Ufda! You can tell the kids are excited about something! All day they were hard to settle... from 3rd and 4th all the way up to the 7th and 8th graders. Everyone is excited about trick or treating tonight, although the weather is kind of gross and misty. I have some candy to pass out if any trick or treaters stop by, but since I'm still not home from school yet, I'm not sure how many will be out by the time I get there!
This morning one of my students surprised me with an orange and black bouquet of flowers. I only had tall, narrow vases, so the flowers are kind of stuffed into one. They look nice on my desk though! She also brought candy for the whole class. Last week she said she was bringing cupcakes (she likes to bake), but I guess candy was faster.
At recess today, the boys bottle flipped. It's a craze that's sweeping the nation, started by a youtuber who videoed himself flipping a bottle 1/4th full of water, trying to get it to land straight up. Since then, more and more flipping challenges have been issued: get the bottle to land on its cap, on a fence, on a wall, on a table, out a window... the list goes on and on. There were some pretty amazing flips happening at recess! One boy got the bottle to land on a tiny ledge all the way up on the back of the basketball backboard!!! Another got it to land on the ledge where the metal gym wall and the carpeted gym wall meet (waaay above his head). It was pretty sweet.
The 7th and 8th graders registered the school to vote today. They split up to the different classrooms and had each student show them "ID" aka a homework assignment with their name on it to "prove" they were "residents" of our school/their classroom. Then the registers initialed the line. Even the teachers registered! Our school cook can't be there the day of the election, so we're working on an absentee ballot for her. Mrs. E has a student teacher who leaves before we'll have our election, so she'll need one too.
Tomorrow is the first day of NaNo; everyone is excited. A bunch of my kiddos want to bring laptops from home to work on their stories. Sure! Why not? I made the word count charts after school today and hung them on the back of the door. It's in a very prominent place so they'll be sure to write lots and lots!
Monday, October 31, 2016
Friday, October 28, 2016
Back Again
We made it! Everyone is home safe and sound.
A few highlights from the trip...
One of the holes for Frisbee golf was near a mud pit... my group of girls (myself included) does not have great aim. We were terrified our frisbees would end up in the mud... At first it looked like we'd be okay; all the discs went away from the mud (mine came super close though!). But the last girl threw hers and it landed with a splash far enough away we couldn't reach it. I told her to just grab one of the extras but her friend said, "Eh, my feet are already wet anyway. I'll just walk in there and grab it!" So she did! And her feet only got a little more wet.
Although the weather was warm today, it was super windy. We had to portage the canoes from one side of the peninsula to the other so we wouldn't have to paddle through the waves. Hey, we just learned about portaging in MN history! They pretended they were voyageurs as they portaged across the nice, sandy path to the other side of the lake. The first canoe I was in started leaking once we were out on the lake. Just little streams of water seeping up from the middle seam. The third girl (sitting in the middle of the boat) joined a different canoe. We probably would've been fine with it the short amount of time we were canoeing, but my co-paddler didn't know how to swim and got nervous at the idea that we might sink. So we traded our canoe for another. As soon as the bow of that canoe went in the water, more water bubbled up into the bottom! That one had a hole too! So we went with a third option, one made of fiberglass so it didn't have any seems to leak.
My kiddos played GaGa ball any time they had a minute. They were out there by 6:30am this morning! This class actually slept the best out of all the classes I've brought so far. The two male chaperones went out to watch. One had even picked up coffee for the three of us! Too bad I don't drink coffee. But the thought was appreciated!
Our bottle rockets were pretty cool. They shot way farther than I thought they would! One even hit a tree on the other side of the soccer field! Most left their rockets at Camp Omega to be targets for the men's hunting retreat also going on while we were there. All of them want to make rockets when we go next year.
All in all, our trip was a success. No one got injured (besides little cuts and scrapes from gaga ball and fort building). They all had fun. And everyone wants to come back next year!
A few highlights from the trip...
One of the holes for Frisbee golf was near a mud pit... my group of girls (myself included) does not have great aim. We were terrified our frisbees would end up in the mud... At first it looked like we'd be okay; all the discs went away from the mud (mine came super close though!). But the last girl threw hers and it landed with a splash far enough away we couldn't reach it. I told her to just grab one of the extras but her friend said, "Eh, my feet are already wet anyway. I'll just walk in there and grab it!" So she did! And her feet only got a little more wet.
Although the weather was warm today, it was super windy. We had to portage the canoes from one side of the peninsula to the other so we wouldn't have to paddle through the waves. Hey, we just learned about portaging in MN history! They pretended they were voyageurs as they portaged across the nice, sandy path to the other side of the lake. The first canoe I was in started leaking once we were out on the lake. Just little streams of water seeping up from the middle seam. The third girl (sitting in the middle of the boat) joined a different canoe. We probably would've been fine with it the short amount of time we were canoeing, but my co-paddler didn't know how to swim and got nervous at the idea that we might sink. So we traded our canoe for another. As soon as the bow of that canoe went in the water, more water bubbled up into the bottom! That one had a hole too! So we went with a third option, one made of fiberglass so it didn't have any seems to leak.
My kiddos played GaGa ball any time they had a minute. They were out there by 6:30am this morning! This class actually slept the best out of all the classes I've brought so far. The two male chaperones went out to watch. One had even picked up coffee for the three of us! Too bad I don't drink coffee. But the thought was appreciated!
Our bottle rockets were pretty cool. They shot way farther than I thought they would! One even hit a tree on the other side of the soccer field! Most left their rockets at Camp Omega to be targets for the men's hunting retreat also going on while we were there. All of them want to make rockets when we go next year.
All in all, our trip was a success. No one got injured (besides little cuts and scrapes from gaga ball and fort building). They all had fun. And everyone wants to come back next year!
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Camp
The lost papers have been found! I had a huge pile to correct last night, and as I pulled the other papers from my teacher bag, the edge of my planner fell open and I noticed my missing papers! I had tucked them inside so they wouldn't get lost...
Once again, I have a huge pile to correct tonight; I had everything be due before we leave for Camp Omega. Most everything is handed in (I think), although there are still a few outstanding papers. Must be done before we leave! While we're gone, the 7th and 8th graders get a work day on their South America projects. They were all surprised the projects are due next Tuesday... I told them they'd be due either the first or second week of November!
Camp is all my kiddos have been able to talk about all week. What to bring, what they'll do, who they'll ride with. And we can't forget the weather either! The weather for Camp Omega is going to be super nice. No rain is in the forecast. No terribly cold weather either. But still cold enough to need layers. Hmm, what to pack?
And now for a non-camp related story... Today I wore a long, metal chain necklace with a pendant on the end. The interactive board has "pens" with magnets in them so they stick to the board. As I gestured with the pen, it stuck to my necklace. I was so surprised, I said something about it to my students. Not everyone had seen it, and those who hadn't wanted a demonstration. So I stuck the pen back on my necklace and let go, letting the pen dangle there. "Wow! That's cool!" were the general responses. I thought about keeping it there all day, but decided that would be weird... who knows what the 7th and 8th graders would say!
Once again, I have a huge pile to correct tonight; I had everything be due before we leave for Camp Omega. Most everything is handed in (I think), although there are still a few outstanding papers. Must be done before we leave! While we're gone, the 7th and 8th graders get a work day on their South America projects. They were all surprised the projects are due next Tuesday... I told them they'd be due either the first or second week of November!
