Another late night for me at school. Volleyball practice 'til 4:00. Then putting up the new volleyball net. Followed by the Ice Cream Social at church for supper. And by that time it was 6:00; time for the PTL meeting. No time for lesson plans in between. Sigh.
Sometimes you just have days like that.
The last hour of the day was pretty discouraging. The hand bells arrived on Monday, so I picked out a song to do with the 6-8th graders. And we highlighted notes. And the 6th graders didn't know what they were doing. And they couldn't figure out which note was theirs. And they didn't know when they were supposed to play. And I didn't know what/how to teach them. And you could kind of tell what song we were playing (it's a patriotic song that I can't remember the name of right now...). But it took the 6th graders FOREVER to put the bell stuff away. They didn't know where it went and I didn't know where it went either... It took 10 minutes to put away the bell stuff. Which cut 10 minutes into our science lab time. Which cut 10 minutes into PE. (Mr. E was actually happy about that because it was in the low 50s today and PE was outside to practice soccer. So some good came of our lateness.) Sigh.
Sometimes you just have days like that.
The lab... well. Not my shining moment as a teacher. The students didn't read the lab through all the way, so they didn't know what they were doing (even though we took class time to look it over). I was going to make groups using a fancy-schmancy website, but it wasn't working. So I drew sticks. And two students who don't normally get along were put in a group together. But I put them together anyway. And there were students who didn't get along with their partners and didn't take turns and ran around and didn't follow the rules. And then there were groups that did everything super fast and were done right away and needed some guidance in writing down stuff on their lab sheets. And it was PE time, so we didn't have time to do any of that. And we didn't have enough time to discuss what they discovered. Sigh.
Sometimes you just have days like that.
The "funniest" incident of the day had to do with pencil ownership. First of all, if I find a pencil lying somewhere in the classroom, I put it in the Sharp/Not-Sharp jars for anyone to use. How am I to know whose pencil it is? This morning I found one. Later on, one of the 6th graders suddenly yelled, "Hey! You stole my pencil!" The boy looked at her, puzzled, "I just got it from the Sharp container." "No, it's mine! You must've taken it from my desk." I explained I had found it on the table and stuck it there. Still, she was adamant she had put it away in her desk. Well, the student using it didn't want to give it back. She wanted to trade him for it, but he said no. So she argued and tried to convince him for about 10 minutes until I finally confiscated the pencil.
Lunchtime comes. The boy's pencil rolled off his desk and landed on the ground, clearly next to his desk. The girl whose pencil was "stolen" picked it up, put it in the Sharp jar, and took it back out to use. When the boy said, "Hey, that's my pencil!" She looked at him innocently and said, "I got it from the Sharp jar." (Later, she told me she had picked it off the floor and put it in there herself). AUGH! So I confiscated that pencil too. Sigh.
Sometimes you just have days like that. Good thing tomorrow is another day.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Hospital Tag
Don't worry! None of my students went to the hospital today. We played a game at recess by that name. If you get tagged, you put a hand over the "injury" as a Band-Aid. If you get tagged again, use your other hand. And if you get tagged a third time, you lie on the ground and yell "Doctor, Doctor!" and the doctor comes and "heals" you. The girls had a good time playing. The boys thought it was okay.
We got off topic a bunch today... and yet we still covered the things that needed to be covered. The tower of Babel was our religion topic for today. Which lead to a discussion of Pangaea and whether the continents moved during the flood or when God spread people around after Babel. In the afternoon, we studied migration and the Native Americans in Minnesota, which somehow reminded me we never talked about why the dinosaurs died out after the flood. So we went into science. And somehow we got on the topic of cloning and DNA and Dolly the sheep and sheep giving spider silk proteins in their milk... good stuff.
