Whew, my feet are ready for a break! I should've worn more comfy shoes this week; I've been standing a lot more than I'm used to, so now my feet are sore. Oh well, we have a nice long weekend to rest them up.
We had another good day at school. The 7th and 8th graders seemed more like their normal selves (paying attention, asking questions, less overall attitude). It was nice.
The 5th and 6th graders and I had good discussions again. We came up with an idea for the 'take a break' area. We're calling it the Focus Folder and we had lots of ideas of where it should go and how it should be done so if someone needs to calm down, no one will be able to watch them. Basically, we came up with a subtle way for people to calm down if they need to. They can go get a drink (removing themselves from the situation), or find a corner of the room and cover themselves up with a giant piece of cardboard so no one can see them, kind of making a cave.
We even have the cardboard for it. My new magnetic whiteboard arrived this morning! It's leaning against the wall in my classroom waiting for someone to install it. Hopefully it magically gets hung over the weekend.
Volleyball practice today was good too. I worked with the B squad on rotating and serving and I think we'll be okay for our first game on Tuesday.
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Tangled up in Volleyball
Ufda, today was a day that kept on going!
School was good. Lots of questions, lots of tangents... but lots of learning too, so it's all good. We picked Student Council members, one from 5th and one from 6th. There was a tie for the 6th grade nominee... both boys in my room ran for 'office', and since it was a tie, I had them give a campaign speech. Surprisingly, both boys were very civil about it and even shook hands before the final vote. The winner won by only one vote, but even so, they were both good sports.
Our first volleyball practice was after school and we had troubles. First, the 7-8th graders hadn't set up the nets like I had asked. Second, the net was all knotted and tangled up. Mr. E couldn't even get it undone! I sat there while another coach ran practice, working at it until I finally got it straightened out. Third, the covers over the holes for the net posts had been covered with floor wax. We had to use a box cutter to scrape out the wax and pry the covers up before we could put up the net. So I got in on the last half an hour of practice.
Right after practice I had to zip in to New Ulm for a chiropractor appointment and then ran errands. I went all over town and didn't get home until about 8:15. My prescriptions for Guatemala were in at HyVee, so since I was there I got a flu shot. Blech, I hate shots. Now my arm is sore. I have to get another one from the doctor in a few weeks in preparation for Guatemala, so the fun's not over yet!
Of course I stopped at the library. I checked out way too many books... when will I have time to read them! And I also had a lovely chat with the children's librarian there. We talked Summer Reading Program, NaNoWriMo, edible book festival, Writer's Workshop, Daily 5, and a whole bunch of other stuff. She actually knows stuff about Writer's Workshop! Yay! Someone to bounce ideas off! And she used it in her classroom for many years. I took notes while we talked and have a bunch of new ideas for my class now. She thought my class should bring some of our finished written things to the library to have on display (another way to 'publish' them). Awesome idea!
When I got home, I discovered that the lid was not on my two gallon water cooler tight enough, and it had tipped over on the way home, so all two gallons of water drained out into my car seats. Great.
But, to end on a positive, I have internet at home now! My friend who works at MVL knew I was looking for internet at home to finish up my freelance writing gig from this summer, and she also knew a teacher from MVL lived in my apartment building. So she asked this teacher if she'd be willing to share internet with me. The teacher said yes! So I'm paying part of her bill in exchange for the internet password. Yay!
So far I've been too busy to do much freelance writing, but maybe next week will slow down some...
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Little Sponges
Whew, first day of school is in the books! It was quite the day. I always forget how much the incoming 5th graders don't know. Not that that's a bad thing... it reminds me how much I need to teach them. The 6th graders this year were SO EXCITED to tell the 5th graders how EVERYTHING works in our classroom. While that was great for the 6th graders (they were excited, they remembered stuff, they got right into the swing of things again), the 5th graders were kind of overwhelmed by all the information bombarding them on all sides, so I think a few of them shut down.
We got so excited doing DOL and a tiny bit of Writing Workshop and sharing our writing (and read-aloud time... we're reading Holes by Louis Sachar) and explaining Daily 5 that we only had about 20 minutes to do actual reading. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.
The 7th and 8th graders' first lesson fell a bit flat today. It was kind of a 'meh' topic and they weren't super excited to be here. Although, I'm not sure how many of them are ever excited to be here. I have one folding table set up this year, but it's perpendicular to the board, so I'm limiting the amount of people who can sit there to three. The other boys who tried to sit there were not happy to find that the only open seats were at the girl pods. There were two desk options, and I could tell he didn't want to pick for himself (cause then it might show that he likes one of the girls more than the other!) so I picked a stick for him. But he ended up sitting at the other desk anyway. Bleh, I can tell that's going to be a constant battle this year. Still, it's not enough to make me leave another white table up.
