What's the story Wishbone?

Oh man, what a day!

It started out great, got bogged down in the middle, and is ending on a high note.  Strange how that works, isn't it?

VIP Day was today, aka- Grandparent's Day.  My 5th graders brought their families to school and showed them the classroom.  We started with our normal routine of lunch count, flag pledges, and devotions.  Then I had the 5th graders pick some books to read with their VIPs.  Most of them chose Robert Munsch books.  Speaking of Robert Munsch...  my students love his books so much.  I'm amazed at how many times they'll go back and reread a book or listen to it during Listen to Reading time.  One 5th grader is bummed every day when he tries to listen to his favorite book, 50 Below Zero.  The link doesn't work, but he tries every day.  So I secretly emailed "Bob" through his website and got the following email in reply,

"Hi Emily:

Thanks for writing and for sharing my books with each other. I really appreciate it.

If you send me a class letter I will send back an unpublished story using some names from the class, a poster and a letter answering questions that kids most often ask. My mailing address is 15 Sharon Place, Guelph, Ontario N1H 7V2

Bob Munsch"

 

Guess what we're going to do tomorrow in reading???

 

But back to VIP Day...  after reading for while, it was time for donuts in the gym.  And after donuts it was time for The Amazing Magic Jack, our entertainment for the day.  What's really ironic was that I watched the movie Now You See Me yesterday, so I was in a magic frame of mind.  Since I stood to the side, I could see how he did a lot of his tricks.  He was a great hit with the students and their VIPs.  After the VIPs left, we got back to business with our spelling pretest.  Or not.  The spelling list in my teacher's manual was not the same words as what was in the 5th graders' workbooks.  Sigh.  Great.  After flipping through my manual, I found this week's list about three weeks later in my book.  This is getting ridiculous!  Last week I finally got around to emailing the company about their lack of a 2011 teacher's spelling book.  So now it's just a waiting game.  We did get our spelling pretest figured out.  But the computers weren't working today, which involved a call to the IT guys.  They got fixed right when it was time to start English (so, right when we didn't need to use them). 

 

The sentences in our English book were about Odysseus and the Trojan Horse.  Of course the 5th graders wanted to learn more about them.  I found a picture of the Trojan horse, which led to a website with the story, which led to a memory dredged from my childhood... The Odyssey.  Togas.  A guy shooting an arrow through a bunch of axes.  Wishbone.  Bingo!  I found the full episode on Youtube, so now I just need to figure out when our class can watch it...

 

In science today, we watched an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy.  It was a review of what we learned about food webs last week.  The 5th graders kept turning around to look at me every time someone onscreen mentioned something we talked about last week.  Then during recess, they were singing some of the songs played in the episode.  But recess ended on a less than high note.  Everyone was super grouchy and whiny, it was ridiculous.  I finally got fed up enough to call off recess.  We went in 10 minutes early and on the way inside everyone was pointing the finger at everybody else in our class.  "It's your fault!"  Ugh!  I told them all to go to bed early tonight to get a good night's sleep.

 

Then we took another class picture to send to our Slovakian pen pals (because someone made a weird face in the one we took last week).  But there was an argument over who got to hold Joe in the picture.  I drew a name out of a jar and Ms. J. (our para) was the winner!  She gave up her "holding rights" to the student whose turn it was on Friday.  This made today's helper angry because she didn't get to hold Joe and she felt that it was her right (she was also the student who made the weird face in the last picture).  So as soon as the picture was done, she stormed out of the room and hid in the loft outside our classroom.  I thought she was in the bathroom, so no one went looking for her.  Pretty soon she climbed down and another 5th grader blew the whistle on her.  She got even more upset, "Tattletale!!!"  and ran into the gym where she promptly hid.  By this point, I was done playing her games, so I got the rest of the 5th graders ready for the end of the day and Ms. J talked her back into our room.  Whew!

