I heart Halloween!!

So today was a fun day!! We got a lot of work done (though I used a lot of bribery to get it done... I promised the kids I'd pass out snacks and get us out to recess when all our work was finished), and we had a good time! Again, I had a lot of kids (5) out today, so that helped.

At the end of the day, we cleaned the room. It was acutally neat when we finished! After that, we did "The Macarena" again, which was awesome. We did sort of a conga line around the room, and all but 2 students joined us. Finally, we all headed out to recess, where I learned to play Around the World, basketball style. At one point, I actually made 4 baskets in a row!! (The kids were impressed.)

My only fear right now: that I'm too buddy-buddy with the students. I hope that I can still be an instiller of education and the desire for knowledge, while maintaining control of the classroom. We'll see how tomorrow goes (mmmm, 27 sugared-up kids!!)...

Thank you to those of you who are commenting; it makes me feel good! It's nice to know that there are supportive, caring people out there who have something to add to my experience!

On a final note, I feel like I'll now be able to get through the school year, no problem. What a feeling!! Now, to get home, so I can pass out candy to my students (I encouraged them to stop by)... we'll see if that's a good idea or not! Peace.

Quick day!

So as I get (ever so slightly) older, time goes by faster and faster. Even this Monday, which wasn't wonderful by any stretch, went extremely quickly. I had seven (count 'em, 7!!) students out today! It was soooo nice working with a smaller class all day. If I had 15-18 students, I would be golden.

I'm still having issues trying to find a balance in the classroom. I want the students to be able to express themselves and feel comfortable in the room, but I also need to make sure that we're learning things! It's difficult.

Today in science, we started a unit on classifying living things. The textbook brought up extinction and evolution... I wasn't worried about it, but when we were talking about different stages of the Earth, one girl said, "I don't believe that the Earth formed like that. I believe that God created it." Oy, I thought, here we go... So I asked her, "Why couldn't God have created the Earth AND it changed over time?" She thought for a moment and replied, "I guess I don't know."

Later, we were talking about the extinction of dinosaurs, and developing ideas about how they all died. The same girl as above said that she thought "the great flood" (from Noah's ark) took the lives of the dinosaurs. I tried explaining that humans and dinosaurs didn't exist at the same time, which was difficult for her to grasp. I told her that human and dinosaur bones are aged much differently, and were found in different layers of the earth. Hmm... at least they're interested!!

The students also freaked out when they found out that modern human embryos have tails and gills! I bet I'll get a few angry phone calls tomorrow, but I at least have the science book and Arizona state standards to back me up. So there. : P

Finally, today was interesting. The morning was wonderful, since we didn't switch for math and I had the whole class to myself. I had them working dilligently for a while, but after P.E., one of my acter-uppers decided to throw a fit. He kicked a chair at another student numerous times, and tried to break his desk. Awesome. I sent a student to get another adult to come in and remove him, which took quite some time. Yay. Also, another student told me her father is now in jail (for a rather disturbing crime), and that's why she wasn't in school most of last week. Ugh. I know it's not out of the ordinary, but I have kids who are homeless (living in tents), kids whose parents are in jail, kids whose parents do drugs, and so on. If the human race doesn't kill itself in a few decades, I'll truly be amazed.

That's all for now. Just another Monday, all in all.

What a ridiculous week!!

So T.G.I.F. first and foremost!!

This was just an utterly bad week, schoolwide. Perhaps it's the changing weather (the "fall" season seems to be approaching), perhaps it's because this was our first 5-day week in a while... who knows?

Anyway, aside from the kids being monsters, things are going a bit better. We're getting somewhat of a routine down with the day, and I see that the students do actually like rituals, routines, and rules. I need to be more consistent, though; I feel like I've been all over the place with them lately. It's just rough having 27 different problems to deal with all day, every day. Such is teaching!

