Ozone Depletion

I'm pretty sure another layer of the ozone got taken off today...


The hairspray booth was the most popular area of the Fall Carnival hosted by my 5th and 6th grade class.  The girls were spraying it on so thick, you could see the spray in the air.  Another girl was doing fingernail polish right next to them.  Can you say pungent?


I dressed up as a Barbie: high pony tail (the 1st and 2nd grade girls said I should put it in a bun because that looked more like Barbie), obnoxiously pink floral shirt, skinny jeans, and very high floral heels.  Someone took a picture... but I'm having trouble uploading it on this site. 






We didn't do a whole lot else with our day.  Religion, memory work, catch up on late work... (end of the quarter today).  Reading buddies, carnival for the preschoolers, pass out Book Genre BINGO prizes for the quarter, lunch, recess, Telephone Pictionary (it took them a while to figure out how to do it), and the Fall Carnival for the rest of the school for the rest of the day.


I had wanted to get more of my grades for this quarter finished, but that didn't end up happening.  I guess I'll just have to do them this weekend!  A few of my kids wanted to know if I'd be home for trick-or-treating.  Another girl asked where I was going trick-or-treating.  Tonight I'm heading in to Mankato to hang out with a college friend.  Then tomorrow we're heading up to Clarissa, MN to spend the day with another college friend.  Back to Mankato early evening-ish and I'll drive down to Fulda for the rest of the weekend.  Lots of driving, but we get Monday off to work on our grade reports. 

Nightmare

Last night I had a dream that one of my students wouldn't stop talking.  And then she followed me around (still talking) and I couldn't get her to leave.  What an awful way to wake up! 


Pottery last night was good.  I finished a mug I've been working on the past few weeks (waiting for it to get leather hard so I could carve into it).  Mary, a sheep, the manger, and baby Jesus are also completed, although I'm not too sure about my sheep... it kind of looks like a llama. 


All the movies I ordered came in at the library yesterday, so I have five movies to watch while I correct papers.  Probably won't get to all of them, but I should make a dent in it tonight. 


School was average today.  Nothing too exciting happened.  We prepped some more for the Fall Carnival tomorrow.  The 8th grade boys brought in a desk for our new student.  The only desk they could find is teeny tiny and too small for the new kid.  I was going to see if another teacher wanted to switch out a desk, but when my students saw it, about five of them immediately volunteered to switch desks so they could take the mini one.  We drew sticks. 


The new student and his mom stopped by after school today to drop off his stuff.  He had a lot of questions about how much homework he'll have and how much recess he gets.  Strangely, many of his questions were about raising his hand (when do you have to raise your hands, if it's okay to help others if they're stuck, if there's ever any times I'm out of the classroom...).  They stayed for about an hour and a half.  Good for answering questions/feeling comfortable about the switch... not so good for Miss H getting her lesson plans done.  Another late night at school. 


Thankfully, I have everything finished up now.  My bags are packed and I just need to grab my report cards... maybe I'll get a little more done on them at home tonight.

Ketchup Day

I tried to make a joke with my class today.  They didn't get it.


In English we've been doing so many prep things for our NaNo stories that they've fallen a little behind, so I gave them a day to catch up (on spelling and handwriting too).  I tried to be clever and call it a "ketchup" day... but only one or two people got it.  And then they tried to explain it to the kids who didn't get it... and those kids were still confused.  So yeah.  That was my day.


I told the class about our new student.  My kids reminded me all the things we needed to get ready for him: a banana on the Helper of the Day rotation, a coat hook label, a desk, books, a tiger for our welcome board, etc.  I printed a bunch of things to give him when he stops by on Thursday.  I'm also thinking about giving him some NaNo homework so he's not completely thrown under the bus November 4th.


This morning I realized that I should've started the year teaching chemistry instead of starting with physics.  The physics lesson we're supposed to learn next builds on concepts taught in the chemistry book.  So I guess we're switching to chemistry now and we'll pick up with physics after we finish up that book.  Kind of throws a wrench in my plans, but at least I found out about it now.  I had been planning to do another science lesson this week, but with a new student starting next week, I might just do a history lesson so he doesn't miss out on our first chemistry day.


Well, I have pottery tonight, so I'm going to keep this short and end here. 

96 Tears

Okay, my class didn't cry exactly 96 tears... actually, who knows?  Maybe they did.  There were quite a few today, mostly for no reason at all.  Three out of four girls in my class cried (one cried multiple times, but I'm counting her once).


One girl cried because people were being mean to her and laughing at her (true? possibly, but not enough to cry over).


Another girl cried because "everyone" was going for her during the tap game and weren't going for anyone else.  This same girl cried at lunchtime because while she was in the kitchen heating up her cold lunch, one of the boys switched chairs.  He didn't touch her stuff!  He just traded her blue chair for a folding chair.  And apparently they did it yesterday too.  So she moved her stuff to a different place that had a blue chair, but still cried about it, and I guess the boys were laughing at her.  Lovely, just what I want to deal with as I eat my lunch.


Then during our science lab, the third girl cried because she wasn't paying attention or didn't hear what I was saying to their group and I said if they didn't know, they should ask the other people in their group.  And the only boy who'd been paying attention was being mean about it.  And then the other 5th grade boys started laughing at her for crying.  So before we had recess, I had to talk to the boys about ignoring their classmates when they're crying (unless it's to ask if they're okay).  I think I got through to them, but who knows?  We'll find out tomorrow I guess.


