Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

Well, so much for blogging every night of my lead week!  Maybe I'll have better luck during my second lead week in accomplishing this goal- things are just so busy.  Tuesday night I had a job fair on campus and Wednesday night I did some relaxing, which was necessary!  Alas, it's Thursday and I'm feeling guilty, so I'm back.  Here are some updates from my first lead week:


Tuesday: Sick & distracted.
This was the first day that I really felt sick.  My nose was running, I was coughing, and I was tired before the kids even walked into the classroom.  At morning meeting, one of my girls asked me, "Umm, Miss T, do you need to blow your nose or something?"  Why yes, smart 3rd grader, that groggly noise you are hearing in my voice is, in fact, indicating to all of us that I need to spend some time with a Kleenex tissue... or seven.  There was a job fair on campus Tuesday night that had me all kinds of distracted.  I prepped my resume the night before and wore my most professional clothing to school.  Most of the schools at the fair were schools that I wouldn't nessarily want to work at, but I knew it'd be good experience to go and talk to some potential employers.  I ended up talking to four different schools, I spoke with one HR person and three elementary school principals.  There are some questions I'd like to polish up before I begin my "real" interviews, but for the most part, I felt satisfied with my performance.  I mean really, I can talk about my kids all day long!

The rest of the day at school on Tuesday is kind of a blur now (it is 48 hours later, after all... a teacher can't be expected to remember that far back) but I do remember it being somewhat stressful.  There is so much to consider when you're the only teacher in the classroom.  There seems to be 90 million things you need to keep track of at once.  For example, who is in the classroom, who is going to bathroom, who you promised to sit next to, who is fighting with who, who you spoke with on the phone earlier, who needs help problem solving... not to mention what materials and ideas you need to actually teach content.  And assessment?  Shoot.  It's a busy life.  Let's just say that when I have my own classroom, checklists and to-do lists will be my BFF's. 

Wednesday: What did these kids eat?! 
Squirrels.  That is the best word that I can use to describe my day on Wednesday.  My kids were all over the place- doing flips on our new rug, touching each other, sitting on each other's laps, laying on the floor, sitting on top of containers, etc.  Seriously, everywhere.  There were so many times on Wednesday when I just sat back and thought, "What in the world was put into these kids to make them move so much?!"  If their book boxes are any indication... things were hectic!

For the record, this space looks MUCH better now.  We spend a good portion of time talking about how to organize our book boxes and which materials should be kept where.   Some complained while we were doing it, but for the most part, they told me they felt good after they tidied things up.  I'm glad they're starting to see the light... it took me at least 21 years to do that.  Back to their crazy behavior- I ended the day in our closing circle by having students give me a thumbs up, thumbs sideways, or thumbs down if their day today went better, the same, or worse than yesterday.  As the teacher, it felt like we had two days of kids just hanging out and playing rather than two days of kids simultaneously working hard and having fun.  Most of them said they had the same or worse, which I agreed with.  We are all about honesty!  I then took some student volunteers to share things they could do to make things better.  They said raise their hand, no side conversations, listen to the teacher, etc.  It felt as if they were regurgitating statements they'd heard over and over again, but really, those are the expectations.  I'm not convinced that saying these things repeatedly changes behavior, so I want to work on the action part with them for the rest of the week.  HOW can we make that happen?  WHAT would that LOOK like?

Today: My kids are SO funny!
I love kids.  The things that come out of their mouths at any given time never cease to amaze me.  I started off the morning by having my kids create class cinquains.  I wrote two templates on the board and had them fill in the words.  The first one was about bananas and the second was about mini-vans.  They were pretty funny!  For our share at morning meeting, I had kids share something they were going to do to make today better.  I said that I would make it better by asking for help from students, because many of the things that are hard for me are things that they are a part of.  They came up with some nice reasons and I hoped that they'd come through.

Funny story 1: I had been on one of my kids all day long about raising his hand.  He pretty much makes a comment about anything and everything whenever it pops into his head.  When I was reading "Diary of a Fly" for read aloud, he started laughing really hard.  All of a sudden, his face got really serious and his hand shot up in the air.  I thanked him for raising his hand and then called on him.  He said, "Wait, Ms. T, do we need to raise our hands to laugh?!"  He was completely serious.  I smiled and said that laughing is wonderful and totally fine as long as it doesn't get out of hand.

