Sweet Sweet Break

AHHHH!
It is FINALLY here! A very well deserved and appreciated break!
We had our Dash for Cash and raised $1,000 plus for a family whose father was in a bad wreck to help cover medical costs and have an enjoyable Holiday! They were so very appreciated! Felt good to be able to help out and the kids saw how much it meant to the family also!
Also our Good Eats for Good Guys lunch was a success, and then Christmas parties, school wide followed by class parties. It was a hectic day but the kids had a good day and learned the virtue of sharing and supporting our friends. Giving can be more receiving.
I do love my kids and my school, but I SERIOUSLY needed this break.
So now for some relaxation and fun with the Hubby.
ENJOY YOUR HOLIDAYS!

Fish on the Fritz

On Friday, one of my girls noticed that our fish, Rocky, a betta of course, was a little meek. Actually at that point I heard "Ummmm Mrs. C, I think our fish is dead...." by George, I think that he really was, floating on his side, not breathing, so I did the only logical thing at the time. "Well he might be, let's see if we can scare him alive..." Then did the one thing I always get on the kids about, tapping his cage....
Low and behold he is still alive. Although I am not sure what tomorrow holds fish, or no fish.... We shall see. I hope for fish just so there is not a downer before the Holidays.
4 days til break HUZZAH
Jealous about the 2 hour delays going on back in the Midwest this week. Congrats to you HOOSIERS.

Holiday of Music!

Our Christmas Play/Musical was a SUCCESS! And the kids were adorable all dressed up in nice clothes.
I learned, yet again, that you should dump pics off your memory card BEFORE an event.... maybe one day I will learn.
While the Kinders were up singing their song "Must be Santa" also our que to lead Santa in, Santa jumped the gun a little bit and one of the kiddos screamed SANTA but it was appropriately placed and HILARIOUS, I'm sure one of those had-to-be-there moments.

oh, and I am also the musical is over now, we have TONS to catch back up on, since we went way over on practice time this week.
I just keep telling myself only 5 more school days until break!

Here goes...

I am currently watching a video on another teacher's blog and getting a pretty good chuckle while watching, luckily, I do not have that issue with my administration. In fact the staff is utterly amazing!
Where to start....
I am sure some things I wanted to make note of happened before Thanksgiving, but I can't remember off the top of my head, and do not want to COMPLETELY bombard you lovely readers with too much classroom stuff!
We had a school board meeting at our Elementary that we combined with our Lunch and Literacy event at the school on the 18th, (yes yes I know this is BEFORE T Day) My students did a Reader's Theater of "Stone Soup" they had practiced a ton and were so excited and proud of themselves, they presented in front of the school and parents. They did great I might add, except it was hard to understand them in the gym, but not their faults. Microphones next time for sure. Then the first graders did a song from their Reading Program, and 4th, 5th, 6th did a presentation on anti-bullying. Everyone sang some songs and then we had a wonderful home cooked Thanksgiving lunch by our amazing cooks!
Unfortunately, I had thought I was over a nasty bug I had and felt well enough to eat some lunch, food is a BIG weaknes... And well, I shouldn't have, I ended up taking off for home and my toilet/bed right after lunch. Leaving my kids to do the best performance of Stone Soup for the school board in the library. I heard they were FABULOUS! (grr I am mad I missed it, but I am pretty sure no one wanted me in that building!)
*Also got a bonus snow day before break :)* Nothing like a full week off for T Giving!
My mom flew out for Thanksgiving, we had to go pick her up during a Winter Storm Warning, oh you know, just some ice on the interstate, saw a handful of accidents on the way, were only able to go about 30MPH on a 75MPH interstate. OH THANK YOU HUSBAND for driving, I was sick just as a passenger. I do not like winter roads, I do not like them Sam I am.
Had some friends over to enjoy the food with us, took madre back to the airport just in time to be up in town for the Black Friday extravaganza! Got the nieces and nephews all shopped for along with some others. I really should have splurged on a Flip recorder, but I didn't.
Successfully did NOTHING school related, except buy Holiday Decor, during break! LOVED IT!
What comes next....Oh yes, that just brings us up to last week. Last week was a week to test my patience with two particular kiddos in mind! GAH was I ready for 3:50 Friday! :) But we made it.
I had a great success with my struggling ELL boy! He is very hesitant to speak English or Spanish, and we have began enlisting his help with errands between the secretary and myself and anyone else, to help improve his conversational English. Out of the blue on Thursday last week, he came up to me during our brief 10 minutes of what I call "Organizational time", where I check folders/planners, we pass back papers, write down homework, do jobs, get paid for prior jobs, etc. and asked me, in REALLY good English "Can I pass back folders?" And of course it is my policy that if you ask the answer will be no, because I can NOT have 12 kids every time asking if they can pass back papers! Of course this was an exception to the rule! I WAS SOOO PROUD! I literally, jumped up from a quick grading I was doing, gave him a great smile and a high five and said "WHY OF COURSE _(name)____!" I could see he was also proud of himself! oh YAY! FEEL GOOD moment for SURE. I have heard more and more from him lately and couldn't be more excited, spelling tests are even beginning to get the beginning sound of a word, and occasionally an entire correct word! KEEP IT UP!!!
What else...
Unfortunately this weekend, a very well known man in the community passed away. He was a long time secretary at the High School, and Mother to a high school Employee, as well as Grandfather to three amazing children at my school. One of which is in my class, the family knew it was coming, which doesn't make it any easier in my opinion. However today the kids all seem to be in fairly good spirits and I think enjoyed being back in the comforts of our small and understanding school.
Out of the events that have happened thus far this year I think back to my schooling and how different it is to live in a small community where everyone is helpful and understanding.
One of my boys, my biggest behavior challenge, not that he is horrible by any means, just likes to test me, and see what he can get away with, had previously last week had a tough tough week. Lost his homework, made up an ellaborate story, had his mom write a note and call in saying they couldn't find it, and if I could send home another one. Yea I can, I don't want to because it's not the point of homework, I really want to teach these kids some responsibility here. So I make another copy, get it in his homework folder, write a note home to mom telling her Sure no problem, not a big deal. THEN little Mr. forgets not only his homework folder with copy #2 but also his planner! And comes back the next day with his "missing" homework! Oh that kid, he provides me with daily laughs and sighs.
This weekend he went to visit older brother in college, and came back with an adorable buzz cut! AND the best behavior I have ever seen out of him! I told him "Oh my goodness! When you cut your hair you cut off all the bad hair that was preventing your brain from breathing and being as smart as it can be!" He loved this and continued to have a great day and earn a stamp in his planner (part of his personal Positive Behavior System).
Keep your fingers crossed for the rest of this week!
We have our school Musical Thursday as well as an Early release for the Funeral services.
7 more school days until Christmas Break! (but who's counting?)