Camp is all my kiddos have been able to talk about all week. What to bring, what they'll do, who they'll ride with. And we can't forget the weather either! The weather for Camp Omega is going to be super nice. No rain is in the forecast. No terribly cold weather either. But still cold enough to need layers. Hmm, what to pack?
And now for a non-camp related story... Today I wore a long, metal chain necklace with a pendant on the end. The interactive board has "pens" with magnets in them so they stick to the board. As I gestured with the pen, it stuck to my necklace. I was so surprised, I said something about it to my students. Not everyone had seen it, and those who hadn't wanted a demonstration. So I stuck the pen back on my necklace and let go, letting the pen dangle there. "Wow! That's cool!" were the general responses. I thought about keeping it there all day, but decided that would be weird... who knows what the 7th and 8th graders would say!
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Lost Papers
Grr... I'm kind of frustrated at the moment. I lost some papers I needed to grade! Last week, before MEA, papers to be corrected were strewn all over my desk. I thought I had gathered them all up and clipped them together to bring home with me, but I'm missing the little half sheet of paper with my students' reading grades!
I remember setting the pile on top of my calendar so I wouldn't lose them. I debated whether I should bring them with me or not; since they're pretty easy to grade maybe they could wait. But I think my final decision was to bring them with me. And now I can't find them anywhere! Maybe I should check my apartment more thoroughly. Unless somehow they're still in Fulda somewhere! Grr... I know I never corrected them because they're not in the grade book. And I never handed them back to the kids... so where are they??? I suppose I can go back through my meeting binder and re-grade them for that week. But that's a lot of extra work that could be avoided if I could only remember what happened to them...
We learned more about pH today. I pulled out the litmus paper and we tested some liquids. Water in Joe's spray bottle tested at a pH of 6. The fermentation bag (another experiment of crushed cereal, warm water, and yeast) tested at a 5. Interesting. Now they have all sorts of other liquids they want to test. Good thing that's our next lab! Their assignment is to bring in at least one liquid by next Tuesday so we can test if it's an acid or a base.
We almost have the silent auction wrapped up. Three people still need to pick their stuff up and pay for their items. I emailed them all, so hopefully they get back to me soon!
It's looking pretty dreary outside right now, and not just because the sun's going down. It was supposed to rain on and off all day, but it only rained for a little bit this morning before lunch. But a thunderstorm is supposed to come tonight! By Thursday, the weather will be nice and sunny. Perfect for our trip to Camp Omega! The forecast for Courtland on Friday says we might get up to 70 degrees!
I remember setting the pile on top of my calendar so I wouldn't lose them. I debated whether I should bring them with me or not; since they're pretty easy to grade maybe they could wait. But I think my final decision was to bring them with me. And now I can't find them anywhere! Maybe I should check my apartment more thoroughly. Unless somehow they're still in Fulda somewhere! Grr... I know I never corrected them because they're not in the grade book. And I never handed them back to the kids... so where are they??? I suppose I can go back through my meeting binder and re-grade them for that week. But that's a lot of extra work that could be avoided if I could only remember what happened to them...
We learned more about pH today. I pulled out the litmus paper and we tested some liquids. Water in Joe's spray bottle tested at a pH of 6. The fermentation bag (another experiment of crushed cereal, warm water, and yeast) tested at a 5. Interesting. Now they have all sorts of other liquids they want to test. Good thing that's our next lab! Their assignment is to bring in at least one liquid by next Tuesday so we can test if it's an acid or a base.
We almost have the silent auction wrapped up. Three people still need to pick their stuff up and pay for their items. I emailed them all, so hopefully they get back to me soon!
It's looking pretty dreary outside right now, and not just because the sun's going down. It was supposed to rain on and off all day, but it only rained for a little bit this morning before lunch. But a thunderstorm is supposed to come tonight! By Thursday, the weather will be nice and sunny. Perfect for our trip to Camp Omega! The forecast for Courtland on Friday says we might get up to 70 degrees!
Monday, October 24, 2016
Good Stuff
The conference was so good! Lots of great information about how to keep your life balanced... socially, emotionally, and spiritually. The speaker for my first session had medical issues, so he wasn't there and I had to pick a new sectional. Since the main speaker was so good, I picked a session he was leading (going more in depth on his speech topic- keeping a balance in your life). And that one was good too! I look lots of notes.
Saturday was the dollar bag sale at the MLHS rummage sale. I found good stuff for my classroom and some new clothes. Last night I did up all my laundry, so now I can wear my new duds! The stuff for my classroom is still in the bag on the lab table. There was frost on my car this morning, so I didn't get to school as early as I'd hoped. And then people kept coming in to talk to me.
Then after school, Mrs. E and I (and Miss S too) went over Christmas program ideas. We decided to use an old program from seven years ago and pick new songs. My job it to type everything up so we can plug in names/songs before the Sunday School teachers need the program.
Tonight is the 7th and 8th grade class trip fundraiser at Buffalo Wild Wings in Mankato. 15% of your bill goes to ILS if you mention it. I'm meeting up with a friend from college to eat there, and run some errands too since I'll be in Mankato. I better get going!
Saturday was the dollar bag sale at the MLHS rummage sale. I found good stuff for my classroom and some new clothes. Last night I did up all my laundry, so now I can wear my new duds! The stuff for my classroom is still in the bag on the lab table. There was frost on my car this morning, so I didn't get to school as early as I'd hoped. And then people kept coming in to talk to me.
Then after school, Mrs. E and I (and Miss S too) went over Christmas program ideas. We decided to use an old program from seven years ago and pick new songs. My job it to type everything up so we can plug in names/songs before the Sunday School teachers need the program.
Tonight is the 7th and 8th grade class trip fundraiser at Buffalo Wild Wings in Mankato. 15% of your bill goes to ILS if you mention it. I'm meeting up with a friend from college to eat there, and run some errands too since I'll be in Mankato. I better get going!
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Guatemala
Pastor's chapel today was about his trip to Guatemala. He and some other gentlemen in this area (one more guy from our church and a bunch from other churches in the district) went down there for about a week to scope out whether we'd like to sponsor a church down there. It made me miss El Salvador! Since the countries are next door neighbors, it's no surprise that the cultures are similar. Happy people in very poor conditions. Although I think El Salvador is slightly better off than Guatemala (just based on Pastor's stories). He's going to show pictures and tell more in church this Sunday. We also have our quarterly meeting, so I should probably be around for that.
Today's the last day of school this week! We have the Lutheran Educator's Conference tomorrow in Mankato. After that, I'm Fulda bound! My siblings and I never made it to the corn maze... hopefully we'll be able to check it out this weekend. There's also the $2 bag sale at the Martin Luther Rummage Sale. Gotta stock up on art supplies and cool stuff for my classroom! Hopefully there's a good selection of books. And my prize box can always use donations.
Tonight instead of ladies' bible study, there's a bonfire at the parsonage. It's pretty crisp outside right now; I'll need to bring a heavier jacket! I think I have just enough time to go home, change, and eat supper. After the bonfire, I'll most likely curl up with a good book and pack for this weekend. Tomorrow's conference starts at nine, so I'll have a little more time than usual in the morning. Hopefully I can get all (oh who am I kidding? MOST) of my school work done so I don't have to think about it for the rest of the weekend. The past two weeks have been crazy so a little rest and relaxation is just what's needed!
Today's the last day of school this week! We have the Lutheran Educator's Conference tomorrow in Mankato. After that, I'm Fulda bound! My siblings and I never made it to the corn maze... hopefully we'll be able to check it out this weekend. There's also the $2 bag sale at the Martin Luther Rummage Sale. Gotta stock up on art supplies and cool stuff for my classroom! Hopefully there's a good selection of books. And my prize box can always use donations.
