For the past few days, I've been bumping back and forth with one of the 6th graders at afternoon recess. Well, we must have made it look super fun because today four of the boys asked to play with us. Man, they are a hoot!
The 6th grader and I would go nicely back and forth between each other. The boys would bump the ball high in the air and then scurry around beneath it, trying to get underneath to hit it again. They looked like busy little ants running around haphazardly! We started playing in a circle, but every time they'd end up in a blob or halfway across the field chasing after the ball. Hilarious!
Our high score was 12 with the boys. The 6th grader and I got 35. I wonder if they'll play with us again tomorrow...
Thursday, September 13, 2018
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
PTL
Another late night at school... we had the fall PTL meeting which was supposed to be followed by a 5-6th grade parent planning meeting for the Pork Chop Dinner. Instead, it kind of got rolled into one meeting, with a few of the 5-6 parents sticking around after to do Pork Chop stuff. Fine by me!
No one argued at the meeting, everyone was pleasant; it did get a little long though. The Nicollet chamber brought us supper as a back-to-school thank-you treat, so I did get to eat before the meeting! It was nice not to cook.
I also got all my spelling lists for the year put together (just need to print), bells brought over to church (we play on Sunday), and I fit a mile walk in too. Good productive day!
No one argued at the meeting, everyone was pleasant; it did get a little long though. The Nicollet chamber brought us supper as a back-to-school thank-you treat, so I did get to eat before the meeting! It was nice not to cook.
I also got all my spelling lists for the year put together (just need to print), bells brought over to church (we play on Sunday), and I fit a mile walk in too. Good productive day!
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Ruby Slippers
We did the rock version of the song again... no air guitars today, but lots of singing. The key the youtube video is in is different than the one we sing for church, but so far they're going with their muscle memory instead of what they hear in the video (it makes for a weird sounding verse sometimes).
Some of the boys had trouble with organizing today. Last night I got around to correcting some of the things I collected from them earlier, so I wrote missing work on the board. Turns out, some of them had actually 'lost' their papers. I use quotation marks because nine times out of ten the missing paper shows up in a desk or a crate or a backpack even though the kid has assured me multiple times, "No, it's not in there; I checked!" The 5th grade boys are really bad about that. At least five times this morning I got told, "Miss H, I can't find my..." I usually look at them with a blank face and say, "Well, I don't know where it is."
They're never really sure how to react when I tell them that. I do remind them to check their WIP folders (work in progress) and all the other usual places. And once they look a little harder they find the papers one of those places. One kid actually did lose his spelling paper from last week. It's nowhere to be found. He had to rewrite the worksheet from scratch (it wasn't that long). He didn't fuss too much about it, but at one point while he wrote out the sentences he asked why he couldn't just make a copy. Ooo! Teachable moment!
Well, would it teach you anything to just be able to make a copy? No? This way, you have to deal with the consequences. And I'm guessing next time you'll keep track of your papers better. He definitely agreed!
On a totally different subject, did you hear that Dorothy's ruby slippers have been found? There were multiple pairs of slippers made for the movie, four of which are known to exist. The fourth pair was stolen 13 years ago from the Judy Garland museum in Minnesota (on loan from a private owner). One night someone broke in, smashed the display case, and walked off with the slippers. They hadn't been seen since. A few years ago someone put a million dollar reward out there for anyone who would find the slippers, but no one came forward. One of my kids had heard that the slippers appeared on an estate sale and that's how they'd been found. The article I read said the FBI in Minneapolis didn't release any details about the location they were found at.
I have a pair of ruby red flats with sparkly bows on the top, and I happened to wear them today. During Daily 5 when we sat in our circle in the reading corner one of the 5th graders commented, "Hey! I found Dorothy's slippers!"
Some of the boys had trouble with organizing today. Last night I got around to correcting some of the things I collected from them earlier, so I wrote missing work on the board. Turns out, some of them had actually 'lost' their papers. I use quotation marks because nine times out of ten the missing paper shows up in a desk or a crate or a backpack even though the kid has assured me multiple times, "No, it's not in there; I checked!" The 5th grade boys are really bad about that. At least five times this morning I got told, "Miss H, I can't find my..." I usually look at them with a blank face and say, "Well, I don't know where it is."
They're never really sure how to react when I tell them that. I do remind them to check their WIP folders (work in progress) and all the other usual places. And once they look a little harder they find the papers one of those places. One kid actually did lose his spelling paper from last week. It's nowhere to be found. He had to rewrite the worksheet from scratch (it wasn't that long). He didn't fuss too much about it, but at one point while he wrote out the sentences he asked why he couldn't just make a copy. Ooo! Teachable moment!
