Fact or Opinion?

My 4th graders learned about fact and opinion today... their main way of remembering the difference is "if you're arguing about it, then it's an opinion."  Mrs. J tried to trip them up.  She wanted to move "math is boring" to the fact side.  The 4th graders about had a cow!  She kept saying, "But I feel really strongly about this!  And math is really boring!"  They would have none of it (even though some of them thought math was boring too).  I'm glad to know they understand the difference.  Another model of opinion was used, "Justin Bieber is the best singer in the whole wide world."  While some girls were positive this was a fact, they later on revealed that they knew it was an opinion, but to them it was a fact.

We started reading with our Daily 5 rotations and small group instruction.  The first group was going to start a book about ancient cities, including Ancient Memphis (in Egypt).  Mrs. J was asking them questions to get them thinking about the topic.  One of the questions was, "Where did they get water and food?"  The self-proclaimed class clown (but he was dead serious now) said, "Oh that question is easy.  I'm pretty sure they get it from cacti."  Another question was asked about the location of Memphis.  One boy, a super quiet guy who never has much to say, made the comment, "Ancient Memphis is where ancient Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated."

They had a bit of free-time in the day, and a group of boys began a game of checkers.  Checkers is my favorite game of all time, so I went back to watch.  A few weeks ago, I had told one of the boys my super secret tactic for success in checkers.  When he saw I was watching he gestured to his checkers, showing me (in code) that he was using my secret weapon... and he was trouncing the other boy.  One of the boys watching made the comment, "It's just like a battle.  They're fighting over hear, fighting over there..."

The final funny moment of the day was during science.  My 4th graders were putting their respiratory organs on their cutouts and one boy had grabbed his glue stick and was rushing back to his group.  "I have my large-intestine glue stick!" he called out.  Then he held it up to his eye, "It's the same size around as the large intestine."  I'm pretty sure he also stuck the word "mucous" in there, but I have to agree, his glue stick was very large intestine-like.

Back Into the Fray

Friday morning, I pulled the student aside who had pushed the girl down yesterday.  He of course, denied everything, saying "I don't remember doing that!"  He was so insistent that I almost believed him, but my supervising teacher saw and heard him, so I'm more inclined to believe her over him.  I didn't know what to do about his sudden memory loss, so I just reminded him that swear words are not appropriate for school.  Mrs. J said she would let him know we were onto him and if there were any more instances, we would contact his parents.  With that out of the way, we could continue on with our day.

We did a fun activity in reading to wrap up our study of the book Because of Winn-Dixie.  The students got in groups of three and traced one person.  Then, they decorated the tracing to look like a character from the book.  Afterwards, they had to draw little speech bubbles saying what the character was thinking, speaking, and feeling throughout the book.  The posters turned out really cool and we will hang them in the hallway for everyone to see.  The only thing I would change about this project would be to have them make the posters before watching the movie.  Because we watched the movie first, many groups were using things that happened in the movie and not the book.  They also tried to replicate the movie version of the characters instead of using their imaginations.  If we did the project before, we could compare our versions of the characters to the ones in the movie.

The best part of my day was having students come up to me to ask questions, even though Mrs. J was back in school.  "Miss Heintz, can I go to the bathroom?"  Miss Heintz, can I stay in from recess to work on my homework?"  "Miss Heintz, can I fill up my water bottle?"  These seemingly mundane questions were music to my ears because it showed me that they view me as a figure of authority, someone who can make these decisions.  I think having a sub in the room cemented my role as teacher in their minds.  That was one of my biggest worries coming in to student teaching; I didn't think the students would think of me as a teacher and therefore would goof off while I was teaching.  This is not the case with my 4th graders.  They get more and more excited to learn and keep asking me if I'm going to start teaching more subjects.  Hopefully their enthusiasm keeps up and even more importantly, I hope my passion for teaching remains strong as I start taking over more of the classroom.

Stayin' Alive, Stayin' Alive

Well, I survived another day with out a "real" teacher in the room.  Mrs. J took one of her sons on a college visit, leaving me in charge of the classroom (under the supervision of a sub).  Yesterday, when she told our 4th graders they would have a sub because she was going to be gone, one of the girls commented, "But why do we need a sub? Miss Heintz is a good enough teacher."  Then we had to explain that the rules say only people who are finished with school can be in charge in a classroom.

