I feel a lot better today. A good night's sleep certainly helped.
The class's attitude was pretty good today. This morning was great! No arguments or tattling or annoying each other. There wasn't any major picking-on situations... until recess. It's come to the point where the class isn't going to put up with the picking-on any more. They're not just going to roll over and let this person be mean. So now they're sticking up for each other a little more and everybody is tattling on the picker. This of course makes the picker madder, so he retaliates physically.
After we came in from recess, the picker was mad about something people were saying at recess (if you keep fighting, you're not going to be able to kick during kickball). So he shoved a girl into her desk (could've been an accident... probably wasn't) and punched a classmate on the back of the head (definitely on purpose). And then the mini-whiteboard fell on top the kid who got punched. Great. So Mr. E and I had a 45 minute talk with the picker to get to the bottom of the situation. And he still wouldn't explain why he punched his friend.
I was supposed to go to two speech IEP meetings after school, but that didn't end up happening. I got there right after they finished and the speech ladies caught me up with what I missed.
One more story about kickball: Everything was fine and dandy when all of a sudden, someone called, "Miss H, [student] is crying!" I hadn't seen anyone fighting with him and he's not one to cry over hurt feelings... it turned out he accidentally popped his ankle out of place. He sprained it before and sometimes if he steps on it wrong, it pops out and he can't put any weight on it. Oh boy, what to do?!
The light bulb came on, "What if I try tugging it? Maybe that will put it back in place." I remember my mom giving a yank to a finger or a wrist or a foot whenever my sisters and I ever thought something was out of place. He was willing to let me try. Oh man, I was nervous. I was scared I'd mess it up even worse. Of course I had to keep my poker face going or everyone else would've freaked out too. So the student took his place on the picnic table, classmates huddled around. I wrapped my hands around his ankle, trying not to wince at what I was about to do. A gentle tug (I felt his ankle move, but didn't hear a pop) and he brightened up and said, "Wow, that feels better!" We did one more tug, just to be sure. The muscle was sore, so he sat out for a while more, but before too long he was back in the game!
One of the sixth graders typed me a letter during computer. It talked about how she hopes I'll enjoy my last year teaching her and how she wishes Mr. E would do read-aloud time and Daily Five stuff... but she realizes that every teacher is different about what they do. She used the new first and second grade teacher as an example, but spelled her name Bareback (instead of Baerbock) and spelled the old teacher's name Micestir (which is how it's pronounced, but not how it's spelled). That brought a smile to my face. What a cute letter! She wanted me to read it aloud to the class, but I think I'm going to keep it to myself.
Oh yeah, the soccer game. We won 4-0 against Faribault. Our class put out our leftover bake sale stuff and made $28. Not too shabby! I wonder... we have volleyball and soccer games on Friday night. Is that too late to put them out again? Otherwise I don't know what to do with the extra stuff. It'd be nice to make a little more money for Camp Omega.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Monday, September 29, 2014
Sick
I just about stayed home from school today. Last night I tossed and turned for about five hours and was so thirsty! I kept getting drinks and then had to go to the bathroom. Then, when I finally got up for school, my vision started blacking out. I sat down and felt a little better, but even raising my arms above my head made them feel tingly, like I wasn't getting enough circulation. "Maybe I just need to eat something," I thought to myself. Breakfast helped a little, as did the fresh air going out to my car.
At school though, I felt awful. Not sick to my stomach, no headache... just icky and tired. So I told Mr. and Mrs. E, just in case. Once the kids were at school, I nearly called Mr. E and told him to start looking for a sub, but I really didn't want to try to slap together lesson plans for someone to understand. It's one thing for me to be ready to teach it; it's a whole other thing for my lessons to make sense to an outsider.
So I hung in there. It was pretty rough for a while. I felt all right for a while this afternoon and now I'm feeling rundown again. There's volleyball practice after school today... I'm playing hooky. Good thing I don't have too much to do for tomorrow. Oh, I just remembered. Midterm was last week, so I should try to get midterm grades out this week. Well, hopefully taking the night off will help me feel better so I can be extra productive the rest of the week.
Our class bake sale yesterday went really well; we made $210.25 total from serving snack and selling cookies/pies/cupcakes/etc. We have some leftovers that we're going to sell at the soccer/volleyball games this week.
In science we finished up our fruit lab from last week. Our fruit didn't survive the weekend very well... one of the oranges was moldy and had fruit flies living inside it. Gross. The others aren't that much better. Good thing we finished it up today! My kiddos had trouble keeping the fruits on the paperclips because they were so mushy!
Volleyball practice... the other coach didn't show up and didn't show up... so I ended up coaching most of practice. Mr. E came in and said the other coach called and said she'd be late. So he's correcting papers in the gym while supervising them. It's not really working because the girls keep coming back in here to see if they can switch what they're doing.
Anyway, I just have to make a few more copies and then I'm out of here for now. Hopefully I'm better by tomorrow!
At school though, I felt awful. Not sick to my stomach, no headache... just icky and tired. So I told Mr. and Mrs. E, just in case. Once the kids were at school, I nearly called Mr. E and told him to start looking for a sub, but I really didn't want to try to slap together lesson plans for someone to understand. It's one thing for me to be ready to teach it; it's a whole other thing for my lessons to make sense to an outsider.
So I hung in there. It was pretty rough for a while. I felt all right for a while this afternoon and now I'm feeling rundown again. There's volleyball practice after school today... I'm playing hooky. Good thing I don't have too much to do for tomorrow. Oh, I just remembered. Midterm was last week, so I should try to get midterm grades out this week. Well, hopefully taking the night off will help me feel better so I can be extra productive the rest of the week.
Our class bake sale yesterday went really well; we made $210.25 total from serving snack and selling cookies/pies/cupcakes/etc. We have some leftovers that we're going to sell at the soccer/volleyball games this week.
In science we finished up our fruit lab from last week. Our fruit didn't survive the weekend very well... one of the oranges was moldy and had fruit flies living inside it. Gross. The others aren't that much better. Good thing we finished it up today! My kiddos had trouble keeping the fruits on the paperclips because they were so mushy!
Volleyball practice... the other coach didn't show up and didn't show up... so I ended up coaching most of practice. Mr. E came in and said the other coach called and said she'd be late. So he's correcting papers in the gym while supervising them. It's not really working because the girls keep coming back in here to see if they can switch what they're doing.
Anyway, I just have to make a few more copies and then I'm out of here for now. Hopefully I'm better by tomorrow!
Friday, September 26, 2014
Finally Friday
I tell you, that new parking lot pavement is sure getting a lot of good use! The girls in younger grades have been doing sidewalk chalk all over the pavement. One day my car got boxed in by a circle they drew around it. The older girls saw what fun the younger girls were having and have been borrowing Mrs. E's sidewalk chalk at noon recess. But there is one girl who insists on ruining the others' fun by sabotaging her classmates' drawings. Mr. E chewed her out for it today.
Instead of having the reading buddies come to our room, my class went down to their room today. I wanted to make jello for the 8th graders' "jello cell lab" today, but didn't want to make it too early so it would be completely set. We added different fruit to represent the organelles found in a plant cell. None of them are too keen to eat it. It still wasn't set by the end of class, so we'll have to eat it on Monday. With our extra time, we watered the prairie planting.
One 8th grader borrowed a pail from Mr. D. All of a sudden, the handle cracked and sent the full bucket straight into the concrete. The rest of the pail shattered and completely soaked her shoe. Lovely. The girls were all worried Mr. D would be mad the pail broke... he wasn't. He laughed and said he never uses the pail, so it was no big deal.
Last night was my correcting papers/watch a movie night. One of the 5th graders really wanted me to watch "Heaven is For Real", so much so that he brought the movie in so I could borrow it from him. So that was the movie I watched last night. Not gonna lie, I cried. At least three Kleenex worth. It was pretty hard for me to watch (spiritually). Did this kid really see heaven? Did he really see God? I'm such a miserable sinner I'm definitely not worthy enough to look at the face of God. But then I remember that Jesus took away my sins when he died on the cross. So in God's eyes I am worthy. Still, tough things to think about. I wasn't a huge fan of how the movie portrayed the pastor and church. All in all, I wanted it to be more Lutheran. I did get my papers corrected! They were a little better than last week, although a few students forgot to do a page. Sigh. I think I'm going to have to restrict the game usage during Word Work time. Right now they have to do two pages in their spelling book before doing any games. Next week they'll have to have all the pages finished before doing games. I know they're not going to like that. Oh well, they can always earn the privilege back.
We finished our read aloud book Poached. It took us almost double our normal read aloud time, but I just couldn't stop so close to the end. We had to do some juggling of our spelling tests/English test and still got everything finished by lunchtime. Now to pick the next book. I have six books I'd like to read to them... should we vote or should I just pick? We'll probably end up reading all of them by the end of the year. I'm thinking Artemis Fowl or No More Dead Dogs. One of the 5th graders thought we should read a "Choose Your Own Adventure" story as a class and vote on the choices. That's not a bad idea.
This afternoon was our big art project day. We have a few projects we've been working on, so today we spent time finishing them up. I think we're going to have to do something different with our Friday schedule. Normally they'll come back from math, we do 45 minutes of art, and then recess for 15 minutes. At least, that's what I want to have happen. But some students go over to Nicollet for special services at 2:15, and I don't want them to completely miss their recess. So maybe we should do 15 minutes of recess and then do art for 45 afterwards. Hmm. Thinks to think on.
There was slightly less picking today in my classroom. However, at lunch one 5th grader tried to kick a 6th grader in the shin (again, I didn't see it). Two other 5th grade boys held him back so he couldn't get to this girl (her "body-guards"). Sigh. If only I could be everywhere at once! This same kid purposely elbowed his classmate while they were crossing paths on the way to lunch. The class was calling for blood... So I gave this kid the consequence of running two laps around the soccer field at recess. He immediately said, "Awesome!" One boy was irate, "Miss H, you shouldn't give him a punishment he actually likes! It should be something awful that he hates!" Before I could answer, another classmate chimed in, "But what if [the kid] was just saying that because he really doesn't want to do it and he's trying to make Miss H think he likes it so she won't make him do it again?" I had been thinking along those lines. Plus he misses out on playing with his classmates, but he's still getting exercise. And his classmates don't have to put up with him for at least 5-10 minutes. Win win? Maybe. Or at least pretty close to a win win.
Instead of having the reading buddies come to our room, my class went down to their room today. I wanted to make jello for the 8th graders' "jello cell lab" today, but didn't want to make it too early so it would be completely set. We added different fruit to represent the organelles found in a plant cell. None of them are too keen to eat it. It still wasn't set by the end of class, so we'll have to eat it on Monday. With our extra time, we watered the prairie planting.
One 8th grader borrowed a pail from Mr. D. All of a sudden, the handle cracked and sent the full bucket straight into the concrete. The rest of the pail shattered and completely soaked her shoe. Lovely. The girls were all worried Mr. D would be mad the pail broke... he wasn't. He laughed and said he never uses the pail, so it was no big deal.
Last night was my correcting papers/watch a movie night. One of the 5th graders really wanted me to watch "Heaven is For Real", so much so that he brought the movie in so I could borrow it from him. So that was the movie I watched last night. Not gonna lie, I cried. At least three Kleenex worth. It was pretty hard for me to watch (spiritually). Did this kid really see heaven? Did he really see God? I'm such a miserable sinner I'm definitely not worthy enough to look at the face of God. But then I remember that Jesus took away my sins when he died on the cross. So in God's eyes I am worthy. Still, tough things to think about. I wasn't a huge fan of how the movie portrayed the pastor and church. All in all, I wanted it to be more Lutheran. I did get my papers corrected! They were a little better than last week, although a few students forgot to do a page. Sigh. I think I'm going to have to restrict the game usage during Word Work time. Right now they have to do two pages in their spelling book before doing any games. Next week they'll have to have all the pages finished before doing games. I know they're not going to like that. Oh well, they can always earn the privilege back.