 

But like I said, the day ended on a high note.  I printed off the letters from our Slovakian pen pals.  They turned out great!  The Slovakian students have very neat handwriting, wrote in cursive, and included pictures.  It kind of made our letters look shabby in comparison.  Oh well, we'll redeem ourselves with this next project.  I think we're going to do, "Tell About Your Family" or something along those lines. 

Weeding the Shelves

The Lion's Club in our area is sponsoring a book drive, so all the teachers received permission to go through their classroom books and get rid of some of the old ones/ones we don't want anymore.  Yay!  I had a ton of books on the shelves (and in a box in the closet) that were old and worn out or we had multiple copies of.  So I filled up three bags of our extra books.  They're on the bench in the hallway waiting to be picked up on Monday.  We now have loads of room on the bookshelves for more books... which means I can get even more at the $ bag sale coming up in a few weeks and at the New Ulm Public Library book sale in November.  Books, books, everywhere!!!

The books I ordered from BetterWorldBooks.com have still not arrived yet.  One of the 5th grade girls keeps perking up every time a large vehicle pulls into school.  "Miss H., are those the books?  Do you think they're here?  Are they coming by FedEx?  UPS?  I think they're here!"  Sigh.  I'm glad she's so excited about books, though I do wish she wouldn't get so distracted.

Our school's "grandparent's day" (known around here as VIP day) is on Monday, so we had to get tables set up in the gym this afternoon.  The volleyball team was supposed to have practice, but the tables in the gym kind of make that impossible.  The head coach said we'd just have practice outside, weather permitting.  Everyone kind of made a stink about that (although I do remember having volleyball practice outside once when I was in grade school).  Practice ended up being cancelled due to the misty, drippy weather.  I was very happy about that, even though I'm still not getting out of school very early. 

We have our first tournament tomorrow in Northrup.  Miss H. and I are going to be the sole coaches; the head coach is going to a wedding that day.  So she's going to drive over to my house tomorrow morning, bright and early, and we'll carpool down there together.  It should be a good day.  Hopefully our players' attitudes will be a lot better with a night of sleep under their belts. 

Today in class the 7th and 8th graders were off the wall!  On Fridays, the plan is for me to teach their class for an hour.  I figured I had plenty of material for them to work on.  Guess again.  I handed back their science tests and told them they could fix the ones they got wrong for an improved test score.  Most of them handed their "corrected" tests back to me after about ten minutes.  So much for looking up the correct answers in the book.  There were about five of them waving their tests in my face and I just didn't want to take them back!  Eventually, I gave up and handed them their other assignment: do research on African tribes in today's world that were around in ancient Africa.  Yeah, they finished that assignment in 15 minutes.   So it was 12:55 and I had nothing for them to do. 

The whole time they were whining and complaining about how they had to do homework on Friday when I told them they'd never have homework. and we'd only do fun stuff on Fridays.  I did say that, but their behavior on previous Fridays has shown me that they can't handle doing fun stuff, so now we do boring stuff.  They can't seem to wrap their heads around that concept.  I think I may need to write the class a letter telling them why we aren't doing experiments anymore.  UGH! It's driving me nuts! 

Without having anything for them to work on, they pretty much did nothing the rest of the time.  Sure I tried to get them to work on other homework, but their answer was, "Oh, I already have all my stuff done."  A few minutes later they'd be working on a speech PowerPoint or working ahead in spelling.  There were a few kids who were playing games on the computer and listening to music when they weren't supposed to.  We were in Mr. E's room, which makes class tricky.  I don't know what his rules are about the computers, so I don't know if they're breaking the rules or not and if I should get them to stop what they're doing.  Sigh.  I was ready to pull out my hair at the end of the hour.  But the other teachers said that they had a hard time with the 7th and 8th graders too, so that makes me feel a little better.  I'm at the end of my rope!  What can I do with these students so that they care about what we're learning and act respectful in class?  Maybe a good night's sleep will give me inspiration.

