Gems from Student Work

Lately my coworker and I have been texting pictures to each other while grading papers of the hilarious things our kids write for answers.  They have started to accumulate on my phone, and I decided some of these are too silly and wonderful not to share... (Note: No disrespect towards the students intended...I love each and every one so, so much--but I also love how they are kids and silly and make me laugh every day!!)

King Midas apparently "couldn't keep his hands off" his daughter...yikes!!!

Students read a folk tale about a mouse who gets stuck in a cage and tricks a cat to let him out.  The theme was that being clever can get you out of a difficult situation.  I guess it's true that if you are not clever you can get trapped in a cage and eaten, but I can't say it happens very often...

Our Common Core High Cognitive Demand task--change 1 event in The Princess and the Pea and rewrite the story from that point on to show how this change would affect the plot.  Somehow Mario and Princess Peach made it into this student's revision...don't remember them from the original plot!

I always tell my students to write "words of encouragement" for themselves at the top of tests--our usual is, "Bring it on!"  This student took it in a different direction...

Luckily for this student, I have watched my fair share of Dance Moms, so I caught that reference right away... ;)

Dear Miss Teacher, you are like a sweet tree...

That is a new one, but I will take it.

Miss Teacher, it was so easy, my brain is turned to 1000 percent, my brain is like a fire ball

Especially special because this one was from my Syrian student who did not speak one word of English when he came to my classroom last fall! 

And oh this one...I have one student who is responsible for changing our schedule magnets every afternoon and writing the next day's date on the board...this is confusing on so many levels...

To remember on stressful days: I love my job because it makes me laugh every day. :)

A LONG Week...+ The Saddest Note Ever

This has been a LONG week.  I know that sometimes when i read other teaching blogs, I think about how everyone else has the *perfect* classroom with *perfect* students and *perfectly* organized cabinets...but then I realize that sometimes the bad days are just less fun to blog about!  There's no need for me to go through my week play by play--it is Friday after all.  But I am not feeling great and have had a few students who have been a bit *off* these days...oh, and we ended on a bad note with me upset that the kiddos couldn't get the floor clean until 5 minutes after the bell.  (I'm a stickler about clean floors!)  I know that's nothing huge, but I hate ending the day upset!  Leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  (Plus, I've completely fallen apart in terms of my workout/training schedule, and being out of the routine like that always makes me a little down.)

Anyways, I'm committing to making this a relaxing, refreshing, and productive weekend!  I started it off right with some napping in hopes of beating whatever the heck is wrong with me, some Downton Abbey, and a little online shopping...I have a problem...it's bad!!!!  I guess I figure that if I'm not going out and spending money, it's okay to shop a little bit...right??  I just discovered Lands End Canvas via a pinterest pin.  When I hear the words Lands End I think of hiking clothes and this ugly jacket I had from there in 4th grade, so I couldn't believe when I clicked on a pin of an adorable belted dress and was brought to Lands End Canvas!  Super cute clothes, and amazing sales!

In other news, I need to share this adorable note from one of my neediest and challenging students.  He wrote it to me last week after a couple of REALLY trying days together.  I know these kind of things lose their novelty the longer you've been teaching, but I don't think I will ever get tired of this kind of note, especially from a student like this little guy:

Dear miss teacher.  i am so sorry that i refused to do my work.  And refused to ask for help or talk miss teacher you are the best teacher in the world and i act like a Jerk im so sorry miss teacher this will not happen again

sinsely

Student

Oh. my. goodness.  In case you can't tell from the handwriting, spelling, and drawings, this letter is from one of my little LD/ED kiddos.  He struggles with reading, writing, and motor skills in general.  He has all sorts of emotional troubles, and we have had some particularly trying days lately.  On a few different days, this little one basically decided he wasn't going to speak, answer my questions, or follow directions.  (I swear, with my group this year, "I need you to use your words" is by far my most frequently used saying..)  Doesn't this letter just break your heart, though?  When I read the part where he said, "I act like a jerk," I almost cried.  It is so important to be in contact with parents when kids are struggling at school (or when they're successful!), but it breaks my heart when I think about the things that might happen after I call home, especially in a high-needs, low-income school like mine.  For example, I know this student's mother loves him, but I'm pretty sure he didn't come up with the phrase, "I act like a jerk" all on his own.  This difficult student has become one of my favorite kiddos of all this year--funny how that works.