We finished our read aloud book Poached. It took us almost double our normal read aloud time, but I just couldn't stop so close to the end. We had to do some juggling of our spelling tests/English test and still got everything finished by lunchtime. Now to pick the next book. I have six books I'd like to read to them... should we vote or should I just pick? We'll probably end up reading all of them by the end of the year. I'm thinking Artemis Fowl or No More Dead Dogs. One of the 5th graders thought we should read a "Choose Your Own Adventure" story as a class and vote on the choices. That's not a bad idea.
This afternoon was our big art project day. We have a few projects we've been working on, so today we spent time finishing them up. I think we're going to have to do something different with our Friday schedule. Normally they'll come back from math, we do 45 minutes of art, and then recess for 15 minutes. At least, that's what I want to have happen. But some students go over to Nicollet for special services at 2:15, and I don't want them to completely miss their recess. So maybe we should do 15 minutes of recess and then do art for 45 afterwards. Hmm. Thinks to think on.
There was slightly less picking today in my classroom. However, at lunch one 5th grader tried to kick a 6th grader in the shin (again, I didn't see it). Two other 5th grade boys held him back so he couldn't get to this girl (her "body-guards"). Sigh. If only I could be everywhere at once! This same kid purposely elbowed his classmate while they were crossing paths on the way to lunch. The class was calling for blood... So I gave this kid the consequence of running two laps around the soccer field at recess. He immediately said, "Awesome!" One boy was irate, "Miss H, you shouldn't give him a punishment he actually likes! It should be something awful that he hates!" Before I could answer, another classmate chimed in, "But what if [the kid] was just saying that because he really doesn't want to do it and he's trying to make Miss H think he likes it so she won't make him do it again?" I had been thinking along those lines. Plus he misses out on playing with his classmates, but he's still getting exercise. And his classmates don't have to put up with him for at least 5-10 minutes. Win win? Maybe. Or at least pretty close to a win win.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Failure
Today had a lot of ups and downs.
I planned to do another science lab today, this one inside so the students would be more contained. It went MUCH better. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Last night I had to get supplies for the lab since I forgot about that last weekend. I needed a bunch of metal slinkys, one for each group. Mrs. B (1st and 2nd) told me she had seen some for a dollar at Target. Woohoo! Fresh fruit was also on the grocery list for the lab, and I figured Walmart would have better prices for those items. Just for comparison sake, I dove deep into the recesses of the toy aisle to see what Walmart slinkys would cost. Answer: $3. Eh, Target is probably cheaper, I thought to myself. I'm sure you can guess where this is going...
At Target I found the slinky location with minimal trouble. And they were $5 each. Yuck. And there were only three left. I needed 4-6. By now, it was 8:00 and I was tired and wanted to go home. If there had been the number I needed, maybe I would've just up and paid the $5. But since I needed at least a couple more... back to Walmart... all the way on the other end of town. Sigh.
When I got home, I corrected English papers (something I'd been putting off too long). I finally realized why I hate correcting papers; I'm actually scared to. My students have the bad habit of only reading half the instructions. They answer half the question and think they're done and hand it in! So I end up making them redo it anyway! Out of all 12 of my students, only ONE didn't have to redo his Minnesota history worksheet. Sigh.
This morning at school, I found a tersely worded email from a parent who's upset with the amount of time her daughter has to spend on math homework. She said the student isn't getting it and one of the parents has to sit next to her and constantly help with every single problem. Right now she's going to Miss H. for extra help, but she comes with her assignment done and no questions, so Miss H. doesn't have anything to work on with her. She can't work on today's assignment because Mr. E hasn't assigned it yet and he hasn't taught the lesson yet! And it's not Miss H's job to teach this student math! So. We're not sure what to do. One option would be to move this student's time with Miss H to the end of the day after she gets her math assignment. However, that means she'd miss part of recess... something her parents didn't want. Sigh. You can't please everyone. I really hate being in the middle of all this. I don't know what goes on in math because that's Mr. E's forte. But parents forget they can directly email Mr. E so they bombard me with questions that can only be answered by Mr. E.
My class's noise level was better today. Before read aloud I told them we weren't going to finish the book today, but I'd read as long as I could. They were surprisingly quiet when I put the bookmark in and closed it. We had an English test today and they were pretty quiet for that. One student insisted on making noise, even when his classmates told him to stop. I didn't notice it too much, but I'm fairly immune to annoying noises (thanks to my brothers) and I wasn't the one taking a test. I think tomorrow I'll have to send him to Mr. E's room to finish it.
The picking-on situation hasn't gotten any better. This afternoon during our science lab everyone seemed to be getting along... and then before going home for the day, one student who's been targeted by one of his classmates came up to me and said, "Miss H, I have to tell you something." When I paused what I was doing, he looked at the ground and said, "Never mind." and walked away. I thought about asking him if he was sure he didn't want to tell me, but I didn't. A few seconds later I heard another classmate and him talking about the bully picking on him. They were saying that I probably wouldn't do anything to the bully anyway. The other kid kind of stood up for me a little, "Well, she's probably trying to be nice to him since he's new."
Ugh! I felt like such a horrible teacher! Seriously, I never see this bully do anything wrong. A few times I catch him making a face or a weird noise or something. Half the time it's something that isn't a big deal, the annoyed people are choosing to get annoyed with it instead of letting it go. But I don't want to be that teacher that doesn't do anything about it so the kids don't tell her anything. And I don't know what to do. Talking to this bully doesn't change anything; he doesn't care. He hates talking about his feelings and actions and he'll lie or shrug his shoulders if you confront him about something he did. The ones tattling/getting picked on also blow things out of proportion and lie as well. So I don't know who to believe. Can I tell them this? Maybe. Though I can see them thinking, "Well if Miss H can't tell when I'm lying, then I can get away with anything! Yeah!" None of the other teachers had any bright ideas either. The whole reason the bully is picking on this kid in the first place is because he knows he'll get a rise out of him. The picked-on kid knows it too. But it's really hard to ignore someone who's constantly doing things to annoy you. So I think I have to have a talk with the picked-on kid tomorrow. I wonder if it would work to ask him what he thinks I should give the bully as a consequence.
A slightly funny tangent on this story. The girl who's frequently a target of this individual (same story... she gives back almost as much as he's dishing out and I can't tell who's telling the truth) decided she'd hire "body guards" to protect her from this kid. She has three or four 5th grade boys who are going to surround her so this mean kid can't get at her whenever they're close together. I'm pretty sure she's planning to pay them, but I'm going to nix that.
As for consequences for this mean kid/bully... I don't want to take away his recess because he needs to get outside and run around. I can't lecture him on his behavior because he literally goes to lala land; I can see his eyes glaze over. I'm thinking for every mean thing he does, he'll have to run a lap at recess. That way he's still being active outside, but he's segregated from his classmates and still has a consequence for his actions. Good idea? Bad idea? Any feedback is welcome!
I planned to do another science lab today, this one inside so the students would be more contained. It went MUCH better. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Last night I had to get supplies for the lab since I forgot about that last weekend. I needed a bunch of metal slinkys, one for each group. Mrs. B (1st and 2nd) told me she had seen some for a dollar at Target. Woohoo! Fresh fruit was also on the grocery list for the lab, and I figured Walmart would have better prices for those items. Just for comparison sake, I dove deep into the recesses of the toy aisle to see what Walmart slinkys would cost. Answer: $3. Eh, Target is probably cheaper, I thought to myself. I'm sure you can guess where this is going...
At Target I found the slinky location with minimal trouble. And they were $5 each. Yuck. And there were only three left. I needed 4-6. By now, it was 8:00 and I was tired and wanted to go home. If there had been the number I needed, maybe I would've just up and paid the $5. But since I needed at least a couple more... back to Walmart... all the way on the other end of town. Sigh.
When I got home, I corrected English papers (something I'd been putting off too long). I finally realized why I hate correcting papers; I'm actually scared to. My students have the bad habit of only reading half the instructions. They answer half the question and think they're done and hand it in! So I end up making them redo it anyway! Out of all 12 of my students, only ONE didn't have to redo his Minnesota history worksheet. Sigh.
This morning at school, I found a tersely worded email from a parent who's upset with the amount of time her daughter has to spend on math homework. She said the student isn't getting it and one of the parents has to sit next to her and constantly help with every single problem. Right now she's going to Miss H. for extra help, but she comes with her assignment done and no questions, so Miss H. doesn't have anything to work on with her. She can't work on today's assignment because Mr. E hasn't assigned it yet and he hasn't taught the lesson yet! And it's not Miss H's job to teach this student math! So. We're not sure what to do. One option would be to move this student's time with Miss H to the end of the day after she gets her math assignment. However, that means she'd miss part of recess... something her parents didn't want. Sigh. You can't please everyone. I really hate being in the middle of all this. I don't know what goes on in math because that's Mr. E's forte. But parents forget they can directly email Mr. E so they bombard me with questions that can only be answered by Mr. E.
My class's noise level was better today. Before read aloud I told them we weren't going to finish the book today, but I'd read as long as I could. They were surprisingly quiet when I put the bookmark in and closed it. We had an English test today and they were pretty quiet for that. One student insisted on making noise, even when his classmates told him to stop. I didn't notice it too much, but I'm fairly immune to annoying noises (thanks to my brothers) and I wasn't the one taking a test. I think tomorrow I'll have to send him to Mr. E's room to finish it.
The picking-on situation hasn't gotten any better. This afternoon during our science lab everyone seemed to be getting along... and then before going home for the day, one student who's been targeted by one of his classmates came up to me and said, "Miss H, I have to tell you something." When I paused what I was doing, he looked at the ground and said, "Never mind." and walked away. I thought about asking him if he was sure he didn't want to tell me, but I didn't. A few seconds later I heard another classmate and him talking about the bully picking on him. They were saying that I probably wouldn't do anything to the bully anyway. The other kid kind of stood up for me a little, "Well, she's probably trying to be nice to him since he's new."
Ugh! I felt like such a horrible teacher! Seriously, I never see this bully do anything wrong. A few times I catch him making a face or a weird noise or something. Half the time it's something that isn't a big deal, the annoyed people are choosing to get annoyed with it instead of letting it go. But I don't want to be that teacher that doesn't do anything about it so the kids don't tell her anything. And I don't know what to do. Talking to this bully doesn't change anything; he doesn't care. He hates talking about his feelings and actions and he'll lie or shrug his shoulders if you confront him about something he did. The ones tattling/getting picked on also blow things out of proportion and lie as well. So I don't know who to believe. Can I tell them this? Maybe. Though I can see them thinking, "Well if Miss H can't tell when I'm lying, then I can get away with anything! Yeah!" None of the other teachers had any bright ideas either. The whole reason the bully is picking on this kid in the first place is because he knows he'll get a rise out of him. The picked-on kid knows it too. But it's really hard to ignore someone who's constantly doing things to annoy you. So I think I have to have a talk with the picked-on kid tomorrow. I wonder if it would work to ask him what he thinks I should give the bully as a consequence.
A slightly funny tangent on this story. The girl who's frequently a target of this individual (same story... she gives back almost as much as he's dishing out and I can't tell who's telling the truth) decided she'd hire "body guards" to protect her from this kid. She has three or four 5th grade boys who are going to surround her so this mean kid can't get at her whenever they're close together. I'm pretty sure she's planning to pay them, but I'm going to nix that.
As for consequences for this mean kid/bully... I don't want to take away his recess because he needs to get outside and run around. I can't lecture him on his behavior because he literally goes to lala land; I can see his eyes glaze over. I'm thinking for every mean thing he does, he'll have to run a lap at recess. That way he's still being active outside, but he's segregated from his classmates and still has a consequence for his actions. Good idea? Bad idea? Any feedback is welcome!
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Book Orders!
PE time. I'm alone in my (for once) peaceful classroom. What should I do? I know, check my email! I spy an email from Scholastic they sent when I placed the order. Hey, there's a UPS tracking number in it. I wonder where my order is. Click. What? It says arrived! (Scurry down to the office... spy the box on the corner of the table... do internal happy dance... scurry back to unpack the books). PE is over, students trudge back inside. "Hey, what's on your desk?" "GASP! THE BOOK ORDERS ARE IN!"
