Well this has been an interesting day...
After trying to scrape up enough activities to occupy my 6th graders on their field trip, I was kind of wondering how the day would actually go. So many of the things I had lined up didn't have a specific end time, so I wasn't sure how long they would go. To counteract that, we hung around school until about 11:00 so we wouldn't get to our destination with nothing to do.
We ate at the mall. My only stipulation about the mall was that we had to sit together, otherwise they could get whatever food they wanted. Half of us went to China Max and the other half chose Subway. Then came the hard matter of finding a table. The boys picked a spot but there wasn't enough room for everyone. So I sat at a different table nearby. An older lady eating next to us said, "So this is the generation gap?" and gestured to the distance between our two tables.
I ended up moving my tray back to the boys' table since there wouldn't be enough room for all the girls if I sat there too. And then one of the girls sat by me, so we were segregated into Chinese food and Subway tables. The boys finished way before the girls did, and they started to get squirrely. One had the brilliant idea to take a ride on the carousel, but decided not to since it cost $2.00. But then he must've changed his mind because a few minutes later he was standing in line to get a token for the ride. Of course, the other 6th grade boy had to follow suit, and then one of the girls wanted to go as well. Unfortunately, she didn't have enough money, so she ran back to our table to ask for some. One of her classmates gave her .80 but somebody did the math wrong and the lady sent her back again to get some more money (since she still didn't have enough?). I told her to go ask for her money back.
At this point, we needed to leave for our museum tour, but the boys were already strapped in and ready to go on the carousel, so we had to wait. It was probably the longest three minutes of my life. We made it out of the mall and over to the Ottensen Museum at Bethany College, but we were about 10 minutes late. Sigh.
The Ottensen Museum is devoted to the history of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod and had some really cool artifacts for the kids to see. They asked a lot of questions about the things they saw, but I don't think they were paying much attention to the information about the Synod's religious history. Maybe they would've gotten more out of it if we visited earlier in the year when their brains were still working. It's a really neat museum!
We were supposed to meet a worker from the city of Mankato at the Rassmussen Woods Nature Center at 12:15, but we had just gotten to the museum (and I had said we'd be there sometime between 12:15 and 12:30). I called the guy just in case, but got his voicemail. I left a message telling him we'd be late. And then about five minutes later he called me from his cell phone. I felt so bad telling him that we wouldn't be there for another 20 minutes or so! He just sighed. He had to get back to work and didn't want to wait around for us to get there. So he gave me the code to get the key. I was instructed to keep the kids from touching anything and to shut the lights off when we left, but we were free to look around and use the facilities.
They loved looking at all the taxidermy animals. One boy had a staring contest with a moose. One of the girls found a display that let you hear sounds common Minnesota birds make. One girl was fascinated by the cougar. We still had some time left before we needed to head to the radio station, so we took a quick bathroom break and then trekked some of the nature trails at the park. I think that was their favorite part of the day. They wanted to come back and explore some more, but we didn't have time.
Finally it was time to load up and head to the radio station. But everyone needed a bathroom break again. My kids somehow figured out the number code to get the key, so one of them had already used it to get into the building. I'm praying that they all forget the numbers really soon, just in case.
Radio Mankato is way on the other end of town, almost outside Mankato. There are about five or six radio stations that broadcast through the company. We got to see the entire studio and see how the computers work. The producers pick all the songs the night before so the DJs don't actually get to pick which music plays. It was really neat! My kids were thirsty and rambunctious/tired at that point (I know, opposites, but somehow my kids were both) so I don't know how much they enjoyed it. They were being a little snarky to the guy giving us the tour, but he was giving it right back to them, so maybe that's why they weren't on their best behavior.
We made it back to school with five minutes to spare before the buses came. A parent came in to film a short thank-you message from our class, so we barely snuck out to the bus in time. Mr. E's class actually missed the bus. The other teachers and I tried to get them to stop, but the bus drivers pointed to their watches and shook their heads "no" and drove off. So Mr. E had to drive kids all over the place to try to catch their transfer buses. Yikes!