In other news, our Skype session with my friend Chelsea in Chile went well.  The technology was a bit spotty as per usual, but we managed.


After school today, I found out I'll be getting a new 6th grade boy next Tuesday.  He and his mom are stopping by after school Thursday to drop off his stuff.  He's not entirely a surprise; his mom's been in contact with us since last year about him switching to our school. 


My kids are still super excited about their NaNo stories.  We invented a villain today: Leif Winterchief.  He always takes the loot and the glory away from Ivan when Ivan wins a battle.  His weaknesses are small furry things and flowers, plus something happens when you touch the back of his neck.  His arms fall off? He breaks out in hives? He falls asleep for 100 years?  We haven't decided yet (but those are all things my students think should happen).  I told them my sister who is a writer might come visit our classroom in November to write with us and there was a rousing cry of, "YEAH!!!!"  And now they want her to stay the whole day.  We'll see what happens.

It's a Monday

This morning I walked through the gym in the dark to turn on the lights and I saw a ball on the ground.  Thinking it was a foam ball, I kicked it out of the way.  It was a softball, which truly isn't very soft.


Three of my kids spent the day talking as loud as possible, even when asked to "use inside voices".   Two had headaches, which the loud talking only made worse. 


One kid went home sick.  In the morning he kept rubbing his chest and said it was hard to breathe.  His classmate commented she could hear rattling in his chest.  He toughed it out until English... One minute he was sitting up normally, the next he was doubled over.  A little freaked out, I asked him if he was okay.  No response.  I touched his shoulder.  Still nothing.  Internally panicking, thinking maybe he was passed out, I asked once more.  This time, he rolled his head up and nodded yes, followed by actual words.  Yikes!  We called his mom from the classroom (I didn't trust that he'd make it to the office) and she sent someone to pick him up.  I hope he's okay!


The same girl with the bad headache fell off the monkey bars at recess and hit her head.  They were playing Green Boogers again and she slipped. 


At the end of the day, one of the 6th grade girls had an ice pack (for some reason... maybe she snitched it from one of the injured) and when my back was turned, she chucked it at the littlest kid in class!  It hit him where it counts and he was down for about five minutes.  Why? Just why?  She couldn't explain why she threw it.  I had no words for her.  I still don't.  What do you say to someone who randomly threw something at another person just because she felt like it?  Nothing.  No matter what you say, she's not going to care. 


This same person always dinks around on the way to math and PE.  She's always five minutes late to everything.  It's driving Mr. E up the wall!  And when he talks to her about it, she rolls her eyes at him like what he's saying doesn't apply to her.  We came up with a plan.  From now on, we're going to walk her down to the other person's classroom, holding her hand the whole time.  If she can't get to class on time on her own, she'll be treated like a kindergartner until she can.


Sigh. 


Good things about today: we started building characters for our NaNoWriMo stories.  Our class's main character is Ivan Stormcloud, a pekka (from Clash of Clans) who enjoys breaking things, picking flowers, and inventing things.  If he's had a tough day, chasing butterflies and eating oreos will make him happy.  My kids have come up with some really cool characters (many from Clash of Clans... they're a bit obsessed).  I'm excited to see what they'll do with them!

Camp Omega

We made it back, safe and sound!  And in time for the buses too... though most of my kids didn't want to drag their luggage aboard.  A lot of parents showed up to give rides home.


Back-up to yesterday... the drive over was extremely foggy.  We made good time and got checked into our cabin about 15 minutes earlier than scheduled.  Our first activity was a Bible Scavenger Hunt... look up Bible passages and figure out which thing in the verse should be on our list to find: stone, grass, weeds, flowers, feathers, flies, worms, seeds, sand, water, clay, etc.  We had the hardest time finding the feather, worm, and fruit.  On our way back to the Beta Center, we looked at the ground and saw a squished berry.  Our fruit!  Then we looked up and saw a tree filled with little berry fruits.  Right under our noses the whole time!  Two minutes before our time was up we found a feather.  We never did end up finding a worm; no one wanted to dig that much... one of the other groups told us they found theirs under a rock.  Why didn't we think of that?


The rest of the day we spent building our pop bottle rockets and doing archery and canoeing.  Half the group could shoot arrows at a time, so the half unoccupied entertained themselves by starting a leaf war.  They gathered as many leaves as they could and then threw them at the nearest person.  It ended up being war on one particular student, so I stepped in and told them not to just gang up on one person.  The ringleader got a wild look in his eye, "Okay!" and then he tossed his pile at me.  Pretty soon everyone was throwing leaves at me (some got me more than others).  Eh, why not?  So I got in on the war too.  A few students joined my side.  We did okay in the war.  But then a Benedict Arnold shoved a whole pile up the back of my sweatshirt and it was game over.


Canoeing was great!  Sunny and warm enough for short sleeves!  We paddled around the horseshoe and even sailed through some weeds.  It felt like we were voyageurs or native Americans on a canoe trip.  A canoe of boys challenged the 5th grade girls and me to a race back to shore... they were sure they were going to win.  And we smoked them.  The boys tried to say we cheated because I was in the canoe, but they had only two people and we had three to paddle around, so I'd say it was pretty much an even race.


The pop bottle rockets were sweet!  My kids didn't listen very much to the instructions on being conservative with the duct tape... After supper, we shot them off across the soccer field.  Two boys' rockets flew so far they went into the woods!  Aaron (the DCE/our leader) said those two were the best rockets he's seen all year.  Woohoo! 