Books and Butterflies

The library book sale trip was a success!  I got 33 books for $7.50; what a steal!  One of the books was given to the Kindergarten room.  It was called "Shout It Out" and as you might have guessed from the title, readers are encouraged to shout it out along with the story.  I figured this book would be too loud for my class, so I sent it down to the younger grades.  Mrs. E said they loved it!  Tomorrow I'm going to do Book Commercials on the older kid books I picked up at the sale.  We'll see if I have any takers.  Maybe I'll just have them laid out on the table so the 5th graders can peruse them at will.  Hmm...

It was so weird in 7th/8th grade history today.  Everyone was super quiet and seemed to be really interested in what we were talking about.  Maybe it was just me.  They actually asked some questions about what we were learning (even some of the snarky kids who normally sit and stare menacingly).  Hopefully their interest continues!

Today was the last day I wanted to spend on getting our "butterflies" ready for migration.  I found a program through Journey North about butterfly migration from Canada/USA to Mexico.  Students are asked to make mini butterflies that will be mailed to classrooms in Mexico.  In the spring when the real butterflies migrate north, the Mexican students will make butterflies to mail up to our classrooms!  As a class, we've learned some Spanish phrases to write on our class butterfly.  They've been really excited about the project.  I can't wait to see the butterflies we get back in the spring!

There's both a soccer and a volleyball game after school today.  The team we're playing is Truman/Northrup/Fairmont and the volleyball coach is intense.  Mr. E said that the coach is the new principal at one of the schools and he takes his volleyball very seriously.  He told Mr. E that he's been yellow carded once this season already for yelling at the ref who made an incorrect call.  And Mr. E is the lucky guy who gets to ref our games tonight.  Our head volleyball coach is not here to coach, so Miss H. and I are going it solo.  It will be good practice for this weekend's tournament, but I wish it weren't against such an intense team! 

It's a Monday

Ufda!  It seemed like I was not the only one who wished the weekend was longer!  All the students seemed a little droopy today.  I don't think they got much sleep this weekend. 

We have a soccer game right after school in Mankato.  Three students asked if they could ride with me to the game.  Unfortunately (or fortunately), I have an errand to run before the game, so I can't give anyone a ride there.  The library is having its annual book sale.  Woohoo!  I can get more books for our classroom!  Boy, won't the 5th graders be surprised when I bring in a huge bag of books?  Actually, I think they know me well enough by now to expect large additions to our reading corner.  I think I'll have to invest in a bigger bookshelf soon... I'm running out of room!

One of the 5th graders just came back to the classroom.  They're supposed to be having PE right now (practicing soccer).  He said one of the 8th graders booted the ball and it hit him right in the face.  Ouch!  So he came in.  After sitting in the Reading Corner for a grand total of two minutes, he asked if he could work on his math redo-s.  How cute (maybe cute is not the right word for it): he's in pain, but still wants to do his math so he doesn't have homework.

Tomorrow, Miss H. and I are on our own coaching the home volleyball game.  I hope everything goes well!  I think it will; she's a little worried that the girls will give her attitude because they don't know her.  I'm thinking the opposite; they'll listen and respect her because she's the cool, new, fun teacher.  That was me last year.  Now they know I give them homework and I don't let them slack off, so they don't like me very much.  Oh the joys of teenagers!

Friday Fun Day

Yesterday we made a jello model of a plant cell.  It wasn't ready by the end of the day, so we had to wait until snack time today.  Last year, I used gummy food (gummy worms, fruit roll-up, etc.) and they turned mushy and gross.  So this year, I tried to use all fruits.  I did end up using some skittles for ribosomes, but the 5th graders said it made the jello taste like skittles.  Alls well that ends well.

At recess today, one of the 2nd graders found a toad.  He was showing it to everyone.  A frog was also found.  One of the 5th grade boys threw it at a 5th grade girl.  Well, she says he threw it, he says it jumped out of his hand...