One 8th grader called his mom to come pick him up, but hung up before he told her that Mr. E was giving him a ride. So she showed up at school about ten minutes after they left and found that her son was not there!
Tomorrow is softball day at Caswell Park. It's supposed to be 90 degrees or higher, so we'll see how the day goes.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
The Recess from the Black Lagoon
You've heard of the teacher from the Black Lagoon, but how about the recess? Today sure felt like it.
By the time I walked outside, they'd already started up a game of softball. One of the kids owed me a worksheet, so I sent him in to go get it/finish it. I had written a note on the board this morning asking him to check my room for his missing worksheet (I found one left by the computers that had his name on it). A few minutes later he came hustling back outside with the 7th and 8th grade sub and the other students who'd been working on late work. I thought he had handed in the worksheet, but the sub told me he made everyone come outside because of some drama that had been going on in their room (he thought it would be better if they were all together outside).
After recess, on our way inside, I asked the kid if he had finished his worksheet. "I don't have it!" Trying not to roll my eyes, "Did you read the note I wrote on the board? To see if it's in my room?" "Yes. I did." Ha, I had seen neither hide nor hair of this guy all morning and I said so. His reply, "Oh, I guess I forgot." "Okay, well come in and grab it right away so you can get it finished."
During recess we had more injuries happen than have happened all year. The first was when a ball bounced up and whacked a 7th grader on the cheek. He was fielding between second and third and I heard the SMACK from across the field. Ouch. He said he was okay right away, but I watched him for a minute or two just to be sure.
The second injury happened right before we went inside. One of the sixth graders was on first and caught the ball. He slung it to the 8th grader playing second, but the runner (the other sixth grade boy) was already on his way there. Result: 6th grade runner slams into 8th grade boy and knocks ball away with hand... right into 8th grade boy's mouth.
The next thing I hear is, "I'm okay!" and then, "Hey, can you check if I'm bleeding?" The 8th grader walked over to the first baseman and started spitting. The sub and I hear someone say, "Yuck, you're spitting blood." Again, the 8th grader repeats, "I'm okay." More blood spitting.
The sub calls for the 8th grader to come in before I can say anything and asks him to go get cleaned up.
Later that afternoon, the 7th and 8th graders were taking their final map quiz for the year. The injured 8th grader asked if he could get an ice-pack for his lip. Sure, why not? He comes back with a green freezie and shares half of it with his normal partner in crime. I was going to let it slide because he was injured, but I didn't want the other guy to have it (especially because he was acting all sneaky about it). So I confiscated the freezie and told him he could have it after the test. Then he pitched a fit because the other 8th grader still got to keep his. So I confiscated that one too. Sigh. 8th grade boys.
But, now we're down to 10 days left. In two weeks exactly, we'll be on summer vacation! Woohoo!
By the time I walked outside, they'd already started up a game of softball. One of the kids owed me a worksheet, so I sent him in to go get it/finish it. I had written a note on the board this morning asking him to check my room for his missing worksheet (I found one left by the computers that had his name on it). A few minutes later he came hustling back outside with the 7th and 8th grade sub and the other students who'd been working on late work. I thought he had handed in the worksheet, but the sub told me he made everyone come outside because of some drama that had been going on in their room (he thought it would be better if they were all together outside).
After recess, on our way inside, I asked the kid if he had finished his worksheet. "I don't have it!" Trying not to roll my eyes, "Did you read the note I wrote on the board? To see if it's in my room?" "Yes. I did." Ha, I had seen neither hide nor hair of this guy all morning and I said so. His reply, "Oh, I guess I forgot." "Okay, well come in and grab it right away so you can get it finished."
During recess we had more injuries happen than have happened all year. The first was when a ball bounced up and whacked a 7th grader on the cheek. He was fielding between second and third and I heard the SMACK from across the field. Ouch. He said he was okay right away, but I watched him for a minute or two just to be sure.