Due to last week's discussion of Darfur, the class decided they wanted to write a letter to President Bush. They each wrote individual letters, which they'll type up next week in computer class. Today, we drafted a letter from the entire class. It reads:

"Dear Mr. President:

"Hello! We are a 4th and 5th grade class in ... Arizona.* Our class is in ... Elementary School.* We are aged 9 to 12 years, and we are in Ms. ....'s class.*

"We as a class have mixed feelings about your presidency and what you're doing. Even though it seems like it is difficult to be President, we have some questions for you. Why are we in Iraq, and not helping the people in Darfur, Sudan? Why are we disturbing other countries? Why did you send our troops to Iraq in the first place? How do you feel about your ratings going down?

"We're worried about several issues. First, we're concerned that thousands of our own troops have died in Iraq. We are worried because people we love are over there, including brothers, sisters, and other family members. If you were over there, would you die for our country? Also, how does it feel to be President?

"Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. We hope you think over the issues we have mentioned. We would greatly appreciate it if you wrote back to us.

"Your citizens,

..." *I did not include the specific names above to maintain the anonymity of the blog.

Anyway, the letter needs a bit of work, but it's a start. At least the students are concerned about the world in which we live, and are motivated to change! In fact, looking back on it, my greatest time of environmental activism was when I was in the 5th grade. I wrote a petition to Al Gore about what should be done to help the environment, and I had the whole school sign the document. I also organized playground litter pick-ups. Oh, youth and its idealism!

Ok, time to plan a little bit, then relax!!! Tomorrow, I'm going out of town to see 5 of my boys play in a college football stadium! Very cool. For now, peace.

Wowza...

So this was probably the worst Thursday yet! Among the "lowlights" of today:

-We had our first lockdown drill ... the kids were good overall, but several took it too lightly and made a joke of it. We had to re-do the drill (in my class only) 2 times before it was decent enough to work in a real-life emergency.

-I'm getting meaner (more strict?) with the kids, and I don't like it. I'm not sure what else to do, though, to get them to stop all the dang talking.

-After a morning of disrespectful, annoying students, I ended up lecturing the whole class about their behavior. I went so far as to tell them that I'm relatively new to the profession (though I didn't say I'm a first-year teacher), and that I have already thought about quitting. A lot of them seemed shocked, and one boy promised to "shape up" and prove himself. Heh... that lasted all of an hour.

-Had our class meeting in the afternoon, which was a disaster. There was immense drama between 4 girls, and it escalated to the point where I had to physically restrain one girl to keep her in the classroom for our discussion. Illegal? I hope not.

-The students took a survey about me and their comfort in the classroom. To my dismay, a lot of the students didn't rate the safety/welcoming-ness of the room very high. :( Also, the general consensus is that my lessons aren't the clearest, nor are my grading policies. However, all but one student said I'm always fair and helpful. The students have spoken.

-At the end of the day, one boy became extremely frustrated. He ignored me, which I told him was not a good choice. I gave him two options: follow directions (picking up papers around his desk and packing up to go home, or going to the library to calm down), or receive a lunch detention. He opted to continue ignoring me. This all escalated to the point where he would not leave the classroom. I had to have three other staff members come in (one at a time), and only the last one was able to get him out of the room. Seems he's being harrassed by other students, and one teacher thinks he's suicidal. I tried calling his parents, but to no avail. Sigh.

That's all for now. Thank GOD tomorrow is Friday. After this week, I'm ready to take a few months off. :P

Ewww...

... Wednesday... shudder!

Today was a fascinating day, really. Again, I didn't particularly feel like being here in the morning, but when the class was at computer lab, I took a bathroom break. Then and there, I decided I could take a moderately crappy day and make it better. When I picked the kids up, we gathered all our reading books/materials and headed outside. Even though it's almost November, it's still beautiful here. I loooove being outside this late in the year.

Anyway, things improved a teeny bit. I had them all sit on the foul line on the basketball court, and we had a talk. I told them that we all have bad days, and that this was one for me. A lot of them seemed surprised, as if teachers aren't real people. Later, we played a game to get them to be quiet: I let them run around the court for 5 minutes, but they could NOT talk (or laugh or make noises or touch anyone else). It worked pretty well. Afterward, we had part of the reading lesson outside, part in, and then it was lunch.

