The BEST Day

Quote of the day: J- “Do you have a baby?” Me- “No.” J- “You need a baby.”

Yesterday was probably the best day I have had as an intern so far! I had my second observation by my supervisor, and it was one hundred times better than the first! It was like a complete transformation! This process has definitely shown me the power of effective and consistent classroom management. That is a lesson I will never forget. For my lesson, I read the book If You Give a Cat a Cupcake since the letter of the week is C. Then I let the students help me mix the ingredients to actually make cupcakes! (We talked about how recipes are a special kind of writing as well as different tools to use when measuring.) I was so glad to have a sub in the room with me, because she was able to take the cupcakes down the hall and put them in the oven as I continued on with the lesson. After we mixed all the ingredients, we wrote our very own class recipe for a pretend pizza. I told the kids to be creative… their list of ingredients included chocolate chips, sprinkles, pepperonis, and... eyeballs? I was worried that they might get too excited during the lesson because it was so hands-on, so I thought of everything that could have possibly gone wrong and planned for it. I set my expectations up front, and I followed through. I would not say that it was perfect, because I know I can always improve. But I was so happy with the way things went. I feel like I have come so far! Today we iced the cupcakes and ate them during snack time. They were yummy!

One more day of solo week and only 6 more days in this rotation... I can't believe it!

-Miss Moore

*Emergency Room?!*

I am infamous for getting completely ill at the most inopportune times. I'm sure you all remember that I had the stomach bug during the Portfolio Presentation and now that solo week is here I've outdone myself. Yes, thats right….I was sent from school to the Emergency Room this morning.

I have been losing my voice and having throat issues for a couple of days and thought it was just because I had used my voice too much. I have never lost my voice before, so I just assumed I was okay. The nurse checked me for strep and I didn't have it, but she still told me to go home. I told her I HAD to stay because it was an important day so I taught the class by doing charades and a bell…it actually worked out better than you would think. Who knew? It was really hard being in that much pain, but since it was my solo week and we had a sub I pushed through which I shouldn't have done.

Today I got to school and I could not speak a SINGLE word, not even in a whisper. I woke up in massive pain last night, but told myself I was going to be okay. I've already been ill, so I can't miss many more days! I pushed through and made it to school, but the pain was so bad that I was fighting back tears. Finally my throat started swelling so much that I could barely breath so I wrote on a whiteboard that I needed someone to call my grandparents because I needed to go get help!

My grandparents brought me to the Emergency Room and they gave me a big, fat steroid shot to open up my throat so I could breathe. Apparently I have caught a virus that puts blisters all down my throat…yike! I am glad I went to the ER because I needed some help and FAST!!! I don't know what I would've done without our medical technologies.

There's a little dramatic update from me! Sorry I haven't written in a while…I just get side tracked with all my DVR to be honest.

QOTD: Miss Neal, how long until school's over? Me: 3 hours Kid: That's NOT what I wanted to hear.

No accidents today!  Hurrah!  Mrs. C said I did better with classroom management, so that’s encouraging.  I’m planning like crazy for next week.  It will be so nice when I get those plans turned in because I won’t have any planning left for the rest of the week!  Woohoo!  Being prepared in advance is great, it just takes a lot of work.  This week we’re doing ranch, and my brother, Cowboy Sam, came in to do a read aloud.  The kids LOVED it!  It was a lot of fun, and I look forward to doing plenty of guest speakers when I get my own class.  Next week is Dr. Seuss, which I’m so excited for because, well, I love Dr. Seuss.  

Bathrooms have great acoustics

Today was better.  I felt more organized.  The kids were still crazy (my fault, not theirs) because I don’t manage as closely as I should.  Mrs. C and I had a good conversation about it during our planning period.  She has so much wisdom.  I wish I could just save it in a permanent file in my brain so when I actually have my own classroom I wouldn’t make as many rookie mistakes.  Courtney and I were talking and she said she is keeping a notebook of quotes, supplies, and ideas.  I think I want to start doing that too.  She takes pictures of good ideas and glues them in her notebook so she can remember what she wrote about!  Had another accident today.  Stink.  But we’ve been accident free for a while before this, so I guess it wasn’t as bad as our three day streak at the beginning!  So glad to be a teacher.  

Find me a husband...

Well, I remembered to stop at the bathroom!  That was one positive for today.  The other was when J told Lindsay and I that we were both married.  I said, “She is, but I’m not.  If you want to find me a husband, you can”.  He agreed.  When I saw him later he said, “I’m still looking for a husband for you!”.  He’s in kindergarten.  Love it.  The lessons were a little scattered today, and the kids behaved accordingly.  I’m beginning to understand how very easy it is to be a bad teacher.  If you don’t watch good teaching AND implement it, you’re sunk.  I’m so glad I have Mrs. C to model for me.  I just hope I can absorb enough wisdom before I have to leave.  

