I got the strangest request this morning. Before the bell rang, one of the 6th grade boys came up to my desk and said, "Quick, I need some Cootie Insurance. Can you give me some?" It took me a while before I figured out what he was getting at (he was hugged by one of the 7th grade girls and decided that he needed a safety measure against cooties). Deciding to play along, I replied, "I'd love to give you some insurance, but I don't think I'm licensed to give it out." He just kind of looked at me for a while.
The other 6th grade boy (who was waiting to say his memory work) clued him in, "Uh, Miss H is a girl, so she would probably give you cooties anyway."
This didn't faze him at all, "Oh well, I'll just go ask Mr. D. He'll give me some. Can I borrow a post-it note?" A few minutes later he came waltzing into the room and dramatically attached the post-it to his desk. "There. Now if some girl touches me, I just have to touch this post-it note, and I'm safe from cooties!"
In other news, I finally got my laptop back from the IT guys! And it works! They said the battery went bad; not a rare problem, but my computer wouldn't turn on because of it, something very rare. Regardless of the fact, I'm very happy to have a computer I can take home with me. Now I won't have to stay at school so late!
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Good Day, Not-so-Good Day, Good Day...
If yesterday was a bad day, then today was a good day to make up for it. Beautiful weather, lots of learning, doing cool projects...
This morning, we hung our chain of the church year. The 7th and 8th graders who visited our room kept asking what each of the colors meant. I was very pleased to hear my 6th graders telling them the correct answers. Now hopefully no one will pull it down. We'll start tearing chain links off starting on Monday.
One of the boys was absent today, so the classroom was much quieter. It was very strange how just one person being gone could make our classroom that much quieter. When he's here, it doesn't seem like he's very loud. But the boys probably feed off each other. The boy who was left behind was extra quiet today. That was also very strange.
At lunch, he decided to start a game of "Little Red Schoolhouse." The result was a super quiet lunchtime. Most of the girls didn't care, so they talked right away. It was down to him and me. The game was going to be a stalemate for a long time, so I gave in and said something so the game would be over. And then he started another round! This time, it was death by laughing. And by death, I mean most of the players were kicked out of the game for laughing. Again, I was one of the last people left silent against the initial instigator. He won a second time and decided to stop playing because "I was the champion twice, so I don't need to play anymore."
The 7th and 8th graders had a review game for their test on Friday. It actually went really well. They remembered more of the material than I thought they did! There was very little screwing around except as they left the classroom. One student was mad at his teammate because he wasn't listening to anyone else in the group. The ignored boy decided to slam the door in the first guy's face and he walked right into it. Of course he started bawling. The other boy thought he was justified in his actions. Everyone else wanted to know what happened. Crazy, crazy, crazy. But we got it straightened out.
After school, the new uniforms for basketball got passed out. I didn't see much of it, but I could certainly hear it! The boys were trying to remember which number they wanted and which shorts would fit them. A few of them were trying on these basketball shorts right over their pants. What a fashion statement!
This morning, we hung our chain of the church year. The 7th and 8th graders who visited our room kept asking what each of the colors meant. I was very pleased to hear my 6th graders telling them the correct answers. Now hopefully no one will pull it down. We'll start tearing chain links off starting on Monday.
One of the boys was absent today, so the classroom was much quieter. It was very strange how just one person being gone could make our classroom that much quieter. When he's here, it doesn't seem like he's very loud. But the boys probably feed off each other. The boy who was left behind was extra quiet today. That was also very strange.
At lunch, he decided to start a game of "Little Red Schoolhouse." The result was a super quiet lunchtime. Most of the girls didn't care, so they talked right away. It was down to him and me. The game was going to be a stalemate for a long time, so I gave in and said something so the game would be over. And then he started another round! This time, it was death by laughing. And by death, I mean most of the players were kicked out of the game for laughing. Again, I was one of the last people left silent against the initial instigator. He won a second time and decided to stop playing because "I was the champion twice, so I don't need to play anymore."
The 7th and 8th graders had a review game for their test on Friday. It actually went really well. They remembered more of the material than I thought they did! There was very little screwing around except as they left the classroom. One student was mad at his teammate because he wasn't listening to anyone else in the group. The ignored boy decided to slam the door in the first guy's face and he walked right into it. Of course he started bawling. The other boy thought he was justified in his actions. Everyone else wanted to know what happened. Crazy, crazy, crazy. But we got it straightened out.
