Pinterest

I think another reason I haven't been blogging is because I have been PINNING!

Seriously, so many great ideas in one place is SO AWESOME!

So follow me on Pinterest, so I can follow you, and we can all share all these great ideas we find!

Twas the day before Christmas break...

And I was determined to do something FUN! Now, I tip my hat to my colleagues that ran reading groups that day, but not I, ladies and gentleman. We Polar Expressed our way into the classroom, courtesy of my train tracks. Oh, and I drew a lovely poster of a train :) Yep, that's about as good as my poster skills get. Thank goodness for Microsoft :)

One of our morning activities was a make your own snowperson. The kids were totally cute. A few of our reading coaches came in and "voted." I thought the kids did a great job working together and using their materials :)

We also did a make your own Polar Express train :) The privacy folders are up because I did NOT want to hear "He's cheating off me!" so I told the kids if they wanted to protect their ideas to put them up. We had some guest judges for this activity as well. Again, they did great, had fun, and got to eat their creations at the end :)

We finished the day after receiving their gift from me (books I order from Scholastic), cleaning up, watching the Polar Express, and going to our all-school sing along.

Phew! We made it to Christmas (and as I write this on Dec. 30th...the break is going by TOO fast!)

Layers of the Earth

In our most recent Lead21 unit, we've been learning about "the story of the Earth." Crazy brain led me to wanting to do this fun edible layers of the Earth activity with the kids. After a fight in the bathroom was sort of resolved (oh little boys), we got to work. They really enjoyed it, and I made it as educational as possible by having them draw a diagram of their layers :) We talked about plates shifting, and they got to use their graham crackers to make plates as the crust :)

Harvest Festival

This year, our school had a harvest festival, where our AWESOME PE teachers round up lots of help and put on a 90 minute party for our kids. This year, we teachers were encouraged to go hang out with them, so hang out we did :)

Yes, I did the Thriller dance with them, and no, there is no evidence :)

I got some tips from 3rd graders on how to throw a football :)

I think I got most of my "street cred" from this activity below. It was an obstacle course, and the kids thought it was so hilarious as another student and I raced. Needless to say, I lost, and was quite out of breath afterwards :)

I tried to do "Mystery Readers" at the beginning of the year. The kids loved it, and were always so well-behaved for a Friday afternoon. Eventually, I ran out of parent recruits and teacher recruits, but it was fun while it lasted!

On Halloween, we made spiders, but tied it into math by turning them into name-collection boxes. It had to be a number the kids could draw an array for, since we were doing multiplication in Everyday Math. They turned out really cute, and decorated our door during Halloween.

Yes, I am still teaching!

So after a long hiatus, here I am during break. Don't know when I will get back to regular posting, but here are some things we've been up to!


This year we have been using Lead21 as our reading curriculum....It's been interesting. It's great for our benchmark and advanced kids, but not great at all for our struggling readers.

Anyway, they do a project each unit. This unit, they wrote their own plays and acted them out. Even with tons of guidance (and I'm new at this too!), I'm always nervous about the final project. I need to give the kids credit, most of the groups were able to pull it off, adding in props and actions :) They even chose their own backgrounds on our smartboard :)

P/T Conferences

There is a light at the end of the tunnel...and usually when I say that, I have a really rough week with the kids. But last week they bounced back, and it ended on a positive note...which I love!

We just had conferences, and the one thing I like about conferences is the insight into the students' lives that I get. I don't see most of their parents until conferences...and a lot of them, not even then. That part is just sad. But the other good part I get to hear from their parents, is their interests. I know quite a few of their interests from building a relationship with them, but it is still fun to hear who really likes to dance, or who gets really embarassed when their mom comes to school :)

It's also a really good reminder that these kids are someone's children. I know it sounds like DUH but when those kids are really grating your very last nerve, it's so hard to remember that someone at homes loves them and wants you to treat them like their own. That's one of the things I love about elementary, that even when the kids bring on big attitudes or big conflicts, they are still really small people who need to be constantly reminded of how we do act, or handle conflicts, especially when we are mad! I think being 8 must be really hard, because you are not a baby anymore, and you want to be more grown up, but you're not yet!