QOTD: Miss Neal, I wish you looked more like Mrs. C.

After meeting to finalize plans for our SLP last night, the A-Team kicked off the Make Way for Family Time campaign.  We celebrated (girls chanting “Make Way” and boys chanting “for Family Time”), reflected and talked about the project.  When I talked with the girls on our ride home, Courtney said she had two little kids have breakdowns when they announced the project.  One boy’s parents are getting divorced and a little girl is in foster care.  She said she thoroughly explained beforehand that family includes aunts, uncles, grandmas, etc, because she knew some of her kids had difficult family situations.  There are some things in the world that I just hate.  Teaching went pretty well today.  I forgot to stop at the bathroom on the way back from P.E., but maybe that will help me remember better tomorrow.   


Much love,


Miss N

One of those days...

Remember those days Cami Jones warned us about? Days that would be "challenging, difficult, stressful, and exhausting?"

Yeah.

Wednesday was one of those days.

I was excited and nervous because I was having my first observation by my supervisor. I had put a lot of thought and care into my lesson, and I felt good going into it, despite that it was a phonics lesson and the kids hate phonics. This is why I tried to include some activities that would be F-U-N. Big mistake, I guess. The kids were the worst behaved than they have ever been, and that is not just my opinion. My cooperating teacher said the same thing. I cannot help but feeling like a failure. I tried all the little attention-getting techniques that I have seen Mrs. A use, and I even added in some of my own, but the kids never stopped talking, touching each other, moving out of their seats, not following directions, etc. I am just glad I made it through the lesson. I spent the last hour of the school day in the conference room crying, but my supervisor, cooperating teacher, and even the secretary were all so encouraging. I guess I learned that I need to be more strict, and next time I may not tell them in advance that an observer is coming. Tomorrow is a new day..

Don't waste my time...

Today was annoying.  I don’t know if that’s a professional word, but journal reflections aren’t exactly black tie affairs.  I only got to sit it on one conference today.  The rest of the time was either spent greeting (which was ok because I love to greet) or being frustrated in the computer lab.  The tech lady printed out instructions for us to link SMARTBoard presentations from the computer network to the website.  I was kind of excited to work on the website.  It would have been good experience doing things I’d want to do for my own classroom.  The only thing was, the instructions weren’t adequate for the job we had to do.  I spent several hours (to no avail) trying to get it to work.  She had conferences, so she was too busy to help.  She’s a regular classroom teacher and she does most of the tech things around the school.  It’s too much to be expected of one person.  There was a glad moment in the day though. 

Me (tap dancing in the foyer)

Principal: stop tapping in the hallway

Me: Yes, Ma’am

Principal: Haha, it’s ok, I’m just kidding, it’s cute. 

Me: (inwardly) WHEW!

We're doing ranch and rodeo next week for the letter R, any suggestions? 

Wonderful Wednesday

Today was our last day with kids for the week.  Tomorrow we start conferences and professional development.  My management is getting a little better as I watch Mrs. C and we talk about how things are going.  Today she reminded me that when I give them work, I need to model it really well before they do it.  They’re able to do it, they just need good directions.  Also… they were doing algebra on Monday.  It was so fun, and they got it!  I taught them about x!  I didn’t use x, but they got it.  Woohoo!  We need to expect more of those little kids.  :)

Rocks, rampages, and ready to GO

QOTD: Mrs. C: what’s a rampage? D: It’s when someone gets on a ram and tries to ride it until they fall off! 

The days keep going faster and faster it seems!  I’m so glad I’ve gotten used to the schedule.  Mrs. C taught all day today because the evaluators were coming from an ambiguous state department.  They did not come to our room, but we would have passed if they had.  Today we talked about presidents, the letter R and limestone rocks.  It was a great day.  

Happy Love Day!

Today was Valentines Day.  There was red and pink everywhere!  A couple of the kids brought me little presents, which was so sweet!  This being a teacher thing has its perks.  Mrs. C needed to take a call this afternoon, and it ended up being a call from a school I had applied to just the night before!  Wow.  That was a weird feeling!  We had a big party at the end of the day.  Some of the parents came, and the kids were so excited to see them!  We pumped them full of sugar and then set them loose to go home.  Ha.  I’m not sure if that was a kind idea, but it was funny!  

Happy "Valentime's" Day!