And then everyone who didn't get books crowded around my desk to see the books that I got for the classroom. And then they noticed the stack of new book orders for October and began flipping through them... and now they want me to send the book orders home tomorrow instead of waiting for October. Sigh. These kids.
In other news, the picking-on situation is getting worse. Mr. E and I discussed it after school today and they're just as bad in his classroom (if not a little worse). We both are out of ideas. However, there is this group of high school students called SPOTS. They will come to your school and do a scene about bullying or some other topic relevant for middle school students and then have a discussion with the class. Can you say perfect timing?
My voice is disappearing. Probably from the constant "You have two choices, you can let it go or you can hang onto it and be upset about it." and the "use your inside voice!" Plus we're at a really good part in our read-aloud book... only four chapters to go! They always beg me to keep reading... today's compromise: stop read aloud at usual time, do English/Daily 5, read before lunch instead of Read to Someone. That still wasn't enough (all the other classes were on a field trip today, so only the 5-8th graders were here to eat lunch= eat lunch early and extra long recess!), but we finished MN history early so we read the few extra minutes before PE. I'm predicting we'll finish the book tomorrow, or at least get really, really close.
Oh yeah, the volleyball games yesterday. It turns out there was a storm (it rained on and off for a good two hours). My B squad girls won their first match!!! Woohoo! Lost one, won two games. After the first game we won, the third graders were so excited they ran over and tackle-hugged me. Day made. They literally jumped up and down in excitement. A squad girls... not so much. They lost both games they played (although they should've won). After the games, the Janesville girls were packing up their stuff when one girl realized she was missing a boot. Just one. We searched high and low and still it didn't appear. We figured someone was playing a trick on her. This morning I told my class to be on the lookout and one of the 5th graders spotted it under the foam in the closet! Definitely someone playing a trick. Now I just need to let the people in Janesville know...
And then everyone who didn't get books crowded around my desk to see the books that I got for the classroom. And then they noticed the stack of new book orders for October and began flipping through them... and now they want me to send the book orders home tomorrow instead of waiting for October. Sigh. These kids.
In other news, the picking-on situation is getting worse. Mr. E and I discussed it after school today and they're just as bad in his classroom (if not a little worse). We both are out of ideas. However, there is this group of high school students called SPOTS. They will come to your school and do a scene about bullying or some other topic relevant for middle school students and then have a discussion with the class. Can you say perfect timing?
My voice is disappearing. Probably from the constant "You have two choices, you can let it go or you can hang onto it and be upset about it." and the "use your inside voice!" Plus we're at a really good part in our read-aloud book... only four chapters to go! They always beg me to keep reading... today's compromise: stop read aloud at usual time, do English/Daily 5, read before lunch instead of Read to Someone. That still wasn't enough (all the other classes were on a field trip today, so only the 5-8th graders were here to eat lunch= eat lunch early and extra long recess!), but we finished MN history early so we read the few extra minutes before PE. I'm predicting we'll finish the book tomorrow, or at least get really, really close.
Oh yeah, the volleyball games yesterday. It turns out there was a storm (it rained on and off for a good two hours). My B squad girls won their first match!!! Woohoo! Lost one, won two games. After the first game we won, the third graders were so excited they ran over and tackle-hugged me. Day made. They literally jumped up and down in excitement. A squad girls... not so much. They lost both games they played (although they should've won). After the games, the Janesville girls were packing up their stuff when one girl realized she was missing a boot. Just one. We searched high and low and still it didn't appear. We figured someone was playing a trick on her. This morning I told my class to be on the lookout and one of the 5th graders spotted it under the foam in the closet! Definitely someone playing a trick. Now I just need to let the people in Janesville know...
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
There's a storm acomin'!
That or Joe could tell our classroom was going to be overrun by girls from Janesville.
He tucked himself away under the sand and dirt this afternoon and has only wedged himself in further. About 3:30, a bus pulled up with all the Janesville soccer and volleyball players, boys and girls. The girls always use my room as a locker room and this time is no different. On their way into the classroom, they jibber-jabbered to each other, "Hey, isn't this the place that has that turtle?" "Gross!" "Oh hey, isn't there this one teacher?" "Yeah, and this is the place that has..."
About thirty of them tromped their way in, dumped their stuff, and tromped back out. A few of them actually remembered me from last year, or from when I student taught at their school. Now my little third graders are grown up sixth graders! And my classroom smells like a locker room.
In other news, the two monarch caterpillars have turned into chrysalises. It's crazy how fast they change!!! Before we went to lunch, he was just starting, and once we got back from being served he was finished! I looked up what happens when a caterpillar makes a chrysalis. It's pretty sweet. The green outer covering is actually part of the caterpillar's body. Inside, all its cells are turning to mush, into imaginal cells (kind of like stem cells). The cells are reorganized into the new shape in about 10-14 days. Cool!!!
Slowly but surely I've been getting rid of the uncollected Silent Auction items. I'm hoping by the end of the week they'll all be gone!
Well, the soccer game starts in ten minutes. Hopefully I can get my TO DO list accomplished so I can go watch part of the game (and so I can leave right after volleyball).
PS- I looked up the weather... there isn't storm coming.
He tucked himself away under the sand and dirt this afternoon and has only wedged himself in further. About 3:30, a bus pulled up with all the Janesville soccer and volleyball players, boys and girls. The girls always use my room as a locker room and this time is no different. On their way into the classroom, they jibber-jabbered to each other, "Hey, isn't this the place that has that turtle?" "Gross!" "Oh hey, isn't there this one teacher?" "Yeah, and this is the place that has..."
About thirty of them tromped their way in, dumped their stuff, and tromped back out. A few of them actually remembered me from last year, or from when I student taught at their school. Now my little third graders are grown up sixth graders! And my classroom smells like a locker room.
In other news, the two monarch caterpillars have turned into chrysalises. It's crazy how fast they change!!! Before we went to lunch, he was just starting, and once we got back from being served he was finished! I looked up what happens when a caterpillar makes a chrysalis. It's pretty sweet. The green outer covering is actually part of the caterpillar's body. Inside, all its cells are turning to mush, into imaginal cells (kind of like stem cells). The cells are reorganized into the new shape in about 10-14 days. Cool!!!
Slowly but surely I've been getting rid of the uncollected Silent Auction items. I'm hoping by the end of the week they'll all be gone!
Well, the soccer game starts in ten minutes. Hopefully I can get my TO DO list accomplished so I can go watch part of the game (and so I can leave right after volleyball).
PS- I looked up the weather... there isn't storm coming.
Monday, September 22, 2014
Typical
Nothing too exciting happened today.
The 8th graders complained about not having enough recess. Our bell song (My Country 'tis of Thee) is coming along nicely. Mrs. E stopped in to say we sounded great! I think it's time to add another song to our repertoire.
The younger grades had fun using sidewalk chalk on the parking lot. My car is boxed in with chalk. They drew a circle around my car. I guess I'm stuck here for a while!
First home volleyball game was today. We played Mt. Olive (a really good team) and lost both B and A squad. But the girls played really well. We're playing Janesville tomorrow. If they play well, we're skipping practice on Wednesday. Woohoo! That will give me some extra time to do my shopping for the week. I forgot about getting supplies for our science labs this week, so I have to do some juggling with my lesson plans. Not a big deal. I'm not entirely satisfied with how the teacher's manual is set up for our new physics books. The teacher mostly asks the class questions and then (I think) they're supposed to read the book and then do the lab. I don't know how much they're actually absorbing.
Anyway, this teacher has been at school long enough today. Time to head for home!
The 8th graders complained about not having enough recess. Our bell song (My Country 'tis of Thee) is coming along nicely. Mrs. E stopped in to say we sounded great! I think it's time to add another song to our repertoire.
The younger grades had fun using sidewalk chalk on the parking lot. My car is boxed in with chalk. They drew a circle around my car. I guess I'm stuck here for a while!
First home volleyball game was today. We played Mt. Olive (a really good team) and lost both B and A squad. But the girls played really well. We're playing Janesville tomorrow. If they play well, we're skipping practice on Wednesday. Woohoo! That will give me some extra time to do my shopping for the week. I forgot about getting supplies for our science labs this week, so I have to do some juggling with my lesson plans. Not a big deal. I'm not entirely satisfied with how the teacher's manual is set up for our new physics books. The teacher mostly asks the class questions and then (I think) they're supposed to read the book and then do the lab. I don't know how much they're actually absorbing.
Anyway, this teacher has been at school long enough today. Time to head for home!
Friday, September 19, 2014
Jelly Legs
Ho boy, my legs feel like jelly! Instead of playing kickball (which gets too heated and people cry...) we went with Eagle's Eggs for a change. I remember playing that game every recess we could in 5-8th grade.
One student had to leave early for a dentist appointment, so we had uneven teams. That meant that I had to play. A 6th grader (really cocky) told me to be on defense. Ha! I scoffed in my head, "Just because I'm a teacher doesn't mean I can't run and get to the nest." So when I saw an opening, I took it and ran as fast as I could! I dodged and weaved and bobbed and dashed! And I made it in the nest. My students were pretty much in awe. And then I rested because I was out of breath. Carefully waiting for an opening, I took off when everyone else was distracted by someone else running the line. And I made it! Woohoo! First egg across the border! And since I had made my point (I'm not an old fuddy-duddy), I settled down and took it easy the rest of the game. Until a really fast kid tried to make a break for the nest. He thought he was going to get past me, but I psyched him out and tagged him. Yeah, that 6th grader? He was pretty impressed. A couple other kids told me, "Wow, Miss H. I never saw anyone run that fast!" After the game I even got a few high fives from the other team. It's too bad it took so long for me to become this athletic. I definitely could've used some of those moves back in grade school.
Anyway, enough tooting my own horn. The other team was not very happy about the game. They thought they knew the rules and then didn't play with good strategy, so they were losing. And not happy about it. "These teams are unfair!" "I hate this game." "Can we do a jailbreak?" "Come on! I want to quit." On the other hand, my 5th grader who cried in kickball because she messed up was much happier playing Eagle's Eggs, so I count that as a win. We'll play some other game next time.
We came in from recess hot and sweaty (and a little mad). And found Mr. E waiting for us by the door. "Did you guys forget?" he asked. Oops. We were supposed to practice the songs we're singing on Sunday at 2:20 and I totally forgot. This morning I was going to put a note on the board so hopefully one of my students would remind me... and I forgot to do that. Oh well. Someone could've come out and got me, but no one did, so I don't feel quite as bad. And we practiced the song in our room before going home; they know it. So we're good.
A bunch of my kids forgot to bring their book orders in today. I did get orders from four out of 12 students. Not bad! After school I tried to place an order and the site wouldn't work! I ended up calling Scholastic (their site was down and would be down for 30-60 minutes more). The lady let me order over the phone (not as painful as I thought it would be). So I just have to pop the checks in the mail and our books will be here in one week! Yahoo!
One student had to leave early for a dentist appointment, so we had uneven teams. That meant that I had to play. A 6th grader (really cocky) told me to be on defense. Ha! I scoffed in my head, "Just because I'm a teacher doesn't mean I can't run and get to the nest." So when I saw an opening, I took it and ran as fast as I could! I dodged and weaved and bobbed and dashed! And I made it in the nest. My students were pretty much in awe. And then I rested because I was out of breath. Carefully waiting for an opening, I took off when everyone else was distracted by someone else running the line. And I made it! Woohoo! First egg across the border! And since I had made my point (I'm not an old fuddy-duddy), I settled down and took it easy the rest of the game. Until a really fast kid tried to make a break for the nest. He thought he was going to get past me, but I psyched him out and tagged him. Yeah, that 6th grader? He was pretty impressed. A couple other kids told me, "Wow, Miss H. I never saw anyone run that fast!" After the game I even got a few high fives from the other team. It's too bad it took so long for me to become this athletic. I definitely could've used some of those moves back in grade school.
