Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!

The big day has arrived! I haven't seen my kids since Monday, but tomorrow they will be taking the 8th grade Math STAAR. I honestly can't wait to read over their shoulders. I'm so anxious to finally see all the hype. I am doing ok tonight.. I only think about the test every 10 minutes... when I was anticipating thinking about it every 2 minutes! ... but seriously. I didn't want to come home from school and think about it so I went shopping.. the container store.. every OCD persons favorite store. Then I came up with a new project once I found a sale in the Container Store so I went to Hobby Lobby (still didn't spend a dime.. thank you gift cards!!). Then I finally came home... and I went running (have to get in shape for a new committment that I will share later!). Then I started on my project... now I am cooking dinner and blogging simultaneously. :) whew. Anyway, back to the purpose of this blog:


I know I've talked before about the amazing people I encountered at Baylor University. I think the education department has some of the greatest professors in the entire state nation, honestly. And one of those people came to my rescue when they found out about that epic communication fail. Mrs. Smart (she is really smart, but that's really her name!) gave me the most perfect recommendation for my students: Read them a Dr. Seuss book. Not just any Dr. Seuss book... Hooray for Diffendoofer Day. Mrs. Smart told me I could check it out from a library or I could have probably found it somewhere... but I knew if she was suggesting it was going to be good. So I went ahead and just ordered it off Amazon and it definitely did not disappoint. It's a book about kids going to this crazy school with this crazy teacher! Then... all of a sudden they have to take a test!!! Here are the most important lines:

                   "All schools for miles and miles around must take a special test,
                    To see who's learning such and such-to see which school's the best.

                    If our small school does not do well, then it will be torn down,

                    And you will have to go to school in dreary Flobbertown."

But then they get their test and their teacher taught them all the right things!!! The best lines of the entire book:

                "You've saved our school! You've saved our school!" He jubilantly roared.

                "we got the very highest score!" He wrote it on the board.

                 Then we held a celebration, there was pizza, milk and cake.

                 Like everyone, I ate too much and got a bellyache.

                 We laughed and whooped and hollered the entire school day long,

                 then we all sang, triumphantly, "The Diffendoofer Song."

My kids loved it and each class cheered when I got to the end. After that we watched all our videos from the year (aka reviewing all of our major concepts!), then we said all of our rhymes and sang the rest of our songs that we did not cover. I know my kids are prepared... even if I had to prepare them in three weeks. 

However, that does not mean I won't be accepting any and all prayers between the hours of 8 am and noon tomorrow! :) 

I am so grateful that people can bless me even through this silly little blog that I really only write for my benefit. So thank you to everyone who sends me texts about it and I am especially thankful to Mrs. Smart for still helping a Baylor student out... even though I'm two years removed from college. Amazing.