What are you most excited about this weekend?  I'm excited to SLEEP and get healthy!  Oh, and FINALLY get myself back on track with training.  (I am NOT excited to work on grad school HW--just had my first class Tuesday to start working on my Reading masters and am already wondering what I was thinking...)

True Life: 5th Grade Writing (+ Handful Giveaway Reminder!!)

Have you entered my giveaway to win a Handful Bra?  What are you waiting for??? (Note: If you have MORE than just a handful, don't assume this bra won't work for you!  It is surprisingly supportive, but if it's not quite up to the challenge for you for running, it would still be a great bra for yoga, lounging, or low-impact sports!)

It's been awhile since I shared some of the epic, hysterical writing I get to read on a daily basis from my 5th graders. Seriously, while I despise grading and while grading writing can be time consuming, reading kids' writing can be pretty darn hilarious.  I haven't had anything quite as epic this year as the Ode to Justin Bieber or the amazing truth about boys song, "Big Big Lie," but these gems are pretty darn great...


Assignment: "Write a narrative about a problem you have solved."  This student wrote about when her dog, Julie, escaped.  Love the figurative language at the end of this paragraph...

Assignment: "Write about an animal that has a bad reputation, but who you think is really just misunderstood."

Worms!!! People think that words are nasty and slimy.  They are wrong.  Words are very helpful to your plants.  They eat all the little bugs that try to eat your plants.  Thanks to worms they protect them.  Worms also make great compost.  Their poop helps make compost.  Compost really helps your plants.  Worms are great helpers.  Worms are the best helper that help your plants grow.  Worms can not be used as a pet.  Only in your backyard and your garden.  Go worms!!

Another animal that has a bad reputation is an alligator.  Alligators are very misunderstood.  People think alligators want to kill them, but really alligators just want to go the opposite way and ignore people.  The only reason alligators bite is because they want to protect themselves from enemies or things that dislike them.  They have a reason to be upset with us.  We kill them for their skin to put on shoes and purses.  We kill them for fun, and we kill them for their meat.  I'm not trying to say that I'm on their side, but they have a reason to be viscid.  But to them we're the vicious ones.

"Aaaah!  A spider!  Kill it!"  That's what most people say when they see a spider because they think they are really dangerous.  Actually, some spiders help us a lot because they eat and kill insects that are pestful or harmful.  Not all spiders are dangerous because some spiders bite and put venom in, but not all spiders do.  Some spiders help us by protecting us from harmful things by eating them.  Did you know that we're actually invading their home?  From now on when you see a spider let it be or set it free and we'll all be okay."

This one isn't funny, but it melted my heart.  This is from one of my tougher kiddos who has a rough home life, struggles with a learning disability, and is prone to shutting down when things are tough.  I loved reading this.  Assignment: "What Native American 'true name' would you give yourself?"

And of course, what post about elementary student work would be complete without a teacher portrait...

The resemblance is uncanny...Sweater boots and all. :)

End of the School Year, Moving Madness, and "oh my gosh where is my summer going?!?"

Ummm how is it already June 18th?!?  Is it just me, or is anyone else having anxiety about summer passing by too quickly???  I feel like just yesterday I was packing up my classroom, shoving things into boxes and cabinetes, and covering my book shelves with butcher paper...

God, the room looks depressing like this...

I realize this is irrational and silly, but I feel like summer is going to be over before I even have a chance to relax!  Since I got home from my wonderful Florida-Atlanta-Mud-fest-Snake-Terror-Beach vacation Wednesday, I have been going going going NONSTOP!  With what, you ask?  Well (drum roll.)...I am in the process of moving!  After I graduated from college in 2009 with a teaching job near my hometown, I decided to make the smart girl decision and move back in with mom and dad.  I've lived with my parents for the past two years, taking advantage of the lack of rent and living expenses to pay off my student loans, make a dent in my car payments, and save some money too.  I have liked living at home (especially since my dad started experimenting with vegetarian cooking in the past year and a half!  score!), but decided that this summer I needed to put my big girl pants on and start learning to take care of myself!