Once I let my students know I would be visiting the library after school today, I had a lot of requests to check for the "I Survived" books and then the "Whatever After" books. I emailed the Bookmobile librarian to hold some for us on Thursday, but I don't think she has all that many. Hopefully the New Ulm library has a bunch! One of the 5th graders told me today that she likes reading way more now that she's in my class. Woohoo! :) And then a 5th grade mom said that her son has been reading up a storm now that he's been in my class. She'd get him books at the beginning of summer and he wouldn't touch them; now he's read all of them and is looking for more. Sweet!
Tomorrow is our first physics lab of the year, involving tennis balls, string, and marbles. We'll see how it goes... Tomorrow is also the last volleyball practice before our first game (on Thursday) and there's the church ice cream social and our first PTL meeting. Whew! I'm thinking I better head home early and take it easy while I still can because the rest of this week is going to fly by!
We got off topic a bunch today... and yet we still covered the things that needed to be covered. The tower of Babel was our religion topic for today. Which lead to a discussion of Pangaea and whether the continents moved during the flood or when God spread people around after Babel. In the afternoon, we studied migration and the Native Americans in Minnesota, which somehow reminded me we never talked about why the dinosaurs died out after the flood. So we went into science. And somehow we got on the topic of cloning and DNA and Dolly the sheep and sheep giving spider silk proteins in their milk... good stuff.
Once I let my students know I would be visiting the library after school today, I had a lot of requests to check for the "I Survived" books and then the "Whatever After" books. I emailed the Bookmobile librarian to hold some for us on Thursday, but I don't think she has all that many. Hopefully the New Ulm library has a bunch! One of the 5th graders told me today that she likes reading way more now that she's in my class. Woohoo! :) And then a 5th grade mom said that her son has been reading up a storm now that he's been in my class. She'd get him books at the beginning of summer and he wouldn't touch them; now he's read all of them and is looking for more. Sweet!
Tomorrow is our first physics lab of the year, involving tennis balls, string, and marbles. We'll see how it goes... Tomorrow is also the last volleyball practice before our first game (on Thursday) and there's the church ice cream social and our first PTL meeting. Whew! I'm thinking I better head home early and take it easy while I still can because the rest of this week is going to fly by!
Monday, September 8, 2014
Who needs a Farmer's Tan when you have a Sunglasses Tan?
This morning was a little chaotic with our first day of English class underway. We had Daily 5 going on in the background, meaning the 6th graders did a round while I taught the 5th graders, and then the 5th graders did a round while I taught the 6th graders. It was a little strange. I think they all got their homework finished though! I told them they could work on their English homework during Work on Writing. Some of them had already done Work on Writing beforehand, and I wouldn't let them redo it, so they were pretty bummed. This is going to make them strategize! They'll also have to choose when to do their spelling so I can help them if need be.
Oh man! Our read-aloud book just got to a really good part. I had to stop in the middle of a chapter because I noticed one of the 5th graders looking pretty droopy. I wish I could've kept reading! The part we're at is SO FUNNY! I couldn't stop smiling while I read, even though we weren't to the funny part yet. Oh boy. Anyway, my students begged me to keep reading, so I compromised and said we could read a little more before lunch. Of course, today the 3rd and 4th graders knocked early, so we didn't get all that much time to read and we STILL didn't finish the chapter. Sigh. Tomorrow is a new day.
Today was also the first time we tried the electric piano in the new spot. It didn't work so well. To have it plugged in, the piano has to be at an awkward angle so I can't see half my class. I'll have to play around with it a little more. But then the music stand wasn't high enough and when I tried to pull it up to my height... the top popped off. And then I had to shove it back on while the hymnbooks were weighing it down. And my students were raring to go.
It's kind of funny. Almost every day, we come in from recess or PE and they ask, "Wait, it's already time to go?" It's like they can't believe the end of the day is already here. I suppose that's a good sign.
As far as chaos goes, today was pretty mellow. There were the little spats throughout the day of course, and the "you guys need to be quiet I'm trying to concentrate" shouted in a loud voice across the room. My external hard drive keeps making beeping sounds and then stops working sometimes. I Googled it and found something about the fan/motor getting stuck so it doesn't work. *Wince* Hopefully it's something I can get fixed. I don't want to have to shell out for a new one.