Tonight instead of ladies' bible study, there's a bonfire at the parsonage. It's pretty crisp outside right now; I'll need to bring a heavier jacket! I think I have just enough time to go home, change, and eat supper. After the bonfire, I'll most likely curl up with a good book and pack for this weekend. Tomorrow's conference starts at nine, so I'll have a little more time than usual in the morning. Hopefully I can get all (oh who am I kidding? MOST) of my school work done so I don't have to think about it for the rest of the weekend. The past two weeks have been crazy so a little rest and relaxation is just what's needed!
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Chemical Reactions
Our first "intense" science lab was today. Both the goggles and safety aprons were pulled out of the closet. I haven't used them in two years, so some of them still had masking tape name tags on them... the tape had gone gooey and was super gross... They're clean now! A little bit of wet-wipes and paper towel action did wonders on the goo.
My class had so much fun with the lab. They used pipettes to squirt two different liquids together and then watched to see if a chemical reaction occurred. There are four different signs this has happened: bubbles, a precipitate forms, the temperature changes, and/or there's a color change. Of course at the end of the lab they wanted to dump everything together and see what happened. Not a whole lot! Just a little fizzing. Then came clean up time... blech. All the substances we used were dumped in one pail (and then dumped in the woods). This includes: lemon juice, vinegar, baking soda, salt water, milk, and egg whites.
After school was dishes time. Our last volleyball and soccer games were today, so lots of kids stayed after school. One of those girls LOVES doing dishes, so she washed pretty much everything for me! The test tubes, beakers, spoons, buckets... now it's all drying on the lab table.
Our games went well. We played Immanuel Mankato; they only have one team, but they had enough players to put mostly littler girls in first and then the big girls for A squad. Their girls are super tall! So B squad got creamed. A squad, on the other hand, played amazing! And we won both games! Woohoo! One of the coaches got cookies and frosted them to look like volleyballs (and put the girls' numbers on them). She also got them a box of candy for having such a good season. The mom of the only 8th grade girl brought her flowers and a balloon for her teammates to give her. It was quite the festive night!
So now, volleyball is officially over. And the volleyball drama with it! (hopefully). Now on to the next thing! My next big hurdle is Camp Omega. We finally picked our classes; the guy had typed my email in wrong, so I never received the email. But that's straightened out now. The toughest thing is going to be finding chaperones... I've had one potential nibble as of now and a tentative bite (if no one else volunteers). So we can go for sure, I just don't know who our other chaperones will be. It would be nice to have some firm yeses though!
My class had so much fun with the lab. They used pipettes to squirt two different liquids together and then watched to see if a chemical reaction occurred. There are four different signs this has happened: bubbles, a precipitate forms, the temperature changes, and/or there's a color change. Of course at the end of the lab they wanted to dump everything together and see what happened. Not a whole lot! Just a little fizzing. Then came clean up time... blech. All the substances we used were dumped in one pail (and then dumped in the woods). This includes: lemon juice, vinegar, baking soda, salt water, milk, and egg whites.
After school was dishes time. Our last volleyball and soccer games were today, so lots of kids stayed after school. One of those girls LOVES doing dishes, so she washed pretty much everything for me! The test tubes, beakers, spoons, buckets... now it's all drying on the lab table.
Our games went well. We played Immanuel Mankato; they only have one team, but they had enough players to put mostly littler girls in first and then the big girls for A squad. Their girls are super tall! So B squad got creamed. A squad, on the other hand, played amazing! And we won both games! Woohoo! One of the coaches got cookies and frosted them to look like volleyballs (and put the girls' numbers on them). She also got them a box of candy for having such a good season. The mom of the only 8th grade girl brought her flowers and a balloon for her teammates to give her. It was quite the festive night!
So now, volleyball is officially over. And the volleyball drama with it! (hopefully). Now on to the next thing! My next big hurdle is Camp Omega. We finally picked our classes; the guy had typed my email in wrong, so I never received the email. But that's straightened out now. The toughest thing is going to be finding chaperones... I've had one potential nibble as of now and a tentative bite (if no one else volunteers). So we can go for sure, I just don't know who our other chaperones will be. It would be nice to have some firm yeses though!
Monday, October 17, 2016
Lots of Little Crabs
Sigh, unfortunately, I'm not talking about the little critters with pincers... I'm talking about all the students (and quite a few teachers... ahem... me) at school today...
This weekend was the big Pork Chop Dinner and Silent Auction for our school. There was a pretty constant stream of parents texting me/calling me on Saturday asking questions about the Pork Chop Dinner. When do I work? Is school unlocked? Where are the extra tickets? Can someone come pick up my silent auction donation?
But everything went fine on Sunday. I had some more early morning phone calls/texts, and some last-minute silent auction donations. All my bell players showed up! Hallelujah! And we sounded mostly decent... I caught a few mess-ups; hopefully they were minor enough the congregation didn't notice. After church I supervised the silent auction room. No one came to relieve me, so I had to wait to eat lunch until after the auction. All but one of the items sold, bringing in somewhere around $1500 for the auction side of things. A bunch of people wanted to pick up/pay for things at school this week, so all those items had to be loaded in my car and transferred to my classroom. A few people picked their items up at school. Still a few more to go. I think everyone is still recuperating from the big weekend.
After school today we had our last volleyball practice. One of the coaches came up with a cool volleyball game for the girls to play (since we have one last game tomorrow and that's it). But the girls were all crabbing at each other; one girl even started crying. Then another girl tripped going up the bleachers during a water break and spilled another girl's water bottle all over her... causing the wet girl to cry too. Sigh. It was a long practice.
And then after practice we had our end of the year volleyball party at Swany's. We had told the girls to bring $5 for pizza. When we pooled the money, we had just enough to cover the bill! Whew! I didn't actually eat any pizza. By the time I got there (after quickly packing up my stuff at school), most of the pizza was gone and I figured I should leave it for the girls. They finished eating before 5:00, so we sat around for a half an hour (well, the girls were giggling and talking and playing obo-shen-a-ten-ta-ten and getting suckers from the counter and... you get the picture) waiting for parents to come pick their girls up. But I think the girls had fun, which is the important thing. Only one more volleyball thing to go! Woohoo!
We started our testing today. Instead of IOWA tests, we're doing Fast Bridge testing, which we'll do three times a year so we can actually monitor our students' progress and do something about it if they need help in areas. I had been planning to wait a bit before doing the testing, but when I explained how it worked, they wanted to do it today. So we took the reading test. They did all right. Two were in the at-risk category. The rest were in the middle to high somewhat at risk level. The other nice thing about this test is that it tells you the specific skills the students are struggling with. My class, across the board, struggles with homophones, end punctuation, context clues, analogies, and comparing characters. Some of that is no surprise; we haven't learned it yet or it's something that they've been struggling with so far this year. Some of it is a little surprising. I'll be interested to see how they do on the math portion we take tomorrow. But at least now I have an idea of some of the things we need to work on!
This weekend was the big Pork Chop Dinner and Silent Auction for our school. There was a pretty constant stream of parents texting me/calling me on Saturday asking questions about the Pork Chop Dinner. When do I work? Is school unlocked? Where are the extra tickets? Can someone come pick up my silent auction donation?
