Oh Where, oh where has Michelle gone?

I suck. Not a lot, mind you. Just a little. My school year has been relatively stress free (hear me knocking on the top of my desk), so I can't use that as an excuse as to why I haven't updated this for so long. It's not because I've become a professional actress (though I am taking voice lessons). It's definitely not because I'm going on dates (not going to dwell on it, though).
Laziness might end up being the overall culprit. That, and absent-mindedness, which if you've known me for more than an hour, you've already witnessed.
October was a grand month. I got to celebrate my birthday along with five other people (those were the other people celebrating their birthdays at our joint party, not the total number of guests), and my principal gave us permission to use the gym at my elementary school, so it was a blast. We played with the parachute, street hockey set, and wrestling mats (just to name a few).

It also was my favorite time of year. Not just because I was born, but because Halloween is the best in my book. I get a lot of odd looks when I say that most of the time, it beats out Christmas for me. I had the idea for my costume at the end of Halloween last year (and you might ask, do I know what I'm going to be next year. The answer is abso-freakin-lutely I do.). I dressed as Miss Piggy and my friend, Randa, at school dressed up as Beaker. The kids loved it, though there were a lot of students who didn't know who Miss Piggy is. That, I feel, is a tragedy in our times. Most years I have two costumes. This year was the same. On Halloween Eve, a few of us went to see "Dracula" in Springville. We decided to dress up like vampires from Twilight. I was Bella, and I will tell you it is difficult to dress as someone so detestable. I practiced speaking without expression and biting my lip for hours.

Reasons Why I Love Teaching

So, the new school year has started and it's going to be a fun year. These are things I can already tell. My students have a lot of personality, which for me is the sign of a good class. I feel I really have had some fun moments thus far in my teaching career. So many that I felt a Top Ten list would be ultra appropriate for this great time of year.

Top Ten Teaching Moments

10. Getting a note from a student that said: "Miss Rotar, I will miss you forever, even when I'm dead." There you have it, teacher love from beyond the grave.

9. After spending hours choreographing a 75 student dance to "Seize the Day," I watched all my cute fifth graders in newsies hats do the routine flawlessly for our Dance Festival. Best dance ever!

8. During our faculty softball game against the 6th graders, I was wearing my senior t-shirt from high school. Across the back is the year I

graduated ('98) in really large type. While I was up to bat, my students started chanting what they thought was my number. Ninety eight! Ninety eight! It was amazing.

7. After being sick and having to miss a day of school, a student presented me with a picture of me with horns and a tail being operated on by the devil. The caption at the top? "Get Well Soon" of course.

6. After telling my students about my favorite cartoon character from childhood (Jem and the

Holograms) one of them told me a few weeks later that she had been watching the episodes on Youtube. She finished them completely in another week or so. Two other students would follow suit. One of them even gave me a watercolor painting of Jem for Teacher Appreciation Week.

5. Being lovingly nicknamed "The Rotar" after the infamous Matilda character, "The Trunchbull."

4. Getting a note from my student with the name of his cousin and his cousin's phone number. The note said "Call him! If you have any questions, ask my mom."

3. Reading "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" a student was very confused during one part. "I don't get why the squirrel's head fell off." What? When we looked up the page she was talking about, the book read: "And then the squirrel completely lost his head." Yay for lessons about figures of speech, but I couldn't stop laughing for a few minutes.

2. When talking about dogs and how they give kisses, a student told me, "If people kiss like dogs, it's called french kissing." Such a great mental image.

1. Sincerely, when an old student of mine came to speak in front of all the teachers when my Teacher of the Year award was presented. I was crying pretty profusely, but they were good tears.

Being a teacher is too much fun. This is my 7th year, and I hope to have a whole other list in another few years.

How to Tell if You're in Oroville, CA

I recently had a chance to visit my hometown of Oroville, CA. Some of you will know exactly what I'm talking about, and some of you will find out some interesting tidbits of information.

You might be in Oroville, CA if:

* You wake up early and find coyotes outside your house (and no, it was not just my dog )

* You find many people are wearing underwear as tops

* You don't feel bad at all going around town with no makeup on at all.

* You look out to the horizon and all you see is yellow grass with brown spots (kind of like dalmation foothills)

* You feel embarrassed to ask at the store if there is any Oroville memorabilia for sale.

* You get to practice "Dodge the Cow-patty" on the family ranch road.

* You have oodles and oodles of time (and I mean oodles)

Any Orovillians out there are welcome to add their own in the comments section.

I love Oroville, even though I make fun of it a bit. It will always be home to me.

Sometimes I Forget About Blogging

But not today!

With all the different social media outlets these days, I can only focus on so many. Here are the latest things I've been up to!

1. Participated in "Bells are Ringing," a play in Springville. My character was relatively a small role, but my director really let me go nuts and ad lib all over the place. Plus, I wore three wigs for the show.

2. Became a Heritage Makers consultant. I've done digital scrapbooking for over a year now, so it seemed the best thing to do when my own consultant moved out of state. Love it!

3. I went on the best vacation to Boston! My brother, Mike, and his family provided us with a place to stay, meals to eat, and a car with GPS to get us around. We were there for the 4th and I have never seen such an amazing fireworks display! We also visited Salem, Lexington, Concord, and Plymouth.

4. Biggest accomplishment of the summer has definitely been the increase in bicycling activity. With the help of my friend Mike, I have embraced it and overcome several fears (such as riding around cars and semi-trucks). It even inspired a ward bicycling activity! LaNell would be so proud!