Volleyball practice went all right today. Speaking of volleyball... this weekend was the sand volleyball tournament in Courtland. I was outside all day playing. And I forgot to put on sunscreen. About halfway through the day it crossed my mind, but by then it was too late. I went to church sporting a bright red face and very nice sunglasses lines across my cheeks.
I thought it was looking a lot better this morning but as soon as my students walked in, "Man Miss Heintz! What happened to your face? You were out in the sun a little, weren't you?" The funny thing is that only two people at church commented on my being "out in the sun" whereas about twenty students at school said something. Oh well. God's keeping me humble. And it's a good teachable moment on the wonders of sunscreen.
Oh man! Our read-aloud book just got to a really good part. I had to stop in the middle of a chapter because I noticed one of the 5th graders looking pretty droopy. I wish I could've kept reading! The part we're at is SO FUNNY! I couldn't stop smiling while I read, even though we weren't to the funny part yet. Oh boy. Anyway, my students begged me to keep reading, so I compromised and said we could read a little more before lunch. Of course, today the 3rd and 4th graders knocked early, so we didn't get all that much time to read and we STILL didn't finish the chapter. Sigh. Tomorrow is a new day.
Today was also the first time we tried the electric piano in the new spot. It didn't work so well. To have it plugged in, the piano has to be at an awkward angle so I can't see half my class. I'll have to play around with it a little more. But then the music stand wasn't high enough and when I tried to pull it up to my height... the top popped off. And then I had to shove it back on while the hymnbooks were weighing it down. And my students were raring to go.
It's kind of funny. Almost every day, we come in from recess or PE and they ask, "Wait, it's already time to go?" It's like they can't believe the end of the day is already here. I suppose that's a good sign.
As far as chaos goes, today was pretty mellow. There were the little spats throughout the day of course, and the "you guys need to be quiet I'm trying to concentrate" shouted in a loud voice across the room. My external hard drive keeps making beeping sounds and then stops working sometimes. I Googled it and found something about the fan/motor getting stuck so it doesn't work. *Wince* Hopefully it's something I can get fixed. I don't want to have to shell out for a new one.
Volleyball practice went all right today. Speaking of volleyball... this weekend was the sand volleyball tournament in Courtland. I was outside all day playing. And I forgot to put on sunscreen. About halfway through the day it crossed my mind, but by then it was too late. I went to church sporting a bright red face and very nice sunglasses lines across my cheeks.
I thought it was looking a lot better this morning but as soon as my students walked in, "Man Miss Heintz! What happened to your face? You were out in the sun a little, weren't you?" The funny thing is that only two people at church commented on my being "out in the sun" whereas about twenty students at school said something. Oh well. God's keeping me humble. And it's a good teachable moment on the wonders of sunscreen.
Friday, September 5, 2014
Bookends of Drama
My school day was bookended with drama today...
We'll start with the end of the day because it was less traumatic (for me). One of the 5th graders brought a butterfly enclosure to school today. In it was a monarch chrysalis that was about to hatch (you can tell because the chrysalis becomes clear). All day we waited for this butterfly to pop out. And then while we were stapling our church year chain together... it hatched! I raced to grab my camera. The student named the butterfly Queen Immanuel, since she hatched at our school.
Well that was all fine and good. Everyone wanted to know when this kid would release it. I think he ended up doing it right before going onto the bus. I'm a little hazy on those details.