Quote of the day: S- “Mrs. A, C threw away the Valentine that N gave him!” Mrs. A (in private to C)- “C, that might hurt people’s feelings if you throw away the Valentines they give you. Why don’t you at least take them home, and if you don’t want them you can throw them away there.” C (through gritted teeth)- “That was a BARBIE Valentine. I DO NOT want it in my possession!”

Happy “Valentime’s” Day! (as Junie B. Jones and some of the students in my class would say) Our classroom was full of love today. The kids were so excited about giving each other Valentine cards. I had never thought of this before, but having the students write their classmates’ names on the cards and then have to look at them when passing them out is good practice for reading, writing, and letter recognition. I tried to incorporate some review on the numbers 1-20 by having the students sing “One little, two little, three little Valentines…” (all the way to 20) during morning carpet time. I passed out red hearts with numbers 1-20 on them, and when we got to their number they had to pop up really fast! When we mastered that, we scrambled up to make it more of a challenge. Instead of having a Valentine party, Mrs. A just incorporated the Valentine theme all throughout the day. In the afternoon, we had ice cream sundaes which were so delicious! The parents were so good to send all the items that were needed. Somehow we ended up with 6 jars of cherries, but we did not even make it through one! I also just want to say that I have the best kids ever. They are so sweet! Many of them gave me Valentines… I even got flowers, a teddy bear, and a huge box of chocolates! I think they liked the Valentines I got them… each one came with a tattoo. What a fun day!

Passing out Valentines

All the goodies!

My sweet Valentines from students!

Hope everyone had a happy day!

-Miss Moore

Casual Fridays are the best

Coming off of two snow days was great.  I needed the rest, and am now on an antibiotic!  I was jealous, though, because all the other schools had a third snow day.  Hannah was sweet and made my lunch the night before since she was fast asleep when I left.  (I usually make breakfast in the mornings and she makes lunch).  Today Mrs. Childs did a little SMART Board training for us.  We’re going to be her tutors during professional development, so we have to know what we’re doing before we get there.  She also said they’re going to make us do busy work during conferences on Thursday because sometimes the parents aren’t comfortable with having interns there.  I sure hope I get to sit in on at least one.  I’d like to watch one before I actually have to do one.  I know the interns get to do the busy work jobs because they’re interns, but I’m here for a reason.  Maybe that’s just me getting my sass on? 

Snow Days!

One of the perks to being a teacher... SNOW DAYS!

Student interns know how to have fun in the snow!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

-Miss Moore

Today, in 6th grade percussion class, the students were playing the "Surprise Symphony" on their bells. The teacher (who has returned!) asked them if they knew why it was called the "Surprise Symphony." The correct answer is because of the sudden changes in dynamics-- that was rare at the time the piece was written. The students were clueless, though, and it showed by their answers. They were so hilarious that I had to write them down.

Question: What's the surprise in the "Surprise Symphony?"

Student A: "The A natural in measure 4? 'Cause all the other A's are flat.""

Student B: "Is it because we're having a surprise chair test over it tomorrow?"

Student C: "Was it written for his birthday, and it was a surprise? Or maybe it was his birthday, and he died on his birthday."

and my personal favorite--

Student D: "Ooh, I know! It's 'cause a man pops out at the end and says 'ROAR!!'"

I love the high schoolers, but it's things like this that make 6th and 7th graders my favorites. :)

What a day it was at school...

Tomorrow, I’m going to the nurse.  Yesterday and today I woke up feeling achy and still sick.  Those silly germy kindergarteners!  Today I taught calendar and literacy as usual, and helped Mrs. C test the kids for their 3^rd nine week evaluation.  Most of the kids did really well.  They just had to identify numbers and letters, sounds of the letters and coin names.  It was interesting how many of them gave a “y” sound for the letter “u”.  Dr. Bass observed me this afternoon.  I have never heard the kids be so loud.  They were crazy.  It was all kind of funny because I was sick, Dr. Bass was there, the kids were loud, there was play dough on the carpet, the SMART Board broke.  Wow.  What a day it was at school!  Thankfully, Dr. Bass was gracious and thought the kids were pretty funny.  Perhaps tomorrow will be a snow day and I can recuperate a little. 

Hummmm

Is there any way we can upload lesson plans here?  That'd be a fun thing...

The 100^th Day of School was supposed to be Friday, but since we had a snow day, it was postponed until today.  We found chocolate kisses around the room that had the numbers 1-100 on them.  We lined them up on the hundreds chart and divided them equally among the students and they had to eat them according to directions (highest number you have, lowest, etc.).  We also finished writing our 100 words from words we’ve posted every day around the room.  They loved that activity.  Each day the words are a different color so the kids treat it like a treasure hunt.  Now we’re gearing up for Valentines Day and student/teacher conferences!  Mrs. C takes video of all the kids doing work samples so she can show the parents during conferences... don't know when we'll find time to do that, but I'm sure we will.  Dr. Bass is coming to observe tomorrow, so hopefully the lesson (that I haven't written yet...) will go well.  : ) 

Can I get a little input on what calendar lesson plans look like? 