After school, the new uniforms for basketball got passed out. I didn't see much of it, but I could certainly hear it! The boys were trying to remember which number they wanted and which shorts would fit them. A few of them were trying on these basketball shorts right over their pants. What a fashion statement!
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Ufda!
Blech. This day was gross. Overall, the day wasn't very bad, but it wasn't very good either. It was just kind of "blah."
It was probably my fault; last night I didn't sleep very well (I had a dream that I went home for a weekend and my parents informed me that I was getting married. The church was decorated, guests were invited, and my mom even got me a dress! Apparently everyone knew about it but me. It was an arranged marriage with my friend's ex-boyfriend. I obviously couldn't marry him, or my friend would hate me for life, but my parents and his parents didn't seem to understand that...) Anyway, I was very glad to wake up this morning.
Then at school, half my kids were falling asleep and then a few minutes later, they were going crazy! It seemed like I did a lot of yelling/chewing out/reprimanding students today. We have a new student in 4th grade, a girl, so some people were teasing the 4th grade boys about having a crush on her. I had to have a little talk with my 6th graders. Then, in the gym at noon recess, one of my students was throwing balls away from the people who were playing with them, some boys were shooting baskets from the top rows of the bleachers, and there was tackling/biting going on in the football game. Like I said, lots of chats with students.
We went a little bit over in MN history today, so we went a little bit over in art, which meant we didn't get started with 7th and 8th grade geography right away. Today we were choosing new countries to do reports on, so that took way more time than it should have. There were two groups presenting and we ended up going over about 10-15 minutes so the second group could present. I kicked out two boys from class (I probably wouldn't have had to, but they were the straws that broke the camel's back, so I did anyway). Then I felt bad afterwards, but I didn't want to back down and lose face with them. Ugh. You just can't win.
We had ten minutes left at the end of the day, not enough time for a good recess, so I decided we should finish our art project (a chain the colors of the church year). We finished the chain and were about to hang it up when I realized I had miscounted the white chain links and we were short about 30. It was time to pack up and I decided we could finish hanging/fixing it tomorrow morning. One student decided she wanted to play with the chain instead of getting ready to go home. I stopped her and asked her to get ready for the end of the day. She kept playing with the chain. I repeated myself. She started moving it to the lab table. We went back and forth, "What did I ask you to do?" "Get ready to go home." "Why aren't you doing it?" "I'm putting the chain on the table!" "But what did I ask you to do?" "Get ready to go home." "So why aren't you doing that?" Sigh.
But we got everyone sent off to the bus on time and we weren't even the last class out the door. Tomorrow is a new day. Now if I could just get my desk cleaned off...
It was probably my fault; last night I didn't sleep very well (I had a dream that I went home for a weekend and my parents informed me that I was getting married. The church was decorated, guests were invited, and my mom even got me a dress! Apparently everyone knew about it but me. It was an arranged marriage with my friend's ex-boyfriend. I obviously couldn't marry him, or my friend would hate me for life, but my parents and his parents didn't seem to understand that...) Anyway, I was very glad to wake up this morning.
Then at school, half my kids were falling asleep and then a few minutes later, they were going crazy! It seemed like I did a lot of yelling/chewing out/reprimanding students today. We have a new student in 4th grade, a girl, so some people were teasing the 4th grade boys about having a crush on her. I had to have a little talk with my 6th graders. Then, in the gym at noon recess, one of my students was throwing balls away from the people who were playing with them, some boys were shooting baskets from the top rows of the bleachers, and there was tackling/biting going on in the football game. Like I said, lots of chats with students.
We went a little bit over in MN history today, so we went a little bit over in art, which meant we didn't get started with 7th and 8th grade geography right away. Today we were choosing new countries to do reports on, so that took way more time than it should have. There were two groups presenting and we ended up going over about 10-15 minutes so the second group could present. I kicked out two boys from class (I probably wouldn't have had to, but they were the straws that broke the camel's back, so I did anyway). Then I felt bad afterwards, but I didn't want to back down and lose face with them. Ugh. You just can't win.