Anyway, as my class marched out to the bus, Mr. E stopped me to talk about the new volleyball nets (The principal from MLHS drove up to our school this afternoon to drop off a bunch of their old volleyball nets and poles and stuff... his car was a super fancy blue classic car... I couldn't tell you what model it was. But it captured the attention of my entire class when he pulled up). So while I was talking with Mr. E, the buses were waved off. Annnnnd left one of my students behind. She was off watching the butterflies and didn't get on the bus like she was supposed to. Oh the poor girl was bawling her eyes out! We didn't have a number for the bus driver. We couldn't catch up to him. So we called her mom... who told us it would be 45 minutes before they could get to school to pick her up. *Wince* As soon as we made the plan to call the parents, this student calmed down and stopped crying. She got her homework done in the room and read some books, so it was time well-spent. But I bet she'll never dink around off the bus ever again! One of those tough life lessons you have to learn from experience.
Other non-traumatic events today: Reading Buddies with the 1st and 2nd graders went well. Lots of loud reading going on, but everyone had a great time! The church year chain is hanging up in our room. I love the bright colors! More books were added to our library today (I found some good ones for sale at the library yesterday). And everyone did well on their spelling tests and memory work! We "officially" found out two of my students' moms are pregnant (rumors had been floating around). The 5th grade girls and I had fun weeding the prairie garden during noon recess. We only pulled out a few of the prairie plants...
Okay, I guess I'm ready to talk about the morning's trauma. I walked into school and found that all my computers had been moved. Instead of being in nice back-to-back stations, they are now ALL SIDE BY SIDE! I HATE computers side by side. The students are way too distracted by what their neighbors are doing, plus there's less room to write/be in groups, and they can see each others' screens! I have a bunch of other reasons. The worst part is, the IT guys didn't even call me to ask if I wanted them like that! They did it in the dead of night and called Mr. E over to ask him about it. He was noncommittal and didn't say whether I'd like it one way or the other. Oh I wish they would've called me!!! They thought because I moved the coat hooks out into the ball room that I was making more space for computers! I had asked if we could get a few more, maybe even some laptops; the IT guys shot me down on those. So. They took the two unrelated events of me asking for more computers and me moving the coat hooks out of the classroom to mean that I wanted more computers all put in one row against the wall. They put in sturdy tables attached to the wall and added pipe for the cords. All I know is it looks really permanent. And I want them to change it back. They even took down some of my decorations!!! (okay, so it was just one big decoration, but still).
I was literally shaking with anger this morning. I had to take more deep breaths than I could count before I was ready to even see another teacher, let alone talk to them. I thought about emailing the IT guys right away, but I put myself into a timeout. I'm feeling more calm about it now, although even writing about it is starting to get me worked up. Sigh. The 6th graders had computer time today and they were WAY chattier than usual. And there was more arguing. Proof side-by-side computers are not a good fit for our classroom. I just want it to go back to the way it was! And I'm scared the IT guys aren't going to do it.
We'll start with the end of the day because it was less traumatic (for me). One of the 5th graders brought a butterfly enclosure to school today. In it was a monarch chrysalis that was about to hatch (you can tell because the chrysalis becomes clear). All day we waited for this butterfly to pop out. And then while we were stapling our church year chain together... it hatched! I raced to grab my camera. The student named the butterfly Queen Immanuel, since she hatched at our school.
Well that was all fine and good. Everyone wanted to know when this kid would release it. I think he ended up doing it right before going onto the bus. I'm a little hazy on those details. Anyway, as my class marched out to the bus, Mr. E stopped me to talk about the new volleyball nets (The principal from MLHS drove up to our school this afternoon to drop off a bunch of their old volleyball nets and poles and stuff... his car was a super fancy blue classic car... I couldn't tell you what model it was. But it captured the attention of my entire class when he pulled up). So while I was talking with Mr. E, the buses were waved off. Annnnnd left one of my students behind. She was off watching the butterflies and didn't get on the bus like she was supposed to. Oh the poor girl was bawling her eyes out! We didn't have a number for the bus driver. We couldn't catch up to him. So we called her mom... who told us it would be 45 minutes before they could get to school to pick her up. *Wince* As soon as we made the plan to call the parents, this student calmed down and stopped crying. She got her homework done in the room and read some books, so it was time well-spent. But I bet she'll never dink around off the bus ever again! One of those tough life lessons you have to learn from experience.
