I have never been so scared of a day of school in my life.
On Monday, I warned the 5th graders their memory work was long; they needed to start studying it right away. Wednesday came: no one said their memory. Thursday: nothing. All four of them had to say it before the bell rang.
They had a math test yesterday. Since one particular student likes to dawdle, I told the class their test had to be finished before we could open presents.
Ms. J. was gone today getting a head start on Christmas travels. So I was going it solo, trying to get our poky student to say memory and finish the math test.
It was torture. I felt like such a mean, crabby teacher having to lay the smack down. No one got their entire memory work said before the bell rang. We barely had enough time to work on the math test, so they had to stay in from recess to get it done. Two of them still didn't finish so the rest of the class quickly wrapped their parent presents while the others tried to finish their test.
The 7th and 8th graders wanted to watch Facing the Giants as our class movie. Since it's two hours long, we'd have to eliminate most of our recess and have a really short class party, not giving us much time to finish up those math tests. When there was ten minutes to go (before we were supposed to start the movie), there was still one student testing. I told the rest of the class to gather up their presents and head to the reading corner. The student began to cry.
The class told me I should open my presents first so the testing student would still get to see the rest of the class open their presents. So I opened all my presents. And this student still wasn't done. So I had the other three open my gift to them. (I made mini-Joe's at my pottery class. They loved them!) Still crying, still not done. So we took a break from presents to speed-clean the classroom. At that point, it was time to start the movie. I called down to Mr. E's room and told them they could start without us. And FINALLY the test was finished. Everyone opened their presents, everyone loved them, everyone was happy. And then we watched the movie. Whew!
Friday, December 20, 2013
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Le Tired
Since I'm super tired, let's keep this brief ...
The parent presents are nearly finished. Two of my kids have theirs wrapped already. The rest only need a few finishing touches and they'll be good to go too.
I had just enough gingersnaps for everyone. Most of the 5th graders hadn't had gingersnaps before, but they were glad to get extra dessert! The 7th and 8th graders were also excited to get theirs (some even cheered!). Since it was right after lunch, a few of them weren't hungry. One girl gave part of her cookie to Mr. D. He said they were very good. The lady who bought my cookies on the silent auction picked hers up after school today. She ran into Mr. D on his way out and he ended up with two of them. She said she'd have to put them in the freezer when she got home or she'd eat them all before her company came!
Our bookmarks are finally mailed! I still have to email their teacher back... We plan to start our Valentine's Day cards in January when we get back from break so they'll be done in time for February.
There were/are 4 basketball games after school. They're on game number three in the gym right now. I watched the B squad boys and girls play. Though we weren't officially cheering, there were a few cheerleaders who wanted to cheer at the games. They were going strong for about the first five minutes. Then they ate some pizza and drank some pop and played around in the equipment room. And then they ran off into the halls to play tag. And then we didn't see them again. Since it wasn't officially a cheering game, Mrs. E and I couldn't/didn't do a whole lot. Seeing them in action gave us lots of things to think about for our meeting tomorrow.
The parent presents are nearly finished. Two of my kids have theirs wrapped already. The rest only need a few finishing touches and they'll be good to go too.
I had just enough gingersnaps for everyone. Most of the 5th graders hadn't had gingersnaps before, but they were glad to get extra dessert! The 7th and 8th graders were also excited to get theirs (some even cheered!). Since it was right after lunch, a few of them weren't hungry. One girl gave part of her cookie to Mr. D. He said they were very good. The lady who bought my cookies on the silent auction picked hers up after school today. She ran into Mr. D on his way out and he ended up with two of them. She said she'd have to put them in the freezer when she got home or she'd eat them all before her company came!
Our bookmarks are finally mailed! I still have to email their teacher back... We plan to start our Valentine's Day cards in January when we get back from break so they'll be done in time for February.
There were/are 4 basketball games after school. They're on game number three in the gym right now. I watched the B squad boys and girls play. Though we weren't officially cheering, there were a few cheerleaders who wanted to cheer at the games. They were going strong for about the first five minutes. Then they ate some pizza and drank some pop and played around in the equipment room. And then they ran off into the halls to play tag. And then we didn't see them again. Since it wasn't officially a cheering game, Mrs. E and I couldn't/didn't do a whole lot. Seeing them in action gave us lots of things to think about for our meeting tomorrow.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Don't cry over spilled paint...
Instead of English today, we worked on our parent Christmas present (mostly because there's no other time for us to do it during the day). We were painting our pine cones white so they'd look more like a snowman... and mine slipped out of my hands and landed on my pants. White paint down the front. I was wearing khakis today, so it wasn't as bad as black pants, but it was still pretty noticeable. Surprisingly, only one person said something about it: one of the 7th grade boys.
Ms. J wasn't in school today; her grandma is in the hospital and she needed to be with her family. The 5th graders made her a card and stuck it on her desk. Hopefully she is back tomorrow.
We still haven't sent the bookmarks to our pen pals. Oh I feel so bad they won't arrive before Christmas! Today she sent their latest letters and asked when we sent ours. How do I tell her they're still in an envelope on my desk??? I should just do it. But I really don't want to. Sigh. And once again their letters outshine ours. Neat handwriting, cool pictures... I feel like a failure of a teacher.
Our first cheerleading practice was today. Nine girls in K-2nd grade are on the squad. And they are SUPER excited to be cheerleaders. We learned a ton of cheers and then we performed them in the gym for the basketball team that was practicing. And then Mrs. E's son stopped by school and all the girls mobbed him and told him he had to watch them do their cheers. And a mom came early to pick up her daughter and they all wanted to show her their cheers. So we did. They picked up a lot of stuff at our first practice. I think it's kind of funny that I am a cheer coach.
When I was in 5th or 6th grade, I tried to quit cheerleading. My teacher wouldn't let me. And now here I am, head coach of the cheering squad at our school.
Ms. J wasn't in school today; her grandma is in the hospital and she needed to be with her family. The 5th graders made her a card and stuck it on her desk. Hopefully she is back tomorrow.
We still haven't sent the bookmarks to our pen pals. Oh I feel so bad they won't arrive before Christmas! Today she sent their latest letters and asked when we sent ours. How do I tell her they're still in an envelope on my desk??? I should just do it. But I really don't want to. Sigh. And once again their letters outshine ours. Neat handwriting, cool pictures... I feel like a failure of a teacher.
Our first cheerleading practice was today. Nine girls in K-2nd grade are on the squad. And they are SUPER excited to be cheerleaders. We learned a ton of cheers and then we performed them in the gym for the basketball team that was practicing. And then Mrs. E's son stopped by school and all the girls mobbed him and told him he had to watch them do their cheers. And a mom came early to pick up her daughter and they all wanted to show her their cheers. So we did. They picked up a lot of stuff at our first practice. I think it's kind of funny that I am a cheer coach.
When I was in 5th or 6th grade, I tried to quit cheerleading. My teacher wouldn't let me. And now here I am, head coach of the cheering squad at our school.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Scent of Freshly Baked Cookies
Gingersnaps have been haunting me all day.
I made a batch last night to give to the 7th and 8th graders as a "Christmas present" and also for a lady at church who bought some at the Silent Auction. She was supposed to pick them up today but forgot, so they've been tucked into a desk drawer teasing me with their delicious smell every time I sit in my desk.
There were just enough cookies so everyone in my class can have two (plus the ones for the lady from church). But there aren't any leftovers. So that means I have to resist the temptation until Thursday when she can come pick them up. Sigh. It's going to be a long week.
We have our first cheerleading practice tomorrow. A bunch of little girls have been coming up to me all day saying, "Miss H. I get to stay after school tomorrow! I can't wait to be a cheerleader!" Mrs. E and I came up with a game plan after school today for our first practice. I hope everything goes well!
It was super windy today, so we drove the whole school over to church for our program practice. That was an adventure. Everyone made it there and back safely!
Judging by the sounds in the gym, I think the basketball game is about to start, so I better hustle out there so I can watch.
I made a batch last night to give to the 7th and 8th graders as a "Christmas present" and also for a lady at church who bought some at the Silent Auction. She was supposed to pick them up today but forgot, so they've been tucked into a desk drawer teasing me with their delicious smell every time I sit in my desk.
There were just enough cookies so everyone in my class can have two (plus the ones for the lady from church). But there aren't any leftovers. So that means I have to resist the temptation until Thursday when she can come pick them up. Sigh. It's going to be a long week.
We have our first cheerleading practice tomorrow. A bunch of little girls have been coming up to me all day saying, "Miss H. I get to stay after school tomorrow! I can't wait to be a cheerleader!" Mrs. E and I came up with a game plan after school today for our first practice. I hope everything goes well!
It was super windy today, so we drove the whole school over to church for our program practice. That was an adventure. Everyone made it there and back safely!
Judging by the sounds in the gym, I think the basketball game is about to start, so I better hustle out there so I can watch.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Caution: Falling Coconuts!
At lunch today the conversation was all about coconuts. No idea how we got on that topic, but we did.
Someone mentioned that in Hawaii more people die from falling coconuts than they do from shark attacks. Then another kid jumped in, "Yeah! That's why they have signs that say 'Beware: Falling Coconuts! Look out or you will die!' okay, I made that last part up, but I think they do have signs there." That prompted the discussion of whether it would be better to die from a coconut falling on your head or to have a shark kill you. The general consensus was that a coconut would be better.
Our first program practice was at church today. As expected, everyone was super loud and keyed up. I could practically feel the energy bouncing around the room. Mrs. M asked for two "strapping young men, big and strong ones" to carry the manger to the center of the church. Of course the smallest kid in my class (one who is the same height/size as some of the 1st graders) had his hand waving around in the air. He didn't get picked.
While doing research on the solar system, one of the boys found an article announcing that China was going to launch its first lunar mission. And they did. On Saturday. We found a video of the Chinese people talking about the launch and how people in China felt about it. That was pretty cool.
Another interesting conversation we had today was about the treatment of Christians in China. I am a little fuzzy on details, so I told my kids I'd email a friend who is teaching English there and see what the scoop is. Thankfully I wrote a note, or I would've forgotten many times. Speaking of which... I should do that now before I forget...
Someone mentioned that in Hawaii more people die from falling coconuts than they do from shark attacks. Then another kid jumped in, "Yeah! That's why they have signs that say 'Beware: Falling Coconuts! Look out or you will die!' okay, I made that last part up, but I think they do have signs there." That prompted the discussion of whether it would be better to die from a coconut falling on your head or to have a shark kill you. The general consensus was that a coconut would be better.
Our first program practice was at church today. As expected, everyone was super loud and keyed up. I could practically feel the energy bouncing around the room. Mrs. M asked for two "strapping young men, big and strong ones" to carry the manger to the center of the church. Of course the smallest kid in my class (one who is the same height/size as some of the 1st graders) had his hand waving around in the air. He didn't get picked.
While doing research on the solar system, one of the boys found an article announcing that China was going to launch its first lunar mission. And they did. On Saturday. We found a video of the Chinese people talking about the launch and how people in China felt about it. That was pretty cool.
Another interesting conversation we had today was about the treatment of Christians in China. I am a little fuzzy on details, so I told my kids I'd email a friend who is teaching English there and see what the scoop is. Thankfully I wrote a note, or I would've forgotten many times. Speaking of which... I should do that now before I forget...
Friday, December 13, 2013
Day Made
First of all... it's Friday!!! Last night I kept thinking that the next day was Saturday and it made me feel sad every time I remembered we still had one more day of school.
We didn't get our bookmarks for our pen pals finished. A few more were completed, but not all of them. I don't think they'll make it there by Christmas.
The 2nd graders had a super hard time focusing today. I had to get after them so much! They did get their quota of math worksheets done for today (or at least, they're all on the same page).
Once again, the awesome picture books I got at the library this week were passed around and read, this time with the 1st grade reading buddies. I have a ton of books to add to my books-to-buy list.
Joe isn't dug down quite as far as before. He was out momentarily to eat his food, but then he went back to his corner.
I'm in a conundrum: what to teach the 7th and 8th graders next week? I really want to keep going with our units, but with Christmas break coming up it would be nice to do something different the last few days before break. I don't want them to forget all we've learned before the test, so I think I might do a take home test before/over the break. I'm such a mean teacher.
Well, whatever I decide to do, I think I'm going to figure it out at home. My goal is to leave before 4:30pm, so I should have just enough time to clear off my desk and grab my books and go.
We didn't get our bookmarks for our pen pals finished. A few more were completed, but not all of them. I don't think they'll make it there by Christmas.
The 2nd graders had a super hard time focusing today. I had to get after them so much! They did get their quota of math worksheets done for today (or at least, they're all on the same page).
Once again, the awesome picture books I got at the library this week were passed around and read, this time with the 1st grade reading buddies. I have a ton of books to add to my books-to-buy list.
Joe isn't dug down quite as far as before. He was out momentarily to eat his food, but then he went back to his corner.
I'm in a conundrum: what to teach the 7th and 8th graders next week? I really want to keep going with our units, but with Christmas break coming up it would be nice to do something different the last few days before break. I don't want them to forget all we've learned before the test, so I think I might do a take home test before/over the break. I'm such a mean teacher.
Well, whatever I decide to do, I think I'm going to figure it out at home. My goal is to leave before 4:30pm, so I should have just enough time to clear off my desk and grab my books and go.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Notes
Last night I left school before basketball practice was over. This morning I saw a note written on the whiteboard next to door (where they write their names when they have to use the bathroom). It said, "Good morning! I wrote this after practice. Love L." It made me smile.
The 2nd graders got all 20 of their tally marks, so we did a fun day today. They did reading buddies with the 5th graders. After reading a few books, they played hangman with words/phrases from the books.
One of the 5th graders' brothers has a birthday today. All this 5th grader could talk about was getting to go snowmobiling after school. In religion, we were discussing the word aroma (how we're clothed with the aroma of Christ). The 5th graders didn't know what it meant, so I gave them some examples of good aromas. Of course they all wanted to name some: brownies, Mom's enchiladas... snowmobiles. I'll give you one guess on which 5th grader said that.
We got a special delivery today. Our Slovakian pen pals' package of Christmas presents arrived! Woohoo! I had to sign for it and everything. All the things they send us are beautiful: neat handwriting, creatively drawn pictures, other cool pictures... It makes the stuff we send seem shabby. And their Christmas presents are no different. They sent a lot of stuff. Some of it is glittery (and now it's coating my desk). They sent some stickers and some little candies and some pretty bookmarks. Each kid in our class got at least two cards. One of the girls got four plus the stickers and some other random gifty things. There were two cards for the boy who moved. Ms. J got a card. I got a card. Even Joe got a card addressed to him! :) Now we have to think of something really cool to send them. Ahh! So much pressure!
I'm trying to decide whether I should pass them out tomorrow or wait until our Christmas party. I think I'm going to wait. But... maybe if I show them what the pen pals sent, the 5th graders will be more careful with the bookmarks they're making. Hmm...
The 2nd graders got all 20 of their tally marks, so we did a fun day today. They did reading buddies with the 5th graders. After reading a few books, they played hangman with words/phrases from the books.
One of the 5th graders' brothers has a birthday today. All this 5th grader could talk about was getting to go snowmobiling after school. In religion, we were discussing the word aroma (how we're clothed with the aroma of Christ). The 5th graders didn't know what it meant, so I gave them some examples of good aromas. Of course they all wanted to name some: brownies, Mom's enchiladas... snowmobiles. I'll give you one guess on which 5th grader said that.
We got a special delivery today. Our Slovakian pen pals' package of Christmas presents arrived! Woohoo! I had to sign for it and everything. All the things they send us are beautiful: neat handwriting, creatively drawn pictures, other cool pictures... It makes the stuff we send seem shabby. And their Christmas presents are no different. They sent a lot of stuff. Some of it is glittery (and now it's coating my desk). They sent some stickers and some little candies and some pretty bookmarks. Each kid in our class got at least two cards. One of the girls got four plus the stickers and some other random gifty things. There were two cards for the boy who moved. Ms. J got a card. I got a card. Even Joe got a card addressed to him! :) Now we have to think of something really cool to send them. Ahh! So much pressure!
I'm trying to decide whether I should pass them out tomorrow or wait until our Christmas party. I think I'm going to wait. But... maybe if I show them what the pen pals sent, the 5th graders will be more careful with the bookmarks they're making. Hmm...
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
A Day Without a Para- aka- banging my head against the wall
Our lovely para was sick today. Everyone in our classroom was bummed.
Yesterday, the special ed teacher at Nicollet emailed the two of us a resource that provided examples of things to say/do with students who have reactive attachment disorder (RAD). I read it this morning over breakfast. It was GREAT! I had so many great ideas after reading it; I felt confident and ready to face the day. And throughout the school day all those ideas disappeared. I think I might need to read it every morning before school until I have it memorized. Sure I remembered some of the stuff, but I definitely made a lot of mistakes today.
Trying to stay one step ahead of this student completely wore me out. I was trying different tactics I thought might work to get this student to do the assigned homework... and it seemed like this student didn't get anything done the whole day. Maybe it's not true. I don't know. This kid was bummed the para wasn't there and was therefore more emotional, which led to more arguments over stupid stuff and more tears. Just what every teacher wants to deal with.
