Stolen Thunder

Another whirlwind of a day...

We were all over the place this morning.  The 3rd and 4th graders were at church to practice their wax museum displays, so our class visited them and listened to them practice for the show tonight.  They were so cute!  A few kids came up to me to make sure I was going to visit them and hear their spiels.  When our time was up, we walked back to school, quickly studied for the spelling test, took the test, and then our guest "science fair judge" showed up to talk with the 6th graders about their science fair projects.

Each student was with her for about 10 minutes, just talking about their project: what they did, who helped them, where they got the idea... etc.  She really scared them when she told them they'd need to stay calm tonight when they shared their projects with everyone.  One boy came rushing back into the room with the most frightened look on his face, "Miss H, do we need to talk to people tonight?"  You could see his whole body relax when I explained that they weren't going to be on display, only their projects.

By the time everyone had had a turn, our Junior Achievement speaker had arrived.  Our speaker is from a local bank and comes once a week to talk about economics, money, budgeting, finding a job, all sorts of good stuff like that.  This week's topic was budgeting.  It was really interesting!  Each student got a fake job with a fake salary.  They had taxes taken out and then they had to budget the rest of their income.  After finding out how much they could spend on certain things, they got the chance to try it out.  Our speaker gave them a few choices about what they could buy for a car, ranging from really expensive, to pretty cheap.  She also did this for entertainment, clothes, housing, food, and miscellaneous.  They could decide how much they wanted to give to charity and whatever was left over from their paycheck was going in the bank as savings.   Listening to them budget their money made me want to try the recommended percentages to see if my budget is close to the one this program suggests.

Then it was lunch time, a short recess outside, singing practice in Mr. E's room, and then to the bus!  We visited MLC for their annual play.  This year's performance was "Who Can Fix the Dragon's Wagon?"  It was really cute!  They did a great job!  On the bus and in the auditorium, I realized that my ears have gotten used to everything being quiet.  My ears hurt from hearing screaming kids on the bus (we went up a really big hill on the way there) and screaming/laughing kids waiting for the play to start.  The actors tried to get the kids all excited before the play, so of course they were being loud.  And then they shut the lights off...  a hundred high pitched screams echoed off the walls of the theater.  Yikes!  I wanted to put my hands over my ears.  But that's too wimpy for a teacher.  So I just sat there.

At the end of the play, the cast came onstage and did a dance kind of thing.  And the concept was exactly what the teachers are doing for our ending skit.  Thankfully, the cast only used two of the songs we're using for ours, and they didn't use any props.  So I think ours will still be entertaining for our students.  But they'll probably ask us afterwards, "Did you get the idea to do this from the MLC play?"  Sigh.  Somehow, I think they won't be very "wowed" by our act now.  Oh well.  The adults in our audience should still be impressed! I'm still really excited to perform.

R-E-C-E-S-S

I feel like I've been sucked into a tornado, swirled around, and dumped behind my desk.  These kids need to get outside for some fresh air and more room to burn off their energy.

It was my turn for recess duty with the k-4th graders.  I was curious what the majority of the students would do with their time since the hockey stuff is put away.  My answer came very quickly: dodge-ball   Only when they started recess, it was more like a free for all "let's see how many times we can hit the kid who's been annoying us all day" kind of game.  And then this kid starts crying.  And then the teachers have to smooth it over.  Lot's of accidents waiting to happen.  

In the interest of public safety, I organized an actual game of dodge-ball .. I think we called it bombardment.  There's so many games involving the throwing of balls, I can never keep them straight.  Thank the Lord my voice is back.  I had to shout over the other half of the gym so the dodge-ball players could hear me.  We did have to restart a few times to go over the rules again.  And some kids were cheating, and got tattled on, and had to run laps around the gym as a consequence.  Some kids decided to scream... more laps.  Some kids got knocked over or hit in the head... ice packs galore.  We ran out of ice packs and had to make some out of zip-lock bags and ice cubes.  

What a recess!

But I survived.  And we practiced our teacher skit/s at church today, so we're even more ready for Friday night.  Oh, it's gonna be good!  

Floor Hockey and Gangnam Style

Today was quite an eventful one at our school!

