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.