Say What–Take 3

The “Exit Ticket” or “Question of the Day” is posted in the same place in my classroom every day.  It is called an Exit Ticket because it is a ticket out the door and into the hallway. The students can’t leave until they answer the question.  It is usually a review of the day’s lesson.  This allows me to look back and see if there are any gaps or misunderstandings to clear up the next day.  The downside is that the students have already left the room before I get a chance to read the answers.  On really busy days I don’t get a chance to check them until after the last bell has rung and the students are gone for the entire day.  Today was one of those days.

The Exit Ticket is posted in the bottom corner of one of my whiteboards. Because it is in the corner it does not read straight across.  Today’s question looked like this:

Write down one

thing that you

would like to have

explained better.

Okay, I’ll admit that it could have been worded a little bit clearer (my first mistake).  My intention was to have students name one thing they would like me to reteach next week.  Because they were taking a quiz today, I assumed (my second mistake) that they would pick something on the quiz that was difficult to answer. I wasn’t expecting the answers that I received.

Here are three of about 20 answers:

• superpowers
• a cell phone to call my dad after school
• my parents to stop fighting all the time

Have you figured out where the misunderstanding lies?  These kids didn’t read all the way to the end of the question.  To them it read: Write down one thing that you would like to have. Period. So they did. 

Now, I can assure you that the entire sentence was written in the same clear handwriting and that there was no confusing punctuation.  It is also the same question that I asked last Friday when we were in class. This just goes to show that learning proper communication skills is a life long process.  Clearly I need to reteach how to read the question on the board, and they need to relearn how to read until the sentence is finished, not just until they feel like stopping.  They probably thought that was an unusual review question, but nobody said anything about it. 

Exercise

The Twin Falls School District has teamed up with the College of Southern Idaho to offer free fitness classes for employees and their spouses.  What a great deal!

L.O.L.

My friends and I decided to go to spinning tonight. It’s offered every Tuesday and Thursday. There were about fifteen of us in the class altogether and Jake came with me too which was nice.

About um… seven minutes into the program the lights were down and the music was loud and I remembered something really important that I had forgotten. 

I hate exercise. A lot.

I have no endurance, no stamina, no tolerance for pain, nothing. To my friends out there who enjoy running marathons and going to the gym I want you to know that you’re nuts. Absolutely.

I survived the class. I never quit. I also didn’t follow all the directions. When the instructor said go faster I just kept going nice and steady. But I also think my resistance was higher than hers because she was pedaling so much faster than I was. Like, really, really fast. By the end of the class I was sweating like a Coke can in July. It was disgusting! My hair was running with rivulets of water and my make-up was smeared on my face. Nasty.  

I am feeling much better now.  One nice, hot, long shower, a handful of chicken nuggets with Winger’s sauce, and FOUR no bake chocolate chip cookies later I think I may recover. And I kind of like the wiggly feeling in my knees as I walk down the stairs.  I won’t be going back this next Thursday because of a previous commitment, but I think I’ll go back again next week. Supposedly it gets easier and I’m all about easy.

Hip Hip Hooray!

Yea! Jake made it home last night! It has been one full year that he has been gone and I have missed him like crazy! I don’t have any pictures to post or any really great stories to share at the moment, but I just thought I should announce that my soldier is home safe and sound!  It was a wonderful feeling to come home from work today and find him sitting in front of his new computer. I think things are going back to normal!

Say What?

This may become a regular feature on this blog. Keep in mind I type these as I see them, spelling and grammar are the student’s- not mine!

Question of the day: When is spelling important?

Top 5 Answers:

5. when you right a story, when you do a aplickation, and when you read a book.

4. Spelling is importent when your wrighting.

3. when your at a stop sign

2. on friedays

1. On the weeks with 5 days.

 

I think I may have my work cut out for me this year.

The First Week

The first week of school is over already.  Looking back it wasn’t so painful after all. And it was fairly productive.

• I know the names of at least five kids in each class (140 names to go).
• We took yearbook pictures yesterday.
• I’ve signed up for lunch duty once a week. (I get free lunch on salad bar day, YES!)
• The first writing assignment is sitting on my desk, waiting to be graded.

To top the week off, I got to watch a colleague of my present to a small class at CSI about the curriculum in her class. It was an inspiring presentation because it reminded me of how much I do love my job, and how much my colleagues also love their jobs. I am already looking forward to Monday when I will introduce the first spelling unit of the year, modeled after the presentation that I saw last night.

