WOW

Word of the Week, WOW for short, is a weekly activity that my students absolutely love. Once a week I give small groups of students a word to unscramble. Groups race each other to see who can unscramble the word and find the definition the fastest. The winning group reads me the word, definition and uses the word in a sentence. I write all of this information on a reusable poster at the front of the room.

Students attempt to use any of the WOW words in their writing, homework and classroom activities. Each time a WOW word is used that student receives a small sticker to place on an animal shape attached to the interactive bulletin board. Once his/her whole shape is covered he/she moves up to the next shape. The kids love accumulating little stickers. It works even better than candy and I don’t have to deal with the sugar high!

I choose the WOW words based on curriculum relevance and excitement level. Most words tend to be either adverbs or adjectives. The students are encouraged to use these more interesting words when writing. Why say “great” when you could say “wondrous”? Like most activities, it is hard to get every student excited. However, the ones that do choose to actively participate reap immediate benefits. It is also really nice for me to read stories with a more interesting vocabulary.

Ask and you shall receive.

Today I was out sick again and received the following email from my assistant: “The kids are doing much better today. Here is a note that one of our students wrote across the top of her compound word homework last night: “Miss H, this sheet of homework is to easy and I am not being challenged. from A (student) and S (her mom)!" Gotta love it right!” Yes, I see the inappropriate spelling of “to”. Can you guess where this is going?

This particular child received a supplemental homework packet from me two months ago. I have yet to see any completed work. She is not a student that ever goes beyond expectations. Her work is no longer than what is expected and I am often questioned about whether she needs to do what everyone else is doing. That always baffles me. Why would my instructions pertain to everyone but her? Most importantly, she is an only child whose parents find her wonderfully precocious. My assistant and I are tiered of precociousness being used as an excuse for laziness.

I may not have been able to grace the classroom with my presence today, but I was well enough to create a very beautiful Word document entitled A’s Homework Ideas. Using Word Art and textboxes A now has a great looking list of about 11 possible homework extension activities. I plan on mounting it on construction paper and laminating it tomorrow. Do you think I’ll be getting notes about how easy the homework is in the future?

When the teacher's away...

I was home sick today and here is a list of the things that went wrong in my absence. My assistant called me on her way home.

1. Several boys were running around the science fair and knocked something over
2. One child offered to loan another money to buy a candle from the fundraiser and all of the other children began demanding money from him.
3. A student’s candle fell and broke. She blamed the little boy that is madly in love with her and was nowhere in the vicinity. His heart was broken.
4. Sensitive Teenager yelled at Sensible Girl for doing a bad job of being captain during athletics.
5. The P.E. coach was furious with the poor sportsmanship and will have them run laps next class.
6. 5 students complained of injuries or illness shortly after returning from P.E.
a. 2 of them eventually went home.
7. Fire Alarm Kid freaked out because he didn’t get enough sleep the night before and my assistant was worried he would go “Ape Shit” on her.
a. He just does a lot of screaming and jumping. This time he screamed at her and jumped on his spelling test because the kids behind him in line were being too noisy.
8. Sensible Girl had an asthma attack due to anxiety over what happened in P.E.

My students are always trying to earn tallies with good behavior. When they get 10 tallies we have a party or they get free play. Right now they have negative 6 tallies.

Tomorrow should be fun.

What?

A few times a years perspective parents sit in on a half-hour of class. This allows them to get a feel for both the school and classroom before committing their child to an academic career with us. It seems like a great idea for the parents, but it’s a little odd to have a handful of adults sitting at the back of the room while I teach vocabulary and reading.

During our observed lesson the other day we needed to discuss why the book we are reading says “Indians” and I say “Native Americans.” I went in to the whole, Columbus thinking he had reached the West Indies and thus dubbing the natives Indians, thing. They always think this is such a riot. “You mean he got lost?” they always ask. We also talked about what the word “native” means. So, being a Native American means you are originally from America.

As I finish the last sentence of my little lesson on political correctness, regarding Native Americans, Sneaky Man raises his hand.

“Yes Sneaky.”
“Ms. Teacher, you have to call Indians Native Americans because they will put a spell on you and curse you if you don’t.”

My jaw dropped. First, I had just spent ten minutes talking about why we use the term Native Americans. Second, there was a strange adult at the back of my room. What must she think?

“No, Sneaky. That is not why we say Native American. I just explained why we don’t use the term Indian. Can anyone tell Sneaky why we say Native American?”

Every hand shot in the air and to my relief the hand I called upon was attached to a child that had in fact been paying attention.

I was very happy when we got back to reading the book.

