One and Done

*Sigh* boy am I glad today is over. It was pretty good, but still, I am fully ready for a two week break.

My classroom actually looks pretty good. It didn't take as long to tidy up as I thought it would. I can actually see the dark top of the lab table (the past two weeks it's been covered by art supplies). There are still a bunch of supplies waiting to be put back in the closet, but I think those can wait until Monday or Tuesday.

Our first program is Sunday afternoon and the second is Christmas Eve night. We are ready. The one bell song is a little shaky, but if two of my high bell players stay on rhythm we're okay. We practiced the tricky bit over and over after rehearsal was over. The two girls I kept the longest were not happy they had to wait to eat lunch.

I had another student who shut down because he didn't think he could get all his fixes done before presents/the all-school movie. He tends to rage and throw/kick/knock stuff over when he has a meltdown. Even though he had a few meltdowns, the damage was minimal in the classroom. He took off into the gym and threw frisbees and pinnies all over. It's a good thing most of my kiddos were motivated to stay on task today (the rest of them were actually pretty calm) so I felt okay leaving them to go talk to this kid. I tried 'resetting' him a few times, encouraging him to keep trying, he had time to turn it around and get his work done, but the poor guy had just given up on life/school/himself and wanted to go home. He called his mom who encouraged him to tough it out. The rest of the day was a struggle, but we both got through it and he did get all his work finished in time to join the rest of the school at the movie!

Presents were good, as usual. This class didn't get into the letter present idea as much as other classes did. My kids gave me lotion, cozy socks and chocolate, a new 8x8 pan, Maurices gift card, Chicken in a Biscuit crackers and banana chips (some of my favorite snacks), honey (the student said they'd harvested it from their hives just last night!), and a fancy woven beaded bracelet a student made (he took it to the fair and got a purple ribbon!).

Then, Mr. E gave me a present to make up for the mix-up yesterday. It turns out he'd had my name all along but he checked the wrong pocket... The first year we did name swaps, he forgot who he had and had to ask every teacher who they had so he could figure it out. The next year, he kept the name piece of paper in his suit pocket. This year, he did the same thing. But when he went to check whose name he had, he checked the wrong suit coat! He found the name from last year's person. When he checked his other suit coat he found my name on the piece of paper. So he went overboard and got me a ton of minty things... some chocolate, some mint mints. Looks like I'll be set in the snack department for a while!

One Day Left!

I am so glad we only have one day of school left... my kids got the wandering virus and couldn't stay in their seats all day. I'm really glad we have program practice in the afternoon. I have no clue how I would be able to teach them anything with their constant restlessness.

The other day I left a note in one of the 2nd grade students' desks complimenting him on his awesome smile during singing/practice. He wrote me a note back that said, "Thanks Miss H! This is how small my pencil is." and then he had a tiny box drawn next to it. So cute!

We exchanged teacher gifts after school today. I had Pastor, who's gift request initials were CD. I gave him some Christmas decorations and chocolate drinks (cocoa). There was a mixup with names. Two people thought they had Mr. D (initials CC), so one teacher was the odd man out who didn't have a gift... and it happened to be me. The piano teacher had made Christmas cookies as her gift for Mr. D, so she just gave them to me instead. She had also gotten him coca-cola, candy canes, and a Christmas cartoon tie. He got the tie and she gave me the other things. Kind of a bummer, but such is life. My initials were SM, something minty.

Better

My kiddos were better today. Still not fantastic, but much better than they have been the rest of this week.

The morning started out really cold, so we had chapel in Mr. E's room. Normally we'd have chapel in the gym, except the electronic keyboard that we bring out from my room for music is not working. Last time, we couldn't get it to turn on. I'm hoping just the cord is broken and not the internal mechanism. Until we get a new one ordered, we'll have to be in Mr. E's room where there's a piano and space for all the kids.

After school I worked with a student who owed me five pieces of memory work from the past three weeks. The rule in our class is that you have to have all your work done before you get to open your present on Friday, so that's lit a fire under a lot of my students to buckle down and turn in their late stuff. I was pleasantly surprised that this student willingly studied his memory. The girls had practice first, boys had study hall. He wanted to be in the study hall room for a bit, so I told him a time he should come down to our classroom. He showed up! It took him less than an hour to get caught up on his memory: his program part (still shaky), two verses of "Savior of the Nations Come" and the 9th and 10th commandments and their meanings. All he has to do is catch up on math!

Tonight was our sister church's Christmas program. A bunch of my students were in it. It was fun to hear their parts and see what another church does. Actually... I'm pretty sure the program they used was one I wrote with three other girls in college for a class, "The Trees of Christmas". This church has a new DCE who used to work with one of my college friends who'd written it with me. I'm guessing they used the program at that school, and now this lady thought since the Redeemer people hadn't heard it before, she'd use it again here. Fair enough.