The second injury happened right before we went inside. One of the sixth graders was on first and caught the ball. He slung it to the 8th grader playing second, but the runner (the other sixth grade boy) was already on his way there. Result: 6th grade runner slams into 8th grade boy and knocks ball away with hand... right into 8th grade boy's mouth.
The next thing I hear is, "I'm okay!" and then, "Hey, can you check if I'm bleeding?" The 8th grader walked over to the first baseman and started spitting. The sub and I hear someone say, "Yuck, you're spitting blood." Again, the 8th grader repeats, "I'm okay." More blood spitting.
The sub calls for the 8th grader to come in before I can say anything and asks him to go get cleaned up.
Later that afternoon, the 7th and 8th graders were taking their final map quiz for the year. The injured 8th grader asked if he could get an ice-pack for his lip. Sure, why not? He comes back with a green freezie and shares half of it with his normal partner in crime. I was going to let it slide because he was injured, but I didn't want the other guy to have it (especially because he was acting all sneaky about it). So I confiscated the freezie and told him he could have it after the test. Then he pitched a fit because the other 8th grader still got to keep his. So I confiscated that one too. Sigh. 8th grade boys.
But, now we're down to 10 days left. In two weeks exactly, we'll be on summer vacation! Woohoo!
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Uncomfortable Day
The balloons are down.
The one student who was vocal about keeping them up was home sick today. The other one who thought it was her turn Friday didn't say anything until the end of the school day. Looks like I'll have to save this cool idea for next year... I guess that means I'm going to have to pop all the balloons myself. Right now they're in a big bag in the back of my car, just in case the 6th graders were going to regret their actions yesterday and want a second chance. Sigh. It didn't happen.
At recess this afternoon, we went outside in the wind and the cold. I wore my winter jacket today along with my gloves (from Scotland!), so I was doing all right. But only one of the 6th graders wore an actual coat. A few brought extra sweatshirts. That was it. The boys wanted to go outside and play Eagle's Eggs, so we went out. Of course, the one day I wear my hair down it's blowing really hard so my hair flies around and I can't see anything. Our teams: boys vs. girls (including me). I ended up playing for only half the time. At the beginning of the game I took off for the nest on the boys' side and I think I pulled a muscle. I didn't land on my leg funny. I didn't twist my foot or anything. All of a sudden, I felt a pain in my quad and I almost fell over. I got caught, so I tried stretching my leg in case it was a cramp or something. But it kept hurting.
I thought about telling my kids, but decided not to. So after five minutes and the pain still didn't go away, I nominated myself as part of the boundary line between the boys' and girls' sides of the field. That kept me from having to run (or pretend to run). Then I hobbled back into the school to get ready for the 7th and 8th graders. Our topic for today: reproductive system.
The last system we're talking about this year. Oh joy. Finding appropriate pictures for the presentation is not something I want to do ever again. This morning, I was prepared. I wrote a note on the board so they wouldn't bring anything to class (so they wouldn't doodle or get distracted). Then I was all ready to give them a speech about handling this maturely and not laughing, etc. The usual.
But they all came in, settled in their seats... I told them we were going to handle this as mature adults and they were fine. Of course the boys giggled a little, but surprisingly all the girls were really tuned in to what we were talking about. (I focused more on pregnancy/development of babies as opposed to the actual reproductive system/body parts. Their homework is to read that section of the book and answer the questions on a worksheet. More comfortable for everyone.) They asked good questions and didn't get too off topic. We got a little hung up on breech births and c-sections, but we only went over by ten minutes and I covered everything I wanted to for the day. Success!
The one student who was vocal about keeping them up was home sick today. The other one who thought it was her turn Friday didn't say anything until the end of the school day. Looks like I'll have to save this cool idea for next year... I guess that means I'm going to have to pop all the balloons myself. Right now they're in a big bag in the back of my car, just in case the 6th graders were going to regret their actions yesterday and want a second chance. Sigh. It didn't happen.
