Whatever, It Hurts!

As you may recall, we had a class pet, a leopard gecko named Steve.  Unfortunately, Steve the gecko died just before Christmas break.  It was sad for the kids, but you know, they are 8 and 9 year olds.  The first question they asked when they found out Steve was sick and that he might die...."Can we get a new one when he dies?"  I'm not exactly sure what happened to Steve, but I have a hunch.  The pet store had advised me to get sand to put in the cage.  However, every review I read online said STAY AWAY!!  Now Steve didn't eat the sand, but I think the sand got onto the crickets and with Steve eating the crickets, I think the sand got compacted in his stomach and it made Steve sick.  I knew Steve was sick and I lost sleep for about a week wondering how I was going to tell 24 kids that their beloved class pet was on his way out?  As previously stated, it turned out it wasn't as hard as it seemed.

Steve died in the middle of a math lesson with all the students in the class.  It was sad and but it was a good experience for the kids.  We had a funeral for Steve.  The kids buried him in an empty crayon box and wrote him letters and drew him pictures.  It was very touching to see the class dressed in black and showing support to each other.  It was the first funeral many of the students had been to.  Although it was sad, it was a good life experience for them to have.

Moving on to more recent and funny events:

I was at recess duty on Tuesday afternoon and I was talking with a few of the girls in my class.  Suddenly, Justin came running up to me holding his knee cap.  I asked him what happened and he said, "I hit my funny bone!"  I started giggling and said, "Your funny bone is on your elbow bud."  Quickly, Justin responded, "Whatever!  It hurts!"  The girls and I started cracking up because Justin is not one who usually makes suck funny remarks.  It caught us all off guard and even made Justin laugh enough for his "funny bone" to stop hurting!

Why Has It Been So Long?!/Falling of Chairs

I can't believe I have not written since October!  Honestly, it makes me sad.  I have such a wonderful class and so many funny things have happened that I have not had the privilege of sharing with you all!  I will update this more often with events that happen and events that have happened since I last posted in October.

I will start with the funniest thing I think I have ever witnessed in my 3 years in the school system.  Well....at least the funniest with this class.  It involves a student falling off her chair.  Now, don't think I'm mean; listen to the story.  It was before the SBA test and we were doing a lot of prepping for the test.  Now with prepping you want to make it as close to the atmosphere of the actual test as you can.  So, when the students complete their work, they may either sit quietly and read a book, or put their head down on their desk and if they fall asleep, that's alright.  As long as they are QUIET!!  It was getting close to the end of our prep time, we were waiting for just a few students to finish up their work.  Many students were reading quietly while a few students who had chosen to put their head on their desk.  One in particular, Anna, had fallen asleep.  Now before she had fallen asleep she had put her arms in her jacket and zipped her jacket up so she could not move her arms.

At this time, it was practically silent in the classroom.  I was sitting at my desk checking my email when I hear a big crash and I look up to see Anna's butt up in the air as she goes rolling across the classroom floor, literally.  The class tried to keep their laughing under wraps, but it did not work.  Everyone, including myself, burst into laughter as Anna got up and the confusion on her face was apparent.  Between my fits of laughter I managed to ask Anna if she was alright and what happened.  She simply stated, "I was dreaming about my Karate class."  This statement made the laughter grow even more as everyone imagined what possibly could've been going through Anna's mind.  It took a while to get the class under control and back to working on the prep paper but once they did, it wasn't hard to hear the snickers and stifled laughter throughout the the room as the students recalled what had just happened.

The best part, Anna took it well and allowed us to laugh with her rather than assuming we were laughing AT her.  

Reasons I Love My Class

As I have mentioned, I love my class this year, they are so much fun to be around!  We make each other laugh all the time.  Here are some reasons that I love my class:

1.  As I was reviewing a math assessment with my class on Monday morning, we came to a word problem that most of the students in my class missed on the test.  It was a simple question but, for some reason it confused the kids.  So, while I was explaining it and going over the problem, and I got to the point that confused everyone a unanimous, "Oooohhhhh...!" sounded throughout the classroom.  My response was, "Well look who just caught up!"  (A quote from one of my favorite movies, A League of their Own.)  As soon as I said it I hear Mark say, "Who?!  Who just caught up Miss Whittenberg?''

2.  I have a young lady in my class, Lidia, who reminds me a lot of me when I was her age.  She has a loud laugh, laughs easily, and has a very good sense of humor.  Now Lidia plays on a flag football team.  She has started a tradition with me; whenever she sees me (even when I don't see her), she runs full speed into me and gives me a huge hug!  It started with just Lidia doing this, but she has gotten a full gang of girls to run up and attack me every time they see me.  Although it is loud and it scares me most of the time, I love to know that my kiddos are excited to see me and that we have a relationship of trust with each other.

3.  We watch a Magic School Bus every day.  We watch them to pass time and keep the class busy while we are getting our math minutes and then we finish it when we pack up at the end of the day.  The funny thing about this is that when the opening song is playing there are 25 8 and 9 year old that are singing along to the song.  It puts a smile on my face every time I hear it.  It is great to know that they are comfortable with each other and they have no inhibitions around each other.