After the service, two of my former students (now in high school) handed out the traditional treat bags to the kids as they left. One of them noticed me and said, "Oh look! It's Miss H! Let's give her a treat bag... She's a kid." So I left church with a treat bag. Oh the perks of being a teacher!

Movie

I had no idea I could get so exhausted from watching a movie with my class...

Last week for religion we read through the Nativity story in Luke and Matthew. Monday, we did a play about the resurrection written by one of the 6th graders. Today, we watched The Nativity Story, a wonderfully historical movie of Jesus's birth. It puts me in the Christmas mood every time I watch it. It's only an hour and 40 minutes, but it took us two and a half hours to watch it because we had to keep pausing it. Part of the pauses were to explain what was going on and why the movie people put the stuff in there (and if it was in the bible or if it just got added for dramatic effect), but a bunch of pauses were to get wiggles out or to get kids to stop talking.

The first half went great! After that they got restless. One boy had made popcorn for snack. He decided to share with a classmate by dumping some over the back of the couch on top of that classmate. The dumper said that the classmate had been holding his hands out. The classmate said he didn't actually want any. The end of the story is that popcorn ended up all over the floor and in the couch. I had them vacuum the mess up. The vacuum ended up staying in our classroom tipped over on the floor the rest of the day because none of them could bother to put it back where they got it. Yeah, that's the kind of day we had.

Sigh. Lots of meltdowns.

Program practice went super well today! The bell songs got added in and sounded pretty good. The costume people remembered to go where they were supposed to and when. The songs sound AMAZING! Walking out went pretty good too. We're going to practice walking in tomorrow.

Wordles

This weekend I put the wordles/word clouds together for each of my students. They turned out super cool! I secretively printed them off after school today. Most of them printed fine, but a few with really dark backgrounds have strange lines through them. The printer must be dirty, but I don't know where/how to clean it so streaks don't show up when I print from my computer. Eventually I gave up. The lines kind of look like they're supposed to be there. *shrug* Maybe they won't notice. I'm hoping to have time tonight to stick them in the frames and wrap them.

Program practice went well today. The songs sound AWESOME! I also came up with some acting our costume part kids can do during a few of the songs and the Nativity bible reading part. So far we've kept our program practice to the hour long and haven't gone over. Tomorrow I want to add the bell songs to the mix, which will make practice longer, but hopefully we won't need to repeat instructions/redo certain songs. We did that a bunch today.

It's coming together! It's hard to believe there's only four more days of school left this week and less than a week until our first program!

Gone

By the end of the day, I was down to eight students (normally 12).

We started with one kid home sick with a sore throat. The next one we lost at about 10:00 due to an ear infection. The last two went home at 1:30 because they're not participating in the Christmas program and their mom picked them up early so they wouldn't have to sit in the pews for an hour doing nothing. It was very strange to have so few kids!

Program practice went well, aside from one mic deciding to malfunction most of practice. We didn't have any risers set up, but the kids found their spots anyway and we ran through the whole thing in about 40min or so, not including bell songs, including a few stops and starts for notes along the way.

Prior to that, the 6-8th graders practiced bells again since our one song is so hard. It actually sounds really cool! Today we added the tone chimes for the first time and that in particular sounds really good. We only have two more practices to get everything down pat, but I'm hoping we'll have enough time to run through bell songs during practice every day.

Can you believe it's only 12 days until Christmas??? We only have five days of school left this month...

Adjectives

Yesterday I had my kids write at least five positive adjectives describing each person in our classroom. I'm going to turn it into a Word Cloud, stick each person's in a picture frame, and give it to them for Christmas. It's going to be awesome. The kids with older siblings have forgotten about it (or at least they haven't brought it up) and so far no one suspects a thing!

It's interesting to hear what words they think of when they picture their classmates. A lot of the adjectives are words I've heard those students say 'I'm not..." [smart, athletic, funny, etc.]. I can't wait to see their faces when they see them!

It's also interesting to see which kids know/get along with each other the best. Or worst as the case may be. One boy gave all the girls the same adjectives: nice smart unique friendly fun. At the bottom of the page he wrote, "I do not know the girls that much."

I told them it was optional to pick words describing me, but a few did anyway. I'm still waiting to get some of the papers back (they're due tomorrow), but it sure was a pick-me-up to read their words for me, especially with all the behavior issues I've had to deal with this year: neat, nice, bright, caring, creative, funny, good, loyal, kind, sharing, creative, generous, friendly, encouraging, smart, neat, adventurous, honest, helpful, selfless, warmhearted, educated, loving, polite, understanding.

Nativity

Today was a much better day than Monday and Tuesday. I actually had a (mostly) fun day being a teacher!