On the plus side, we did get the majority of our art projects finished up. Most of the 5th graders have a good start on their powerpoints. The memory work is coming along slowly but surely. The 2nd graders are cruising on their math! They seem to be making less mistakes on their math packets.
I just remembered something funny that happened right before lunch. One of the tactics in the RAD paper I read said that if a student isn't completing the work, the teacher can say, "How sad for you that you did not do your reading work. You are so lucky that you have an awesome teacher who will give you the chance to practice reading during computer time!" This student didn't finish the English assignment, dawdling around for 99% of the work time. This student had just told me that I was an awesome teacher (probably because we were going to play the State Smacking Game instead of Spanish vocab today). Since the work wasn't done, this kid wouldn't get to play. I think I said something like, "Since I'm such a great teacher, I'm going to give you more time to work on that assignment. When you finish five more problems, feel free to join us!" The other 5th graders thought that was hilarious. One of the boys even brought it up during computer time that afternoon.
On somewhat of a side-note, this student did 6 English problems and then played the game with us until lunch.
Yesterday, the special ed teacher at Nicollet emailed the two of us a resource that provided examples of things to say/do with students who have reactive attachment disorder (RAD). I read it this morning over breakfast. It was GREAT! I had so many great ideas after reading it; I felt confident and ready to face the day. And throughout the school day all those ideas disappeared. I think I might need to read it every morning before school until I have it memorized. Sure I remembered some of the stuff, but I definitely made a lot of mistakes today.
Trying to stay one step ahead of this student completely wore me out. I was trying different tactics I thought might work to get this student to do the assigned homework... and it seemed like this student didn't get anything done the whole day. Maybe it's not true. I don't know. This kid was bummed the para wasn't there and was therefore more emotional, which led to more arguments over stupid stuff and more tears. Just what every teacher wants to deal with.
On the plus side, we did get the majority of our art projects finished up. Most of the 5th graders have a good start on their powerpoints. The memory work is coming along slowly but surely. The 2nd graders are cruising on their math! They seem to be making less mistakes on their math packets.
I just remembered something funny that happened right before lunch. One of the tactics in the RAD paper I read said that if a student isn't completing the work, the teacher can say, "How sad for you that you did not do your reading work. You are so lucky that you have an awesome teacher who will give you the chance to practice reading during computer time!" This student didn't finish the English assignment, dawdling around for 99% of the work time. This student had just told me that I was an awesome teacher (probably because we were going to play the State Smacking Game instead of Spanish vocab today). Since the work wasn't done, this kid wouldn't get to play. I think I said something like, "Since I'm such a great teacher, I'm going to give you more time to work on that assignment. When you finish five more problems, feel free to join us!" The other 5th graders thought that was hilarious. One of the boys even brought it up during computer time that afternoon.
On somewhat of a side-note, this student did 6 English problems and then played the game with us until lunch.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Yep... still cold
Last night, the way the wind was howling I thought there was a chance school would be late. Nope.
I did have some trouble getting out of my house this morning. A big drift grew in front of my porch door so I had to shove a couple times to get out. Not that easy when I was loaded down with my teacher bag, etc. It makes me wonder what I would do if the drift were even bigger and firmer. Will I be able to get out of my house? I might have to buy a shovel, just in case. Although if I can't even get the door open, will a shovel help at all?
Highlights today: The littlest 5th grader made a basket in our recess game of SNAKE today. Almost all our art projects for church are finished. (Still need to figure out what they'll make for their parents' present). Joe is sunning himself a little more- he's no longer buried under the bedding in his terrarium. We had a lot of good discussions in history today (both 5th and 7/8th grade). The 5th graders wanted me to keep back a few of the library books I had checked out last week so they could read them longer (the books are about colonial life/whaling, which was our topic today).
On the down side, it's still really cold out and only going to get colder! I hear it will be -30 wind chill tomorrow morning. Yikes!
I did have some trouble getting out of my house this morning. A big drift grew in front of my porch door so I had to shove a couple times to get out. Not that easy when I was loaded down with my teacher bag, etc. It makes me wonder what I would do if the drift were even bigger and firmer. Will I be able to get out of my house? I might have to buy a shovel, just in case. Although if I can't even get the door open, will a shovel help at all?
Highlights today: The littlest 5th grader made a basket in our recess game of SNAKE today. Almost all our art projects for church are finished. (Still need to figure out what they'll make for their parents' present). Joe is sunning himself a little more- he's no longer buried under the bedding in his terrarium. We had a lot of good discussions in history today (both 5th and 7/8th grade). The 5th graders wanted me to keep back a few of the library books I had checked out last week so they could read them longer (the books are about colonial life/whaling, which was our topic today).
On the down side, it's still really cold out and only going to get colder! I hear it will be -30 wind chill tomorrow morning. Yikes!
Monday, December 9, 2013
9 school days 'til Christmas
The weekends just aren't long enough! (for me and my students)
It was hard for them to settle in and focus on their work. One student in particular was a roller coaster of emotion all day. First she'd be happy, then she'd be mad saying she wasn't going to say anything else the rest of the day, then she'd ignore me, then she'd be happily chatting away (still dawdling on her work).
They had to take a test in math today, so I told them they had to finish their math test before working on their science solar system powerpoint presentation. The same dawdling student groaned and couldn't believe I would be so cruel. Too bad! She ended up getting it done just in time for music practice. The two boys got theirs done right away. One had his story to finish (he had been on vacation when we finished them in class). To help him go faster, I typed while he dictated his story. Now he just has to do spell check and he'll be good to go! Woohoo! They're already thinking about revising them, but I told them we're waiting until January so they can look at their story with fresh eyes.
So much to do before Christmas! I can't believe we only have 9 days of school left. And one of them will be our class party/program practice. Yikes!
Speaking of a party... we always watch a movie with the 7th and 8th graders as part of our party, so we've been brainstorming good movies to watch. In English, our lesson was on capitalizing titles of works. One of the exercises was about The Sound of Music. They had no clue what it was. At all. Nothing jogged their memories. I was speechless for a few minutes and then I gave them a synopsis. One girl said, "I know Miss H! We can watch that movie for our party!" I actually wouldn't mind, but I'm thinking there's too much singing for the 7th and 8th graders. I told her we could ask them what they thought.
It was hard for them to settle in and focus on their work. One student in particular was a roller coaster of emotion all day. First she'd be happy, then she'd be mad saying she wasn't going to say anything else the rest of the day, then she'd ignore me, then she'd be happily chatting away (still dawdling on her work).
They had to take a test in math today, so I told them they had to finish their math test before working on their science solar system powerpoint presentation. The same dawdling student groaned and couldn't believe I would be so cruel. Too bad! She ended up getting it done just in time for music practice. The two boys got theirs done right away. One had his story to finish (he had been on vacation when we finished them in class). To help him go faster, I typed while he dictated his story. Now he just has to do spell check and he'll be good to go! Woohoo! They're already thinking about revising them, but I told them we're waiting until January so they can look at their story with fresh eyes.
So much to do before Christmas! I can't believe we only have 9 days of school left. And one of them will be our class party/program practice. Yikes!
Speaking of a party... we always watch a movie with the 7th and 8th graders as part of our party, so we've been brainstorming good movies to watch. In English, our lesson was on capitalizing titles of works. One of the exercises was about The Sound of Music. They had no clue what it was. At all. Nothing jogged their memories. I was speechless for a few minutes and then I gave them a synopsis. One girl said, "I know Miss H! We can watch that movie for our party!" I actually wouldn't mind, but I'm thinking there's too much singing for the 7th and 8th graders. I told her we could ask them what they thought.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Jump Roping Around the Gym
Today marks the halfway point of the second quarter. I looked at my curriculum map of the year and discovered that I'm right on schedule with 7/8th history, I'm ahead in 7/8th science, and I'm a little behind in 5th grade science and history. I've been trying to do more projects for history lately, maybe I need to introduce some science projects too. We're going to start an oceanography unit on Monday.
Other than that, our day has been pretty standard.
I suppose I could mention the argument between the two female 5th graders during read to someone. They each wanted to read a different book and couldn't compromise. We switched rounds and then while the rest of the class played the Circular Story Game for English, they had to read for another 6 minutes with each other using the compromise they came up with. Our topic for Circular Stories was: John Deere and International. My only stipulation was that no one/thing could die in the stories. Oh man, poor International tractors got slaughtered in the stories. I did my best to make them come out ahead, but the Deere power is too strong in our classroom. We didn't get to read the stories aloud yet (we ran out of time), so we'll do that on Monday.
At recess, I promised one of the girls that I would play jump rope with her (instead of SNAKE like the rest of the class plays). Since Ms. J and I twirled the rope and didn't do SNAKE, the rest of the class decided to join us jump roping. One of the boys asked if we could walk around the gym while he jumped. So we did. And everyone wanted to try it that way. The teachers twirled the ropes and walked while the kids jumped. At the end of recess, we tried with all 4 students jumping. They tripped up before we could start to walk. I think we're going to have to try it again some time.
The cold weather is doing nothing for my car. Even in the garage the temperature got down to 17 degrees. On my way to school my car was creaking because it was so cold! I wonder if my hatch is shut all the way. I'd try to shut it again, but there is ice and snow blocking it. It never melted from the last time it snowed.
This weekend is shaping up to have some complications. Sunday is caroling, Christmas at Bethany, and an education alumni dinner. And we're supposed to get 2-3 inches of snow Sunday afternoon. Hmm. Lovely driving weather. Sigh. Hopefully we don't get much and the roads stay clear.
Other than that, our day has been pretty standard.
I suppose I could mention the argument between the two female 5th graders during read to someone. They each wanted to read a different book and couldn't compromise. We switched rounds and then while the rest of the class played the Circular Story Game for English, they had to read for another 6 minutes with each other using the compromise they came up with. Our topic for Circular Stories was: John Deere and International. My only stipulation was that no one/thing could die in the stories. Oh man, poor International tractors got slaughtered in the stories. I did my best to make them come out ahead, but the Deere power is too strong in our classroom. We didn't get to read the stories aloud yet (we ran out of time), so we'll do that on Monday.
At recess, I promised one of the girls that I would play jump rope with her (instead of SNAKE like the rest of the class plays). Since Ms. J and I twirled the rope and didn't do SNAKE, the rest of the class decided to join us jump roping. One of the boys asked if we could walk around the gym while he jumped. So we did. And everyone wanted to try it that way. The teachers twirled the ropes and walked while the kids jumped. At the end of recess, we tried with all 4 students jumping. They tripped up before we could start to walk. I think we're going to have to try it again some time.
The cold weather is doing nothing for my car. Even in the garage the temperature got down to 17 degrees. On my way to school my car was creaking because it was so cold! I wonder if my hatch is shut all the way. I'd try to shut it again, but there is ice and snow blocking it. It never melted from the last time it snowed.
This weekend is shaping up to have some complications. Sunday is caroling, Christmas at Bethany, and an education alumni dinner. And we're supposed to get 2-3 inches of snow Sunday afternoon. Hmm. Lovely driving weather. Sigh. Hopefully we don't get much and the roads stay clear.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Two Hours Late
Last night, I peeked out the window and didn't see much snow. I figured school would be business as usual. The alarm went off this morning and I saw that I had a voicemail on my phone from last night. New Ulm was already two hours late, but since Nicollet was still on time, I had to go in at the normal time.
All but one of my students ride the New Ulm bus. So I had one student in my classroom for an hour or so, and then another showed up (her mom dropped her off) and then another (his dad dropped him off), and finally the bus arrived and we had all 4 students.
It was crazy! Everyone had so much trouble focusing. One girl did buckle down and get everything done. She said her memory work (all 4 verses plus the commandment and meaning), finished an art project, started another art project, and shoveled the sidewalk. On the other hand, I had another student who only finished two things in the two hours she was at school. Sigh.
At our staff meeting, one of the teachers who has a child at MVL said her daughter texted her that school at MVL is already two hours late. And where MVL goes, the rest of New Ulm Public is bound to follow. Will we have a repeat of today?
All but one of my students ride the New Ulm bus. So I had one student in my classroom for an hour or so, and then another showed up (her mom dropped her off) and then another (his dad dropped him off), and finally the bus arrived and we had all 4 students.
It was crazy! Everyone had so much trouble focusing. One girl did buckle down and get everything done. She said her memory work (all 4 verses plus the commandment and meaning), finished an art project, started another art project, and shoveled the sidewalk. On the other hand, I had another student who only finished two things in the two hours she was at school. Sigh.
At our staff meeting, one of the teachers who has a child at MVL said her daughter texted her that school at MVL is already two hours late. And where MVL goes, the rest of New Ulm Public is bound to follow. Will we have a repeat of today?
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Early Out!
The phone rang.
The 5th graders scrambled shouting, "I'll get it!"
The teacher got there first and saw the number: New Ulm Public Schools.
Well, there goes the school day. 15 minutes later, Mr. E comes to let us know school is out for the day at 1:00pm. Just enough time for the 7th and 8th graders to take their science test. A little while later, Nicollet called school off, so we didn't need to call parents to come pick their kids up.
Yeah, other than that, not much has happened today.
Joe is still hibernating. The helper of the day was really annoyed; she wanted to dig him out so we could give him his weekly bath. I told her we could give him a bath when he comes out. He stayed buried.
So, I guess I'm going to finish up a few things and then head for home. Maybe I'll decorate my apartment for Christmas.
The 5th graders scrambled shouting, "I'll get it!"
The teacher got there first and saw the number: New Ulm Public Schools.
Well, there goes the school day. 15 minutes later, Mr. E comes to let us know school is out for the day at 1:00pm. Just enough time for the 7th and 8th graders to take their science test. A little while later, Nicollet called school off, so we didn't need to call parents to come pick their kids up.
Yeah, other than that, not much has happened today.
Joe is still hibernating. The helper of the day was really annoyed; she wanted to dig him out so we could give him his weekly bath. I told her we could give him a bath when he comes out. He stayed buried.
So, I guess I'm going to finish up a few things and then head for home. Maybe I'll decorate my apartment for Christmas.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
As expected...
Today was a much better day, as expected.
We had a game day in 2nd grade math. Don't worry, they were educational games. They finally got to their 15 tallies and earned a reward. We split into two groups and played the story dice game and the Neverending Story game. Both games are played the same way; each person gets a pile of cards/dice and players take turn making up a story by looking at the pictures. The two kids I was playing with were really into it. They ended up staying a little longer in my room than they were supposed to. But that's okay.
We also did reading buddies with the kindergartners. They start out so enthusiastic, but they don't have much staying power. One of the 5th grade boys complained that his two buddies stopped paying attention to him. I think I need to keep a better eye on them and send them back once they start getting distracted. It would also help for them to sit in a better spot. So next time, I'm going to choose their seats for them.
This afternoon, we decorated the classroom for Christmas. We got the tree out and plugged it in, strewing it with tinsel galore. I don't think we even need more ornaments. The tinsel blows in the breeze whenever anyone walks by and it reflects the lights. It makes our room look so cozy when the lights are off!
Someone donated a nativity scene to school and no one else has room for it, so it ended up in my room. There were tons of little pieces to unwrap and hang on a mini-tree that sticks up from behind the main scene. The tree is covered in angels and the rest of the figurines surround Mary and baby Jesus in the center. We couldn't figure out which guy was supposed to be Joseph, so we just guessed. And there wasn't a map of where to put the other figures, so we guessed on those ones too. Lots of guessing going on. But it turned out really cool!
One of the boys took charge of an even tinier tree. He found the smallest ornaments and hung them on the branches. Then he proudly found a spot for it at the front of the room. It reminds me a bit of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. :) I might have to take a picture to put on here.
Well, the first boy's basketball game is going on in the gym. I should probably stop in and watch my kids play. There's a storm coming tonight, so I'm debating whether I want to go to New Ulm tonight or tomorrow night for groceries/library. Hmm... Advent service tomorrow night, but potential snowstorm. Decisions, decisions.
We had a game day in 2nd grade math. Don't worry, they were educational games. They finally got to their 15 tallies and earned a reward. We split into two groups and played the story dice game and the Neverending Story game. Both games are played the same way; each person gets a pile of cards/dice and players take turn making up a story by looking at the pictures. The two kids I was playing with were really into it. They ended up staying a little longer in my room than they were supposed to. But that's okay.
We also did reading buddies with the kindergartners. They start out so enthusiastic, but they don't have much staying power. One of the 5th grade boys complained that his two buddies stopped paying attention to him. I think I need to keep a better eye on them and send them back once they start getting distracted. It would also help for them to sit in a better spot. So next time, I'm going to choose their seats for them.
This afternoon, we decorated the classroom for Christmas. We got the tree out and plugged it in, strewing it with tinsel galore. I don't think we even need more ornaments. The tinsel blows in the breeze whenever anyone walks by and it reflects the lights. It makes our room look so cozy when the lights are off!
