Week 2

Wow! The honeymoon is OVER! I am having a very difficult time with the group I have. They are unable to self monitor at this point in the year and I am having a very hard time with instruction. I have a very low group of kids and need to work in small groups a lot. It's been challenging to get very much true academic work done. I'm sure it will all fall into place soon it's just frustrating right now. Not to mention the time taken away from planning with meetings and paperwork (enrollment packets)! Ahhhhh, I feel better. It's nice to vent.

On a more humorous note...

I was working with a small group of students today during journal writing. I had them write about a favorite birthday moment. I made sure to tell them I wanted to see lots of details. Where they were, what they ate, what they got, who was there, etc. One of my students asked me if I could help him spell peanut butter pizza. I, of course, said sure! Peanut butter pizza? He said, yes. I said, really? He said, yes. So we were working out the sounds and spelling then he said, not peanut butter, Peter Piper! We all had a good laugh and I explained I might like to try a peanut butter pizza one day! I might mention that this student has a severe speech impediment.

Here's hoping tomorrow is a GREAT day with lots of learning and focused children!

Week 1

Wow! Third graders are a lot different than first graders! I think I'm gonna like them! This has been an exhausting week but I am looking forward to this year. I hope I can get them to where they need to be by April.

I am VERY fortuanate to work with an amazing, knowledgable, and helpful team. I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to work with! Life is good!

Open House

Today was our first actual day devoted to working on our classrooms and getting plans done for the first week. Overall, the day went very well. I got all of my bulletin boards covered with paper, got some more things put away and organized, and got some books into desks. My main focus now is the actual planning! I have got to get plans done for the first week! I'm beginning to get nervous about teaching third graders. I hope I can get them where they need to be and get their wonderful brains full of third grade knowledge.

Tonight was also our open house. I had several parents come and meet me and see our classroom. I'm very pleased that 2 of the 5 I met were students I had in first grade. I can't wait to see how much they have progressed!

Tomorrow I will, hopefully, be able to get all I need done to start off a great year!

New School Year!

Well, it's the beginning of a new school year! I'm definitely going to miss the relaxed summer days I've been enjoying! I had a pretty amazing summer! I was able to work out a lot and drop some pounds, spent a lot of fun days with my daughter, and saw one of my best friends get married to an amazing guy. I would have to put this summer up amongst my top for sure!

But, alas, school has begun. We have had three days of "staff development" and now I get to work on my classroom and plan with my new team on my new grade level! I'm very excited about teaching third grade this year. I have taught first grade for the past 13 years but am looking forward to learning about a new age/ability level of kiddos. It should be an exciting and informative year! Wish me luck!

Kids Say the Darnedest Things

Today as I was reading a book to my class, my new principal came in for a walk through observation. The book I was reading was titled "Crazy Hair Day". It's about a kid that is excited to go to school because it's crazy hair day. He gets his hair all crazy-like and goes to school. He soon discovers it's not crazy hair day but instead it's picture day. Crazy hair day is the next Friday. It goes on to deal with how the other students handle this little mix-up. It's a really cute book. So, after the story, I have the kids tell me what they would do for crazy hair day since that's what they will write about in their journals.

They all raise their hands eager to share some of their crazy hair ideas. The first student I call on says, "I would put poop on my head." I laugh and say that we would all have to hold our noses. I'm hoping not to draw attention to the fact that he just said he would put poop on his head during my observation! So, moving on, I call on another student for her brilliant idea. Her response is, "I would put pee on my head." OMG! Seriously! Have you all lost your minds? I respond by saying that somehow we have gone in a direction I wasn't expecting. Fortunately the next student response got us back on a normal track. She said she would put eggs and glitter on her head. Better I guess, right?

Anyway... they go to work on their journals and they actually turned out to be creative and not disgusting. (Sigh) Kids. They say the darndest things.

What A Day

Well...

That's about all I can say.

I feel fortunate that I still have my same job, in my same school, in my same room, with my same kids. I feel a bit sad that I feel fortunate about that. Many of my colleagues can not say the same thing. Why should we be tousled about this way?

It's been an extremely draining day. The school day began at 7:30am and didn't end until 8:00pm. I think I experienced twenty different emotions within this one day. Our school lost many wonderful teachers today. We had 4 teachers take the voluntary release, our principal took the voluntary release, 3 teachers were RIF'd (laid off), 5 teachers were transferred to different schools, and 900 students will suffer. This doesn't include the many teachers that will stay at our school but be placed in different positions.

I'm bracing myself for a strange and difficult next few weeks.