But everything went fine on Sunday. I had some more early morning phone calls/texts, and some last-minute silent auction donations. All my bell players showed up! Hallelujah! And we sounded mostly decent... I caught a few mess-ups; hopefully they were minor enough the congregation didn't notice. After church I supervised the silent auction room. No one came to relieve me, so I had to wait to eat lunch until after the auction. All but one of the items sold, bringing in somewhere around $1500 for the auction side of things. A bunch of people wanted to pick up/pay for things at school this week, so all those items had to be loaded in my car and transferred to my classroom. A few people picked their items up at school. Still a few more to go. I think everyone is still recuperating from the big weekend.
After school today we had our last volleyball practice. One of the coaches came up with a cool volleyball game for the girls to play (since we have one last game tomorrow and that's it). But the girls were all crabbing at each other; one girl even started crying. Then another girl tripped going up the bleachers during a water break and spilled another girl's water bottle all over her... causing the wet girl to cry too. Sigh. It was a long practice.
And then after practice we had our end of the year volleyball party at Swany's. We had told the girls to bring $5 for pizza. When we pooled the money, we had just enough to cover the bill! Whew! I didn't actually eat any pizza. By the time I got there (after quickly packing up my stuff at school), most of the pizza was gone and I figured I should leave it for the girls. They finished eating before 5:00, so we sat around for a half an hour (well, the girls were giggling and talking and playing obo-shen-a-ten-ta-ten and getting suckers from the counter and... you get the picture) waiting for parents to come pick their girls up. But I think the girls had fun, which is the important thing. Only one more volleyball thing to go! Woohoo!
We started our testing today. Instead of IOWA tests, we're doing Fast Bridge testing, which we'll do three times a year so we can actually monitor our students' progress and do something about it if they need help in areas. I had been planning to wait a bit before doing the testing, but when I explained how it worked, they wanted to do it today. So we took the reading test. They did all right. Two were in the at-risk category. The rest were in the middle to high somewhat at risk level. The other nice thing about this test is that it tells you the specific skills the students are struggling with. My class, across the board, struggles with homophones, end punctuation, context clues, analogies, and comparing characters. Some of that is no surprise; we haven't learned it yet or it's something that they've been struggling with so far this year. Some of it is a little surprising. I'll be interested to see how they do on the math portion we take tomorrow. But at least now I have an idea of some of the things we need to work on!
Friday, October 14, 2016
Reminiscing
The 5th graders were reminiscing on the playground at afternoon recess today. "Remember back in kindergarten?" they kept saying. It was kind of hilarious.
We also put up our Church Year Chain for art. It's crazy how excited the 6th graders were to do it! Everyone got started on stapling the strips together; we had two girls tag-teaming the cutting. We put it up in record time. Now our room looks festive again.
The other out-of-the-ordinary thing that happened today was the toilet in the boys' bathroom overflowed and started flooding the bathroom. This happened while the 7th and 8th graders were in my class. One boy went to use the bathroom and came back saying it was flooding. Half the boys wanted to be the ones to fix it. Another bunch ran to watch. The remaining students and I decided on an impromptu field trip to the hallway to see what was going on. It didn't take much to unplug it. Someone found a mop and mopped up the overflow water. They took care of it and came back to class.
We also put up our Church Year Chain for art. It's crazy how excited the 6th graders were to do it! Everyone got started on stapling the strips together; we had two girls tag-teaming the cutting. We put it up in record time. Now our room looks festive again.
The other out-of-the-ordinary thing that happened today was the toilet in the boys' bathroom overflowed and started flooding the bathroom. This happened while the 7th and 8th graders were in my class. One boy went to use the bathroom and came back saying it was flooding. Half the boys wanted to be the ones to fix it. Another bunch ran to watch. The remaining students and I decided on an impromptu field trip to the hallway to see what was going on. It didn't take much to unplug it. Someone found a mop and mopped up the overflow water. They took care of it and came back to class.
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Late Night
Another late night. This time, because of volleyball.
It was our last away game, vs. Janesville. The B team played hard, but only won one game of three (we came super close in the last game!). The last two were real nail-biters. The A squad played well too and won all three games. They were super pumped! And they even did a little bit of bump-set-spike. I had a few kids riding in my car on the way back, so that's how I ended up at school so late again.
Since our games were after soccer, I had a little more time at school to get things done, but when I left I still had a few things to finish up. Hopefully I won't be here too much later!
Today was frustrating. The church janitor stopped by around noon to tell me that because of the funeral on Saturday, we should put most of the bell stuff away after we practice today so it's not in the way and people don't mess with it. Meh. That ended up not being a big deal; we just put the bells and folders in the side room and the kids can get them Sunday morning before they play. Most will be here early with their parents setting up for the dinner. Then the janitor tacked on that the guest pastor (since Pastor B is in Guatemala on a mission scouting trip) wants to use the conference room Saturday morning. Wait... that means we can't set up Silent Auction stuff in there Friday night. Grrr... I had been planning to set all that up Friday so I could take Saturday completely off from school stuff.
After school I talked to the other Silent Auction helper/in-charge person and she said she'd heard from a lot of other people that we should just go ahead and use the conference room, it would be fine. Even so, she called the guest pastor after school just to be sure it was okay. I haven't heard otherwise, so I think it's okay for us to set up on Friday. Whew!
As frustrating as all that was, today was still a good day. We got a lot of learning accomplished... the MN fur trade, how to invent villains for our stories, Central South America...
Two of my former students from Janesville (where I did some student teaching) recognized me and said hi after the volleyball game. They were two of my favorites, so it made me happy that they remembered me. (I have a lot of favorite students from that class)...
At the soccer game, a mom told me a funny story about her daughter in my class. For reading, I have little meetings with each student each week to talk about the book they read. I bring along a binder to take notes in and on one page I have a post-it note to write down book recommendations for the student as I think of them. I thought this particular student would really enjoy the book "Awkward", a graphic novel about a girl in art club trying to get through middle school, so I'd written the title on the post-it, but nothing else. She had seen my note and had no clue what it meant. Did I think she was awkward? Why would I write that? Now she's finally reading the book (and loves it, by the way), and she came clean to her mom about her worry that I thought she was awkward. Her mom asked how long she had been worried about it. "17 days" was her response. Holy cow! This poor girl had been worrying about this for SEVENTEEN days?!?! And never felt she could mention it to her mom or me? It's funny and sad at the same time. Her mom said that her daughter said after she found out Awkward was a book, she felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders. Whew! That's a relief! I guess I should be more careful about what I write!
And on that note, I am going to go home and get some supper (finally), put my feet up, pop in a movie, and correct papers.
It was our last away game, vs. Janesville. The B team played hard, but only won one game of three (we came super close in the last game!). The last two were real nail-biters. The A squad played well too and won all three games. They were super pumped! And they even did a little bit of bump-set-spike. I had a few kids riding in my car on the way back, so that's how I ended up at school so late again.
Since our games were after soccer, I had a little more time at school to get things done, but when I left I still had a few things to finish up. Hopefully I won't be here too much later!
Today was frustrating. The church janitor stopped by around noon to tell me that because of the funeral on Saturday, we should put most of the bell stuff away after we practice today so it's not in the way and people don't mess with it. Meh. That ended up not being a big deal; we just put the bells and folders in the side room and the kids can get them Sunday morning before they play. Most will be here early with their parents setting up for the dinner. Then the janitor tacked on that the guest pastor (since Pastor B is in Guatemala on a mission scouting trip) wants to use the conference room Saturday morning. Wait... that means we can't set up Silent Auction stuff in there Friday night. Grrr... I had been planning to set all that up Friday so I could take Saturday completely off from school stuff.