Anyway, enough tooting my own horn. The other team was not very happy about the game. They thought they knew the rules and then didn't play with good strategy, so they were losing. And not happy about it. "These teams are unfair!" "I hate this game." "Can we do a jailbreak?" "Come on! I want to quit." On the other hand, my 5th grader who cried in kickball because she messed up was much happier playing Eagle's Eggs, so I count that as a win. We'll play some other game next time.
We came in from recess hot and sweaty (and a little mad). And found Mr. E waiting for us by the door. "Did you guys forget?" he asked. Oops. We were supposed to practice the songs we're singing on Sunday at 2:20 and I totally forgot. This morning I was going to put a note on the board so hopefully one of my students would remind me... and I forgot to do that. Oh well. Someone could've come out and got me, but no one did, so I don't feel quite as bad. And we practiced the song in our room before going home; they know it. So we're good.
A bunch of my kids forgot to bring their book orders in today. I did get orders from four out of 12 students. Not bad! After school I tried to place an order and the site wouldn't work! I ended up calling Scholastic (their site was down and would be down for 30-60 minutes more). The lady let me order over the phone (not as painful as I thought it would be). So I just have to pop the checks in the mail and our books will be here in one week! Yahoo!
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Is it worth it?
The question foremost in my mind right now is, should I go home before going over to church at 6:30? Hmm. We're setting up for the Silent Auction/Pork Chop Dinner at 6:30 and I had originally intended to plan next week's lessons and then go home. Oh, and I had a meeting with the school nurse to go over how to give medications to students (how long could that take?) and a meeting with a lady who wanted to go over starting up the SCRIP program at our school.
Yeah, I didn't get going on my school stuff until about 4:45. However, this is the last thing I'm working on. My plan for lessons next week is printed. My desk is mostly cleared off (at least straightened up), the silent auction items are waiting on the table, and my teacher bag is packed. So as soon as I organize my thoughts, I'm going to book it home!
I taught my class the "cool" pose, the first step in becoming tease-proof. You whip that pose out when someone is putting you down or is saying something mean... after they're done with their mean stuff, you look at them and very calmly (with a smile on your face) say your "adult snappy one-liner" (meaning, it's mature and not something mean back). The one I taught my class was, "Thank you for sharing that with me." And then we practiced. Some were serious about it. Others treated it like a joke. And one person did not want to come up with a cool pose (he's the one who probably needs this the most). So we practiced some more. I told them I was going to make them practice it tomorrow too.
The teasing levels were about the same as yesterday. One boy, I just don't know what to do with him. He isn't able to verbalize why he did something mean to a classmate. I'll ask him why he did it and he just stares/zones out/shrugs. I need to do more research or Google it or something.
I was on a campaign to get all the late work turned in today. Some students have been lax in turning in their English assignments. So I laid the law down, "If your late work is not turned in, you do not get to work in the prairie garden this afternoon. If it's still not finished by the time we have afternoon recess, you will need to stay in and work on it then too." Spelling was due today too. One girl had about three and a half pages left (out of five) to do. She kept dinking around, watching what everyone else was doing... and when it was time to go outside, she was stuck inside. When I let another student work on his work outside, she started bawling, "I want to work outside too! How come he gets to and not me?" (she gets way too distracted) She kept saying, "it isn't fair!" But then we went over how she had made a lot of choices about not getting her work done, so it's her own fault she was stuck inside doing homework. I made a deal if she got her spelling done and one of her late English assignments done, she could come play kickball. She still didn't get it all finished and was panicking. Our next deal: get it done before 6:30 and her mom could bring it to Pork Chop setup at church. Well that seemed like a done deal to her.
Even though today is Thursday, the Bookmobile didn't come. There were actually groans of disappointment from my students when I gave them the news. However, I went to the library yesterday after school, so our book supply is replenished. Just in time for Reading Buddies tomorrow!
And now I'm signing out. I kind of forgot I didn't have a STEM lesson picked out for tomorrow... I think we're just going to watch a Bill Nye video on cells. We're learning about them next week, so it's relevant. It feels like a cop out, but really, I've been at school so much this week, I'm at the point where I need to leave and recharge and not think about school for a while. So here goes nothing!
Yeah, I didn't get going on my school stuff until about 4:45. However, this is the last thing I'm working on. My plan for lessons next week is printed. My desk is mostly cleared off (at least straightened up), the silent auction items are waiting on the table, and my teacher bag is packed. So as soon as I organize my thoughts, I'm going to book it home!
I taught my class the "cool" pose, the first step in becoming tease-proof. You whip that pose out when someone is putting you down or is saying something mean... after they're done with their mean stuff, you look at them and very calmly (with a smile on your face) say your "adult snappy one-liner" (meaning, it's mature and not something mean back). The one I taught my class was, "Thank you for sharing that with me." And then we practiced. Some were serious about it. Others treated it like a joke. And one person did not want to come up with a cool pose (he's the one who probably needs this the most). So we practiced some more. I told them I was going to make them practice it tomorrow too.
The teasing levels were about the same as yesterday. One boy, I just don't know what to do with him. He isn't able to verbalize why he did something mean to a classmate. I'll ask him why he did it and he just stares/zones out/shrugs. I need to do more research or Google it or something.
I was on a campaign to get all the late work turned in today. Some students have been lax in turning in their English assignments. So I laid the law down, "If your late work is not turned in, you do not get to work in the prairie garden this afternoon. If it's still not finished by the time we have afternoon recess, you will need to stay in and work on it then too." Spelling was due today too. One girl had about three and a half pages left (out of five) to do. She kept dinking around, watching what everyone else was doing... and when it was time to go outside, she was stuck inside. When I let another student work on his work outside, she started bawling, "I want to work outside too! How come he gets to and not me?" (she gets way too distracted) She kept saying, "it isn't fair!" But then we went over how she had made a lot of choices about not getting her work done, so it's her own fault she was stuck inside doing homework. I made a deal if she got her spelling done and one of her late English assignments done, she could come play kickball. She still didn't get it all finished and was panicking. Our next deal: get it done before 6:30 and her mom could bring it to Pork Chop setup at church. Well that seemed like a done deal to her.
Even though today is Thursday, the Bookmobile didn't come. There were actually groans of disappointment from my students when I gave them the news. However, I went to the library yesterday after school, so our book supply is replenished. Just in time for Reading Buddies tomorrow!
And now I'm signing out. I kind of forgot I didn't have a STEM lesson picked out for tomorrow... I think we're just going to watch a Bill Nye video on cells. We're learning about them next week, so it's relevant. It feels like a cop out, but really, I've been at school so much this week, I'm at the point where I need to leave and recharge and not think about school for a while. So here goes nothing!
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Not Enough Time in the Day
Today was one of those days where there was so much learning going on, we didn't have time to squeeze it all in!
For once religion didn't go over time... but then I let some of my students say their memory work afterwards before read-aloud (this week's is the Old Testament books of the Bible which they already know). And then we did some interesting words back in the reading corner... and then it was time for English.
And the 5th graders learned about direct objects and objects of prepositions. Yeah. Not something easily grasped. (By the way Dad, my students were really impressed you corrected their English papers.) So we spent a little extra time on that... leaving less time for Daily 5. We could've extended Daily 5 into our normal Spanish time... however yesterday we learned to play the Spanish Tap Game (learning names for school supplies) and I wanted to have a good chunk of time for that.
Lunch. Recess. (One of the 6th graders helped me drag the prairie garden bench over to the soccer field so we could sit on it and watch the game.) 8th grade science. Bells.
Bells actually went better today. I still got some attitude from the 8th grade girls, but our song is sounding better. I spent a bunch of time working with groups of students (top four players, middle three players... didn't have time to work with the bottom note players). We're still having trouble with syncopation and I miss hearing the highest notes. No one was assigned those notes; I think I'll need to play them. I decided we'll play this song for the Fine Arts Festival in March; that way we actually get to play it. We'll do some easier songs for church in November. There's so much extra foam floating around; I want to get rid of it. I picked out two of the worst pieces we never use, but I want to check with Mr. E that it's okay for me to dump them. Slowly but surely we're settling in.
Even though we ended bells right at 1:30, we didn't get started on MN history right away. Our topic today was life in a Dakota camp and we only got through Spring and Summer. I suppose we'll do Autumn and Winter tomorrow (or Friday). And now my students are outside for PE. There's volleyball practice after school. I only have one lesson to prepare for tomorrow, so I'm hoping I can get home a little earlier than I have the past two nights.
Oh! Report on the volleyball games yesterday: after the soccer game, the girls played two games against the other team's B squad and won. Then they played three games against the A squad and lost one (by two points), won one, and lost the last one (they were just too tired out). So all in all, we won three out of five games... with no subs. We were supposed to have one sub, but her mom called me while I was on the way there saying she didn't have her homework done and wasn't even trying to do it. So I told her to keep the student home; homework comes first. I hadn't known the other team had a B squad, so at practice the other day I told the moms there wasn't a B squad game. Oops.
Which reminds me: I need to get updated schedules printed off before practice... and my students are coming in from PE.
For once religion didn't go over time... but then I let some of my students say their memory work afterwards before read-aloud (this week's is the Old Testament books of the Bible which they already know). And then we did some interesting words back in the reading corner... and then it was time for English.
And the 5th graders learned about direct objects and objects of prepositions. Yeah. Not something easily grasped. (By the way Dad, my students were really impressed you corrected their English papers.) So we spent a little extra time on that... leaving less time for Daily 5. We could've extended Daily 5 into our normal Spanish time... however yesterday we learned to play the Spanish Tap Game (learning names for school supplies) and I wanted to have a good chunk of time for that.
Lunch. Recess. (One of the 6th graders helped me drag the prairie garden bench over to the soccer field so we could sit on it and watch the game.) 8th grade science. Bells.
Bells actually went better today. I still got some attitude from the 8th grade girls, but our song is sounding better. I spent a bunch of time working with groups of students (top four players, middle three players... didn't have time to work with the bottom note players). We're still having trouble with syncopation and I miss hearing the highest notes. No one was assigned those notes; I think I'll need to play them. I decided we'll play this song for the Fine Arts Festival in March; that way we actually get to play it. We'll do some easier songs for church in November. There's so much extra foam floating around; I want to get rid of it. I picked out two of the worst pieces we never use, but I want to check with Mr. E that it's okay for me to dump them. Slowly but surely we're settling in.
Even though we ended bells right at 1:30, we didn't get started on MN history right away. Our topic today was life in a Dakota camp and we only got through Spring and Summer. I suppose we'll do Autumn and Winter tomorrow (or Friday). And now my students are outside for PE. There's volleyball practice after school. I only have one lesson to prepare for tomorrow, so I'm hoping I can get home a little earlier than I have the past two nights.
Oh! Report on the volleyball games yesterday: after the soccer game, the girls played two games against the other team's B squad and won. Then they played three games against the A squad and lost one (by two points), won one, and lost the last one (they were just too tired out). So all in all, we won three out of five games... with no subs. We were supposed to have one sub, but her mom called me while I was on the way there saying she didn't have her homework done and wasn't even trying to do it. So I told her to keep the student home; homework comes first. I hadn't known the other team had a B squad, so at practice the other day I told the moms there wasn't a B squad game. Oops.
Which reminds me: I need to get updated schedules printed off before practice... and my students are coming in from PE.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Frustrations
Yesterday morning the watch my youngest brother gave me when I started teaching quit working. Thankfully I have a spare... but it's not as comfortable as the other one.
This weekend I spent a lot of time putting together a powerpoint for today's Minnesota history lesson on the Dakota. I got to school this morning, plugged the drive in... and nothing. Couldn't find the powerpoint anywhere on my external hard drive. I'm hoping I saved it on my laptop. I don't know where else it could be!!!
