Me

Meet Mr. Hughes, the 6th Grade Teacher at Cottonwood Elementary School.

I was born on Oct. 13 in the mid-1970's in Moab, Utah. My parents lived in a single wide trailer in the field right next to my current house. In fact, the power pole that was in the field next to my current house was the power pole for their trailer.

When I was one years old, they purchased the house they currently live in and our family moved.

When I turned 6 I headed to Book Cliff Elementary School to attend kindergarten. Mrs. Judy Evans was my teacher. I had a pretty big class at the time (20 I think). I don't have many memories of that year.

1st grade I was taught my Ms. Krouse. I don't remember much of that year either. I do remember having to stand in the corner a lot because I was a talkative person. (I didn't mind though because I was able to watch my older brother play kickball out the window). I also remember being in the school's choir. I had to audition to be in it. One winter day, two students decided to stay outside and play in the snow after the bell rang. For a reason I can not explain or remember I stayed with them. I finally felt so guilty, I went back to class. Boy was I in trouble. I had to miss choir practice that day, but Ms. Krouse did let me go to the Book Mobile (the book Mobile was a library in a big truck that would come once a week so we could check out books. There was NO school library at that time!!!)

In 2nd grade I was taught my Mrs. Pat Quarnberg. I loved being up in the loft or under it watching the fish. I remember reading groups and I also remember enjoying listening to her readJames and Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. I also have a vivid memory of a event that happened that got me into a lot of trouble. Being a big kid for my age, I was able to do things other kids in the class couldn't. One day at recess (back then we had a morning recess, long lunch recess, and an afternoon recess- I don't know how we had time to actually learn anything!) I was swinging classmates around by their ankles. They loved it and I thought it was fun- and it was until I was swinging a girl and she came around and smacked heads with a boy who was watching. The sound they made when they hit heads was terrible. I felt SO bad. Both were fine, and needless to say I don't swing people around by their feet anymore! I also remember that if we got 100% on our mad minute, we would get one of the little pumpkin candies with the little green stems. Every time I eat those I think of 2nd grade and the mad-minute! It is amazing what she could get us to do for a piece of candy.

Mrs. Olive Anderson was my 3rd grade teacher. I remember her for the musical we did. We worked for weeks and weeks to learn our parts, make sets, color program covers, and memorize songs. We preformed Disney's Bambi. I wanted to be Bambi or the Owl so bad. But it wasn't meant to be. Instead I had 2 lines and was the Stag (Bambi's dad). I was very disappointed. I think it was because I was so tall and big. I do, however, remember during one rehearsal we were practicing a song where Bambi gets up for the first time. The student stood up and then passed out cold, landing on top of another student who wasn't paying attention. It was quite funny, at least I remember it being funny.

In 4th grade, I had my first male teacher. Mr. Bruce Nelson. This was the year that I stopped being bullied. I was bullied starting in about 3rd grade. Everyday classmates would chase me, hit me, tease me, and call me names. Towards the end of the year, one of the major bullies pushed me too far. We had a HUGE fistfight. I gave him a black eye and a sore face. The next day he sent a peace delegation (some of his buddies) to tell me that he wanted to talk to me. When I got there he told me he wanted to be friends and that he was sorry. For that point forward I was rarely picked on or bullied. While fighting is NOT the solution, in this one instance it worked. I also remember that in 4th grade the school got their first computer lab. We had 25 or so TRS-80s made by Radio Shack. (I have one in my classroom.) I thought they were the coolest things ever made. We were able to type out stories and print them out. The computers printed everything in capital letters and the games we were able to play were very basic, but it was a computer and it was neat.

5th grade was one of my most favorite years in elementary school. Mrs. Carol Durrant was my teacher. That was an awesome year. We had a pond in the middle of the room, fish tanks around the edges, and lots of books to read. We did an awesome ancient Egypt activity where we made headpieces, jewelry, and other items including an Egyptian outfit. Then on the designated day, students and teachers (4th,5h, and 6th) dressed up and spent the day doing tons of activities. I also remember from this year reading several books with our teacher. It seemed every bookorder she would buy everyone a book and we would read along with her. I remember reading White Fang, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Julie of the Wolves, and others. We also kept journals everyday. I loved 5th grade.

My last year in elementary school was spent with Miss Zwahlen (she is currently still teaching and I see her all the time). This was the year I remember doing many things I currently do with my 6th grade classes. We had a bank system, read books by Gordon Korman (No Coins, Please! was one of my very favorites and I usually read it to my students), and sat in table groups most of the time. We did amazing art projects and did a fun activity where we each sent 10 letters to other 6th grades around the county to see which student could get the most responses. I remember that almost ALL of my letters were returned as undeliverable. That was depressing. Oh well. What a great way to end the elementary experience.

High school was a blur. I was in several musicals and plays, band, basketball, and track. I liked high school. During my high school years I spent 5 days in Washington D.C., 4 days in Pennsylvania (I got to see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and I stayed at Valley Forge where George Washington stayed with his troops during the Revolutionary War). The year I graduated I also drove to Boston Massachusetts (3 days of 14 hour driving) with my sister and enjoyed a week on the beaches and touring the surrounding areas- like Salem (creepy) and downtown Boston.

After high school I spent two years in Washington State working for my church. When I returned I attended CEU (College of Eastern Utah) and received my Associates Degree. From there I moved to Colorado and attended Mesa State College. While there I was able to visit Chicago for 3 days. That was a really neat experience.I left Mesa State after deciding to change my major. I ended up at SUU (I also got married the same summer I switched schools).

I graduated from SUU in 2001 and started teaching in Alpine School District. My first year I taught almost 1100 students as the computer teacher. I had a different class everyday, every 30 minutes. That was very overwhelming. That year, the school was being split to decrease the number of students. I moved to the new school that was only 3 blocks away. I became a 5th grade teacher and loved every minute of it.

When a teaching job opened in Green River, our little family decided to move. I have been the 6th grade teacher since 2005. I was able to visit New York City as an advisor for Scholastic Books. That was a very enjoyable 3 days of riding Subways, attending a broadway show, and sharing my views with the CEO, president, and top workers in the Scholastic company. Since that time I have completed a math endorsement (2009) which took two years, and I graduated with my Masters of Administration from the University of Utah. I enjoyed teaching in Green River, despite the many challenges students face.

This year (2014), our lives are changing yet again. Our family has decided our time in Green River is complete and we are moving to another community within the same county and school district. I will be the new 6th grade teacher at Cottonwood Elementary, I am very excited about this change for my family and look forward to all the new adventures we are sure to have!

I also share many of my time-tested products over at Teachers Pay Teachers. If you haven't checked it out, YOU NEED TOO! Click HERE to visit and sign-up for free. Then you can download awesome free resources and may even purchase something that catches your eye from thousands of teacher-authors.

I also started Share the Wealth Saturdays in June of 2012 as a way to help teachers and teacher-authors connect and glean some amazing free resources to use during the school year.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will come back often and share freely!

Cheers!

-MrHughes

This policy is valid from 06 September 2012


 This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact  MrHughes (greenriver51 at gmail dot com).


 This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

 The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.

 The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

 This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.


To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org