Crazy Town

Whew!  I could use a few days off... but it's only Hump Day (my 5th graders kept repeating this fact for about a half an hour this afternoon).  The weather must be changing because it has been crazy these past few days.

Yesterday, I had volleyball practice, followed by a PTL meeting, with a plan to play sand volleyball afterwards.  PTL was full of drama.  Plans for our annual Pork Chop Dinner neglected to include someone who has diligently worked for the dinner many, many years (and was already working on this year's dinner).  After a very tense moment (or two), the situation got back on track and we were able to move forward with everyone on board. 

One of my student's parents wanted to talk after the meeting, and I had just enough time before volleyball... until we talked too long and I was going to be late.  Thankfully the team scheduled for the game before us hadn't finished playing, so I was right on time.  Another player showed up even later than I did, and it turns out she and I both went to Bethany around the same time.  I don't think she recognized me (or if she did, she didn't say).  But we're both going to the volleyball tournament on Saturday, so maybe it will come up in conversation then.

After the game, I caught up on my pile of correcting to do and fell into bed.

Today my class started the program Reading Eggs.  It's great!  They are all super excited to start making their avatar and decorate their apartments in Reading Egg land.  A few of them bought pets right away.  One 5th grader got two!  There were gasps of amazement when they saw the variety of pets available: dogs, cats, dragons, unicorns... the list goes on and on.  I can't wait to see what else they discover as they play/learn!

Once again, I had technology issues.  I still can't find my electric piano cord; the IT guys are just going to order me another one.  But who knows how long that will take.  My projector went wacky when I was trying to teach the 7th and 8th graders about mineral formations.  The screen was off center, so half the slide was cut off.  I tried moving the projector.  That didn't help.  I tried reopening the powerpoint.  That didn't work.  It turns out all I had to do was turn off the projector and turn it back on again.  Sigh.  The one thing I didn't try.  Of course, not being able to read the words caused the students to go crazy.  It was the worst day of the school year (behavior-wise) for these kids.  The fifth graders were really chatty too! 

Thank the Lord we're getting some cooler weather.  Hopefully tomorrow I won't have to turn on my air conditioner.  We have a volleyball game in Faribault for A squad, and some of the older B squad girls.  I'm hitching a ride over with the head coach so I don't have to drive all that way by myself.  One of my students has a birthday tomorrow.  She's been asking all week if we can have a surprise party for her... I asked if she knew about it, would it still be a surprise?  She never answered me.  So I don't know what to do.  Last year I didn't do anything for birthdays, but that's not to say this year can't be different.  I really don't want to do something extravagant.  I'm thinking maybe we'll take class time to do a dancing brain break or something like that.  Maybe something will come to me overnight...

Warming hearts... and classrooms

Oh my 5th graders make me smile!  One of the boys had borrowed the movie Epic from the Bookmobile last week.  I mentioned that I wanted to watch it, and he said maybe I could have it after he was done.  Today he brought it into school and asked if I was going to take it home to watch it.  A little confused, I said I was going to wait until Thursday and check it out on my card.  He told me, "Miss H., you can just take it now and watch it at home.  That way you don't have to wait to see it!"  So cute! 

This same student always tells me his plan for everything.  This year, students can earn prizes by reading books in certain genres to get a BINGO on a bingo card.  Every day, he tells me his new plan for which books he's going to read so he can get all five across.  "First I'm going to read this book, and then once I finish, I'm going to read that book.  Or maybe I'll read this other one so I can cross off..." and so on and so forth.  At least he's enthusiastic about reading!

But all their warm hearts bring lots of heat in the classroom, especially on days like today.  It was another steamy 93 degrees this afternoon.  I had the AC cranked all the way down to 70 since I got here this morning.  It was comfortable in the morning, but after lunch, all the sweaty bodies got it up to 79 in a half an hour.

In other news, the 5th graders learned how to take notes today.  We didn't get through nearly enough of the powerpoint on plants, but it's a skill they do need to learn.  So we'll keep plugging away.

Cordless Piano

Ugh!  For the life of me, I cannot figure out what happened to my piano keyboard cord.  I've got the stand and a keyboard, but no way to plug it in!  It hasn't been a super big deal since we've been rushed for time at the end of the day, but this morning I wanted to sing a hymn and we had to play something on my computer since the piano wasn't plugged in.  Sigh.  I really have no idea where it ended up.

Another frustrating thing: One of the 7th graders came up to me after class today and had a question about the worksheet they got the day before, "Miss H?  On our worksheet, all the questions are the exact same as the one we just did for today."  No way, I thought.  But when I checked my flashdrive, the files were exactly the same; only the title was different.  Argh!  I must've finished the worksheet, but never saved it to the computer.  So I guess they just get an early Christmas present.  Oh well, I have been working them pretty hard in social studies. 

Our first school vb practice was today.  It went pretty well, kind of fast, actually.  I worked with the B squad on their bumping, setting, and serving.  We need to practice being ready for the ball.  But they've already come a long way for the first day of practice!  We have practice again tomorrow, but I have a staff meeting, so I don't think I'll be around for most of practice. 

Relays and Sand Volleyball

The weather was finally cool enough to do our relay games!  Woohoo!  The kids had a great time running around, though Elbow Tag was a disappointment for some.  I heard from at least three students that they didn't get a chance to be it during the game, and they were sorely disappointed.  I told them sometimes life is just like that; maybe we'd have to play the game at recess so they'd get the chance then.

We were supposed to have volleyball practice after school, but the head coach forgot about it and I wasn't prepared to hold an hour and a half long practice, so I told everyone to ride the bus and we'd have practice tomorrow.  That's what we did!  I emailed the coach with a few ideas I had about practice this year and she ended up calling me after supper.  Surprisingly, she thought all my ideas were great and then she asked if I wanted to go over to the park and play sand volleyball since her team was short a player.  Sure, why not?