We had ten minutes left at the end of the day, not enough time for a good recess, so I decided we should finish our art project (a chain the colors of the church year). We finished the chain and were about to hang it up when I realized I had miscounted the white chain links and we were short about 30. It was time to pack up and I decided we could finish hanging/fixing it tomorrow morning. One student decided she wanted to play with the chain instead of getting ready to go home. I stopped her and asked her to get ready for the end of the day. She kept playing with the chain. I repeated myself. She started moving it to the lab table. We went back and forth, "What did I ask you to do?" "Get ready to go home." "Why aren't you doing it?" "I'm putting the chain on the table!" "But what did I ask you to do?" "Get ready to go home." "So why aren't you doing that?" Sigh.
But we got everyone sent off to the bus on time and we weren't even the last class out the door. Tomorrow is a new day. Now if I could just get my desk cleaned off...
We Want More Math!
Yesterday was another day of basketball practice and it was the boys' turn for late practice. It was my turn to supervise "study hall", or the boys who were waiting to go to practice. One of the students' parents came to supervise, but I was the teacher back-up supervisor. My 6th grade boys were trying to do their math homework, but the 3rd and 4th graders didn't have any homework to do (or they had finished it all) so they were being kind of noisy. Finally one of my boys said, "If you don't be quiet, we're going to give you some math problems!" One 3rd grader piped up, "YES! Give us some problems!" I thought he was kidding, but he was serious!
My 6th grader quickly scrawled some easy multiplication problems on a paper and handed it to the 3rd grader. He yelled for a pencil. Seeing that there were none available and he was still being noisy, I volunteered to write some on the board and he could work them out up there.
I have never seen a student so excited to do math. Pretty soon all the other 3rd and 4th grade boys were asking for their own problems to do on the board. They they wanted some extra hard multiplication (749 x 4)... then really hard addition problems (one boy said, "give me something in the millions!")... some of the 7th graders decided to see how smart these 3rd and 4th graders really were and tried to throw in some tricky division with decimals. They didn't get it. So with the 7th graders' and my help, we figured it out together. It was so neat to see these grades getting along, working together, and doing math!
My 6th grader quickly scrawled some easy multiplication problems on a paper and handed it to the 3rd grader. He yelled for a pencil. Seeing that there were none available and he was still being noisy, I volunteered to write some on the board and he could work them out up there.
I have never seen a student so excited to do math. Pretty soon all the other 3rd and 4th grade boys were asking for their own problems to do on the board. They they wanted some extra hard multiplication (749 x 4)... then really hard addition problems (one boy said, "give me something in the millions!")... some of the 7th graders decided to see how smart these 3rd and 4th graders really were and tried to throw in some tricky division with decimals. They didn't get it. So with the 7th graders' and my help, we figured it out together. It was so neat to see these grades getting along, working together, and doing math!
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Thanksgiving Turkeys
The last day of school this week went pretty well. Two groups of 7th and 8th graders presented today. One group had a lot of great information, but read straight off the slides (they copied and pasted words right off websites, and it showed). The other group was done by one 8th grader. He didn't actually do a whole lot of research about his country. I would ask a question about it, and he'd say, "uh, I don't know." Then I'd ask about a picture he had on a slide... the same answer.
For the most part, the 7th and 8th graders were okay respectful-wise. One boy kept blurting out answers to questions, even though he was an audience member, not one of the presenters. So I kicked him out. He tried to argue a little, but I just repeated myself and he left. Mr. E made him write an apology note and have his mom sign it.
At the end of class, I had everyone give some feedback on the presentations. Most of the people who weren't goofing off made some really good points. Things to try for next time: No irrelevant questions. No gross humor. Know the information on your slides.
There were some other ones too, but these were the most important ones they came up with.
The last few minutes of the day the 6th graders spent making thankful turkeys. I drew shapes on the board, they cut them out of scraps of construction paper, and we made them into turkeys. The boys wanted to make theirs Chinese and give them sunglasses, but I axed that idea. We cleaned up, prayed, and booked it out the door.
Now it's my turn to head home!
For the most part, the 7th and 8th graders were okay respectful-wise. One boy kept blurting out answers to questions, even though he was an audience member, not one of the presenters. So I kicked him out. He tried to argue a little, but I just repeated myself and he left. Mr. E made him write an apology note and have his mom sign it.
At the end of class, I had everyone give some feedback on the presentations. Most of the people who weren't goofing off made some really good points. Things to try for next time: No irrelevant questions. No gross humor. Know the information on your slides.
There were some other ones too, but these were the most important ones they came up with.
