#2- NaNo book launch

Tomorrow is the last day of school. Everyone is anxiously awaiting that day. My cold is slowly getting better. I actually had some energy after I got home from school. Today, my nose is less stuffy, but I still have gunk in my lungs... I hope it's not pneumonia. My plan is to tough it out through the weekend and if I'm still feeling sick Monday, go in.

A bunch of kids cleaned out their desks today. They turned in some of their textbooks and cleaned off the lab table too. The 7-8th graders had a ton of things due today. Most handed them in; I still need to check the pile. Some made deals with me to turn things in in the morning. One kid hollered at me from the line for the bus that he's going to hand his science test in tomorrow morning. I told him no, it's due today before you leave school. He said he couldn't stay after because he had baseball... maybe he could drop it off at my house later? Uhhh... hmmm... I'm not sure if I'm going to accept it. Maybe depending on what time he drops it off??? We'll see if I've corrected the tests by then.

Mr. E and I sent out a notice earlier this week that everything had to be turned in Thursday or it would be an incomplete/0% in the grade book. One of the 8th graders had a long list that he never turned in (as far as I know). He didn't stay after so those are all going to be zeros. A 6th grader had 11 late math assignments. She didn't want to stay after school to do them. Mr. E and I tried to convince her to stay and do them so she would get a passing grade in math. She chose to go on the bus. Sigh. These kids. They make me want to pull my hair out!!!

Before I go home today I need to get the pinatas ready for smashing tomorrow. Four out of five groups are finished. That means one group doesn't get candy... I also need to set out the BINGO prizes so we can pass them out tomorrow.

The book launch went well today! Here are my kids' books this year:

Some of them designed their own covers. I wrapped the books in brown paper so my students would be surprised. It was a hit!

Our 4th quarter offering was for the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch, and they had a representative come to our school to talk about their mission. They brought honey for the teachers and seeds/a fidget bender thing for each student. We saw pictures and got to ask questions. This afternoon we even connected what we learned about them to our MN history lesson!

#3- Chew gum

Today was a day of sharing... some kids forgot to bring gum, while others brought a whole pack. It was nice to see the 'whole pack' kids giving gum to their forgetful classmates!

It was so nice out today that we read aloud outside again. It worked mostly okay. My voice is still pretty weak and it was hard to hear me in all areas of the playground. The kids were supposed to move so they could hear me, but some of them didn't. They got a little squirrely, playing on the playground equipment while 'listening' to me read. I made some of them sit closer to me when I caught them not paying attention.

We read thirty pages today. There's about 100 pages left. That means we need to read 50 pages tomorrow and Friday to finish our book on time. I think I can skip a bunch of the parts coming up, so we might be able to make it. I know I've said it before, but I still can't believe the last day of school is the day after tomorrow!

Today was a bit of a bummer. I gave the 7-8th graders my end of the year teacher survey I normally give. The trip itineraries they've been doing for each continent? The project I thought was so great and full of authentic learning that is useful in life, etc. etc.? Yeah, they told me they feel like they haven't learned anything by doing them. They were like 'what is the point of doing them?' Sigh. I wish they would've said that months ago! We could've switched back to the other type of project I had geography students do prior to this year.

I still think the trip project is a good one. The right kids will learn a ton by creating an itinerary. But I understand that some students aren't going to get much out of it if all they do is visit aquariums and zoos. My thoughts now are to give kids the choice if they want to plan a trip or do a project on a topic for each continent. If they pick the trip, they'll need to include specific kinds of tourist places: some relating to geography, history, government, etc. That might make them learn a little more.

It's too bad the 5-6th graders ended our science unit on a frustrating lab. They voted to do MN history tomorrow instead of science. Less work for me! Now I don't have to set a lab up. But it makes me a little sad they aren't loving this type of science. There are a few cool labs we never got to do! Maybe next time, we should make a voltaic battery as a class experiment to keep up morale.

#4- Miss H brings treats

Caswell Softball Day today. I brought gingersnaps (I baked before I got sick) as our treat. We shared with the 7-8th graders too.

The day went well: we didn't lose a single game! 1st place in the tournament!

I went through all my kleenex, a few cough drops, and sounded pretty croaky by the end of the afternoon. Back to the couch with tea/honey!

Can you believe there are only three days of school left for us???

#5- Watch a Wishbone Episode

Oh man, my cold is being tough on me! I am/was pretty miserable all day. Last night I actually thought about telling Mr. E I couldn't come in today, but there were some things I needed to teach my class today that couldn't be pushed off, and it's so hard to find subs, so I toughed it out.

I'm leaving school shortly to go home and rest. I don't have a ton of papers to correct tonight. I got a few of them corrected while my class watched their Wishbone episode this morning. The 7-8th graders also got to watch a movie (Storks), but we did learning first!