4.  I have a student in my class who has a broken thumb and it is on her writing hand.  Because of this, she needs a lot of assistance in the classroom.  I have had many students step up and help her even when they are not asked to do so!  I have a wonderful class.

Of course there are many other reasons why I love my kiddos and I will add them as I think of them, but for right now, that's all I got.  I have been truly blessed with this class.

Then It's Lights Out For Me

I have really been working with my class on their writing this year.  My class last year didn't score so well on the writing portion of the SBA so I made it a goal of mine this year to work more on teaching them how to write a good paragraph.  So, we write like a hamburger.  We have our top bun: the introduction sentence, the meat in the middle: the juicy detail, and the bottom bun: the conclusion sentence, you can't have your hamburger falling apart.  The kiddos are really taking to this type of writing and they understand how to put a paragraph together because they know how to put a hamburger together.  We even talked about what makes a good hamburger.  You don't want just a small piece of meat in between two buns.  You want lettuce, tomato, pickles, onion, cheese, green chili, catsup, etc.  In the same way you don't want one sentence in between the opening and closing sentence, you want juicy detail.  So, to work on this, I give the class a writing prompt to work on every morning after they finish their morning math.  Usually they do this in their composition notebooks, but this past Friday I had them write on a loose leaf piece of paper and turn it in for me to grade.  I have to say I am very proud of my kiddos!  For the most part they wrote good hamburgers.  And, as always there were very interesting, and funny paragraphs.  Let me share them with you.  (These are exactly how the students wrote them, spelling and all, no teacher edits.)

The prompt this particular Friday was:  What would you do if you were in the middle of the lake and your boat started to leak?

Alexandra: If I was in the middle of a lake and My boat started to leak I would get my life gaket (jacket) and triy (try) to swim my way and my boat back to land.  Then I would leth (leave) my boat next to The lake.  Then go to my panis (parents) and Tell Tem (them) where The boat and they would drith (drive) to the boat.  then pu The boat in The car.  and that wast I wood do if I was in the middle of a lake.


Maria:  If I was in the middle of a lake and I was in a boat and it stared (started) to leak then I would put a life vest on and jump in the water.  I would do that because I have no chocie (choice).  All I can do is jump in the water or die.  And I would pick to jump in the water.  Even thought (though) it is very cold I would do it.  But I will try not to land in the rocks.  Thats what I would do if there was a leak in the boat.  


Mark:  iF my BoAt hAD A leAk I would swim to shore.  And Get A cANoN ANd Get bAck out There.  ANd Thats what would hApeN if my BoAt hAd A leAk.  


Erin:  First of all I would SCREAM!  Then get duck tape and tape it and put on my life jacket.  And would get a computer and contact 911.  Then wait for police until i'm safe.  and they would take me on land and I would give them shiny medals.  


Anna:  If I was in the middle of a lake and my boat began to leak then I wold begen to panik (panic) and screem screem and panec.  I wold call for help her (here) is an axampal (example) help help Aaaaaaahhhh help some body.  And thats what I wold do.  


Richie:  If I was in the lake and the boat began to leak.  I would get a life jacket and swim.  But if that did not work I would try to swim.  If that did not work I would find a log to get on.  If that did not work then its light out for me.  


Man, you gotta love a kid's imagination sometimes.


 

Something Fun?

The first month of school is over!  I can hardly believe it.  On one hand it seems like school has only begun but on the other hand it feels like we have been doing this for months now.  I am proud to say that Steve is still alive!  I was very nervous in the beginning that I wasn't going to be able to take care of him and keep him alive since I have never cared for an amphibian before.  But, as far as I know, he is still living.  However, I need to go get a new Can O' Crickets to feed Steve.  He doesn't like the new brand I bought for him last week.  REALLY Steve!?!  They are dead bugs packaged in their own "natural juices" what is not to like.  We've tried all week to get Steve to eat these crickets; all he does is walk up to them, stare at them for a minute, licks them (to see how they taste?  I don't know!) and then walks away.  But not without giving me a look like, "Really, you're still trying to give this stuff to me?"  Oh well, looks like I just need to buy a different Can O' Crickets. 


Since we have been in school a month I'm getting my kids ready to start literacy centers.  We have taken the first month to practice as a whole group what we are going to be doing in Literacy Centers.  We've made charts for rules, I've typed them up and laminated them, we've made pocket charts for them, we have done almost everything I can think of in order to get ready for them.  Well, this past Friday we were wrapping up creating rules for the Literacy Centers.  We had 3 centers that we still needed to create rules for.  So, I was doing as I had with the other centers in order to make rules:  I had chart paper on the board and we were coming up with "Do's" and "Don'ts" for the last 3 centers.  Granted it is not fun, but the kids generally enjoy creating rules for themselves and enjoy telling other people how to act, what 9 year old wouldn't?  So, we were finishing up creating rules for the last center so I told the class, "Alright that's enough rules for now.  If you have anymore you'd like to add, you can tell me later and we can add them.  So, we are moving onto math now."  Before I could finish this last sentence, Ari yells out, "Are we going to do something fun now?!"  My jaw dropped and my hands went to my hips as I said, "Well I don't know anymore, maybe not!"  I was trying to pretend that I was upset and offended but the kiddos knew I wasn't and they all began to laugh at Ari and laugh at me.  That is what I really like about my class this year, they know how to have fun with each other.  They know how to laugh and they know how to take a joke.  It is fun to have a class of kids that you yourself can have fun with.  I am really enjoying this year!