Right as we were getting ready to pray for supper, Bob came in and told us to come outside.  It was time for the partial solar eclipse!  We passed around welding helmets and got to see part of the sun get covered up.  Without the helmets, the sun didn't look much different.  My students wanted me to take a picture of it through the helmet.  Eh, it turned out okay.  It only makes sense if you know what you're looking at.


Behavior was pretty much the same as in school, but a lot more hyper and energetic.  My students discovered the game "Gaga Ball" and played it pretty much whenever we had free time.  I think our next piece of playground equipment should be a Gaga Ball pit.  The objective is to keep the ball from touching you below your knees.  You can hit the ball with any other body part, but you can't scoop it up and throw it at someone (we mostly punched it with our fists).  There was some pretty fancy footwork involved!  The only other rule is that you can't lift yourself onto the walls to escape a ball (and no alliances or ganging up on specific people). 


After shooting the rockets, it was time for another round of Gaga Ball... in the dark.  Everyone lined their flashlights under the edges of the pit and the chaperones and I held a few so we could referee.  Our day ended with a campfire and a few chapters of our read-aloud book. 


Everyone was in bed and "quiet" by about 10:00.  It felt like I had just fallen asleep when there came a tapping sound at our door.  Was it my imagination?  Nope, the tapping continued.  Was it a boy trying to trick us by tapping on the connecting door?  The tapping came again.  Was it one of the girls knocking on her bunk?  Should I get up and find out?  Once more with the tapping.


It was our male chaperone with one of my students who didn't feel well.  He wanted to call his mom to come pick him up... at 11:00pm.  He said his stomach felt fine, he just didn't feel well.  Deep down I figured it was probably just homesickness, but I said he could call his mom.  The student was still here in the morning, so I'm guessing his mom convinced him to tough it out a little longer.


Today was spent building fires and shelters in the woods.  And playing Gaga Ball, of course.  I could barely drag them away from the pit to go to breakfast.  Yes, they were up by 7:00 and wanting to play by the light of the rising sun.  I'd been up to disperse medicine to appropriate students (I felt like a walking pharmacy), so I volunteered to supervise them. 


After shelter building, we ate our last meal, loaded up our vehicles, and played one last round of gaga before we left.  In my car, one of the girls absolutely refused to sit in the middle.  She wanted to sit on the edge.  Of course, she was the smallest one so it would make sense for her to sit in the middle... after about five minutes of stubbornness, she gave in and sat in the middle.  We made it back to school without any catastrophes. (I got mixed up a bit and almost turned the wrong way a few times... good thing the girl sitting in front knew the way and could tell me to go the other way).


Now time for a relaxing weekend without anyone tattling or screaming or yelling or spraying cologne or airing out stinky feet or...

PS from yesterday

Well, we're off to Camp Omega!  The weather should be gorgeous... in the 70s both days. 


I forgot my packing list at school, so I hope I have everything.  I did remember a flashlight!  Last year no one brought any and we had to feel our way through the dark to the campfire.


One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was about the teachers from other schools.  They sat there correcting papers the whole time!  Granted, I didn't see all the teachers all the time, but the teachers I did see, I wasn't impressed with.  A whole group of them camped out at a table in the corner of the gym and sat there the whole day.  Even the teacher in the small group with me sat on a chair in the corner of the room and didn't interact with the class at all.  When we did activities in the gym, most teachers sat on the bleachers and watched from afar!  What's up with that???  Don't they want to see what their kids are doing?  What they're learning?  I think our everybody needs some electroshock therapy or something.

Energy... lots of Energy...

We survived day one of field trips! 


The Energy Day at MLHS was pretty good.  I saw all three of my cousins that go to school in Northrup.  Lunch from McDonald's was tasty. 


Our school was split up into sectionals by grades; I tagged along with the 6th graders.  We played with toys to figure out what kind of energy was stored and what kind of work it did.  Then we made windmills that could lift a paper cup filled with washers.  Pretty cool.  The 6th graders weren't too impressed.


The 5th graders did an experiment involving dropping a ball from a certain height and counting the seeds that fell out of the dish (to see how much energy had been used).  They thought our windmills were the coolest (Can we make some?  Do we get to do that?). 


The 8th graders said their speaker was the most boring thing ever, but their experiment was kind of fun.  They built a mini-engine with a pop bottle.  Then they did something with static electricity.  Whatever it was, the end result looked pretty cool.


After lunch we played games with the high schoolers: ninja, poison dart frog, and another game that had to do with colors and jumping and flopping on the ground.  I'd heard of the first two games before, but that last one was new to me.  Everyone starts out lying on the floor.  The people in the middle pick a color (yellow) and call out random words.  If the people lying on the floor get up or move when the middle people didn't say yellow, they're out.  When they do finally call yellow, you get to your feet, put your hands in a shark fin above your head, and hope you're not the last person.  If you are last, you're out.


A teacher from MLHS did a session to wrap up the whole day.  He had one of those static ball things that make your hair stand on end.  He put on a mini-play thing involving Star Wars, gas to make your voice deeper, static electricity/pie tins/popcorn kernels, and a light bulb that lit up like a light saber when you touched it to the ball.  My students thought he was going to shatter the bulb on them. 


We made it back to school with plenty of time for recess.  The dads supervised with Mrs. E while I helped a 5th grader make up her late science lab. 


Now I need to book it back to Courtland to deposit our last Camp Omega checks before the bank closes! 

Picture Day

Words I never thought I'd hear, "Miss H, can I go put on my tux?"