Someone donated a nativity scene to school and no one else has room for it, so it ended up in my room. There were tons of little pieces to unwrap and hang on a mini-tree that sticks up from behind the main scene. The tree is covered in angels and the rest of the figurines surround Mary and baby Jesus in the center. We couldn't figure out which guy was supposed to be Joseph, so we just guessed. And there wasn't a map of where to put the other figures, so we guessed on those ones too. Lots of guessing going on. But it turned out really cool!
One of the boys took charge of an even tinier tree. He found the smallest ornaments and hung them on the branches. Then he proudly found a spot for it at the front of the room. It reminds me a bit of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. :) I might have to take a picture to put on here.
Well, the first boy's basketball game is going on in the gym. I should probably stop in and watch my kids play. There's a storm coming tonight, so I'm debating whether I want to go to New Ulm tonight or tomorrow night for groceries/library. Hmm... Advent service tomorrow night, but potential snowstorm. Decisions, decisions.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Another one of those days...
Have you ever had one of those days where you just want to go home and do nothing?
Joe had the same feeling, except he actually got to do it. I got to school early this morning to fix up the new bedding in his tank. It needed more water so I let him walk around the room while I got everything situated. By the time all the bedding was broken up, the 5th graders were here and they helped mix the sand into the bedding. We plopped him in the corner where the bedding was mounded up and he dug himself down deep. We haven't seen him since. It's crazy how much this bothers the 5th graders. They want to dig him out and check if he's okay. I told them they had to leave him alone. He's probably just grumpy from all the traveling he did this weekend. And he probably wants to hibernate too; they normally hibernate for most of the year.
The 5th graders were also concerned about his food (I forgot it in my fridge at home). And they were mega concerned about the Christmas decorations. That's on the agenda for tomorrow. Which reminds me, I need to pull out the rest of the decorations. And figure out what we're making for a parent gift this year. Yikes! Christmas is coming fast! And I need to decorate my apartment too. And do some Christmas baking...
I had some technical difficulties this morning as well. My computer screen wouldn't turn on at first. I tried turning on/off the computer multiple times, then I tried unplugging the main cord. That turned off my computer and the phone. Oops. I tried wiggling the cords. Nothing. Then I remembered I had one of the power strips turned off since most of what was plugged in was Joe's lights (and with him out of the building, I didn't think it needed to be on). And once I had that flip switched, my computer screen worked fine.
But then my email didn't work. And then the email worked, but the password was set back to the original. We figured out how to make it work after school though, so I could catch up on all my emails. Now I just need to figure out what I'm doing with the 7th and 8th graders tomorrow and I can finally go home and do nothing! (or, more likely, read a book and correct papers).
Joe had the same feeling, except he actually got to do it. I got to school early this morning to fix up the new bedding in his tank. It needed more water so I let him walk around the room while I got everything situated. By the time all the bedding was broken up, the 5th graders were here and they helped mix the sand into the bedding. We plopped him in the corner where the bedding was mounded up and he dug himself down deep. We haven't seen him since. It's crazy how much this bothers the 5th graders. They want to dig him out and check if he's okay. I told them they had to leave him alone. He's probably just grumpy from all the traveling he did this weekend. And he probably wants to hibernate too; they normally hibernate for most of the year.
The 5th graders were also concerned about his food (I forgot it in my fridge at home). And they were mega concerned about the Christmas decorations. That's on the agenda for tomorrow. Which reminds me, I need to pull out the rest of the decorations. And figure out what we're making for a parent gift this year. Yikes! Christmas is coming fast! And I need to decorate my apartment too. And do some Christmas baking...
I had some technical difficulties this morning as well. My computer screen wouldn't turn on at first. I tried turning on/off the computer multiple times, then I tried unplugging the main cord. That turned off my computer and the phone. Oops. I tried wiggling the cords. Nothing. Then I remembered I had one of the power strips turned off since most of what was plugged in was Joe's lights (and with him out of the building, I didn't think it needed to be on). And once I had that flip switched, my computer screen worked fine.
But then my email didn't work. And then the email worked, but the password was set back to the original. We figured out how to make it work after school though, so I could catch up on all my emails. Now I just need to figure out what I'm doing with the 7th and 8th graders tomorrow and I can finally go home and do nothing! (or, more likely, read a book and correct papers).
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
I can't wait for two years!
Lots of cute things happened in school today.
We had a little time before recess with the 3rd/4th graders, so I pulled up a map of the United States and the 5th graders played the flyswatter states game. They did a lot better than the 7th/8th graders. When someone finally knocked on our door to let us know the gym was open, the 5th graders asked if we could keep playing the game. :) We played a little more and then went to recess.
At noon recess, the 7th grade girls found some little beach balls in the bleachers. They discovered they were just the right size to shove up their shirts so they could pretend to be pregnant. Then they wanted to jump rope that way. It was at the same time funny and disturbing. One of the 5th graders thought we should take a picture for the yearbook but I told them no because someone might think it was real. The girls with the beach ball babies had no clue why people would think it would be real. Such innocence!
The cutest thing happened this afternoon. The 3rd/4th graders came to our room to see pictures of my trip overseas. They brought pizza. Homemade pizza to be exact. Part of their English assignment was to give a "how to" speech and most of them chose to show how to make some sort of food. One boy showed how to make pizza and then wanted to share with us. :)
But that's not the cutest part yet. One of the 4th grade girls walked into my room and said, "Whoa, I really like your room. It's cool!" This is the first time she's actually talked to me. Then, when the rest of the class was assembled, I heard two of the 2nd grade girls whispering together, "I can't wait for it to be two years!" Meaning they wanted to be in my class. Oh how cute! It's things like these that make the bad days seem not so bad.
We had a little time before recess with the 3rd/4th graders, so I pulled up a map of the United States and the 5th graders played the flyswatter states game. They did a lot better than the 7th/8th graders. When someone finally knocked on our door to let us know the gym was open, the 5th graders asked if we could keep playing the game. :) We played a little more and then went to recess.
At noon recess, the 7th grade girls found some little beach balls in the bleachers. They discovered they were just the right size to shove up their shirts so they could pretend to be pregnant. Then they wanted to jump rope that way. It was at the same time funny and disturbing. One of the 5th graders thought we should take a picture for the yearbook but I told them no because someone might think it was real. The girls with the beach ball babies had no clue why people would think it would be real. Such innocence!
The cutest thing happened this afternoon. The 3rd/4th graders came to our room to see pictures of my trip overseas. They brought pizza. Homemade pizza to be exact. Part of their English assignment was to give a "how to" speech and most of them chose to show how to make some sort of food. One boy showed how to make pizza and then wanted to share with us. :)
But that's not the cutest part yet. One of the 4th grade girls walked into my room and said, "Whoa, I really like your room. It's cool!" This is the first time she's actually talked to me. Then, when the rest of the class was assembled, I heard two of the 2nd grade girls whispering together, "I can't wait for it to be two years!" Meaning they wanted to be in my class. Oh how cute! It's things like these that make the bad days seem not so bad.
Monday, November 25, 2013
Ready for Tuesday
Boy oh boy, am I ready for Tuesday.
This week everyone has zero motivation for getting stuff done. The kids are feeling antsy (or maybe that's just me). One of the public school teachers had a meeting over here today and she said her students are acting the same way.
We tried to do a lab at the tail end of 7/8th grade science today. It sort of worked. There were three stations for them to go to, each one covering a different topic we've learned about this/last week. One was making sand dunes with a hairdryer. I tested it this morning and our room got really dusty, so I had them take it on the porch outside the classroom. Of course the girls were all complaining about being cold. And it was windy too so the sand already blew around. Another station was making waves to change the "seashore." Some groups got a little crazy making waves in the tub and splashed water over the edges. "TSUNAMI!" they shouted. The third station was for measuring the angle of repose (aka- the slope where material stops falling down- think of a pile of corn). I didn't have enough sand out for them or else my protractors were too big. They had a hard time measuring. Plus we didn't have quite enough time to finish every station.
However, the 5th graders benefited from the lab materials left behind by their peers. Our topic in science today was meteors and meteorites. One student didn't believe that a little rock could make such a big dent in the earth. So we tested it. Each student got to take an object (tennis ball, rock, penny) and drop it from the same height to see how big of a dent it made. It kind of worked. We tried it on both wet and dry sand. I think it would've worked better to have thrown it with a bit of force. Oh well. Maybe we'll try it again next week.
Tomorrow is going to be a bit of a fun day. We have chapel, possibly reading buddies, and need to finish writing our NaNo stories/pen pal letters. In the afternoon, Mr. D invited our class to have recess with his after we're done with math. Then after that, I'm going to show pictures from my Ireland trip to the 3rd-5th graders (since they haven't seen them before). Once that's done, we just have Christmas program practice and it's already the end of the day!
I've been working up a storm trying to get my lessons done for next week so I don't have to bring them home with me over Thanksgiving. I think I have almost all of them done. Maybe three more lessons to do. Hopefully I can knock some more of those out of the way tonight.
This week everyone has zero motivation for getting stuff done. The kids are feeling antsy (or maybe that's just me). One of the public school teachers had a meeting over here today and she said her students are acting the same way.
We tried to do a lab at the tail end of 7/8th grade science today. It sort of worked. There were three stations for them to go to, each one covering a different topic we've learned about this/last week. One was making sand dunes with a hairdryer. I tested it this morning and our room got really dusty, so I had them take it on the porch outside the classroom. Of course the girls were all complaining about being cold. And it was windy too so the sand already blew around. Another station was making waves to change the "seashore." Some groups got a little crazy making waves in the tub and splashed water over the edges. "TSUNAMI!" they shouted. The third station was for measuring the angle of repose (aka- the slope where material stops falling down- think of a pile of corn). I didn't have enough sand out for them or else my protractors were too big. They had a hard time measuring. Plus we didn't have quite enough time to finish every station.
However, the 5th graders benefited from the lab materials left behind by their peers. Our topic in science today was meteors and meteorites. One student didn't believe that a little rock could make such a big dent in the earth. So we tested it. Each student got to take an object (tennis ball, rock, penny) and drop it from the same height to see how big of a dent it made. It kind of worked. We tried it on both wet and dry sand. I think it would've worked better to have thrown it with a bit of force. Oh well. Maybe we'll try it again next week.
Tomorrow is going to be a bit of a fun day. We have chapel, possibly reading buddies, and need to finish writing our NaNo stories/pen pal letters. In the afternoon, Mr. D invited our class to have recess with his after we're done with math. Then after that, I'm going to show pictures from my Ireland trip to the 3rd-5th graders (since they haven't seen them before). Once that's done, we just have Christmas program practice and it's already the end of the day!
I've been working up a storm trying to get my lessons done for next week so I don't have to bring them home with me over Thanksgiving. I think I have almost all of them done. Maybe three more lessons to do. Hopefully I can knock some more of those out of the way tonight.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Matchmaker, matchmaker...
Oh those 4th grade boys are at it again...
Mr. D stopped me in the hall today to tell me a story about a few of the boys in his class. One of them told Mr. D that he thought Mr. D and I would make a good couple. Mr. D explained to this student that I was half his age and young enough to be his daughter. Then he added that my dad is only a few years older than he was. So it wasn't going to happen. They thought about that for a little while and another kid added, "Yeah, she likes International tractors and you like John Deere. It would never work out." I've discovered in my limited amount of experience that for some reason, kids have a hard time seeing their teachers unmarried. They just don't like it at all.
In other news, we had a really good day, behavior-wise. I don't think any of the 5th graders had homework. Since we only have two days next week, there is no spelling or handwriting or memory. Everyone was excited about that.
The 7th and 8th graders took their test with time to spare, so we played the flyswatter game United States style. I had an unlabeled map of the US on the board and teams would go head-to-head to tap the correct state after I said its name. We really need to do this game more often. They have no clue which states are which.
One of the ladies of the Immanuel-lites stopped by our classroom this morning to say thanks for presenting. My kids all wanted to know why she was there. Then that brought up the whole story of "Oh I wanted to come but I forgot to ask my mom so we didn't go and could we sometime look at the pictures you took and could we maybe do it today?"
We played a rousing game of SNAKE (or, as we like to play, BRAVES) during recess. We ended our day by practicing a few songs for the Christmas program. I can't believe that when we come back from Thanksgiving break, it will be December! And then it will be only three weeks of school until Christmas. Wow!
Mr. D stopped me in the hall today to tell me a story about a few of the boys in his class. One of them told Mr. D that he thought Mr. D and I would make a good couple. Mr. D explained to this student that I was half his age and young enough to be his daughter. Then he added that my dad is only a few years older than he was. So it wasn't going to happen. They thought about that for a little while and another kid added, "Yeah, she likes International tractors and you like John Deere. It would never work out." I've discovered in my limited amount of experience that for some reason, kids have a hard time seeing their teachers unmarried. They just don't like it at all.
In other news, we had a really good day, behavior-wise. I don't think any of the 5th graders had homework. Since we only have two days next week, there is no spelling or handwriting or memory. Everyone was excited about that.
The 7th and 8th graders took their test with time to spare, so we played the flyswatter game United States style. I had an unlabeled map of the US on the board and teams would go head-to-head to tap the correct state after I said its name. We really need to do this game more often. They have no clue which states are which.
One of the ladies of the Immanuel-lites stopped by our classroom this morning to say thanks for presenting. My kids all wanted to know why she was there. Then that brought up the whole story of "Oh I wanted to come but I forgot to ask my mom so we didn't go and could we sometime look at the pictures you took and could we maybe do it today?"
We played a rousing game of SNAKE (or, as we like to play, BRAVES) during recess. We ended our day by practicing a few songs for the Christmas program. I can't believe that when we come back from Thanksgiving break, it will be December! And then it will be only three weeks of school until Christmas. Wow!
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Deh!
What. A. Day.
I have no words.
By far, the worst day of school to date. The day started out pretty good. The morning was fine. But after lunch everything went downhill.
One of our families is going down to Florida until December first (take me with you, please!) so the teachers had to get their homework ready ahead of time. Since one of the brothers had an appointment in the Cities this afternoon, they were pulling all their kids out of school in the middle of the day. Well, the 7th grader had to take his history test for my class before he left, but he really wanted to go to recess, so he decided he wasn't going to take it. Mr. E and I changed his mind. He got done within ten minutes, so I'm not sure how well he did, but he got it done. His 5th grade brother had to say his memory work before he left (which he hadn't studied much). He ended up missing recess so he study his memory. He didn't think he could do it. But he did. Maybe they weren't memorized as good as they should've been, but he got 'em said.
The 7th and 8th graders had a great review day once we got the teams picked out. That was a drama in and of itself. We always have a hard time coming up with teams so this time I told them to pick their teams before class. It didn't work. I thought something like this might happen, so this morning I came up with a backup plan. Unfortunately, the backup plan fell through. The program thing I used to create teams didn't work on my school computer so I was left with the old "pick the stick" option. While I was out of the room, one of the girls switched the teams around and another girl wasn't happy with the changes, so she came tattling to me and then rubbed it in the other girl's face when I made them change the names back. So we had to have a conversation about that. And then no one wanted to do the review game so I gave them the option of sitting and working through the study guide together and then everyone wanted to do the review game again.
After that, the 5th graders came back and we did history, which was great! They remembered so much of the things we'd been talking about. And then it tanked when I gave them the assignment. I think the 5th grader who left early forgot his instructions at school. And then the girl with the para completely shut down because she didn't have enough time to finish the assignment so she'd have to take it home for homework. Plus she misbehaved in math so she was getting time taken away from playing tone chimes so she could work on her math (something she hates).
We brought out the bells and that's when this girl decided she was going to finish her history instead of working on her math assignment like she was supposed to. And then she stormed out of the room and ran up into the loft (an off-limits zone) and then we had to get Mr. E and he had to leave PE to have a talk with her in the office. After the talk she stormed through the gym and into the classroom where she curled up under her book bag. I tried to talk to her. Didn't work. We did the packing up with the timer again but one of the boys wasn't in the room when the timer started. And then I did something I probably shouldn't have. I gave him an extra fifteen seconds to pack up so we could watch the video. Wince. I shouldn't have done that. I know it's going to bite me in the butt later. Sigh. But I really wanted to watch the video!
It was the one with the opera singer who messes up and there's a picture of a cat that shows up... it's funny. Well, the girl who'd been having the bad day thought the video was stupid, so she got even more upset and then we had the whole "I don't have a high; my entire day was bad" scenario all over again. This time, I let the other kids go right after the prayer. Ms. J and I had to block the exits so she couldn't leave without permission. Her brother ended up coming in and still she made him stand around for another 15 minutes! Finally she came up with something and I let her go. Ugh! I fell so petty doing that, but it's a power struggle, plain and simple. Today she was seeing how long I would hold out against her. And I won today, but it's not a proud victory.
We called her mom after school to get some ideas of how to handle her complete disregard for authority and her tendency to ignore people she doesn't want to listen to. Her mom gave us pointers straight out of the Love and Logic philosophy book. I took notes during the thirty minute phone conversation and I think we have a good start on some more effective ways to deal with her behavior. Sigh. I just don't want another repeat of today.