After school I talked to the other Silent Auction helper/in-charge person and she said she'd heard from a lot of other people that we should just go ahead and use the conference room, it would be fine. Even so, she called the guest pastor after school just to be sure it was okay. I haven't heard otherwise, so I think it's okay for us to set up on Friday. Whew!
As frustrating as all that was, today was still a good day. We got a lot of learning accomplished... the MN fur trade, how to invent villains for our stories, Central South America...
Two of my former students from Janesville (where I did some student teaching) recognized me and said hi after the volleyball game. They were two of my favorites, so it made me happy that they remembered me. (I have a lot of favorite students from that class)...
At the soccer game, a mom told me a funny story about her daughter in my class. For reading, I have little meetings with each student each week to talk about the book they read. I bring along a binder to take notes in and on one page I have a post-it note to write down book recommendations for the student as I think of them. I thought this particular student would really enjoy the book "Awkward", a graphic novel about a girl in art club trying to get through middle school, so I'd written the title on the post-it, but nothing else. She had seen my note and had no clue what it meant. Did I think she was awkward? Why would I write that? Now she's finally reading the book (and loves it, by the way), and she came clean to her mom about her worry that I thought she was awkward. Her mom asked how long she had been worried about it. "17 days" was her response. Holy cow! This poor girl had been worrying about this for SEVENTEEN days?!?! And never felt she could mention it to her mom or me? It's funny and sad at the same time. Her mom said that her daughter said after she found out Awkward was a book, she felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders. Whew! That's a relief! I guess I should be more careful about what I write!
And on that note, I am going to go home and get some supper (finally), put my feet up, pop in a movie, and correct papers.
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Rush
Another rush day after school!
Midterm grades went home today. It was a last minute rush to get all the incomplete math grades turned in so Mr. E could give me a math grade. Then parents are asking why their kids' grades are the way they are. And I have to explain everything.
Some kids stayed after school to get caught up on late work.
The A squad volleyball coach was late to practice, so I had to start the girls on drills.
I had a kid stay after school to practice his bell part. We had an impromptu bell session when two other kids joined in as well. Then we took the bells over to church so we don't have to do that tomorrow.
We had training on the new FastBridge testing system.
And now I need to get home and cook supper for Mrs. B. Pastor is in Guatemala right now and we decided to have dinner together. But I'm being a terrible hostess... we're meeting at 6:00 and I'm still not home yet! Thankfully I made some reheatable things yesterday that will still taste good.
Still, I better book it home and get ready!
Midterm grades went home today. It was a last minute rush to get all the incomplete math grades turned in so Mr. E could give me a math grade. Then parents are asking why their kids' grades are the way they are. And I have to explain everything.
Some kids stayed after school to get caught up on late work.
The A squad volleyball coach was late to practice, so I had to start the girls on drills.
I had a kid stay after school to practice his bell part. We had an impromptu bell session when two other kids joined in as well. Then we took the bells over to church so we don't have to do that tomorrow.
We had training on the new FastBridge testing system.
And now I need to get home and cook supper for Mrs. B. Pastor is in Guatemala right now and we decided to have dinner together. But I'm being a terrible hostess... we're meeting at 6:00 and I'm still not home yet! Thankfully I made some reheatable things yesterday that will still taste good.
Still, I better book it home and get ready!
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Volleyball
Another post that's somewhat rushed... we have a game in Gaylord tonight at 4:00, meaning we have to leave school in 15 minutes. So I have to get all my school stuff accomplished before then so I don't have to come back and work after the game!
The detour is still on; we have to backtrack through Courtland to get to their school. It doesn't add too much time to the trip. I was hoping I wouldn't have to give girls rides home; that would shave some time off my trip. But a mom is sick, so now I have to give her daughter a ride there and back. She was going to bring some other girls there too, so now I have a full car! The four girls are in their uniforms buzzing around my room. They kept trying to talk to me until I said, "If I can't get my work done before we leave, we'll be late to the game!" Now they're playing with Joe in the Reading Corner.
The most interesting part of the day was in English. We started doing prep work for our NaNoWriMo stories. Today's topic was main characters. We worked together to make a main character for me to write about (a class story). It ended up being a boy dog owned by a scientist who can talk through a collar the scientist made for him. The scientist is going to disappear one day and the dog is going to try to rescue him. I'll keep you posted as more details about our story come to light. There was much discussion on what kind of dog the dog should be. Most wanted a German Shepherd, but I'm not a huge fan of them, so I picked a Golden Retriever. Now to come up with a name...
The detour is still on; we have to backtrack through Courtland to get to their school. It doesn't add too much time to the trip. I was hoping I wouldn't have to give girls rides home; that would shave some time off my trip. But a mom is sick, so now I have to give her daughter a ride there and back. She was going to bring some other girls there too, so now I have a full car! The four girls are in their uniforms buzzing around my room. They kept trying to talk to me until I said, "If I can't get my work done before we leave, we'll be late to the game!" Now they're playing with Joe in the Reading Corner.
The most interesting part of the day was in English. We started doing prep work for our NaNoWriMo stories. Today's topic was main characters. We worked together to make a main character for me to write about (a class story). It ended up being a boy dog owned by a scientist who can talk through a collar the scientist made for him. The scientist is going to disappear one day and the dog is going to try to rescue him. I'll keep you posted as more details about our story come to light. There was much discussion on what kind of dog the dog should be. Most wanted a German Shepherd, but I'm not a huge fan of them, so I picked a Golden Retriever. Now to come up with a name...
Monday, October 10, 2016
Lice
Don't worry! We don't have lice at ILS. No, it's a school we're playing this Thursday for soccer and volleyball...
How my kids found out, I have no idea, but it caused all of them to freak out thinking that they're going to get lice by playing that school. "But Miss H! What happens when we have to shake hands with them? What if the ball hits someone on the head???!!!!"
So I did research. Lice can only be spread by head-to-head contact, and very rarely by sharing things like combs or hats or hair bands, etc. Once lice have a nice home, they don't like to leave. So my kids have nothing to worry about.
Today was a brain-drainer. My mind is mush. I felt that way after school, but still had to coach volleyball practice. Then I had to watch training videos for this new kind of testing we're doing this year (instead of IOWA tests). I watched the wrong videos. :( But Mr. E showed me one of the videos on his computer and said the math video is basically the same, so I think I'll be okay.
Sigh. It's past time to go home. I have everything finished that I absolutely need to at school. Still have some grading to do for midterms, but I think that can be done at home. I'll just put grades in tomorrow morning.
How my kids found out, I have no idea, but it caused all of them to freak out thinking that they're going to get lice by playing that school. "But Miss H! What happens when we have to shake hands with them? What if the ball hits someone on the head???!!!!"
So I did research. Lice can only be spread by head-to-head contact, and very rarely by sharing things like combs or hats or hair bands, etc. Once lice have a nice home, they don't like to leave. So my kids have nothing to worry about.
Today was a brain-drainer. My mind is mush. I felt that way after school, but still had to coach volleyball practice. Then I had to watch training videos for this new kind of testing we're doing this year (instead of IOWA tests). I watched the wrong videos. :( But Mr. E showed me one of the videos on his computer and said the math video is basically the same, so I think I'll be okay.
Sigh. It's past time to go home. I have everything finished that I absolutely need to at school. Still have some grading to do for midterms, but I think that can be done at home. I'll just put grades in tomorrow morning.