For lunch, we had the big folding table to sit at and then we put up a mini-folding table. It worked well! All 11 of us fit around both tables perfectly.
The 7th and 8th graders convinced me to read-aloud to them while they worked on homework/spelling. We are finishing the Spy School book we didn't finish last year. The 7th graders are a bit lost since they weren't around to hear the first half of the book, but I think they figured out what was going on. We're at the climax of the book, so it's intense enough they want to keep reading even if they're a bit lost.
In the afternoon during American history the 5th and 6th graders and I went off on a bit of a tangent... ISIS. It started when I told them the meaning of culture. Just because many people in America look the same doesn't mean we all have the same culture. Then a 5th grader said she saw a person at the store who wore stuff on her head, which lead to talk of terrorists and stereotypes and life in the Middle East and Islam and how different religions were formed and what are common religions today and how do we know which one is right and are those people going to heaven too and... yeah, you get the picture. So we had some very interesting discussions during our American history time. We went out for recess 10 minutes late because they kept asking questions!
After school I had a Guatemala committee meeting at 3:00. We finalized plans for our last official fundraiser before we leave in October. It's a spaghetti supper on Friday, September 15th, from 5-7. Hopefully it's well attended! That week is crazy busy with volleyball, but such is life. The Thursday before the fundraiser we have a home volleyball game, so I might grab the girls that stay and have them help set up over at church before they play their game at five.
Speaking of volleyball, I have sand volleyball tonight, so I better head for home and eat supper beforehand. My goal this year (again) is to leave school around 5:30 or so. I'm also trying to get to school earlier in the morning, around 7:15 instead of 7:30, which means I actually have to get up when my 6 o'clock alarm goes off. No more snooze button! Or that's my goal at least. We'll see how long it lasts...
We got so excited doing DOL and a tiny bit of Writing Workshop and sharing our writing (and read-aloud time... we're reading Holes by Louis Sachar) and explaining Daily 5 that we only had about 20 minutes to do actual reading. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.
The 7th and 8th graders' first lesson fell a bit flat today. It was kind of a 'meh' topic and they weren't super excited to be here. Although, I'm not sure how many of them are ever excited to be here. I have one folding table set up this year, but it's perpendicular to the board, so I'm limiting the amount of people who can sit there to three. The other boys who tried to sit there were not happy to find that the only open seats were at the girl pods. There were two desk options, and I could tell he didn't want to pick for himself (cause then it might show that he likes one of the girls more than the other!) so I picked a stick for him. But he ended up sitting at the other desk anyway. Bleh, I can tell that's going to be a constant battle this year. Still, it's not enough to make me leave another white table up.
For lunch, we had the big folding table to sit at and then we put up a mini-folding table. It worked well! All 11 of us fit around both tables perfectly.
The 7th and 8th graders convinced me to read-aloud to them while they worked on homework/spelling. We are finishing the Spy School book we didn't finish last year. The 7th graders are a bit lost since they weren't around to hear the first half of the book, but I think they figured out what was going on. We're at the climax of the book, so it's intense enough they want to keep reading even if they're a bit lost.
In the afternoon during American history the 5th and 6th graders and I went off on a bit of a tangent... ISIS. It started when I told them the meaning of culture. Just because many people in America look the same doesn't mean we all have the same culture. Then a 5th grader said she saw a person at the store who wore stuff on her head, which lead to talk of terrorists and stereotypes and life in the Middle East and Islam and how different religions were formed and what are common religions today and how do we know which one is right and are those people going to heaven too and... yeah, you get the picture. So we had some very interesting discussions during our American history time. We went out for recess 10 minutes late because they kept asking questions!
After school I had a Guatemala committee meeting at 3:00. We finalized plans for our last official fundraiser before we leave in October. It's a spaghetti supper on Friday, September 15th, from 5-7. Hopefully it's well attended! That week is crazy busy with volleyball, but such is life. The Thursday before the fundraiser we have a home volleyball game, so I might grab the girls that stay and have them help set up over at church before they play their game at five.
Speaking of volleyball, I have sand volleyball tonight, so I better head for home and eat supper beforehand. My goal this year (again) is to leave school around 5:30 or so. I'm also trying to get to school earlier in the morning, around 7:15 instead of 7:30, which means I actually have to get up when my 6 o'clock alarm goes off. No more snooze button! Or that's my goal at least. We'll see how long it lasts...
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