We'll see what tomorrow brings. Ending on a positive note: I don't have a lot of correcting to do tonight since I corrected the 5th graders' spelling books yesterday. And the presentation last night went very well. There were about 25ish people there and none of them fell asleep! (haha, lame attempt at a joke). But for real, I had a great time reliving the memories made on that trip.
I have no words.
By far, the worst day of school to date. The day started out pretty good. The morning was fine. But after lunch everything went downhill.
One of our families is going down to Florida until December first (take me with you, please!) so the teachers had to get their homework ready ahead of time. Since one of the brothers had an appointment in the Cities this afternoon, they were pulling all their kids out of school in the middle of the day. Well, the 7th grader had to take his history test for my class before he left, but he really wanted to go to recess, so he decided he wasn't going to take it. Mr. E and I changed his mind. He got done within ten minutes, so I'm not sure how well he did, but he got it done. His 5th grade brother had to say his memory work before he left (which he hadn't studied much). He ended up missing recess so he study his memory. He didn't think he could do it. But he did. Maybe they weren't memorized as good as they should've been, but he got 'em said.
The 7th and 8th graders had a great review day once we got the teams picked out. That was a drama in and of itself. We always have a hard time coming up with teams so this time I told them to pick their teams before class. It didn't work. I thought something like this might happen, so this morning I came up with a backup plan. Unfortunately, the backup plan fell through. The program thing I used to create teams didn't work on my school computer so I was left with the old "pick the stick" option. While I was out of the room, one of the girls switched the teams around and another girl wasn't happy with the changes, so she came tattling to me and then rubbed it in the other girl's face when I made them change the names back. So we had to have a conversation about that. And then no one wanted to do the review game so I gave them the option of sitting and working through the study guide together and then everyone wanted to do the review game again.
After that, the 5th graders came back and we did history, which was great! They remembered so much of the things we'd been talking about. And then it tanked when I gave them the assignment. I think the 5th grader who left early forgot his instructions at school. And then the girl with the para completely shut down because she didn't have enough time to finish the assignment so she'd have to take it home for homework. Plus she misbehaved in math so she was getting time taken away from playing tone chimes so she could work on her math (something she hates).
We brought out the bells and that's when this girl decided she was going to finish her history instead of working on her math assignment like she was supposed to. And then she stormed out of the room and ran up into the loft (an off-limits zone) and then we had to get Mr. E and he had to leave PE to have a talk with her in the office. After the talk she stormed through the gym and into the classroom where she curled up under her book bag. I tried to talk to her. Didn't work. We did the packing up with the timer again but one of the boys wasn't in the room when the timer started. And then I did something I probably shouldn't have. I gave him an extra fifteen seconds to pack up so we could watch the video. Wince. I shouldn't have done that. I know it's going to bite me in the butt later. Sigh. But I really wanted to watch the video!
It was the one with the opera singer who messes up and there's a picture of a cat that shows up... it's funny. Well, the girl who'd been having the bad day thought the video was stupid, so she got even more upset and then we had the whole "I don't have a high; my entire day was bad" scenario all over again. This time, I let the other kids go right after the prayer. Ms. J and I had to block the exits so she couldn't leave without permission. Her brother ended up coming in and still she made him stand around for another 15 minutes! Finally she came up with something and I let her go. Ugh! I fell so petty doing that, but it's a power struggle, plain and simple. Today she was seeing how long I would hold out against her. And I won today, but it's not a proud victory.
We called her mom after school to get some ideas of how to handle her complete disregard for authority and her tendency to ignore people she doesn't want to listen to. Her mom gave us pointers straight out of the Love and Logic philosophy book. I took notes during the thirty minute phone conversation and I think we have a good start on some more effective ways to deal with her behavior. Sigh. I just don't want another repeat of today.
We'll see what tomorrow brings. Ending on a positive note: I don't have a lot of correcting to do tonight since I corrected the 5th graders' spelling books yesterday. And the presentation last night went very well. There were about 25ish people there and none of them fell asleep! (haha, lame attempt at a joke). But for real, I had a great time reliving the memories made on that trip.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
A day without a para...
Boy, what a convoluted, crazy day we've had. Actually, it hasn't been that crazy. It just felt different than normal.
Last night, I called the sick student's mom to see if she'd be in school today (so I could let the para know). Her mom said that she'd probably keep her home another day. I called the para and left a voicemail for her. Then, this morning, her mom called again and said that the student was feeling better and wanted to come to school (I guess my phone call the night before meant a lot to her so she really, really wanted to come back to school). We came up with the plan to have her come to school at 9:30ish. One problem. The para didn't answer her phone. I left a voicemail again and told her she could come in if she wanted to. Just now, I checked my phone and saw she left a message at 12:45. Her phone stopped working yesterday and she didn't notice until about 12:30 that I had called this morning. Oops!
Our day was... okay. The student had some trouble focusing during Daily 5, took a long time to eat, and dragged her feet in math. It was about what I expected. I do know that I definitely underestimate how much help my para is. Most of the time this morning I couldn't redirect/keep the student on task because I was busy helping other classmates.
Before PE, the 5-8th graders have to run 10 laps. This student said her tummy hurt so she couldn't run. I'm pretty sure she was trying to get out of running. I told her she could walk her laps. She started walking with her stocking cap pulled down over her eyes, making some kind of statement I guess. It took FOREVER, but she got them done! It helped that one of the 7th grade boys ran some extra laps calling out, "I'm gonna beat you! Look, I'm passing you!" That made her pick up the pace.
Then after PE, she took her time in the bathroom, so she didn't make it back to pack up her stuff in the two minutes that were on the timer. She asked if we could still watch the video. Nope. She pretty much shut down after that. She did get her stuff written in her assignment notebook and her homework shoved in her backpack. But highs and lows did not go well. She had about five lows and said she didn't have a high for the day. Well, that's not what highs and lows are all about. I told her she couldn't leave until she thought of a high. Kind of silly when you think about it, but for some reason I didn't want her to leave without thinking of a positive thing about the day. We skipped her and let the rest of the class and say theirs. Then we said our end of the day prayer and she still didn't think of one. Not couldn't think of one. Didn't think of one. Her classmates and I gave her tons of options, but she didn't like any of them, "they're too boring." Finally I let all the others go so they wouldn't be late for practice. Then she came up with one that someone had suggested a long time ago, "My high is that I got to come to school today."
She tried to use, "I might not come to school tomorrow." as her high, so I'm a little worried she'll tell her mom that she isn't feeling well again and her mom will keep her home. Which will cause a lot more stress and confusion between Ms. J and me figuring out whether she should come to work or not. Sigh.
In other news, I got a refresher course on how to use the projectors at church (for my presentation to the Men's Club/Immanuel-lites on my trip overseas).
Chapel today brought me back to my childhood. Remember that song "Jesus Loves the Little Children"? When I was little, my mom taught me the words, "red and yellow, black and white; they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world." Well. I did not like it at all that the brunettes were kept out of the song altogether. So I added in the word brown so my hair color would be represented, "red, brown, yellow, black and white; they are precious in his sight." Mom tried to tell me that the song was about skin color, but I was positive we were singing about hair. Anyway, we sang that song in chapel today, and Pastor sang it with the right words, including the word brown. That kept me smiling for a good long time.
Last night, I called the sick student's mom to see if she'd be in school today (so I could let the para know). Her mom said that she'd probably keep her home another day. I called the para and left a voicemail for her. Then, this morning, her mom called again and said that the student was feeling better and wanted to come to school (I guess my phone call the night before meant a lot to her so she really, really wanted to come back to school). We came up with the plan to have her come to school at 9:30ish. One problem. The para didn't answer her phone. I left a voicemail again and told her she could come in if she wanted to. Just now, I checked my phone and saw she left a message at 12:45. Her phone stopped working yesterday and she didn't notice until about 12:30 that I had called this morning. Oops!
Our day was... okay. The student had some trouble focusing during Daily 5, took a long time to eat, and dragged her feet in math. It was about what I expected. I do know that I definitely underestimate how much help my para is. Most of the time this morning I couldn't redirect/keep the student on task because I was busy helping other classmates.
Before PE, the 5-8th graders have to run 10 laps. This student said her tummy hurt so she couldn't run. I'm pretty sure she was trying to get out of running. I told her she could walk her laps. She started walking with her stocking cap pulled down over her eyes, making some kind of statement I guess. It took FOREVER, but she got them done! It helped that one of the 7th grade boys ran some extra laps calling out, "I'm gonna beat you! Look, I'm passing you!" That made her pick up the pace.
Then after PE, she took her time in the bathroom, so she didn't make it back to pack up her stuff in the two minutes that were on the timer. She asked if we could still watch the video. Nope. She pretty much shut down after that. She did get her stuff written in her assignment notebook and her homework shoved in her backpack. But highs and lows did not go well. She had about five lows and said she didn't have a high for the day. Well, that's not what highs and lows are all about. I told her she couldn't leave until she thought of a high. Kind of silly when you think about it, but for some reason I didn't want her to leave without thinking of a positive thing about the day. We skipped her and let the rest of the class and say theirs. Then we said our end of the day prayer and she still didn't think of one. Not couldn't think of one. Didn't think of one. Her classmates and I gave her tons of options, but she didn't like any of them, "they're too boring." Finally I let all the others go so they wouldn't be late for practice. Then she came up with one that someone had suggested a long time ago, "My high is that I got to come to school today."
She tried to use, "I might not come to school tomorrow." as her high, so I'm a little worried she'll tell her mom that she isn't feeling well again and her mom will keep her home. Which will cause a lot more stress and confusion between Ms. J and me figuring out whether she should come to work or not. Sigh.
In other news, I got a refresher course on how to use the projectors at church (for my presentation to the Men's Club/Immanuel-lites on my trip overseas).
Chapel today brought me back to my childhood. Remember that song "Jesus Loves the Little Children"? When I was little, my mom taught me the words, "red and yellow, black and white; they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world." Well. I did not like it at all that the brunettes were kept out of the song altogether. So I added in the word brown so my hair color would be represented, "red, brown, yellow, black and white; they are precious in his sight." Mom tried to tell me that the song was about skin color, but I was positive we were singing about hair. Anyway, we sang that song in chapel today, and Pastor sang it with the right words, including the word brown. That kept me smiling for a good long time.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
One down
A parent called me last night to tell me that her daughter was throwing up. She actually started laughing while telling me the story because the student had been doing her math homework when her mom saw the "I'm about to throw up" face. She quick hustled her to the bathroom saying, "Don't throw up on the homework!" It had taken such an effort to do her math the first time, she would've had to do it all over if she'd have gotten sick on her homework. Thankfully her homework was safe.
We needed to let Mr. E know so he could tell our para not to come to school today. I thought he was going to take care of it, but she showed up at school this morning, bright and early. She ended up going home. Her sudden day off was actually a blessing in disguise. She told me her heater wasn't working in her apartment, so now she could be around when they came to fix it.
Hopefully the student will be back in school tomorrow. It was very strange only having three kids today. It was a lot quieter but they got distracted more easily, probably because it seemed like a fun day with only three. But we did a lot of learning today! The coolest thing was playing the Jamestown colonist simulator. We got to make choices about where to start our colony and then the program gave us a score at the end. The 5th graders wanted to do it over and over again! One of them got fired. Another got promoted to governor. It just depended on the choices they made.
One of the 7th graders popped in to ask a question about a worksheet. When he saw what we were doing, he asked, "How come we didn't get to do that last year?" Well I hadn't found it last year! And just now I remembered we learned MN history that year. I didn't teach them American History.
I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week. Everyone at school is ready for a break: students and teachers. We only have five more days of school until break! Yay!
We needed to let Mr. E know so he could tell our para not to come to school today. I thought he was going to take care of it, but she showed up at school this morning, bright and early. She ended up going home. Her sudden day off was actually a blessing in disguise. She told me her heater wasn't working in her apartment, so now she could be around when they came to fix it.
Hopefully the student will be back in school tomorrow. It was very strange only having three kids today. It was a lot quieter but they got distracted more easily, probably because it seemed like a fun day with only three. But we did a lot of learning today! The coolest thing was playing the Jamestown colonist simulator. We got to make choices about where to start our colony and then the program gave us a score at the end. The 5th graders wanted to do it over and over again! One of them got fired. Another got promoted to governor. It just depended on the choices they made.
One of the 7th graders popped in to ask a question about a worksheet. When he saw what we were doing, he asked, "How come we didn't get to do that last year?" Well I hadn't found it last year! And just now I remembered we learned MN history that year. I didn't teach them American History.
I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week. Everyone at school is ready for a break: students and teachers. We only have five more days of school until break! Yay!
Monday, November 18, 2013
Cold!
All day I've been really cold. I hope I'm not coming down with something. Both 5th grade girls weren't feeling well today. We took their temperature, but they didn't have fevers! So I don't know. I think we all need a good night's sleep.
I can't believe it's the week before Thanksgiving! One of the boys is going to Florida on vacation over Thanksgiving, so they're leaving on Friday and will be gone Monday and Tuesday next week. That means I have to have his homework ready before then.
The IEP meeting that was after school today was postponed, so theoretically I could get out of school at a decent hour. I need to add pictures to a few powerpoints, but other than that I don't need to stick around. My goal is to leave at 5:00pm.
My 5th graders finally decided that it would be okay to put their plant experiments in the dark. Before today, everyone wanted to keep them in the sun to see how much they would grow. Nobody wanted to move theirs to the dark closet. And then suddenly everyone wanted to! Only one person kept theirs in the sunlight. It will be interesting to see what happens with the plants in the closet. There's no door, and the 7th and 8th graders turn the light on when they get the bells out. So it won't be completely dark. We do have one plant that is in a cupboard that gets no light (or only a little through the cracks). We'll see what happens.
In other news, we're starting to learn music for the Christmas program on Friday. And we're doing reading buddies with the kindergartners tomorrow morning so everyone gets a chance to participate. Basketball practice this week. The 7th/8th food drive was today. On Wednesday, I'm giving a presentation to church members on my trip to the UK last summer. I wonder how many people will show up. I'm not too concerned. I'd be fine if only a handful come.
Other than that, this week should cruise by without too much excitement.
I can't believe it's the week before Thanksgiving! One of the boys is going to Florida on vacation over Thanksgiving, so they're leaving on Friday and will be gone Monday and Tuesday next week. That means I have to have his homework ready before then.
The IEP meeting that was after school today was postponed, so theoretically I could get out of school at a decent hour. I need to add pictures to a few powerpoints, but other than that I don't need to stick around. My goal is to leave at 5:00pm.
My 5th graders finally decided that it would be okay to put their plant experiments in the dark. Before today, everyone wanted to keep them in the sun to see how much they would grow. Nobody wanted to move theirs to the dark closet. And then suddenly everyone wanted to! Only one person kept theirs in the sunlight. It will be interesting to see what happens with the plants in the closet. There's no door, and the 7th and 8th graders turn the light on when they get the bells out. So it won't be completely dark. We do have one plant that is in a cupboard that gets no light (or only a little through the cracks). We'll see what happens.
In other news, we're starting to learn music for the Christmas program on Friday. And we're doing reading buddies with the kindergartners tomorrow morning so everyone gets a chance to participate. Basketball practice this week. The 7th/8th food drive was today. On Wednesday, I'm giving a presentation to church members on my trip to the UK last summer. I wonder how many people will show up. I'm not too concerned. I'd be fine if only a handful come.
Other than that, this week should cruise by without too much excitement.
Friday, November 15, 2013
More Reading Buddies
It was very strange with one less student today. My students kept commenting that the room seemed so empty, like tons of people were gone today even though it was only one. I haven't gotten rid of his desk yet. I don't know if I will or not because the 7th and 8th graders need the desk.
Speaking of 7th and 8th graders. We had a lab today, something I was a little leery about since our previous labs were very crazy and chaotic. I wrote expectations on the board (good choices and bad choices) and told them to read through their packet. We even had to wear goggles and aprons.
Yesterday I told them they could bring different liquids from home to use in our penny cleaning experiment today. Only a few took me up on it, but then they started looking for liquids at school. One girl got ketchup from the kitchen (with permission of course), a few groups used hand sanitizer, one girl brought bleach and alumina (something she said is used to take rust off pennies). I had all the groups use water for one of their trials. Their behavior was great! They were all sad to have to clean up, but I think we had just enough time. Mrs. M took them over to church to practice bells for Sunday's service, and Mr. E kept the 5th graders for the full hour so I had a little time to clean up from the lab. That was very nice.
That pretty much took care of our afternoon. We worked on our NaNo stories a bit and then the kindergartners came for a visit with their Bookmobile books. There's enough of them that each 5th grader gets two kindergartners. One of the girls had an appointment at the public school, so I read with two of our visitors. It was super fun! I can't wait for them to come next week. :)
Speaking of 7th and 8th graders. We had a lab today, something I was a little leery about since our previous labs were very crazy and chaotic. I wrote expectations on the board (good choices and bad choices) and told them to read through their packet. We even had to wear goggles and aprons.