So today I gave my students the choice; instead of doing history, we could do art or science. We're going to do both art and science this week, so I didn't care which they picked, we'll just shuffle the schedule around a bit. They picked art. We made some good progress. We also made a lot of noise. For some reason, my students have been picking on each other a ton. I'm talking more than the normal run-ins they have with each other. The worst part is, the rest of the class kept gossiping about what people were saying to each other and added fuel to the fire, "Hey, did you hear that guy say this?" Ugh. One student talked about wishing a branch would hit his neighbor on the head or something about a stick hitting that person... as a class, they decided the consequence should be that a marble be taken out of the jar (marbles we're collecting to earn a class prize). Seemed fair to me. Now we're down to 11 marbles (we need 65).
At recess, (after a lecture on being nice to our neighbors...treat them well...you're family...etc.) we went out for kickball. One student crouched to examine a bee resting on the pavement. Another 5th grader zoomed up next to him and pretended to stomp on the bee. The first 5th grader lost it and nearly lit into the kid! I had to pry them apart, telling the first 5th grader to take a break inside and then chewed the second 5th grader out. The second guy knew it would bug the first one if he pretended to hurt the insect which was why he did it in the first place. Sigh. So I made them both write apology letters to each other. They eventually made it out to kickball and had a good time out there.
It was kind of funny, during kickball my students were being overly nice to each other, encouraging each other and saying "good try" to the other team. Of course there were still some, "Oh come on! Why'd you throw the ball?" but overall they were better about being teammates.
Hopefully they'll burn themselves out playing soccer/volleyball tonight and won't be at each other's throats as much tomorrow.
This weekend I spent a lot of time putting together a powerpoint for today's Minnesota history lesson on the Dakota. I got to school this morning, plugged the drive in... and nothing. Couldn't find the powerpoint anywhere on my external hard drive. I'm hoping I saved it on my laptop. I don't know where else it could be!!!
So today I gave my students the choice; instead of doing history, we could do art or science. We're going to do both art and science this week, so I didn't care which they picked, we'll just shuffle the schedule around a bit. They picked art. We made some good progress. We also made a lot of noise. For some reason, my students have been picking on each other a ton. I'm talking more than the normal run-ins they have with each other. The worst part is, the rest of the class kept gossiping about what people were saying to each other and added fuel to the fire, "Hey, did you hear that guy say this?" Ugh. One student talked about wishing a branch would hit his neighbor on the head or something about a stick hitting that person... as a class, they decided the consequence should be that a marble be taken out of the jar (marbles we're collecting to earn a class prize). Seemed fair to me. Now we're down to 11 marbles (we need 65).
At recess, (after a lecture on being nice to our neighbors...treat them well...you're family...etc.) we went out for kickball. One student crouched to examine a bee resting on the pavement. Another 5th grader zoomed up next to him and pretended to stomp on the bee. The first 5th grader lost it and nearly lit into the kid! I had to pry them apart, telling the first 5th grader to take a break inside and then chewed the second 5th grader out. The second guy knew it would bug the first one if he pretended to hurt the insect which was why he did it in the first place. Sigh. So I made them both write apology letters to each other. They eventually made it out to kickball and had a good time out there.
It was kind of funny, during kickball my students were being overly nice to each other, encouraging each other and saying "good try" to the other team. Of course there were still some, "Oh come on! Why'd you throw the ball?" but overall they were better about being teammates.
Hopefully they'll burn themselves out playing soccer/volleyball tonight and won't be at each other's throats as much tomorrow.
Monday, September 15, 2014
Yellow Bears
Two of my 5th grade boys spent recess puttsing around in the prairie garden. They found a bunch of fuzzy caterpillars that looked like wooly bears, but without any black. Hmm... I told the boys about the old wives' tale of the harshness of winter being predicted by the amount of black on a wooly bear. They were excited, "So maybe we won't have that bad a winter!" But then one of them noticed the caterpillar had little white hairs sticking out past the orange fuzz. Wooly bears don't have those. So we looked it up once we were back inside from recess. It turns out, they are a different specie of caterpillar commonly called yellow bears. Cool!
One of my students stayed home today because he has a bad cough. His mom thought it would be too disruptive during school (and I actually agree with that). It took a little bit of juggling to get all his assignments ready for his mom to take home. At 11:00, she showed up to pick up her preschooler and brought all his homework back! "He wanted to watch a movie." was her explanation. Hey, as long as the work is done correctly!
Bells went a little better today. The 8th graders are annoyed with me that I'm making them use the actual books with tape over the staff lines. Sigh. And they are just raring to go while the 6th graders are feeling left behind... I wanted to work on some of the tricky measures with the bass lines and then later on with the treble clef players. One particular girl just didn't understand why I wasn't having them all play. Then they were complaining that the song was too hard. And they were making fun of the way I was counting the measures... I finally told them that I'm not Mrs. M and it's going to take a while to get used to the new arrangement... so we all need to be patient with each other. I don't know if it did much good. Part of the problem is that we don't have enough room in our classroom to have both tables up with enough space for everyone to fit. Maybe bells would go more smoothly if we had more room. Food for thought.
Mr. D seemed in a better mood today. He explained once again why he didn't go out to the garden. Then I asked him why he didn't send one of his students out to check. Silence. "Oh. Yeah, that would've been a good idea. Wow I'm dumb!" Later he emailed me and said that must be proof of how little he trusts his class, that he wouldn't even send someone on an errand outside.
Volleyball practice went well today. We practiced blocking and tipping and the younger girls improved their aim in bumping. Then we scrimmaged and practiced serving. I think we'll do okay at our game tomorrow. Lori isn't going to be there since her oldest daughter has a high school volleyball game, so I'll be coaching solo. We checked with the girls and there is only one that doesn't have a ride. I hope she gets one figured out before tomorrow!
One of my students stayed home today because he has a bad cough. His mom thought it would be too disruptive during school (and I actually agree with that). It took a little bit of juggling to get all his assignments ready for his mom to take home. At 11:00, she showed up to pick up her preschooler and brought all his homework back! "He wanted to watch a movie." was her explanation. Hey, as long as the work is done correctly!
Bells went a little better today. The 8th graders are annoyed with me that I'm making them use the actual books with tape over the staff lines. Sigh. And they are just raring to go while the 6th graders are feeling left behind... I wanted to work on some of the tricky measures with the bass lines and then later on with the treble clef players. One particular girl just didn't understand why I wasn't having them all play. Then they were complaining that the song was too hard. And they were making fun of the way I was counting the measures... I finally told them that I'm not Mrs. M and it's going to take a while to get used to the new arrangement... so we all need to be patient with each other. I don't know if it did much good. Part of the problem is that we don't have enough room in our classroom to have both tables up with enough space for everyone to fit. Maybe bells would go more smoothly if we had more room. Food for thought.
Mr. D seemed in a better mood today. He explained once again why he didn't go out to the garden. Then I asked him why he didn't send one of his students out to check. Silence. "Oh. Yeah, that would've been a good idea. Wow I'm dumb!" Later he emailed me and said that must be proof of how little he trusts his class, that he wouldn't even send someone on an errand outside.
Volleyball practice went well today. We practiced blocking and tipping and the younger girls improved their aim in bumping. Then we scrimmaged and practiced serving. I think we'll do okay at our game tomorrow. Lori isn't going to be there since her oldest daughter has a high school volleyball game, so I'll be coaching solo. We checked with the girls and there is only one that doesn't have a ride. I hope she gets one figured out before tomorrow!
Friday, September 12, 2014
Bears in the garden
I like Fridays. And not just because there's no school the next day. Fridays are our "Fun" days (though still educational, of course). Reading Buddies with 1st and 2nd grade. Circular Stories instead of English out of the textbook. Art! STEM with the 8th graders.
This afternoon, we worked in the prairie planting. Jeff, one of the adults heading up this project, came around noon to supervise the work, helping to identify weeds/plants that should stay in the ground, telling us where to plant the plants, and showing us the insects living in the garden. We found woolly bears, bumble bees (and other bees), night crawlers, other kinds of worms, and even a monarch caterpillar. Everyone had a good time. Everyone except the 3rd and 4th graders.
Earlier in the week I had painstakingly made a schedule for each class to have a slot outside in the garden. The original plan was for Jeff to do a little presentation inside for each class, and then go out and work in the garden. The weather was so nice, Jeff decided he could do his talk outside. And I forgot to tell the other teachers about that change in plans. It was okay for 1st and 2nd grade since they were the first group and Jeff let them know he was ready to start. It was okay for my class because I was the contact person and had talked to him about it. It was okay for the kindergarten class because the 8th graders stayed out a little later than originally planned so they could work with the kindergartners (and I ran an errand that went directly past the kindergartners, so I let them know it was their turn). But after that, my class went inside and went about our business, and no one let Mr. D's class know it was their turn to go out. So he waited and waited and waited. And there were still kids in the garden at 2:00 (maybe Mrs. E stayed out a little extra?), so he thought it wasn't his turn yet. And then it was 2:30, time to go home and his class still hadn't gone out. So he was pretty bummed.
I emailed Jeff to see if he could come back next week sometime. The 5th graders only had 15 minutes outside in the garden, and they definitely want more. Sigh. If it's not one thing, it's another.
For some reason, all four sixth graders forgot to do a page in their spelling. They either started it and didn't finish, or they completely skipped over it! And then it took them forever to get it fixed (and they needed help doing it). All day I felt like I was the wrist slapping teacher. You know, the one that shakes her finger and frowns and says, "No, no, mustn't, mustn't."? All day. Stop picking on each other. Be nicer to your classmates. Stop making fun of each other. Ignore them. Leave her alone. I didn't know what else to say to get them to stop.
But today is Friday. Tomorrow is Saturday. And we will (hopefully) come back to school on Monday rested and ready to learn.
This afternoon, we worked in the prairie planting. Jeff, one of the adults heading up this project, came around noon to supervise the work, helping to identify weeds/plants that should stay in the ground, telling us where to plant the plants, and showing us the insects living in the garden. We found woolly bears, bumble bees (and other bees), night crawlers, other kinds of worms, and even a monarch caterpillar. Everyone had a good time. Everyone except the 3rd and 4th graders.
Earlier in the week I had painstakingly made a schedule for each class to have a slot outside in the garden. The original plan was for Jeff to do a little presentation inside for each class, and then go out and work in the garden. The weather was so nice, Jeff decided he could do his talk outside. And I forgot to tell the other teachers about that change in plans. It was okay for 1st and 2nd grade since they were the first group and Jeff let them know he was ready to start. It was okay for my class because I was the contact person and had talked to him about it. It was okay for the kindergarten class because the 8th graders stayed out a little later than originally planned so they could work with the kindergartners (and I ran an errand that went directly past the kindergartners, so I let them know it was their turn). But after that, my class went inside and went about our business, and no one let Mr. D's class know it was their turn to go out. So he waited and waited and waited. And there were still kids in the garden at 2:00 (maybe Mrs. E stayed out a little extra?), so he thought it wasn't his turn yet. And then it was 2:30, time to go home and his class still hadn't gone out. So he was pretty bummed.
I emailed Jeff to see if he could come back next week sometime. The 5th graders only had 15 minutes outside in the garden, and they definitely want more. Sigh. If it's not one thing, it's another.
For some reason, all four sixth graders forgot to do a page in their spelling. They either started it and didn't finish, or they completely skipped over it! And then it took them forever to get it fixed (and they needed help doing it). All day I felt like I was the wrist slapping teacher. You know, the one that shakes her finger and frowns and says, "No, no, mustn't, mustn't."? All day. Stop picking on each other. Be nicer to your classmates. Stop making fun of each other. Ignore them. Leave her alone. I didn't know what else to say to get them to stop.
But today is Friday. Tomorrow is Saturday. And we will (hopefully) come back to school on Monday rested and ready to learn.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Strange Vehicles
Survived another day of school. It still amazes me that my students don't realize it's the end of the day. Again, there were two students today who would've happily stayed at school another hour or two.
I did send a kid home sick today. He looked pasty white (according to his classmates), and he just looked droopy. He worked on his handwriting a bit, and it just looked awful (normally he has the best handwriting in the class). So we called his parents and they came to pick him up at 1:30. Around lunch time he perked up a little. And he went outside for recess (and sat there most of the time). Instead of going on the computer, he rested his head on his desk in our classroom and listened to me teach the 8th graders. I'm pretty sure he'll be back tomorrow. Though there is that nasty respiratory thing going around...