Yep.  This morning, one of the 5th grade boys waltzed into the classroom and made that profound announcement.  He even had a tie and a vest.  Pretty shnazzy.  Lots of my students wore plaid button-up shirts... over their regular t-shirts.  After pictures they'd unbutton them in a clean getaway of the dress-up clothes.


Picture day brought a whole bunch of drama.  The 3rd and 4th graders never got envelopes (or else the brothers/sisters of my students are very forgetful), so parents wrote one check and put it in one student's envelope.  The other students needed an envelope to write their package number down... scavenger hunt through the classrooms!  Mr. E had a box full, so we were all good there.  One mom called before school started to confess her son left his envelope at home.  She gave me the info so I could fill out a new form for him.  She paid online too, so we didn't even have to worry about the money!  Another student brought his envelope back... but no check.  After calling mom, she called Lifetouch and paid over the phone.  I hope he marked his sheet right!


The two boys who fought yesterday were definitely making an attempt to be nicer to each other.  One of their classmates commented, "Man, [the students] were the nicest I've ever seen them.  [student] even gave him a complement!"  It was very nice not to be on police duty all day.


Only three students didn't bring their money for Camp Omega.  Two kids have parents chaperoning our field trip tomorrow, so I can get the money then.  Not too bad!  Now I just have to find time to go to the bank in town before it closes...

Fight! Fight!

Ugh, today was a doozy.  There must be a storm coming or something... Joe buried himself and my three tricky kids were very, let's just say sensitive today.  Every little thing was bugging them.  Someone was zipping his jacket zipper too loudly.  Then he was fiddling with the zipper pull.  Then he was scratching his desk on purpose and making faces.  All morning.  I'd put out one fire and then another would pop back up. 


The 8th graders were gone to MVL for an all-day visit, so no math today!  Everyone was glad for a break from it.  We did art and bells to fill the time.  Our latest project is to "draw" with glue on black paper.  Then we'll use oil pastels to fill in the foreground with cool colors and the background with warm colors.  My class is pretty excited. 


I originally planned to pick a totally new song for the 5-6th graders to play during bells today, but then I thought, "The 6-8th graders already have their music marked and noted... so why spend time doing that if there's already a song marked!"  It went okay.  I'd like to spend more time with the 5th graders reviewing how to read music; they got lost pretty easy.  Some of them play bells at their church (Redeemer) and those students picked up on it pretty quick.  The 6th graders (already familiar with this song) switched it up and played other people's parts.  We sounded horrible at first, but after four times through we were making less mistakes and I could actually hear the melody! 


Afternoon recess.  We went out a little earlier than usual (no PE today since the 8th graders were gone) to have recess with the K-4th graders for a change.  The kids raced outside way ahead of me... and before I even made it to the playground, the football boys had started their game.  A few seconds later, one of the 5th graders sprinted over to me yelling, "Miss H!  [student] is beating up [student]!  We can't get them off each other!"  I ran across the kickball diamond, nearly losing a shoe in the process, and by the time I made it to the football field their classmates had gotten them apart.  What a day for Mr. E to be gone.  I sent one to cool off in the office and the other to wait in Mr. E's room.  He didn't answer his cell phone, but I left a message.  Eventually, I got the kid from Mr. E's room and had him wait in our classroom while I worked (the other teachers said they'd watch my class outside).  The other kid was fine in the office. 


It turns out one kid said, "I'm going to beat up [student]."  And then he kicked the kid!  And scratched him and choked him.  The other kid threw him to the ground trying to get him off and that's why the first kid was crying when I found them. 


It makes me really nervous for Camp Omega...  I even gave the behavior spiel this morning.  "If there are any behavior problems at Camp Omega, I'm calling your parents and they will have to come pick you up, no matter what time it is.  And they will not be happy.  So let's all be on our best behavior."  For the first time, I'm actually worried I'm going to have to send someone home early.  But let's not borrow trouble.  Camp Omega is still three days away, time enough for us to turn it around.

It's a Jungle in Here!

Our first Skype session of the year was a success!  Last week my class decided to write fan mail to Stuart Gibbs (our class's favorite author this year), author of Belly Up, Poached, Spy School, Spy Camp and four other outstanding books.  They wanted him to come for a visit, but since that was waaay out of our price range, we set up a Skype session instead.  He got our letters yesterday (and said they were wonderful) so he was a little familiar with our class when we made the call. 


The IT guys actually called me last night to go over how to plug in my laptop so the class could see.  After much plugging and switching and turning things off and on, I figured out how to get the sound system to work... for some reason, my laptop screen wouldn't sync with the projector screen.  I got it to work early this morning with a shorter cord.  Later, I switched to a longer cord so the laptop webcam wasn't at a weird angle and that's when the projector wouldn't read my laptop.  It ended up being fine.  He could see and hear all of us; the kids were excited to hang out on the floor.  Of course they had a ton of questions to ask... Stuart was only scheduled to Skype for 20 minutes, but he said since we took the time to write to him, he could take time to talk with us.  What a great author!  We only went ten minutes over. 


He told us about his trips to Africa seeing elephants and rhinos and an attacking sloth.  His next book is called Big Game and will be out in almost exactly one year: October 13th, 2015 (it's about rhinos and poachers).  My class wants to Skype with him again... and send him their NaNo stories once they're finished.  Stuart was very impressed at our November noveling plans.