The day was going fine until lunch.  My voice was doing all right, the students were listening to me, we were staying on schedule... then a student stopped me before I walked into the lunch room, "Miss Heintz, there's a hat in the toilet." 
"What? How did it get there?" 
"Well, _______ threw it in."  So I waited outside the bathroom for this particular student.  When he came out, I confronted him, "I hear something interesting happened in the bathroom just now. Can you tell me about it?" 
The student said, "Well, we were just playing and I put his hat on his head and when he leaned over, it fell in the toilet." 
"Okay, so then what happened?" 
"Well I said sorry and helped him dry it off."  So I sent him off to lunch and waited for the student who owned the hat.  The stories didn't match.  This student said that the first student grabbed his hat and thew it in the toilet on purpose.  A few questions later, I sent him in to eat lunch.  Oh what a day for Mrs. J to be gone!

I talked to the other 4th grade teacher who said I should keep him in from recess and have him write an apology letter.  So I went out and asked the student to meet me in the classroom after lunch.  I found him waiting outside our classroom.  We went in, sat down, had a chat about what happened.  He denied it.  I asked him to write an apology letter.  After five minutes, he was finished and (after I approved his words) I let him out for recess. 

But this was not the end!  School was out for the day and I stood in the hallway surveying my students gearing up for the outdoors.  A little girl walked up to me with the sub and told me that a boy in my class had pushed her older sister down and called her the f-word.  It just so happened to be the same student I'd reprimanded earlier.  Wonderful.  And he disappeared before anyone could talk to him.  So now I have that to deal with before school tomorrow. 

On a lighter note, my science lesson went very well today.  I had been showing them pictures of a ruminant animal's stomach (a cow) and some 4th graders were getting a bit squeamish.  I told them they could put their heads down on their desks if they needed to.  These pictures actually had the opposite effect on other students.  One boy shouted out, "Looking at these pictures makes me kind of hungry!"  I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. 

Silence is Golden... but not while student teaching

Day Two with no voice went about the same as yesterday.  I was actually feeling better, but whispering was harder today.  Unfortunately, I whispered a lot while I was helping a student with an English report, so my voice was getting tired when science rolled around.  I hypothesize that my voice will be up to 90% normal by the end of tomorrow, which would be wonderful since one of my professors is planning to observe me teach science tomorrow.

I brought my laptop to school today so I could work on lesson plans during prep.  I was a little worried the students would pester me about it or get distracted, but I was the one who was distracted.  There were no outlets close to my desk so I had to move all my stuff to the back corner of the room.  I felt so disconnected from the rest of the class.  Part of my solitude was due to my lack of voice; Mrs. J didn't ask me to do as much because so many of the tasks required speaking.  Anyway, I realized I wasn't very connected to the class and closed my computer, telling myself I would only use it before or after school, and possibly over lunch if need be.

The funniest thing that happened today involved Matt, a senior student who volunteered to be a teacher's aid for the semester.  He's a friend of Mrs. J's son and earns credit for his effort.  Because he knows Mrs. J so well, he is fairly comfortable around her.  He had a question for her and yelled her first name across the room to get her attention.  One of the girl students looked up, wide-eyed.  I could tell she was thinking, "Who dares to call our teacher by her first name!"  She looked around to see if anyone else noticed what happened and eventually went back to reading when no one else reacted.

Every day we end school by titling or captioning a funny picture.  This was our closing picture of the day...

They were really funny today: "Hanging Around" and "Cliff Hanger" being some of their ideas.  But the top title was "Top 10 Workouts for Frogs."  I think that's a pretty accurate description.

A Rose by Any Other Name...

Today after Morning Meeting, as promised, I showed my 4th graders a picture of my little calf born January 9th.  Of course, they wanted to know her name, and I told them they could help me think of a name.  All of Sweetpea's calves have been named after beverages (Sierra Mist, Mountain Dew, Sprite, Squirt, etc.) so that was the only stipulation.  Here are the names they came up with today: Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Shirley Temple, Cherry Coke, Fruit Punch, Coke Cola, Milk, Milkshake, Root Beer, A & W, Cocktail, Diet Coke, and Fanta.  As of right now, my top three choices are Cherry Coke, Cola, and Fanta.  We'll have to see if they come up with more names the rest of this week.