This morning I saw the 7-8th graders art project parent Christmas present and I suddenly remembered that I should do something with my class too. Oops. Better think about that. At lunchtime I asked my kids what they thought we should do for parent presents and one 6th grade boy said we should make nativity scenes. What a great idea!

It's a good thing I have a ton of art supplies in the closet... We had a bunch of non-movable clothespins and a few pinecones left to use as the people bodies (or stable building supplies as it turns out). I have a ton of beads and wooden things and buttons. The kids and I were so excited about it, I decided we should build on that excitement and just start art today. We skipped social studies. Such is life. They had a great time figuring out the best way to build a stable. Not many of them have worked on their nativity figures yet. The boys asked if they could work on their project during their basketball study hall after school. I cleaned out the closet while they did and we both made major progress on our tasks. They look so good! I'll have to take a picture.They surpassed all my expectations so far and I'm expecting them to get passed even more!

Jump Rope

Afternoon recess today was a blast! Two girls brought out the long jump rope and we jumped all recess. I taught them the 'teddy bear, teddy bear' rhyme. They were all impressed with my jumping skills (spinning, touching the ground, etc), but none of them were brave enough to try.

They were brave enough to run in when we were twirling. One girl who's normally so adventurous kept screaming any time she got close to the rope. She just couldn't commit to running through! We were having so much fun some of the basketball boys came over and jumped in. It was great to get some of the kids who aren't normally very active at recess getting lots of good exercise!

Christmas

Yesterday my youth group coleader and I took three kids to Christmas at Bethany. Of course the best is when you are actually in it and singing/playing, but it was good to be an audience member. My favorite parts are still the opening and closing songs. I was in band when Professor Lo first arranged those songs. Each day he'd come in with new music, telling us to get rid of the old one, it wasn't good anymore! It was so frustrating because it seemed like we'd never learn to play the new music with such short time before the concert, but it came together. And it's been played every year since!

After the concert we drove through the Kwanis Holiday Lights and went out to eat. It was a long day. Then I went home and did my lesson plans until bedtime.

Today's drive to school wasn't super fun. The road to school hadn't been plowed so I drove through little drifts most of the way. The wind has thankfully died down, and so has the temperature. The heating guys worked on my heater for a good chunk of the day. They had to melt off the frost that's been building up on the outside unit. It turns out a bunch of the information I'd been told about the heaters is not true... the remotes are not the thermostats; the thermostat is on top of each unit. Because it's on top of the unit, the electric heat that's above them messes with their thermometer so the new heat units think the room is warmer than it is. The guys shut off one side of the electric heat so that shouldn't be an issue any more. They're going to check back in a few days to see if frost is still building up on the outside fan. If it is, they'll build a windbreak or get a cover for it.

My kids were not great today. One kid basically ignored me most of the day. We only read aloud for five minutes because they were just too squirrely. I blame it on the weather and that it's a Monday. Praying tomorrow goes better.

Outside Recess

My boys fight me on outside recess. They complain that there's nothing to do outside; they want to practice basketball. My answer: guess what, there's a basketball hoop outside. They don't like that hoop because for a long time the net was tight and the balls would get stuck in it. Now it has stretched out and it doesn't happen so often but they're still leery of it. Their next complaint is that there's ice on the blacktop, so the balls get dirty. Well, such is life. We're in the gym most of the time for recess, when it's nice out, we should go outside.

I'm pretty proud of myself for getting the guys to have fun at recess, or at the very least be active. It started with them saying there was nothing to do.
Me: So play 4-square.
Them: No, who's going to play with us?
Me: I will.
Them: Eh... there's ice everywhere. (there wasn't ice everywhere)
Me: How about hopscotch?
Them: HOPSCOTCH! What even is hopscotch?

So I showed them how to play. Then I threw a chunk of ice on the squares to make it harder. Soon they were hopping through it faster and faster. I mixed it up with math facts: do only odd numbers, multiples of three, prime numbers, etc. They came up with some ideas of what to jump on too. They spent most of the rest of recess jumping hopscotch.

Busy

We had the shortest staff meeting of the year after school today. Basketball season is in full swing so Mr. E's schedule is quite packed. There were home games starting at 4:30, so we squeezed in a meeting from 3-4pm. A parent was supposed to watch all the kids who'd stayed after school (all the basketball players) in the gym, but at the last minute we found out he wasn't coming. So all the kids who'd been playing freely in the gym (it was like Lord of the Flies in there, but before they got to the death/violent part) had to go to Mr. E's room to be watched by a bossy 8th grader. Thankfully another parent volunteered to come watch and after a half an hour of being stuck in a classroom they were able to get back to the gym.

After our meeting I met up with a college friend followed by my community ed shop class. I finished early since I was the only one in my class; my planter looks pretty good if I say so myself! My teacher and I talked about future class offerings. The next level is to make a chair. I asked if we could try making one of those chairs that can flip over into a step stool. He said if I can send him the plan to look over, he'd be willing to try something new! So, I'll add that to my to-do list. It sounds like if I have ideas of something else I'd like to make we can probably work on them together... I'll have to scrounge my Pinterest board for other ideas I want to try...