A month behing...

Stay tuned.... I mean to update this weekend but didn't get to it, I did however get COMPLETELY caught up on grading! YAY
8 more school days until break!

Ratty Rats

Today I met a guy in town and bought his 3 little lady rats from him for our classroom!
I am SUPER excited, they are already really well socialized and came with their large cage and various other supplies! But boy did they STINK! They had carpet remnants as their bedding the cage which is a neat idea, but it just absorbs that lovely urine aroma. So first thing I did was change the bedding, the girls are all black and white and look very similar and did not yet have names. I might let the kids name them, although they disappointed me with the naming of the beta fish, Rocky, because their last class pet was named that :(
I am excited for the rats in the room and then I think about the reality and how many times am I going to have to say " ______, go sit down" "Don't stick your fingers in the cage" "If I have to tell you one more time to sit down and leave those rats alone you are going to owe me time during recess".
You can expect to hear from me after Day 1 with the rats on Tuesday after school! Wish me luck!
As for now, enjoying some more crochet time, relaxing, and a doctors appointment tomorrow.

Bleh

Today was a BAD BAD case of the Mondays, on a Tuesday.
Situations tuggin on my heart strings, which I won't go into.
But an up point was that I got a completely random hug from one of my second graders today, very touching! :) It was a good meaningful hug too! Much needed on a day like today, and maybe it was just that, he might have been able to tell that maybe it was me who really needed the hug instead of me originally thinking he needed it. I love each and everyone of those kids and will do anything within my power to help them.
Now on to an early nights sleep, emotions wore me out, so 8:30 bed time for this teach.

Picture update :)

An amazing sunset one evening on my way home from school. So beautiful, I see a great sunset or sunrise at least once a week!