Yes! Success!

This has been quite an interesting year for me, as for all others teaching in the Dallas I.S.D. We have had a budget shortfall and teacher layoffs hanging over our heads.

It has been dreadfully stressful and next to impossible to maintain stability in the classroom with so much else going on around me. Thankfully, I have been able to focus on my students and enjoy the simple things that happen day to day.

Today one of my students told me she likes to read because I showed her how. She said she tries so hard because she can tell I want her to learn. Wow! Thanks for noticing!

1 down... 18 to go. :)

Procrastination At It's Finest

Today was a very busy day for me. I am, admittedly, a procrastinator.

Today was the day the science fair projects were due. As a first grade teacher, we are to do a project as a class and turn in a project board. The board was due by our planning/specials period. I, in true form, did not even start the project until 8:30 this morning. My planning period is at 9:55. Our project was to see if plain ice, ice with rock salt added, or ice with table salt added froze homemade ice cream better. We made three batches of "bag" ice cream, wrote out our project, and put the board together in 1 hour. It actually turned out pretty good. Oh, in case you were wondering, rock salt and ice froze the ice cream better.

Moving on...

We have had a junior achievement volunteer who comes once a week and does great lessons with our class. Tomorrow is her last lesson and I wanted to have the kids write some things they enjoyed about her visits. We were working on that and got a book completed for her today. That took about an hour as well.

Still moving on...

Sunday is Mother's Day. I took pictures of all of the kids and had them decorate a frame to put the pictures in. That also took about an hour.

Amazingly, everything got done! I don't know how, but it did. And it all turned out great!

Procrastinators ... Unite!!!

Just Keep Swimming

In the immortal words of Dory, this week I feel like I'm just swimming and trying to keep my head above water. I have many deadlines coming up and lots of little brains to continue to fill with important and useful information.

The little bodies that incompase the little brains are out of control lately. What's going on? Has anyone else noticed this? They are acting like it's the last week of school. The next few weeks should be interesting!!

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.

Too Much Togetherness

Today was a TAKS testing day, as it was in all other Texas schools as well. Because I teach in a grade that does not take the test, we were not allowed in the building other than to move in and out for specials and getting lunch (to go back to class and eat).

I have several groups of kids that are pulled out of class throughout the day. I am fortunate to have a very academically and behaviorally challenging group this year. I will admit, the fact that they are pulled out for counseling, math tutoring, reading tutoring, dyslexia classes, and speech does help. It keeps the numbers low in my room and I can actually teach. I know! A teacher that can actually teach, not just maintain order and control all day long.

Well... today I had ALL of my students ALL day long and it was exhausting!!!! They were whining, arguing with each other, and talking nonstop all day. I love my students but it was a bit too much today.

More of the same tomorrow! Woo-Hoo!!

On a more positive note...
One of my students did an adaptation of a book we have been reading in his journal today and it was AMAZING!! I predict wonderful things for this kid. Hopefully he can get his act together behaviorally and accomplish greatness in his lifetime.

** Good luck again tomorrow Texas teachers!

TAKS

Just want to send a big hug and hello to all of the Texas teachers out there doing TAKS this week.

You've done all you can... my fingers are crossed for you and your students!!!

Tag... You're It

Mr. Teacher tagged me for this a while back. I have not been blogging or reading them lately so I just now noticed. Lots of stuff going on lately. It looks interesting though. I'm not going to tag anyone but would love for some others to post it if they would like.

Rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence
4. Post the next three sentences
5. Tag five people and acknowledge who tagged you.

The closest book to me is a book I am currently reading to my daughter. We read a few pages a night. It's, The New Kid on the Block, poems by Jack Prelutsky. Not too interesting but here goes.

It's hard to fault the Zoosher's taste
(a mushroom belt adorns its waist),
and gaily wrapped about its head
are radishes-some white, some red.
Just why the beast behaves this way
is rather difficult to say,
as here beneath a bush it lies,
with mashed potatoes on its eyes.

Justice?