Another topic of great interest today was laryngitis.  I lost my voice this weekend (no, not from yelling at the children; I have a cold) and I could talk no louder than a whisper.  Thankfully yesterday was a teacher workshop day so I didn't have to talk to anyone.  But today, all the 4th graders wanted to know what "larry-in-jy-tis" was.  Mrs. J didn't explain it fully to them, so they kept asking me all day if I could talk or if my throat hurt or when I'd be able to talk again.  I ended up telling them we'd talk more about this next week when we learn about the respiratory system in science.  That satisfied them for now. 

In the midst of this discussion, an announcement came over the loudspeaker telling us that someone had left the lights on in their car... that immediately got the 4th graders wondering if it was my or Mrs. J's car.  We both shook our heads no, and they asked what kind of cars we drove.  I of course, couldn't answer, and Mrs. J's answer was lost as a group of girls started talking about the kind of car they'd like to drive someday.  One particularly loud girl commented, "I'd like to drive an FM50." 

To prepare for my science lesson in the afternoon, Mrs. J and I tried to get the microphone ready for my whispering.  The microphone is ancient; it's called an "audio enhancer" and can be wrapped around the speaker's neck so she looks like someone working the McDonald's drive-through.  I had to run up to the office to get some tape to hold the battery in, but I could only whisper.  The secretary must've had trouble hearing me because I asked her three times for some duct tape to hold the button down.  The first time she said, "Oh do you need new batteries?"  No, I need some duct tape.  "Oh! You need some tape."  Yeah, some duct tape.  "You'll probably need something stronger than regular tape."  Then she got out the packing tape.  Sigh.  I never realized what a blessing a working voice is.  If I were permanently mute, I would definitely go crazy. 

One entertaining thing from all this is that people automatically lower their voice to a whisper when I whisper.  This was especially true during my science lesson.  The microphone ended up giving off too much feedback/fuzzy sound, so I gathered my bright little scientists in a semi-circle around the SMARTboard and they listened to my soft whisper for about 45 minutes.  It actually went a lot better than I was expecting, partly because of their natural inclination to whisper back to me.  I told them they could talk in their normal voice, but they all wanted to talk in whispers.  I had the lights off so they could see the board better, which made the classroom feel very cozy; it felt like we were sitting around a campfire. 

Oh man, I wish I would've had my whole voice today!  To start off our exploration of the digestive system, I had students chew a saltine cracker and hold it in their mouths until it started tasting different.  That got their attention!  After a while it starts to taste sweet because the enzymes in our saliva break down the starch into simple sugars the body can absorb, therefore showing us that digestion starts in the mouth!  After the mouth comes teeth and taste.  I showed them my wisdom teeth I'd had pulled in December and showed them a sweet x-ray of my teeth and this lovely picture...

That sparked a lot of questions!  Unfortunately, I didn't have time to answer them all.  I can't wait to teach them about the stomach on Thursday; we're also going to compare human digestion to ruminant digestion! Woohoo!  Hopefully my voice will be back by then...

Friday Full of Flurries

Well, today was certainly an adventure.  I woke up in the morning and my view of the valley was obscured by tiny particles of snow (obscure is one of our spelling words this week!).  But when I checked the school's website and listened to the radio, school was not called off.  I was kind of disappointed, but kind of not since I would be teaching almost the whole day.  Overall, the roads weren't all that bad on the way to school.  There was a one-lane strip completely clear of snow, thanks to the snowplows that were out, but visibility went down to zero when someone passed us.  The snow was so fluffy, all it took was a tiny gust to send it swirling in our direction.  Throughout the whole day, students kept asking if school was going to be called off.

The sub was already in the room when I got to school, so we formed our plan of attack for the day.  She said it was nice to have a student teacher around because a lot of times, she doesn't know what the students are allowed to do and what they're not. 