During lunch, I commandeered a "Schoolhouse Rock" video from my next-door teacher. It was a grammar one (yay!!), and it went over pretty well with the kids. For Social Studies, we read a magazine on current issues about Iraq. This time, I tried to give them a less biased view, explaining how hard it is to be President and ALL the different motivations we have for being in Iraq. We took a class poll at the end, and more than half the class thought we shouldn't be in Iraq. Though the kids were talkative, they were very interested in world issues. I told them how glad I am that they care, and that they can help lead us to change. I actually really like these discussions, aside from the noise level.

Anyway, the rest of the day was annoying... We did some work (and they worked well for a while), but ended the day in silence because I was at my wit's end with all the dang talking. Bleh!!

After school, we had a quick briefing on how the lockdown drill is to go tomorrow. I have yet to discuss it with the class; oops! Should be an interesting day... for now, I take my leave.

Loooong day, as usual...

Tuesday wasn't much better than Monday, it turns out. Oh, vell. I've become stricter with the class lately, which means they're a bit quieter and more attentive... this helps quite a bit.

Anyway, since I don't want to dwell on the negative, I'll briefly mention some highlights:

1.) had two specials (yay!!!), allowing me time to plan and relax a bit

2.) got a decent amount of material covered today

3.) got another new student (I'm back up to 26 now... ugh)

4.) played football with the boys at our end-of-the-day recess... they said I throw a decent spiral, so I felt pretty good. :) (Is it bad that I'm glad because I did something a group of 9- and 10-year-olds deem "cool"?) It was fun, though.

Also, a lot of the other teachers have been asking me if I'm leaving in December. In weeks past, I'd said that I was, but I'm not sure anymore... I think I'll try my best to stay 'til May, so we'll see how that goes. Even on fairly crappy days (like today), I don't feel like giving up as much. God bless Lexapro.

Finally, I have changed the format of the blog so that anyone may leave comments! Yes, dear friends, family, and strangers, you may now leave comments!! Yay!! Feel free to take advantage of this momentous change! Until then, peace out.

Garfield is a cat after my own heart...

... He hates Mondays, too!

Today was OK in the morning, and got progressively worse throughout the day. I think the class is finally starting to get good at working together, but they still can't learn when to just stop. It's annoying more than anything.

I had conferences #23 and 24 after school today with the very same mother who had written me a hate note several weeks earlier. Oh, how I love my job sometimes. The conferences didn't go too poorly, and I'm glad they're over. I had nearly a 100% turnout of parents!! Just one girl and her mother haven't shown, but that may change.

Wow, I'm exhausted. Almost time to go home... and silly me: I signed up for recess duty (before school) AND after-school detention this week, which kills my planning time before and after school. Super!

Ok, that's all for now. Time to go home, plan, eat, and sleep. Sigh...

Conferences: 22 of 25 done!

So today I had 10 more conferences. They went pretty well, overall. Though no other parents offered to fix me up with people they know, I did do two conferences en español, thankyouverymuch. There was an interpreter for one (who is one of my Spanish-speaking friends), but I didn't need her. :) At the end, she told me she was proud of my work. It's cool being able to speak two languages, and being able to converse with parents in their native language.

I found out today that one of my talkative boys will be moving up to 6th grade starting Monday!! Woo hoo!! Good news for me, for him, and his mother (who would randomly show up in the classroom). Can't complain.

Ah, what a whirlwind of parents and students! It's good to see so many families who care about their children, at least to some degree. For now, I plan out next week and go home!! An early Friday- how exciting! Take care, y'all.

Conferences: Day 2

So this job is anything but dull or boring. This morning, one of my best, nicest students in the classroom was crying because she was afraid to get in trouble. No way, girl! Later, I had another student tell me that her mom just up and left, and would maybe not be coming to conferences (or home again at all). Her parents later showed up.

Yesterday, I forgot to mention our closing for the day. Earlier yesterday morning, when the class was actually quiet for once, we heard music blaring in the classroom next door. Upon careful listening, we determined said music to be Macarena by Los Del Rio. Hm... All of a sudden, I had students jealously asking, "Why can't we do the Macarena?!" I told them we could, if the rest of the day went well. It's amazing how a '90s hit can so inspire the children of the 2000s. They were really good for the rest of the day. Strange! Thus, the last few minutes of class were dedicated to teaching the children the Macarena and dancing it. It was too funny!! My "macho" boys (one of whom is a bull rider) were swinging their hips, trying desperately to keep rhythm with the song. I actually laughed out loud several times! Almost all the kids danced, and it was just the most beautiful 10 minutes yet.