The last few minutes of the day the 6th graders spent making thankful turkeys. I drew shapes on the board, they cut them out of scraps of construction paper, and we made them into turkeys. The boys wanted to make theirs Chinese and give them sunglasses, but I axed that idea. We cleaned up, prayed, and booked it out the door.
Now it's my turn to head home!
Monday, November 19, 2012
Faster than a speeding bullet...
Woo, this day flew by! There was lots of good learning going on at school today.
Our computers stopped working, which threw a wrench into my plans for English. We were going to work on typing our chapter stories. But no matter what we tried to do, the student computers just wouldn't turn on! We tried unplugging and replugging and refreshing... nothing helped. So I scrounged the Internet on my computer for some ideas. My 6th graders have trouble with adjectives, so I melded a few activities together to create... the Adjective Game!
The class split into two groups. One person was the secretary, the other two were Thesaurus checkers. I put an object between the two groups, set the timer, and let them go! They had to find as many words as they could to describe the object (and they could look up words in the Thesaurus). First we described a big plant that's growing in our room, then a multicolored ball of yarn, and a whiteboard eraser. At the end of all this, the groups were tied. To break the tie, we did a super-extra bonus round describing... a slightly worn book.
To decide how many points the groups got, we used a scoring system like Scattergories. One group would read their adjectives, the other group would say whether they had the same thing written down. I was the moderator and decided if an adjective didn't fit the object. It was really fun! They loved it! We just might have to play it again sometime...
The 7th and 8th graders had a great time in science. I think they were all paying attention (they were certainly asking enough questions). Most of them remembered to raise their hands and no one got kicked out. We had to cut our time short because of Christmas program practice. We were kind of late... oops. But everything turned out all right in the end.
After school was basketball practice. It was the first day one of the parents was going to watch them instead of a teacher. I went to go pick up copies from the office and right away I knew the boys had just gotten ready. There was literally a wall of male cologne in the hallway and I walked straight through it. Whew! I can't imagine what it actually smells like in the bathroom. The girls' bathroom was pretty aromatic too, so I guess we can't just be picking on the boys.
Our computers stopped working, which threw a wrench into my plans for English. We were going to work on typing our chapter stories. But no matter what we tried to do, the student computers just wouldn't turn on! We tried unplugging and replugging and refreshing... nothing helped. So I scrounged the Internet on my computer for some ideas. My 6th graders have trouble with adjectives, so I melded a few activities together to create... the Adjective Game!
The class split into two groups. One person was the secretary, the other two were Thesaurus checkers. I put an object between the two groups, set the timer, and let them go! They had to find as many words as they could to describe the object (and they could look up words in the Thesaurus). First we described a big plant that's growing in our room, then a multicolored ball of yarn, and a whiteboard eraser. At the end of all this, the groups were tied. To break the tie, we did a super-extra bonus round describing... a slightly worn book.
To decide how many points the groups got, we used a scoring system like Scattergories. One group would read their adjectives, the other group would say whether they had the same thing written down. I was the moderator and decided if an adjective didn't fit the object. It was really fun! They loved it! We just might have to play it again sometime...
The 7th and 8th graders had a great time in science. I think they were all paying attention (they were certainly asking enough questions). Most of them remembered to raise their hands and no one got kicked out. We had to cut our time short because of Christmas program practice. We were kind of late... oops. But everything turned out all right in the end.
After school was basketball practice. It was the first day one of the parents was going to watch them instead of a teacher. I went to go pick up copies from the office and right away I knew the boys had just gotten ready. There was literally a wall of male cologne in the hallway and I walked straight through it. Whew! I can't imagine what it actually smells like in the bathroom. The girls' bathroom was pretty aromatic too, so I guess we can't just be picking on the boys.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Lots of Late Nights...
I don't know, something about this week made the days seem longer than most. Tuesday night I was still at school making worksheets at 7:30pm when my friend Diana called me (she made me go home). Wednesday night we had about a two hour long PTL meeting. Last night I was making a PowerPoint of the life cycle of stars and lost track of time. Tonight I was going to leave at 5:30, but then this lawyer called me about going in to see a chiropractor about possible injuries I sustained from a car accident that I had been in last weekend with my friend Alex on her wedding day (We were in the Cities on our way to get Alex's nails fixed. One of her other friends was driving and some guy pulled out in front of us on the highway and smashed into our car. No one was hurt, but Alex's mom wanted us to get checked out anyway so she called one of her lawyer friends). He just wouldn't stop talking! So now I'm going to the chiropractor tomorrow to see what's up.