In reading, the 4th graders are reading Because of Winn-Dixie.  When they were reading with a partner, one group called me over to say they found a typo in the book; one of the characters was speaking and left out a word so the sentence didn't sound right.  After I thought about it for a while, I realized that the author was trying to make the speaker sound like she had an accent.  DING! Teachable moment!  I quickly looked up a passage from a book that has a lot of dialect used in dialogue and put it on the smartboard.  What followed was a short discussion on the use of dialect and accents in dialogue to make the characters' words more interesting.  I read the passage the way it was supposed to sound and then showed the 4th graders what it looked like if spell check was turned on.  They were amazed by the red squiggles punctuating the passage.  Then they asked me if I typed it.  I said no.  Although we had a good discussion, I think I created a monster.  Their assignment was to write a journal entry from the perspective of one of the characters in the book.  Apparently, after our discussion, all the 4th graders thought they had free reign to use incorrect grammar in their paragraphs because they were using "dialect."  Hmm, I think I may need to reteach that concept.

In other news, the 5th graders down the hall were presenting their social projects in the afternoon.  They needed an audience and who better than the 4th graders who will be doing the same project next year?  One student did his project on Abraham Lincoln's assassination.  The first thing he told me about his project was that he spelled "assassanation" wrong on his poster.  When I asked why he chose this topic, he answered, "Well, Abraham Lincoln is my favorite president."  I asked why.  "Well, he's really tall... and he did some cool stuff..." 

Another student I visited with said he chose the 9/11 plane crash in PA as a topic because he wanted to keep it alive in our hearts.  The "Assembly Line" project owner told me he got his inspiration from "a conversation with my bus driver."  The most interesting thing he learned about his project was that Henry Ford was not the inventor of the assembly line. 

One student who did his project on a battle in the Vietnam War told me he chose his topic because he likes battles and learning about war.  When I asked what was the most interesting fact he learned, he didn't say anything.  "So, you didn't learn anything interesting about this battle?"  Shrug.  "Not one thing?  Everything was boring?" He shrugged.  Somehow I find that incredibly hard to believe.  Another student was the opposite.  She did a poster on the Statue of Liberty, complete with diorama, and couldn't stop grinning about it.  She also told me that the most interesting part of her project was when her cat tried to eat the bushes in her diorama (cotton balls painted green).  Delicious!

One of the project requirements was to create a diorama to go with the poster.  A few creative students used red pen ink for blood on their soldier action figures; the owner of the "Fall of Rome in WWII" used lego storm troopers with painted helmets to represent soldiers.  How creative!  I'm sure my 4th graders got loads of ideas for their own projects next year.

After our exciting time in the 5th grade classrooms, we went back to finish the last hour of the day.  Throughout the day, the cold in my nose slipped into my throat, causing me to lose my voice.  I was doing okay until this last hour of the day.  I had to teach science to Mrs. M's class while my 4th graders went to her room for social studies.  The students were very interested in our lesson (which was about the muscular system) and behaved pretty well until group work time.  Then things went haywire.  My voice cracked a couple times and I think the sub noticed because she kind of took over noise control.  We both figured out that by clapping a rhythm, the 4th graders knew to clap the rhythm back and stop talking.  That worked pretty well, especially since I couldn't talk over them.  We switched classrooms and ended the day in a dull roar.  I guess teacher's can't control the noise level when Friday Fever comes around. 

Weekly Recap... I survived! (almost)

Hmm, for some reason, my students haven't been as funny lately.  Perhaps my novelty has worn off already.  Last Friday a student did tell me, "Miss Heintz, it feels like you've been here forever!"  Today I taught my first science lesson and the students were questioning me about what I was going to be teaching.  One boy asked how long I was going to be here; I told him eight more weeks.  He groaned... hopefully that was an "oh man, you're leaving so soon?" as opposed to, "oh man, we have to put up with you that long?"  I guess I'll find out which one he meant sooner or later...

Today during morning meeting, the students asked me to share something with the class, so I told them that my calf had a baby girl. Hands immediately shot in the air.  I figured they would ask what I named her, but the question I got was if I would take a picture of the calf to show to our class.