We had a two-hour late start, but not a real one because only one of the schools called two hours late.  The other one still had busing as normal, so I had to be at school the normal time.  All the 7th and 8th graders wanted to play in the gym, but I had some stuff to do in my room, so I said "Only if a teacher is in there to keep an eye on you."  They got Mr. D to do it, but he was in and out and not really in there enough to "keep an eye on them" so I ended up grabbing stuff to correct and sat there.  Of course, as soon as I got in the gym, he was sitting on the bleachers.  But when I sat down, he asked if I minded if he went to his room to do a few things.  Sigh.  No, go ahead.  So I was still stuck with them.

I did get the chance to look at the ITBS test booklets (tests my students just finished taking).  I figured out that each grade has questions half from the grade below and half from the grade above (at least in science and social studies).  Most of the questions were on physical science, which isn't in our curriculum.  That's something that needs to change for next year.

Finally we could start school.  My kids needed to practice their skit for our Variety Night this Friday, so that had to be squeezed in.  They're coming along, but it would be good to practice at church with microphones.  We're running out of time!

After lunch the 6th graders learned about the Cold War and then had math.  The 7th and 8th graders took a test that they didn't get to take last week (because of our snow day).  They finished with five minutes to spare, and one of the boys suggested we play a game.

"Like what?"
"Like that hand game you taught us that one time."  That one time referring to an activity during National Lutheran Schools Week this year.  I thought why not?  So we moved the tables out of the way and all hunkered down into a big circle.  I was surprised at how excited they were to play the game!  Most of them remembered how to play, but everyone picked up on it after a few seconds of playing.

At 2:00, we all headed to the gym for our long awaited Teacher vs. Student (7th and 8th graders) floor hockey match.  Six people per team.  Four minute halves.  Full court.

During the test, someone noticed an emergency vehicle (just a little car) parked outside school.  He asked me what it was for.  I had no idea but I whispered to him, "It's for the teachers, just in case someone passes out during the floor hockey game."  He stared at me for a second, "Really?"  "Nope, I don't know why they're there."

Thankfully, no one passed out during the game.  We actually played really well.  Of course we lost: 5 to 1.  At least we made one goal!  We almost made it in about 10 times (seriously) so technically we could've won if we'd have played longer.  Since we had some extra time at the end, we played 4 minutes, teachers vs. 8th graders only.  Oh it was so close!  We ended in a tie: 0-0.  One of the girls challenged us to a rematch sometime.  I think we're just going to lock the hockey stuff in the shed until next year.  It's time for us to get outside.

After school, once everyone had left, the teachers gathered in my room to practice our skit for Variety Night.  It's coming along nicely.  I think everyone has all their props.  We'll definitely be ready by Friday night.  I know some of the other teachers had their doubts.  I still need to learn how to do the Gangnam Style dance...

I want a sink...

Yikes! What a day!

Both the 6th graders and the 7th/8th graders had a lab today.  I don't know why I always have the older kids do the messiest labs... 

The 6th graders were using flashlights with colored cellophane over them to see what happens to the colored light waves when they overlap.  The girls were in a group together (minus one) and they did just fine on their own.  The boys on the other hand... their group didn't work together so well.  From now on, the boys don't get to be together.  They completely ignored the girl in their group (not that she didn't try to get them to notice her.  But she was being annoying, so they didn't pay any attention).  They couldn't even read the instructions in the book!  I probably shouldn't have stood over them, helping them along step by step, but that's what I did.  Looking back on it now, I should've let them do nothing and had them face the consequences later.  

Then came the 7th and 8th graders.  By that time, I was in no mood for shenanigans.  I flat out told them that they had to be on their best behavior today or else we wouldn't do any more labs this year.  They all said they'd be on their best behavior, and for the most part, they were.

We started class eight minutes late because no one was ready for class after bells.  Something's got to change there.  I think on Monday (the next time we have bells), I'm going to write a note on the board in their room saying something like, "You will need the following items for class.  If you don't have them with you during bells, you will do without.  No one will be allowed to leave the room until 2:00."  I should probably add something about being able to leave in case of emergency, because someone will for sure say, "But what if the room were on fire?  Or we have to go to the bathroom really bad?"  