Today was a great day... we finished our read aloud book, are getting to the exciting part in Holes during reading, got our spelling test finished on time, had a great time during science learning about stars... and then we had practice for Bells. The 6-8th graders are playing handbells on Sunday, so they went over to church to practice with the 1-2nd grade teacher. I watched her students outside. Half of them were supposed to stay at school with me, but for some reason they all ended up over at church. Then they all came back and we were going to have science/math. Well, all the boys ran off to the playground to play football. The 1-2nd graders were lined up to go in. My 6th grade boys started to come in, but they got distracted by the 7-8th grade boys rushing out to play. I had to call them three times before they came in. The 1-2nd graders were up at arms, "Miss Heintz! They're not coming in!" Finally we had everybody situated and then half the 7-8th graders realized they hadn't brought their notebooks or a writing utensil to class! I was so frustrated!
Class today was the worst I've seen all year. Every ounce of respect I had earned this year went out the window. People were talking all over the place. Just when it would be almost quiet, someone would start in with a random comment that was pretty much wasting air! I had no idea what to do. I just stood there in shock. I was this close to kicking one of them back to Mr. E's room... I should have just done it, but he said, "Oh no, I'll behave now." So I let it slide. We got through the PowerPoint, but I don't know how much learning was going on. I just don't know what the consequences should be! But I'm at the breaking point; from now on, if they mess around, they're getting sent back. No ifs, ands, or buts.
After the kids had left for the day, one of the other teachers asked how my day went. I told her that if I were a crying teacher, I'd be crying right now, but I'm not, so I'm just overwhelmed. After a class like that, you just feel like you are a horrible teacher and you're not doing your job. And then when you realize how much is left of the school year... and that every day could be like that... it's enough to make you want to quit! Ugh! But I'm not going to.
Monday is a new day and a new week. Thanksgiving break is coming up. Lots of brainstorming will be happening to make science more interesting.
Today was a great day... we finished our read aloud book, are getting to the exciting part in Holes during reading, got our spelling test finished on time, had a great time during science learning about stars... and then we had practice for Bells. The 6-8th graders are playing handbells on Sunday, so they went over to church to practice with the 1-2nd grade teacher. I watched her students outside. Half of them were supposed to stay at school with me, but for some reason they all ended up over at church. Then they all came back and we were going to have science/math. Well, all the boys ran off to the playground to play football. The 1-2nd graders were lined up to go in. My 6th grade boys started to come in, but they got distracted by the 7-8th grade boys rushing out to play. I had to call them three times before they came in. The 1-2nd graders were up at arms, "Miss Heintz! They're not coming in!" Finally we had everybody situated and then half the 7-8th graders realized they hadn't brought their notebooks or a writing utensil to class! I was so frustrated!
Class today was the worst I've seen all year. Every ounce of respect I had earned this year went out the window. People were talking all over the place. Just when it would be almost quiet, someone would start in with a random comment that was pretty much wasting air! I had no idea what to do. I just stood there in shock. I was this close to kicking one of them back to Mr. E's room... I should have just done it, but he said, "Oh no, I'll behave now." So I let it slide. We got through the PowerPoint, but I don't know how much learning was going on. I just don't know what the consequences should be! But I'm at the breaking point; from now on, if they mess around, they're getting sent back. No ifs, ands, or buts.
After the kids had left for the day, one of the other teachers asked how my day went. I told her that if I were a crying teacher, I'd be crying right now, but I'm not, so I'm just overwhelmed. After a class like that, you just feel like you are a horrible teacher and you're not doing your job. And then when you realize how much is left of the school year... and that every day could be like that... it's enough to make you want to quit! Ugh! But I'm not going to.
Monday is a new day and a new week. Thanksgiving break is coming up. Lots of brainstorming will be happening to make science more interesting.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Monday, Monday
Well, this has been a long day. I think this is the first day all year that the 6th graders have had more energy than I've had. They were off the walls! Pastor came to teach our class about stewardship this morning, so that might have set them off. It snowed this morning too; not a whole lot, but enough to get them excited. And I'm still recuperating from the wedding I went to this weekend.