Today was also delightful because it was a half day. The kids got out right after their (early) lunch, leaving the teachers to conference with students and parents. I had 11 more conferences today, all of which went pretty well. Again, the students led the process, and they were adorable. My mentor came in at one point to supervise, and we were both thrilled with how smoothly the process went. My mentor then grabbed the principal to come and watch. It was actually a very nice time.

I've also learned so much about my kids! A lot of them are not only spitting images of their parents, but I see where the behaviors come from now, too! It was just a real eye-opener.

Highlights of today's conferences:

-ALL of my scheduled students/parents showed up. I couldn't believe it!

-One mother wanted to ask me "a personal question." I was afraid she was going to ask if it was my first year teaching; instead, she asked me if I was dating anyone. Turns out she wants to fix me up with a "really, really nice, shy" police officer. Ha. Who would've thought the new big dating service would be parent-teacher conferences?

-I have one student whose family is having several issues. The student is emotionally unstable, but is very bright. In fact, she's being tested for the gifted program at our school. Her whole family came in (mom, dad, brother, sister, etc.). I could tell they were a good (albeit dysfunctional) family. Since the girl is such a hard worker and does so well in school, I was able to give her a glowing- honest- report. At one point, I felt like I was on some new reality TV show... We were wrapping up the conference, which I did by presenting the parents with the child's report card. I said, "and here is your daughter's report card," and handed the document to shaky hands. There was a moment of complete silence, and then sighs of relief. The student had earned As in all subjects except art (for talking/attitude). There were tears, there were hugs and kisses and "I love you"s... it seemed like they had won a grand prize. The student and both her parents were literally crying when they saw the report card. It was such a weird, cool moment.

I shall leave you on that note. Conferences: 12 down, 12 to go (another one is coming!!). Peace!

Conferences: 1 down, 22 to go

I had my first student-led parent/teacher/student conference this afternoon. I was supposed to have 2, but one got rescheduled at the last minute. It went relatively well, I think, and the student was so cute! In class, he can be a pill sometime (and it seems he's the same way at home), but he was all nervous about what he had to do.

You see, the students all have a checklist of what they need to do when they bring their parents to the classroom. They need to seat their parent(s), serve refreshments (that I've provided), go through the portfolio they've created, discuss an educational article we read, develop a plan to accomplish the goal they've written for the semester, and finish up with me. It's nice; the students are held directly accountable for their work and their grades, and their parents can see immediately how much work has been done.

Anyway, today's conference went well, so the next 22 shouldn't be bad. I'm actually extremely pleased with the turnout; if all goes as planned, I should see 23 of my 26 students and their families! Incredible! :)

Finally, our staff meeting today after school was interesting... we talked about lockdown procedures, should anything horrible happen. (Parents and students alike have been brandishing guns on school campuses lately, so who knows what could happen?!) We were also informed that last year, a lockdown was performed at a nearby district because a black bear was loose on the school campus. Um, where am I? Fun, fun. We practice our "lockdown drill" next week. Man, what happened to tornado and fire drills being scary? Now we're teaching the kids how to prepare in case of school shootings/wild animals being loose. What next?

Ok, off to massage therapy class!

Oh, Tuesday...

So today was a loooooooooong day. For some reason, the kids were little gremlins. They were loud, off-task, and annoying. In fact, I was getting my mail in the teachers' lounge this morning, when I heard another teacher screaming, "Someone help!!!" I ran over to where she was, and a boy sprinted into the boys' bathroom. The teacher and I ran after him, and he ran to hit the other teacher. She deflected him, so the kid tried to pull a sink from the wall. Fortunately, he was too weak to budge it. He ran into a stall and screamed at the top of his lungs for a while. In the end, the police were called, and I was 10 minutes late picking my class up for the beginning of school. Sadly, we've had the police at our school nearly every week for something or another. Go figure.