So I walked over.  I was only going to stay for the first set, but then I ended up sticking around for the second one.  Now they want me to come back and play next week; then I can play in the tournament next weekend.  Sounds like a plan to me!

I also made plans to sign up for a pottery class held in September and October.  It turns out you have to sign up in person, so I'm trying to figure out how to coordinate a trip to town with my registration.  Man, am I getting out in the community or what?

Hottest One Yet

What a scorcher!  Today was so hot, we played in the gym because it was too hot to go outside.  We were going to play relay race games at the end of the day, but with the heat we had to postpone them again.

This morning was very frustrating.  My computer screen wouldn't turn on.  So I called the IT guys and left a message.  One called me back fairly quickly and tried to walk me through some steps.  He had me running around my desk, back and forth, plugging and unplugging cables.  Unfortunately, nothing worked.  Finally he somehow got me to hook up my laptop to enough cords so it would project on the projector, and that's what I used all day.  Really annoying, but at least I had a computer to use. 

The fifth graders are so much slower than the sixth graders of last year!  It takes them forever to do anything I ask them.  And they talk a lot more.  I'm going to have to plan extra time for our beginning and end of the day transitions.

They also really, really like Joe.  One girl keeps saving the lettuce from her lunch to give him extra lettuce to eat.  This same girl saved a chunk of apple for him (he can only have one chunk a month).  Surprisingly, he ate it this time!  (and he's very cute when he eats).  Last year, we tried feeding him an apple and he didn't eat it at all, though he was still pretty wild back then.  He's tamed down a lot since then. 

Another surprise today... two of the third grade girls brought me a piece of birthday cake!  Usually I don't care for frosting, but this stuff actually tasted pretty good.  Ms. J (our para) also got a piece.  She played basketball with the fifth graders at recess (I was twirling the jump rope for the 1st and 2nd and 5th grade girls to jump in).  They were pretty impressed with her skills, and she said she wasn't even trying hard!  They convinced her to bring tennis shoes and shorts and a shirt one day so they could really play against her.  That will be a fun game to watch!

My brother's birthday is next week, so I'm heading home to help celebrate.  Hopefully the weather will cool off some before his football game tonight.  I suppose I should probably stop to get him a present before I head for home...

Farting Bookshelf

You may have heard of the "belching bog" but have you heard of the farting bookshelf?

I asked the 5th graders to pick out some books they wanted to read, and they all happily began perusing the shelves... and then the giggling started.  Immediately suspicious, I sauntered closer and saw one student dragging the book back and forth across the shelf, and yes, it was making a sound that sounded very much like a fart.  They completely lost it.  And kept moving the book until it stopped making the sound. (Thankfully, it didn't last too much longer).

Other than that incident, our classroom was pretty calm today.  We got a ton of stuff done and actually learned some things today!  Since Wednesday is Joe the tortoise's bath day, I taught the 5th graders how to give him a bath in his ice cream pail.  They all gathered around to watch him go to the bathroom (the signal that he's done). But the lure of the gym was too much for the boys, so they went out to recess with the 3rd and 4th graders.  The girls kept watching.  And they were the lucky ones to dump out his bathwater!

We let him go for a walk at the end of the day.  He almost got stuck under the bookshelves twice.  Man, that tortoise is such a distraction for these kids!  But he'll lose his novelty after a while.

It's amazing the difference between 5th and 6th graders.  I keep comparing these kids to the ones I had last year, and I keep coming back to the idea that they got that way from their previous teacher.  Hopefully this year I can teach these kids to be more independent and to think through their problems (and of course to love reading).

2nd first day of school

Well, I figured with the start of the school year, I should probably start up the ol' blog again...

We had planned to play relay games to close out our day, but with 95 degree heat, we figured we'd save them for Thursday when it's supposed to be cooler.  Instead, we sat in Mr. E's room and watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, or most of it anyway.  We took a break for popsicles and then had an unexpected break when the power went out.  I think too many fans were plugged in.  A few minutes later we were back to watching the movie... but Mr. E couldn't find the remote for his DVD player, so we had to skip through the whole movie to the scene we were on.

Yesterday, one of the parents from our school donated an air conditioner and installed it in the 1st and 2nd grade room.  Then he called around and within minutes, three more slightly used air conditioners were dropped off!  He installed them that day, so now every classroom in our school has a window AC unit.  What a blessing!  Especially with the heat wave both this week and next week.

So far, my class this year has been great.  It's so interesting so compare the dynamics of these students with the one of last year's class.  I think it helps that they're changing classrooms too.  I didn't have to deal with, "Our old teacher let us do..."

The para in our room has been great too.  We get along very well and she gets along even better with the student she's here to help.  She's even got her own desk (and she brought school supplies to go with it!).

I do have one good story from the day...

Right before chapel, we took a walk around our room to see the different things we'll be doing this year.  I explained how the Interesting Word Wall works.  When they're reading their books and come across a word they don't know, they're supposed to write down the words and we'll talk about them as a class.  We write the words on a big poster to keep track of the new words we're learning. 

Well, Pastor's topic of opening chapel was, "new beginnings."  He had the students read aloud a bunch of verses he had picked from the Bible talking about new things.  One of my fifth graders read Galatians 6:15, "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation."  As soon as he finished reading, he leaned over to me and whispered, "Miss Heintz, I think I found a word for our word wall!  Can we talk about it when we get back?"  Well what are you supposed to say to such an eager learner? 

So once we got back, we all gathered in the reading corner and talked about the meaning of circumcision.  Oh the things you learn in 5th grade!