This morning my iGoogle Daily Literary Quote was from Maya Angelou. I think this quote will become the motto I will strive for in my classroom. “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.”

Welcome Back Parents Night

I am exhausted!! Working three days in a row is hard!!! No, I’m kidding of course. Summer didn’t make me that lazy, but things have definitely been different the last few days. 

Tonight we had Welcome Back /Open House/Chaos Night.  It was… nuts.

Okay, I should probably start off with an apology to any parents that had to come watch me present to them.  I do know what I teach, I  am fairly professional, and I am not a total idiot, but I completely understand if I didn’t come off that way tonight.  Parents make me nervous. In a room full of 50 kids I would have been fine but throw a bunch of parents in the mix and I apparently turn into a rambling maniac who loves her job a bit too much. (I’m sorry. I like research papers. It’s nerdy. I know.)  I tried to be upbeat and positive while fitting a year’s worth of information into 8 minutes. I talked a million miles an hour, I was sweating like an animal because there was no A/C, and I was already tired from a long day at work. I probably looked like the energizer bunny on crack.

I’ve noticed that the jokes I tell the kids don’t go over as well with the parents. Occasionally, I would get a courtesy chuckle but not often. They seem to take their child’s education very seriously. And it’s not that I don’t take it seriously, but, I mean, come on people! We’re working with kids here. It has to be fun too!! Even people who are friends of mine outside of school wouldn’t laugh at my jokes tonight. Heck, by the end of the presentation they were barely making eye-contact with me.

I did meet one student’s dad that didn’t seem to think I was too weird. He liked the fact that I was from Jerome, Idaho and we played the “Do-You-Know-So-and-So-Game” and we totally know the same people. So that was good.

Oh well. Luckily it is over for now. If they don’t all un-enroll their children from my class tomorrow that will be a good sign. In the meantime, I need to go to bed because I’m exhausted.

And on a separate note – having teacher friends at school, and friends to meet up with after school, is a great way to let off that extra energy.  Thank goodness for the people in my life who keep me sane. 

Say What?

Question of the day: What is the difference between a good goal and a poor goal?

Answer: “a good goal is like trying to cure cancer, a bad goal is like trying to pick up a penny with youre toung wereing a bunch of under were.”

This is why I teach. It makes me think. And then it makes me laugh.

 

(Spelling is the student’s; not mine).

The First Day of Middle School

The first day of the school year is over!!! Thank goodness too! As far as I know everyone survived.  There were some tears, lost schedules, forgotten locker combos, and plenty of confused kids but we all survived. 

Really, the best part was the way everything seemed to fall into sync. It was just like a regular day at work. I had to keep reminding myself that these kids are new and that is why they are wandering around slightly cross-eyed with confusion. Other than that though, everything was pretty normal.  And normal, to me, is good.

My absolute favorite moment of the day though was before school even began.  Before the first bell rang the halls were already full of parents and students. I liked this because it was probably the last time the parents will be allowed to walk their kid to class and give them a big hug in front of teachers and classmates before the kids are “too cool”.  Soon they will be true middle –schoolers, but today they were just post-elementary kids who still wanted their parents to be with them on the first day of school to help them find their way.  The parents were clearly nervous, they kept repeating the locker combinations and going over the schedules out loud. One parent kept saying, “Let’s walk your route one more time so you’ve got it.” His daughter just kept replying, “No, Dad, I’ve GOT it already.” I think she was relieved when the bell rang and he had to go home.

I think my second favorite 6th grade moment was when the tardy bell rang for class around sixth period.  Up and down the hallways were little sixth graders fumbling with their locks and their schedules. As soon as they heard the bell ring, a collective groan went down the hall.  It was kind of funny to hear. They knew that they were late. . . again. “Awwwwwwww man!!!!!!”

Hopefully we’ll all do better tomorrow.

Students, Students, Students

I’ve got a lot on my mind this weekend so I’m going to do what I always do when I’m stressed- write about it.  The biggest thing on my mind right now are my 2011-2012 6th graders.  All 172 of them.  I haven’t met them yet, that will happen on Tuesday. But I have watched my class lists growing. I have made my seating charts, I have studied their ISAT scores from last year, I’ve even looked at their pictures, but for some reason I just don’t feel ready quite yet.  172 students is a lot of students!!