This morning, all the 7th and 8th graders kept asking me questions about their upcoming PowerPoint presentation. A few came up to me and said they were almost finished with it. They first heard about this assignment on Friday. Talk about excited to learn!
Since our books are so old, we divided up the countries in South America and each student is going to do a report/presentation about each country. They can work in pairs or by themselves; they just have to present the information to the class in some way. They are also going to write worksheets for the class to fill out during the presentation. The presenters will pick five of these questions to use on the test. They'll get their worksheets back to study for the test. Tomorrow we're going to go over the difference between a good PowerPoint and a bad one.
At recess today, I had way too much junk food. And by junk food, I mean pretend, imaginary food "made" for me by some 1st and 2nd graders. They were sitting behind the bleachers by the scoreboard keyboard, waiting for customers. One of them asked what kind of smoothie I'd like. Then he asked if I wanted a meal with that... but they were a candy shop, so they only had cupcakes and candy. It seemed that there was tension in the ranks because one of his "coworkers" said they had some hot dogs. Then they changed it so they had pizza. So I ended up going back for three meals.
One girl asked if I would jump rope with her. I was kind of confused, thinking "how are the two of us going to jump together." But she had a long rope and wanted me to twirl the other end. Pretty soon there was a long line of kids waiting for their turn to run in. I started singing "Cinderella, dressed in yellow, went upstairs to kiss her fellow..." One student got up to nine doctors! Everyone (including me) was sad when recess was over. Maybe we'll do it again on Wednesday!
This morning, all the 7th and 8th graders kept asking me questions about their upcoming PowerPoint presentation. A few came up to me and said they were almost finished with it. They first heard about this assignment on Friday. Talk about excited to learn!
Since our books are so old, we divided up the countries in South America and each student is going to do a report/presentation about each country. They can work in pairs or by themselves; they just have to present the information to the class in some way. They are also going to write worksheets for the class to fill out during the presentation. The presenters will pick five of these questions to use on the test. They'll get their worksheets back to study for the test. Tomorrow we're going to go over the difference between a good PowerPoint and a bad one.
At recess today, I had way too much junk food. And by junk food, I mean pretend, imaginary food "made" for me by some 1st and 2nd graders. They were sitting behind the bleachers by the scoreboard keyboard, waiting for customers. One of them asked what kind of smoothie I'd like. Then he asked if I wanted a meal with that... but they were a candy shop, so they only had cupcakes and candy. It seemed that there was tension in the ranks because one of his "coworkers" said they had some hot dogs. Then they changed it so they had pizza. So I ended up going back for three meals.
One girl asked if I would jump rope with her. I was kind of confused, thinking "how are the two of us going to jump together." But she had a long rope and wanted me to twirl the other end. Pretty soon there was a long line of kids waiting for their turn to run in. I started singing "Cinderella, dressed in yellow, went upstairs to kiss her fellow..." One student got up to nine doctors! Everyone (including me) was sad when recess was over. Maybe we'll do it again on Wednesday!
Friday, November 9, 2012
13 hours
Whew! Yesterday was quite the day. It was Parent-Teacher Conferences, so I spent about 13 hours at school yesterday. What's really interesting was that only family came on time to their appointment; the rest were early and because I wasn't meeting with anyone we could get started right away. Of course, the people who actually came at their appointed time were my last conference, so I didn't get get to sneak out early.
Everything went fine. The parents were cordial and didn't have a whole lot of questions for me. The principal checked on me a few times, to make sure I wasn't having any trouble. Then afterwards, one by one the rest of the teachers came in: some to check on me, some to congratulate me on finishing my first Parent Teacher Conferences. When the last teacher to come in saw all the other teachers standing around my desk, she said, "Oh, is this the after party?"
One funny story from 7th and 8th grade geography... I had asked to see everyone's eyes up front so I would know they were ready to go. One boy (who hadn't done his notes for the day) was scrambling to open his book to the right page. Being a smartaleck, he had his head turned to me and had his eyes flipping back and forth between me and the pages of his book, trying to follow my directions and figure out where we were. I couldn't help smiling because he looked so goofy! All the other students (who were looking at me like they were supposed to) saw me smiling and wanted to know why. Some figured out who I was looking at, so they tried to see what was so funny. And then the people in the front turned around to see. And then no one was ready to start class. But then they calmed down (somewhat) and we started class. They had some really good questions too!