Funny story 2: We were doing rotations in math.  The class was split into thirds, one playing math card games, the other doing Singapore workbooks, and the last group doing a CGI story problem with me.  I was working on 2 + box = 10 with S, and he said, "I am so hungry for pizza right now.  Miss T, if you were a piece of pizza, I'd eat you right up."  Again, the kid was serious.  They are so funny when they aren't trying!

Funny story 3: Two of my 3rd grade girls took it upon themselves to create their own math game.  It's called "Chicken Dog" and essentially, you each lay two cards, add them together, and whoever has the highest number gets the cards.  They'd told me about it before, but at the end of math, they rushed up to me again.  "Miss T!  We have a new part of our game!  At the end, when you show the other person your cards, you have to say 'Show me your peacock!'"  Where in the world did they come up with that?!  She said it really quickly and thus, I giggled for at least 30 seconds.

Needless to say, I love my kids, and I'm excited for tomorrow!  I'm sad that my lead week is coming to an end though.  I like having all the power! ;)

Love,
Miss Tee

Day One

Today was the first day of my first lead week.  Fortunately, Mondays in our district are early release to allow for teacher prep/PD time, so it was an easy transition back into the swing of school.  Coming off of a long break was nice in a sense because it felt like we were starting fresh as a class, but it came with lots of reminders of how we act in school (raising hands, sitting up, taking turns, etc.).  I included in our morning message today that there would be some changes this week- my CT wouldn't be around because I was doing my lead teaching and that we got new seats today.  Morning meeting went well and I was able to start our reading rotation in plenty of time which felt good.

I was a little stressed coming into reading today because I am responsible this week for all five of our reading groups.  Two of them are in the "Guided Reading Plus" intervention format, which means I have to meet with them for a total of 30 minutes a day.  When our reading block is only 60 minutes long, it puts the pressure on to fit in the rest of the class!  Fortunately, of the other two groups, one meets Monday/Wednesday, another meets Tuesday/Thursday, and the last one meets Wednesday/Friday.  I'll be a little crunched on Wednesdays, but I can make it work for my two lead teaching weeks.  The kids were remarkably quiet while they were working and time wasn't crunched because we have an extra 30 minutes on Mondays.  I was in a bit of a bind, though, because our word work today was a crossword puzzle with synonyms.  Most kids did really well and enjoyed it a lot, but two of our low readers had a hard time.  They were walking around, talking, dancing, etc. so I called them over to me.  Turns out, they had know idea what they were doing on the crossword!  What a surprise... not!  I should have known and planned either an alternate activity for them or made sure I sat them down and explicitly showed them what to do.  I was able to help them while also leading reading groups, but it's something to note for next time.

Math went well today.  We taught a mandatory CCLE lesson about sorting shapes (as if we hadn't done that enough lately...) and we learned what a rectangle and a quadrilateral were.  At the end, the kids had to color in shapes on a worksheet in blue or red depending on the properties.  Once again, most of the kids got it, but two of our kids colored in shapes at random.  I'm sure they have reasons for why they colored each shape in, but they aren't the right reasons.  I made a note to pull them aside later this week to reteach and have them finish the worksheet.

At the end of the day, the kids had thirty minutes of REACH (in the computer lab) and the last thirty minutes of the day was spent doing cursive.  We got to do cursive bingo today, which the kids really enjoyed.  Once again, it was hard for some of them to understand, but the objective was to practice cursive, which everyone was able to do.  I made another note to work on grids/plotting in math- that tripped them up the most!  I also had a small moment of realizing that I'm well on my way to being a "real" teacher.  Two of the letter combinations in bingo were "ip" and "up."  When read aloud, I'm sure you can imagine the snickers that I got from my class.  I used to get all nervous about students talking about potty issues (farting, pooping, peeing, burping) because I didn't know what I was supposed to say or do.  This time, I embraced the laughter and let it happen.  I then let out a fake laugh and said, "Oh boy.  We all pee.  Ha ha ha." I made it into a sort of sarcastic comment that acknowledged why they thought it was so funny while also indicated that it was time to move on.  It worked well! 

I got the most hugs today that I have gotten in my student teaching so far.  I got at least 13 hugs from C before he left, and at least 5 more from other students, even some that don't typically give hugs.  Knowing that they are happy when they walk out of my classroom makes me excited to teach them again tomorrow!

I am spending the rest of my night perfecting my resume for a job fair on campus tomorrow night.  I also need to figure out some technology glitches with my ePortfolio- annoying!  I am CERTAINLY feeling ready to be done with college. Whew!