Some of the students playing with light bending and coloring at the Discovery Center, October 2010

Playing with color tiles at the Discovery Center

Giant Shadow Box

Trying to produce sound at the radio station at Discovery Center

Forgot the concept of this one, just more hands on stuff

Balancing Magnet

Making Sparks

Body pile! Some of the scarecrows the kids drew faces for and stuffed

Scarecrow surfin the web, catching up on all his friends status updates :)

2nd 9 weeks

We are under way in the 2nd nine weeks! Parent/Teacher Conferences went well, still have 3 left, one had to cancel last week due to a cold, and the other two I suspect won't be showing, unfortunately but can't really force them to show.
Red Ribbon week, similar to DARE for those unfamiliar, was also this last week. The kids did a great job participating and enjoyed the red ribbon walk we had around the town. I for one definitely enjoyed slipper day which I took and extended to Pajama Day, YES! Nothing like teaching AND wearing my favorite clothes! Let me tell you though, it was tough to change back into more appropriate clothes for conferences that day after school.
One of the parents really made me feel good, I have two of her children in my class this year, she says they have improved drastically, not only have I only been there 9 weeks, but she says they also really enjoy school and talk about it all the time. I guess last year and the beginning of this year, they did not have many friends and didn't laugh or smile much. Now they are almost always laughing and smiling, they do not have the best grades yet but I know they will come the middle or end of the year!
PTO is having a Hallo"wiener" party at the park by school today to celebrate Halloween,  the Hubs and I were going to go but we can't think of any good costumes, instead we will be lame and sit at home and hand out candy to the kiddos in the neighborhood. I will just have to hear from them at school Tuesday how they enjoyed it :)
I have finally uploaded pictures to my computer from the first quarter, hopefully I can get some pictures up on the blog today.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Hope that everyone has a safe and spooky day!

I promise to stop procrastinating

....
After Parent/Teacher conferences next week that is!
I really do promise though, I need to blog more to help remember all the little things.

In brief
- field trip to a hands on science center was fun, however it was a Free Friday so nearly everyschool in the STATE was there, talk about chaos, no joke, like 1000 students plus adults. Also didn't take my own advice to the kids. "wear comfortable shoes" well mine were comfortable until about an hour left in the day, then blistermania hit. BUT I DID NOT COMPLAIN :)
- I have both groups for core instruction of our reading program, and the wrinkles are really starting to iron out and everything is flowing pretty well
- aside from conferences coming up I feel as though things are finally starting to relax, or maybe I am just used to it now.
- I need a haircut
-My coffee addition is growing exponentially, I find myself trying to find ways to take more and more coffee to school each day....

THAT teacher

So do you remember in school when you had that teacher who was always mismatching or forgot to paint fingernail polish on one hand or something, and wouldn't notice until their students pointed it out?
Well it turns out as much as I hate to admit it, that this was me today!
I got dressed this morning and was actually feeling awake and ready for the day....
After lunch I was informed by a student that my flip flops didn't match, yes I had indeed worn a brown sandal and a black sandal to school today with my black pants.... WHOOPS!
The students at least got a good laugh at it the rest of the afternoon, I think it did them good to know that teachers make mistakes and that I wasn't super embarrassed by this mistake and could laugh at myself a bit.
I did cringe on inside a little bit, but only because I didn't imagine this would be me.

Some tiny bits

Yesterday we went to the high school for a workshop about bullying on the way to the school I decided to sit with one of my students who is super adorable but craves a little extra attention. Before I can even sit down I hear "Mrs. C, I have like a thousand Nanas". In my mind I give a little chuckle as she proceeds to tell me about her countless number of Nanas the whole way to the high school :)
Also in case you were wondering tomorrow starts October and "that means Halloween is tomorrow!"
Oh kids, love them! :)

Today was a great day!

Oh today was busy but it was that good kind of busy not the "oh-my-gosh-why-did-I-get-out-of-bed-today" kind of day.
I had the morning nutrition lesson for the school, we talked about our virtue of the week, courage and what that means. We then played one of our favorite games, red light, green light.
Academics went pretty well today too! One of my boys who really struggles with English was talking a considerable amount more than usual and was eager to participate in Math, he was proud of himself too! It was great, I love seeing them make strides!
And on top of this, I had my constant behavior struggle boy have a pretty decent day, I felt like I didn't have to say his name nearly as much! In turn we were both happier ending our day!
Tomorrow is my first run at a field trip with the kiddos, granted it is only to the High School to partake in a workshop about bullying. Still it is an adventure outside the school testing the students self control and I am sure they will attempt to push buttons along the way. It will be a good trail run for us before we make the trip up to the city next Friday to explore the Zoo for the younger kids, Discovery Center for my students and 6th graders and the History Museum for the 4th and 5thers.
I have been slacking with my posts and really hope to turn that around, I spent some time in the class on Sunday getting some small things done that make the room feel a little more like home, hanging more student work and rules we have agreed upon together and some reference posters.

Pictures Pendig

I really wanted to post some pictures of the classroom and such but I left my camera at school. :( So hopefully I can remember it after the in-service on Monday.