I think I can, I think I can

I’m having major blogging issues. I keep writing paragraphs and erasing them. Nothing seems good enough to post. What does that even mean? Good enough to post. Interesting enough, written with the appropriate word choice, who knows?

I was just trying to nap, but realized I feel too guilty for not posting to sleep. Maybe this little note will get me off the hook with me and I can move forward. Hopefully I can get back on track this week. I don’t know that I have it in me to post everyday, but I can certainly try for every other.

Thanks for being patient.

New Seats

My Queen Bees were at the same table for the first time today. It was pretty funny to watch what happened when they saw their new seats. TopBee looked at her seat, looked at NewBee’s seat, and threw her head around with some attitude, tossing a scornful look at NewBee.

NewBee approached my desk tentatively, “Ms. Teacher, I sit right there now.”

“You sure do. I get to have you by my desk this time. “

“Ya, that’s cool.” She walks away a few feet, turns around and comes back, “Ms. Teacher… TopBee is at my table.”

“Yes, I actually chose the new seats. You might be surprised by how well the two of you work together.”

“Ya, I guess,” was the uncertain final statement.

The girls did wonderfully today. Granted, I got the kids out of their seats a lot, but they didn’t call attention to themselves even once. It turned out I had to chastise NewBee and SensitiveTeen for giggling incessantly. That is certainly not a relationship I would have thought at all beneficial. Wouldn’t it be interesting if these two struck up a friendship? Since you are not in my room, I’ll go ahead and answer that for you. YES!! NewBee needs someone to really think she is fun.

Here’s hoping.

Break Time

No, I’m not still pining away over the loss of Spring Break. I am referring to the break students need in the middle of a solid academic afternoon. The time when all of the eyes staring at you are clearly not processing a thing you are teaching. The moment when the kid, who has been trying desperately to pay attention, starts to fiddle with this pencil and squirm around. In my classroom, this is the time when we “stomp”.

What is “stomping”, you might ask? Everyone stands up behind his/her pushed in chair; we want as few obstacles as possible. Kids place feet hip distance apart with one in front of the other. As we jump up and switch legs, we count in unison. It really is quite a workout. Sometimes the kids move around the room while “stomping”. If things begin to get out of hand, we move right back to our seats. So, they’ve learned how to keep the fun at an indoor level.

I heard about this exercise years ago on a segment of 60 Minutes. The thrust of the piece was that kids are not active enough these days. They spend more time in front of the computer or television than they do outside running around. The action of “stomping” somehow encourages the development of good strong joints. One of the major issues with inactivity turns our to be week joints, go figure.

I tried it with the kids one day and now they ask for it all of the time. I even use it as bribe from time to time. “If you can finish the first 3 questions on page 87 we will "stomp" before math.” It doesn’t always work, but what does? If you ever need to “shake it up” a bit in the afternoon, take a minute or two and “stomp”!

Girls, Girls, Girls

This year I have been cursed with dueling Queen Bees. The problem started in October and I’ve spoken to each girl’s parents twice in the last two days. It is April people, APRIL!! The girls are really cool kids. They are actually a couple of my favorites, even though I don’t have favorites. Unfortunately, each is determined to run my classroom to the absolute detriment of the other. It is ridiculous!

Luckily, both sets of parents are very understanding and more than anxious to remedy the situation. We are all at our wit’s end. So, the solution we have found is to force the girls to spend copious amounts of time together. The parents are arranging playdates outside of school. First the girls will play alone. Next the parents will invite other girls to join the playdates. Something has got to give. When I change the kids’ seats on Monday, the two little culprits will be seated at the same table. They will either kill each other or get over it. I’m hoping for the least bloody option.

Not listening? Not so bad!

It turns out, amazing things can happen when you don’t really listen to the kids. The other day one of my students was going on and on about his break. I needed to assist another student, so I excused myself from the conversation. My chatty little friend followed me over to the other child, yapping the whole way. Eventually I realized he was asking me when he should bring something to school. What that something was I have no idea. Sort of off handedly, I told him to bring it whenever he wanted. The kids often ask if they can bring in books for me to read to the class. So, I really didn’t think much of it.

Boy, was I surprised!! “Chatty” came into the room before school on Tuesday. He handed me a plastic bag and said, with the proudest smile I had ever seen, “here it is!” Here what is, I thought. Of course, what I said was, “Thanks Chatty. That’s great!” To my astonishment, in the bag I found one container of oil, another of balsamic vinegar as well as a bag of sliced rosemary bread. Can you believe it?? As I recall, he had been talking to me about how much he enjoyed eating bread dipped in oil and vinegar prior to break. He is such a funny kid.