Love,
BJT

Busy, Busy!

I swear I have things to write about on here every day and no time at all to write them!  I've been working feverishly every night this week on my TPA.  I've pushed it off for, well, at least three weeks now, and the time has come to burn the midnight oil and get it done.  I don't want it on my mind when I am spending time with my family over the long holiday weekend!  When I have time to write again, I want to touch on:

• P/T Conferences 
• Affection with Students 
• Receiving Teacher Gifts 
• Guest Speakers/Experts 

I'll get back to it updating this beloved blog as soon as I can!  For now, I'll be sitting in bed with a cup of coffee in hand and my MacBook on my lap, trying to get this beast completed!

All my love,
BJT

Four weeks!

While I was on campus today, I ordered my cap and gown.  It feels so crazy that I'll be walking across the stage at the Kohl Center to receive my diploma (read: empty diploma holder) and graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in FOUR weeks!  Where has the time gone?  It feels like yesterday that I was in that same venue playing pep band and cheering for my high school boys basketball team at state.  Three years later, I sat there and listened to Biddy Martin speak to the incoming freshman class about how our time at UW was precious and how fortunate we were to be there.  Four and a half years later, I am on the precipice of ending my time here.  I've made mistakes, I've laughed a lot, I've consumed more beer than I could have imagined, but most importantly, I've grown up.  I am, and will always be, a Badger!

Now that I've shared that sweet sentiment, it's back to reality.  The end of semester is always crazy.  I still have the TPA lingering over my head (I know, it's been forever... I just keep hoping it'll somehow go away), I have six e-portfolio pages to create in the next 10 days, I'm still teaching 40 hours a week, and I still work 10 hours a week at the daycare.  I love my crazy life right now, but I can't wait until the school part is over.  I feel ready to teach, lead, and inspire!  I'm sick of jumping through hoops. 

There is an adult beverage and a productive night ahead for me!

Love,
Ms. T

Interaction

One of the biggest struggles I've had lately in terms of classroom management is how to keep students engaged.  There always seems to be five or six kids that always raise their hand and always answer the questions that I pose.  There are also four or five kids that sit on the fringes of class discussions and only participate when called upon.  In the past, I've successfully used "pick sticks" that are drawn at random.  With this class, though, we have a couple of kids that freeze up entirely when they are called upon to answer something without warning.  In order to keep the kids that are anxious at ease, we haven't used the pick sticks very much.

In the past two observations with my supervisor, she's noticed that I spend a lot of time reinforcing how my students should sit in a circle.  This sounds silly, but I really have had to tell them to make room for everyone, sit up, and only have one voice talking at a time almost every time we sit down in a circle.  It's exhausting!  My supervisor's point is that it really isn't THAT important that they sit in a circle.  She charted my student's movements during two points of my last lesson, one point where they were sitting in a circle, and another when they were just gathered in a group by the board.  It was really interesting to me that while the kids on the fringe mostly stayed there, all of the students moved closer to me while they were in the group and not in the circle.  It seemed, at the time, to make more sense to sit in a circle so that everyone could see the demonstration, but if I'm spending half of the lesson micromanaging the way that kids are sitting, is it worth it?

Along those same lines, the kids have been really, really "squirrely" lately.  I don't know if it's the time of the year or the colder weather, but my goodness!  They don't sit still.  They whine about sitting on the floor or flop their bodies around during instruction.  I do a lot of group thinking and brainstorming in my teaching, and it just so happened, that today during my second lead day, we did this twice.  My plan coming into it was to have kids brainstorm aloud with me calling on volunteers to share responses.  However, the kids had a really chatty morning and were unusually excited about life.  I loved that they were happy, but it was hard to get through the things we needed to get through!  In writing, we are having the kids do a self-evaluation that we can share for conferences on Thursday.  I wanted them to come up with a list of things that we've done in a number of subjects so that they'd have something to draw from and some concrete examples to use on their evals.  Because they really couldn't sit still, I had kids name things that we'd done in each subject and had them come write it up on the board.  I knew that the spelling would be off on some things, but spelling wasn't the goal here.  They came up with an impressive list!