Here is what I know about them so far:

• Divided into six periods a day my average class size is 28 students. (Unfortunately my biggest class is 34 students and I only have 32 desks.)
• 81 of them are girls  (47%).
• 91 of them are boys (53%).
• 100% are going through the pre-pubescent, hormone driven, emotional turmoil of starting middle school.
• 30 are minority students. (17%)
• At least 2 don’t speak English fluently.
• 26 are new to the Twin Falls School District (meaning I have no educational information about them) (15%)
• 63 scored Advanced (great) on last year’s tests. (37%)
• 64  scored Proficient (good) on last year’s tests. (38%)
• 14  scored Basic (not good) on last year’s tests.  (8%)
• Only 5 scored Below Basic (bad) on last year’s tests.(2%)
• At least 50 come from one parent /split parent homes. (30%)
• 11 have a learning accommodation currently in place. (6%)
• 9 have been identified as Gifted and Talented. (5%)
• 6 of them have a medical condition I need to be prepared for in case of an emergency.
• There are three sets of identical twins!
• A few students are homeless.
• 95 students will be 11 years old, 74 students will be 12 years old, 2 of them will be 13 years old, and one little girl is only 10 years old.  (To put this into perspective, 55 % of these students were less than a year old on 9/11/01).

 

It’s easy to break these students down into numbers. They’re actually less intimidating that way. After all, what’s scary with only 2% being so low? Or 5% being G&T?  The problem is actually in the quantity of personalities that will flood my room on Tuesday morning.  Each student has an individual perspective on life. My job will be to find 172 different ways to help them understand English grammar. Some of them will want it explained to them verbally, some of them will need to read examples from a book, some of them will need to have hands on practice, some of them will understand it the first time, some will need it explained multiple times, and a good majority of them just won’t care about grammar at all. 

And they’re not separated into class periods by age, gender, ISAT scores, poverty level, or learning styles.  They’re all jumbled together. 

For example: in the class of 34 students 1 student is gifted and talented, 2 have special ed accommodations, 1 has a medical issue, 11 are from split homes, 2 were below basic, 1 was basic, 14 were proficient, 10 were advanced and 7 are wild cards because they are new and I have no information about them.  Whew! It’s a good thing that class is after lunch so I can gear myself up for them!  

Despite it all, I’m actually quite excited for next week. The bulletin boards are eye-catching. Copies of the syllabus have been made. The first homework assignment is ready to go home. I have prepared as much as I can. Now I just need to take a deep breath and try to enjoy my Labor Day weekend. Because when it is over, there’s no turning back!

One Man’s Junk…

I’m going to be honest here: I’m not really one of those great crafter/redecorator types. Occasionally I have fits of madness where I attempt craftiness (my bedroom, for example, the unfinished quilt in my basement for another) and then I enlist the help of someone craftier than I to save me.   I wish that I was craftier, but, to be honest, some of those crafty people blogs kind of overwhelm me, and – to be really honest- I’m too lazy to put in that much work.  However, today I got bitten by the crafty bug again and I am feeling pretty darn proud of myself. True to form I enlisted help from my mom and together I think we did a pretty good job. 

I decided that my classroom needed warmer, cozier lighting than the fluorescent bulbs offered, so Mom and I went lamp shopping.  We went to a few thrift stores and consignment shops before we found our first treasure- a floor lamp for $5 at St. Vincent de Pauls!  A little while later we found our second treasure – another floor lamp at the Salvation Army for a whopping $2!!

 

This picture doesn’t do justice to the metallic gold shine or the gaudy white metal.

Next we went to Target where we priced lamp shades – average was like $15 for a so-so shade- totally not worth it.

So, we went to Lowe’s. (I Lowe’s).  There we found a can of spray paint ($5) and really cute lamp shades ($9 a piece) ! For a finishing touch we stopped by Michaels and bought some Halloween ribbon that was on sale (don’t even get me started on that obnoxiousness. I mean, Halloween already, seriously gross!).

(For those of you keeping track this means that the more expensive lamp has now cost about $16.)

Here are my finished projects:

  

 

Aren’t they great!?

Now I need  your help. I liked these so much that I want to redo the floor lamp that is in my living room but I don’t know which one I liked more. Please help me out! Should I do the patterned shade or the plain shade with the polka dot ribbon? I just can’t make up my mind!