It was also a day full of food.  I brought the brownies I made for the bake sale (but didn't bring because I was sick) to share with my class.  And everyone was ooing and ahhing over how good they were.  One kid said it was the best brownie he'd ever tasted.  I was a little surprised because I accidentally used too much cocoa and then added a bunch more sugar to make up for it... personally, I don't think they were my best batch, but when you're a fifth grader, your taste buds aren't too picky when it comes to dessert.


Shortly after passing out the brownies, a 3rd grader came in with a container of cookies.  Then another 3rd grader brought me a huge slice of angel food cake!  (Their class did "how-to" speeches and had leftovers they wanted to share).  I think I've reached my dessert quota for today!


Our day ended with a nature walk through the woods... which I missed because I had to stay inside with a student who didn't get her MN history project finished.  Partly my fault, I forgot to email what she had already typed to her mom last night.  But she had all morning and noon recess to work on it and still didn't get it finished.  Sigh. 


But.  Today is Wednesday.  Lutheran Educator's Conference is tomorrow (yay! no school Thursday or Friday!).  The book orders have been ordered.  My desk is cleaned off.  I am all set to go to pottery tonight.  And I found a place in Slayton where I can get arrows for my bow.  So my life is looking pretty good.  Thanks Lord!

Eye Goggles

What a windy day!  Of course, today is the day the tree chopper guy comes to school with his load of wood chips to put down in the prairie garden.  Being flexible is one of the cardinal rules of teaching, so instead of having bells today, the 6th and 8th graders and I grabbed buckets to disperse the pine wood chips.  The dust was really bad.  Everyone complained and complained until someone had the bright idea to get science goggles from the classroom.  Worked like a charm.  Now our pathway through the garden is covered with wood chips.


We finally dissected the chrysalis left in our butterfly habitat.  One of the 5th graders had found two monarch caterpillars in the prairie garden and stuck them in this habitat of his.  They both turned into chrysalises (very neat to watch).  But only one turned into a butterfly (a girl we released about a week ago).  So this morning I pulled out my dissecting tools and gloves and we cut that sucker open.  Much different than everyone was expecting.  My kids thought there'd be tons of blood.  Nope.  It was very dry and crispy.  We could see the silk (or maybe it was mold?) and a few crunchy parts, possibly the leftover legs or feet.  Who knows.  It looked kind of like a rock.  And everyone had so much fun watching me dissect it, now they want to dissect a full-grown pig or a frog or some other creature.  They'll have to wait for life science to do more of that. 


I need to head to the volleyball game.  Last one of the season!  (For those of you wondering, I'm feeling much better today.  I took it easy after school and went to bed early.  Now I'm up to about 95%.)

Another Day of Yuck

I stayed home sick from church yesterday.  Normally it wouldn't be that big a deal, but yesterday was the Joint Service at Redeemer where our kids join their kids and we all sing songs... and my class has a bake sale to raise money for Camp Omega.  So I called Mr. E and he said he'd talk to some parents about keeping an eye on the bake sale/collecting the money afterwards.  A parent dropped off the money this morning: $145.  Not too shabby!  I had planned to spend Sunday afternoon at school lesson planning; instead I sat on the couch and watched movies.  I tried reading a book, but gave up.  No fever, no throwing up, just an achy stomach. 


I did go to school today.  No appetite and a general overall tiredness, but I've survived so far.  Our last volleyball practice was supposed to be after school today, but the other coach called to see if we could cancel.  Our team played really well at Saturday's tournament (4th place) and we only have one game left (tomorrow, 5:00), so why not cancel?  I told the girls and surprise surprise, they actually wanted to have practice for once!  Too bad.  If I'd been feeling better, I probably would've just done practice myself.  Oh well.


This afternoon, as I waited in the hallway, one of the little kindergarten girls came out from the bathroom and told me, "I love your hairdo."  Another one of the kindergartners was so proud of himself!  He dumped his lunch tray and said to me, "Hi Mrs. B!" When I didn't respond, he tried again, this time waving, "Hi Mrs. B!"  Apparently, I look a lot like the 1st and 2nd grade teacher today.


This morning I walked in my classroom and found the desks all rearranged.  Instead of being in pods of four desks, the 5th grade desks were in two lines and the 6th grade pod was spread out.  Huh.  Mr. E said he saw a blue suburban outside my classroom last night at about 8:00.  Lights were on in my room, so he thought maybe it was someone from my family hanging out and didn't come over to check.  Once my kids arrived, they noticed one of the 5th graders who hadn't had a crate now had one (and his desk could actually close)... maybe it was him!  He arrived and told us the desks had been like that when he got to school.  After more detecting, we discovered one of the 6th graders dropped by Friday night at 10:00 and the desks were in their normal positions.  So.  The switcheroo had to have happened between 10:00 Friday and 7:00 Sunday.  We still don't know who did it.  Was it the janitor?  (but he's been vacuuming in our room since the beginning of the year and always puts the desks back normally).  Was it someone mad at our class/teacher, wanting to freak us out or mess with us?  (that was the 5th graders' idea)  It's still a mystery.

Scarecrows

Well, the end of the week was pretty crazy.  My kids were back to nitpicking again.  Yesterday's ride arrangement back from the soccer game resulted in an altercation involving a Gatorade bottle, an untwisted cap, and liquid splashed all over the inside of a fancy new vehicle.  Yeah.  Not good.  Mr. E chewed them out for about 45 minutes.  And it still didn't stick!  The two kids got into it again when they switched between 5th and 6th grade math.