In science, we did an awesome activity where the kids got to act like water molecules moving around to all of the places on earth that have water.  We brainstormed a list of places on earth that contained water at the start of the lesson.  Because things had gone so well this morning, I decided to let them write on the board again.  I was happily surprised at how many kids raised their hands to particpate.  Instead of the same five kids sharing all the answers, a couple of the kids that are ordinarily on the fringe volunteered their ideas!  It was awesome.  In the activity, they rolled a dice and moved from station to station, recording which steps they took.  So from the ocean, there only options were to stay in the ocean or get evaporated into the clouds.  By using customized dice at each station, it revealed the length of time that molecules really stay at each place on our planet.  They LOVED it!  In the end, we created the web below, which revealed that the water cycle isn't nearly as simple as we make it out to be. 

Overall, it was a good day.  There were shenanigans and a few times where I just had to laugh, shake my head, and move on, but that's teaching for you!

Much love,
BJT

Love.

(I started this post last night and got distracted by a good friend and a bottle of wine, so I'm finishing it up tonight!) 

I've talked often in this blog about how much I love my kids.  From the kids of Room 29 to the kids at the daycare I work at 10 hours a week, I come home at night with over thirty little ones on my mind.  I wonder about what happens when they leave my classroom and the ways that those experiences impact the way they are while they're with me.  I get at least 30 hugs every day, and I make sure I hug them all a little tighter when I'm saying goodbye for the day.

I went to school early this morning to meet with my CT, the speech/language person, and C's mom.  (Although I've referred to him as "The Wanderer" in the past, I've made a conscious decision to start calling him by his first initial instead.  The wandering label purely describes his behavior, and who is to say that he won't stop wandering next week?  Or the week after?  I don't want to define who he is.  That's his job.) In the last two years, C's mom has been at school three times.  She works nights and I don't believe she has her own vehicle, which makes getting to school for meetings more challenging.  It doesn't help that so often we ask parents to come to school to list all of the negative things happening with their child at school.  I'd be reluctant too!  Anyway, we had a good meeting.  Mom was again surprised with his behavior, but said that it was more consistent with his home behavior this time around.  It was hard for me to be honest about the way that he acts.  I love the kid.  I don't want to just list out all of the things he does wrong and have those things outweigh his amazing personality.  However, I realize that he is a problem in our classroom and he takes up more teacher time than any other student purely because of his behavior.  I knew that I would be shy and only list the really great things about him, so I let my CT do much of the talking.  Besides, she's a pro at talking to parents and kids!

The thing that really got me was how C said NOTHING for our entire meeting. He made little eye contact and looked so uncomfortable.  His mom was all over him to "Look at her when she's talking to you" and "Speak, say something.  I know you're not shy.  Don't be acting shy now that you know you've been doing bad in school."  Parent/teacher conferences are awkward in situations like this one.  It's hard to navigate conversations when the way that you talk to a student is different than the way their parent talks to them.  I can't change the way that they parent or the way that they relate to their kid.  I really, truly believe that it's not my place unless a parent asks for tips or advice.  I just kept talking to him as I usually do, reminding him of all of the awesome things that he's done or instances where he did the right thing.  Still, he had very little interaction with the rest of us.

For the rest of the day, C was doing his usual things.  His behavior wasn't any worse than usual, but I certainly wouldn't say it was better.  He's a tough nut to crack! 

-Ms. T

End of Last Week

Whew.  A wonderful weekend in the books!  I spent Friday night with some wonderful ladies from my cohort.  It was nice to take time and catch up with them.  Saturday and Sunday were spent with my family at an indoor water park/hotel.  The kids loved it!  It was good to have my entire family in one place.  I am blessed!  I realized that I had lots of thoughts about last week that I never posted here... so, with the help of some photos, here they are:

Farmer's Market Food! 
We have finally used up all of the produce that was purchased during our Farmer's market trip on Halloween.  Parents really stepped up and created dishes for us that were mostly kid-friendly!  One day last week we had rainbow carrots & ranch dressing as well as a really yummy Asian slaw that used up a whole bunch of cabbage.  The kids have been really good about trying things!  Sometimes they hate it and throw it away, but I'm glad that they are trying!

Compliment Cards
One of our morning meetings last week was all about compliments.  We had them play "Compliment Tag" as our greeting and share.  On the morning message, we asked them to choose a notecard that had one of their classmate's names written on it and write a compliment about that person on the card.  I don't think they should always get to choose whom they compliment, but for the first time, it made it easier for some students to do kids that they knew well.  I was really impressed with the nice things that they had to say!  I think that compliments are too few and far between these days.  It warmed my heart to see my students being so kind to one another.  If only we could have them show it in action...