Today was a VERY rainy day for us. The power was out in the school this morning which caused the kids to be a little rambunctious. My students know what behavior I expect from them and normally comply. Others, however, do not. As we were walking down the sidewalk today towards our portable, two children were running full speed past us. I told them to slow down. They did not. I stuck my arm out and said louder for them to slow down. As soon as they passed me they continued their sprint into the building. Just as my class and I made it to our portable we heard the two students screaming and running back down the sidewalk. As they rounded the corner, one of them slipped and fell into a HUGE puddle of water that collects where the sidewalks meet. Can I just say how funny that was! I know it's mean. It's almost like when a car is cutting you off and speeding and you hope to see them pulled over by a police car on the side of the road ahead. I looked at my kids and said, "That is why we don't run on sidewalks children." The boy that fell jumped up, soaking wet, and went back into his classroom. I talked to his teacher after school today and she said he told her the other boy pushed him in. The nerve! :) To lie about sweet justice! No running boys and girls! Lesson learned? Probably not. He will still run everywhere he goes. But for me, a great lesson on cause and effect! And... a great lesson as to why we have rules and that they actually do make sense.

Have a great week everyone . . . and slow down! ;-)

The Nerve!

Another teacher on my grade level always says, "the nerve" when a student does something they shouldn't. I think it's an appropriate title for my wonderings today.

As I mentioned before, one of our classes was "dissolved" and that teacher now does reading groups with our low students. Instead of pulling them out she does the groups in our class. She was out Monday and Tuesday so has only done this two days now. Yesterday she sat in a corner of the room, did the two groups, and then left. It seemed to work just fine. Today, however, she sat where I usually have the kids go to share journals. Because we don't have much space, I was unable to do journal sharing and the kids went to centers while I did my reading groups and she did hers. As I'm doing my group, I hear her getting onto my kids in centers for being to loud. She is sitting in "the library" area and that is their center. They are reading. Why did she think she could tell them to be quiet? She is just a visitor in our room, not the teacher. Ugh! Then, about five minutes later, I hear her yelling at the kids in the group for not "trying" hard enough to read. She then tells one of the kids to go move their clip on my behavior chart. This just happens to be a very quiet, academically low child. Hence the need for extra reading tutoring. Why would she think she can discipline my students with our classroom behvior chart? Shouldn't she have her own "system" for getting them to participate. Maybe by not scaring the crap out of them and yelling at them. Just a thought! Anyway...

The nerve!

Broken

Well, today was a looonnngg day. I still feel very under the weather. I haven't been able to eat so I'm extremely tired. The new kids I got last week from the "dissolved" class are still adjusting to a new teacher and new procedures. One funny thing did happen at recess today. A sweet little girl in my class came up to tell me that another one of our students was crying. I asked her if she new why. She said that some other girls "broke" her feelings. Broke her feelings... how cute is that. Not that her feelings got broken, of course, but the language she used. Fortunately all was worked out and she was able to continue to play, broken feelings and all.

Have a good one!!!

I'm Back!

Hey guys! I have been crazy busy lately and unable to find any time to write. I've certainly missed it. It's been so long, I'm surprised I remembered my password! I'm just getting over a stomach virus. Yuck! As always, it hit me Friday night and I am now, Sunday night, feeling a little better. No weekend for me!

This coming week should be an interesting one. We have "dissolved" one of our classes and now have that teacher as a reading tutor that will be in our rooms tutoring for an hour a day. I'm all about extra help but I think I could make more of an impact with fewer students all day. Why take a teacher out of a classroom and give other teachers more students? Especially in February.

We also will be doing "learning walks" next week. These seem a bit pointless and stressful to me. Oh well, not my call. :)

Glad to be back! Hopefully I'll be able to find the time to write more regualarly again.

Dialects

The way we say things differently has always interested me. I love accents and dialects of all kinds and have gotten very used to the "accents" of my students. We have a large Hispanic and African American population at my school and they do pronounce words a little differently. Today we were practicing the long o sound when oe is at the end of a word. We were reading a book about Joe and the Doe. I always use these opportunities to expand on their vocabulary. I asked my students if anyone knew what a doe was. Only one child raised her hand. I asked "E" what she thought a doe was. She pointed to the front door of our room and said, "One of dem". I'm not kidding folks! You just can't make stuff like that up!

2 down, 3 to go!

Well, we are now two days into the last week before winter break. As expected, the kids are not focused on anything educational. I have resorted to writing activities and math problems based on "holiday" customs from around the world. Today we focused on customs in England and how Americans have adapted them. It reminded me of a student I had 7 years ago.

We were talking about the tradition of caroling and spreading cheer. I asked the students if anyone new what "carolers" were. I got this response, "The things my momma puts in her hair at night". I have never forgotten that response and it still makes me smile to this day.

Another student I will never forget will be "G". I wrote about him and the vision screening. He truly is the best reader in my class and has amazing recall of everything he hears. Today we were walking down the hall to go to the restrooms. I noticed something strange about G. He had his coat on upside down. The hood was hanging down in the back. I tapped him on the shoulder and told him his coat was on upside down. He looked, shocked, and took it off and then couldn't quite figure out how to put it back on. Poor kid! He is book smart but definitely not common sense smart. Gotta love 'em! They make me smile!