In the afternoon, we had no art (groan; there goes my planning time!), AND we had a fire drill. Later, the class cleaned their desks out. I almost took a picture, the mess was so unbelievable! The floor was literally covered in papers, books, and junk. At one point, I informed the class that they had 5 minutes to get everything picked up and put away. I warned them that for every piece of trash I found on the floor, I'd take one minute of their earned free time. In the end, they lost 6 minutes. The room looked good when we were done, though!

Last night, I made the first phone call to a parent where I felt like a competent professional! The 6th grade teacher and I decided to move one boy up to 6th grade math (he's in 5th grade, but already has a thorough understanding of the concepts). I informed the parents last night, who were happy with the decision, and asked how we could all support the student's reading progress. I talked about some classroom supports that are in place, as well as what the parents can do. It went very well.

Parent-teacher-student conferences start tomorrow afternoon. I'm actually not that nervous... yet. Having never conducted such conferences, I don't really know what to expect. As of right now, 13 of my 25 students' parents have said they'll be at the conference. This is a good turnout, I suppose. We'll see how many of them actually show.

Finally, I am happy to say that we have a pretty dang good staff at school. I've talked to many of our staff members, and am coming to talk to several on a regular basis. We have some really extraordinary people (including my favorite custodian!!) who help the day progress so much better. I'm actually surprised at the caliber of the staff in such a small district. We are all very fortunate, even if the administration leaves something to be desired. That's all for now... time to relax, go to bed, and start all over again tomorrow!

Ah, the perks of teaching...

Today was a "fast and furious" day. I was in a pretty good mood the whole day, until the last 20 minutes of school, when the kids would not just BE QUIET. They ended up leaving school late (their own fault!), though no one missed a bus. Perk one.

After school, we had a "brief teachers' meeting." Ha. We had yet again to talk about Proposition 301 money- money that should be added to our salaries, as it is with many other districts. However, we need to jump through about 438 hoops before we get said money. It's been a 2-month-long battle between the teachers and the administration about how to allocate the funds. Long story short, they win, we lose. The admin. tells the teachers how they will get the money, no matter how the teachers feel about it. Sucky. Thus, we all wasted 45 precious minutes after school discussing money we won't be getting. Perk two.

Upon the end of the meeting, a lot of us met up (accidentally) in the teachers' lounge for the usual mail-getting and copying duties that teaching entails every few hours of the working day. We all had a bag of unpopped popcorn in our mailboxes, so I popped mine immediately. Yay! Even though it was burned, I scarfed a lot of it down. One of the other teachers popped hers as well, and then noticed that it "smells funky." She checked the expiration date and, lo and behold, it expired in January of 2005. Ha. Turns out mine had an expiration date of 04/05. We joked that the district knew we couldn't afford to feed ourselves, and thus would eat whatever they gave us. Perk three.

Even though it's already after 5, I still have the following things to do by tomorrow:
-input 27 student's grades in ALL subjects (2 hours' work)
-clean the classroom (1 hour's work)
-finish preparing the materials for tomorrow's lessons (1/2 hour's work)
-call a few parents (~1/4 hour's work)
Perk four.

Finally, I had the students write things they've learned so far this year, and things they want to learn. Among the best are:

Things I've learned this year:
-"Why we have study hall"
-"Reading smoothly"
-"Don't judge people"
-"To be nicer"
-"dealling with people"
-"devition by desimals"
-"I've learned how great of a teacher I have."

Things I want to learn this year:
-"How to blance a bank akount"
-"How to disect a frog"
-"a little bite of division"
-"to be respectful and polite"
-"I want to lear algeebrah."
-"stop fighting with my brother"
-"how to make a sound out of my claroet"
-"biooligy"
-"I want to learn things that I dont already know."

Good news!!!

Wow, I finally got some good news about work today... So, after an all-day in-service (ugh), I learned that I have to split up my math into 4th and 5th grade. This means that I'd have to teach math twice daily, to two different groups. Needless to say, I freaked out a little bit. The other 5th grade teacher, however, suggested that we ability-group the 4th and 5th graders (with the other 4th grade teacher was well), and that each of us takes a group. I'd done ability-grouped math for student teaching, and it worked wonderfully.