This Friday is the last day of school so I'm trying to cram as many things in as I can (mostly for science and social studies). We did World War II last week, started the Cold War today. We'll see if I can squeeze in the Vietnam War before Friday.

#6- Recess all day!

Guess what... it's Track and Field Day... ;)

A day full of athletic events. I always work the long jump pit (which always runs late). On a typical track and field day, I have hardly any time to eat my lunch before needing to report to the track for the afternoon running events. We'll see how the other teachers and I do keeping everything on track. I don't recognize any of the names of the teachers scheduled to help at that station, but I guess we'll see if I know their faces.

#7- Redo Round

My kids are so impressed with my planning abilities. Yesterday, our special activity was sit anywhere for the day, chosen on a Wednesday so they wouldn't have to move their desks into a circle for religion class (we have chapel on Wednesdays). Today, their activity was an extra redo round so they could finish up their spelling/handwriting/memory since I was a tough cookie and told them yesterday they have to get their work done before lunch.

It was a rough morning. These kids don't do their homework at home!!! I had five out of 12 students have to have a late lunch because of memory work. I eventually told them if they said one part of their memory work, they could eat. One boy still hadn't said his half by the time recess was over, so I let him eat. Sigh. Frustrating.

I just printed off my last week lesson plan for the year. It's weird to think that next Friday is our last day, but I'm also glad. This week has been a tough one.

Tonight was our Variety Night. I am kind of in charge of this event... typing the program, putting together the powerpoint for the projector, collecting the names of the acts/people from teachers, coming up with ideas for our teacher skit. We filmed another couple days this week. Mrs. L's husband did an awesome job editing the video. It's ten minutes long, but it sure doesn't feel like it! When he uploads it to YouTube, I'll add a link.

The kids LOVED it. They thought it was hilarious. I thought it was hilarious! The parents and grandparents thought it was hilarious. Root beer floats afterwards went well too. We had enough of everything and only ran out of cups (thankfully PTL had a bunch handy, so we snagged a few more from them). We ran out of plastic spoons too. My second year teaching one mom bought us a gigantic box of 600 plastic spoons. It's lasted this long! I guess if that's 100 spoons per year, I am wrapping up year seven.

#8- Sit Anywhere For the Day

Whew, I'm glad this day is over, mostly because of my students being scattered all over the room for 'sit anywhere day'. I had two sitting on the couch, two behind the door where my keyboard usually goes, a long line of boys in the middle of the room, two girls by the lab table...

It seemed like they were WAY messier today. Some of them complained that they couldn't see very well. Well, it was your choice to sit in that spot. Before they went home they did get the classroom back to normal. *cue big sigh of relief*

We tried having MN history this morning again so we could practice our caterpillar skit at church this afternoon. We were hoping the rain would quit by then. It didn't. I drove the kids over (and the bell stuff), but almost all of them wanted to walk/run back to school. I let them, but they weren't allowed to complain that they were all wet!

After school, some of the other teachers and I set up the black curtains as our backdrop for Variety Night tomorrow. I touched base with the parent buying our class groceries for root beer floats afterwards; she's bringing the stuff tonight. Programs and projector powerpoints should be ready too! I think everything is set. Now I just need to figure out what to wear...

#9- Listen to Music

We had a good learning day today in 5-6th grade. We covered all of the New Testament in religion except for Luke and Acts (my goal is to read through both of them by the end of the year). We went over how to analyze the data from our last lab, did our rounds listening to music, and practiced our Variety Night skit over at church.

On the way back to school our school cook told us the oven quit working and she was using the ovens at church. It would be about a half-hour wait for our lunch. Eh, such is life, no big deal. That's long enough to accomplish something so I wasn't worried. I sent my kids back to their desks to work on something productive while I asked Mr. E what we wanted to do about our afternoon schedule. Then I remembered he was at a principal's meeting and the preschool teacher was subbing for him.

On my way down to their room, I passed a bunch of 8th graders dumping empty lunch trays. Weird. They eat after us. I asked them, surprised, "Did you guys already eat?"
"Yeah, just us 8th graders. We're going to an escape room and we had to eat before we left."
"When are you leaving?"
"Like now."

Uhhh, what? When was anyone going to tell the teacher so she could adjust her lesson plans??? Turns out a parent planned this excursion for the 8th graders and (from what I can tell) dropped it on us short notice. I think Mr. E and Ms. F had more notice than I did, but I was not very happy to have them ditch out on school today. We needed to finish our last geography lesson and practice for bells since we perform on Thursday. Ugh.

I ended up switching bell days with the 5th graders, again. I feel kind of bad taking all their bell practices away from them, but we need the practice. The 7th graders and I learned about Antarctica, finished early, and finished watching Mulan, the class movie we started a while ago. Too bad the 8th graders missed it. I really wish they'd gone after school sometime instead of during the school day.