Other non-traumatic events today: Reading Buddies with the 1st and 2nd graders went well. Lots of loud reading going on, but everyone had a great time! The church year chain is hanging up in our room. I love the bright colors! More books were added to our library today (I found some good ones for sale at the library yesterday). And everyone did well on their spelling tests and memory work! We "officially" found out two of my students' moms are pregnant (rumors had been floating around). The 5th grade girls and I had fun weeding the prairie garden during noon recess. We only pulled out a few of the prairie plants...
Okay, I guess I'm ready to talk about the morning's trauma. I walked into school and found that all my computers had been moved. Instead of being in nice back-to-back stations, they are now ALL SIDE BY SIDE! I HATE computers side by side. The students are way too distracted by what their neighbors are doing, plus there's less room to write/be in groups, and they can see each others' screens! I have a bunch of other reasons. The worst part is, the IT guys didn't even call me to ask if I wanted them like that! They did it in the dead of night and called Mr. E over to ask him about it. He was noncommittal and didn't say whether I'd like it one way or the other. Oh I wish they would've called me!!! They thought because I moved the coat hooks out into the ball room that I was making more space for computers! I had asked if we could get a few more, maybe even some laptops; the IT guys shot me down on those. So. They took the two unrelated events of me asking for more computers and me moving the coat hooks out of the classroom to mean that I wanted more computers all put in one row against the wall. They put in sturdy tables attached to the wall and added pipe for the cords. All I know is it looks really permanent. And I want them to change it back. They even took down some of my decorations!!! (okay, so it was just one big decoration, but still).
I was literally shaking with anger this morning. I had to take more deep breaths than I could count before I was ready to even see another teacher, let alone talk to them. I thought about emailing the IT guys right away, but I put myself into a timeout. I'm feeling more calm about it now, although even writing about it is starting to get me worked up. Sigh. The 6th graders had computer time today and they were WAY chattier than usual. And there was more arguing. Proof side-by-side computers are not a good fit for our classroom. I just want it to go back to the way it was! And I'm scared the IT guys aren't going to do it.
Thursday, September 4, 2014
What a bunch of crabs!
Sigh, unfortunately, that's probably what someone walking into our classroom would've said about our class today. We need a weekend.
The day started out fine. Except my external harddrive decided it didn't want to be read by the computer, so I had to unplug it and plug it into my laptop (which still didn't read it) and then replug it back into my desktop computer. That time the harddrive opened and I could access my files. I don't want it to die! I backed everything up on my laptop (and then put some important files on another flashdrive). I'm hoping that maybe it's the cord and the harddrive itself is okay. Another question for the IT guys... who aren't good at answering questions in a timely manner. And another sigh.
Today was the first day I let my students pick which Daily 5 round they want to do: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Word Work, or Work on Writing. Somehow, the brother sister pair ended up together for Read to Someone. No one else would switch. Once again, I decided they'd need to learn to get along sooner rather than later... so I forced them to read together. And problems happened. I spent a long time talking with them, helping them to get to a compromise (which wasn't really a very good compromise). Then I gave them a carrot, "If you read nicely with each other for five minutes, you can separate and join other groups." Well, they did it for a few minutes and then there was complaining. So another minute together was added onto the time. I felt bad because one of them was actually trying to get along and she was being punished when the other didn't cooperate.
Then in the afternoon, a student decided she wanted to be in control of her group looking up the Minnesota state symbols. And she wouldn't listen/do anything her group said. So I had to try to talk her into cooperating. Didn't happen so well. Eventually they figured something out and got their homework done. By that time, we had cut into recess time and didn't have a whole lot of time outside.
We played Eagle's Eggs in the slightly wet grass. It had mini-thunderstormed right before recess, but the grass was dry enough we could go out. And then there were accusations of cheating. And the teams being unfair. Oh how I hate making teams! If I would've been thinking ahead, we could've used the group generator to make teams. Next time. Next time.