Miss Neal 

100 Days Smarter!

Today was the 100th day of school! All the students were so excited. They had been anticipating this day for a very long time. It was so fun to see the 100th day shirts that many of the students had made at home with their parents. (Mrs. A had made some extras for those who did not bring one, which I thought was so nice of her.) I was excited to be able to wear my 100th day shirt, which included exactly 100 buttons of many different shapes and colors. During morning carpet time we read One Hundred Hungry Ants and The 100th Day of School. Other activities of the day included the following:

We ate the number 100 after creating it with a pretzel stick and two powdered doughnuts.

We filled a hundreds chart with beads and then strung them on a necklace.

We estimated which bag had 50 Skittles, which bag had 100 Skittles, and which bag had 150 Skittles. (One of the bags was eaten before I could get a picture of all three.)

We licked Tootsie Pops 100 times to see if we could get to the center.

And we popped 100 balloons!

All the kiddos and me with our 100th day shirts!

It was such a hectic, but fun day! There are more things that we did not get to, so we will continue celebrating tomorrow as well!

-Miss Moore

For memories sake, here's a picture of me at 6:45am on the 100th day of school! And Ramsi...I KNOW you will be brave enough!!! It took no bravery...it was just super fun. But I do love being a spectacle. Not everybody feels that way. haha

You guys are doing such a great job!!! I love reading all the blogs!

*My Puppies*

Today was the 101th day of school so we made 101 dalmatian ears. They wore them and barked at me for the rest of the day. I would pet their heads and say "Good puppy!" ,"Are my puppies making good choices in the hallway?", and "What happened to my students?! They've all turned into dalmatians!". I'm telling you,they LOVED it! They acted so well, because they wanted me to pat their heads for being a good puppy. They would put their tongues out and breathe like dogs instead of yelling. It was great!!!

We had a sub come in today so it was neat to get more responsibility than usual. My favorite part of the day was when the office called and instead of saying "Excuse me, Mrs. *teacher*" they said MY name instead! I felt like the real deal! haha It's the little moments, right?

I also brought in a new days of the week chant/dance that went over well! The kids REALLY, REALLY enjoyed it! It's called the Days of the Week RAZMATAZ!!!! Talk about fun! Before we did it I made sure they knew the rules:1.) You can't hit your neighbor or get out of control 2.) You HAVE to have fun. They followed both of the rules and I was proud. :)

And Casie..yay private school! :D haha My job search happened more when I hadn't started my internship yet. I have so many schools I'm thinking about, I'm just praying God will open up a spot where I'm supposed to be! I'm excited to see where God leads!!!

100 Days Smarter!

Today was the 100th day of school! The Bismarck bunch made 100th day shirts in celebration. :) The kids had a blast today! Here are some of the activities we did:

• Answer the questions "I would like to have 100 ____" , "I wouldn't like to have 100 _____" , "I would like to eat 100 ______" , and "I wouldn't like to eat 100 _____" Then they shared their answers with the class. I think some of the funniest answers were "I wouldn't like to have 100 legs" and "I wouldn't like to eat 100 eyeballs." and "I would like to have 100 diamonds" I loved hearing their creative answers!
• Make trail mix. My CT sent notes home to parents last week asking them to send specific things with their child. Some were asked to bring 100 chocolate chips, 100 rice checks, 100 pretzels, etc. We mixed up the snacks and then gave each child a cupful. Then, they have to sort and graph their trail mix before they could eat it! This was one of the kids favorite activities.
• We tried to be quiet for 100 seconds (we have a hard time with that every day, not just on the 100th day)
• Watched 101 Dalmatians
• We wrote about one of our favorite things that had happened in the first 100 days of school. Many of them wrote about the 100th day because they were having so much fun! Some students wrote about the time they came to school in their pajamas and got to read all day. Some students also talked about the Halloween and Christmas parties that they had.

I can't wait to do fun 100th day stuff when I have my own classroom. Maybe I'll even be brave enough to dress up like a 100 year old woman like Abby! ;) Here are some pictures of us in our 100th day attire!

The whole group!

My classroom neighbor!

Second grade Interns!

Here are the Interns in kindergarten and first grade!