Goodnight!
Ms. T

Field Trips

I realized today that I have a total love/hate for field trips.  I love that I get to take my students out of the classroom to experience things that can't be experienced within our classroom walls.  I hate holding my breath as soon as we get off the school bus because I have no idea how my kids will react to new people and places. 

There are a select group of students that have a hard time adjusting to new settings and new people.  As much as we prep and prepare our kids for what they might see and hear on the trip, you can't ever anticipate every little thing that will come their way.  On top of this, you have no idea what the facilitators will be like when you get to where you're going.  Often, they are older or younger volunteers that have spent time working with kids, but not YOUR kids.  They don't know what will set them off- and frankly, you don't either.  If they lack patience or are unafraid to discipline, it can get awkward.  I spent the last 30 minutes of this field trip just wanting to get back to school.  So much of the information was simplified that our kids spent more time talking with each other than talking with the facilitators. 

My favorite part of the day was when we went indoors to the "Rainforest Habitat."  The kids liked it because they were given a list of things to look for, like a yellow bird, a sloth, and a fan-like plant.  It also felt so different from the environment that we live in that the kids were sometimes wide-eyed.  I still had kids that were shouting or talking to their friends while the facilitator was talking, but to be honest, the man wasn't entirely engaging.  I didn't blame them. 

There were some other points where my boy, The Wanderer, would not stop talking while the facilitator was talking.  He was shouting out answers to all of their questions and it was drowning out all of the other kids and adults.  When I said, "C, you need to stop shouting.  No one can hear anything when you do that."  He said, "Why do I need to stop shouting?!  Why can't I shout out?"  I said, "For the same reasons you can't shout out in school.  It isn't fair to the adult that is trying to teach or to the kids who are trying to learn."  He wasn't having it.  Every time we rotated to a new station, he sat away from the group until I invited him in and let him sit on my lap.  During one of our transitions, he took another student's hat.  When he refused to give it back, that student got my attention.  When I asked him to give it back, he said, "He told me I could have it?"  I looked at the other student who was shaking his head.  I said, "You really need to give that back.  It's not yours."  His response was to stomp his feet, throw out a "Oh my gooooodness" and walk completely away from the group.  I gave him a couple of minutes and then went and found him playing around on a random staircase.  I told him he needed to make a choice: come with our group outside or sit in a chair with the other group.  As I was waiting for his response, my CT noticed what was happening and walked over.  She warned him that he shouldn't do this because the future of his participation in future field trips was on the line.  After that talk, another leader told me that he did just fine for the rest of the field trip.  Sometimes I wish I could have magical powers to make him do that, too. 

The location of the field trip was absolutely gorgeous and for the most part the kids did a nice job.  We had a good talk during science about the water cycle (that turned into a lot of laughs about icebergs, glaciers, and quoting lines from "Titanic") that was inspired by one of our field trip stations, so the day wasn't a total loss.  Hopefully we'll continue to connect parts of our field trip to what we are learning about ecology during science. 

Tomorrow is Friday!!  I can't wait for a relaxing weekend. 

Peace & love,
Ms. T

Wordles & Babies

I forgot to mention a few things in my last post that I'll surely forget about it if I don't post now!

Remember those Wordles that I mentioned?  My CT did a fabulous job printing them off and we let the kids decorate them this week.  (She also made me my very own Wordle- it's the cover of my planbook now!  Makes me feel loved every time I see it.)  I have a clean copy of all of the student's Wordles for my potential t-shirt idea... but for now, just check out how cute they are.  Such a confidence-booster!

In other news, my BIG sister is pregnant again... with another baby girl!  Her daughter, Gracelyn, feels more like my own child instead of a niece and I love her to death.  She's been obsessed with babies for at least a year now and is SO excited to be a big sister.  Although another nephew would be awesome, I am glad that Gracelyn will get to have a sister because I love mine so much. Here we are at a wedding a couple of months ago.  Can't wait to add another little diva to our family :)

WKCE Season

"Whoever created this thing is really, really mean." 