I told the 5th grade teacher that I was completely on board with her, though the 4th grade teacher had some reservations. The 6th grade teacher also tried to get in on our plan, but coordinating the schedules of 4 teachers was a logistical nightmare. For a while, things looked bleak; it seemed our plan was doomed.

However... the 5th grade teacher ultimately stepped up and offered to do something awesome: she said she'll take my 5th graders for math EVERY DAY, so I can teach just the 4th grade!!! Wow. This is awesome! Scheduling-wise, all I have to do is flop my class's computer/library time with the kindergarten class's. Should be easy enough... So starting Monday, I'll only have to teach math to 12 fourth graders!! Heaven!!

Also, I get continued support and encouragement from the staff. I was told today by three different (veteran) teachers that they don't know how I manage two grades. It turns out that when the superintendant decided I was to take the combo class, he told the other teachers that they were "fortunate to find someone who had experience with this type of class." Um, experience?! I'm a first-year teacher!!! Ha. Lies, lies, lies. Such is life, though. I'm still here, right? (For now...) I was also thinking that maybe I can hang in there until May. We'll see.

Finally, going out with the other newbies last night helped a great deal. I learned I'm not alone in my feelings on a lot of things (being overwhelmed, having a "rough class," dealing with evil parents, etc.), so that was nice. We also got to gossip about all the other teachers, and I learned hidden secrets about seemingly sane staff members.

All in all, a good 24 hours as of late. Now, all I have to do by Monday is: finish the first quarter grades and put them into the computer, make notices for all the students for parent-teacher conferences, plan out next week, and clean my part of the classroom. Yah, I'll be here tomorrow for sure. For now, I go home and relax a bit!

TGIF!!!

Yay! Friday is here, finally! This morning was ROUGH (I didn't even get out of bed until 10 minutes before I had to BE at school), but the day ended up ok. My mentor came in to observe me for an hour. I had loosely planned the math lesson for today, but it went much better than planned! The kids were attentive, participating, and interested in multiplying decimals by decimals... who would've thought!? We ended the lesson with a game of around-the-world with multiplication flash cards, and one girl (a 4th grader, no less!) schooled our entire class.

Highlights of the day:

-Today, Friday the 13th, inspired lots of weird (yet amusing) behavior of my children... I laughed when I realized the students were walking around in a strange manner because they were trying to avoid stepping on any cracks. They were also terrified that something awful was going to happen today. They're too funny.

-In the afternoon, I changed my Social Studies lesson on a spur-of-the-moment impulse to talk about the situation in Darfur. (I have a poster in my classroom with a photo of a burning village that reads: "Destruction by the government of Sudan and its militias is organized and systematic.") We talked about what was happening in the picture, and what is going on RIGHT NOW in the Darfur region of Sudan. This led to a long discussion of the Holocaust and WWII, which fascinated the students to no end. I had bought a book about Anne Frank last week at our school's book fair, so I was able to show pictures as I told the gruesome story of that horrible time. The kids were in disbelief that such things ever happened, and more so that they're still going on today. It was a great (albeit noisy!) discussion. At the end, we brainstormed ways WE can help... We decided as a class to write letters to President Bush in the upcoming weeks. A lot of students were also motivated to spread the word and tell their families and friends! I love it.

(As an aside, I learned that a LOT of my students/their parents do not like President Bush. I explained- with a great deal of bias, I must admit- that we are in Iraq mostly for oil, and that our troops could be helping people elsewhere. I don't mean to turn my class into bleeding-heart liberals, but I do want them to know what's going on in the world and with our country, and then take action to right the wrongs.)

-The day ended relatively well; we had a discussion about class behavior (and how it can eventually lead to situations like the ones we explored today), and ended with a recess.

Next week, we have student-led conferences. Because I didn't send letters home with my class, I have to call ALL the parents this weekend to schedule times. Whoops... Yet again, my procrastination catches up with me quickly.