LONG week

What a week!
Got married to the love of my life on Monday, it was a lovely little wedding at City Hall, married by the mayor, my mom made it out to take some pictures. She was our only guest. We plan on having a real ceremony/reception in a year or two. My students knew I was going to get married over the weekend and were excited to see me on Tuesday and most remembered the new name, it is funny though, they used to call me Mrs H and now they call me Ms C, they got their titles a little mixed up :)
Tuesday was a busy day at school and my mom and husband came down so that my mom could see my school and room for the very short time she was here. The students loved it and were eager to read with them. Although I had a social studies lesson planned I found the interest to share reading for the last half hour of the day to be more beneficial to them at the time.
Wednesday my lovely husband got up early to take my mom to the airport so that I could sleep a little longer before having to go into work all day.
Thursday doesn't feel as though anything really out of the ordinary happened, I did stay at school until about 7 getting things ready for Friday because all of the teachers had a AIMSweb training to go to at the High School for the day. So our Parapros were going to sub in our classrooms, while I might have made long and detailed sub plans I just wanted to make sure there was enough for the students to do.
The training on Friday was good, I went in not knowing a thing about the program since I am new to the school and missed all the beginning of the year training and everything, came away from it knowing the same if not more than all the other teachers in the district that used it last year. I also found out I am far more computer savvy than I had thought. Set up all the teachers online access to our reading program during lunch too. Boy were they happy about that one! Now they can print almost all the materials they need from the web and had access to an online edition of the Teachers Manual. Which means no more lugging home those huge heavy things.
Now for some enjoyable time outdoors with a friend.

Full Friday

Friday morning started off in full force, I was going to pay for having a weekend this week!
Got to school about a half an hour earlier than usual, to make sure I had time to get all the doors unlocked and lights on and still prep as our amazing Administrative Assistant was going to be out of town for some meetings. Got everything ready and was prepping the last few things as the students showed, I'm the morning bus duty lady and it was my morning for Breakfast/Nutrition duty as well. So I get all the students walking/running in the gym and am "racing" a few of the younger kids to get them going. Then we get through breakfast, I send the 4th, 5th, and 6th Graders to Positive Actions while the younger ones and I watch a video about bones and muscles. They LOVED the video, which asked them some review questions along the way, and they really got into answering and counting down to see if they were right. I was rather surprised in their involvement. One of our kinders was feeling rather spry and I got down to his level to tell him to keep his hands to himself and have him repeat what he needed to do, before repeating my request he thought it would be a good idea to flick me in the nose. Ignoring his behavior as I knew he only wanted a rise in me, he repeated the desired behavior and then gave me a big hug. This young man is too smart for his own good, and he cracks me up daily.
After video and breakfast we walked some laps, unfortunately some students thought running would be a good idea, which made me cringe being after breakfast. And sure enough someone ended up yaking, although no one would admit it, which worried me that someone might still feel ill. So I cleaned up while my students sat patiently watching since I couldn't send them to our room without a teacher in there. This set us back and put a bit of a rush on things but we worked it out.
On to SIPPS, I was finally able to get the kids excited about phonics and phonemic awareness, I started trying to stump them and catch them off guard. I successfully caught them 3 times out of probably 75 but they were enjoying it and I told them I was going to get more next week, so hopefully I can keep up the excitement with phonics, if you have any suggestions I am definitely open to them.
All this in only an hour! Lets just say I enjoyed my little break while the students were in music! They came back with mallets as antennae and were hysterical about how silly they were. :) Love them
The rest of the school day was pretty good, we did a language arts exercise that got them up and moving and acting out the verbs in a Space story, definitely something I will have to try again with them, gets them moving, and they think without really knowing it!
We got to work on some mapping skills with the older kids to end our day. Working together to color and discuss the elevation of our state as well as rivers. The older grades will label their rivers while we will most likely just label the capital, where we live, and the rivers near by that they are familiar with. It is great to have the chunk of time to work with our older friends though. It is cute to see how nervous the younger ones are to enter the 4/5/6 class, I had to go first :)
After waiting with the nose-flicker and his teacher after school for his ride to show and enjoying some hilarious conversation with him, I was off to meet with my Mentor. Turns out there was some mis-communication and she wasn't there anymore when I got there, so instead I enjoyed my drive through the district and home again.

Exhausted

I sure forgot how exhausting teaching can be! On my way to school Wednesday morning I could hardly keep my eyes open.... it was bad, and then I was dragging all day, I just could not WAKE up! It was hard to keep the kids excited about learning. And one of them even looked at me, and in his broken English, told me I didn't look so good!
I was a bad teacher last night, I came home, ate some dinner with my honey and then went to take a "nap". Well this nap turned into a long nights sleep. I was up a few times to let the dogs out, but then it was straight back to bed. I felt tons better when I woke up this morning, that is for sure.
I got my first official apple of the year, mushy or not, it's the thought that counts and boy did it make my heart smile.
Now on to catching up on some America's Got Talent, I love me some Prince Poppycock and Studio Young One Beast Society! And some grading of course.