This comment, said by a 3rd grade boy after the completion of Reading 1 of the WKCE, has stuck with me for the past couple of days.  The Wisconsin Knowledge Concepts Exam is a mandated standardized test that 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 10th graders throughout the state of Wisconsin take on an annual basis.  Standardized testing is an interesting aspect of education. I have heard that in some schools, like many in the Chicago Public School systems (CPS), teachers pump their students up for "the test".  They build up student confidence by teaching them the styles of question that will be on the test and covering academic content that will be on the test.  They teach them how to fill in the bubbles, the trick about always answering a question even if you're guessing, and so on.  In my classroom this year, we did very little of the above.  We spent 15-20 minutes talking about what the test would be like purely to decrease student anxiety.  Our main focus was teaching strategies to cope with text anxiety, like a lemon squeeze, fidgeting with a pencil, positive self-talk, and so on. 

In my opinion, teaching to the test may produce higher test scores, but what are we really teaching our kids?  Your value as a student depends upon the score you get from the computer that will process the bubbles you filled in.  Even if you can't read the question, just make a guess, a shot in the dark, and maybe, just maybe, the magical testers will say that you're right.  What ever happened to discovery?  Exploration?  What do the kids WANT to learn about?  What is important to them?  More and more, standardized testing is the measure of our success.  Even our schools get report cards these days.  Merit pay?  Don't even get me started.  I could work one-on-one with a child and raise their scores by 40%.  If they started at 20%, even after all of my successful interventions, they're still only at 60%.  If the state decides that you need a 65% to pass, that student fails.  If that student fails, according to "them," I fail too. 

I understand the value of measuring what our students are learning on a statewide scale.  I can see that there is value in seeing levels of performance across a student body and how proficiency levels change from year to year.  However, I do not understand measuring this two months into the school year and not getting the results back until the last two months of school.  How does that inform our teaching?  I learn so much more from my students when I have conversations with them, work with them one-on-one, check in at morning meeting or check out circle, or when I play with them at recess.  (Gasp!  We're not supposed to play with our kids at recess... we are supervisors ONLY.  If you ask me, it feels unfair to everyone.)  I don't need to measure them on a standardized scale to know what they know.  I KNOW who they are as learners.  I teach to their strengths and work with them on their weaknesses every day.  I anticipate what will be a piece of cake for them and what will be a challenge all day long.  That's my job. 

Tomorrow, we have an ecological field trip to Olbrich Gardens.  I'm not entirely sure what we are doing, but I know that most of my kids will love it.  They'll be inquisitive, clever, funny, and respectful.  We can take what we learned and apply it to the forest-stream ecosystems we've been studying in science, or the non-fiction animal texts we've been exploring in reading, or the plants and animals we've been seeing outside our classroom window.  Making connections and asking questions- THAT is learning.  Not anxiously filling in bubbles that determine our worth. 

PS. I had the craziest day of my life today.  My car didn't start, I took a cab to school, I took my CT's car back to my apartment to meet a tow truck, tow truck was late, I took a cab (late) to campus for seminar, my credit card was declined from the cab, I took the bus back to work, I took a cab back home, I paid the cab driver a double fare.  Once I got home, I saw that my fridge had leaked and left a puddle on my kitchen floor.  My car is still in the shop so I'll need to find a ride to school tomorrow.  This is one of those days when you just need to love the little things.  Yesterday, one of my students wrote this on the board: 

"Vote Today oney if you are 18 or sothing elyse Brobma are Pesidint"

That's democracy, folks.  :)

Love,
Britt

Daylight Savings Getting the Best of Us

Today, for the very first time, I got to experience the way that Halloween/daylight savings time impacts kids.  It was NOT pretty.  The combination of those two things with the normal Monday whines made for a rough day in Room 29.  At one point, I literally banged my head against the easel in front of the kids.  A little drama never hurt, right?  ;)

I don't know what it is about Mondays but it feels like the kids forget every routine and expectation of school over the weekend.  This morning, two separate kids came up to me and said, "Hey!  What happened to writing?!  We don't have writing on the schedule."  I said, "Well, friend, it's Monday.  We've never had writing on Mondays.  We also have math in the morning, which only happens on Mondays.  Haven't you ever noticed that?"  Blank stares.  Seriously, where have they been?!  All day long I felt like I was fighting an uphill battle with things that we've talked about all year long.  To transition from activities we have a set of chimes that we play to get students' attention.  The expectation is that they stop what they're doing, freeze, and put their eyes on the teacher for the next set of directions.  For pretty much the entire school year, we've had to remind them of this expectation every single time we've rang the chimes.  It typically takes them 2 or 3 chances to get this right.  Some might say, "Hey, that's clearly not an effective strategy.  Try something else."  but frankly, what else is there?  I don't want to do a clapping pattern or say "Pause please" to get their attention every single time.  I like the chime because it saves my voice and it's consistent.  But of course, since it was Monday, it took an exceptionally long time to get their attention every time.  It made us late for recess, late for lunch, and late for specials.  I hate being that teacher whose class is never on time! 