We were in the computer lab typing parts of a research paper about specific body systems (muscular, nervous, etc.).  I was available for questions when they got stuck... it seemed that everytime I turned around another hand shot in the air.  Mrs. J was circulating the room as well, but she concentrated her efforts on a student who had finished typing and didn't know what to do.  That left me with the other 18 students.  One thing is for sure, this exercise reminded me that it's most helpful for students to learn typing skills.  So many of them were pressing the space bar to center a title and indent a paragraph.  If they made a mistake, they'd backspace the whole sentence instead of moving the cursor to the beginning of the line.  Then they'd chicken-peck the keys to get their new words written down.  It about drove me insane! No wonder a lot of tech guys are crabby; they have to deal with people not up to their technological par.

Going back to earlier this week, Tuesday was absolutely terrible behavior-wise.  I think there's something to the theory that people's moods are effected by the weather cause my 4th graders were absolutely crazy today!  I met with some of the other student teachers for class and they said the same thing about their students.  Crazy all around.  One particular incident of this day stuck in my mind... the same boy who'd been bugging me about funny things was holding his scissors in his hand by his mouth.  Then he had the sharp end of the scissors IN his mouth!  I looked at him and mouthed, "take that out of your mouth please."  He stared at me and slowly moved his hand a little.  I gave him my best teacher look, complete with slight negative shake of the head.  It didn't work.  The girl next to him started elbowing him; she knew I meant business from the little incident we'd had earlier (something to do with finger poking and telling people they had the disease of stupidity- long story).  Her elbowing had little effect.  The boy finally took his scissors out of his mouth to show me that his hand was wrapped around the blades and only his fist was touching his mouth; so technically his scissors wasn't in his mouth.  Then the little stinker put his fist right back where it was!  I raised my eyebrows to amp up "the look."  This, coupled with his neighbor's elbowing finally got him to put his scissors back on the desk.  Sigh.  4th graders.

If Tuesday was like this, I'm scared to see what behavior Friday will bring.  Mrs. J is going to be at a teacher workshop in the cities so we're having a substitute.  I'll be taking over some of the routine work, but due to the presence of a sub and the fact that it's Friday (not to mention 3-5 inches of snow is expected), I expect behavior to be off the walls.  Well, it's bound to happen sometime; may as well get some practice dealing with it.  Perhaps my 4th graders will surprise me and be perfect little angels.  We shall see... 

Perseverance, Perseverance, Perseverance

I was writing in my notebook and a boy happened to walk past.  He looked over my shoulder for a while, tried to read what I wrote, and looked at me askance when I slapped a hand over the majority of my notebook. 
"You write a lot." 
"I know, it's kind of my homework." 
"Oh, so you know what you're supposed to do when you teach us?"
"Yeah, kind of." 
"Do you write that we're the funniest class?" 
"Why would I write that?"
"Because we are!"
Then I made the mistake of telling him I was writing down some of the funny things they'd been saying.  He immediately wanted to know some specific things I was writing.  Thankfully, the class was lining up to go to PE, so I distracted him by pointing to the line.  I thought the matter was dropped, but I underestimated the dedication of the 4th grade mind.  When they got back, the same boy brought a friend and they both attacked me, "Miss Heintz! Tell us what the funny things are!"  Great.  I'm not sure I want to tell you.  Once again I was saved.  Mrs. J shut the lights off to show a video for science class.  Whew! An excuse!  I shooed them to their seats saying, "You better get back to your desks; it's time for science."  Finally, subject dropped... until science ended and they were supposed to be getting ready to go home.  The girl came up to me and asked again; I caved and told her the Chocolate Moose for Dinner story, which surprisingly satisfied her.  She went merrily on her way to pack up her desk.  The next morning, the boy who started it all came back to my desk and commanded me to tell him something funny they had said.  I told him to talk to the other girl.  I guess whatever she told him satisfied him because he hasn't been back to bug me about that since then.  One thing is for sure, I underestimated their stubbornness!  If only I could harness that toward the pursuit of knowledge...

Walkin' through the valley of the shadow of death

Because of the holiday, we didn't follow the normal school day pattern.  We began our morning with a recitation of a poem about civil rights (it incorporated parts of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech).  It's funny to see them so dedicated to memorizing, especially when Mrs. J told them she specifically wants them to read their part from the paper, not recite it. 