The last hour of the day was spent filling old clothes with straw and attaching them to posts in the prairie garden.  Mrs. E had given each class a pillowcase earlier in the day to color for their heads.  At 1:30, we split into chapel groups and spread out to make the scarecrows.  And chaos ensued.  It turns out "chapel groups" aren't very well defined.  Kids didn't know which group to go to, or which post they should go to, or how to put the scarecrow together.  I forgot to bring a scissors out (and safety pins).  Mr. D was the only one to remember, so kids were clamoring for a turn with the scissors.  Then there were too many groups and not enough poles/clothes for each.  We had to mash groups together as best we could.  Next time, we need to be more organized.


Meanwhile, hearing and vision screening was going on in the gym.  Classes would traipse back into school to get checked out and then come back out to continue building.  Of course, the screening took way longer than planned.  Thankfully, all the teachers decided to have their classes go to recess at the end of the day, so after being screened, they could run outside and burn off some energy.


I finally got ahold of the IT guys.  I called them after school to tell them I was taking the computer tables down on Sunday; I didn't expect them to answer.  But I guess it's a good thing they did.  He seemed really freaked out at first, probably expecting me to yell at him or be mean or something.  I think we're on the same page now, (a little reluctantly on his end).  He still can't wrap his head around the fact that I don't want the computers in a row.  He kept saying, "In all the classrooms I've dealt with, the computers have been linear and they've worked just fine.  So I don't see how it doesn't work in your room.  I don't see why your room is different."  I'm sure he thinks I'm a horrible teacher with such awful classroom management skills that I can't keep kids quiet/focused while working on the computer next to each other. 


He went on to tell me that the counter tops had been scheduled to be put in the 5th and 6th grade room before I was hired as a teacher.  And then when I came and got the computer tables and put them back to back that wasn't really what the plan had been for my room (note: I didn't buy the computer tables myself; one of the school board members bought them for me so I could have the computers the way I wanted).  So really (in the IT guy's mind) I'm being unreasonable and I should just learn to live with the counter tops so that all the classrooms look the same and the counter tops can be used.  But, since he is so flexible and willing to please, he and his partner are going to take the counter tops down "sometime this week".  I'm really hoping they actually mean it this time.


Another irksome thing is that I called and emailed them multiple times about setting up a meeting and THEY NEVER GOT BACK TO ME.  Not even a "Sorry, none of those times work for us. How about this?"  They didn't even let me know they saw my message.  And then when I brought up all the times I tried to contact them, the guy I was talking to said he never saw my messages.  Huh. 


Anyway.  I think the air is cleared now.  The IT guys might not be happy; they're going to "sleep on it a fourth time" to try to come up with a better way to have the computers.  I don't think they're going to find it.  So now it's a waiting game once again.

Four Square

My kids were off the wall today!  Behavior-wise they were good... they just had trouble concentrating and using their "inside voices".


The main drama today came from finding rides to the soccer game after school in Faribault.  No volleyball, just soccer, so the driving pool was very limited.  Many phone calls later, everyone was squared away.


I taught my kids how to play four-square.  Only one had ever played before.  The worst part was drawing all the squares on the parking lot!  I wanted everyone to play the whole time, so I made three squares.  And then came the problem of which balls to use... There is a surprising lack of kickballs at ILS.  The one we use for kickball is really hard and doesn't bounce well; the other ones we have are foam.  But... God was watching out for us!  Some rubbery kickballs had been ordered and they arrived just in time for us to use them!  Just for fun, we did a quick mini-game of kickball before heading in, just long enough for everyone to kick the new ball.




This morning in English, we finished the calendar page activity we did a few days ago.  The girl who was sick yesterday was glad we didn't do it without her.  They worked in pairs to match up the writing they did earlier with the calendar pages I had taped on the board.  Most of them were pretty good!  Very vivid descriptions.  Of course, there were some that were pretty basic and simply listed everything they saw.  Overall, only a few got mixed around.


A hairy visitor dropped by today.  We were in the middle of Daily 5 rounds when one of the 6th grade girls screamed.  The boys close to her quickly gathered round and then began winding their way around the room as if they were following something.  And they were; a pretty big wolf spider.  Someone suggested squishing it.  Instead, I grabbed a cup and paper and trapped it, releasing it outside our classroom.  The cup was clear, so once it was contained, the class gathered round to look at the enormous spider up close.  It was pretty cool.  Though now that I think about it, maybe we should've kept him around to eat all the flies that have been getting into our classroom...


The bookmobile brought me a lovely gift: "The Blood of Olympus"!  For those of you who don't do Percy Jackson, this book is the last in the series "The Heroes of Olympus" (the second series involving Percy Jackson, written by Rick Riordan).  Too bad tonight is my correcting papers night! 


I got an email this morning from the volleyball people in Northrup.  One team dropped out of the tournament on Saturday, so now we play at 8:30 instead of 9:30.  None of the girls were happy about having to get up an hour earlier.  I hope the parents don't get too upset at the late notice.


My shopping trip to Walmart last night wasn't as successful as I'd hoped.  They had arrows. They had cheap arrows. Just not the kind I need for my bow.  Pottery was good too.  I was surprised how many people were there.  This class is definitely going to be a lot louder than the last one I took!  Four ladies who work together signed up for the class and they're a chatty bunch.  Then there's the grandmotherly lady and her daughter? daughter-in-law? friend?, and a college senior (or high school senior, it's hard to tell), a lady who was in my class last year (we sat by each other), a friend of the teacher, and a guy who's been doing wheel pottery for 45 years.  He showed a lot of the ladies how to throw clay.  I thought about going over, but there are some hand-building things I want to do first.