I felt bad for the girl because only a few minutes earlier, a 2nd grade boy ran up behind her, shoved a toy ball down the back of her shirt and yelled, "SPIDER!"  She screamed at the top of her lungs, stood up, jumped and wiggled around, and then discovered it was a ball.  I thought that was that, but not even two minutes later, the same boy did the exact same thing again!  And again, she screamed and jumped and wiggled, and realized it was a ball.  I could tell she was getting annoyed now, so I told the 2nd grader to stop.  He did it a third time!  So he ended up on the time-out bench. 

It was really windy.  One of the parents told me after volleyball practice that a power line fell down in front of the Crow Bar in town.  Some sparks hit some sawdust (or mulch, or something like that) and it started smoking.  They had it under control, but practically the whole town is out of power.

The last half an hour of practice, we let the B squad go home (or sit and watch, as most of them chose to do).  Then Miss H. (the preschool teacher) and I played against the A squad team.  One of the 5th grade girls kept score.  The coaches ended up winning!  27 to 22.  I was pretty amazed.  Although the A squad wasn't playing as well as they normally do. 

Anyway, that's enough for now.  I'm heading home to watch my brother's football game! :)

Slovakian Pen Pals

Nothing too exciting has happened today in school.  The 5th graders were still super loud.  The 8th grade girls were still snarky.  The weather was still cool in the morning and hot in the afternoon (we turned the AC on). 

Yesterday, we listened to Robert Munsch read some of his books (online of course), and the kids loved it so much, they wanted to keep listening to books!  It actually is part of the Daily 5 routine.  I haven't used it in the past, but I thought, why not?  So I looked up listening to reading online and found a TON of websites.  Wrote them on the board, 5th graders typed them in, and boom... tons of reading going on.  They were all disappointed when the round was over.

Another cool thing that's going to happen (the 5th graders don't know about this yet) has to do with writing.  A parent at our school emailed me with a request from a friend in Slovakia.  This friend is an English teacher and wants to start up a pen pal program between her class and a class in America.  Our students are the same age, so we've been exchanging emails about how this pen pal thing will work.  I can't wait to get started!

In other news, I have pottery class again tonight. And I'm going to stop at the library to see if I can find more Robert Munsch books.  :)

The Tears and Drama Afterschool Club

Sigh.  Teenage girls.  Just can't get along. 

We had a home soccer game after school today (actually, it's starting right now, so I'll keep this brief).  I told all the 5th graders to hang out in Mr. E's room, and they all brought stuff with to keep them occupied.  Only ten minutes pass before one of the 7th grade girls comes walking up to me, telling me one of the 5th grade girls was doing something she shouldn't have.... but there was more to the story, she tried telling the 5th grader to stop and then pushed her.  The 5th grader fell down, they both started yelling at each other, and then the 7th grader came to me. 

So I tried to get them to apologize, but the 5th grader wouldn't listen.  After a long conversation in my room, she still wouldn't listen.  But she calmed down.  The other girl disappeared back to Mr. E's room and I didn't get the chance to talk to her.

In other news, our Camp Omega dates may be changing.  The director called to see if we could go a few weekends early, but we have volleyball/soccer games on one day and we haven't started fundraising yet.  At our last PTL meeting, some of the 5th grade parents said that they would be willing to pay the $67 it would cost to send their 5th grader to Camp Omega instead of fundraising, but I don't know if that means we shouldn't fundraise at all or if we should still do some to pay for my registration fee and that of the other chaperone.  Sigh.

The final story I have for you is about our lovely IT guys.  They read my mind for once!  I was about to ask them to put something on my desktop so I could access student's documents (for class presentations), and I find the tool already installed on my desktop!  Of course, not everything is perfect... I still need the sound system installed, another computer set up, a cord for the electronic keyboard, a working printer, the files transferred from the old computer to the new one, and my favorite one: Windows needs to be verified in two days or all my programs won't work.  I really hope they get that one done soon. 

They are currently mad at the 3rd and 4th grade teacher because he left a note on his uninstalled interactive whiteboard for his students telling them to praise God for the technology they do have in their classroom.  The IT guys thought he was silently prodding them to speed up and do their job, so now they're mad at him, and I'm back in their good graces.  Huh.  I wonder who they'll get mad at next.