At the end of the day I set up 3 dipping stations. The kids each got a piece of bread. Chatty demonstrated how to properly dip the bread. He wanted everyone to know that if you get too much of the black stuff you won’t like it, but you have to make sure to get a little bit of it or it won’t taste as good. The kids loved it!! I’ll admit that I poured myself a little dish and ate 3 pieces of bread when they all went home!

What to do, what to do?

My assistant has recently taken over the instruction of a couple subjects. I hadn’t imagined it would be so hard to relinquish control. She taught a lesson today. I kid you not when I say, I accidentally took over the lesson. Someone asked me a question, I answered and just kept talking. A few minutes in, I caught myself and slinked (slunk?) back to my desk. I apologized after the lesson, but she just laughed. I’m pretty sure she knows I wasn’t trying to step on her toes. It is hard though.

It is very odd to be a teacher in a room while another teacher teaches, especially when they are your students. I’ve spent 7 months getting to know the various learning and behavior styles of these kids. When my assistant teaches, I sometimes wonder if she knows them at all. That’s not true. She knows the kids. It’s just that she can be very abrupt and often sarcastic; it seems hard for the kids to be totally comfortable. She really likes the students. I think it’s just her way.

Maybe she is best suited to a higher grade-level. Am I being overly protective? It is possible. Hopefully I’ll feel better about it tomorrow. Oh, wait. She doesn’t teach again until Wednesday. Well, there’s a nice little reprieve. I’ll worry about it tomorrow.

I’m Back!!

Okay, so I missed them. Their big smiles, the way they all crowd around me waiting to talk, even the little kid who lies was pretty cute today. They were all so excited to be back. So many stories to share, so many questions to ask, their innocence really can be quite thrilling. Of course, it’s only Monday. . .

Back to the Grind

Tomorrow’s the day I go back;
My brain I am trying to rack.
Do I know what to teach?
Will the students I reach
Or should my belongings I pack?


My bag sits packed by the door;
My hopes beginning to soar.
I’m excited to see them.
Let’s hope there’s no mayhem
Or I shall frighten them all to the core!

Life Journal

I can’t believe how quickly this break went by. Was there some kind of time warp that I’m not aware of? Surely it can’t really be over… I didn’t actually get anything done. What about all of my errands that would be more easily accomplished during the middle of the week? What about avoiding the crowds?? Oh, well. It will have to get done in a panic at the end of a school day, but in daylight!! Thank you time change.

As I moved through my late 20s time started to speed up. All of a sudden I could relate to my great-aunts, who would pinch my cheeks and comment on how, “it seems like just yesterday you were nothing but a tyke.” A few years ago I made a purchase that helped me respect, if not embrace, the quick passage of time. It is a STANDARD DIARY or Daily Reminder book from Staples.

These little books are not much to look at, but functionality makes it well worth the purchase. The book has 366 lined pages, each with a day of the month printed at the top. Whenever something of note happens in my life, I flip to the appropriate page in my journal; I write the year and a summary. For instance, on this day last year, my husband and I were returning a trip to Tiburon, California. It seems, I very much enjoyed the trip and wished we could have stayed longer, maybe even move there. We didn’t go anywhere this break, but it sure is nice to take a minute and remember last year.

None of us can actually slow time down. Why not do our best to appreciate the accomplishments we make as it marches on?

A Day of Thanks

I really can’t spend another day writing this blog until I say, thank you. Thank you to all of the interesting teachers out there who have been writing blogs. I’m new to the scene and ecstatic that I made the discovery so close to Spring Break. I’ve been reading several cool blogs about the realities of teaching. I have learned more about the New York public school system in the last week than I thought possible. It is amazing how many of you I can relate to.

I had planned on writing more today, but I’m entranced by “But wait! There’s more…”. I've skipped around and am thoroughly enjoying March 2006. Once I learn a little more about how to create links, I’ll put them into the text. As it is, watch for a link to her blog at the side. Today I’m just absorbing. Hopefully I’ll be able to give back a little tomorrow.

Wow, it is really late. I must be on vacation!

Yoga for Life

Four years ago this week, I attended my first yoga class. I’d been working with a DVD for a year already, so I was familiar with most of the poses. When I finally got up the nerve and went to a class, at the small studio down the street, I can’t tell you how surprised I was. The teacher kept saying, “We practice together to offer support, not judgment. Listen to your body. Be gentle. There is no competition.” Doesn’t that sound nice?

I proceeded to spend the next 90 minutes comparing my stance to that of the students around me. Is my arm up high enough? Why is he doing it that way? Should I try the harder variation? Are people looking at me? They must think I’m so bad. Here comes the instructor, what am I doing wrong? As I got in my car to go home, I was still feeling stressed.