Well, that's enough for now!  It's about time I headed home to see how my kids did on their spelling this week.

Fire!

The fire fighters came today.  Not to put out a fire, though we did get to spray the fire hose.  It's Fire Prevention Week!


We passed our fire drill test; everyone made it out in time.  A fireman came to our class to talk about what to do during a fire.  Each year I think I've heard it all, yet somehow they find something new to tell us.  The first thing the fire department does when they come to a fire is to cut a hole in the roof for the smoke to leave; then they can usually tell where the fire is coming from.  Our speaker brought in a heat detector gun that shows the difference in heat in its surroundings.  So if there's a fire in the ceiling, they can aim it up there and detect where the most heat is.  Cool!


Outside, we toured two of the trucks.  I got some great pictures of my littlest students trying to fill the bulky firemen's jackets.  The firemen kept trying to get me to do stuff, "Do you want to try anything on?  Do you want a turn using the hose?  Do you have any questions?"  I did shoot off the hose; they cranked the pressure all the way up for me.


In MN history today, we learned about the voyageurs of the fur trade and their 40ft. long canoes.  That got my students all excited about canoeing at Camp Omega.  And then it reminded them of all the other times they went canoeing and something happened to them.  About 50 stories later (okay, I'm exaggerating) we finally got to the part about portaging canoes, something they found absolutely fascinating.  I was quite happy to answer their questions.


Pottery class is tonight.  I also have a list of things to pick up from Walmart, so I should probably get going sooner rather than later.  I wonder if Walmart has the kind of arrows I need.  In case you haven't heard this story, this summer (before I left for El Salvador), I placed an order at Scheel's for a recurve bow.  They didn't have the kind I needed in stock, so it had to be special ordered.  Three months later it finally came in.  And they didn't have any of the arrows I need, that is, unless I wanted to spend $50 for 6 of them.  Just for target practice? Not happening.  So we'll see what Walmart has in stock.

Smashing Bananas

Success!  The bananas were totally smashed by our hot wheel cars today. 


We used boards from my parent's house (thanks Ethan for cutting them for me!) as a ramp.  They were pretty dirty, so a few students brushed them off in the morning.  My students raised the ramp little by little and released a car each time, measuring how much the bananas were smashed each time.  This was to determine the gravitational potential energy of the car.  Those bananas were toast!  They got mushed and smashed and cracked in half.


Mrs. B, the pastor's wife, came over to help out during the lab.  It was great having another pair of eyes/hands to work with my questioning students.  Everyone finished their lab (though we only had five minutes for recess).  From what I could tell, they were making all the right connections between height of the board and the speed/amount of impact!  Woohoo!


Our fire drill this morning really woke some of my students up.  They knew it was coming, but that jarring sound is enough to make you fall out of your seat!  The weather wasn't as cold as yesterday, though we still shivered as we huddled around our safe place (second base).  One of the 6th graders hung her coat on the back of her chair so she'd have easy access to it when the alarm went off; smart girl.


For English, I did another lesson on descriptive writing.  Each student got a calendar page (they had to keep it a secret from their classmates).  Their task was to describe it so everyone else would be able to match the writing with the picture.  Tomorrow we'll hang the pictures on the board and they'll work with a partner to fit the writing with the picture. 


I figured out how to add information to my class page on our school's website.  So now parents can access the memory work and spelling words for the whole year!  No more students making excuses about forgetting those things at school!  I also put up some due dates and reminders about getting permission slips back to school.  Hopefully this works to keep everyone on the same page.


Well, I told myself I was going to be out of here by 5:00 today.  It's 5:15 so I best be on my way.

"It's like america, but south."

Another late night at school.  Volleyball games really suck the time away.  I had 3-6th grade girls hanging out in my room after school, and they all had stuff to say to me.  The games we played tonight were probably the worst we've played all season.  Very sluggish volleyball players on our team.  Then I took forever to make a powerpoint about the Northern South American countries for geography.  The countries are actually really interesting.  I think the 8th graders will be able to get some good project ideas from tomorrow's lesson.


This morning I printed midterm grades and got them stuck in mailboxes.  Of course, all my students wanted to know what grades they got... I made them wait until after school to look.  We also had VIP day (our version of Grandparents' Day).  Our VIPs came bright and early this morning and hung out in our classrooms for a while.  Religion for today was the story of Balaam... a few of the VIPs were actually leaning forward in their chairs (hopefully because they found it interesting).  We finished religion early and got to play Pictionary for a few minutes.  The pods became the teams: Monarchs, Gorillas, and Sea Hawks.  The Monarchs won by a landslide. 


At 9:00, we made our way to the gym for donuts and lemonade, the breakfast of champions.  Maisy the clown (Miss H and I met her at last year's teacher's conference) provided entertainment for the morning.  I was shocked by how many adults/students told me they're scared of clowns!  One VIP left early (I'm wondering if it's because he didn't want to stay for the clown...).