Three more to go!!!!

Common Sense?

The group of students I have this year never cease to amaze me with their lack of common reasoning skills. Last week we had a mass hearing and vision screening for students. We were called by class to come to the auditorium. The nurses explained the process and showed the kids what to do when they were called. They were to go to the "hearing" table and then sit somewhere else for "vision" so the nurses would know who had both screenings done.

My students were wandering everywhere, they didn't know where to go or what to do. My favorite was G, when he had his vision screening. They have to put on a pair of glasses with one side covered up and then read the letter the nurse points to. They then switch and do the other eye. G was told to put on the blue glasses first. He stares at the two glasses (which are blue and red) and can't quite figure out which one to pick up. It's not that he doesn't know colors, he is actually a fluent reader and a very smart boy. He just gets REALLY confused. I go over and point to the blue glasses and tell him to put them on. He doesn't know how. He rests them on his nose but not behind his ears. I had to physically put the arms behind his ears. Next, the red glasses. He picks them up and puts them on... upside down!

Next week is gonna be an interesting one, being the week before our winter break. Wish me luck!!

Exhausting

My first December blog! My school world has been a bit boring lately so I haven't had much to write about. My personal life, on the other hand, has been nothing but jam packed! So... here's a day in the life of "ME"!!

My daughter woke me up at 3am Sunday morning crying. Her throat was hurting and she couldn't swallow. I got up and took her temperature. She was running a 101.1 temperature. She stayed in my bed until morning. I got on-line and "checked in" to an urgent care center. We got up and ready to wait for them to call and let us know when we could come. They called about 9:00. We left and were on our way to get my baby better.

The area where this center is located is very building saturated. I couldn't find the place! I kept making u-turns and looking around everywhere. I finally decide to pull over in a parking lot to see if I can find an address and get my bearings. I look and there is a police car behind me, WITH IT'S LIGHTS ON!!!! I lean out the window and apologize for not seeing him there. I tell him I'm looking for the urgent care center. He looks at my pitiful daughter in the back seat and says, "Did you know your inspection sticker is expired?" Are you kidding me?! My freakin' inspection sticker. He was apparently sitting in this parking lot and happen to see my inspection sticker was expired. Oh my goodness!!! So, he gets my license and insurance and comments on how he too is an underpaid public servant (teacher... police officer) but still writes me a freakin' ticket! UGH! He points me in the direction of the center and we leave.

We get to the center and sit down. They tell us to wait about 5 minutes for the room. About 3 minutes after that, we hear a woman screaming for help and a man screaming OMG, OMG. The nurse grabs the phone and calls 9-1-1. Five minutes later an ambulance pulls up and they go in to the rooms. 45 minutes later, they wheel a woman out with bandages wrapped around her head. Apparently this woman fell and hurt herself pretty badly. So, now that we have been waiting for almost an hour, we finally go back to see a doctor. She says it appears my daughter has strep throat but she wants to do the strep test where they rub a swab on the back of the throat. My daughter freaks out, starts crying, and is getting herself very upset. She hates having that done, as do I. I ask the doctor if it's truly necessary and she says she would be able to diagnose better if she knew. I convince my daughter to do it. The doctor does the swab and my daughter begins to gag. She then begins to heave and spit up blood. Her throat is so irritated it is bleeding. This goes on for about 15 minutes. The doctor and I are holding a trash can under her and taking turns getting towels to wipe her mouth. My daughter convulsed so hard she broke the blood vessels on her checks and in her eyes. My poor baby!

The doctor leaves to do the lab test and doesn't come back for about 20 minutes. Apparently the lab tech was doing x-rays on a crying toddler and couldn't do the labs for a while. Well, the test came back negative but the doctor wanted to give my daughter a shot because of the severe throat infection. She said the shots were very painful so I opted against them. She instead said she would give a high dosage of antibiotics, an anti-nausea, and a throat numbing gargle. We finally get to leave!

We go by the pharmacy to fill the prescriptions. They are done and I go to pay. There are only two. The doctor forgot the antibiotics! The pharmacist had to call and finally we were able to get our medicine and leave. We got home, finally, 4 hours later. She took her medicine and fell asleep.

She is doing better today, thank goodness!

Well... that's a look into the fun-filled life of a teacher and single mom! Woo-hoo!