Friday, October 7, 2016
Crunch Time
Today felt like crunch time. We're halfway through the first quarter, which means midterm grades need to be sent out soon. My class had a bunch of assignments due today that they were all scrambling to complete. Most complained yesterday that they wouldn't have enough time to do their homework (because there was a soccer game), but only the first half of the soccer game was played. The second half got rained out. So they had plenty of time to do their work. Most came to school with their assignments ready to hand in... now the quality of those assignments on the other hand, well, I'm a little scared to grade some of them. But it's midterms, so what can you do?
The 7th and 8th graders had a somewhat similar problem, but this time it was me who was feeling the crunch time. Fridays this year have been frustrating for me because it takes us SO LONG to correct the spelling books. It takes us at least 45-50 minutes to correct five pages of 7th grade spelling, five pages of 8th grade spelling, and take both grades' spelling tests. That give me maybe 10 minutes to do something else. That's not enough time to practice bells or do a lab or much of anything substantial. Sometimes I do read-aloud. Sometimes we practice for our map test. Sometimes they do other homework. (But more often than not they forget to bring other homework).
This Friday, I still had five people who needed to present their geography projects. Normally I'd just say, wait to present until Monday. But since it's midterms and I need to get their grades to Mr. E so he can put together their grade sheet, I wanted to get them done today. But what about correcting spelling? Hmm...
I ended up correcting the books myself throughout the day when I had moments to spare. I also felt rushed for time since some of them wanted to take their books home over the weekend to work on next week's assignments. It turned out to be a good week to do that; the words this week are all homophones, so correcting aloud would've taken even longer.
One kid, the poor guy, forgot his spelling book at home and his presentation for geography got erased off the computer. He's going to do it over the weekend and email it to me so I can correct it before Monday. Then Monday he can present it to the class and get those last few points. There were a few other boys who didn't have their presentations quite done, but their excuses were not so good... one boy had been on vacation, but he knew he'd have to present Friday, so he had plenty of time to get it done. He tried to cram waaaay too much info in his five minutes of presenting. And his powerpoint wasn't finished, or in the right order, so it was a bit convoluted. The other guy, everyone was ragging on him saying he copied and pasted his whole report from the internet. I guess I'll have to look into that. But they still shouldn't be fussing at him, after all, they aren't the teachers. I told his classmates that I have a plagiarism detector in my head; every teacher gets one when she graduates. They believed me for maybe a minute!
My weekend plans: visit Fulda, hang out with the fam, maybe go see the corn maze in Edgerton... otherwise, correct papers and get my grades ready to go!
The 7th and 8th graders had a somewhat similar problem, but this time it was me who was feeling the crunch time. Fridays this year have been frustrating for me because it takes us SO LONG to correct the spelling books. It takes us at least 45-50 minutes to correct five pages of 7th grade spelling, five pages of 8th grade spelling, and take both grades' spelling tests. That give me maybe 10 minutes to do something else. That's not enough time to practice bells or do a lab or much of anything substantial. Sometimes I do read-aloud. Sometimes we practice for our map test. Sometimes they do other homework. (But more often than not they forget to bring other homework).
This Friday, I still had five people who needed to present their geography projects. Normally I'd just say, wait to present until Monday. But since it's midterms and I need to get their grades to Mr. E so he can put together their grade sheet, I wanted to get them done today. But what about correcting spelling? Hmm...
I ended up correcting the books myself throughout the day when I had moments to spare. I also felt rushed for time since some of them wanted to take their books home over the weekend to work on next week's assignments. It turned out to be a good week to do that; the words this week are all homophones, so correcting aloud would've taken even longer.
One kid, the poor guy, forgot his spelling book at home and his presentation for geography got erased off the computer. He's going to do it over the weekend and email it to me so I can correct it before Monday. Then Monday he can present it to the class and get those last few points. There were a few other boys who didn't have their presentations quite done, but their excuses were not so good... one boy had been on vacation, but he knew he'd have to present Friday, so he had plenty of time to get it done. He tried to cram waaaay too much info in his five minutes of presenting. And his powerpoint wasn't finished, or in the right order, so it was a bit convoluted. The other guy, everyone was ragging on him saying he copied and pasted his whole report from the internet. I guess I'll have to look into that. But they still shouldn't be fussing at him, after all, they aren't the teachers. I told his classmates that I have a plagiarism detector in my head; every teacher gets one when she graduates. They believed me for maybe a minute!
My weekend plans: visit Fulda, hang out with the fam, maybe go see the corn maze in Edgerton... otherwise, correct papers and get my grades ready to go!
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Guest Speakers
I hadn't heard anything from my two guest speakers for North America about their presentation today... I was a little worried they wouldn't come. But we had enough to do that if they didn't show up, the hour I have with the 7th and 8th graders would be filled. There are still five people who need to present, plus we need more practice with bells.
However, all my worries were for naught. An unfamiliar car drove in as I watched the older kiddos at recess. It was our speakers! I had one of the 7th grade girls intercept them and direct them to our room so they could get set up. The 5th and 6th graders stuck inside finishing late work were super confused... "Who are those people? Why are they messing with Miss H's computer? And does she know they're doing that?!" they whispered to each other. Thankfully, they asked the 7th grader those questions and not our guests.
Both girls are students at MLC, one from Canada and one from St. Lucia (a small island in the Caribbean... it only takes an hour and fifteen minutes to get from north to south!). They were great speakers! And even better, my rambunctious 7th and 8th graders were a fantastic audience. They asked a few questions, listened respectfully, and completed their post-it note of three interesting things. Most got waaaaay more than three for each speaker.
Our Canadian guest showed pictures of recipes invented in Canada. One of them was poutine, french fries covered in gravy with cheese curds! I had it at the Clay County Fair a few weeks ago and it's surprisingly delicious! Although, can you really go wrong with cheese curds? She also showed us pictures of places she's been in Canada (famous places). She was born in Calgary, and talked about the Calgary Stampede. In high school, my school's marching band took a trip to the Calgary Stampede and marched in the parade there. I had told that to my students, so when our speaker mentioned it, they all looked at me like, "Hey! You told us about that!" I love it when that happens! It shows they were listening! There were a few more instances of that in our Canadian speaker's presentation.
St. Lucia, on the other hand, had much fewer connections. They speak English and French Creole on St. Lucia, so our speaker had a tiny accent, but not much of one. This is her second career; her first was a flight attendant in France for five years and in St. Lucia for three. Her family is Lutheran and went to the Lutheran church on the island and her pastor recommended she become a WELS teacher. She wasn't too sure about that, and yet, here she is! Only two more years until she graduates. They have a national dish called green fig and salt fish, basically sliced green bananas on the bottom with salted cod mixed with vegetables on the top. She talked a lot about the geography of the island (waterfalls, dormant volcanoes) and bananas (their main economy). She has 12 siblings, the oldest is 42, so she showed pictures of her nieces and nephews in their school uniforms when she told us about their schooling. It sounds like school is much stricter down there than it is in the US. Their leader said if teachers have to dress up for school, the kids should too (hence the uniforms).
The 5th and 6th graders were a little jealous they didn't get to hear the speakers, so I asked the two girls if they'd be interested in giving a shorter version to the 5th and 6th graders after the 7th and 8th graders left. Sure, they said! So my class got to hear them after all. Mine asked way more questions than the 7th and 8th graders. And none of my kids had trouble finding three interesting things, even with the abbreviated version. Afterwards, they said, "Miss H, I could listen to them all day! How come we can't just have guest speakers all the time? Can't we do social studies like that for the rest of the year???" I think from now on, I'll see if the speakers would like to do a mini-presentation after the fact for my class. Some might need to get back to MLC for class, but hopefully a few will be willing to stay and talk some more!