A few hours later, we went to share our poem with the 6th grade class.  Now, normally, this wouldn't be a huge deal, but the 6th grade classrooms are squished between the elementary school and the high school.  We went to their room just after our lunch, which just so happens to be the beginning of the high schoolers' lunch time.  I never used to think high schoolers were scary, but that day they were terrifying!  I don't know if it was because the 4th graders were acting intimidated or if I am just a pansy, but I was super uncomfortable walking through the teenage mob.  Some of them ignored us, others barely spared a glance, but some stared at us until we disappeared from view.  Of course it felt like every single eye was trained on us as we walked single file through the halls.  But we made it to the 6th grade classroom without a mishap, performed our poem, and filtered back through the big-kid crowd.  Yikes! I can see why they keep elementary and high school students separate. 

Friday Fun (about a week late)...

Not a whole lot happened last Friday (the 13th), possibly a good thing.  About twice a week, my 4th graders have a morning meeting where they sit in a circle and basically show and tell something about their lives.  Some of the things they share are so cute!  One little boy showed a drawing he had made of a new type of motorcycle; he shared he was planning to color it.  Another girl brought some rocks from a campsite she visited earlier in the year.  After every story shared, the student says, "I'm open for questions and comments."  The first time I heard a student say that, I had to bite my lip to keep from chuckling; they sounded so adult!  It turns out Mrs. J told them to end their story with that so the rest of the 4th graders would know when they could ask questions.  The "teller" gets to choose one student to ask a question, and the questions have to be specific to the student.  If a student doesn't have anything to share, classmates can pose a questions (again, specific to the student).  Many questions include, "What are you doing this weekend?" "Who are you playing in basketball?" "What's your basketball number?" etc.

Later in the day, students were finished with their homework and two boys started playing chess! I was a bit shocked, I admit.  I went over to them and asked how they learned to play.  One boy said his step-dad taught him and the other said he learned by playing a computer chess game; he just messed around until he figured out what he could do.  I don't know how to play, but it sure looked like they knew what they were doing. 

My favorite part of the day was right before school got let out.  One girl asked me what grade I would be teaching after I graduated, so I told her 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th grade.  Then the littlest boy (who just happened to be walking past) piped up, "And if you were in high school you'd teach science!"  I had told them my favorite subject in school was science the first day I was in their classroom and apparently this little guy remembered it.  I felt so popular!  Everyone wants to sit by me or stand by me in line or ask me questions.  Some students will huddle around my desk while I take notes, trying to see what I'm writing.  I'm pretty sure all this attention is going to go to my head... hopefully it doesn't explode! 

An Enlightenment of Political Positions of 4th Graders... (and other comedic incidents)

Today's interesting story update:

Time for Kids magazines were placed on students' desks this morning.  This episode featured the presidential candidates with their ages and a brief background and picture.  One student commented while reading, "Obama is 50? I thought he was, like, 20!" 

Another student later said, "I'm going to vote for the youngest guy.  Why would you vote for a 70 year old? He's not going to last as long."

Later in the morning, I got a tiny bloody nose from the dry winter air.  Thankfully I had a tissue handy.  Unfortunately, it seemed that almost all the 4th graders wanted to ask me a question about their homework assignment and would stare at me holding a tissue to my nose.  When I went up to get a new tissue, Mrs. J said, "Oh! You have a bloody nose? I thought maybe someone farted and you were covering your nose to keep the smell away!  We have a rule that if you have to fart, you go in the hall to do it." 

Our final story of the day involves a lesson in homophones, or multiple meaning words.  We read A Chocolate Moose for Dinner by Fred Gwynne aloud, sometimes pausing to comment on the pictures.  One picture of two adults sitting side by side putting on makeup had a caption reading, "They always kiss and make up."  A little girl commented, "Where's the kissing part?" Another girl immediately replied, "No one wants to see that in a book!"

Well, that's the latest in the 4th grade comedy update.  Tune in next time to hear how the first Friday flies.

What do marshmallow feet, Adrian Peterson, and nametags have in common?

