close to winning many times. 

My teammate had her baby on Saturday. It's a little girl named Kaitlyn Drew. It will definitely be sad to go to school each day and not have her come in. Her long term sub seems to be nice though. She just finished her student teaching... so that leaves me to be the veteran (2nd year teacher) to work with 2 first year teachers and a teacher fresh out of student teaching. I hope things go well for the next 6+ weeks. 

Today (Sunday), we had lunch with the rent's and then went to a birthday party for Corrine (or Belle) and Terren. Corrine turned 5 and Terren turned 3. They got so excited about their gifts of dress-up stuff and dolls. Jeremy seemed to have fun too... :)

               

I can't believe another week is about to start. At least we have a teacher workday on Friday and then a holiday next Monday!