To make a long story short, I looked at a total of TWO apartments in the area and loved one so much I immediately filled out an application.  The catch was that the apartment was available IMMEDIATELY, so if I wanted it, I had to start a lease NOW.  HUH?  I wasn't planning on moving out until July or August, if not September!  I had next to NOTHING to fill an apartment with, aside from my chipped college dishes, my coffee maker, and an ABUNDANCE of martini glasses...sooo the past 3 1/2 days have basically been a frenzy of shopping (and spending buckets of money...), packing, and schleping heaps of my stuff to the apartment...it is coming together, but there is still a LOT I have to pack here at mom & dad's...and a lot of random junk I have to toss!  I'm excited though, and can't wait to show you pictures once I have all of my furniture and things are in order!!

ANYWAYS, the summer is just flying by and I haven't even blogged about the end of the school year!  OOPS!  On the second to last day of school, I started our morning with a long, quiet writing session, during which I had the students write letters to me answering a series of questions about the year.  Some of these asked about their proudest moment, their favorite activity, and the best book they read...as is ALWAYS the case when I read journals, some of their responses are too fantastic not to share...

 This year has been the best.  I wish that I could stay in 5th grade, but I have adventures to seek when I go to every other grade.

One of my favorite things about working closely with kids is the special, unique kind of relationship you form. To me, I know I'm doing my job in building relationships when kids *need* to tell me random things.  This is a perfect example... :)

HAH!  So much honesty :)

A couple that were IMPOSSIBLE to decipher from the photos I took...

My proudest moment was when we were doing family living.  It was my proudest moment because I got to find out how most of the body parts work.  Also because all of the 5th grade boys were acting mature.  That was a proud moment because we weren't acting like children.

^What can I even say... :-D

My favorite thing we did in fifth grade was writer's workshop because we got to use computers and because it was our change to become a better writer.  Writing was my favorite because when every one wanted to conference with you you tried your best to get to everyone you could.  Writing was also my favorite because you tried your best to let everyone share their creative writing.  All I want to say is that everyone writing is great.

^This one is probably my favorite.  It really captures the essence of writing workshop--everyone writing, sharing writing, and celebrating writing, as well as growing together as a COMMUNITY of writers.  This student GOT IT!  I teach for moments like this :)

I have to say, while I LOVE LOVE LOVE summer and do NOT want it to be over, I really loved. this. year.  So many negative things have been going on in my building and school wasn't so much a happy place the last few months of the year (I'll explain more later this summer...), but I loved my class.  This was the class I needed this year--after my rough 1st year, this class helped me fall in love with teaching again.  Let's hope I get lucky again next year!!! :)

Serious Issues.

No, these aren't MY issues we're talking about for a change...although I certainly have a lot of them (or "ish" as my college roomie and I like to call them)! :)  Today I am going to share some of the SERIOUS day to day issues plaguing 5th graders.  After a long and exhausting institite half-day today, my team and I were getting a bit silly as we munched chocolate covered espresso beans when I happened to discover Mrs. Mentor Teacher's long forgotten "issue bin" which had been instituted early in the year by Mrs. Social Worker and completely abandoned.  Taking a quick peek inside, I noticed that it was PACKED with issues.  Of course we took this as a sign to immediately stop all work (or stop pretending we were working) and read them all.  

Cue hysterics.  Every "issue" topped the last, and Mrs. Mentor Teacher attempted to identify her students' handwriting on them since they hadn't written names...which makes it pretty hard to solve any of the issues!

Some of our favorites...(now remember, these are VERY SERIOUS issues and must be taken VERY SERIOUSLY.

 "Somebody make me frown"

 "No one has respect"

Our response: You are right.

 "Someone keeps on staring at me."

Very specific.  We'll get right on that.

 "I think some people need to use a steerch ball to cuntrell there anger."

(Spelling original) ^My personal favorite.  Not so much an issue as a suggestion...

 "the New girl"

"I Have A Issue with the people in Front of me"

Anyways, after a LONG LONG LONG day, these certainly lightened the mood. :)

Note:  Please don't think I'm a bad teacher or a bad person.  I take issues of bullying very seriously in my classroom.  But you have to admit, this is pretty hilarious...

I thought it couldn't get any better...but then it did.

Did you get a chance to read my student's tribute to Justin Bieber?  When I read that, I thought that my class had peaked in (creative!!) hilarity in the writing department...then today another student shared these epic song lyrics with me.  A.MAZ.ING.

Sorry about the photo quality...her pencil marks were SO LIGHT so I had to darken it up...gosh, don't these kids KNOW they need to write darkly and legibly so I can take awesome pictures?!?