Today was my first day in the 4th grade classroom I'll be student teaching in for 10 weeks.  I have 19 students and will end up teaching science, English, math, and reading, plus various other lessons that come up as needed.  I had been looking forward to the entertaining stories my students would give me and they did not disappoint. 

Before school even began for the day, my supervising teacher, Mrs. J, was showing me around the school/classroom.  There are two big windows in our room facing the street... at perfect eyelevel for little school children to tap on the glass and peek and wave at us.  I think I met more kids that way than I did walking around the school.  A lot of them just stared, but a few waved and some even struck a pose.  About half of them were my soon-to-be students. 

My first action as student teacher was to find out all their names... this was rather difficult as the 4th graders decided to play "Make-the-student-teacher-guess-our-names-as-we-cover-up-our-nametags!"  They all gave the same excuse, "Oh you should know our names! We were the ones banging on the window before school."  Right.  I could totally guess your name through the glass.  Ahem.  Most of the time I got it right because their pod-mates would let their real names slip.  One kid tried to pull a fast one on me, but Mrs. J had told me his name when he walked in the classroom, so I ended up getting the best of him.

Two high school Spanish students showed up to teach the 4th graders Spanish.  Apparently it was a review day of animal vocabulary.  Spanish must've changed since I learned the language because I'd never heard some of the pronunciations the girls were using to describe the animals.  All I could think of as I watched them was, "Hmm, if I were teaching, this is what I would change... there is no way all those students are engaged during this game... maybe if they did this..."  I guess that means I'm ready for teaching.

A couple other funny incidents...

Our class moved around a lot throughout the day, going to music class, recess, lunch time, computer, bathroom breaks.  It seemed almost every half an hour we were getting in a line to go somewhere.  The two line leaders took their job very seriously.  In fact, they would not lead the line until EVERYONE was in a perfectly straight line.  The two boys would step back, eye up the line... wave one of the girls to the left a little... then switch sides to see if the line stayed straight.  If the girl didn't listen, he'd call her by name, perhaps a bit more sharply than necessarily, but she would move.  And finally when we were up to our fearless line leaders' standards, we would set out on our trek down the hall, making sure to use "marshmallow feet" as we clambered up stairs and down echoey hallways.

The last incident of the day involved Adrian Peterson... in science class.  My group of 4th graders goes next door to Mrs. M for social studies twice a week and her students come to my class for science on those days.  Today was my first day meeting Mrs. M's 4th graders.  We were watching a short film about the skeletal system and Mrs. J paused the video on a picture of the ligaments around the knee.  She asked the class if they knew who Adrian Peterson was.  "YEAH!" "Do you know what happened to him?"  A few of them guessed, but Mrs. J wanted the answer, "He blew out his leg."  She continued, "When someone blows out a knee, that means the ligaments got torn, so they aren't connecting the bones anymore."  Half the class immediately let out a loud, whiny, "EWWW!"  One girl was so devastated, she asked, "Did he cry?"  Before Mrs. J could answer, a boy called out, "NO, he's a big, tough guy!"  This wasn't a good enough answer, so the girl asked again and the boy repeated his first statement with even more gusto.  Thankfully, I was in the back of the room, so it wasn't too hard to hide my laugh.

Blast from the Past

Right now I'm sitting at home over Christmas Break, working on writing Human Relations papers necessary for me to graduate.  Apparently they were supposed to be done the semester after we did the clinical, but at the time my professor told us future teachers they were due sometime before we graduated.  I haven't graduated yet, but he's getting antsy so now I have to get them done.  Oh well.  Anyway, I was looking through some of my notes from prior clinicals and found a quote from an 8th grader who was making a poster with his group, "Make it more girly, cause the more girly it is, the better grade you get… girly is more colors and stuff.  If you make a girly poster, you get an automatic B at least, but guy stuff is an F.”  I remember trying so hard not to laugh when he said that, but you have to admit, it is kind of the truth. 

A few weeks ago, before finals and break, I found out that I will be student teaching in a 4th grade classroom about a half an hour away from my college.  I'll still live on campus and just drive to school every day.  Hopefully the weather stays good!