I also had a tough time with a student named T today.  She is a stubborn one who argues her way out of absolutely everything.  A tutu and tights wearing diva who can be found drawing hearts on just about everything, she really needs a lot of support to get things done.  This in and of itself isn't a problem, but she rarely pays attention during directions.  The other day, she walked over to me while I was helping another student and said, "Ms. T, I need help on this." while I was mid-sentence with this other student.  I said, "I'm working with this person right now, if I have time, I'll help you after."  She continued to stand there and say my name.  "T, you can go sit down, I'll come to you if I have time." She said, "But I don't get it.  How am I supposed to do nothin' if I don't get it?"  This was a valid point.  I said, "You are more than welcome to ask someone at your table or another teacher for some help, but right now I am working with someone else."  She continued to stand there for a few minutes and then she sat down, where my CT helped her with her work.  Later, she came up to me and said, "Ms. T, why wasn't you helping me before?  You spent all of your time with C and I needed you."  I apologized, but then reminded her that she did get help from another teacher.  Trust me, if I could be in 17 places at once, I would love to be right next to each of my students all day long.  Unfortunately, I am left to give independent work that all students are capable of doing if they listen to directions.  This is precisely why I have a hard time feeling sorry for kids who need me to reiterate the directions to them more than once after I've already done this in the large group.  Frankly, it's exhausting.  

Today, T was sniffing a blueberry-scented dry erase marker.  I said, "T, you know, it's really not good to sniff markers."  She said, "But it smells like blueberries!"  I said, "It might smell good like food, but it's not.  It's not good for you to smell."  Again she said, "But it smells like blueberries!"  I said, "Yes, I know, but your brain is made up of cells.  When you smell the chemicals in markers, those cells die.  We don't want that to happen any more than it already has.  Please stop."  Her response to this was, "The nose isn't the brain."  While this is technically true, I realized that explaining to her the connection between your brain and your body was a lost cause.  From her standpoint, it smelled good, so she was going to smell it.  I took the marker and then made a mental note to look out for any future sniffing.  Whoever says a teacher's job is easy hasn't spent more than an hour in a classroom.  From forgetfulness to marker sniffing, I never know what my kids are going to throw at me on any given day.

Here's to Tuesday!
-BJT

Thursday's Post

Hey all,

This post was meant for Thursday.  I was at my brother's that night and got caught up in playing with the kids and talking so I didn't have a chance to finish it.  Now that I have, I'm posting it.  It is certainly the longest post I've had thus far, so if you wish to read it, prepare yourself.  I thought about cutting it down but then I realized it might be nice to have the story in it's entirety when I'm feeling like a bad teacher someday!  ;) 

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I had a phenomenal afternoon at school today.  

The morning went really well in Room 29.  I was worried about some serious Halloween candy hangovers, but everybody seemed to be in good spirits.  I lead a fun morning meeting where we practiced respectful disagreement and played a game called "Fiddlesticks" where we said the word in a funny way and tried to get each other to laugh.  Reading was mostly uneventful, but I wrote my first ever sub plans!  I have two reading groups that meet with me on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Tomorrow morning our teaching team is taking the morning off for planning, so I had to type up some independent work for the kids to do and leave notes for the sub about what they should be doing.  I'm looking forward to a productive few hours, but I have the sort of motherly feeling where you feel like you need to prep the babysitter before you go out for the night.  I'm worried about them!  I'm also anxious about The Wanderer... he'll have a hard time not having any of the adults he normally goes to if he needs something.  We've prepped the support staff for our absence and talked him through it.  I guess we'll find out tomorrow afternoon how things went.  Hoping for the best! 

So, about the breakthrough... I had the best moment to date with The Wanderer this afternoon!  