The 8th graders finished up their STEM project from Friday.  Their objective was to make bouncy balls using the following ingredients: glue, borax, corn starch, and baking soda.  They got 1/2 cup of each, a few toothpicks (for stirring), a spoon (for measuring), and cups (for mixing bowls).  It was amazing; they turned into scientists!  I heard them experimenting and changing things and making hypotheses (even if they didn't realize they were doing it).  Today they did the "bouncy" test to see which ones were the bounciest.  I had them figure out which recipe was the cheapest (based on "cost per tablespoon" amounts I put on the board).  They're supposed to make an advertisement for their product... Yolo Bounce is one group's, and the other is Bouncy Fun.  Both groups kind of came up with commercial jingles; I think I'll just count that as the advertisement.  They wanted to make more bouncy balls, so I made them use their own glue.  We added food coloring this time.  One group added some popcorn flavoring a student had in his desk.  They said it smelled like a pop tart. 


Anyway.  It's about time I get myself home.  Tomorrow we have a fire drill right away in the morning.  I hope it's warmer than this morning was!

Electronic Death

Today we mourn the passing of my external hard drive.  It's life was not long and its passing was sudden.


Yes, my external hard drive does not work at all now.  Last night I spent about an hour trying to get any documents that weren't on my laptop on my laptop.  The drive kept freezing and not being recognized.  So I'd plug it in and pray pray pray... and it would transfer files for a few minutes, then freeze again... and the cycle would repeat. 


Last night at school I had spent a good 45 minutes gathering information from websites so I could sort through/make a powerpoint on South America at home.  Guess where that information was saved.  On the dead external hard drive.  I thought I had saved it on my regular flash drive, but no.  It was a dark point in my evening.  But there wasn't anything I could do.


In the morning I corrected papers and typed up chaperone notes for our upcoming field trips.  And then I remembered that I had a student coming in to take a test at 7:30.  There went my quiet time to quick throw something together.  For some reason, I remained pretty calm about the whole thing.  I found a couple youtube videos about South America and some good pictures on Wikipedia, and that's what the 8th graders did in class.  The leftover time we spent studying the countries of South America. 


Our iodine experiment is working quite nicely.  After being in regular water overnight, the dark purple is now a light purple color and is definitely getting lighter.  I wonder how light it will turn?


My class dropped in numbers today.  One kid was sick and another went home sick.  The one that came to school had a low temperature and said he had a headache and his arms felt weird and rubbery and tingly... maybe he had what I had?  Someone came and picked him up from school.  Hopefully both boys are back tomorrow!


We lost one match and won one match today.  Our games were at MLHS again and we played Alden-Conger (lost two games) and Granada-Huntley-East Chain (lost one, won two).  Home games tomorrow got moved up an hour because of the rainy weather (no soccer).  So maybe I'll get home to Fulda a little early!  Ivy's probably going to see some of the games too; one of her friends is dropping her off so I can give her a ride home this weekend. 

No Clay

Today was supposed to be our first pottery class... the Lord must've known I needed more time at school because I got a message on my phone saying class was cancelled.  The clay hasn't come yet, so we can't do anything.  I never thought I'd be glad to have pottery postponed, but I am today! 


The other volleyball coach was running late and didn't even make it to practice.  I didn't have time this morning to work on lessons I need for tomorrow (because of a last minute faculty meeting), so I have two powerpoints to make tonight (well, one's done; I just have to add pictures to it).  I have a huge stack of papers to correct, grades to enter in the grade book, emails and letters to send to parents about being chaperones on our upcoming class trips, and an external hard drive on the fritz.  That's right.  As soon as practice was over, I buckled down, ready to go to work... well, my hard drive wasn't quite so ready.  The computer stopped recognizing it and no matter how many times I tried plugging it in, nothing happened.  And then people started coming into my room to talk to me and I was about ready to pull my hair out because nothing was going right and I wasn't getting anything done! 


But.  Now that pottery is cancelled, I have a little more time at school.  I still need to go grocery shopping/visit the library, but the library is open until 8:00.  Maybe I'll even have time to correct some papers tonight.


In other news, the bow I ordered from Sheels in Sioux Falls way back at the end of June finally came in.  I was planning on cancelling the order since it took so long, but the guy I talked to never called me back and the bow came in before I could call them again.  So.  I suppose I should try to figure in a trip to Sioux Falls this weekend.  Sigh.  And here I was looking forward to a weekend of doing nothing and going nowhere except Fulda. 


Back to the school day.  We were on some weird tangents today in the 5th and 6th grade classroom.  Before chapel I explained an iodine/starch experiment I did with the 8th graders to show the process of osmosis.  Then they wanted to know what iodine was usually used for.  When they found out it's sometimes used to keep umbilical cords from getting infected, they wanted to know more about umbilical cords... which led to a discussion of how an umbilical cord actually works.  Some of them wanted to delve further into the process of pregnancy/reproductive system... but I decided to save that for another day... when they're in 7th and 8th grade.


Our physics topic today was potential and kinetic energy.  Somehow we got on the topic of why you don't move when you sleep and why some people sleepwalk.  And then they wanted to talk about dreams and why you have dreams and what happens if you die in a dream and how come you only remember some dreams and then it was time to get back on topic.  Whew!  Good stuff.


Tension was tangible after lunch.  The morning was pretty good, but for some reason our class bully decided to up the ante during lunch.  And in physics he made so many noises it drove his neighbor crazy and someone volunteered to switch spots with the kid who was so annoyed.  Unfortunately, I'm thinking this change is going to be permanent, at least for the rest of the quarter.


One of the 8th grade girls brought in something that "will amaze you".  It was a cow hoof.  Just one toe.  She got it from a rancher in Montana.  One of his cows had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and was struck by lightning... and all her toes fell off.  So this girl picked up one of the toes and brought it back with her.  It's pretty much the coolest thing ever!  I kind of hope she lets me keep it...