At recess this afternoon, we went outside in the wind and the cold. I wore my winter jacket today along with my gloves (from Scotland!), so I was doing all right. But only one of the 6th graders wore an actual coat. A few brought extra sweatshirts. That was it. The boys wanted to go outside and play Eagle's Eggs, so we went out. Of course, the one day I wear my hair down it's blowing really hard so my hair flies around and I can't see anything. Our teams: boys vs. girls (including me). I ended up playing for only half the time. At the beginning of the game I took off for the nest on the boys' side and I think I pulled a muscle. I didn't land on my leg funny. I didn't twist my foot or anything. All of a sudden, I felt a pain in my quad and I almost fell over. I got caught, so I tried stretching my leg in case it was a cramp or something. But it kept hurting.
I thought about telling my kids, but decided not to. So after five minutes and the pain still didn't go away, I nominated myself as part of the boundary line between the boys' and girls' sides of the field. That kept me from having to run (or pretend to run). Then I hobbled back into the school to get ready for the 7th and 8th graders. Our topic for today: reproductive system.
The last system we're talking about this year. Oh joy. Finding appropriate pictures for the presentation is not something I want to do ever again. This morning, I was prepared. I wrote a note on the board so they wouldn't bring anything to class (so they wouldn't doodle or get distracted). Then I was all ready to give them a speech about handling this maturely and not laughing, etc. The usual.
But they all came in, settled in their seats... I told them we were going to handle this as mature adults and they were fine. Of course the boys giggled a little, but surprisingly all the girls were really tuned in to what we were talking about. (I focused more on pregnancy/development of babies as opposed to the actual reproductive system/body parts. Their homework is to read that section of the book and answer the questions on a worksheet. More comfortable for everyone.) They asked good questions and didn't get too off topic. We got a little hung up on breech births and c-sections, but we only went over by ten minutes and I covered everything I wanted to for the day. Success!
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Bummed
Oh I am so bummed! I found this really cool idea for the end of the year: hang up a balloon for each day left in the school year and inside, hide a paper with a special thing/activity to do for the day. Today there was 15 days of school left, so we listened to music during reading. Tomorrow there are 14 days left, so students have the option to work without shoes on.
Unfortunately, in the last five minutes before school dismissed, one of the girls got into an argument over whose turn it would be to pop Friday's balloon. (The person to pop the balloon is the Superstar Helper of the day). This girl was positive it would be her turn, but she was forgetting one of her classmates when she counted. The other girl was insisting that it would be her turn. They argued about this (with their classmates jumping in) for about five minutes. I was trying to get everyone calmed down so we could pray. It wasn't happening.
Finally, I laid down the law, "If this is going to be a problem and we're going to argue about this every time, I'm just going to take the balloons down." Two students said, "Fine. Take them down. We don't care." Two girls really wanted to keep them up and one boy was either shrugging or was neutral (I can't recall). As soon as those two said they didn't care, my heart sank. Now I have to take them down or they'll think I can't follow through on my consequences. Sigh. There were some really cool activities in those balloons!
I asked some of the other teachers what to do and they were kind of on the fence. One said to give them another chance. Another said that I have to take them down (for the same reason I was thinking of taking them down). Another thought I should put them in a bag and then they can earn them back or the students that want to do it are the only ones allowed to do the activity. Ugh! What to do, what to do...
Recess was even worse. We were with the K-4th graders in the gym since it was snowing out. People kept getting hit with balls. Two little girls wanted me to play house with them; I was the mom and I was at work. One girl was the baby doing math at home and the other was the babysitter who helped the baby with her math (their idea, not mine). I could leave our house for "work" and then head back in the gym to keep an eye on everyone.