Go Away!

We are a month into the school year already!  We have to send progress reports home next week because it is half way through the first quarter!  I cannot believe how quickly this year is going!  Even though it is a month into school I am still just discovering the personalities of some of my students.  When you have 26 students and you lose or gain a student every other day it seems like, it makes it hard to get to know you student's very well in a timely manner.  This past week I discovered the personality of Alexandra, yes, the wing ripping/cricket smashing student.  I discovered her personality and I have to say I LOVE IT!  She is so much fun and makes me laugh every day.  Now, you would think I would understand her personality when she came to me with a fly with no wings.  However, I did not understand it until she literally told me to "Go away!"  Here's the story:  We were working on a simple, I thought, math assignment.  After explaining the assignment to the class I began to walk around to help students who needed it.  Alexandra raised her hand immediately so I made my way over to her desk to in order to provide my assistance.  As I began to reteach Alexandra she suddenly becomes very excited and says, "Oh okay I get it."  I believed that she understood the assignment but continued to explain further just to double check he knowledge.  Apparently Alexandra did not want this because she looks at me and says, "OKAY!  GO AWAY!"  I was laughing so hard at her that I had trouble walking away.  Alexandra was laughing with me, I think she realized at that moment that I understood her and that she would now be able to joke and play with me.  If you were wondering, she did understand it, she received a 100% on the assignment!

On another note; I must say I am very excited for this year and the direction my career is going.  I have been asked by the Ed Tech at our school to be on a district committee to rewrite the Technology Plan for the district!  I have always enjoyed technology and I am enjoying using it in my classroom this year.  Since I have a Smart Board in my classroom this year I feel like my teaching has improved and I feel like my students are learning better this year.  Our Ed Tech has also asked me to do a training with our school on a Wednesday.  I am the only teacher at the school to have AverVision on my lap top.  (AverVision is a program that can be used with the Smart Board.)  Since I am the only teacher that has this and uses it regularly she has asked me to show all the other teachers how to use it so they will know if they would like to implement it in their classroom.  

Sorry I have been neglecting the Blog, I will try to write more regularly.  I am glad you are all enjoying reading it!   

The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Clause

Well, I am happy to say that Steve received a live bug for breakfast on Thursday.  Alexandra came running up to me after the bell rang on Thursday morning exclaiming, "I caught a cricket for Steve!"  My first question was, "Did you rip his legs off?" "No but I did squish him in the bag some, I think he's still alive though."  Sure enough, the cricket was alive, barely, when Steve ate him.  Even geckos deserve a warm breakfast right?

I play a game with my kiddos called Brain Quest.  I remember playing it when I was in elementary school so I figured I'd give it a go with my class this year.  Brain Quest is an age appropriate trivia game that contains educational questions.  We play this game when we have a few minutes to kill before lunch, before recess, or before we pack up to go home.  Now remember, these are educational questions so I am not losing instructional time by doing this. :)  My class has really come to love this game and I love it as well.  It is fun to have something that you can do together to create a bond.  While playing Brain Quest before recess on Thursday the kids were having a great time playing they were helping helping each other and were even able to giggle at themselves when they gave a silly answer.  The last question I asked before going out to recess was this: "How many boats did Christopher Columbus have when he discovered the new world?"  I was shocked when almost everyone's hand shot up in the air along with "Ooohh ooohhh ooohhh" in surround sound.  I called on the first kid, "200!"
"No."
I moved onto the next, "1,000"
"No."
This random guessing lasted for about 5 students until Hannah finally answered correctly, "3."
"Yes!  Now a bonus if you can name them."
Once again, all hands shot up in the air and the ooohhhs continued.  I called on the first student, "The Titanic"
"No."
I called on the second student, "The Mayflower."
"No.  I'll give you a hint the first one is the Nina.  The other 2 rhyme with Nina."
I got answers anywhere from the Rina to the Thina.
"Alright, I'll give you the name of the second boat, it's the Pinta."
I received various answers for the third boat as well, "The Rinta, the Sinta."
"No."
By this time we were all giggling because no one could figure out the answer.
"Alright, here's the third hint; the last boat has two names the first name is Santa...."
"CLAUSE!"
I was laughing so hard I could hardly speak to give the class the right answer.  "NO!  It's not the Santa Clause!  Would there be a boat called the Santa Clause? It's the Santa Maria!"
"Oh!"  I was 25 beautiful kids laughing at themselves and laughing at me.  It was a great bonding moment and the best memory I have this year, even though we're only two weeks in.