In case you couldn't decipher that...
Boys try to figure you out, 
then try to get to your head
and leave you roaming alone
through this cruel, cruel world
leave you roaming alone,
leave you roaming alone
They might be the light of your life
to lead into a lie
Well it's a big big lie
Big big lie


^True. Wisdom.  Out of the mouths of 10 year olds...

God I love my job.

True Love, 5th Grade Style

You cannot even know how much will power it took to sit through a writing conference with a student last week while she shared this piece without bursting into HUGE FITS OF LAUGHTER:

Don't worry, there was another whole page. :)  AMAZING!!!!!

Out of the mouths of babes!

Writing Prompt: Write about a place you would like to explore.  Explain why you would like to explore this place. (Sorry this picture quality TOTALLY SUCKS but the writing is just too good to miss.  I typed it out below...) 

"I would like to explore Bahamas because that's where my mom went for her honey moon.  If I go to the bahamas then I could look for old precious things like from the 1800s or something or a leprechan dancing around a pot of gold!!!!  I could go rock climbing!  I could go in dark deep tunnels to see if there's any diamonds!  If I could go to the bahamas I would take Miss Teacher with me and the leprechan and making shamrock shakes!"

Note the picture of me holding at least 6 Shamrock Shakes.  She knows me so well... God I am obsessed with this! :)  I guess the Bahamas are really a magically land where anything goes!  Go figure. :)  

Wednesday Little Happys

Three random things so far this week that made me smile:

ONE

Monday morning (first day post spring break) one of my girls came in before the bell to say hi.  She likes to come in a little early every day to unpack and help me.  When I said good morning, she smiled and said, "I forgot what your voice sounded like!"

TWO

Yesterday I read this post in one of the kiddos' journals in response to the prompt, "What is something you think is unfair?":

Love when they "think deep" in their journals.  :)  Love kids. 

THREE

By far the most amusing....this afternoon I was picking up the 5th grader I tutor and had his 1st grade brother in tow.  Walking towards my car, 1st grader asked, "Did your car cost 13 dollars and 1 cent?" :-D  It seems he had noticed my 13.1 magnet for the first time!  Loved this.

And now, after quite possibly the most horrifically painful foam rolling session of my entire life (Damn you, IT bands...), with 50% of my legs coated in biofreeze (which btw is making me really freaking cold!!!), I am off to bed...Goodnight!

Hmmm...good try, but no...just, no...

Okay, seriously.  I know we fail at teaching social studies these days (no, thank YOU NCLB!), but...I mean...honestly...I have no words.

Test Stress and Straight Answers

I'm a little...stressed.  Wednesdays are staff development after school, and always end up a big headache.  Today we had an hour of PLC time, and you'd think that team planning would RELEIVE sterss.  But what inevitably happens, especially lately, is that we get unbelieveably overwhelmed by all that we have to do and the little time in which there is to do it.  Lately it's ISATs (state tests) that are stressing us out big time.  Ironically the start the day after my half-marathon, so I've been telling the students that we are ALL working really hard over the next 5 1/2 weeks to get ready for a big challenge.  

I swore I'd never be a teacher who is consumed by these darn tests.  But there is a lot of pressure.  And I'm an anxious person.  You do the math.

The to-do list/schedule for the next couple days I frantically scrawled after school:

Okay, *breathe*...

In other news, I really enjoyed reading this response when I was grading literacy work this morning:

Question: The variety and quality of life in the desert depends upon how much water is available.  What do you think your life would be like if you had no water for one week?  What would you miss?

Answer: If I didn't have water for one week I would miss myself because I would die by then.


Fair enough!

5th grade Role Models

During writing workshop today I spotted one of my darlings with her hand up in the air. She had a blank notebook in front of her, and was clearly contemplating a new piece.
Our conversation:

Miss Teacher: "What can I do for you?"
Student: "I need help starting a new piece. I was wondering, can it be like...a biography? About Justin Bieber?"
Miss Teacher: "Hmm...were you planning on doing research? Because you'd need some facts for a biography."
Student: "Well, I have 1 book about him at home. I was thinking I'd wrote the first half about his life, then the second half about how his music inspires me."
Miss Teacher: *attempting not to laugh* "That sounds like a wonderful idea. I can't wait to see how it turns out!"

Love love love fifth graders!

Social Studies Education in the Public School...or lack thereof...

OR: "No, thank YOU, No Child Left Behind!"