Anyway, I ended up having class with the 5-6th graders before lunch and we had a very productive MN history lesson about WWII. Maybe I should do social studies before lunch more often. They had time for recess after lunch, then did math, then we had afternoon recess, then went home.

I wasn't planning to do my New Ulm run until Friday morning before Track and Field Day, but I had to go to town tonight to buy a succulent for one of my students. She gave me money to buy her mom one as a Mother's Day present and I don't have time any other night this week. Since I didn't have to be in town by any particular time, I stopped at home before I went to town and ended up taking the plastic off my porch since it was so nice out (and the plastic is ripping and the wood lath is falling off). Finally. It seemed like every time I would plan to do it, there would be snow in the forecast. I can see much better out my living room window now!

#10- Read Outside

It's hard to believe next Friday is the last day of school... There's enough time left I'm trying to squeeze in as much science and social studies as I can! Instead of doing a static/cereal lab in class, I sent it home as extra credit. Some kids said they're not even going to mention it to their parents because then their parents will make them do it. Some kids could really use the extra credit in science.

A lot of my kids have decided not to pay attention to me anymore. I'll speak directly to a student, think he's paying attention, he will turn and look at me two seconds later, see I'm staring at him and blankly stare back. Then it's revealed he hadn't paid attention to anything I was saying because... he just didn't.

I got another angry parent email today after school because of a comment I wrote on their spelling paper from last week. Two brothers wrote almost exactly the same answers on their spelling workbook page. Since plagiarism/copying other people's work is frowned upon at school (and can have lasting consequences in high school), I try to keep an eye out for it and correct it when they're young so it won't be on their permanent record. I jotted a note that they need to do their own work. And their mom flipped out. She said they worked on it as a family and had a great time doing it as a group; no one copied anyone. Also, she said their spelling words are too hard this week and neither she nor her husband had even heard of them or knew what they meant. And she was mad they got 1/2 a point taken off for doing it together.

Sigh.

The half a point was for missing periods at the end of the sentence. You should really have that down by 5th grade. I told her that (in nicer words) and also that I was happy no one had cheated and they had a good experience as a family. I went on to explain the focus of our spelling this year is on what word roots mean and how knowing that can help you figure out what other unfamiliar words mean if you recognize the root. Students are placed in spelling groups based on their abilities, and her sons are definitely high ability. I am confident they are up for the challenge. Etc, etc.

So. We'll see what she says.

In other news, we went outside to read this morning even though it was a little cold and windy because it's supposed to rain on and off the rest of the week. We had a good time out there. They got a little silly towards the end.

After school we teachers finished filming our Variety Night act. Poor Mr. E has to yell at everybody. We got Batman to make an appearance a few more times. The Baby Shark song that's all the rage makes an cameo. It's going to be hilarious.

#11- Drink Gatorade or Juice

Most kids forgot to bring different beverages today. Oh well. I'm not too sad about it.

The real excitement for today was going canoeing this morning. We had just barely enough time to do spelling tests and devotions before we left and we canoed until about 11am. After that it took a bit to load up the canoes/kayaks, then we went to the bank in Courtland to tour their vault.

Our day started sunny and beautiful, if a bit chilly. I wore my rubber boots, which was a wise choice. The water is really high on Swan Lake right now! There were tons of potholes in the gravel road to get to the access point and there was water sitting along the grass that bordered the road.

People paired up and staked out canoes. All our chaperones paddled this year! Our DNR man, Scott, got out three kayaks for us to use too. I got one and two kids got them. They're a lot easier to use than the canoes- less teamwork required. Some pairs had trouble working together. Others didn't have the muscle needed to power through the wind on our way back. The wind was at our backs, which made going out easy. Coming back was pretty tough and a lot of the girls wanted to give up. Lots of whining and complaining. But everyone made it back in the end! Scott had to trade places with one of the canoe paddlers so he could give enough muscle to get to shore. He ended up tying one of the out-of-energy canoes to his and towed them in.

The trip to the bank was pretty neat. The vault isn't very large and has an antique door. Pretty neat. The ladies gave us piggy banks and suckers. Who can complain about that?

Even though we'd spent all morning outside in the sunshine and chilly weather, they still wanted to eat outside. So we did. Our school is a little more sheltered than Swan Lake. The 7-8th graders are back from their trip, so we had a normal afternoon for once.

#12- Eat Lunch Outside

Today was National Day of Prayer. I happened to remember that right around lunchtime, when we were all sitting around the lunch table (we were supposed to eat lunch outside as our balloon activity today, but it was a little damp and chilly, so we're pushing it off until tomorrow). When I said that everyone all over the country gathers to pray today (especially at noon), they said we should do it too. So we did! We did our popcorn prayers right in the middle of our lunch. Some of the boys 'covertly' licked at the food on their trays while keeping their hands folded, trying to eat and pray at the same time.