As soon as I turned around, I found a 6th grader and a 1st grader fighting over a bat. Surprisingly, this tug of war match was pretty even. I found out the 6th grader had walked up and grabbed the bat the 1st grader was using! Her reasoning was, "I am up to bat so I need a bat!" "Did you ask?" Silence. Then the reminder, "If you want to use something someone else is using, you need to ask first!" No sooner than their situation was sorted out, a new one popped up. One of the softball players got mad at everyone else. He started biting people and whipping them with his rope necklace. No more recess for him: lots of time in timeout.
Finally everything was calming down (or was as calm as an inside recess can be). And then I noticed one of the 6th grade boys hunched over on the ground. I wasn't sure if he was faking it, laughing, or seriously injured. The bystanders didn't look freaked out, so I figured it probably wasn't life-threatening, but he wasn't getting up. I hustled over there and discovered that he had been hit in a not-so-good place by a baseball. Ouch. He thought it was an accident; no one knows who threw the ball, although there have been some accusations. The poor guy was crying his eyes out, but he didn't want to sit out or grab an ice pack and hang out in the office for a while. So he cried for about five minutes, went and got a drink, then came back in the gym and started playing basketball. Now the question is, do I tell mom?
All in all, today was not a good day for the 6th graders. But, tomorrow is a new day! Thank the Lord!
Unfortunately, in the last five minutes before school dismissed, one of the girls got into an argument over whose turn it would be to pop Friday's balloon. (The person to pop the balloon is the Superstar Helper of the day). This girl was positive it would be her turn, but she was forgetting one of her classmates when she counted. The other girl was insisting that it would be her turn. They argued about this (with their classmates jumping in) for about five minutes. I was trying to get everyone calmed down so we could pray. It wasn't happening.
Finally, I laid down the law, "If this is going to be a problem and we're going to argue about this every time, I'm just going to take the balloons down." Two students said, "Fine. Take them down. We don't care." Two girls really wanted to keep them up and one boy was either shrugging or was neutral (I can't recall). As soon as those two said they didn't care, my heart sank. Now I have to take them down or they'll think I can't follow through on my consequences. Sigh. There were some really cool activities in those balloons!
I asked some of the other teachers what to do and they were kind of on the fence. One said to give them another chance. Another said that I have to take them down (for the same reason I was thinking of taking them down). Another thought I should put them in a bag and then they can earn them back or the students that want to do it are the only ones allowed to do the activity. Ugh! What to do, what to do...
Recess was even worse. We were with the K-4th graders in the gym since it was snowing out. People kept getting hit with balls. Two little girls wanted me to play house with them; I was the mom and I was at work. One girl was the baby doing math at home and the other was the babysitter who helped the baby with her math (their idea, not mine). I could leave our house for "work" and then head back in the gym to keep an eye on everyone.
As soon as I turned around, I found a 6th grader and a 1st grader fighting over a bat. Surprisingly, this tug of war match was pretty even. I found out the 6th grader had walked up and grabbed the bat the 1st grader was using! Her reasoning was, "I am up to bat so I need a bat!" "Did you ask?" Silence. Then the reminder, "If you want to use something someone else is using, you need to ask first!" No sooner than their situation was sorted out, a new one popped up. One of the softball players got mad at everyone else. He started biting people and whipping them with his rope necklace. No more recess for him: lots of time in timeout.
Finally everything was calming down (or was as calm as an inside recess can be). And then I noticed one of the 6th grade boys hunched over on the ground. I wasn't sure if he was faking it, laughing, or seriously injured. The bystanders didn't look freaked out, so I figured it probably wasn't life-threatening, but he wasn't getting up. I hustled over there and discovered that he had been hit in a not-so-good place by a baseball. Ouch. He thought it was an accident; no one knows who threw the ball, although there have been some accusations. The poor guy was crying his eyes out, but he didn't want to sit out or grab an ice pack and hang out in the office for a while. So he cried for about five minutes, went and got a drink, then came back in the gym and started playing basketball. Now the question is, do I tell mom?
All in all, today was not a good day for the 6th graders. But, tomorrow is a new day! Thank the Lord!
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