In a day and age where the teaching time is fleeting and assessments are many, any subject that's not tested falls to the back burner.  Every bright-eyed, idealistic young student teacher swears, "Not in MY classroom!  I would never give up teaching [science/social studies/creative writing/fine arts/fill in the blank...]!!!!"  But then, there we are in the real life classroom, with AYP, NCLB, state testing, and other crushing pressures suddenly on our shoulders.  And even us liberally educated, once-idealistic teachers suddenly start filling afternoons with practice pages from test-prep books instead of read alouds, interactive units, and creative projects.  (Sorry, but my mood is already headed south in anticipation of spring testing!)


To further illustrate this inevitable transformation, here is a glimpse into the teacher I always knew I'd be: I did my senior research project on Peace Education, and presented it to peers and professors having reached the conclusion that themes of peace and conflict resolution must be woven into the very fibers of one's teaching, must be at the very heart of every lesson, unit, and activity.  I adamantly voiced that a culture of peace in the classroom COULD and WOULD help change the world.  (God I know.  So young, so naive.)  


Don't get me wrong--I still believe in those things.  It is just that there are MANY other things on our plates in the real life classroom!  And there just plain isn't time to do it all.  I'm not squeezing in mini-lessons on conflict resolution strategies, studying subversive topics in American history, or holding regular classroom meetings to problem solve "issues."  Nope, not even close.  


I admit: Social studies has never been my favorite subject to teach.  I'm not sure why, but I'm just not excited about it.  That being said, though, I in no way underestimate the importance of social studies education.  How can we expect to NOT make the same mistakes in the future that mar our nations past if we aren't educating children about our history?  How can we expect tolerance between countries and peoples without studying, and thereby appreciating and understanding, the differences in the world?  Yet social studies education is sorely lacking in classrooms ALL OVER America.  In fact, our state gave any hope of adequate social studies education the kiss of death when it decided it wasn't important enough to make it onto the state test.  (Not that I'm complaining about that--I would probably kill myself if I had to prep the kids for ANOTHER test...)  


And this week, when we read about the American Revolution in our literacy book, I was appalled, yet not surprised, by the complete and utter lack of background knowledge my kids have on American history...Yes, I know it's MY job to teach them.  God knows I'm trying.  But something to work with, please...


ANYWAYS, here they are, the two quotes straight from the mouths of my little darlings that inspired this rant and made me die a small death inside.  Two utterances that truly illustrate how much we (myself included) are failing the youth of today in social studies education:

Miss Teacher: "What country was the Patriot army, the American army, fighting against in the Revolutionary War?"
Student: "Boston?'
Miss Teacher: *shakes head* "No...just, no..."

Student's vocabulary word sentence for the word tyrant: "Lincoln is tyrant of the revolutionary war."

The future of America, ladies and gentlemen.

God help us all.

Tofurkey it is, in that case!!

Last Tuesday, our last day of school before Thanksgiving break, I assigned this journal prompt:

Write a letter, from the point of view of a turkey, to your family.

Include reasons in the letter that your family should NOT eat the turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.

I love having students write from others' points of view, especially animals, so I love assigning this prompt.  Also, my vegetarian self likes getting the students to think about their food from time to time!! :)  I promise I'm not preaching...I don't want THAT parent phone call!  Anyways, I didn't have a chance to read through them until today.  Here were my two favorites:

(sorry the pictures are super blurry!  I really have to remember to bring my camera to school--my phone isn't cutting it!)

 Dear family,

PLEASE DON'T EAT ME!!!  There are SO many different foods you could eat instead of me!  You can eat potatoes, pie, cranberrys, NOT ME!  Or how about we all be vegiterians for this time.  Please, please, don't eat me.  Turkeys don't need to be Thanksgiving food, how about you take the chickens insted.  (That sounds like a good plan, don't you think?!)  I will give you some time to think about this (or 2 days to be exact!)  PLEASE DONT EAT ME!

Very scared and sad,
      Turkey

Please don't eat me this year for thanks giving this year.  I have lots of dreams when I grow up.  I want to be a Professional turkey dancer.  So if you eat I will never get to accomplish that career.  that would be really sad right so if you want to eat me well PLEASE DONT!!!!!

Sincerely,

         Your Turkey

I'm thinking next year we should do an actual writing project with this prompt...these are too funny!

There be dragons

I get a lot of inventive spelling on student work...with all of our time spent trying to boost test scores, certain things like spelling have kind of fallen to the wayside... Combine that with messy handwriting, and it can be a bit of a challenge deciphering WHAT the heck they are writing.  But once in awhile, I get a true gem...