After school, there was a staff meeting and a lecture on keeping safe from blood borne pathogens. And by the time the meeting was over it's 4:45 and another late night at school getting things together. I normally lesson plan for next week on Thursday nights, but I'm sorely tempted to say, "Eh, I'll do it tomorrow."
But let's not end on a bad note. Today was the first day of Bookmobile! I had some students check out a bunch of books and we got to see the new Bookmobile. Fancy shmancy inside! When I told one girl I didn't have a limit on how many books she could check out, she said, "Wow, 5th and 6th grade is the best class ever!" She checked out five books and two movies. The other good thing was at the end of the day. I told my class it was my brother's 17th birthday today, so one of the 6th graders thought we should call him and sing to him. So we did. We left a message on his phone. After our faculty meeting was over, I saw I had a missed call from him. He must've gotten our message. :)
The day started out fine. Except my external harddrive decided it didn't want to be read by the computer, so I had to unplug it and plug it into my laptop (which still didn't read it) and then replug it back into my desktop computer. That time the harddrive opened and I could access my files. I don't want it to die! I backed everything up on my laptop (and then put some important files on another flashdrive). I'm hoping that maybe it's the cord and the harddrive itself is okay. Another question for the IT guys... who aren't good at answering questions in a timely manner. And another sigh.
Today was the first day I let my students pick which Daily 5 round they want to do: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Word Work, or Work on Writing. Somehow, the brother sister pair ended up together for Read to Someone. No one else would switch. Once again, I decided they'd need to learn to get along sooner rather than later... so I forced them to read together. And problems happened. I spent a long time talking with them, helping them to get to a compromise (which wasn't really a very good compromise). Then I gave them a carrot, "If you read nicely with each other for five minutes, you can separate and join other groups." Well, they did it for a few minutes and then there was complaining. So another minute together was added onto the time. I felt bad because one of them was actually trying to get along and she was being punished when the other didn't cooperate.
Then in the afternoon, a student decided she wanted to be in control of her group looking up the Minnesota state symbols. And she wouldn't listen/do anything her group said. So I had to try to talk her into cooperating. Didn't happen so well. Eventually they figured something out and got their homework done. By that time, we had cut into recess time and didn't have a whole lot of time outside.
We played Eagle's Eggs in the slightly wet grass. It had mini-thunderstormed right before recess, but the grass was dry enough we could go out. And then there were accusations of cheating. And the teams being unfair. Oh how I hate making teams! If I would've been thinking ahead, we could've used the group generator to make teams. Next time. Next time.
After school, there was a staff meeting and a lecture on keeping safe from blood borne pathogens. And by the time the meeting was over it's 4:45 and another late night at school getting things together. I normally lesson plan for next week on Thursday nights, but I'm sorely tempted to say, "Eh, I'll do it tomorrow."
But let's not end on a bad note. Today was the first day of Bookmobile! I had some students check out a bunch of books and we got to see the new Bookmobile. Fancy shmancy inside! When I told one girl I didn't have a limit on how many books she could check out, she said, "Wow, 5th and 6th grade is the best class ever!" She checked out five books and two movies. The other good thing was at the end of the day. I told my class it was my brother's 17th birthday today, so one of the 6th graders thought we should call him and sing to him. So we did. We left a message on his phone. After our faculty meeting was over, I saw I had a missed call from him. He must've gotten our message. :)
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
So much for volleyball...
I needed to be in two places at once after school today. We had volleyball practice and I also had an IEP meeting for two students at Nicollet. Since I'm a co-volleyball coach, the IEP meeting took the priority. The poor little 3rd grade girls! When I told them I was only going to be at practice for a little bit since I had to go to a meeting, their eyes got huge and they looked worried. One asked, "Are you ever coming back?" My intention was to only stay at the meeting until 3:30 so I'd get back for half the practice... well, there wasn't really a good time for me to step out of the meeting. It got over at about 4:00, right as practice was over. By the time we got back to school, everyone from volleyball was gone.