It was supposed to be Mr. W's last day today, but he missed Tuesday and his afternoon class tomorrow was cancelled, so he's coming back to give the 7-8th graders their Ancient Asia test. They had a study day today and did okay. My class did a practice US citizenship test with Mr. W. They were surprised at what types of things you need to know! I was happy to see that most of the questions are on things we're going to learn about later on this year.

Africa

We had a special chapel today for a pastor we have connections with who is moving to Africa in January to teach at the seminary. It was cool to see pictures of the places he and his wife will be living and working.

The 7-8th graders did a penny oxidation lab where they tried to clean pennies in various liquids. We used pine sol, windex, vinegar, peach juice, toilet bowl cleaner, sierra mist, mineral oil, and maybe some others. The cleaners worked the best, especially pine sol. Orange juice made it turn black. Ketchup started getting stuff off but it wasn't too noticeable.

The 8th graders went down to Mrs. L's room for bells with the 5th graders, so the 7th graders helped with cleanup. Afterwards, we played a new game I got for Word Work, which is basically Scattergories, but it's called 60 Second Slam!. It's hard to get many words in 60 seconds!

My shop class last night was fun. I was the only person who'd signed up, so it went quicker than the class typically does. My planter is about halfway finished; I'll go back Thursday to put the final pieces together. Tonight I'm going to our sister church's Advent service. Immanuel doesn't have Advent services for some reason.

Sick

Nope, not me. Not my students. It was Mr. W.

I found out at 12:10 that he was too sick to come to school today. He was supposed to teach at 12:30. He called the school when he hadn't gotten a response to the email he'd sent me at 10am this morning. I hardly ever have time to check my email during the day, especially now that I don't have a projector remote to freeze the board when the projector is on. Still, it went okay.

Mr. W had sent me the 7-8th grade ancient history lesson Sunday afternoon and I'd looked over it on Monday. He hadn't made any of the changes I'd wanted him to, but I knew enough about his lesson that we could do the gist of it. It was pretty short, so I finished up our science powerpoint with the rest of class time and it worked out okay. I hope he's feeling better enough to send me his lesson plan for Thursday (a review game and test).

Sunday after I got back home I put up my Christmas tree and some other decorations. I bought a light timer planning to use it with my plants, but I really love seeing my tree lights through the window when I walk up after coming home, so I have my tree lights plugged into it now. I have the timer set so it turns on shortly after I wake up, shuts off right before I need to leave for school (to help me get out of the house on time), turns on between 5-5:30 (to encourage me to leave school on time), and turns off again right around bedtime. It will hopefully be a good visual cue!

I got a second timer to use at school with the greenhouse. This one is set to turn off close to 5pm (again, to remind me to go home!). The lack of light from that corner of the room is definitely noticeable!

We had more heater trouble today. It was cold and using electric heat when I got to school this morning. Our room eventually heated up, it even got a little too hot this afternoon and I turned it down, but now I should probably turn it back up to keep the temperature steady overnight. It's just going to get a little hot in here in the meantime. Another reason for me to go home!

First Day Back

Thanksgiving break was wonderful... tons of time with family, a bunch of reading time, no papers to correct... The drive home Sunday night wasn't fantastic, but I went slow and made it without any troubles. The hardest part was that a lot of the road was dry, but every so often there were slick spots, so you had to go slow so you wouldn't hit them too fast.

My new classroom heaters are not keeping up with the cold. I'm really glad they left in the electric heat, but that's only set at 66 degrees. I keep the new ones set at 70 degrees, but the highest the room ever got today was 69, so I have to set it higher. Another science experiment to fiddle with.

My kids were not at their best today. Too many squirrely bodies. A parent sent me the name of a classroom management book I should check out (she's a social worker, and I'd told her if she found anything useful to send it my way, so it's okay, but it still stings a little for a parent to tell me that I need a classroom management book... eh, I'll get over it). It's not in any public library system in Minnesota, the BLC library, or the MSU library. It's on Goodreads, but no one has read/reviewed it. I'm the first to 'want to read' it. I found it on Amazon and only three people have reviewed it. Their reviews are positive, but I don't know that I want to buy it until I've read it myself. I'm waiting to hear from the parent if she has access to the book or not.

Speaking of books... ALL my students completed their NaNo goals in November! Two boys finished their books on the last day. I kept checking the class NaNo page over break to see how far they were getting. In all total, my class of 12 students (plus me) wrote a collective 69,245 words in November (30,456 of them are mine). A few kids have met their goals but haven't finished their stories, so a handful of them are still racking up words. My highest writer is up to 10,000 words and still going strong!