The perfectly timed holiday

Not that I think God had the future's stressed-out overworked and underpaid student teachers in mind when He did the whole Passover/Easter deal, but who knows? The week off sure comes at the perfect time, so I'm going to say my heartfelt thanks just in case...

Free Stuff (?)

My wise father always said "There's no free lunch" but a teacher I met the other night told me he has received 2 free laptops, including a cool all-weather military style field experiment model, and other new tech devices for his science class in the past 2 months from this website ...yes, Free!

I have not looked into any details myself yet, but if I had my own classroom I would jump on this quick before it goes the way of our 401(K)s and classroom supply budgets...

I also saw a brief article about entire districts doing away with grade levels -- what you learn and what you know is where you are? Anybody worked with anything like this?

“Pursue the things you love doing, and do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you. All other tangible rewards will come as a result.”

Maya Angelou

Ok, now I can breathe...

Not very deep, relaxing breaths, but at least the danger of hyperventilation is (briefly) over.

Got all the major course assignments complete, all the classroom observations done and over, and one week left with my precious 5th graders before Spring Break! After which, of course, it starts all over again, but this time with a Master's degree course and 3rd graders (13 boys & 6 girls -- who planned that class?)... but I plan on enjoying the moment while it lasts. I also miss my boys -- after 2+ years living the life of "Mr Mom" and some major Son/Dad time, it was hard to wake them up on my way out the door in the morning and kiss 'em goodnight when they're already snoring.

Now I need to go watch the video of my teaching and see just how large and shiny my forehead really is; I'm sure it* needs a great deal of editing before I present it to Professor and classmates. My (very) amateur cinematographers were 3 bickering adhd/gifted students, and my MT makes several timely appearances, needing something coincidentally wherever the camera happened to be focused!



* the video, not my forehead

Hearing vs. Listening

Maybe it was because it was Friday. Maybe because it was the Friday they got to do dance practice and mini-society. Maybe it was because it was the Friday they got to dance and mini-society and it's 1 week until Spring Break. Maybe it was because it was the Friday yada yada yada and I was the Sub and they all had Cap'n Crunch with brown sugar and chocolate syrup for breakfast and haven't had a Q-tip near their ears in several weeks... whatever the hell it was, they were not listening!!!!!!!!

I had to pull 2 tests and 6 other collections of misc. materials off students desks despite letting them know at least 3 different ways, including having 2 of them answer the question "what should you have on your desk?" And now that I'm grading the assessments, I see a lot of them missed/forgot/ignored the very first instruction I gave them! That's okay, I kept 'em in at recess and gave them a lecture lesson my sons have heard a few times on the difference between hearing and listening.

Good thing I practiced, 'cause the boys needed it again this morning!

How long 'til Spring Break???

I know, I know -- I've been a bad, as in non-existent, blogger.

I have a Master Teacher that likes to stay late after school to do all the talking, planning, copying, talking, reviewing, talking, tutoring, scheduling, talking.... I have an observer that feels there is not a lesson plan created that she cannot say needs "more detail" -- I may assign specific times for my breaths and heartbeats on the next one. And I have professors that amazingly and wonderfully eliminated assignments to ease our workload, but still require 30+ page papers that due to procrastination and stubbornness I am having to make up 80% of as I frantically type to meet the deadline.

Not to mention Facebook, March Madness, and sunshine -- how am I supposed to get anything done around here?!?!?

; )

No, you are not such a great teacher you turned all your students into geniuses in one week...

Learning Experience: Remember to remove the current vocabulary words from the word wall and erase the root word definitions from the white board BEFORE giving the tests!

"Fact Drop"

One student bangs his shin on a table, another student asks "Did that hurt?"

Wincing, the student rubbed his leg and said, "Well, not as much as it hurt the Incas when they did brain surgery without any anesthesia."


This is from a textbook, but I would give massive bonus points if I heard this in my classroom! We've been studying figurative language and idioms, and I've told them if they catch me using an idiom I'll give them a ticket (redeemable for candy or a lottery for privileges); I've also passed out tix for actually using the vocabulary words they study all week, or for identifying a root in a new word I use.

On the other hand, I have told them they will lose every privilege in the book for the rest of the year if they make me laugh while taking a drink, especially when standing over the desk of a classmate, which did almost happen. I can just imagine the parent/principal/never-to-be-employed-student-teacher meeting for that one...

why be nervous?

My university supervisor came in for her first visit, and I choked. Not literally, although that would have been a lesson the students would remember for a long time ("dude, did you see his face turn blue?!?!?"), but as I introduced the lesson I jumped in 3 or 4 steps beyond where my lesson plan said I would and uttered several more ums and uhs per minute than acceptable. I did recover nicely, if I do say so myself, and the rest of the lesson went well. The students got a little antsy and the volume went up (so say her official supervisor notes) but it was just before recess...

I need to power up the video camera this weekend so I can see myself teach. I'm sure I'll be appalled -- does the camera really add 20 lbs? and increase forehead depth by several inches? and cause that tie to really clash with that shirt?

...

MT out again Mon and Tues, so I'm desperately reading many science chapters to review/prepare the class for a test Tues, and introducing "Mini-Society" as well, which sounds cool. Wonder if I can convince them to name me Supreme Dictator for Life?

smarter than a 5th grader?

passed along from my smartest friend and his Math Teacher wife:

There are 7 girls in a bus. Each girl has 7 backpacks. In each backpack, there are 7 big cats. For every big cat, there are 7 little cats. The bus driver is not on the bus at this time.

Question: How many legs are there in the bus?

This is not a trick question (easy for him to say...), it is a real math problem, so "a bus doesn't have legs" is not any part of the answer.

any ideas?

When I copy/re-write anything like this, especially up on the white board in front of the class, I get OCD/paranoid I'm spelling words wrong, or omitting a word, or accidentally spelling some word I'll get calls from the parents about -- for example, do not abbreviate "after school session" !

Not proud of myself...

...but I suppose it had to happen sooner or later: made my first student cry today.

I didn't try to, and I wish he wouldn't have, but he did. And of course I caved, reduced the punishment and gave him the second chance speech. Whatta wimp.

Not only, that, but those little germ-mongers have me coughing upa lung and going to bed early.

paychecks a-comin' !

Kind and wonderful MT let me take a break from classroom life today to go fill out the paperwork for sub-hood. Now, when she is gone for the next 3 days I'll get paid to do what I was doing with a sub getting paid to not do what I was doing.

I think.

Anyway, just home from class and picking up Son #1 at practice, and MUST write clear and beautiful lesson plans for tomorrow since my University Supervisor is coming out for her first visit... aaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!!

quick notes: aren't 5th graders supposed to know who was who in the American Revolution? or at least know what side George Washington was on? how is it possible to have 1 classmate weigh 57 lbs and his buddy 179? they look like entirely different species...