Stupid Things I've Done Over Guys

I recently found a box full of old letters and notes from my younger years. Not only did it help me reconnect with my past, it reminded me of all the absolutely rejected things I've done throughout my life because I was infatuated. Some of them are from high school days, but some are unfortunately much more recent. Luckily, I haven't done anything shaming for at least a year. And even though some of these could be considered quite embarrassing, let's face it, I don't care anymore! If you remember any good ones, be sure to include them in the comments section.

Top Ten Stupid Things I've Done For A Guy

10. I once asked my friend to take pictures of her ultra attractive older brother. One of these photos accompanied me to college in a heart frame.

9. Spent most of a night with friends serenading a guy outside his window.

8. Learned all about different types of big rig trucks. I was actually able to identify almost all models from 50 yards away.

7. Allowed a couple of guy friends to "break in" to my house late at night where we then watched an edited copy of "Silence of the Lambs."

6. Drove all the way to several guys' homes (in another city) with a couple gal pals while the guys were on their missions. We drove around their houses, took pictures, made scrapbook pages, and sent it all to the guys in the field.

5. In order to get over a guy, held a "sacrificial burning" of every picture/object I had that had anything to do with him.

4. Had a habit of naming a stuffed animal after the nickname I gave each crush object.

3. Was a secret admirer to not one, but two guys. One of them happened to be a student teacher. That was excessively stupid.

2. Told a guy that I cared about him when I knew he didn't care about me (unfortunately, this has been repeated several times)

1. Wrote top ten lists. I will admit that there have been several top ten lists that were created specifically to get the attention of a male (and some of them have been put on this website).

Yes Virginia, There is a Public Education System

I don't get on my soap box often. Well, at least I don't feel like I do. Today is one of those days.
I always think it's interesting when people complain to me about the public education system. They tell me how awful the teachers are and how their children are having a miserable time. Of course, this is interesting to me (and when I say "interesting" please realize I'm using my sarcastic voice) because I teach 5th grade in a public elementary school.
Let me say first that I love my job. I absolutely love it. Every day may not be trimmed in gold, but teaching isn't just an occupation to me. It's who I am, to some degree.
And yes, I know that not all teachers feel the same as I do. And yes, I know there are some teachers who deserve to be stuffed into bags and dropped into an obliging river. However, not all the problems in the public school system are the fault of the teachers.

Let me give you a glimpse of the public education system through my eyes. Every year, more and more responsibility is taken from parents and given to teachers. We have to keep track of whether a child's absences are excused or not. If they get a certain number, we're supposed to contact parents to tell them about the importance of getting their kids to school. If we don't do this, we can get in trouble. Our school can get in trouble with the state.
There is a large amount of information that we are required, by law, to teach. It's called the state core curriculum. It is expected that our students will master all concepts in the core by the end of the year. Every couple of years, they add things to the core, or change it completely.
The legislature of "No Child Left Behind" completely changed the face of education. The principle behind it would seem great: making sure every child is taught and doesn't fall through the cracks in the system. Sounds perfect, right? Unfortunately, in schools it translates as thus: If a child doesn't speak English fluently, or if they have a learning disability, or if they come from a family that doesn't put a priority on education, or if they've just given up, whatever the issues that their poor little souls have to deal with, they are expected to learn everything (in that awesome core curriculum) perfectly.
Isn't that possible, you might ask? Not really. I want all of my students to succeed. I want them to leave my class with all the knowledge they need in order to be successful in 6th grade. But kids don't learn at the same pace. I'm constantly trying to balance spending more time with struggling students, while not boring the students who mastered the concept within the first day of talking about it. There are some students that, even though we might spend a week on a subject, even if I work in small groups with them, even if I have a peer tutor work with them, or if I work one-on-one with them, they will still not retain any of the information. These students are not many, but they are there. I want them to succeed, but if they don't do as well as all the other kids on our end of the year testing, I'm considered a bad teacher.
And I internalize that.
So yeah, I love being a teacher. It is a tough job, where I feel the pressures of not only trying to educate every child regardless of their baggage, but the pressure of helping them become well-adjusted individuals with morals and a good work ethic. And yes, there are things within the system that are inconvenient for parents, but I feel the only reason it has become this way is because the government is constantly shifting more responsibility onto teachers. There are other options: charter schools, freedom schools, private schools, and home-schooling. Each choice comes with its own set of pro's and con's.
So, yes Virginia, there is a public education system. It might not be perfect, but we're trying.

Thus endeth the soap box.

The Organ is not a Sexy Instrument

So, I play the organ in our church occasionally. It's not my calling, I just am helping fill in until someone is assigned the job. But today, as I was sitting up on my organ perch, I was looking out over the congregation and trying to catch the eyes of various men, when I had a realization. The organ is just not a sexy instrument.
Think about it for a moment. When someone mentions an organ, you immediately think of some old lady wearing knee high stockings squinting up at the music while she stretches to reach the foot pedals with her orthopedic shoes. Even if you've never had an organ player in your church that looked like that, it's still the picture in your mind, isn't it. So, it hit me that guys do not find playing the organ sexy.
This caused me to think about various instruments and their sex appeal. Tell me what you think.


Sexy instruments:
Electric guitar, drums (as in a set), violin, vocals, french horn, xylophone, and sometimes the piano (depending on who's doing the playing).

Instruments that are the antithesis to sexy:
Organ, clarinet, baritone, tuba, kazoo, saxophone, oboe, bass drum, and bassoon.

Instruments that are asexual:
flute, cello, banjo, trumpet, trombone, triangle, cymbals, piccolo, and nose whistle.