Darth Teacher

Woke up with no voice today.  Sure I could try to talk, it just sounded like a frog dying.  Whispering was the theme of our classroom today.


Flag pledges almost made me burst out laughing.  I whispered, of course, but my students started out in full voice.  Before we were halfway through, they had all dropped down to a whisper.  It's the strangest thing, hearing a group of people whispering the pledge of allegiance. 


My lost voice was the talk of the school.  One of the students in the lower grades heard the story wrong and heard that "Miss H lost her life."  He thought I was dead!  Thankfully someone set him straight before too long.  Kids kept coming up to me asking me to talk.  The 1st and 2nd graders prayed for me at the end of the day.  Some of my students thought I sounded like Darth Vader when I used my regular voice.  "I am your teacher!" one 5th grader said (in the Darth Vader voice).  One of the 6th graders said, "Miss H! This should've happened last week, then you could've been Darth Teacher for Halloween!"  My kids are so creative. :) 


They also apparently sing my praises when they get home from school.  One girl now wants to wear dresses because of me (her mom says).  Three of my parents couldn't stop thanking me for getting their children to read and write for fun outside of school.  I didn't know what to do with so much positive feedback.  I think they all feel sorry for me because of my voice.


I had a brainstorm on how to do religion this morning without using my voice so much.  Our Bible story was David and Bathsheba.  There's a VeggieTales movie on that story called "King George and the Ducky".  I could youtube it and play it for the class!  Yeah, the only version on youtube was one with words censored so it sounded like they were saying bad things.  Not one to watch at school.  So much for that plan.  We ended up taking turns reading verses; they could hear me if I whispered and so we limped along throughout the morning.


Read aloud was interesting.  Instead of reading part of Artemis Fowl, we listened to Robert Munsch read some of his picture books aloud.  I held the book and turned the pages, showing them the pictures.


A high school group called SPOTS came to do skits on tough subjects for my class.  They did two skits about bullying.  I didn't think they were very good.  The actors didn't know where they were supposed to go, and the boy didn't talk loud enough.  The skits were more about physical bullying and not about verbal bullying, which is what my class has more of an issue with.  The leader didn't facilitate a very good discussion either.  It sounded more like we were listening to Mr. E ream someone out than any discussion about bullying.  To top it off, one of the 5th graders accidentally farted in the middle of their skit and his neighbor wouldn't stop giggling, that set the rest of the pod off.  I could tell the actors thought my students were laughing at them.  Right after the skit on bullying.  Perfect.  Thankfully, I had the chance to explain the situation to the actors before they left.  They seemed relieved.


Class with the 8th graders today was easy.  We corrected their spelling books and then watched the first half of Monsters University as their class prize.  Good time for me to rest my voice.  Science with the 5th and 6th graders was a little more challenging.  Yesterday, we learned about atoms and everyone wanted to know more about splitting atoms and smashing atoms.  So I perused youtube yet again and found a few on the topic.  One had a woman with an Asian accent narrating.  And my students thought it was the funniest thing ever.  It was kind of boring, so we didn't watch much of that one.  Another one had a British guy narrating, and that one was really good.  Good pictures, good info.  After that we cleaned our desks and went out for recess.  I played Lightning with two of the 6th graders.  Guess what?  I swished three three-pointers in a row.  This definitely impressed the 3rd and 4th graders on their way back from a bathroom break. 


Well, I'm on my last parent teacher conference for the night.  One more to go and then I can go home!  I got a few words written last night after pottery.  Tonight is my spelling correcting night, so I don't know how much I'll accomplish after that.  One of the 5th grade girls gave me a great idea for my story.  Ivan found a smashed glass bottle with liquid in it.  When he licked it, it knocked him out for a second or two.  But I didn't know what the liquid was for (the three princesses dropped it in the stables).  The 5th grader thought it should be a potion that turns people into bunnies, but it knocks them out first and then gives them bunny ears and fur.  So that's what I'll be writing about whenever I get around to it.