Yesterday I told them they could bring different liquids from home to use in our penny cleaning experiment today. Only a few took me up on it, but then they started looking for liquids at school. One girl got ketchup from the kitchen (with permission of course), a few groups used hand sanitizer, one girl brought bleach and alumina (something she said is used to take rust off pennies). I had all the groups use water for one of their trials. Their behavior was great! They were all sad to have to clean up, but I think we had just enough time. Mrs. M took them over to church to practice bells for Sunday's service, and Mr. E kept the 5th graders for the full hour so I had a little time to clean up from the lab. That was very nice.
That pretty much took care of our afternoon. We worked on our NaNo stories a bit and then the kindergartners came for a visit with their Bookmobile books. There's enough of them that each 5th grader gets two kindergartners. One of the girls had an appointment at the public school, so I read with two of our visitors. It was super fun! I can't wait for them to come next week. :)
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Holes
When we finished reading the book Holes, my 5th graders asked if we could watch the movie. I told them I'd check it out from the library. Well, one of the girls decided we had to watch it before the one 5th grader moved (henceforth known as A.), so she took it upon herself to rent it from Family Video.
It was actually a good thing she rented it. I had placed a hold on the library copy of the movie, but it wasn't in when I stopped last night. And this morning I checked my library card account and saw that it just arrived today. Shucks. A day too late. I was going to roll with it, thinking we'd do enough fun exciting stuff at the end of the day to send A. off with a bang.
Imagine my surprise when this 5th grader came bursting in the classroom this morning, "Miss H! Look what I got! [shows me the movie] My brother had to get the movie War Horse for school and so I asked if they had this one and they said that it was in the family section and so I found it and got it and can we watch it today since it's A.'s last day?" Of course, I tried to be nonchalant about it, "We might be able to arrange that." Then she said, "We should keep it a secret from A. and surprise him. Quick, quick, hide it!" She flipped it upside down on my desk so A. wouldn't see it as he walked into the room.
And yes, we did watch it. It was chunked in bits and pieces since we had to take a break for 2nd grade math (that gave the 5th graders time to finish their spelling). Then we had to break again for lunch right at the exciting part! I had them fill out a Venn diagram during the movie, identifying the similarities and differences between the book and the movie. It was surprising how much they enjoyed looking for that stuff (a pleasant surprise). They remembered the plot of the book really well and got scared at all the right parts. It was really fun watching it with them! The movie froze in a few places, which upset everyone, but they weren't major freezes so we didn't have to stop the movie. I think this is one I'll have to add to my collection so we have it on hand when needed.
The party for A. was also a success. We played floor hockey with the 3rd and 4th graders. His mom and dad brought ice cream cake, which we ate while playing games. We ended the day with the last fifteen minutes of the movie. Gave him a group hug. Took a class picture. Everyone else took off and then we unpacked his desk.
I gave his parents his Christmas present early, telling them they could let him open it early or they could save it. I think they're going to try to save it for Christmas. :)
It was actually a good thing she rented it. I had placed a hold on the library copy of the movie, but it wasn't in when I stopped last night. And this morning I checked my library card account and saw that it just arrived today. Shucks. A day too late. I was going to roll with it, thinking we'd do enough fun exciting stuff at the end of the day to send A. off with a bang.
Imagine my surprise when this 5th grader came bursting in the classroom this morning, "Miss H! Look what I got! [shows me the movie] My brother had to get the movie War Horse for school and so I asked if they had this one and they said that it was in the family section and so I found it and got it and can we watch it today since it's A.'s last day?" Of course, I tried to be nonchalant about it, "We might be able to arrange that." Then she said, "We should keep it a secret from A. and surprise him. Quick, quick, hide it!" She flipped it upside down on my desk so A. wouldn't see it as he walked into the room.
And yes, we did watch it. It was chunked in bits and pieces since we had to take a break for 2nd grade math (that gave the 5th graders time to finish their spelling). Then we had to break again for lunch right at the exciting part! I had them fill out a Venn diagram during the movie, identifying the similarities and differences between the book and the movie. It was surprising how much they enjoyed looking for that stuff (a pleasant surprise). They remembered the plot of the book really well and got scared at all the right parts. It was really fun watching it with them! The movie froze in a few places, which upset everyone, but they weren't major freezes so we didn't have to stop the movie. I think this is one I'll have to add to my collection so we have it on hand when needed.
The party for A. was also a success. We played floor hockey with the 3rd and 4th graders. His mom and dad brought ice cream cake, which we ate while playing games. We ended the day with the last fifteen minutes of the movie. Gave him a group hug. Took a class picture. Everyone else took off and then we unpacked his desk.
I gave his parents his Christmas present early, telling them they could let him open it early or they could save it. I think they're going to try to save it for Christmas. :)
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Student Council
The first ever student council meeting was today. I almost forgot to send our representative, but one of the 5th grade girls was on the way back from the bathroom and saw the other reps lining up for lunch so she reminded me.
It seems that they had a good discussion. Mostly they talked about items to add to the lunch menu, that they don't have enough time to eat/recess, and the issue of paper towels on the bathroom floor. A few of the other teachers and I had a mini-powwow to discuss some of the things they discussed and we all agreed that the first meeting was a success. There will be much to discuss at our next faculty meeting.
The first day of basketball practice is also today. It was so cute seeing the boys saunter down the hall to the gym, raring to go. One of the 4th graders is super tiny. He had his shirt tucked into his shorts and they were hiked up past his bellybutton.
About half the 3rd and 4th grade boys were wearing long socks and one of the 7th graders (a "cool" one that everyone looks up to) commented, "Boy, are tall socks the style now?" Mr. E happened to overhear him and he responded, "Well you're not wearing them, so I guess it's not."
These kids are so protective of their shoes! This morning, one of the 5th grade boys comes up to me, "Miss H! Look!" He sets his basketball shoes on my desk, "They're all scuffed! How do I get them off?" So we googled it and found tons of ideas. Of course, he wanted to try them right away.
"Miss H. do you have any baking soda?" "Sorry, why don't you go ask the cook?" He came back a few minutes later with the baking soda. "Now what?" So we went over the recipe. He dabbed some on with a pencil, "It's not working!" Well, you have to use more than a few drops.
I don't think it worked, but by that time it was time to start the day. Maybe he'll forget about it, but I'm thinking he'll ask to try another method tomorrow. Maybe Vaseline will work better. Oh the things you do as a teacher!
It seems that they had a good discussion. Mostly they talked about items to add to the lunch menu, that they don't have enough time to eat/recess, and the issue of paper towels on the bathroom floor. A few of the other teachers and I had a mini-powwow to discuss some of the things they discussed and we all agreed that the first meeting was a success. There will be much to discuss at our next faculty meeting.
The first day of basketball practice is also today. It was so cute seeing the boys saunter down the hall to the gym, raring to go. One of the 4th graders is super tiny. He had his shirt tucked into his shorts and they were hiked up past his bellybutton.
About half the 3rd and 4th grade boys were wearing long socks and one of the 7th graders (a "cool" one that everyone looks up to) commented, "Boy, are tall socks the style now?" Mr. E happened to overhear him and he responded, "Well you're not wearing them, so I guess it's not."
These kids are so protective of their shoes! This morning, one of the 5th grade boys comes up to me, "Miss H! Look!" He sets his basketball shoes on my desk, "They're all scuffed! How do I get them off?" So we googled it and found tons of ideas. Of course, he wanted to try them right away.
"Miss H. do you have any baking soda?" "Sorry, why don't you go ask the cook?" He came back a few minutes later with the baking soda. "Now what?" So we went over the recipe. He dabbed some on with a pencil, "It's not working!" Well, you have to use more than a few drops.
I don't think it worked, but by that time it was time to start the day. Maybe he'll forget about it, but I'm thinking he'll ask to try another method tomorrow. Maybe Vaseline will work better. Oh the things you do as a teacher!
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Another day, another sub
Yesterday afternoon, the 1st/2nd grade teacher was gone for a public school choir concert (she teaches choir at the high school in the mornings), so one of the education students from Bethany subbed in her room.
Today was another principal's meeting, so Mr. E had a different Bethany student sub in his room. Both of them had great things to say about the school and they said they had a great experience.
At the beginning of the year I told the students who had birthdays in the summer that they could pick a day in the school year to bring birthday treats and we'd celebrate on that day. (I give them a Brain Break certificate as their bday present). So today one of the 5th graders brought in cookies to share with the class. I don't think she planned this, but she had an extra cookie. She wrapped it in a paper towel and asked me if I would make sure the sub in the 7th/8th grade room would get it. My kids have such giving hearts!
Once again, the 5th graders got everything packed up in three minutes at the end of the day. This morning, one of them told me that they're making a book based on the "What does the fox say?" YouTube video which reminded me of another YouTube video that got made into a book: Marcel the Shell with Shoes on. They loved it. So much. Ms. J was laughing her head off over by her desk. Then everyone started quoting the video while we did our highs and lows for the day. One of them saw that there's a second Marcel video, so now they want to watch that one tomorrow.
Today was another principal's meeting, so Mr. E had a different Bethany student sub in his room. Both of them had great things to say about the school and they said they had a great experience.
At the beginning of the year I told the students who had birthdays in the summer that they could pick a day in the school year to bring birthday treats and we'd celebrate on that day. (I give them a Brain Break certificate as their bday present). So today one of the 5th graders brought in cookies to share with the class. I don't think she planned this, but she had an extra cookie. She wrapped it in a paper towel and asked me if I would make sure the sub in the 7th/8th grade room would get it. My kids have such giving hearts!
Once again, the 5th graders got everything packed up in three minutes at the end of the day. This morning, one of them told me that they're making a book based on the "What does the fox say?" YouTube video which reminded me of another YouTube video that got made into a book: Marcel the Shell with Shoes on. They loved it. So much. Ms. J was laughing her head off over by her desk. Then everyone started quoting the video while we did our highs and lows for the day. One of them saw that there's a second Marcel video, so now they want to watch that one tomorrow.
Monday, November 11, 2013
Another Rambunctious Day
There's a change in the weather coming...
The 2nd graders were off the wall, the 7th graders were off the wall, the 8th graders were off the wall.
The 5th graders were actually okay today. Everyone was really tired and had TONS of stories to tell about their deer hunting escapades this weekend. I listened to 30 minutes of solid deer hunting stories before school started this morning. And they still had more to tell me! Whew!
One of the boys was gone today (the one who is moving). It was amazing how the atmosphere of the room changed without him here. Our classroom almost seemed unbalanced. I really missed his energy. I'm sad to see him go.
We made him a going away card and had the whole school sign it. One of the girls chose green and yellow paper for the card since "it's John Deere and [the student] really likes John Deere." His mom is going to bring ice cream cake to share on Thursday (his last day) and we're going to play floor hockey with the 3rd and 4th graders so they can spend a little more time with him (and say goodbye). Sigh.
I wonder what sorts of things I need to send with him on Thursday. He'll need to clean out his desk for sure and turn in his books. Other than that? I don't know.
The 2nd graders were off the wall, the 7th graders were off the wall, the 8th graders were off the wall.
The 5th graders were actually okay today. Everyone was really tired and had TONS of stories to tell about their deer hunting escapades this weekend. I listened to 30 minutes of solid deer hunting stories before school started this morning. And they still had more to tell me! Whew!
One of the boys was gone today (the one who is moving). It was amazing how the atmosphere of the room changed without him here. Our classroom almost seemed unbalanced. I really missed his energy. I'm sad to see him go.
We made him a going away card and had the whole school sign it. One of the girls chose green and yellow paper for the card since "it's John Deere and [the student] really likes John Deere." His mom is going to bring ice cream cake to share on Thursday (his last day) and we're going to play floor hockey with the 3rd and 4th graders so they can spend a little more time with him (and say goodbye). Sigh.
I wonder what sorts of things I need to send with him on Thursday. He'll need to clean out his desk for sure and turn in his books. Other than that? I don't know.
Friday, November 8, 2013
Day after
What a day.
Everyone was completely zonked. Including all the teachers. You could see on everyone's face how tired and worn out we felt. Whew!
Conferences weren't nearly as bad as I thought they'd be. I found out that one of my students doesn't like to write, so she'll drag her feet on writing anything. That was a great revelation for me. I wasn't finished until 8:00pm. Long day at school.
Thankfully, the morning started out pretty easy. The 5th graders were extra chatty, so we started up the old no talking game (which they take very seriously). There were only a few slip-ups. Everyone got lots done on their stories. I helped a few more students flesh out their outlines. I acted as secretary for the student who was digging in her heels on writing. Ms. J and I figured out that she has so many ideas in her head, her hands and fingers can't keep up with them all, and her writing doesn't sound good. So that's why she's not a fan of writing. Our new plan is that Ms. J will type for her, and this student will dictate her story. The only hurtle in this plan is the student herself; she might not want Ms. J to type. We'll have to see once we run the plan by her.
The 7th and 8th graders earned a class reward for answering enough challenges of the week. They voted earlier in the week on what to pick for a prize and they chose extra credit points over extra recess or a class movie. Since they made such a good choice, I decided they earned the privilege of a movie in class. Of course I controlled the movie choices: Aladdin or Mulan, both of which take place in the time period/corner of the world we're studying now. I really wanted to watch Mulan because we are currently learning about the Mongols (and we just finished the Han Dynasty, the era in which Mulan supposedly took place). They chose Mulan and we watched about half of it. They really liked it! About five or six of them had never seen it before; I could tell they were really into the movie. Everyone groaned when we had to stop. Maybe we'll finish it up on Tuesday.
Unfortunately, the day ended on a low note. The 5th graders spent an hour taking a math test with Mr. E. They came back moaning and groaning that it was really hard. And then I had a science test waiting for them. Lovely. We did a brain break. Then decided that wasn't enough to freshen them up. Took a fifteen minute recess. Then passed out the test. Except I forgot to give them a little time to look over their books/notes. They just had to jump right in. Here I thought the test was going to be easy for them. Only one out of five said it was pretty easy. The rest didn't get it. They didn't understand what the questions were asking. I think their brains were just too tired. So I sent them home with their science books and told them to look at it over the weekend. We'll try again on Monday. Sadly, that means we won't be able to start outer space until later next week.
One of my students is moving next week. His last day is Thursday, so I'm trying to plan a send off for him too. Basketball starts next week. We have PTL next week. So lots of stuff going on. Hopefully my weekend is relaxing!
Everyone was completely zonked. Including all the teachers. You could see on everyone's face how tired and worn out we felt. Whew!
Conferences weren't nearly as bad as I thought they'd be. I found out that one of my students doesn't like to write, so she'll drag her feet on writing anything. That was a great revelation for me. I wasn't finished until 8:00pm. Long day at school.
Thankfully, the morning started out pretty easy. The 5th graders were extra chatty, so we started up the old no talking game (which they take very seriously). There were only a few slip-ups. Everyone got lots done on their stories. I helped a few more students flesh out their outlines. I acted as secretary for the student who was digging in her heels on writing. Ms. J and I figured out that she has so many ideas in her head, her hands and fingers can't keep up with them all, and her writing doesn't sound good. So that's why she's not a fan of writing. Our new plan is that Ms. J will type for her, and this student will dictate her story. The only hurtle in this plan is the student herself; she might not want Ms. J to type. We'll have to see once we run the plan by her.
The 7th and 8th graders earned a class reward for answering enough challenges of the week. They voted earlier in the week on what to pick for a prize and they chose extra credit points over extra recess or a class movie. Since they made such a good choice, I decided they earned the privilege of a movie in class. Of course I controlled the movie choices: Aladdin or Mulan, both of which take place in the time period/corner of the world we're studying now. I really wanted to watch Mulan because we are currently learning about the Mongols (and we just finished the Han Dynasty, the era in which Mulan supposedly took place). They chose Mulan and we watched about half of it. They really liked it! About five or six of them had never seen it before; I could tell they were really into the movie. Everyone groaned when we had to stop. Maybe we'll finish it up on Tuesday.
Unfortunately, the day ended on a low note. The 5th graders spent an hour taking a math test with Mr. E. They came back moaning and groaning that it was really hard. And then I had a science test waiting for them. Lovely. We did a brain break. Then decided that wasn't enough to freshen them up. Took a fifteen minute recess. Then passed out the test. Except I forgot to give them a little time to look over their books/notes. They just had to jump right in. Here I thought the test was going to be easy for them. Only one out of five said it was pretty easy. The rest didn't get it. They didn't understand what the questions were asking. I think their brains were just too tired. So I sent them home with their science books and told them to look at it over the weekend. We'll try again on Monday. Sadly, that means we won't be able to start outer space until later next week.
One of my students is moving next week. His last day is Thursday, so I'm trying to plan a send off for him too. Basketball starts next week. We have PTL next week. So lots of stuff going on. Hopefully my weekend is relaxing!
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Parent Teacher Conferences
Sigh. Parent Teacher Conferences.
I remember last year I was actually excited for conferences. This year... eh, not so much. Maybe it's daylight savings time. Maybe it's because I've been so busy I want to stay home for a night. But it's probably because I have 7th and 8th grade parents questioning me about their kids' grades. Stuff like that makes me feel like I'm being attacked (even though I'm not) and I get nervous, hoping they won't get mad at me. Though I really shouldn't worry about it; the reason they got the grades they did is because they earned them (or didn't earn them, as the case may be). Sigh. Grades.