Anyway, P/T conferences were great, and I got a lot of planning done (but its neverrrrrr enough!) Our first field trip is Monday, so I am VERY curious to see how that's going to go!

And double yay for a real post!

Look Different??

I love to bargain shop...I don't know, I just love wearing new things and keeping up with trends without breaking my very small piggy bank...oh, the salary of a teacher! (But it sure beats the 10 bucks an hour in college!)

It was time I gave some TLC to my blog too, so I enlisted the help of Leslie from Kindergarten Works. Doesn't it look great! It's cute but simple and much more bright and happy. So hopefully I will feel more bright and happy when I look at it!

Thanks Leslie!

Alive

Oh my, this year is eating me alive. With a handful of interesting kiddos, plus a new reading curriculum (which is a GIANT GIANT BEAST), I have had little motivation to think about blogging or work when I get home. Yep, it's one of those years!

I wish I could say things are settling down or getting easier, but it's October, and there are still days I come home and cry. This seems to be a theme with my teammates and podmates (and many of them are FIRST year teachers, poor things!)

Anyway, I read some classroom blogs for the first time in a while tonight, so maybe that's a good sign? I'm hoping by Christmas I'll be ready to jump back in full force to blogging again. Really, I love teaching and I love building relationships with kids...it's been a struggle this year since I have two or three students that totally suck the life out of me each day...each of them can be sweet but they have so.many.issues. Meanwhile, there are 20 other kiddoes in the classroom that need some attention too! I am figuring out the balance...I will get there!

Anyway, thanks for reading. And since it's been a while, what are some great new blogs I can read???

credit

I have to give the kids credit today.

There were moments when I am SURE they wanted to kill each other.

(I didn't have any of those feelings.ahem.)

But they didn't. Thank heavens. Oh, I know they WANTED to. But they didn't.

So thank you kids, for giving me that small break in the duration of a very long day!

VMA

Quote of the day:

Kid: Mrs. T, did you see the VMA's last night?
Me: Nope!
Kid: You DIDN'T? So you didn't see Lady Gaga. She looked like a BOY! I mean, so much like a boy! Oh man, I can't believe you didn't watch it!


It made me giggle inside :)

Arguers

Yeah, I have one of those classes where the interventionists come in, and after they say, "Yeahhhhh (long pause). You have quite the class."

Yeahhhhh, is right!

So I need some suggestions.

They argue. With each other. Loudly.

"J just called me a name!" "No, I didn't!" "Yes, he did!"

"She kicked me under the table!" "No, I didn't!" "Yes, he did!"

This is me: "Please stop talking. I've already asked you once nicely."

"No, I wasn't talking!"

So, they argue with each other, they try to argue with me. I don't argue back--I'm trying to stay out of the power struggle. I've used "I'll argue with students before or after school" (Love and Logic). I've used, "if you continue to argue, there will be a consequence" (but then another argument breaks out 35 minutes later). We've had talks about what to say instead of arguing. However, they will get louder and louder unless there is some kind of immediate consequence, to which they turn around and whine and moan at ME because I am MEAN!! Same thing with sending them out of the room...plus their behavior is the same when they get back.

I'm trying to preserve some instruction time because if I stopped to take kids out of the room or call parents immediately, I would be stopping several times a day. I'm starting to wonder if doing that now more often will pay off later. But something is telling me it won't...

And what breaks my heart is the 18-19 kids that do what they are supposed to. I can't spend more time praising them or rewarding them because I'm putting out fires all day. My next door neighbor, my friend and mentor teacher said to me today, "I haven't seen you send so many kids out of the room so much in one day!" If they stay together, they will KILL each other!

Okay, so PLEASE let me know if you have any suggestions! I need some ideas and soon before I go CRAZY!

Isn't it funny...

the things you learn about yourself as a teacher?

For the past few days, I've realized this:

I LOVE teaching math so much more than reading.

I always thought I would be the opposite because I LOVE to read.

But it didn't translate.

I love the cut and dry of math...it's fun to teach and I'm better at it!

So I know where I need to keep growing though!