Speaking about volleyball... our sand volleyball team won all six of our games last night. Woohoo! Nothing like finishing the season strong. The tournament is this Saturday. And it seems like a lot of our team isn't going to show up. So we might be done pretty early. We'll see.
I got an interesting phone call earlier today. It was a semi-truck driver who was going to deliver our volleyball nets. We're installing the kind that stick in a hole in the gym floor so all we have to do is stick the poles in and ratchet the net tight. The driver said he'd be coming around noon today and wanted to get directions. So I told him how to get to our school from Mankato (the direction he said he'd be coming from). Closer to noon, he called Mr. E and said he was in St. Peter and he'd see us in a half an hour. And then he never showed up. Did he get lost? Did his truck break down? No one knows.
Today the plan was to have the 5th and 6th graders work on their Internet Sources project... but the computers weren't working this morning. Black screens all across the board. I called the IT guys; no answer. Mr. D created a support ticket on the website; no response. Mr. E sent them a text bomb (lots of texts all at once so your phone goes crazy). Still nothing. 1:30pm. I call one more time before trying to scrounge up a back-up plan if we don't have computers... no answer. Then I get the news from a 6th grader, "Hey! The computers are working again!" Woohoo! Praise the Lord! So we did get on the computers after all. And they had a lot of fun looking up the sites I listed. They're excited to look up more information about the symbols of Minnesota. I still haven't decided if we'll do research tomorrow and then share, or if I'll teach them a science lesson... hmm. It's very tempting; one less lesson to plan for tomorrow...
Speaking about volleyball... our sand volleyball team won all six of our games last night. Woohoo! Nothing like finishing the season strong. The tournament is this Saturday. And it seems like a lot of our team isn't going to show up. So we might be done pretty early. We'll see.
I got an interesting phone call earlier today. It was a semi-truck driver who was going to deliver our volleyball nets. We're installing the kind that stick in a hole in the gym floor so all we have to do is stick the poles in and ratchet the net tight. The driver said he'd be coming around noon today and wanted to get directions. So I told him how to get to our school from Mankato (the direction he said he'd be coming from). Closer to noon, he called Mr. E and said he was in St. Peter and he'd see us in a half an hour. And then he never showed up. Did he get lost? Did his truck break down? No one knows.
Today the plan was to have the 5th and 6th graders work on their Internet Sources project... but the computers weren't working this morning. Black screens all across the board. I called the IT guys; no answer. Mr. D created a support ticket on the website; no response. Mr. E sent them a text bomb (lots of texts all at once so your phone goes crazy). Still nothing. 1:30pm. I call one more time before trying to scrounge up a back-up plan if we don't have computers... no answer. Then I get the news from a 6th grader, "Hey! The computers are working again!" Woohoo! Praise the Lord! So we did get on the computers after all. And they had a lot of fun looking up the sites I listed. They're excited to look up more information about the symbols of Minnesota. I still haven't decided if we'll do research tomorrow and then share, or if I'll teach them a science lesson... hmm. It's very tempting; one less lesson to plan for tomorrow...
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus!
We went on some interesting tangents today. The creation story is still our focus in religion (today was the fall into sin). One of the verses had a footnote about the meaning of Eve's name, which jogged one of the 6th graders' memories about the baby name book we have on the shelf. He went and got it so he could look up his name and then everybody else wanted to look up their names too. A lot of them claimed they couldn't find their names in the book... they didn't realize all the girl names were in the front and the boy names were in the back.
I shared the book "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick" with the class today too. This guy, Harris Burdick, brought a bunch of pictures to a publisher and said he had stories to go along with each one. The publisher said he should bring the stories the next day. Well, the next day, Harris Burdick didn't show up. And he didn't come the next day or the next. The publisher looked for him, but never found Harris Burdick again. The pictures came with a caption and the title of the story, and each is rather mysterious. So years later, they finally put a book together with the pictures. I'm hoping to add a copy of the book to my class library. Maybe my class will be inspired to write stories to go with the pictures!