Bookmobile came today. I picked up the latest I Survived book (my students were arguing over who gets it first) and another copy of the first Whatever After book in the series. We now have three copies of that book in our classroom. I hope the next ones come in soon!
Originally after school I had planned to do my lesson plans and get stuff done in the classroom, leaving in enough time to head straight to our volleyball game in Mankato. A half an hour before school got out, the other coach called me. She wanted to know if I would ride with her to Mankato and then drive one of their vehicles home because her van was in the shop. So with a little scrambling (and a little squeezing), we crammed everyone into her car, drove to the soccer game, dropped kids off, and went to pick up her van. I drove the car back to the soccer game/volleyball game/to Immanuel and she's going to stop and pick it up later. So that was interesting.
Soccer game: ILS dominated. We got about five or six goals in that I saw and the other team had none. Volleyball went a lot better than I expected. We won the first two and lost the third one. Not bad for our first game of the season! Monday we're going to work on blocking and hitting backwards.
And now it's time for me to finish mapping out next week so I can get home and correct my class's spelling books.
I did send a kid home sick today. He looked pasty white (according to his classmates), and he just looked droopy. He worked on his handwriting a bit, and it just looked awful (normally he has the best handwriting in the class). So we called his parents and they came to pick him up at 1:30. Around lunch time he perked up a little. And he went outside for recess (and sat there most of the time). Instead of going on the computer, he rested his head on his desk in our classroom and listened to me teach the 8th graders. I'm pretty sure he'll be back tomorrow. Though there is that nasty respiratory thing going around...
Bookmobile came today. I picked up the latest I Survived book (my students were arguing over who gets it first) and another copy of the first Whatever After book in the series. We now have three copies of that book in our classroom. I hope the next ones come in soon!
Originally after school I had planned to do my lesson plans and get stuff done in the classroom, leaving in enough time to head straight to our volleyball game in Mankato. A half an hour before school got out, the other coach called me. She wanted to know if I would ride with her to Mankato and then drive one of their vehicles home because her van was in the shop. So with a little scrambling (and a little squeezing), we crammed everyone into her car, drove to the soccer game, dropped kids off, and went to pick up her van. I drove the car back to the soccer game/volleyball game/to Immanuel and she's going to stop and pick it up later. So that was interesting.
Soccer game: ILS dominated. We got about five or six goals in that I saw and the other team had none. Volleyball went a lot better than I expected. We won the first two and lost the third one. Not bad for our first game of the season! Monday we're going to work on blocking and hitting backwards.
And now it's time for me to finish mapping out next week so I can get home and correct my class's spelling books.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Pencil Problems
Another late night for me at school. Volleyball practice 'til 4:00. Then putting up the new volleyball net. Followed by the Ice Cream Social at church for supper. And by that time it was 6:00; time for the PTL meeting. No time for lesson plans in between. Sigh.
Sometimes you just have days like that.
The last hour of the day was pretty discouraging. The hand bells arrived on Monday, so I picked out a song to do with the 6-8th graders. And we highlighted notes. And the 6th graders didn't know what they were doing. And they couldn't figure out which note was theirs. And they didn't know when they were supposed to play. And I didn't know what/how to teach them. And you could kind of tell what song we were playing (it's a patriotic song that I can't remember the name of right now...). But it took the 6th graders FOREVER to put the bell stuff away. They didn't know where it went and I didn't know where it went either... It took 10 minutes to put away the bell stuff. Which cut 10 minutes into our science lab time. Which cut 10 minutes into PE. (Mr. E was actually happy about that because it was in the low 50s today and PE was outside to practice soccer. So some good came of our lateness.) Sigh.
Sometimes you just have days like that.
The lab... well. Not my shining moment as a teacher. The students didn't read the lab through all the way, so they didn't know what they were doing (even though we took class time to look it over). I was going to make groups using a fancy-schmancy website, but it wasn't working. So I drew sticks. And two students who don't normally get along were put in a group together. But I put them together anyway. And there were students who didn't get along with their partners and didn't take turns and ran around and didn't follow the rules. And then there were groups that did everything super fast and were done right away and needed some guidance in writing down stuff on their lab sheets. And it was PE time, so we didn't have time to do any of that. And we didn't have enough time to discuss what they discovered. Sigh.
Sometimes you just have days like that.
The "funniest" incident of the day had to do with pencil ownership. First of all, if I find a pencil lying somewhere in the classroom, I put it in the Sharp/Not-Sharp jars for anyone to use. How am I to know whose pencil it is? This morning I found one. Later on, one of the 6th graders suddenly yelled, "Hey! You stole my pencil!" The boy looked at her, puzzled, "I just got it from the Sharp container." "No, it's mine! You must've taken it from my desk." I explained I had found it on the table and stuck it there. Still, she was adamant she had put it away in her desk. Well, the student using it didn't want to give it back. She wanted to trade him for it, but he said no. So she argued and tried to convince him for about 10 minutes until I finally confiscated the pencil.
Lunchtime comes. The boy's pencil rolled off his desk and landed on the ground, clearly next to his desk. The girl whose pencil was "stolen" picked it up, put it in the Sharp jar, and took it back out to use. When the boy said, "Hey, that's my pencil!" She looked at him innocently and said, "I got it from the Sharp jar." (Later, she told me she had picked it off the floor and put it in there herself). AUGH! So I confiscated that pencil too. Sigh.
Sometimes you just have days like that. Good thing tomorrow is another day.
Sometimes you just have days like that.
The last hour of the day was pretty discouraging. The hand bells arrived on Monday, so I picked out a song to do with the 6-8th graders. And we highlighted notes. And the 6th graders didn't know what they were doing. And they couldn't figure out which note was theirs. And they didn't know when they were supposed to play. And I didn't know what/how to teach them. And you could kind of tell what song we were playing (it's a patriotic song that I can't remember the name of right now...). But it took the 6th graders FOREVER to put the bell stuff away. They didn't know where it went and I didn't know where it went either... It took 10 minutes to put away the bell stuff. Which cut 10 minutes into our science lab time. Which cut 10 minutes into PE. (Mr. E was actually happy about that because it was in the low 50s today and PE was outside to practice soccer. So some good came of our lateness.) Sigh.
Sometimes you just have days like that.
The lab... well. Not my shining moment as a teacher. The students didn't read the lab through all the way, so they didn't know what they were doing (even though we took class time to look it over). I was going to make groups using a fancy-schmancy website, but it wasn't working. So I drew sticks. And two students who don't normally get along were put in a group together. But I put them together anyway. And there were students who didn't get along with their partners and didn't take turns and ran around and didn't follow the rules. And then there were groups that did everything super fast and were done right away and needed some guidance in writing down stuff on their lab sheets. And it was PE time, so we didn't have time to do any of that. And we didn't have enough time to discuss what they discovered. Sigh.
Sometimes you just have days like that.
The "funniest" incident of the day had to do with pencil ownership. First of all, if I find a pencil lying somewhere in the classroom, I put it in the Sharp/Not-Sharp jars for anyone to use. How am I to know whose pencil it is? This morning I found one. Later on, one of the 6th graders suddenly yelled, "Hey! You stole my pencil!" The boy looked at her, puzzled, "I just got it from the Sharp container." "No, it's mine! You must've taken it from my desk." I explained I had found it on the table and stuck it there. Still, she was adamant she had put it away in her desk. Well, the student using it didn't want to give it back. She wanted to trade him for it, but he said no. So she argued and tried to convince him for about 10 minutes until I finally confiscated the pencil.
Lunchtime comes. The boy's pencil rolled off his desk and landed on the ground, clearly next to his desk. The girl whose pencil was "stolen" picked it up, put it in the Sharp jar, and took it back out to use. When the boy said, "Hey, that's my pencil!" She looked at him innocently and said, "I got it from the Sharp jar." (Later, she told me she had picked it off the floor and put it in there herself). AUGH! So I confiscated that pencil too. Sigh.
Sometimes you just have days like that. Good thing tomorrow is another day.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Hospital Tag
Don't worry! None of my students went to the hospital today. We played a game at recess by that name. If you get tagged, you put a hand over the "injury" as a Band-Aid. If you get tagged again, use your other hand. And if you get tagged a third time, you lie on the ground and yell "Doctor, Doctor!" and the doctor comes and "heals" you. The girls had a good time playing. The boys thought it was okay.
We got off topic a bunch today... and yet we still covered the things that needed to be covered. The tower of Babel was our religion topic for today. Which lead to a discussion of Pangaea and whether the continents moved during the flood or when God spread people around after Babel. In the afternoon, we studied migration and the Native Americans in Minnesota, which somehow reminded me we never talked about why the dinosaurs died out after the flood. So we went into science. And somehow we got on the topic of cloning and DNA and Dolly the sheep and sheep giving spider silk proteins in their milk... good stuff.
Once I let my students know I would be visiting the library after school today, I had a lot of requests to check for the "I Survived" books and then the "Whatever After" books. I emailed the Bookmobile librarian to hold some for us on Thursday, but I don't think she has all that many. Hopefully the New Ulm library has a bunch! One of the 5th graders told me today that she likes reading way more now that she's in my class. Woohoo! :) And then a 5th grade mom said that her son has been reading up a storm now that he's been in my class. She'd get him books at the beginning of summer and he wouldn't touch them; now he's read all of them and is looking for more. Sweet!
Tomorrow is our first physics lab of the year, involving tennis balls, string, and marbles. We'll see how it goes... Tomorrow is also the last volleyball practice before our first game (on Thursday) and there's the church ice cream social and our first PTL meeting. Whew! I'm thinking I better head home early and take it easy while I still can because the rest of this week is going to fly by!
We got off topic a bunch today... and yet we still covered the things that needed to be covered. The tower of Babel was our religion topic for today. Which lead to a discussion of Pangaea and whether the continents moved during the flood or when God spread people around after Babel. In the afternoon, we studied migration and the Native Americans in Minnesota, which somehow reminded me we never talked about why the dinosaurs died out after the flood. So we went into science. And somehow we got on the topic of cloning and DNA and Dolly the sheep and sheep giving spider silk proteins in their milk... good stuff.
Once I let my students know I would be visiting the library after school today, I had a lot of requests to check for the "I Survived" books and then the "Whatever After" books. I emailed the Bookmobile librarian to hold some for us on Thursday, but I don't think she has all that many. Hopefully the New Ulm library has a bunch! One of the 5th graders told me today that she likes reading way more now that she's in my class. Woohoo! :) And then a 5th grade mom said that her son has been reading up a storm now that he's been in my class. She'd get him books at the beginning of summer and he wouldn't touch them; now he's read all of them and is looking for more. Sweet!
Tomorrow is our first physics lab of the year, involving tennis balls, string, and marbles. We'll see how it goes... Tomorrow is also the last volleyball practice before our first game (on Thursday) and there's the church ice cream social and our first PTL meeting. Whew! I'm thinking I better head home early and take it easy while I still can because the rest of this week is going to fly by!
Monday, September 8, 2014
Who needs a Farmer's Tan when you have a Sunglasses Tan?
This morning was a little chaotic with our first day of English class underway. We had Daily 5 going on in the background, meaning the 6th graders did a round while I taught the 5th graders, and then the 5th graders did a round while I taught the 6th graders. It was a little strange. I think they all got their homework finished though! I told them they could work on their English homework during Work on Writing. Some of them had already done Work on Writing beforehand, and I wouldn't let them redo it, so they were pretty bummed. This is going to make them strategize! They'll also have to choose when to do their spelling so I can help them if need be.
Oh man! Our read-aloud book just got to a really good part. I had to stop in the middle of a chapter because I noticed one of the 5th graders looking pretty droopy. I wish I could've kept reading! The part we're at is SO FUNNY! I couldn't stop smiling while I read, even though we weren't to the funny part yet. Oh boy. Anyway, my students begged me to keep reading, so I compromised and said we could read a little more before lunch. Of course, today the 3rd and 4th graders knocked early, so we didn't get all that much time to read and we STILL didn't finish the chapter. Sigh. Tomorrow is a new day.