Much Love,

Miss Richey

Today was interesting because so many things happened that were out of the ordinary.  Dr. S came to visit the class and do a read aloud.  A’s mom came before lunch to do a read aloud.  The kids didn’t have recess outside because it was so cold, and I taught in the afternoon because we didn’t have time for calendar in the morning!  I was a little worried about the indoor recess making the kids stir crazy but they did so well.  Mrs. C just has very well thought out procedures for free time, and the kids just played with a partner.  It was funny to see that they did school things even during free time.  One pair was writing their alphabets on the board and reading it to each other with the reading stick.  Mrs. C is also great about being flexible.  She told me today that life is too short to get bent out of shape about things. 

One of our kids didn't have their meds and slept all afternoon.  There's a round pampazan chair that Mrs. C keeps a quilt in where they can sit if they don't feel good.  This poor kid definitely didn't feel good and just slept. We woke her up for the bus and she was SO drowsy.  That was interesting.

I found a school I want to apply for back home.  Their student to teacher ratio is 12/1!! Whoop.  They're a private classical school... that could be interesting.  Juliana Braswell said her school in LR might be hiring too, and she said she loves it.  How's the job hunt coming for everyone??

Miss Neal

*100th Day of School*

5 yr. old boy- "You are the smartest person I know! How far can you count?"
Me- "Well, pretty far but I've had LOTS of practice."
boy-"When I'm your age will I be able to count that high?"
Me-"Well, I hope you can count higher! I hope that you will be smarter than I am and teach ME things one day."
boy- "WHAT?! WHY???"
Me-:"Because then I'll know I've done my job well."
boy- "Hmm…interesting. I still think you are the smartest person I know!"

Today was the 100th day of school and it was SO much fun! I dressed up as a 100 yr. old lady and gave the kids chocolate, so of course they were out of control most of the day. Dancing in front of the projector did happen at one point, but I'm just as tempted to do it along with them, so it was hard to flip colors for that. Flipping colors is our behavioral management style, and it usually works when I'm not looking crazy and feeding them sugar. Me and my cooperating teacher said throughout the school day: "We only have ourselves to blame!" haha. In my opinion, somedays you just have to CELEBRATE and be goofy!!! I mean, hello! We only get 15 minutes of recess a day and we've been waiting for the 100th day for a LONG time. These kids are usually so well behaved it's almost scary! There's such thing as too much quiet in a kindergarten classroom. We will go back to stricter school days and schedules tomorrow….we will see how that goes.

Mrs. C came to observe me after lunch and it was wonderful to see her! It made me think about how much I miss all of you!!! I was relieved to have it over with and glad that I remembered the stuff that I was supposed to. There is SO much to think about when it comes to pathwise! My little cuties were more out of hand than usual, but overall they did well! As well as can be expected on the most fun day ever!!!

QOTD: I gotcha, Mrs. C. - Kindergartener after getting directions...

Mrs. C. is so creative!  Today we made a giant bib for Mrs. C. and the kids cut out magazine pictures of things that started with B and glued them onto the bib.  She also gave them sticky notes to write the name of the item and stick it next to the picture.  The kids had so many great words!  They had a blast and really practiced some phonics skills and invented spelling.  I did calendar as usual.  There are so many great skills, like counting by tens, one to one correspondence, counting, spelling, and writing that Mrs. C. uses in calendar.  She also keeps them moving all the time.  I have loved taking over this part of the morning because there’s so much going on!  Singing, moving, writing, reading, leadership skills!

I might have to start running on a regular basis...

Well, it is tomorrow… and the crazy happened. My day was completely filled with teaching. My CT had to go to the doctor again. She was gone all day besides for AP Spanish. I taught 6 out of 7 periods today and I am exhausted. There was a sub in the room (no worries Mrs. C) who yet again didn’t know Spanish. She sat in her chair and I ran the entire class period. I know I was going to be tired when I started teaching full days, but I’m pooped, man. These sweat pants have never seemed so comfortable.

                Today I almost sent a kid to ISS, which was a weird feeling. She had just decided that she didn’t want to do her work. I had asked if I could help her work on anything and if she understood what she was doing, and she said no and no. I asked her if something was wrong and she answered, no. I couldn’t get her to look me in the eyes or comply with anything. She normally does what she’s asked, but she’s never thrilled with it. This was just crazy. I chatted with her a couple times to see if I could help or if she was having a hard day. She told me that nothing was wrong at all, but she had decided that she wasn’t going to do anything. And she was serious about that. I sent her to the office where they dealt with her. Other than that incident, today’s total teaching takeover went surprisingly well. It was quite a good day. I’m glad to have gotten all that experience smashed into one day. I’m also glad that today is done and I can sit. I’m going to have to work on my stamina when I’m doing this all day every day.