Question: "What are two reasons why Jose Manuel's grandmother would not let him out to play?"

Student Answer: "Jose Manuel's grandmother would not let him out to play, because the steer [street] where [was] to dragons.  and to many fast cars."

I seriously read it, and read it, and reread it...and thought, "How could DRAGONS possibly have entered into this story??"  It's a realistic fiction, set in San Juan.  Today I brought over the worksheet and asked him to read me the answer.  Turns out Dragons was actually Dangerous.  Makes MUCH more sense now.  I had him chunk the word he actually wrote and he realized it really said "dragons," and needless to say we both had a pretty good laugh.  I just couldn't let him erase it though so I could snag a picture of this gem.

Please know that in no way to I mean this to make fun of this child--I love him like crazy!  And part of what I love about this job are the smiles I get to share with students.

Happy (but sleepy) Teacher

This has been a week of good days.  :)

This time last year, I was choking back tears every night and staying past 7.

While I still have 2 long days per week usually, and while many things still are frustrating and need work, I am not choking back tears.  Not even close.  In fact, I feel pretty good.

This week I have realized that I have great relationships with my kids.  I care about them, and, more importantly, they KNOW I care about them.  I am at a place with them where I can say, "Will you please do it, just for me?" and they WILL.  It's amazing.  Even my tough kids hold some pretty special places in my hearts.  My toughest kid of all, who can barely read and is prone to temper tantrums and melt downs?  I freaking love him.  BTW this has been a melt-down free week.  So proud. :)

Oh, and my kiddo who was skipping out on school last week actually TRIED this week!  In fact, he did a fantastic job all week and I could not be prouder.  Have we made progress??

ANYWAYS...
Today was an extra good day for another reason--I had a special guest!!!  One of my good friends from my college elementary ed program, Miss S, came to help in my room today!  Miss S is currently subbing in another district, but had the day free and offered to come help out.  YES PLEASE!!!!  It was unbelievable how much more we were able to get done with an extra teacher in the room.  Miss S met with two of my reading groups which meant EVERYONE got met with today for a change (yay!), and in math she and I were basically like a swat team running from struggling kid to struggling kid (first day practicing measuring angles with a protractor--always a disaster!  she could NOT have come on a better day!).  Also, it's pretty great just having another grown up in the room to share a laugh with sometimes.  Miss S, can I just pay you to co-teach with me???

Tomorrow is Friday.  Hallelujah.  Good week or not, I am E X H A U S T E D.  Like, falling asleep in your grading exhausted.  But in a good, I-gave-it-all-I-had-and-it-shows kind of way.

This evening's laugh-out-loud moment while grading vocabulary sentences:
"Slurp: When I got in trouble, I slurped my icy noisily and casually."  Amazing. :)

Journals

During one of my MANY summer brainstorming sessions spent pondering the question, "What should I do differently this year to make sure it sucks less than last year?" (okay that's a little dramatic, last year hardly sucked!  it was just a little rough!), I entertained the idea of starting my mornings with journal writing instead of morning worksheets.  I'm not a big busy work person, but I started having the kids do a morning work page as soon as they came in very morning because it settled them down, got the class quiet and in work-mode, and gave me a minute to check in hw, greet the kids, etc.  Anyways, when I was reinventing the Daily 3 this summer and trying to come up with more options for the Work on Writing piece, Mrs. J suggested I try morning journal writing.  That way, the kids would always have the option of continuing an entry during Work on Writing, and would also be in a stronger writing routine.  I decided to go for it and compiled a list of about 100+ prompts from various locations.

I typically have the kiddos write a letter to me about their weekends Monday morning, a miscellaneous prompt Tuesday and Thursday, (Wednesdays we do DOL instead) and write on a prompt connected to our weekly literacy theme Friday mornings.  This weekend, I took home a crate of journals to peruse.  I have collected them a few times previously, but hadn't for about two weeks.  The prospect of reading and responding to entries in 24 journals was a bit daunting..I don't reply to every prompt, but I do read them all and try to respond to the ones that really show their best effort especially.