It's now time to head out with the other newbies (I'm back in the first-year clique), and then we all have to be here again all day tomorrow for an in-service. Does the fun ever end?!

Yay- tomorrow's Thursday already!

So we had our 4-day fall break, which was nice. I did NOT want to be here this morning, but the day got progressively better. It's frustrating to not want to get to work, but it's even more confusing that, at the end of the day, I'm ready to come back and do it all again tomorrow.

My favorite part of the day: pulling together a game (on the spot!) for a geography review. The kids really liked it, so I'll have to keep using it until it gets old. The basic gist of it: I split the classroom down the middle, and had the kids move their desks to the wall of whatever side they were on, so that the middle of the classroom was completely open. I put two chairs side-by-side at the front of the room, and called one contestant from each team. Starting with their backs against the wall at the opposite end of the room, the contestants had to run to their chair and sit down quickly. Whoever was in the chair first (without falling out!) had 10 seconds to answer the question. In the event of a tie (and there were several!), we had re-matches. For the re-matches, I made the kids work extra hard: they had to either do 2 runs (wall to chair back to wall to chair), or they had to do goofy things when they sat down (like cross their legs and put their hands on their heads). It worked well, and it definitely spruced up a U.S. state/capital review! Tomorrow, we do it with grammar.

Anyway, the day wasn't awful. I had to figure out how to explain the concept of mutliplying decimals by whole numbers, though. It's not a difficult concept, but it is TOUGH to explain to 9- and 10-year-olds!! At the end, though, even the 4th graders were getting it! It was nice to know that a lot of my kids actually learned something today.

For now, I make copies for tomorrow, and then off to massage therapy class. Idle life, no more!

Field Trip #2: Ok... until we got pulled over!

So this morning was pretty hectic. I had told my students (as had the other 4th grade teacher) to be at school at 7:35am, because we were supposed to leave at 7:45am ON THE DOT. Of course, there were bus issues, and we didn't actually leave until about 8:15am. Go figure. So we had antsy kids for half an hour, just waiting and hanging out. Joy.

Then, on the way to the field trip, the other teacher informed me that neither she nor the bus driver really knew where we were going. Ha. Turns out the people putting on the field trip had changed the location yesterday (when I was on another field trip), and no one told me until this morning! Not knowing the area well, I had no idea about where we were going either. Fortunately, one chaperone knew the route and led us to our destination.

We arrived 30 minutes late at the field trip, so we only got to do 3 of the 4 activities. Bummer, but we made it up to the classes by enjoying a leisurely lunch (and HUGE game of duck, duck, goose) in a nearby park. It was great, and I spent nearly the entire time conversing with a chaperone who only spoke Spanish. (Turns out one of my kids was born with a hole in his heart, and when he was 4 years old, his family brought it up at church so they could all pray about it. In a few days, the hole was gone, and the boy was completely fine. Un milagro- a miracle.) It was great to practice speaking, and I like it that I'm the only faculty member in the school who can communicate with the Spanish-speaking parents.

On the way back, as usual, the other teacher and I had to keep quieting down the students. It got annoying, and we ended up moving a few of them. However, there were a few boys in the back of the bus who apparently threw things (sandwiches, rocks, paper, etc.) out the window. At the time they were doing this, a police car was behind our bus, and promptly pulled us over. Awesome. He took the name and number of one of the students from the other class, and we eventually returned to school with two hours remaining in the day.

Since I had a full day sub, I took a break from my class and tried to get some planning done. However, there were allegations that one of my students was also throwing things out the window, so I had the counselor talk to him. I also thought it good for him to talk to the police officer who had pulled us over, since he had followed us back to the school. My student was shaking and eventually cried when he realized that he had to talk to a police officer! The officer assigned the other boy and my boy clean-up duty in the cafeteria next week, as well as the task of reading three books. Interesting. So I helped out in that discussion, and then promptly hid myself in the teachers' lounge.