After attending yoga classes regularly, it became easier to focus on my own individual practice. I stopped worrying about what other people were doing and just listened to my body. As the months went on and I became more flexible, it dawned on me; by letting go of my judgment I opened myself up to growth. Wait . . . why is that familiar?

Every September a group of mostly shy students walk into my classroom. They are nervously enthusiastic, desperate to be involved, but terrified of appearing different or weird. We spend the first month of school celebrating what makes us special in an All About Me Unit. Soon, rather than being embarrassed by their differences, students take pride in what makes them unique. Everyone is able to shed some of the self-consciousness and allow him or herself to be wholeheartedly involved. Thus, embracing academic growth.

I could have saved myself a lot of stressful yoga classes if I’d just practiced what I preach.

Lazy

Sitting here
Trying to think
Of what to write
For you

Realizing
I’m on vacation
And really don’t
Want to
- Ms. Teacher

Reading comfortably
Pink chair by lamp
Heaven at home
- Ms. Teacher

:)

How did I get here?

One of the most fascinating questions to ask a teacher is, “Why do you teach?” It’s no secret that teachers, regardless of school affiliation, don’t get paid very well. The hours, although less than traditional, are usually longer than your typical 40hour workweek. Parents are almost always challenging to deal with and most of your bonuses come in the form of gap-toothed smiles and handcrafted cards.

So, why do I teach?

6 years ago I would have said, “Because I couldn’t be a therapist.” It is hard to even write that now. It seems so callus, but it was how I felt. I’d gone to University with the belief that I would become a child therapist. I had always been the peacemaker in my classrooms growing up. Helping friends and family understand each other’s points of view had always come easily to me. It seemed like the natural path to take.

During senior year, my major courses were pretty intense. Several of the professors had us watch interviews with abused and/or neglected children. It was heartbreaking. I couldn’t make it through any of the films without tearing up. After class was over, I’d think about the films for weeks.

Panic set in. I can’t do this! I can’t spend all day listening to the troubles of children and then have a normal family life. How could I possibly detach from all of that? I couldn’t and that was the problem.

What now? For 10 years I’d known just what my future would involve. Now, I was floating in a world of possibilities. Not a fun place for a control freak like me. Should I stay in the corporate world? I was already working full time as a controller and making pretty good money. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. No, I wanted to work with kids, but how do I do that?

Several of my friends suggested that I look into teaching. That terrified me. I hadn't been a great student until college. We moved incessantly and that made it sort of hard to make lasting connections with important concepts. Also, maybe because of this, I’m a terrible speller. For some reason I just don’t see the mistakes, or I see mistakes that are not there because I’m so worried. Ya… I’d make a great teacher.

Long story short, I stumbled into an assistant teaching gig while looking for a better option, fell in love with being in the classroom, found a school that fit for me, and I do make a great teacher. My insecurities help me assist students with similar concerns. I’m able to use my own weakness to demonstrate how important it is to be able to make mistakes. I’m not trying to send a group of perfect spellers to the next grade. I’m trying to send a group of empathetic, resourceful learners. If you don’t know a word, where do you look? How fast can we do it? What might the guidewords be? If I don’t have a dictionary around, but I do have a computer, can I find a spelling? Can I look on posters around the room for a correct spelling?

My passion, dedication, and enthusiastic love for learning are what make me a teacher. I wouldn’t be whole doing anything else.

That is why I teach.

You Know You’re a Teacher When…

The world is an endless supply of lessons. Walking the dog the other morning, I found a candy wrapper abandon on the sidewalk. Maybe I should do a lesson on littering or taking responsibility for our environment. On the way to work, I passed the newly rebuilt Taco Bell. Wouldn’t it be cool to have the kids brainstorm ways to improve the school or their houses? What would they change if it were going to be rebuilt?

Oh, but there is so much more. I got in some trouble from my dentist last school year for not flossing as often as I should. Several of the students made a pact with me to floss on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. That way we could all remind each other. Some of those kids still come by to remind me every now and then. Two new tires were recently put on my car. I took pictures of the new and old ones. That way my students can do a compare and contrast with them. Maybe we can even use a Venn diagram! I won’t even go into the amount of ideas I get from advertisements. Can what they say actually be true?

School vacations can be rough for folks like me. I will have such an excess of ideas by the time I get back into my classroom. Obviously, like most teachers, there isn’t nearly enough time in the day to get to all of the activities I’d like to try. Perhaps, during this break, I can try to pare down the list before getting to school. If I went back with 3 well-developed ideas instead of 20 half-baked ones, I might actually get something accomplished.

Did you find any lessons today?