On a lighter note, the 5th graders are packing up in a much more timely fashion. I've been setting a timer for 5, then 4, then 3 minutes, and if they get packed up before it beeps, we get to watch a youtube video. Today's video was "Working Farmer Style" (which also unfortunately features John Deere tractors). Tomorrow's will be slow motion giant water balloon breaking.
The 5th graders have begun their NaNoWriMo stories. I made them fill out a plot outline organizer, so they know what their story will be about. I was surprised how much it helped them! They were getting really excited about the stories they'll be writing, and I know that enthusiasm will transfer to their writing. I can't wait to read them when they're finished.
In other news, I too am doing NaNoWriMo. So far, I've been able to keep up with the word count; I'm currently at 10,129 words, or about one fifth of the way finished. I figured out I can write my words for the day in about an hour. The best part is, I don't have Internet to distract me, so nothing prevents me from pounding out my daily quota of words!
Since we're talking all about me today, let me give you an update on my pottery class. We met for the last time last night to glaze our pieces. I didn't finish. I still have about 6-7 more things to glaze. So we're meeting on Saturday night to finish up. I hope I can get them done in the two hours or so we'll be there. We get to pick up our finished products next Wednesday. I realized we have a PTL meeting that night, so I have to ask if it's okay if I'm late...
Well, I suppose I should get back to being productive. If I have to be at school until 7:30 tonight, I might as well get some lesson planning done.
I remember last year I was actually excited for conferences. This year... eh, not so much. Maybe it's daylight savings time. Maybe it's because I've been so busy I want to stay home for a night. But it's probably because I have 7th and 8th grade parents questioning me about their kids' grades. Stuff like that makes me feel like I'm being attacked (even though I'm not) and I get nervous, hoping they won't get mad at me. Though I really shouldn't worry about it; the reason they got the grades they did is because they earned them (or didn't earn them, as the case may be). Sigh. Grades.
On a lighter note, the 5th graders are packing up in a much more timely fashion. I've been setting a timer for 5, then 4, then 3 minutes, and if they get packed up before it beeps, we get to watch a youtube video. Today's video was "Working Farmer Style" (which also unfortunately features John Deere tractors). Tomorrow's will be slow motion giant water balloon breaking.
The 5th graders have begun their NaNoWriMo stories. I made them fill out a plot outline organizer, so they know what their story will be about. I was surprised how much it helped them! They were getting really excited about the stories they'll be writing, and I know that enthusiasm will transfer to their writing. I can't wait to read them when they're finished.
In other news, I too am doing NaNoWriMo. So far, I've been able to keep up with the word count; I'm currently at 10,129 words, or about one fifth of the way finished. I figured out I can write my words for the day in about an hour. The best part is, I don't have Internet to distract me, so nothing prevents me from pounding out my daily quota of words!
Since we're talking all about me today, let me give you an update on my pottery class. We met for the last time last night to glaze our pieces. I didn't finish. I still have about 6-7 more things to glaze. So we're meeting on Saturday night to finish up. I hope I can get them done in the two hours or so we'll be there. We get to pick up our finished products next Wednesday. I realized we have a PTL meeting that night, so I have to ask if it's okay if I'm late...
Well, I suppose I should get back to being productive. If I have to be at school until 7:30 tonight, I might as well get some lesson planning done.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Gunpowder Tuesday
We sure packed a lot into our day today.
Only a few chapters are left in our read aloud book, and it's getting really good. The 5th graders don't want me to stop reading! They actually asked for extra copies of the book so they could read ahead. We might be able to finish it tomorrow.
In 2nd grade math, we started 2-digit subtraction. They have a hard enough time with subtraction as it is, and now to add in two digits? I think the first day went all right. They were a little surprised they didn't get to work out of the packets today, but I wanted to teach them the concept first. I think we'll do the same thing tomorrow too, just to make sure they get the whole idea down.
The 5th graders were working hard all the while I worked with the 2nd graders. But afterwards there was some tension on who got to use which beanbag and who got to sit in the reading corner. One girl wanted it all to herself, but two boys chose to read to someone in the same corner. She complained that she couldn't concentrate and wanted them to move somewhere else because they were too loud. I asked the boys to lower their voices, but she said she still couldn't concentrate. I told her she could either deal with it or pick a new spot. But she didn't want to pick a new spot. "It's not fair! I was here first! I shouldn't have to move!" Well, life's not fair, and the boys are being quiet, so if it's not working for you, then you need to make a good choice on where to sit. After a lot more fussing, she ended up picking a new spot. This same kid had trouble in math and that carried over into social studies, but somehow she got off the wrong track and ended up finishing the day really well.
We got everyone packed up and good to go in 5 minutes! So we got to watch the "What does the farmer say?" video. They thought it was hilarious, especially the part about the farmer tan and pasty white legs. They also couldn't get enough of the John Deere... sigh. I don't have any hope of converting them to the red side.
I told them that if we get packed up in 4 minutes tomorrow, we'll watch the "What does the fox say?" video. We'll see if they can be that fast.
Oh! The gunpowder thing! In 7th/8th grade history, we learned about the Chinese making gunpowder. One of the 8th grade boys asked if we could make some gunpowder at school. Ha! I told him no. He kept trying to convince me, "But what if I brought in..." Nope. Sorry, no gunpowder making at school.
All day, everyone was abuzz about the storm that's moving in. The 7th/8th graders are convinced we are not going to have school tomorrow. I'm slightly more skeptical. Two-hours late? Maybe, but I'm not holding out hope.
My grades all got sent out and now I just need to get ready for parent teacher conferences Thursday. I keep forgetting that today is a Tuesday. Only three more days left this week! Wow!
Only a few chapters are left in our read aloud book, and it's getting really good. The 5th graders don't want me to stop reading! They actually asked for extra copies of the book so they could read ahead. We might be able to finish it tomorrow.
In 2nd grade math, we started 2-digit subtraction. They have a hard enough time with subtraction as it is, and now to add in two digits? I think the first day went all right. They were a little surprised they didn't get to work out of the packets today, but I wanted to teach them the concept first. I think we'll do the same thing tomorrow too, just to make sure they get the whole idea down.
The 5th graders were working hard all the while I worked with the 2nd graders. But afterwards there was some tension on who got to use which beanbag and who got to sit in the reading corner. One girl wanted it all to herself, but two boys chose to read to someone in the same corner. She complained that she couldn't concentrate and wanted them to move somewhere else because they were too loud. I asked the boys to lower their voices, but she said she still couldn't concentrate. I told her she could either deal with it or pick a new spot. But she didn't want to pick a new spot. "It's not fair! I was here first! I shouldn't have to move!" Well, life's not fair, and the boys are being quiet, so if it's not working for you, then you need to make a good choice on where to sit. After a lot more fussing, she ended up picking a new spot. This same kid had trouble in math and that carried over into social studies, but somehow she got off the wrong track and ended up finishing the day really well.
We got everyone packed up and good to go in 5 minutes! So we got to watch the "What does the farmer say?" video. They thought it was hilarious, especially the part about the farmer tan and pasty white legs. They also couldn't get enough of the John Deere... sigh. I don't have any hope of converting them to the red side.
I told them that if we get packed up in 4 minutes tomorrow, we'll watch the "What does the fox say?" video. We'll see if they can be that fast.
Oh! The gunpowder thing! In 7th/8th grade history, we learned about the Chinese making gunpowder. One of the 8th grade boys asked if we could make some gunpowder at school. Ha! I told him no. He kept trying to convince me, "But what if I brought in..." Nope. Sorry, no gunpowder making at school.
All day, everyone was abuzz about the storm that's moving in. The 7th/8th graders are convinced we are not going to have school tomorrow. I'm slightly more skeptical. Two-hours late? Maybe, but I'm not holding out hope.
My grades all got sent out and now I just need to get ready for parent teacher conferences Thursday. I keep forgetting that today is a Tuesday. Only three more days left this week! Wow!
Friday, November 1, 2013
Fall Carnival
The 5th and 7th grade Fall Carnival was a success!!!
Once again, I forgot to have bags for the candy prizes. I had a few paper bags tucked away, and enough of the other teachers had them in their stash to help cover it. Everyone had a great time. I loved seeing all the little ones' costumes!
Twin brothers in Kindergarten dressed up as Iron Man and Captain America (what's funny is that those characters actually match their personalities!) My favorite costume of the day was a little preschooler (who is already cute to begin with) who dressed up as a minion from Despicable Me. Adorable! He even had the glasses and minion overalls! So cute! And then there were the usual princesses and firefighters and doctors and angels.
Most of the other teachers dressed up. I didn't. Oops. I felt pretty out of place at the carnival. So I let the girls at the hairspray booth spray my hair with glitter. Close enough for this year. Next year, the kindergarten and 1st/2nd grade teachers want us to dress up as Pinklicious, Purplicious, and Yellowlicious (they're characters from a picture book). Sounds like a plan to me!
Once again, I forgot to have bags for the candy prizes. I had a few paper bags tucked away, and enough of the other teachers had them in their stash to help cover it. Everyone had a great time. I loved seeing all the little ones' costumes!
Twin brothers in Kindergarten dressed up as Iron Man and Captain America (what's funny is that those characters actually match their personalities!) My favorite costume of the day was a little preschooler (who is already cute to begin with) who dressed up as a minion from Despicable Me. Adorable! He even had the glasses and minion overalls! So cute! And then there were the usual princesses and firefighters and doctors and angels.
Most of the other teachers dressed up. I didn't. Oops. I felt pretty out of place at the carnival. So I let the girls at the hairspray booth spray my hair with glitter. Close enough for this year. Next year, the kindergarten and 1st/2nd grade teachers want us to dress up as Pinklicious, Purplicious, and Yellowlicious (they're characters from a picture book). Sounds like a plan to me!
Thursday, October 31, 2013
But I am 'le tired
Ugh. I need a weekend to regroup and refresh. It took a half an hour for one of our students to pack up to go home. No amount of cajoling or prodding could get this student to hustle up. Sigh.
Last night I started glazing my pottery. Let me tell you, it's a whole lot more fun to MAKE the stuff compared to glazing. Next week is our last time, and I'm going to have to buckle down and get glazing if I'm going to get everything of mine glazed.
Last night I stopped at the library too. (I know, big night for Emily). Of course I checked out a huge stack of books. Now I just want to read them and not do my other homework. But the end of the quarter is tomorrow, and I need to get stuff corrected to put it in the grade book. Sigh, the things teachers have to do. I know I'm being melodramatic. What I need is to go home, eat some Halloween candy, and get a good night's sleep. Ready? Team break.
Last night I started glazing my pottery. Let me tell you, it's a whole lot more fun to MAKE the stuff compared to glazing. Next week is our last time, and I'm going to have to buckle down and get glazing if I'm going to get everything of mine glazed.
Last night I stopped at the library too. (I know, big night for Emily). Of course I checked out a huge stack of books. Now I just want to read them and not do my other homework. But the end of the quarter is tomorrow, and I need to get stuff corrected to put it in the grade book. Sigh, the things teachers have to do. I know I'm being melodramatic. What I need is to go home, eat some Halloween candy, and get a good night's sleep. Ready? Team break.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Pen Pals
Oh boy, the 5th grade was in an uproar today!
Our Slovakian pen pals sent their October letter, this one about their families. And this time, they addressed the letter to a specific 5th grader. I glanced through them before printing them off and I noticed one letter was addressed to one of the boys... it was from a girl. Ohhh!!! All the girls started teasing him that this girl had a crush on him. There is one girl that both 5th grade girls want to write to, and at first, I thought that this girl (Teresa) was the one who wrote specifically to this boy. But after taking a second look, I realized it was a different girl, Laura. She also asked him to send pictures. :)
PS- This is the same boy who was "fluttered" at during our spelling test last week. The poor kid just can't get a break!
Our Slovakian pen pals sent their October letter, this one about their families. And this time, they addressed the letter to a specific 5th grader. I glanced through them before printing them off and I noticed one letter was addressed to one of the boys... it was from a girl. Ohhh!!! All the girls started teasing him that this girl had a crush on him. There is one girl that both 5th grade girls want to write to, and at first, I thought that this girl (Teresa) was the one who wrote specifically to this boy. But after taking a second look, I realized it was a different girl, Laura. She also asked him to send pictures. :)
PS- This is the same boy who was "fluttered" at during our spelling test last week. The poor kid just can't get a break!
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Weather Report
Not a whole lot to report today... so being from good farming stock, I think I'll give a weather report (because everyone wants to talk about weather)!
It rained last night, but no snow that I saw. Our day at school was precipitation free. Who knows about tomorrow. Huh, I guess that was pretty short. I suppose I can find something about my class to talk about...
The 2nd graders are doing great on their double-digit addition, so we finished about six pages in their math workbooks today. The 5th graders finished up their cursive-name skeleton art projects and also finished another art project (where they make a tree out of tape and paint over it, then take the tape off to see the negative space). We need to put up some new art on the church bulletin board, but I'm not so sure how the church members will react to skeletons in church... we'll see what the other teachers say.
The Fall Carnival (sponsored by the 5th graders) is this Friday. It's hard to believe that it's almost November! Next week we'll have Parent/Teacher Conferences and pretty soon basketball will start up. Whew, this year's going fast!
It rained last night, but no snow that I saw. Our day at school was precipitation free. Who knows about tomorrow. Huh, I guess that was pretty short. I suppose I can find something about my class to talk about...
The 2nd graders are doing great on their double-digit addition, so we finished about six pages in their math workbooks today. The 5th graders finished up their cursive-name skeleton art projects and also finished another art project (where they make a tree out of tape and paint over it, then take the tape off to see the negative space). We need to put up some new art on the church bulletin board, but I'm not so sure how the church members will react to skeletons in church... we'll see what the other teachers say.
The Fall Carnival (sponsored by the 5th graders) is this Friday. It's hard to believe that it's almost November! Next week we'll have Parent/Teacher Conferences and pretty soon basketball will start up. Whew, this year's going fast!
Monday, October 28, 2013
It's Alive!
Our little plants are growing!!! Well, the soybeans are. So far, nothing on the corn. I set them on the lab table tonight so they're not freezing on the windowsill all night.
In other news, my brain is officially gone. This morning, I wrote a note on the 7th/8th grader's board asking them to bring their books/notebooks to class today. Then I remembered that I had their notebooks, so I didn't need to write that part up there. However, I hadn't gotten around to writing notebooks (but I thought I did), so I unconsciously erased the whole thing. With the roll of paper towels that was lying on the ledge. Yeah, the 7th/8th graders got a kick out of that, "Hey guys! She just used the whole roll! Hey, Miss H., how come you didn't just tear one off." Well it was right there. So anyway, I went back to my room and forgot about the whole thing. Until science.
One of the boys forgot his book. I asked him if he saw the note on the board. He said he didn't look at the board. And then one of the girls asked, "Miss H, didn't you erase that note." Well, I thought she had said that she was the one who erased it, so I started to ask her why when one of her classmates chimed in, "Yeah, Miss H, you erased the whole thing and we were like, 'whaa?'" And that's when it all came back to me. Whew. It's only Monday and my brain is already shot. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Who knows what will happen to the papers I have to correct tonight?!
In other news, my brain is officially gone. This morning, I wrote a note on the 7th/8th grader's board asking them to bring their books/notebooks to class today. Then I remembered that I had their notebooks, so I didn't need to write that part up there. However, I hadn't gotten around to writing notebooks (but I thought I did), so I unconsciously erased the whole thing. With the roll of paper towels that was lying on the ledge. Yeah, the 7th/8th graders got a kick out of that, "Hey guys! She just used the whole roll! Hey, Miss H., how come you didn't just tear one off." Well it was right there. So anyway, I went back to my room and forgot about the whole thing. Until science.
One of the boys forgot his book. I asked him if he saw the note on the board. He said he didn't look at the board. And then one of the girls asked, "Miss H, didn't you erase that note." Well, I thought she had said that she was the one who erased it, so I started to ask her why when one of her classmates chimed in, "Yeah, Miss H, you erased the whole thing and we were like, 'whaa?'" And that's when it all came back to me. Whew. It's only Monday and my brain is already shot. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Who knows what will happen to the papers I have to correct tonight?!
Friday, October 25, 2013
What does the fox say?
That song seemed to be the theme song of our trip. I probably heard it (or at least the chorus) at least 50 times the past two days. We had to outlaw it both yesterday and today. One of the 5th graders started singing it in the shower, but she modified the words so she "wasn't actually singing it." "What does the cow say? moo moo moo, ma-moo moo moo moo." Not so different afterall.
Okay, so summary of the trip.
Everyone got to school. We fed Joe, checked on our plant experiment, and corrected our spelling tests together. After a devotion and prayer, we left right on schedule. Upon arrival, we dropped off our things in the cabins and then went on an ABC nature hike. The two girls went with me and the three boys went with Aaron, the director of outdoor ed at Camp Omega. We found all sorts of cool things on our excursion: webs, lots of fungi, nuts, foam, and even a praying mantis! We thought it was dead, but it was just a little frozen from the cold. We left it on the clipboard and it warmed up enough to walk around. We also saved a leaf, and the mantis crawled underneath and stayed there for the remainder of our scavenger hunt. The boys thought it was really cool. The hardest letters to find were a, j, k, and of course x, y, and z. The girls and I came up with a sneaky way to get these letters; we looked for the shape in nature... and we found A, X, Y, and Z this way. The first three letters were made by trees and we found a bunch of little plants growing in the shape of a Z.