When he came back in from lunch/recess, I could tell that he was off.  He came in late, and then when I went with another student to meet in the hallway to catch up on writing, he followed.  I said, "What's up?  How was recess?"  No response.  At this point, he was sitting in his locker with his head buried in a puffy vest.  He said, "Can you see me?"  I said, "Umm, nope.  Hard to see you when you're hiding behind your vest."  I asked again, "Is everything alright?  Something happen at recess?"  He kept asking me if I could see him while he was hiding in his locker.  At this point, I was feeling frustrated.  Sometimes I feel like he just monopolizes adult attention and takes advantage of the fact that I'll talk to him for a significant portion of class time.  He got out of the locker, said, "Can we take a walk?"  I said, "Maybe.  But first, you need to tell me what's going on.  I'm not going to take a walk unless there is a reason we need to."  He said, "Why?  Why can't we just take a walk?"  while he huffed and puffed and walked away.  A minute later, he was back.  "Can't we just go for a walk?"  I said, "Mrs. R is in doing a read aloud right now and I need to meet with a student.  If you can tell me what is going on and tell me that we need to take a walk, maybe we will."  Again, frustration and some "oh my gooood-ness" statements.  I chose to wait it out.  As I was meeting with the student about writing, TW mostly kept to himself, but interjected on our conversations at some points.  I did my best to ignore him because a) I really needed to meet with this student and b) it made me feel like he was just trying to get my attention.  

After I was done with the student, I tried to talk to him again.  This time, he talked.  He said, "Some girls, ah, well they be callin' me stupid and ugly."  I said, "I'm sorry about that.  When did that happen?  At recess?  Did you tell any adults at recess?"  "No, it happened when we was walkin' in."  I asked him how that made him feel.  He said that he was mad.  I asked him which students it was and he told me the names of two girls in another 2/3 section.  I told him that I'd go try to find out more information but that I wanted him to stay here.  The last thing I needed was him getting all up in the girls' face before I had gotten both sides of the story.  He fought me on it (no surprise there, he does this always) and said that he wanted to go with me.  He said, "But you're gonna forget!  You're not gonna talk to them.  You're gonna forget!"  He always questions me when I say things like, "I'll come back and we can do it later." or "I'm really going to miss you!" or "I really want you to join us."  Not sure what that's all about.  Anyway, I managed to convince him that we could talk about it later.  

Then I went and talked to the girls in the other classroom individually.  They essentially told me that TW had been swinging around a necklace and it was bothering them.  They asked him to stop, he didn't, and then they called him ugly and stupid.  I headed back to my classroom where TW and his classmates were doing a math scavenger hunt.  At first, he was disinterested and wanted to know if I had found anything out.  Eventually, I got him back on task and he finished out the lesson.  He asked me several times if he could go talk to the girls.  I insisted that we wait until recess because it didn't seem fair to take away instructional time for him or for the girls.  A couple of minutes before recess, I pulled him out of class.  As we were walking to the other classroom, I said, "What are you going to say to the girls?"  He quickly and calmly replied, "I am going to tell them that I'm sorry for bugging them with the necklace."  Whaaat?!  An apology that quick?  I was still skeptical.  

As we approached the other classroom, TW was hiding behind a file cabinet.  I brought the girls out and told them that TW was feeling strong and powerful and that he had something to tell them. He walked up and said, "I wanted to say I'm sorry for buggin' you and flinging around my necklace.”   They said, “That’s okay.”  At this point, I tried not to over facilitate, but the girls didn’t say anything else.  I said, “Do you girls have anything you’d like to say?”   One said, “Thank you.”  The other said, “I’m sorry for hitting you.”  Seeing as she didn’t hit him, I said, “Do you remember what TW was feeling sad about?  That’s what you should apologize for.”  Thankfully, one of them stepped up and said, “I’m sorry for calling you ugly and stupid.”  Then I asked both parties if they were satisfied and they all nodded.  I had them look each other in the eye and shake hands as a truce. 

As TW and I walked away, I was ecstatic.  I said, “How do you feel?!”  He said, “I feel good.  That was fast!”  I took the opportunity to remind him that every conflict doesn’t have to last for a whole day or any more than ten minutes.  I said, “It was so fast because you stepped up and decided to own up to your mistakes.  Instead of just keeping quiet and being mad, you fixed it.  I am so proud of you!!”  I’m pretty sure I gave him five hugs on the walk back to the classroom.  This was a HUGE step for my boy! 

The longest post ever is complete.  I had to include the whole story as I remembered it though because my heart was so swelled with pride that it hurt.  It is moments like these that remind me why I want to be a teacher so badly.  Without the love and support of adults, kids can’t be expected to do amazing things like this.  I feel fortunate to be that person for this young man! 

TW’s biggest fan,  

Ms. T