In the lounge were two Spanish-speaking staff members, both of whom I like a great deal. I keep asking them if they'll help me improve my Spanish, so they had me sit with them. We talked for over an hour, and it was awesome! I realize that I'm very rusty, but we had a nice time. At the end, they said, "te queremos" ("we love you"), and I got big hugs, so that was a great way to end the day! :)

For now, I get out of here quickly and head to my next job (as a hostess)... Time for a 4 day weekend!!!! Yippee!!

My first field trip: A success!

So today we went to a gorgeous park in Arizona. We had a great time, and the kids were relatively good! For some reason, I was told by the other 5th grade teacher that we were to split our classes into 3 groups... I did so, even though I only had 11 fifth graders. Two parents also came to chaperone, so that was nice. It turns out I could've just kept my class together; I ended up with a mix of 4 of my students and 8 of the other teacher's, and only one other chaperone. Go figure.

All in all, though, the day was good. We had three different activities: a hike (to discuss how early peoples may have survived on the land), a mock archaelogical dig (which the kids loved, and were awesome during this), and a session on pictographs (where the kids made pictograph-esque drawings to represent stories and ideas). They got a little rowdy toward the end (this happened no matter WHICH adult was talking; I felt re-assured that it's not just me screwing up), but it was a nice day all in all. The weather is still nice enough (even in October!!) to wear a t-shirt and shorts and be comfortable, even for me (and I get cold easily!). The bus ride there was pleasant- I was able to plan out a lot of next week and even read a little Vonnegut, and it was a bit noisy on the way back. Soon, the other teacher and I began "silent bus," since the students couldn't handle the privelige of being able to talk on the bus quietly. Oh, vell. I read more Vonnegut and relaxed.

I'm back at school, finishing up tomorrow's sub plans (which remarkably resemble today's!), and then we have our 4th grade field trip tomorrow. The only bummers? 1.) We have to be at school at 7:30am; the bus leaves AT 7:45, and 2.) it's only a half-day field trip. My sub, however, has been hired for the whole day, so when we get back, I will deposit the fourth graders with the sub and hide to do lesson planning and grading at school! Score! OK, I'm off. Peace!

Time is tricky...

... The days go so fast, yet seem to drag on as well. Briefly:

-Good morning... I got the kids WORKING and QUIET within the first 10 minutes of school... on my own!

-Had an impromptu IEP meeting during lunch; I wasn't told about it until 30 minutes before. Nice. Not like I need to eat or anything.

-Rough afternoon; apparently the kids were little monsters at art. I had the entire class write a letter to our poor art teacher (who runs between our school and the jr/sr high every day). Hopefully that'll help.

-Took the class outside for math today. It was nice until the end, when they were working on their own. I wonder if they'll ever know when to control themselves.

-Have a HUGE to-do list for the next few days. Our first 2 field trips are this Thursday and Friday. As a "real" teacher, I've never done a field trip before. This will be interesting... fortunately, we have another class going with us on each trip. Keep your fingers crossed!

Anyway, that's it for now... I took an additional job (as a hostess and soon-to-be server) to help out financially and socially. Peace.

Monday, Monday...

So as much as I didn't want to be here today, it actually flew by pretty quickly. The "highlights" are:

- was semi-formally evaluated by my mentor, who has decided that maybe she doesn't want to be an administrator... Seems we're in the same boat, pretty much. The eval. went well; she noticed strengths I didn't even know I had!

-morning was nice, since my mentor was there to keep the kids "in line."

-in P.E., apparently there was a spat between two boys, and one ended up getting punched in the eye. He showed up to class later with a nasty black eye. The other boy (who punched him) was suspended for two days. Hmmm...

-at the end of school, TWO mothers came in to make sure their sons are getting their work done. I loooove good parents, especially when they work with me.

-I received advice from my favorite custodian. She has a daughter my age who is also doing her first year of teaching, so the custodian can identify with me (as a daughter figure) well. Her advice: "Oh, honey, date a LOT. Don't just go out and get married. Have a good time and date first! That's when they spend the money on you anyways. When you're married, it's a whole different ballgame." Heh. The "pep talk" at least put a smile on my face.

Hmm... that's about it for now. The day started out poorly, but ended up OK. I'm just trying to make it to December! (50 more school days left, but who's counting?) :P Peace for now.