Everything went fine. The parents were cordial and didn't have a whole lot of questions for me. The principal checked on me a few times, to make sure I wasn't having any trouble. Then afterwards, one by one the rest of the teachers came in: some to check on me, some to congratulate me on finishing my first Parent Teacher Conferences. When the last teacher to come in saw all the other teachers standing around my desk, she said, "Oh, is this the after party?"
One funny story from 7th and 8th grade geography... I had asked to see everyone's eyes up front so I would know they were ready to go. One boy (who hadn't done his notes for the day) was scrambling to open his book to the right page. Being a smartaleck, he had his head turned to me and had his eyes flipping back and forth between me and the pages of his book, trying to follow my directions and figure out where we were. I couldn't help smiling because he looked so goofy! All the other students (who were looking at me like they were supposed to) saw me smiling and wanted to know why. Some figured out who I was looking at, so they tried to see what was so funny. And then the people in the front turned around to see. And then no one was ready to start class. But then they calmed down (somewhat) and we started class. They had some really good questions too!
It's "Miss" Heintz
For some reason, yesterday there was more talk than usual about my relationship status. In 7th and 8th grade geography, one girl kept calling me Mrs. Heintz. One of the boys who sits in front turned around and yelled at her, "It's MISS Heintz. Stop calling her Mrs.; she's not married!" Apparently, Mr. E has to go over this small grammatical error over and over and over.
Then, when my 6th graders were doing art, one of the boys asked, "Miss Heintz? Are you going to do what our old teacher did?" I was kind of confused (and so were the rest of my students). He kept going, "Well, he got a girlfriend and then he moved away. So are you going to do that? ...I mean, are you going to get a boyfriend and get married and move away?" I think I said something like, "Probably not." One of the girls piped up, "Oh, I think you're going to get a boyfriend. But you can just stay here; you don't have to move away." Thinking it was time for a subject change, I said, "Well, I don't have any plans to move away right now." The boy who brought the subject up said, "Good. Cause I don't want you to leave."
Then, when my 6th graders were doing art, one of the boys asked, "Miss Heintz? Are you going to do what our old teacher did?" I was kind of confused (and so were the rest of my students). He kept going, "Well, he got a girlfriend and then he moved away. So are you going to do that? ...I mean, are you going to get a boyfriend and get married and move away?" I think I said something like, "Probably not." One of the girls piped up, "Oh, I think you're going to get a boyfriend. But you can just stay here; you don't have to move away." Thinking it was time for a subject change, I said, "Well, I don't have any plans to move away right now." The boy who brought the subject up said, "Good. Cause I don't want you to leave."
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Vote, Vote, Vote!
The results are in! At least, the ones from the 6-8th graders' mock election. The 6th graders spent a half an hour setting up our classroom as a polling place. We had three booths (desks surrounded by gym mats), two registration tables (one for last names A-H, and one for I-Z), and a tally table (our lab table). Each of the 7th and 8th graders had a job to do, and most of them were very professional about it.
Two people went to tell the classrooms it was their turn to vote. The voters would come in and sit in the waiting area. They would go up to the registration table, have their name crossed off by an 8th grader, and be handed a ballot and a pencil by a 7th grader. Then, a 7th or 8th grader would let them know which polling booth was open (the people manning the polls would raise their hand). The student "guarding" the poll would remind the voter not to write his/her name on the ballot.
Some of the 1st graders had trouble reading the words on the ballot, so the poll assistants would help them read the names. After voting, the voter would fold his/her ballot, stick it in the official ice cream pail, and return to the waiting area. When the bucket got full, I would carry it to the tally table (partially hidden by a tri-fold board) where three 7th and 8th graders were waiting to count the votes. One girl pulled out the ballot, recorded the vote for cats vs. dogs, and passed it down to the next girl (who recorded chocolate vs. vanilla), who passed it down to the final tallier who recorded Obama vs. Romney. This last individual put an X on the ballot and put it in a different ice cream pail.