Sunday, fishing, and money

Sunday I was lucky enough to convince my soon-to-be husband to join me at school for the day. While I did need his help with moving a few large items and some nerdery I mostly just wanted his company for what I suspected would be a long day. He is taking a class on discreet mathematics so I figured he could bring that course work and use the computers at school while I worked. Success on my part! We spent nearly 8 hours there, I was busy organizing, and preparing the room since I did not get the time before school started to do all that. I got all the materials and resources straightened out and now each subject has it's own neat cabinet instead of stuff just kind of everywhere. I made copies for the first part of this week, and set up posters and my word wall and prepared jobs and class money. There was still more work to do yesterday but I did that at home. Another big thing was I got up to date with grades and even had two girls that were able to sort and pass back papers for me today, so they are even out of my hands!
Today started off a little rocky with the chaos that is Tuesday mornings and then some. Positive Actions for 1st - 3rd grades was in my room this morning, which took from getting settled in time and we got a late start on SIPPS. But a quick little chuckle was one of my students looked down from the start. I tried to figure out what was wrong but he did not want to communicate with me in English, nor would he tell his cousin or other friends in the class in Spanish what was wrong. After some coaxing from myself and an aide we were able to get him to walk down to the office where we could have our ELL coordinator try to figure out what was wrong. Well turns our after she chatted with him for awhile he was attempting to be sick and go home because he wanted to go fishing. Smart cookie knowing that sick equals home, but he had to stay the day. Surprisingly enough we had a really great day after he realized he couldn't go home and maybe should enjoy himself as much as possible.
I ran off copies of our Wise Rewards, play money, we will be using in our class this year. I want to use them as an incentive for good behavior as much as possible. While I have not yet worked out the wrinkles, I'm thinking each student will get 5 dollars at the end of the week for their job, and they can earn dollars throughout the week as well, and even by having a parent sign their agenda book, for every 20 times they bring back their homework and have it signed, as well as other good/positive behavior. They will loose dollars/points if they need me to make another copy of a worksheet they should still have. And anything else we decide as a class,when they loose money for negatives that money will go into my BANK, paying me for their disruptions, this I think will cut down a lot.
I ramble, I am exhausted but really wanted to post today.
Oh yea, can't wait to see how they respond to their desks being rearranged into a horse-shoe shape tonight.
Must sleep spent 12 hours at school today and am nodding off as I type.

Week1

Well the first week sure was busy, exciting, exhausting, and I am another year older!
On Wednesday our class got a new student so now my grades are even, six 2nd graders and six 3rd graders, I have already become attached to my students. I am eager to see them grow and learn and excited to be able to help them overcome some of their challenges.
There was a delay in our new reading program order so we just got the books and resources on Thursday  after almost 2 weeks into the school year. I am very excited about getting the new materials and to really dig in and begin our reading curriculum, for those who are familiar it is the Scott Foresman Reading Street curriculum which I think will truly benefit our students, especially with the specific ELL materials. I spent some time yesterday while my students were watching a video on state history with the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders to help our librarian barcode and inventory all the materials, and man is there a TON of stuff, especially for the Kinders. She, with the help of one of the paraprofessionals, was able to get the teachers manuals and student textbooks plus some other materials barcoded and ready for us to begin using on Tuesday.
Then Friday was my birthday and it was great with the students and staff. I walked into a nice message on my board from the secretary, as well as flowers and a gift on my desk. Then our amazing principal made a nice warm breakfast she brought in, and then there was a home made butterfinger cake for me in the fridge! It was an amazing birthday considering it was the first time I have ever really worked on my birthday. The kids sang to me in the morning and then also again when I picked them up from music.
I need to get down to school tomorrow to rearrange, organize and plan for awhile.

And so it begins!

While I got hired at a rural school district last week, I get to really jump in tomorrow! I have the honor of teaching a combined 2nd and 3rd grade class, I was originally hired to serve as a roving teacher between the two elementary schools teaching 5th grade at one school in the mornings and 6th grade in the afternoons at the other. However, somethings changed and the teacher that was the 2nd/3rd teacher will be taking over the roving position and I will be teaching 2nd/3rd. I am excited for the year to come and to share along the way.
One of the most interesting things is that the school district is trying out the 4 day school week schedule to aid with budget cuts. Tuesday through Friday, I think I can get used to having Mondays off with the exception of an in-service day here and there :)