This afternoon our focus was on evaluating internet sources. I went over some guidelines on what to look for/questions to ask about the source to see if it's truthful or not. Then I gave the 8th graders a website they were supposed to test if the information was true. Here's the site I gave them: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ We didn't have a whole lot of time to do research. Overall, the boys believed it was true, and the girls found information that proved it was false. I think I'm going to have the boys add to their notes. Their assignment was to look up information about the Principality of Sealand. (Here's a link to a neat website about it: http://www.sealandgov.org/) So, real or not real?
The 5th and 6th graders did nearly the same thing. I decided to use the Tree Octopus website as an example. I think I talked too much; some looked like they were glazing over a bit. I should've just turned them loose to check out the website for themselves. Oh well, live and learn. They were pretty excited coming up with the symbols of Minnesota. They're going to research how our state chose those symbols tomorrow. State bird: loon. State flower: lady slipper. State fish: walleye. State food: morel mushroom. State dessert: blueberry muffin. State butterfly: monarch. State tree: red pine. State gem: agate.
The last thing we did today was play Silly Soccer for recess. Three cones are set up in a big triangle. The class is separated into groups of three. The goal is to keep the ball from hitting your team's cone and get the ball to hit the other two cones. It was pretty fun! Except when everybody ganged up on the green cone team. We were going to stop halfway through and switch up the teams, but I kind of forgot. And then when I did remember, there was only five minutes left. A lot of them said it was the high point of their day and they want to play it again.
Now I'm finishing up a few things at school and then heading home to regroup before sand volleyball tonight. Tonight is our last time playing before the tournament this weekend. We have a doubleheader with games at 7:30 and 8:30.
I shared the book "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick" with the class today too. This guy, Harris Burdick, brought a bunch of pictures to a publisher and said he had stories to go along with each one. The publisher said he should bring the stories the next day. Well, the next day, Harris Burdick didn't show up. And he didn't come the next day or the next. The publisher looked for him, but never found Harris Burdick again. The pictures came with a caption and the title of the story, and each is rather mysterious. So years later, they finally put a book together with the pictures. I'm hoping to add a copy of the book to my class library. Maybe my class will be inspired to write stories to go with the pictures!
This afternoon our focus was on evaluating internet sources. I went over some guidelines on what to look for/questions to ask about the source to see if it's truthful or not. Then I gave the 8th graders a website they were supposed to test if the information was true. Here's the site I gave them: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ We didn't have a whole lot of time to do research. Overall, the boys believed it was true, and the girls found information that proved it was false. I think I'm going to have the boys add to their notes. Their assignment was to look up information about the Principality of Sealand. (Here's a link to a neat website about it: http://www.sealandgov.org/) So, real or not real?
The 5th and 6th graders did nearly the same thing. I decided to use the Tree Octopus website as an example. I think I talked too much; some looked like they were glazing over a bit. I should've just turned them loose to check out the website for themselves. Oh well, live and learn. They were pretty excited coming up with the symbols of Minnesota. They're going to research how our state chose those symbols tomorrow. State bird: loon. State flower: lady slipper. State fish: walleye. State food: morel mushroom. State dessert: blueberry muffin. State butterfly: monarch. State tree: red pine. State gem: agate.
The last thing we did today was play Silly Soccer for recess. Three cones are set up in a big triangle. The class is separated into groups of three. The goal is to keep the ball from hitting your team's cone and get the ball to hit the other two cones. It was pretty fun! Except when everybody ganged up on the green cone team. We were going to stop halfway through and switch up the teams, but I kind of forgot. And then when I did remember, there was only five minutes left. A lot of them said it was the high point of their day and they want to play it again.
Now I'm finishing up a few things at school and then heading home to regroup before sand volleyball tonight. Tonight is our last time playing before the tournament this weekend. We have a doubleheader with games at 7:30 and 8:30.
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