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
The Clown
Ugh. all my kids were freaking out today over the story that's been all over the news... (read the article here) In Mankato, according to the kids, apparently there are people dressing up like creepy, murderous clowns who go around staring into surveillance cameras for hours and they stab people or drag them off into the woods. The 5-8th graders were talking about it on the bus, scaring the preschoolers and kindergartners (and even some 5th and 6th graders) and made some of the little kids cry. Sigh. Their big thing was that there's a 90% chance the clown is coming to Nicollet, so they were wondering/worrying if the clown would come to our school too. And shouldn't we practice a lockdown drill in case that happens???
My first question for them was, even if there were a clown, why would it come to Nicollet? He'd have to go through a winding detour to get there! And there are way more people in Mankato and way more media coverage too! So why bother with us out here? Some were also worried about it getting them at their houses in New Ulm. But New Ulm is even farther away (plus a detour) so the "clown" probably isn't going there either.
My next question was, "How do they know for 90% sure that the clown is coming to Nicollet? Did they ask him? Did he say, 'I'm going to Nicollet next.'" Well, they didn't have an answer for me.
I'd heard the story on the radio news as I ate breakfast this morning, but the report said nothing about dangerous circumstances. Just that according to social media, there was a clown lurking around MSU and Mankato East, but that none of that had ever been reported to the police. Someone on social media (aka Facebook or Twitter, etc.) went down to where the clown had supposedly been sighted and that person said he saw nothing. So it's basically a hoax. But the kids were POSITIVE it was true. Mr. E called the sheriff to see if he knew anything and the sheriff said it's people making stuff up. No one has actually seen any clowns walking around; it's all been supposed stuff posted online. And no one has made any calls to the police.
My kids of course wanted to keep talking about it, but some were getting super freaked out, so we had to ban the topic. And yet they kept going! So we (as a class) came up with consequences if anyone would talk about it. Missing recess and writing 100 sentences, "I will not talk about clowns." Their idea, not mine. But hey, if that's what they want! The rest of the day, I heard no talk of clowns. And now for a new topic!
In other news, today was Fire Prevention Day. Actually, it's the whole week, but the fire fighters came out today. We did our drill in 35 seconds this time!
My class got to go outside first (before a speaker came in our room to give them stuff and talk about fire safety). We got to spray the fire hose and put on the fire gear and honk the horns in the trucks. My kids did not get nearly the amount of time they wanted to play around outside. I called them back inside once the other classes made an appearance... it was maybe 10 minutes after we'd gone out? So they kept asking if we could go again once the other grades went back to class. Nope! We had our chance. Plus they've done this since they were in kindergarten, so it's all stuff they've done before. I took some good pictures of them in the gear and while they were spraying the hose. Maybe we'll make the paper!
Whew, I am pooped. We had a two hour long staff meeting after school, plus my usual to-do list afterwards. Of course, there's still stuff I could and should do here, but it's past time for me to get home, so the rest will have to wait.My kids have been passing around a cold and I (unfortunately) caught it. Starts with a sore throat, ends with lots of sniffling and pluggy sinuses. Chicken noodle soup for supper I guess!
My first question for them was, even if there were a clown, why would it come to Nicollet? He'd have to go through a winding detour to get there! And there are way more people in Mankato and way more media coverage too! So why bother with us out here? Some were also worried about it getting them at their houses in New Ulm. But New Ulm is even farther away (plus a detour) so the "clown" probably isn't going there either.
My next question was, "How do they know for 90% sure that the clown is coming to Nicollet? Did they ask him? Did he say, 'I'm going to Nicollet next.'" Well, they didn't have an answer for me.
I'd heard the story on the radio news as I ate breakfast this morning, but the report said nothing about dangerous circumstances. Just that according to social media, there was a clown lurking around MSU and Mankato East, but that none of that had ever been reported to the police. Someone on social media (aka Facebook or Twitter, etc.) went down to where the clown had supposedly been sighted and that person said he saw nothing. So it's basically a hoax. But the kids were POSITIVE it was true. Mr. E called the sheriff to see if he knew anything and the sheriff said it's people making stuff up. No one has actually seen any clowns walking around; it's all been supposed stuff posted online. And no one has made any calls to the police.
My kids of course wanted to keep talking about it, but some were getting super freaked out, so we had to ban the topic. And yet they kept going! So we (as a class) came up with consequences if anyone would talk about it. Missing recess and writing 100 sentences, "I will not talk about clowns." Their idea, not mine. But hey, if that's what they want! The rest of the day, I heard no talk of clowns. And now for a new topic!
In other news, today was Fire Prevention Day. Actually, it's the whole week, but the fire fighters came out today. We did our drill in 35 seconds this time!
My class got to go outside first (before a speaker came in our room to give them stuff and talk about fire safety). We got to spray the fire hose and put on the fire gear and honk the horns in the trucks. My kids did not get nearly the amount of time they wanted to play around outside. I called them back inside once the other classes made an appearance... it was maybe 10 minutes after we'd gone out? So they kept asking if we could go again once the other grades went back to class. Nope! We had our chance. Plus they've done this since they were in kindergarten, so it's all stuff they've done before. I took some good pictures of them in the gear and while they were spraying the hose. Maybe we'll make the paper!
Whew, I am pooped. We had a two hour long staff meeting after school, plus my usual to-do list afterwards. Of course, there's still stuff I could and should do here, but it's past time for me to get home, so the rest will have to wait.My kids have been passing around a cold and I (unfortunately) caught it. Starts with a sore throat, ends with lots of sniffling and pluggy sinuses. Chicken noodle soup for supper I guess!
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Hearing and Vision
Boy today was a busy day. The fire department is coming out tomorrow, and we always like to have one fire drill under our belt before they come, just so we know how quick we can get out of the building. We hadn't done one yet this year, so our time was running short! We didn't want to do it in the rain (which was coming later in the day). We didn't want to do it when people were out at recess, eliminating most of the morning since one class or another is on the playground. We didn't want to do it while the preschool parents picked up their kiddos at 11. And we didn't want to do it during Hearing and Vision Screening, which started at 11:15. So when did we do it? 11:10am.
I hadn't told my kids it was coming, but they figured it out on their own when they overheard a teacher talking about it outside our window while she was at recess. I had worn a sweater to school since the morning was cool. Our classroom heats up pretty fast, so I had the windows open in our classroom to get a breeze going. Well the breeze was blowing directly on me and I got chilly again so I put my sweater back on. My students were immediately suspicious, "OH! Miss H put her sweater on! That must mean the fire drill is going to happen soon!" Well, it kind of was, but that wasn't why I put my sweater on. I tried to dissuade them, but they were stubborn. So all this talk of the fire drill distracted them from their work. But the drill went off without a hitch. It was the fastest time we'd ever done it! 48 seconds!
By the time we came back in, it was our turn for Hearing and Vision. This was about 40 or so minutes before lunch; hopefully plenty of time for us to finish. But the helpers were not all set to go by 11:15, so we had to wait. Thankfully, I'd thought to have my kids bring their read to self books to the gym, so they read while they waited. Or, most of them read. Some got distracted. We wrapped up just as the 3rd and 4th graders finished getting their lunch. The 7th and 8th graders are supposed to eat after us, but they were also supposed to get screened right after us too. So they got lunch late and therefore got to recess late. And you can imagine the fuss they made.