Our lab today was modeling how a kidney works.  I had a mixture of gravel, potting soil, and water in a pail.   They had to filter this substance through a screen and then filter some more through a coffee filter.  Most groups had trouble following the directions.  One group broke a beaker that I had just bought.  Sigh.  The first of many equipment casualties, I'm sure.  I think they were surprised I wasn't more upset about it.  I didn't even yell at the boys who broke it.  Maybe they had been goofing around, but I didn't see it happen... I just heard the crash afterwards.  But.  These things happen.  Deal with it and move on.

Clean-up was pretty tricky.  Everyone was supposed to rinse off their utensils, so they had to cart them all the way down the hallway to the bathroom.  Then they set them on the lab table to dry.  This is when I noticed that some groups cleaned out their equipment better than others.  The groups that thought they were finished cleaning had left by this point, so there was no way for me to call people back and rewash.  

Some tricky students just left their dirty dishes on the lab table.  I ended up cleaning those few myself after school.  Surprisingly, everyone folded up their aprons and put their goggles back in the right spots.  That was really nice.  

And then my 6th graders came back from math.  It makes me sad that they're growing up and becoming moody teenagers who hate school and talk back to teachers and pick on each other and are just obnoxious in general.  I'm hoping it's the changing weather.  Next week, the school nurse gets to give them the puberty talk.  I haven't told them yet, but I'm sure they'll be really excited.  

Not Fun

Whew! Today was not a fun day.  Actually, it wasn't too bad until all the kids left for the day.  Now I'm just really tired and my throat hurts.

I've been trying to cut down on my talking today, not easy when you're a teacher.  Thankfully, we did some testing and the 7th and 8th graders were doing presentations today, so no talking necessary for that.  Tomorrow is going to be the big challenge.  I'm trying to figure out how I can swing my lesson plans to eliminate most of the talking.  Hmm... I don't know if it's possible.

This morning, I thought about calling in sick, but we found out that our only substitute teacher got a job, so now we have no substitutes.  Mr. E did find someone to teach for him while at the principal's conference today, but that would leave no one to take over for me if I stayed home.  And really it's just my throat that's sore.  It seems like something you can just "power through" and not bad enough to miss school for.

We're supposed to get some snow tonight, so maybe God will be merciful and give me a day off to recuperate.  Who knows?

Testing, Testing, 1-2-3

Well, I made it back from my trip overseas without any difficulty.  Did the three day week without too much trouble from my students (we did have to go over how to raise our hands when we want to talk).

Joe the tortoise decided he likes us now and will usually be out and about in the morning.  After lunch, he usually buries himself under the soil in his terrarium and I don't see him until the next morning.  Last Friday, he actually faced the flag and "said" the pledge of allegiance with the class.  (More like he was sunning himself under his heat lamp, but we can pretend he's patriotic).

Today was our first day of testing.  We're using a newer version of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, which is a test I had to take when I was in grade school.  We just did the two reading portions today.  It went all right.  My weakest reader in the class was finished with the second part first.  Uh-oh.  I went over and checked the answer sheet.  They were all filled in!  Then at lunch, this student mentioned that the test was really hard and he/she didn't know any of the answers.  I asked how it was possible to be finished first.  The student really didn't say too much, but I don't think this person's scores are going to be too good for the second part.  We'll try to take two tests each day and be finished by next Friday.

The 7th and 8th graders had a speaker today.  A guy from CHS came to talk about the Wide World of Weeds.  He walked in about 20 minutes early and found the room very chaotic.  We were having bells at the time, so there were double the amount of students normally in my room, and all of them were marking papers, moving around the room, etc.  I was supposed to be doing recess duty, but was trying to send off a few emails in between.  We got his computer hooked up to the projector and then he waited in the office while I helped outside.  We were chased into the gym by the rain after about ten minutes.

I think I'm going to head home earlier than normal tonight.  Last night I had a sore throat and it hasn't gotten better throughout the day.  One of the teachers recommended getting a packet thing that you pour into a drink and it helps prevent colds, so I might see about getting some of that.  I have to make a library run so I don't get overdue fees on my book, so I could just swing by Walmart too.

Tomorrow after school, I have an interview with a family in the nearby area for a nanny job.  I got another email from the mom and she wanted to know if I'd be comfortable going to her house to meet the kids.  I said sure, but then I warned her that I might be getting a cold.  So I don't know if she'll want her kids exposed to that or not.  We'll see.