Well, would it teach you anything to just be able to make a copy? No? This way, you have to deal with the consequences. And I'm guessing next time you'll keep track of your papers better. He definitely agreed!
On a totally different subject, did you hear that Dorothy's ruby slippers have been found? There were multiple pairs of slippers made for the movie, four of which are known to exist. The fourth pair was stolen 13 years ago from the Judy Garland museum in Minnesota (on loan from a private owner). One night someone broke in, smashed the display case, and walked off with the slippers. They hadn't been seen since. A few years ago someone put a million dollar reward out there for anyone who would find the slippers, but no one came forward. One of my kids had heard that the slippers appeared on an estate sale and that's how they'd been found. The article I read said the FBI in Minneapolis didn't release any details about the location they were found at.
I have a pair of ruby red flats with sparkly bows on the top, and I happened to wear them today. During Daily 5 when we sat in our circle in the reading corner one of the 5th graders commented, "Hey! I found Dorothy's slippers!"
Monday, September 10, 2018
Volleyball
The first home soccer and volleyball games were today after school. My classroom was pretty noisy for a while... the girls all wanted to hang out in my room. One cleaned out Joe's tank, another used hot glue to fix one of the spring chairs that has a crack in the seam. The rest kind mostly just talked or hung around the people doing stuff so it looked like they were doing something too.
Another box of spelling books arrived at the end of the day. Now the 8th graders have books! I also got a teacher CD and interactive whiteboard DVD. Once I have time to look at them, hopefully I'll learn more things to do with the spelling for the week.
We sing for the first time in church this Sunday (and play bells too). The song we've worked on the most is "You're Worthy of My Praise". Some of the words still haven't sunk in, so I found it on youtube and played it at the end of the day. I used the Jeremy Camp version, which happens to have a rock feel to it, so a lot of the boys played air guitars more than they sang... They were like, "Miss H! We like this version better!" Then came the head banging followed by more air guitars. It was fun to watch, but I think we'll have to switch versions tomorrow.
Another box of spelling books arrived at the end of the day. Now the 8th graders have books! I also got a teacher CD and interactive whiteboard DVD. Once I have time to look at them, hopefully I'll learn more things to do with the spelling for the week.
We sing for the first time in church this Sunday (and play bells too). The song we've worked on the most is "You're Worthy of My Praise". Some of the words still haven't sunk in, so I found it on youtube and played it at the end of the day. I used the Jeremy Camp version, which happens to have a rock feel to it, so a lot of the boys played air guitars more than they sang... They were like, "Miss H! We like this version better!" Then came the head banging followed by more air guitars. It was fun to watch, but I think we'll have to switch versions tomorrow.
Thursday, September 6, 2018
Scalp Tingling
:( We found a case of lice in my classroom today.
It started after religion... one girl complained to me that she saw things moving in the person's hair sitting next to her. I brushed it off thinking that you can't see lice on someone unless you get really close to them, and she wasn't that close to the individual.
Then after lunch two other girls cornered me to say the same thing. The person sitting next to them at lunch had bugs crawling all over the head. Sigh. Then of course the gossipy 7th grade girls got wind of it, whispering madly with the 5-6th grade girls. The boys didn't care. They focused on playing soccer.
So I called the school nurse, asking her to come take a look. I tried to sneakily look at the student's head at recess... I saw a bug and little white flecks. Aww man!
The nurse came out and did a check. Sure enough, lice. The poor kid. Thankfully the other students were kind about it and encouraged this person that it can happen to anyone and "it's just something that happens sometimes". I hope the 7-8th graders will be just as kind!
Now before I go home I have to bag up all my beanbags and vacuum my classroom, just in case. Where am I going to put them?
It started after religion... one girl complained to me that she saw things moving in the person's hair sitting next to her. I brushed it off thinking that you can't see lice on someone unless you get really close to them, and she wasn't that close to the individual.
Then after lunch two other girls cornered me to say the same thing. The person sitting next to them at lunch had bugs crawling all over the head. Sigh. Then of course the gossipy 7th grade girls got wind of it, whispering madly with the 5-6th grade girls. The boys didn't care. They focused on playing soccer.
So I called the school nurse, asking her to come take a look. I tried to sneakily look at the student's head at recess... I saw a bug and little white flecks. Aww man!
The nurse came out and did a check. Sure enough, lice. The poor kid. Thankfully the other students were kind about it and encouraged this person that it can happen to anyone and "it's just something that happens sometimes". I hope the 7-8th graders will be just as kind!