Mr. E and I came up with a plan that the 5th and 6th graders would have normal recess (so he could keep his normal math schedule). I would give the 7th and 8th graders extra recess, cutting into our class time a bit. They were presenting their geography projects, so it wasn't too big a deal since we can present another day too. Not everyone could present in one day. We were supposed to have bells, but with the late recess thing, we just skipped today. I'm wondering how our second bell song is going to go... we're not having practice Thursday either since we have a guest speaker... Tomorrow I want them to write in the rhythms on their music during study hall; hopefully that will help them play better. One song we have down. But the tricky one has lots of running eighth notes and some syncopated rhythms that are super fast (16th notes!). It needs work. We're running out of time too! We might need to skip that song. Or modify it so it's not so long. Or just practice more.
Well, I think it's time for me to head home. I ran all my errands yesterday, so I don't have too much on my agenda tonight. I stopped at the library and stocked up on books, got groceries, got a flu shot. (My arm was super sore last night, but today it's been pretty good.) The rain that was in the forecast has arrived; it's pouring. I was hoping it would miss us. I'm seeing some combines and semis giving up and going home. But to look on the positive side, it's the perfect weather for curling up with the book that's been calling my name all day!
I hadn't told my kids it was coming, but they figured it out on their own when they overheard a teacher talking about it outside our window while she was at recess. I had worn a sweater to school since the morning was cool. Our classroom heats up pretty fast, so I had the windows open in our classroom to get a breeze going. Well the breeze was blowing directly on me and I got chilly again so I put my sweater back on. My students were immediately suspicious, "OH! Miss H put her sweater on! That must mean the fire drill is going to happen soon!" Well, it kind of was, but that wasn't why I put my sweater on. I tried to dissuade them, but they were stubborn. So all this talk of the fire drill distracted them from their work. But the drill went off without a hitch. It was the fastest time we'd ever done it! 48 seconds!
By the time we came back in, it was our turn for Hearing and Vision. This was about 40 or so minutes before lunch; hopefully plenty of time for us to finish. But the helpers were not all set to go by 11:15, so we had to wait. Thankfully, I'd thought to have my kids bring their read to self books to the gym, so they read while they waited. Or, most of them read. Some got distracted. We wrapped up just as the 3rd and 4th graders finished getting their lunch. The 7th and 8th graders are supposed to eat after us, but they were also supposed to get screened right after us too. So they got lunch late and therefore got to recess late. And you can imagine the fuss they made.
Mr. E and I came up with a plan that the 5th and 6th graders would have normal recess (so he could keep his normal math schedule). I would give the 7th and 8th graders extra recess, cutting into our class time a bit. They were presenting their geography projects, so it wasn't too big a deal since we can present another day too. Not everyone could present in one day. We were supposed to have bells, but with the late recess thing, we just skipped today. I'm wondering how our second bell song is going to go... we're not having practice Thursday either since we have a guest speaker... Tomorrow I want them to write in the rhythms on their music during study hall; hopefully that will help them play better. One song we have down. But the tricky one has lots of running eighth notes and some syncopated rhythms that are super fast (16th notes!). It needs work. We're running out of time too! We might need to skip that song. Or modify it so it's not so long. Or just practice more.
Well, I think it's time for me to head home. I ran all my errands yesterday, so I don't have too much on my agenda tonight. I stopped at the library and stocked up on books, got groceries, got a flu shot. (My arm was super sore last night, but today it's been pretty good.) The rain that was in the forecast has arrived; it's pouring. I was hoping it would miss us. I'm seeing some combines and semis giving up and going home. But to look on the positive side, it's the perfect weather for curling up with the book that's been calling my name all day!
Monday, October 3, 2016
VIP Day
VIP day was a success!
The start of the morning is always a little nerve-wracking... parents and grandparents and other relatives spend a half an hour in the classrooms, though it's actually a little longer since a lot of them drop the kids off at school. So we had visitors come in starting around 8:15am. We did our normal morning stuff, which by now is routine, but it's different when you have an audience. My kiddos were pretty quiet. We did religion class instead of a game like some of the younger grades do. Today's topic was Jacob and Esau. I'd read the story last night like I usually do, just to refresh my memory and read up on the notes in my study bible for the story. We got in a big circle, VIPs sitting next to their people, and worked our way through the Bible a few verses at a time. My kids were again super quiet. But we got through the whole story in a half an hour! I thought it'd maybe take us two days. One of the grandparents came up to me later (after school at the volleyball game) and said it was one of the best bible studies he's ever been to. Wow!
At 9:00 we moved to the gym for donuts. And after donuts, Douglas Wood. He was great! Everyone had a good time, from young to old (even the 7th and 8th graders...). He had us sing a super catchy song that most of us hummed the rest of the day.
It must've put us in a musical mood because the 7th and 8th graders were singing old musical songs during their study hall today. They had me play some of the songs (on the computer) while they were working. It was one big sing-along! Glad to know the songs stuck with them!
Chemistry class today got interesting. The 5th and 6th graders are learning about molecules; today's topic was electrons in orbitals. We got a little deeper in content than most 5th and 6th grade classes, but I think they all understood it for the most part! I used muffin tins as a way for them to understand electrons in orbitals. Every element has a certain number of empty spaces in its muffin tin (orbital). Other elements can plop their electrons (muffins) in the missing spaces to fill the tin. That's how molecules stick together! Woo! Science! We're doing a lab tomorrow where they get to make molecules from marshmallows and toothpicks. They're super excited. Everyone wanted to know if they could keep the marshmallows after they were done. Or if they could eat them. Nope and nope. Science supplies are never to be eaten. Hopefully no one tries to sneak a snack tomorrow...
The start of the morning is always a little nerve-wracking... parents and grandparents and other relatives spend a half an hour in the classrooms, though it's actually a little longer since a lot of them drop the kids off at school. So we had visitors come in starting around 8:15am. We did our normal morning stuff, which by now is routine, but it's different when you have an audience. My kiddos were pretty quiet. We did religion class instead of a game like some of the younger grades do. Today's topic was Jacob and Esau. I'd read the story last night like I usually do, just to refresh my memory and read up on the notes in my study bible for the story. We got in a big circle, VIPs sitting next to their people, and worked our way through the Bible a few verses at a time. My kids were again super quiet. But we got through the whole story in a half an hour! I thought it'd maybe take us two days. One of the grandparents came up to me later (after school at the volleyball game) and said it was one of the best bible studies he's ever been to. Wow!
At 9:00 we moved to the gym for donuts. And after donuts, Douglas Wood. He was great! Everyone had a good time, from young to old (even the 7th and 8th graders...). He had us sing a super catchy song that most of us hummed the rest of the day.
It must've put us in a musical mood because the 7th and 8th graders were singing old musical songs during their study hall today. They had me play some of the songs (on the computer) while they were working. It was one big sing-along! Glad to know the songs stuck with them!
Chemistry class today got interesting. The 5th and 6th graders are learning about molecules; today's topic was electrons in orbitals. We got a little deeper in content than most 5th and 6th grade classes, but I think they all understood it for the most part! I used muffin tins as a way for them to understand electrons in orbitals. Every element has a certain number of empty spaces in its muffin tin (orbital). Other elements can plop their electrons (muffins) in the missing spaces to fill the tin. That's how molecules stick together! Woo! Science! We're doing a lab tomorrow where they get to make molecules from marshmallows and toothpicks. They're super excited. Everyone wanted to know if they could keep the marshmallows after they were done. Or if they could eat them. Nope and nope. Science supplies are never to be eaten. Hopefully no one tries to sneak a snack tomorrow...
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