Lunch was hot dogs roasted over a campfire. Then we did archery using both a compound and a recurve bow. Man, did it make me want to watch Top Shot! That was my all-time favorite part of the trip. I really liked the recurve bow; it had a lot more power behind it. After archery was canoeing time. Most of the 5th graders had gone canoeing before... just one girl hadn't. The boys decided it would be boys in one canoe and girls in another. Aaron would lifeguard on the jetski. The person in the back is supposed to be the heaviest or most experienced canoe person. The people in the middle and front are the power. So I was in the back.
The boys were pretty speedy in their canoe. We had trouble getting our rhythm down... and then there was the splashing. My pants got pretty wet from all the accidental water flinging going on with the paddles. Then the two girls decided they wanted to switch spots. While we were in the middle of the lake. So with Aaron's permission, we did it. I steadied the boat while the girl in front scrunched down and slid her way to the middle. The girl in the middle carefully stood up and stepped cautiously to the front seat. And we made it!!!
Everyone else was pretty wet after canoeing, so we took a little break to get dried off. The 5th graders wanted to read Holes, so we congregated on the boys' side of the cabin (it was a lot warmer than the girls' side). I'd say overall we read a good 30 pages of the book. They were so excited; they wanted me to keep reading.
Some other things we did: archaeology dig, wilderness survival scenario, supper in the dining hall, and kickball (most of which was in the dark). We read for a little bit more and then had a campfire/devotions. It was super dark walking down to the campfire area. I forgot to mention to bring flashlights, but thankfully one girl brought hers anyway. Thank the Lord we did have one or I don't think we would've found our way down there! The other 5th grade girl was scared; she wouldn't let go of my arm the whole way down.
Before bed, the 5th graders wanted to read more of the Bible, so this time we met on the girls' side and read our favorite parts of the Bible together. And then we read more Holes. And then it was bedtime. The hard part wasn't getting everyone ready for bed. The hard part was getting them to stop yelling across the cabin.
The doors separating our half from the boy's side were locked, so I told the boys if they had any issues to knock on the door and I'd talk to them through the door. Well, everyone had finally gotten quiet(ish) when there was a knock. I thought it was one of the girls knocking against her bunk, so I didn't get up. But the knocking came again. The first time, the boys found something on their ceiling. I asked what it was. "It looks like glue." "...Okay. Is it hurting you?" "No." "Is it bugging you?" "Maybe." "Well, there's not a whole lot I can do. You can move to another room if it's really bothering you." "Uh, it's not bugging me that bad."
I had just gotten settled when another knocking started up. One of the 5th grade boys' tummy hurt. Not much I could do about that either. I thought he was probably homesick, but it was too late for him to call his mom to talk to her, so I told him to try rubbing his tummy. Silence. "What?" "Try rubbing your tummy. If it still hurts after 5 minutes, then knock again." Once more I got situated in my sleeping bag... and the knocking came again after less than two minutes. UGH! Unzip the sleeping bag, try not to wake up the girls, stumble to the connecting door. Same problem as before. Except this time, he couldn't sleep. "Try it one more time, or just lay in bed for a while," was my response. He didn't knock again the rest of the night.
Unfortunately, the 5th grade girls were feeling chatty (when are they not?). First one had a story to tell about another time she had a sleepover and another about when she was at Cutties. And when she finally stopped talking, the other one started up. I wondered if I'd ever get to sleep! This girl was scared someone would come attack us. And then when I tried to protect her, I'd get killed and then what would they do? And so on and so forth. Eventually, the other girl suggested we play the no-talking game to see who could be quiet the longest. And it worked for a while. I was just drifting off to sleep when I heard, "Mmm! Mmm-Hmmm! (aka- Hey, Miss H.!)" I ignored it, so the groaning got louder and more complex. My eyes stayed shut. Again, the groaning. Then a lantern flashed in my eyes (Aaron had let the scared 5th grader borrow his mini-lantern for light during the night.) I rolled over to face the wall. FINALLY, she drifted off to sleep.
But at 6:30 the next morning, "Hey Miss H. what time is it?" "Not time to get up yet, sleep for a little while longer." Everyone was up and ready by about 7:30, so we went outside to play around a bit. Frost covered the ground. We ended up using our feet to make designs in the frost: our names, crosses, signs of the Trinity... and the boys discovered the joy of sliding on frosty grass.
We ate breakfast, had Bible time/devotions, and then studied animal tracks. The 5th graders were more distracted today, so there wasn't nearly as much learning going on as there was yesterday. After animal tracks, we did a ravine study. Not so good. They were too distracted to focus. Each one found sticks that they used to dig in the mud and fling water around. So Aaron and I decided to scrap it and play kickball. By then it was lunchtime and time to pack up and go home.
Before we loaded the vehicle, I asked my students to get out their reading books they'd brought along. Each one said they had them. But after the vehicle was loaded... "Uh, Miss H.? My book is at he bottom of my bag." "Me too!" "Me too!" "Me too!" Sigh. The vehicle got unloaded and reloaded once again. Pictures were taken, prayers were prayed, and we were off! (after much arguing over who got to sit in which seat)
15 minutes down the road, "Uh, Miss H? I have to go to the bathroom." All the other 5th graders chimed in in agreement. Mental kick in the face! I was in such a jumble about the books, I'd forgotten to remind them to use the bathroom before we left! Though you'd think 5th graders would think of something like that. So ten minutes later we pulled into a gas station and zoomed through the restrooms. They did read their books about half the trip back. And we made it to school with time to spare! It was a little crazy when we got back, but we got through our end of the day routine and shipped everyone off for home without a hitch. Whew!
Okay, so summary of the trip.
Everyone got to school. We fed Joe, checked on our plant experiment, and corrected our spelling tests together. After a devotion and prayer, we left right on schedule. Upon arrival, we dropped off our things in the cabins and then went on an ABC nature hike. The two girls went with me and the three boys went with Aaron, the director of outdoor ed at Camp Omega. We found all sorts of cool things on our excursion: webs, lots of fungi, nuts, foam, and even a praying mantis! We thought it was dead, but it was just a little frozen from the cold. We left it on the clipboard and it warmed up enough to walk around. We also saved a leaf, and the mantis crawled underneath and stayed there for the remainder of our scavenger hunt. The boys thought it was really cool. The hardest letters to find were a, j, k, and of course x, y, and z. The girls and I came up with a sneaky way to get these letters; we looked for the shape in nature... and we found A, X, Y, and Z this way. The first three letters were made by trees and we found a bunch of little plants growing in the shape of a Z.
Lunch was hot dogs roasted over a campfire. Then we did archery using both a compound and a recurve bow. Man, did it make me want to watch Top Shot! That was my all-time favorite part of the trip. I really liked the recurve bow; it had a lot more power behind it. After archery was canoeing time. Most of the 5th graders had gone canoeing before... just one girl hadn't. The boys decided it would be boys in one canoe and girls in another. Aaron would lifeguard on the jetski. The person in the back is supposed to be the heaviest or most experienced canoe person. The people in the middle and front are the power. So I was in the back.
The boys were pretty speedy in their canoe. We had trouble getting our rhythm down... and then there was the splashing. My pants got pretty wet from all the accidental water flinging going on with the paddles. Then the two girls decided they wanted to switch spots. While we were in the middle of the lake. So with Aaron's permission, we did it. I steadied the boat while the girl in front scrunched down and slid her way to the middle. The girl in the middle carefully stood up and stepped cautiously to the front seat. And we made it!!!
Everyone else was pretty wet after canoeing, so we took a little break to get dried off. The 5th graders wanted to read Holes, so we congregated on the boys' side of the cabin (it was a lot warmer than the girls' side). I'd say overall we read a good 30 pages of the book. They were so excited; they wanted me to keep reading.
Some other things we did: archaeology dig, wilderness survival scenario, supper in the dining hall, and kickball (most of which was in the dark). We read for a little bit more and then had a campfire/devotions. It was super dark walking down to the campfire area. I forgot to mention to bring flashlights, but thankfully one girl brought hers anyway. Thank the Lord we did have one or I don't think we would've found our way down there! The other 5th grade girl was scared; she wouldn't let go of my arm the whole way down.
Before bed, the 5th graders wanted to read more of the Bible, so this time we met on the girls' side and read our favorite parts of the Bible together. And then we read more Holes. And then it was bedtime. The hard part wasn't getting everyone ready for bed. The hard part was getting them to stop yelling across the cabin.
The doors separating our half from the boy's side were locked, so I told the boys if they had any issues to knock on the door and I'd talk to them through the door. Well, everyone had finally gotten quiet(ish) when there was a knock. I thought it was one of the girls knocking against her bunk, so I didn't get up. But the knocking came again. The first time, the boys found something on their ceiling. I asked what it was. "It looks like glue." "...Okay. Is it hurting you?" "No." "Is it bugging you?" "Maybe." "Well, there's not a whole lot I can do. You can move to another room if it's really bothering you." "Uh, it's not bugging me that bad."
I had just gotten settled when another knocking started up. One of the 5th grade boys' tummy hurt. Not much I could do about that either. I thought he was probably homesick, but it was too late for him to call his mom to talk to her, so I told him to try rubbing his tummy. Silence. "What?" "Try rubbing your tummy. If it still hurts after 5 minutes, then knock again." Once more I got situated in my sleeping bag... and the knocking came again after less than two minutes. UGH! Unzip the sleeping bag, try not to wake up the girls, stumble to the connecting door. Same problem as before. Except this time, he couldn't sleep. "Try it one more time, or just lay in bed for a while," was my response. He didn't knock again the rest of the night.
Unfortunately, the 5th grade girls were feeling chatty (when are they not?). First one had a story to tell about another time she had a sleepover and another about when she was at Cutties. And when she finally stopped talking, the other one started up. I wondered if I'd ever get to sleep! This girl was scared someone would come attack us. And then when I tried to protect her, I'd get killed and then what would they do? And so on and so forth. Eventually, the other girl suggested we play the no-talking game to see who could be quiet the longest. And it worked for a while. I was just drifting off to sleep when I heard, "Mmm! Mmm-Hmmm! (aka- Hey, Miss H.!)" I ignored it, so the groaning got louder and more complex. My eyes stayed shut. Again, the groaning. Then a lantern flashed in my eyes (Aaron had let the scared 5th grader borrow his mini-lantern for light during the night.) I rolled over to face the wall. FINALLY, she drifted off to sleep.
But at 6:30 the next morning, "Hey Miss H. what time is it?" "Not time to get up yet, sleep for a little while longer." Everyone was up and ready by about 7:30, so we went outside to play around a bit. Frost covered the ground. We ended up using our feet to make designs in the frost: our names, crosses, signs of the Trinity... and the boys discovered the joy of sliding on frosty grass.
We ate breakfast, had Bible time/devotions, and then studied animal tracks. The 5th graders were more distracted today, so there wasn't nearly as much learning going on as there was yesterday. After animal tracks, we did a ravine study. Not so good. They were too distracted to focus. Each one found sticks that they used to dig in the mud and fling water around. So Aaron and I decided to scrap it and play kickball. By then it was lunchtime and time to pack up and go home.
Before we loaded the vehicle, I asked my students to get out their reading books they'd brought along. Each one said they had them. But after the vehicle was loaded... "Uh, Miss H.? My book is at he bottom of my bag." "Me too!" "Me too!" "Me too!" Sigh. The vehicle got unloaded and reloaded once again. Pictures were taken, prayers were prayed, and we were off! (after much arguing over who got to sit in which seat)
15 minutes down the road, "Uh, Miss H? I have to go to the bathroom." All the other 5th graders chimed in in agreement. Mental kick in the face! I was in such a jumble about the books, I'd forgotten to remind them to use the bathroom before we left! Though you'd think 5th graders would think of something like that. So ten minutes later we pulled into a gas station and zoomed through the restrooms. They did read their books about half the trip back. And we made it to school with time to spare! It was a little crazy when we got back, but we got through our end of the day routine and shipped everyone off for home without a hitch. Whew!
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Day of Departure
Well, I got everything packed up that I needed to. My car is set to go: full of gas, GPS programmed, back seats folded up... After looking at the inside of my car, I realized I probably should've vacuumed it before our trip. Oh well.
Now it's just a waiting game for the kiddos to arrive. It only takes an hour to get there, (and we're supposed to be there by 10:00), which gives us about a half an hour to do stuff at school. Huh. I suppose we'll do flag pledges and devotions, and it will take some time to load the vehicle. We probably should talk about behavior expectations, just in case. That should be enough to take up that half an hour. And we can always leave a little earlier.
The 1st and 2nd grade teacher thinks I'm crazy to go on a trip with the whole class by myself. If I dwell on that too long, I start to think it too. Maybe I should've asked parents to chaperone. Miss H. said she would've come along if we'd asked her. Too bad I didn't think of it sooner. Well, it will be what it will be.
Now it's just a waiting game for the kiddos to arrive. It only takes an hour to get there, (and we're supposed to be there by 10:00), which gives us about a half an hour to do stuff at school. Huh. I suppose we'll do flag pledges and devotions, and it will take some time to load the vehicle. We probably should talk about behavior expectations, just in case. That should be enough to take up that half an hour. And we can always leave a little earlier.
The 1st and 2nd grade teacher thinks I'm crazy to go on a trip with the whole class by myself. If I dwell on that too long, I start to think it too. Maybe I should've asked parents to chaperone. Miss H. said she would've come along if we'd asked her. Too bad I didn't think of it sooner. Well, it will be what it will be.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Cluttered
Boy does my brain feel cluttered! I have about a million things floating around in my brain... from next week's lesson plans, to things I need to pack for our trip tomorrow, to things I need to do before I go to pottery tonight. Whew! And to top it off, my desk is very messy.
I've found that my brain works better when my environment is neat and tidy. So I guess that's the first order of business. We have a list going on the whiteboard of things not to forget, and we've been adding to it all day. All my students want to bring their read-to-self books along to read on the way! Yay! And after our read aloud time, they asked if we could bring the book along to read before bedtime. Double yay! (We're reading the book Holes). In science, we talked about ferns and spores, so the 5th graders want to look for some on our trip. I'm going to bring some waxed paper so we can collect/flatten the leaves we find. We'll use them in an art project next week.
Another funny incident today happened during our spelling test. The word was lashes, and my sentence went something like this, "The girl batted her lashes at the good-looking boy." The next thing I know, one of the girls is pointing to the boy next to her. Then she fluttered her lashes at him. He looked so confused!
This same boy is getting glasses (hopefully tomorrow before our trip). He was a little nervous when he first found out he needed them, but Ms. J and I told him he would look good in glasses, and since then he hasn't been nervous. He's actually quite excited.
Well, this entry is also going to be a short one... I have to stop at the bank to deposit our registration checks and the bank closes at 3:30.
I've found that my brain works better when my environment is neat and tidy. So I guess that's the first order of business. We have a list going on the whiteboard of things not to forget, and we've been adding to it all day. All my students want to bring their read-to-self books along to read on the way! Yay! And after our read aloud time, they asked if we could bring the book along to read before bedtime. Double yay! (We're reading the book Holes). In science, we talked about ferns and spores, so the 5th graders want to look for some on our trip. I'm going to bring some waxed paper so we can collect/flatten the leaves we find. We'll use them in an art project next week.
Another funny incident today happened during our spelling test. The word was lashes, and my sentence went something like this, "The girl batted her lashes at the good-looking boy." The next thing I know, one of the girls is pointing to the boy next to her. Then she fluttered her lashes at him. He looked so confused!
This same boy is getting glasses (hopefully tomorrow before our trip). He was a little nervous when he first found out he needed them, but Ms. J and I told him he would look good in glasses, and since then he hasn't been nervous. He's actually quite excited.
Well, this entry is also going to be a short one... I have to stop at the bank to deposit our registration checks and the bank closes at 3:30.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Last Volleyball Game...
Today is our last volleyball/soccer game. And it's cold outside. I decided to skip the soccer game and work on stuff inside the warm school. Miss H. offered to let me watch the game through her window, and I think I'll take her up on that (as soon as I'm done writing). We also have our team volleyball picture today before the game. Since today was picture day, everyone is dressed up a little more, so our picture should turn out pretty good.
I was a little worried yesterday because my eye started turning red. Of course, I immediately jumped to the worst conclusion, "Ahh! I have pink eye!" But then my logical side kicked in, "You probably just need to change your contacts, especially since you were in a dusty attic and a windy field all weekend." So change them I did, and my eye was not red today. Whew! Vanity saved.