Now before I go home I have to bag up all my beanbags and vacuum my classroom, just in case. Where am I going to put them?
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Busy, busy, busy
Sigh... I'm not doing so well on my goal to leave school between 5-5:30pm each day... Yesterday wasn't as bad as today. We had a staff meeting after school that went until 4:45. Of course my to-do list always grows exponentially after a meeting, typically with little things, so I worked on crossing off a bunch of them.
One of the tasks was to try to find a parent to chair the Pork Chop Dinner. Last year there was so much drama, no one wanted to touch it. Now the dinner is in about a month and still no one is in charge. Thankfully the first person I asked said yes and we got a second volunteer too, so we should be okay now (I hope).
I put the spelling sorts up on the class website so parents can access them. I'm leaning towards not having a test this Friday since we're still working on figuring out how to do it. One of the other teachers isn't sold on Words Their Way and wants me to convince him that this way is better than the old spelling way. I'd be happy to if I knew what I was doing. As of right now, I know just enough to get it started with my students, not enough to persuade someone who is dead-set against it. But we're meeting after school tomorrow or Friday to talk about what I know, so we'll see what happens.
It's time to sign up for the Lutheran Educator's Conference already. The first session had a bunch I wanted to go to, but of course they aren't offered in the 2nd or 3rd sectionals. Those classes didn't spark too much of an interest for me, but I did pick ones to go to. Usually the ones I've picked have been good, even if I hadn't been too excited about them beforehand, so I'm hoping that's the case this year.
One of the tasks was to try to find a parent to chair the Pork Chop Dinner. Last year there was so much drama, no one wanted to touch it. Now the dinner is in about a month and still no one is in charge. Thankfully the first person I asked said yes and we got a second volunteer too, so we should be okay now (I hope).
I put the spelling sorts up on the class website so parents can access them. I'm leaning towards not having a test this Friday since we're still working on figuring out how to do it. One of the other teachers isn't sold on Words Their Way and wants me to convince him that this way is better than the old spelling way. I'd be happy to if I knew what I was doing. As of right now, I know just enough to get it started with my students, not enough to persuade someone who is dead-set against it. But we're meeting after school tomorrow or Friday to talk about what I know, so we'll see what happens.
It's time to sign up for the Lutheran Educator's Conference already. The first session had a bunch I wanted to go to, but of course they aren't offered in the 2nd or 3rd sectionals. Those classes didn't spark too much of an interest for me, but I did pick ones to go to. Usually the ones I've picked have been good, even if I hadn't been too excited about them beforehand, so I'm hoping that's the case this year.
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Nemo is No More
Poor Neptune. He made it until Monday (maybe Tuesday morning). I got a text update from a parent who stopped in on Saturday. She said he was weak because the filter quit working. She took ours apart, found the problem, couldn't fix it, and brought hers from home to try to revive him. She said he was still really weak on Sunday. I got no news Monday, but this morning when I checked on him, he was stuck up against the filter tube. I 'buried' him in the woods before the kids got to school.
Before we get another, I should really have our water tested. Pet Expo does it for free; I just have to bring it in. So now we're back down to one pet...
Joe is settling back into our classroom nicely. As is typical after a car ride, he buried himself in one corner of the tank. We gave him a piece of watermelon as a treat, but so far he hasn't eaten it yet.
It's been raining for most of the day, and when it's not, it's sticky humid everywhere. I turned on the A/C this morning which seemed to keep the humidity down. The forecast says we're supposed to get less than an inch today, but I'm sure by now we're well over that amount. I've gotten notification we're in a flash flood watch for the rest of the day. Bleck. At the end of the day I prayed for the rain to stop so fields can dry and farmers can start the harvest. Another boy prayed for the rain to keep going because he likes the rain!
Before we get another, I should really have our water tested. Pet Expo does it for free; I just have to bring it in. So now we're back down to one pet...
Joe is settling back into our classroom nicely. As is typical after a car ride, he buried himself in one corner of the tank. We gave him a piece of watermelon as a treat, but so far he hasn't eaten it yet.
It's been raining for most of the day, and when it's not, it's sticky humid everywhere. I turned on the A/C this morning which seemed to keep the humidity down. The forecast says we're supposed to get less than an inch today, but I'm sure by now we're well over that amount. I've gotten notification we're in a flash flood watch for the rest of the day. Bleck. At the end of the day I prayed for the rain to stop so fields can dry and farmers can start the harvest. Another boy prayed for the rain to keep going because he likes the rain!
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