As exhausting as it is to respond to that many journal entries (I know, shame on me for waiting too long to collect them, but there are always SO MANY other things on my mind at the end of the day...), I am SO GLAD I am doing the journals this year.  It's amazing how much I learn about my students from some of their entries, and I feel like it's a great opportunity to build relationships.  Also, I found a few true "gems" among the journals:

Fabulous student entry 1:
One of my girls, in response to the prompt, "Something that bugs me is..." wrote about her older brother.  She told me that her brother bugs her because he will always put on his "Jason mask" and sneak up on her and her friends when they are playing.  I almost DIED laughing because that sounds EXACTLY like the way my older brother used to bug me!  Actually, it was the Freddy Kreuger mask that really got to me...I mean seriously, I'm 10 years old, I turn around, and THIS GUY is standing behind me, knife-claw and all.  SCARY.  Anyways, I loved writing back to her and telling her about MY brother and how he used to love to bug me. :)

Fabulous Student Entry 2:
In response to the same prompt (Something that bugs me is...), one of my "diva-ish" girls wrote the following entry:

In case you can't read it, it reads, "Something that really bugs me is boys.  Boys bug me because they think they know everything.  They think that they are smarter than girls.  And they think that they are tougher than a girl.  And last but not least, they think they are cooler than girls.  Then they say that they're richer than girls.  The next day they will be asking us for money because they want to buy something."

:-D I was DYING laughing!!!  You go, girl :)

In any case, I am loving the journals.  Today I implemented a new system though to avoid getting bogged down with the journals on the weekends.  I'm collecting journals from 1 team every day, and two teams on Thursdays (my stay-late day).  Ex. Monday collect team 1, Tuesday team 2, etc.  I figure this way I will have less to respond to at a time, less to cart around with me, and most importantly, I'll be able to spend more time reading and responding since I won't be overwhelmed.  I hope I am able to keep up with them!

:)

Adorable poem a student wrote in her spelling packet this week:

In case you couldn't read that:

It's red like a rose that has a thorn

Coarse with a flare, but not easy to scare

The use of a sword would be to harsh

I swear if you didn't get it by know this poem is about my heart

Oh how I love ten-year-olds sometimes... :-D

AND weekend. :)

Wow, after the four-day week last week (seriously, was that only last week?), this week was LONG.  I had dinner with the fabulous Miss R monday evening, which was the perfect way to start the week.  Although by that time I was already convinced that it was Tuesday.  That should tell you something!!

No, it wasn't a bad week.  Actually, it was pretty good overall.  I taught a few fun lessons I really enjoyed, some that kind of fell apart...but I'm definitely getting better at knowing when to STOP and reassess, and also when to decide it's just NOT worth trying to rush and squeeze in everything I had planned for a day.  For example, this afternoon I just knew my last lesson of the day was SO not going to happen...and opted for a quick recess and a quiet read aloud with the lights off to calm everyone down.  Definitely the right choice--anything I tried teaching by that point wouldn't have made an impact, and would have resulted in me VERY frustrated and yelling.

It was certainly a LONG week though.  Good things: someone on our staff kindly purchased a fabulous keurig coffee maker for communal use in the lounge.  hooray!  While I have always scorned single-use coffee contraptions like keurig and tassimo for their incredibly WASTEFUL single serving packagings (seriously, so. much. waste.  my coffee maker doesn't even use filters), I am crossing over to the dark side.  Sorry, Earth.  Sometimes you just need a pick me up.  And it makes REALLY good coffee... :-/ <- my guilty hippie soul... Oh well.  You gotta do what you gotta do to make it to 3:00 sometimes!  (I did get fair trade coffee, so at least that's something?  Maybe?...)

Anyways, I am looking forward to a productive and fun weekend.  My to-do list for tomorrow morning is pretty ambitious, so we'll see how it goes!!!

One quick "insight" from one of my "sharpest" fifth graders: "The sun is so bright!  Look, it follows me wherever it goes!"  Oh dear...

A little too much information, thanks...

I can't believe I forgot to write about this last week, but am so glad I remembered it now. As a teacher and a talkative person in general, I am rarely speechless. But every now and then, my little kiddos say something just unexpected and bizarre enough that I need a moment to scoop my job off of the floor. This was one of them last week:

"Hey Miss Teacher, did you know I consider myself part Canadian?"
"Oh really? Why is that?"
"Oh, because my mom started being pregnant with me while she was on vacation in Canada."
Deadpan...

When I am a mother, I vow never to share any information with my children about when, where, or under what circumstances they were conceived. I feel very strongly about this.
As disturbing as that was, it made me smile. :)
You can't make this stuff up, I swear!