Today was also the first time we tried the electric piano in the new spot. It didn't work so well. To have it plugged in, the piano has to be at an awkward angle so I can't see half my class. I'll have to play around with it a little more. But then the music stand wasn't high enough and when I tried to pull it up to my height... the top popped off. And then I had to shove it back on while the hymnbooks were weighing it down. And my students were raring to go.
It's kind of funny. Almost every day, we come in from recess or PE and they ask, "Wait, it's already time to go?" It's like they can't believe the end of the day is already here. I suppose that's a good sign.
As far as chaos goes, today was pretty mellow. There were the little spats throughout the day of course, and the "you guys need to be quiet I'm trying to concentrate" shouted in a loud voice across the room. My external hard drive keeps making beeping sounds and then stops working sometimes. I Googled it and found something about the fan/motor getting stuck so it doesn't work. *Wince* Hopefully it's something I can get fixed. I don't want to have to shell out for a new one.
Volleyball practice went all right today. Speaking of volleyball... this weekend was the sand volleyball tournament in Courtland. I was outside all day playing. And I forgot to put on sunscreen. About halfway through the day it crossed my mind, but by then it was too late. I went to church sporting a bright red face and very nice sunglasses lines across my cheeks.
I thought it was looking a lot better this morning but as soon as my students walked in, "Man Miss Heintz! What happened to your face? You were out in the sun a little, weren't you?" The funny thing is that only two people at church commented on my being "out in the sun" whereas about twenty students at school said something. Oh well. God's keeping me humble. And it's a good teachable moment on the wonders of sunscreen.
Oh man! Our read-aloud book just got to a really good part. I had to stop in the middle of a chapter because I noticed one of the 5th graders looking pretty droopy. I wish I could've kept reading! The part we're at is SO FUNNY! I couldn't stop smiling while I read, even though we weren't to the funny part yet. Oh boy. Anyway, my students begged me to keep reading, so I compromised and said we could read a little more before lunch. Of course, today the 3rd and 4th graders knocked early, so we didn't get all that much time to read and we STILL didn't finish the chapter. Sigh. Tomorrow is a new day.
Today was also the first time we tried the electric piano in the new spot. It didn't work so well. To have it plugged in, the piano has to be at an awkward angle so I can't see half my class. I'll have to play around with it a little more. But then the music stand wasn't high enough and when I tried to pull it up to my height... the top popped off. And then I had to shove it back on while the hymnbooks were weighing it down. And my students were raring to go.
It's kind of funny. Almost every day, we come in from recess or PE and they ask, "Wait, it's already time to go?" It's like they can't believe the end of the day is already here. I suppose that's a good sign.
As far as chaos goes, today was pretty mellow. There were the little spats throughout the day of course, and the "you guys need to be quiet I'm trying to concentrate" shouted in a loud voice across the room. My external hard drive keeps making beeping sounds and then stops working sometimes. I Googled it and found something about the fan/motor getting stuck so it doesn't work. *Wince* Hopefully it's something I can get fixed. I don't want to have to shell out for a new one.
Volleyball practice went all right today. Speaking of volleyball... this weekend was the sand volleyball tournament in Courtland. I was outside all day playing. And I forgot to put on sunscreen. About halfway through the day it crossed my mind, but by then it was too late. I went to church sporting a bright red face and very nice sunglasses lines across my cheeks.
I thought it was looking a lot better this morning but as soon as my students walked in, "Man Miss Heintz! What happened to your face? You were out in the sun a little, weren't you?" The funny thing is that only two people at church commented on my being "out in the sun" whereas about twenty students at school said something. Oh well. God's keeping me humble. And it's a good teachable moment on the wonders of sunscreen.
Friday, September 5, 2014
Bookends of Drama
My school day was bookended with drama today...
We'll start with the end of the day because it was less traumatic (for me). One of the 5th graders brought a butterfly enclosure to school today. In it was a monarch chrysalis that was about to hatch (you can tell because the chrysalis becomes clear). All day we waited for this butterfly to pop out. And then while we were stapling our church year chain together... it hatched! I raced to grab my camera. The student named the butterfly Queen Immanuel, since she hatched at our school.
Well that was all fine and good. Everyone wanted to know when this kid would release it. I think he ended up doing it right before going onto the bus. I'm a little hazy on those details.
Anyway, as my class marched out to the bus, Mr. E stopped me to talk about the new volleyball nets (The principal from MLHS drove up to our school this afternoon to drop off a bunch of their old volleyball nets and poles and stuff... his car was a super fancy blue classic car... I couldn't tell you what model it was. But it captured the attention of my entire class when he pulled up). So while I was talking with Mr. E, the buses were waved off. Annnnnd left one of my students behind. She was off watching the butterflies and didn't get on the bus like she was supposed to. Oh the poor girl was bawling her eyes out! We didn't have a number for the bus driver. We couldn't catch up to him. So we called her mom... who told us it would be 45 minutes before they could get to school to pick her up. *Wince* As soon as we made the plan to call the parents, this student calmed down and stopped crying. She got her homework done in the room and read some books, so it was time well-spent. But I bet she'll never dink around off the bus ever again! One of those tough life lessons you have to learn from experience.
Other non-traumatic events today: Reading Buddies with the 1st and 2nd graders went well. Lots of loud reading going on, but everyone had a great time! The church year chain is hanging up in our room. I love the bright colors! More books were added to our library today (I found some good ones for sale at the library yesterday). And everyone did well on their spelling tests and memory work! We "officially" found out two of my students' moms are pregnant (rumors had been floating around). The 5th grade girls and I had fun weeding the prairie garden during noon recess. We only pulled out a few of the prairie plants...
Okay, I guess I'm ready to talk about the morning's trauma. I walked into school and found that all my computers had been moved. Instead of being in nice back-to-back stations, they are now ALL SIDE BY SIDE! I HATE computers side by side. The students are way too distracted by what their neighbors are doing, plus there's less room to write/be in groups, and they can see each others' screens! I have a bunch of other reasons. The worst part is, the IT guys didn't even call me to ask if I wanted them like that! They did it in the dead of night and called Mr. E over to ask him about it. He was noncommittal and didn't say whether I'd like it one way or the other. Oh I wish they would've called me!!! They thought because I moved the coat hooks out into the ball room that I was making more space for computers! I had asked if we could get a few more, maybe even some laptops; the IT guys shot me down on those. So. They took the two unrelated events of me asking for more computers and me moving the coat hooks out of the classroom to mean that I wanted more computers all put in one row against the wall. They put in sturdy tables attached to the wall and added pipe for the cords. All I know is it looks really permanent. And I want them to change it back. They even took down some of my decorations!!! (okay, so it was just one big decoration, but still).
I was literally shaking with anger this morning. I had to take more deep breaths than I could count before I was ready to even see another teacher, let alone talk to them. I thought about emailing the IT guys right away, but I put myself into a timeout. I'm feeling more calm about it now, although even writing about it is starting to get me worked up. Sigh. The 6th graders had computer time today and they were WAY chattier than usual. And there was more arguing. Proof side-by-side computers are not a good fit for our classroom. I just want it to go back to the way it was! And I'm scared the IT guys aren't going to do it.
We'll start with the end of the day because it was less traumatic (for me). One of the 5th graders brought a butterfly enclosure to school today. In it was a monarch chrysalis that was about to hatch (you can tell because the chrysalis becomes clear). All day we waited for this butterfly to pop out. And then while we were stapling our church year chain together... it hatched! I raced to grab my camera. The student named the butterfly Queen Immanuel, since she hatched at our school.
Well that was all fine and good. Everyone wanted to know when this kid would release it. I think he ended up doing it right before going onto the bus. I'm a little hazy on those details. Anyway, as my class marched out to the bus, Mr. E stopped me to talk about the new volleyball nets (The principal from MLHS drove up to our school this afternoon to drop off a bunch of their old volleyball nets and poles and stuff... his car was a super fancy blue classic car... I couldn't tell you what model it was. But it captured the attention of my entire class when he pulled up). So while I was talking with Mr. E, the buses were waved off. Annnnnd left one of my students behind. She was off watching the butterflies and didn't get on the bus like she was supposed to. Oh the poor girl was bawling her eyes out! We didn't have a number for the bus driver. We couldn't catch up to him. So we called her mom... who told us it would be 45 minutes before they could get to school to pick her up. *Wince* As soon as we made the plan to call the parents, this student calmed down and stopped crying. She got her homework done in the room and read some books, so it was time well-spent. But I bet she'll never dink around off the bus ever again! One of those tough life lessons you have to learn from experience.
Other non-traumatic events today: Reading Buddies with the 1st and 2nd graders went well. Lots of loud reading going on, but everyone had a great time! The church year chain is hanging up in our room. I love the bright colors! More books were added to our library today (I found some good ones for sale at the library yesterday). And everyone did well on their spelling tests and memory work! We "officially" found out two of my students' moms are pregnant (rumors had been floating around). The 5th grade girls and I had fun weeding the prairie garden during noon recess. We only pulled out a few of the prairie plants...
Okay, I guess I'm ready to talk about the morning's trauma. I walked into school and found that all my computers had been moved. Instead of being in nice back-to-back stations, they are now ALL SIDE BY SIDE! I HATE computers side by side. The students are way too distracted by what their neighbors are doing, plus there's less room to write/be in groups, and they can see each others' screens! I have a bunch of other reasons. The worst part is, the IT guys didn't even call me to ask if I wanted them like that! They did it in the dead of night and called Mr. E over to ask him about it. He was noncommittal and didn't say whether I'd like it one way or the other. Oh I wish they would've called me!!! They thought because I moved the coat hooks out into the ball room that I was making more space for computers! I had asked if we could get a few more, maybe even some laptops; the IT guys shot me down on those. So. They took the two unrelated events of me asking for more computers and me moving the coat hooks out of the classroom to mean that I wanted more computers all put in one row against the wall. They put in sturdy tables attached to the wall and added pipe for the cords. All I know is it looks really permanent. And I want them to change it back. They even took down some of my decorations!!! (okay, so it was just one big decoration, but still).
I was literally shaking with anger this morning. I had to take more deep breaths than I could count before I was ready to even see another teacher, let alone talk to them. I thought about emailing the IT guys right away, but I put myself into a timeout. I'm feeling more calm about it now, although even writing about it is starting to get me worked up. Sigh. The 6th graders had computer time today and they were WAY chattier than usual. And there was more arguing. Proof side-by-side computers are not a good fit for our classroom. I just want it to go back to the way it was! And I'm scared the IT guys aren't going to do it.
Thursday, September 4, 2014
What a bunch of crabs!
Sigh, unfortunately, that's probably what someone walking into our classroom would've said about our class today. We need a weekend.
The day started out fine. Except my external harddrive decided it didn't want to be read by the computer, so I had to unplug it and plug it into my laptop (which still didn't read it) and then replug it back into my desktop computer. That time the harddrive opened and I could access my files. I don't want it to die! I backed everything up on my laptop (and then put some important files on another flashdrive). I'm hoping that maybe it's the cord and the harddrive itself is okay. Another question for the IT guys... who aren't good at answering questions in a timely manner. And another sigh.
Today was the first day I let my students pick which Daily 5 round they want to do: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Word Work, or Work on Writing. Somehow, the brother sister pair ended up together for Read to Someone. No one else would switch. Once again, I decided they'd need to learn to get along sooner rather than later... so I forced them to read together. And problems happened. I spent a long time talking with them, helping them to get to a compromise (which wasn't really a very good compromise). Then I gave them a carrot, "If you read nicely with each other for five minutes, you can separate and join other groups." Well, they did it for a few minutes and then there was complaining. So another minute together was added onto the time. I felt bad because one of them was actually trying to get along and she was being punished when the other didn't cooperate.