I was a little worried yesterday because my eye started turning red. Of course, I immediately jumped to the worst conclusion, "Ahh! I have pink eye!" But then my logical side kicked in, "You probably just need to change your contacts, especially since you were in a dusty attic and a windy field all weekend." So change them I did, and my eye was not red today. Whew! Vanity saved.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Mini-farmers
This week is all about plants in 5th grade science. Normally, we alternate science/social studies every other day, but since last week was only 3 school days, we did social studies all week. This week I'm trying to wrap up our unit on plants.
We started class today by planting some corn and soybeans in wet paper towels in clear cups. Some of the seeds were planted upside down, some right way up, and some sideways. This is to prove geotropism, or the idea that plant roots grow down and plant stems/leaves grow up, no matter which way they're facing. I asked the 5th graders what they thought would happen, and they said the plants aren't going to know which way to grow because these seeds are different than the kind in the picture that I showed them. Well, we'll soon see what happens. After they grow a while, we'll put some of the cups in the dark and leave some in the light to show phototropism. The 5th grader who is moving at the end of the month asked if he could bring his cup of plants with him so he can keep experimenting with them after he leaves. Oh such eager young minds! :)
Then we talked about hydrotropism, or plants growing toward moisture in the ground. They tried to come up with a way we could test that idea. Most of their ideas involved the big fish tank in the closet and lots of dirt. If I can find a smaller container, we might be able to accomplish it. We'll have to wait and see. Also in the news of classroom plants... one of my sisters bought our class a plant this weekend. The 5th graders were super excited to find out it would stay in our classroom for the rest of the year. It really makes me want to get some more plants!
Our schedule for Camp Omega arrived today. I kind of forgot which activities we were going to do, so I was very excited to see the list again. Here's what we'll be doing (at least, all the exciting stuff): Archaeological Dig, cookout, Archery, Canoeing, Wilderness Survival, Kickball, campfire, Animal Tracking, and a Ravine Study. One of the 5th graders was reading the list over my shoulder and when he came to Archaeological Dig, he jumped up and down with excitement. His excitement only grew when he reached the Ravine Study, "Hey Miss H, do we get to go in a ravine for the ravine study?" "Yep." "Hey guys! We get to go into a ravine! Oh I'm so excited!"
I'm really looking forward to our trip. Mostly because I had a great time at Camp Omega when I went in 5th and 6th grade, but also because the 5th graders will stop asking questions about what we're going to do at camp. Of course, they'll probably still be distracted, this time asking, "Hey Miss H., do you remember that one thing that happened at Camp Omega?" Sigh. Oh well.
Speaking of distractions... Mr. D had car trouble this morning. His car started smoking on the way to school and the battery gauge went way down. He thought it was trouble with the alternator, so he called a tow truck. Now, in case you haven't heard, Mr. D's car looks almost the same as mine. We also park next to each other in the mornings. So around lunchtime, my 5th graders and I see a tow truck pull up outside school. My first thought was, "Oh boy, I hope they don't take my car by mistake." My second thought was, "That's right, I have the keys in here so they wouldn't be able to drive it away." My mind was at ease once again. Not so the 5th graders. They jumped to the same conclusion that the tow truck drivers would take my car instead of Mr. D's, so they all got up from their lunches and huddled around the window until they saw that Mr. D's car was indeed the one being loaded onto the tow truck. After school, Mr. D dropped by and gave me an update on his car; it was just a broken water pump, and the fix-it shop had it fixed up by 3:15. Hopefully he doesn't have any more problems with it!
We started class today by planting some corn and soybeans in wet paper towels in clear cups. Some of the seeds were planted upside down, some right way up, and some sideways. This is to prove geotropism, or the idea that plant roots grow down and plant stems/leaves grow up, no matter which way they're facing. I asked the 5th graders what they thought would happen, and they said the plants aren't going to know which way to grow because these seeds are different than the kind in the picture that I showed them. Well, we'll soon see what happens. After they grow a while, we'll put some of the cups in the dark and leave some in the light to show phototropism. The 5th grader who is moving at the end of the month asked if he could bring his cup of plants with him so he can keep experimenting with them after he leaves. Oh such eager young minds! :)
Then we talked about hydrotropism, or plants growing toward moisture in the ground. They tried to come up with a way we could test that idea. Most of their ideas involved the big fish tank in the closet and lots of dirt. If I can find a smaller container, we might be able to accomplish it. We'll have to wait and see. Also in the news of classroom plants... one of my sisters bought our class a plant this weekend. The 5th graders were super excited to find out it would stay in our classroom for the rest of the year. It really makes me want to get some more plants!
Our schedule for Camp Omega arrived today. I kind of forgot which activities we were going to do, so I was very excited to see the list again. Here's what we'll be doing (at least, all the exciting stuff): Archaeological Dig, cookout, Archery, Canoeing, Wilderness Survival, Kickball, campfire, Animal Tracking, and a Ravine Study. One of the 5th graders was reading the list over my shoulder and when he came to Archaeological Dig, he jumped up and down with excitement. His excitement only grew when he reached the Ravine Study, "Hey Miss H, do we get to go in a ravine for the ravine study?" "Yep." "Hey guys! We get to go into a ravine! Oh I'm so excited!"
I'm really looking forward to our trip. Mostly because I had a great time at Camp Omega when I went in 5th and 6th grade, but also because the 5th graders will stop asking questions about what we're going to do at camp. Of course, they'll probably still be distracted, this time asking, "Hey Miss H., do you remember that one thing that happened at Camp Omega?" Sigh. Oh well.
Speaking of distractions... Mr. D had car trouble this morning. His car started smoking on the way to school and the battery gauge went way down. He thought it was trouble with the alternator, so he called a tow truck. Now, in case you haven't heard, Mr. D's car looks almost the same as mine. We also park next to each other in the mornings. So around lunchtime, my 5th graders and I see a tow truck pull up outside school. My first thought was, "Oh boy, I hope they don't take my car by mistake." My second thought was, "That's right, I have the keys in here so they wouldn't be able to drive it away." My mind was at ease once again. Not so the 5th graders. They jumped to the same conclusion that the tow truck drivers would take my car instead of Mr. D's, so they all got up from their lunches and huddled around the window until they saw that Mr. D's car was indeed the one being loaded onto the tow truck. After school, Mr. D dropped by and gave me an update on his car; it was just a broken water pump, and the fix-it shop had it fixed up by 3:15. Hopefully he doesn't have any more problems with it!
Friday, October 11, 2013
Fun Friday
I had a late night correcting papers last night... 11:30! which is way past pumpkin time for me. I did get them all corrected though!
At school, we had a fun day (but still full of learning!). The sentences in our English book have recently focused on the Odyssey and Odysseus, so I found the Wishbone episode about the Iliad. The 5th graders loved it! One boy asked if he could find a website to watch more of "that show with the little dog." I think I'll have to introduce my students to more of the classics later this year.
We were a day behind in English (since we ran out of time yesterday), but I wanted to meet with individual students about their independent reading books, so time slipped away again and I ended up punting on the assignment. Instead, we played our usual Friday English Adjective Game. The class splits into two teams, I find an object in the room for them to describe, and they have three minutes to write down as many adjectives as they can that describe the object. And they get to use Thesauri. They love it! We only got to play for 10 minutes before it was time for lunch. We didn't even have time for Spanish vocab.
In the afternoon, the 7th and 8th graders got their tests back, watched a Bill Nye episode about Earth's crust, and then watched two short videos about money: where it comes from, how it got started, and inflation. They were really into it! I was surprised! They were asking questions and making connections to our government and our country's debt. It was great.
Volleyball practice was interesting too. It was our last practice of the season. Just one more tournament and one more game to go! The girls actually listened to me for once, although there were a few eye rolls and talking back. So then Miss H. and I made them run laps. We ended practice with a scrimmage of the girls (10) vs. the coaches (3). They played with 6 on the court and rotated the other girls in on the serve. Everyone played really well! Especially the coach's team. I actually spiked the ball twice! Something I never accomplished at any point in my short elementary volleyball career. The coach's team won, 15-3. It was really fun. A good ending to the week. Now we just have to survive the Pork Chop Dinner on Sunday. Oh boy, here we go...
At school, we had a fun day (but still full of learning!). The sentences in our English book have recently focused on the Odyssey and Odysseus, so I found the Wishbone episode about the Iliad. The 5th graders loved it! One boy asked if he could find a website to watch more of "that show with the little dog." I think I'll have to introduce my students to more of the classics later this year.
We were a day behind in English (since we ran out of time yesterday), but I wanted to meet with individual students about their independent reading books, so time slipped away again and I ended up punting on the assignment. Instead, we played our usual Friday English Adjective Game. The class splits into two teams, I find an object in the room for them to describe, and they have three minutes to write down as many adjectives as they can that describe the object. And they get to use Thesauri. They love it! We only got to play for 10 minutes before it was time for lunch. We didn't even have time for Spanish vocab.
In the afternoon, the 7th and 8th graders got their tests back, watched a Bill Nye episode about Earth's crust, and then watched two short videos about money: where it comes from, how it got started, and inflation. They were really into it! I was surprised! They were asking questions and making connections to our government and our country's debt. It was great.
Volleyball practice was interesting too. It was our last practice of the season. Just one more tournament and one more game to go! The girls actually listened to me for once, although there were a few eye rolls and talking back. So then Miss H. and I made them run laps. We ended practice with a scrimmage of the girls (10) vs. the coaches (3). They played with 6 on the court and rotated the other girls in on the serve. Everyone played really well! Especially the coach's team. I actually spiked the ball twice! Something I never accomplished at any point in my short elementary volleyball career. The coach's team won, 15-3. It was really fun. A good ending to the week. Now we just have to survive the Pork Chop Dinner on Sunday. Oh boy, here we go...
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Ridin' in the Combine
Not a lot of time to write today...
I have to make it to the post office by 4:30 so I can get a package mailed.
One of my 5th graders' dads was combining in the field next to school (green tractor... blech!). All the other classes got to ride in the combine, so my students asked if they could. I told the student to ask his dad if it was okay. It was. So the whole class (except myself) got to ride one round in the combine, 3 people at a time. That left me the odd man out, not that I minded. I've ridden in the combine many-a-time. After recess was over and we were walking inside, the 5th grader asked me, "Miss H., did you not want a ride because it was green?" My students know me too well.
I have to make it to the post office by 4:30 so I can get a package mailed.
One of my 5th graders' dads was combining in the field next to school (green tractor... blech!). All the other classes got to ride in the combine, so my students asked if they could. I told the student to ask his dad if it was okay. It was. So the whole class (except myself) got to ride one round in the combine, 3 people at a time. That left me the odd man out, not that I minded. I've ridden in the combine many-a-time. After recess was over and we were walking inside, the 5th grader asked me, "Miss H., did you not want a ride because it was green?" My students know me too well.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Hose 'em Down
Fire Prevention Day.
Who knew it would be so chaotic?
It was supposed to start at 9:45, but the trucks didn't pull in until 9:50. And the fire alarm went off at 9:47. It only took 58 seconds for everyone to evacuate school. The firefighters were going to come around to each classroom and give a talk about fire safety, so the 5th graders and I did read aloud and waited. And then did Daily 5 and waited. And listened to all the other classes having fun honking the truck horns and waited. And just when I thought they had forgotten about us, someone came to talk to our class. Whew!
Since our class is so small, the students got tons of prizes. They got those plastic fire hats (I told them they could wear them until lunch, then they had to go in the backpacks), Frisbees, and a water bottle filled with an eraser, bookmark, tattoo, and two color changing pencils. Cool! Then we got to go outside to look at the trucks. No one was giving us any directions, so we bopped around from truck to truck, honking horns, taking turns sitting in the driver's seat. Then a firefighter finally appeared and let the students try on the fireman's uniform.
The coolest part was when they got the hose out for everyone to spray. The wind blew the spray right into the faces of whoever was spraying the hose. One of the 7th graders came running over to me, "Want a hug Miss H?" I didn't really have a choice. He rubbed his wet head all over my shoulder! It was a nice day out, so pretty much all the 7th and 8th graders thought it would be fun to run through the spray... and my 5th graders followed suit. All except one boy who apparently didn't get the memo; when everyone was back inside, he was the only dry one. He said, "How come no one told me we were going to run through the water?" I pointed out that his classmates were going to be wet the rest of the day, and probably uncomfortable. One of his classmates with a shirt completely soaked through said, "Yeah, she's right. Now I'm really cold. Can I go get my sweatshirt?" By the time we got inside, there was only 15 minutes until lunch. Not enough time for English. I decided to punt English for the day.
Our day ended with the 5th graders running the mile in PE followed by volleyball practice. Now I'm going to pack up and head to pottery class!
Who knew it would be so chaotic?
It was supposed to start at 9:45, but the trucks didn't pull in until 9:50. And the fire alarm went off at 9:47. It only took 58 seconds for everyone to evacuate school. The firefighters were going to come around to each classroom and give a talk about fire safety, so the 5th graders and I did read aloud and waited. And then did Daily 5 and waited. And listened to all the other classes having fun honking the truck horns and waited. And just when I thought they had forgotten about us, someone came to talk to our class. Whew!
Since our class is so small, the students got tons of prizes. They got those plastic fire hats (I told them they could wear them until lunch, then they had to go in the backpacks), Frisbees, and a water bottle filled with an eraser, bookmark, tattoo, and two color changing pencils. Cool! Then we got to go outside to look at the trucks. No one was giving us any directions, so we bopped around from truck to truck, honking horns, taking turns sitting in the driver's seat. Then a firefighter finally appeared and let the students try on the fireman's uniform.
The coolest part was when they got the hose out for everyone to spray. The wind blew the spray right into the faces of whoever was spraying the hose. One of the 7th graders came running over to me, "Want a hug Miss H?" I didn't really have a choice. He rubbed his wet head all over my shoulder! It was a nice day out, so pretty much all the 7th and 8th graders thought it would be fun to run through the spray... and my 5th graders followed suit. All except one boy who apparently didn't get the memo; when everyone was back inside, he was the only dry one. He said, "How come no one told me we were going to run through the water?" I pointed out that his classmates were going to be wet the rest of the day, and probably uncomfortable. One of his classmates with a shirt completely soaked through said, "Yeah, she's right. Now I'm really cold. Can I go get my sweatshirt?" By the time we got inside, there was only 15 minutes until lunch. Not enough time for English. I decided to punt English for the day.
Our day ended with the 5th graders running the mile in PE followed by volleyball practice. Now I'm going to pack up and head to pottery class!
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!
Well, actually, I didn't fall down today at all. I stayed on my feet during 2nd grade math (a rough and rowdy crowd today) and during the 7th and 8th grade review session. I think that was our most productive study session of the entire year. Probably because I let them pick their own groups. We actually got through most of what they need to know for the test. They still want me to make a study guide though. And none of the 5th graders fell down while working on their PowerPoint projects about Native American tribes in early America... so who did fall?
One student was walking to her desk and gracefully tripped over someone's bag strap. I heard a big thump, but by the time I turned to look, she had popped right back up and wasn't hurt. The second one was a bit more serious. We were at our 2nd recess and since we'd ended recess early yesterday, the 5th graders decided to play a friendly game of swing tag as opposed to the more controversial game of kickball. Ms. J and I played with them and all was well and good... until one 5th grader had an itch on his back. He reached around to scratch his back and promptly fell off the swing, right on his hip. Ouch! He kept saying his back hurt, so I didn't know how much to move him just in case something was wrong back there. He was able to move his legs and said it was hurting a little less as time went on. No ice pack necessary for this tough guy. One of his classmates asked if she should call the ambulance (we didn't). He turned out to be fine. Didn't want to call his mom or dad or anyone. What a tough guy.
So that was the excitement for the day. Then we found out that one of the 5th graders didn't have a ride to the soccer game at Camp Omega today. There was no room in anyone else's car, so she was out of luck. Her brother had to come pick her up. I felt so bad for her; she was in the gym, bawling her eyes out because she couldn't go. It's a hard way to learn a lesson.
In other news, the firefighters are coming tomorrow for Fire Prevention Week. We'll get to shoot off the fire hose!
One student was walking to her desk and gracefully tripped over someone's bag strap. I heard a big thump, but by the time I turned to look, she had popped right back up and wasn't hurt. The second one was a bit more serious. We were at our 2nd recess and since we'd ended recess early yesterday, the 5th graders decided to play a friendly game of swing tag as opposed to the more controversial game of kickball. Ms. J and I played with them and all was well and good... until one 5th grader had an itch on his back. He reached around to scratch his back and promptly fell off the swing, right on his hip. Ouch! He kept saying his back hurt, so I didn't know how much to move him just in case something was wrong back there. He was able to move his legs and said it was hurting a little less as time went on. No ice pack necessary for this tough guy. One of his classmates asked if she should call the ambulance (we didn't). He turned out to be fine. Didn't want to call his mom or dad or anyone. What a tough guy.
So that was the excitement for the day. Then we found out that one of the 5th graders didn't have a ride to the soccer game at Camp Omega today. There was no room in anyone else's car, so she was out of luck. Her brother had to come pick her up. I felt so bad for her; she was in the gym, bawling her eyes out because she couldn't go. It's a hard way to learn a lesson.
In other news, the firefighters are coming tomorrow for Fire Prevention Week. We'll get to shoot off the fire hose!
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