The afternoon was spent at the MLC play, "The Cat in the Hat", a play produced based entirely on the book. I was impressed. The script was exactly what was written in the book, the set looked just like the illustrations. There was a 'voiceover' narrator (supposed to be the boy all grown up, it was a guy wearing a tux) and the fish was a girl wearing an orange dress and shiny fabric fins living in a clear 'bowl' made of tubing and clear plastic. They figured out a whole bunch of cool effects to use including sound effects when the Cat bounced a ball and breaking stuff. They also had the Things flying kites around the stage (on wire), a car with a secret trap door that let the 'car cleaning people' slip onto the stage when the Cat cleans up from his playtime. There's a part where the Cat balances on a ball holding the fish, three books in his hands, a rake, a saucer, cake, and a bunch of other stuff. The brother and sister helped add things to the Cat while he balanced on the ball. Their props slid together and attached so they couldn't actually fall, but it looked really impressive from the audience!

It was neat how they added more things to the story that aren't written in the book. There are no words added, but they found a way to make the story come alive in 3D and added to the Cat in the Hat's games. Thing 1 and Thing 2 were pretty cool too. All in all, it was very well done. I LOVED it and was glad all my students (and I) could go.

My pokey puppies got all their late work turned in, and it was only minorly stressful for me/them. One girl forgot her spelling test fixes at home, so I made her redo them. She said she'd left them on her desk at home, but they were done! I asked why she didn't put them in her backpack if they were so important. She didn't have an answer. Hence, her having to redo them. She ended up writing her spelling words on the bus, finishing the last assignment. And she got it done before we arrived! So she was able to watch the play. The other ones who'd had late work handed their stuff in before we came in from recess.

I had two kids stay after today working on things that are due tomorrow so they can go on the canoe trip in the morning. It's going to be a bit of crunch time in the morning to get everything done before we leave at 8:45. Our priorities are memory work and spelling tests. The rest can wait until we get back (we arrive in time for lunch).

I have a pile of papers to correct. My intention was to correct them once I got home from my errands, but I got sucked into prepping NaNos for publishing and didn't get a single one corrected. NaNos are proving more problematic than usual because the site I normally publish them on changed ownership. Now Amazon controls it. It's actually pretty similar to what I used before, but I had to spend a lot of time figuring the ins and outs of the new website. Then the NaNo site suggested a company to publish books on. It's SUPER easy to use, but there's no cover creator, so I messed around with that for a while. Then I went to check out (just to see how much a book would be) and it was about $20 for one book! Holy buckets! I love my students, but that's a lot of money to spend on them. The other site is usually about $3-4 per book. I think I'll muddle through my old faithful website.

The next books will be a lot easier to publish, now that I know what I'm doing. I might even let my kids design their own covers if they want. It'd save me a bunch of time! We'll see if we have time tomorrow. I want to get them ordered over the weekend so there's plenty of time for the books to arrive before the end of the school year.

#13- Make a Mother's Day Project

Uggggggg, my kids were CRAZY today. The 7-8th graders are on their class trip until Thursday afternoon, so mine are the upperclassmen of the school. They got to serve lunch, do crossing patrol for chapel, sit with the younger kids to keep them in line, and take offering. There were enough jobs that everyone could do something.

With the 7-8th graders gone, we didn't have math, which gave us time to do science and social studies on the same day. We finished our lesson on the Great Depression and did a lab making a volatic battery. Boy that was tough. Every group got frustrated with the battery building. First they didn't get it (they hadn't read the lab sheet), then they couldn't figure out how to work the voltmeter, and then they weren't getting a charge from their battery. I think the wire I gave them to use was too thick; there wasn't enough electricity to send through it so the voltmeter didn't record a charge. We switched to thinner wire and it worked a little better. We didn't have time for recess, which they weren't happy about.

We switched our day around and did our Daily 5 rounds in the afternoon and did social and art in the morning. My idea for a Mother's Day present was to glue rocks on a wooden disk in various shapes (google 'pebble art' and you'll get the idea). Unfortunately, I have 12 students and only 10 pieces of wood. I had some pots in the closet they could use too, and two girls took me up on it. One boy didn't want to use a pot or the tiny wood circles I had. So, I'm not sure what he's going to do. I asked a few students if they'd be able to cut a wood disk for him and bring it to school, but most kids said their dads are too busy to do it. Maybe I'll ask Pastor.

I had three kids stay after school today to catch up on late work. I gave them the ultimatum earlier in the week that they had to have all their work done in order to go on Thursday's and Friday's field trips. They got a bunch done, but they all went home with work to do. Sigh. I haven't decided if I'm going to make them bring their work along to the play and sit in the hallway and do it, or if we're going to stay back at school and work on it here. Hopefully they'll do everything they need to at home and I won't have to be the bad guy who makes them miss the MLC play...