Then in the afternoon, a student decided she wanted to be in control of her group looking up the Minnesota state symbols. And she wouldn't listen/do anything her group said. So I had to try to talk her into cooperating. Didn't happen so well. Eventually they figured something out and got their homework done. By that time, we had cut into recess time and didn't have a whole lot of time outside.
We played Eagle's Eggs in the slightly wet grass. It had mini-thunderstormed right before recess, but the grass was dry enough we could go out. And then there were accusations of cheating. And the teams being unfair. Oh how I hate making teams! If I would've been thinking ahead, we could've used the group generator to make teams. Next time. Next time.
After school, there was a staff meeting and a lecture on keeping safe from blood borne pathogens. And by the time the meeting was over it's 4:45 and another late night at school getting things together. I normally lesson plan for next week on Thursday nights, but I'm sorely tempted to say, "Eh, I'll do it tomorrow."
But let's not end on a bad note. Today was the first day of Bookmobile! I had some students check out a bunch of books and we got to see the new Bookmobile. Fancy shmancy inside! When I told one girl I didn't have a limit on how many books she could check out, she said, "Wow, 5th and 6th grade is the best class ever!" She checked out five books and two movies. The other good thing was at the end of the day. I told my class it was my brother's 17th birthday today, so one of the 6th graders thought we should call him and sing to him. So we did. We left a message on his phone. After our faculty meeting was over, I saw I had a missed call from him. He must've gotten our message. :)
The day started out fine. Except my external harddrive decided it didn't want to be read by the computer, so I had to unplug it and plug it into my laptop (which still didn't read it) and then replug it back into my desktop computer. That time the harddrive opened and I could access my files. I don't want it to die! I backed everything up on my laptop (and then put some important files on another flashdrive). I'm hoping that maybe it's the cord and the harddrive itself is okay. Another question for the IT guys... who aren't good at answering questions in a timely manner. And another sigh.
Today was the first day I let my students pick which Daily 5 round they want to do: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Word Work, or Work on Writing. Somehow, the brother sister pair ended up together for Read to Someone. No one else would switch. Once again, I decided they'd need to learn to get along sooner rather than later... so I forced them to read together. And problems happened. I spent a long time talking with them, helping them to get to a compromise (which wasn't really a very good compromise). Then I gave them a carrot, "If you read nicely with each other for five minutes, you can separate and join other groups." Well, they did it for a few minutes and then there was complaining. So another minute together was added onto the time. I felt bad because one of them was actually trying to get along and she was being punished when the other didn't cooperate.
Then in the afternoon, a student decided she wanted to be in control of her group looking up the Minnesota state symbols. And she wouldn't listen/do anything her group said. So I had to try to talk her into cooperating. Didn't happen so well. Eventually they figured something out and got their homework done. By that time, we had cut into recess time and didn't have a whole lot of time outside.
We played Eagle's Eggs in the slightly wet grass. It had mini-thunderstormed right before recess, but the grass was dry enough we could go out. And then there were accusations of cheating. And the teams being unfair. Oh how I hate making teams! If I would've been thinking ahead, we could've used the group generator to make teams. Next time. Next time.
After school, there was a staff meeting and a lecture on keeping safe from blood borne pathogens. And by the time the meeting was over it's 4:45 and another late night at school getting things together. I normally lesson plan for next week on Thursday nights, but I'm sorely tempted to say, "Eh, I'll do it tomorrow."
But let's not end on a bad note. Today was the first day of Bookmobile! I had some students check out a bunch of books and we got to see the new Bookmobile. Fancy shmancy inside! When I told one girl I didn't have a limit on how many books she could check out, she said, "Wow, 5th and 6th grade is the best class ever!" She checked out five books and two movies. The other good thing was at the end of the day. I told my class it was my brother's 17th birthday today, so one of the 6th graders thought we should call him and sing to him. So we did. We left a message on his phone. After our faculty meeting was over, I saw I had a missed call from him. He must've gotten our message. :)
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
So much for volleyball...
I needed to be in two places at once after school today. We had volleyball practice and I also had an IEP meeting for two students at Nicollet. Since I'm a co-volleyball coach, the IEP meeting took the priority. The poor little 3rd grade girls! When I told them I was only going to be at practice for a little bit since I had to go to a meeting, their eyes got huge and they looked worried. One asked, "Are you ever coming back?" My intention was to only stay at the meeting until 3:30 so I'd get back for half the practice... well, there wasn't really a good time for me to step out of the meeting. It got over at about 4:00, right as practice was over. By the time we got back to school, everyone from volleyball was gone.
Speaking about volleyball... our sand volleyball team won all six of our games last night. Woohoo! Nothing like finishing the season strong. The tournament is this Saturday. And it seems like a lot of our team isn't going to show up. So we might be done pretty early. We'll see.
I got an interesting phone call earlier today. It was a semi-truck driver who was going to deliver our volleyball nets. We're installing the kind that stick in a hole in the gym floor so all we have to do is stick the poles in and ratchet the net tight. The driver said he'd be coming around noon today and wanted to get directions. So I told him how to get to our school from Mankato (the direction he said he'd be coming from). Closer to noon, he called Mr. E and said he was in St. Peter and he'd see us in a half an hour. And then he never showed up. Did he get lost? Did his truck break down? No one knows.
Today the plan was to have the 5th and 6th graders work on their Internet Sources project... but the computers weren't working this morning. Black screens all across the board. I called the IT guys; no answer. Mr. D created a support ticket on the website; no response. Mr. E sent them a text bomb (lots of texts all at once so your phone goes crazy). Still nothing. 1:30pm. I call one more time before trying to scrounge up a back-up plan if we don't have computers... no answer. Then I get the news from a 6th grader, "Hey! The computers are working again!" Woohoo! Praise the Lord! So we did get on the computers after all. And they had a lot of fun looking up the sites I listed. They're excited to look up more information about the symbols of Minnesota. I still haven't decided if we'll do research tomorrow and then share, or if I'll teach them a science lesson... hmm. It's very tempting; one less lesson to plan for tomorrow...
Speaking about volleyball... our sand volleyball team won all six of our games last night. Woohoo! Nothing like finishing the season strong. The tournament is this Saturday. And it seems like a lot of our team isn't going to show up. So we might be done pretty early. We'll see.
I got an interesting phone call earlier today. It was a semi-truck driver who was going to deliver our volleyball nets. We're installing the kind that stick in a hole in the gym floor so all we have to do is stick the poles in and ratchet the net tight. The driver said he'd be coming around noon today and wanted to get directions. So I told him how to get to our school from Mankato (the direction he said he'd be coming from). Closer to noon, he called Mr. E and said he was in St. Peter and he'd see us in a half an hour. And then he never showed up. Did he get lost? Did his truck break down? No one knows.
Today the plan was to have the 5th and 6th graders work on their Internet Sources project... but the computers weren't working this morning. Black screens all across the board. I called the IT guys; no answer. Mr. D created a support ticket on the website; no response. Mr. E sent them a text bomb (lots of texts all at once so your phone goes crazy). Still nothing. 1:30pm. I call one more time before trying to scrounge up a back-up plan if we don't have computers... no answer. Then I get the news from a 6th grader, "Hey! The computers are working again!" Woohoo! Praise the Lord! So we did get on the computers after all. And they had a lot of fun looking up the sites I listed. They're excited to look up more information about the symbols of Minnesota. I still haven't decided if we'll do research tomorrow and then share, or if I'll teach them a science lesson... hmm. It's very tempting; one less lesson to plan for tomorrow...
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus!
We went on some interesting tangents today. The creation story is still our focus in religion (today was the fall into sin). One of the verses had a footnote about the meaning of Eve's name, which jogged one of the 6th graders' memories about the baby name book we have on the shelf. He went and got it so he could look up his name and then everybody else wanted to look up their names too. A lot of them claimed they couldn't find their names in the book... they didn't realize all the girl names were in the front and the boy names were in the back.
I shared the book "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick" with the class today too. This guy, Harris Burdick, brought a bunch of pictures to a publisher and said he had stories to go along with each one. The publisher said he should bring the stories the next day. Well, the next day, Harris Burdick didn't show up. And he didn't come the next day or the next. The publisher looked for him, but never found Harris Burdick again. The pictures came with a caption and the title of the story, and each is rather mysterious. So years later, they finally put a book together with the pictures. I'm hoping to add a copy of the book to my class library. Maybe my class will be inspired to write stories to go with the pictures!
This afternoon our focus was on evaluating internet sources. I went over some guidelines on what to look for/questions to ask about the source to see if it's truthful or not. Then I gave the 8th graders a website they were supposed to test if the information was true. Here's the site I gave them: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ We didn't have a whole lot of time to do research. Overall, the boys believed it was true, and the girls found information that proved it was false. I think I'm going to have the boys add to their notes. Their assignment was to look up information about the Principality of Sealand. (Here's a link to a neat website about it: http://www.sealandgov.org/) So, real or not real?
The 5th and 6th graders did nearly the same thing. I decided to use the Tree Octopus website as an example. I think I talked too much; some looked like they were glazing over a bit. I should've just turned them loose to check out the website for themselves. Oh well, live and learn. They were pretty excited coming up with the symbols of Minnesota. They're going to research how our state chose those symbols tomorrow. State bird: loon. State flower: lady slipper. State fish: walleye. State food: morel mushroom. State dessert: blueberry muffin. State butterfly: monarch. State tree: red pine. State gem: agate.
The last thing we did today was play Silly Soccer for recess. Three cones are set up in a big triangle. The class is separated into groups of three. The goal is to keep the ball from hitting your team's cone and get the ball to hit the other two cones. It was pretty fun! Except when everybody ganged up on the green cone team. We were going to stop halfway through and switch up the teams, but I kind of forgot. And then when I did remember, there was only five minutes left. A lot of them said it was the high point of their day and they want to play it again.
Now I'm finishing up a few things at school and then heading home to regroup before sand volleyball tonight. Tonight is our last time playing before the tournament this weekend. We have a doubleheader with games at 7:30 and 8:30.
I shared the book "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick" with the class today too. This guy, Harris Burdick, brought a bunch of pictures to a publisher and said he had stories to go along with each one. The publisher said he should bring the stories the next day. Well, the next day, Harris Burdick didn't show up. And he didn't come the next day or the next. The publisher looked for him, but never found Harris Burdick again. The pictures came with a caption and the title of the story, and each is rather mysterious. So years later, they finally put a book together with the pictures. I'm hoping to add a copy of the book to my class library. Maybe my class will be inspired to write stories to go with the pictures!
This afternoon our focus was on evaluating internet sources. I went over some guidelines on what to look for/questions to ask about the source to see if it's truthful or not. Then I gave the 8th graders a website they were supposed to test if the information was true. Here's the site I gave them: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ We didn't have a whole lot of time to do research. Overall, the boys believed it was true, and the girls found information that proved it was false. I think I'm going to have the boys add to their notes. Their assignment was to look up information about the Principality of Sealand. (Here's a link to a neat website about it: http://www.sealandgov.org/) So, real or not real?
The 5th and 6th graders did nearly the same thing. I decided to use the Tree Octopus website as an example. I think I talked too much; some looked like they were glazing over a bit. I should've just turned them loose to check out the website for themselves. Oh well, live and learn. They were pretty excited coming up with the symbols of Minnesota. They're going to research how our state chose those symbols tomorrow. State bird: loon. State flower: lady slipper. State fish: walleye. State food: morel mushroom. State dessert: blueberry muffin. State butterfly: monarch. State tree: red pine. State gem: agate.
The last thing we did today was play Silly Soccer for recess. Three cones are set up in a big triangle. The class is separated into groups of three. The goal is to keep the ball from hitting your team's cone and get the ball to hit the other two cones. It was pretty fun! Except when everybody ganged up on the green cone team. We were going to stop halfway through and switch up the teams, but I kind of forgot. And then when I did remember, there was only five minutes left. A lot of them said it was the high point of their day and they want to play it again.
Now I'm finishing up a few things at school and then heading home to regroup before sand volleyball tonight. Tonight is our last time playing before the tournament this weekend. We have a doubleheader with games at 7:30 and 8:30.
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