When all the votes were in, we put my classroom back together, and the 6th graders made bar graphs of the results. They also calculated percentages of the votes cast for each choice. We presented the results to each classroom that participated right before the end of the day. 52 people voted and the results are as follows:
Cats vs. Dogs
Cats= 10 [19%]
Dogs= 42 [81%]
Chocolate vs. Vanilla
Chocolate= 24 [46%]
Vanilla= 28 [54%]
Obama vs. Romney
Obama= 10 [19%]
Romney= 41 [79%]
Other (write in)= 1 [2%]
Two people went to tell the classrooms it was their turn to vote. The voters would come in and sit in the waiting area. They would go up to the registration table, have their name crossed off by an 8th grader, and be handed a ballot and a pencil by a 7th grader. Then, a 7th or 8th grader would let them know which polling booth was open (the people manning the polls would raise their hand). The student "guarding" the poll would remind the voter not to write his/her name on the ballot.
Some of the 1st graders had trouble reading the words on the ballot, so the poll assistants would help them read the names. After voting, the voter would fold his/her ballot, stick it in the official ice cream pail, and return to the waiting area. When the bucket got full, I would carry it to the tally table (partially hidden by a tri-fold board) where three 7th and 8th graders were waiting to count the votes. One girl pulled out the ballot, recorded the vote for cats vs. dogs, and passed it down to the next girl (who recorded chocolate vs. vanilla), who passed it down to the final tallier who recorded Obama vs. Romney. This last individual put an X on the ballot and put it in a different ice cream pail.
When all the votes were in, we put my classroom back together, and the 6th graders made bar graphs of the results. They also calculated percentages of the votes cast for each choice. We presented the results to each classroom that participated right before the end of the day. 52 people voted and the results are as follows:
Cats vs. Dogs
Cats= 10 [19%]
Dogs= 42 [81%]
Chocolate vs. Vanilla
Chocolate= 24 [46%]
Vanilla= 28 [54%]
Obama vs. Romney
Obama= 10 [19%]
Romney= 41 [79%]
Other (write in)= 1 [2%]
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Halloween... Best or Worst Holiday?
Growing up, Halloween seemed like a pretty great holiday. You dress up in costume, get some free candy, have a party at school... how is this a bad holiday? But once you get to the teacher side of things, it's a whole new ball game.
First of all, everyone is talking about their costumes for weeks in advance. Then they ask you what you are going to be. When you answer that you aren't going to dress up, they try to convince you! They even brainstorm some possible ideas. Nowadays pretty much 80% of costumes are gross, so they wouldn't even work at school.
Next reason: kids are jacked up on sugar. It's bad enough they are fed sugar during the class party. Later that night, they'll probably eat their weight in candy! (okay, maybe not that much). Add together the late night and a belly full of sweets... not a recipe for success the next day in school.
We didn't have a party in our classroom; Friday our class is hosting an all school carnival in the gym, so we're going to have a Reformation/Fall party for a brief while after lunch. Even though my students knew we weren't celebrating anything until Friday, they still brought in cupcakes and cookies to share! Urgh! I didn't want them crazy all day, so we doled out the sweets at the end of the day. Make the bus drivers and the parents deal with them, eh?
Most of my students were fairly awake this morning (with the exception of the boys; they looked like they partied hard.) Part of that could be they're getting sick. All morning our room was full of the sounds of coughs. Not little "clearing the throat" coughs. I'm talking those big "almost hack up a lung" cough. Hopefully they get a good night's sleep tonight.
First of all, everyone is talking about their costumes for weeks in advance. Then they ask you what you are going to be. When you answer that you aren't going to dress up, they try to convince you! They even brainstorm some possible ideas. Nowadays pretty much 80% of costumes are gross, so they wouldn't even work at school.
Next reason: kids are jacked up on sugar. It's bad enough they are fed sugar during the class party. Later that night, they'll probably eat their weight in candy! (okay, maybe not that much). Add together the late night and a belly full of sweets... not a recipe for success the next day in school.
We didn't have a party in our classroom; Friday our class is hosting an all school carnival in the gym, so we're going to have a Reformation/Fall party for a brief while after lunch. Even though my students knew we weren't celebrating anything until Friday, they still brought in cupcakes and cookies to share! Urgh! I didn't want them crazy all day, so we doled out the sweets at the end of the day. Make the bus drivers and the parents deal with them, eh?
Most of my students were fairly awake this morning (with the exception of the boys; they looked like they partied hard.) Part of that could be they're getting sick. All morning our room was full of the sounds of coughs. Not little "clearing the throat" coughs. I'm talking those big "almost hack up a lung" cough. Hopefully they get a good night's sleep tonight.
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