School News and Funnies

Tomorrow we are taking the 8th graders on a field trip to SFA. I am excited to get to spend some time with them outside the classroom and show them around SFA! I know it will be a long day, but I am glad the weather is so nice, and that we'll get to spend the entire day outside. Whew! It's brutal to be inside all day with no windows when fall is approaching!

Now for the funnies...the kids just love to ask Shawn and me questions about our relationship. They want to know when we got married, if we both went to SFA, etc. I think one day a couple of weeks ago (as I am constantly trying to make real life connections to the vocabulary we are learning in class!) Shawn and I both shared with our classes that I am the clean one, and he the messy one. Shawn said that he liked to eat in bed, but I did not like it... so he confessed to his class... he does it when I'm not home! Of course, the kids immediately reported back to me what he had said. It is hilarious that they keep bringing it up. Like today, when we were going over the prefix co in Coexist (which means to live peacefully together) one student asked if Shawn and I coexisted... I wasn't sure his intention behind the question...(and would you, if asked this by an 8th grader?) and immediately got embarrassed and awkward. So I tried to explain it away. "uh, yes, we do live together in the same house," I said. "Yeah," he countered, "but do you live peacfully?" Which was immediately answered by another student in the class... "NO! He still eats chips in bed!" Of course, then, the whole class erupted into laughter.
The same class period, the same student, who pronounced leopard, lee o pard the day before, asked me what I meant when I called a character in the book we were disucssing flexible. He was flipping through the pages frantically trying to find where it had said that. I didn't figure out until a few minutes later that he actually thought I meant that the character was literally flexible, like could do the splits. Oh my, they are soooo literal!
The day before that, I had my last class act out the acronym FANBOYS (the coordinating conjunctions) which stands for for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so. Of my seven volunteers, each one had to make one of the letters with their bodies when their "fanboy" was called. It was hilarious seeing them try to twist themselves into those ridiculous poses. Quite the highlight of the day. Hey, teachers can have fun, too.

Good stuff

Yesterday, I had a few of my 8th graders read to the PreK four class. Actually, it wasn't my idea, but I was happy to go along with it, especially since that class is the rowdiest, and the largest. I was a little apprehensive since two of the three that volunteered are kids with a history of problems in schools. I knew I couldn't be in all three classrooms watching them at once, so I wasn't quite sure how it was going to work out. Turns out... they were great! They were actually pros at it; pointing to the pictures, reading slowly, asking questions, using voices for the characters... wonderful! I was so proud of them I nearly cried. Some of these kids were so unsuccessful in class, failing grades, etc, but here they stood out. I was so excited for them and can't wait until next week when another group of three will read again! This is the best idea! Thanks to Mrs. Harrison for coming up with it!

Test anxiety

So... Friday was kind of a down day for me. I hadn't cried yet at school this year (major achievement!) until yesterday. I graded all my Reading Strategies tests on Thursday night (65 of them). So I was super tired. Added to that, I'm really extremely bad at math, so adding and multiplying for about 3 hours made my brain hurt even more. Upon arriving at school at 7 on Friday morning, I realized that I had graded them wrong. Uh. There was no way I was going to get all of them re graded and entered in the gradebook again before classes started for me at 9:40. Thankfully, Shawn and another math teacher offered to help. Thank God! It was embarrassing to admit that I made that easy mistake, but at least they didn't laugh at me about it. Everyone has their strong points, and math is not mine.

To add to that, it was a Friday which must automatically mean in the middle school brain: FREAK OUT!!! I don't know if that is a middle school rule, but they sure do all freak out on a Friday.

After posting my test data breakdown (ugh, more math) I realized that I had 23 kids out of 65 fail. That's about one third (I think). Boo. I think I need to change things up a little, both in my classroom and the layout of the tests. I figured they could do open ended questions, but I guess not.

It just makes me feel really unsuccessfull when they score like that. I know it's my first test, but I gave them a review, they highlighted notes that they took in class, and some of them still didn't study (even after I harped on it for about a week prior to the test), and a lot of them failed. The amount of "not caring" is astounding. How can I make it real to them? They think college and jobs are so far away, but they're really not.

Week two ends with a holiday!

Well... this was the week of faux pas and sad stories.

One day this week, as I attempted to draw a story map, (looks like a skinny mountain), I asked my class what it reminded them of in nature. Well, immediately they started snickering. Undaunted, and for emphasis, I circled the introduction on the bottom left hand side, the conclusion on the right hand side, and the climax (yikes!) on the top. You can imagine their reaction, as I had quickly made a bad situation worse. Now I had a very accurate picture of the male anatomy on my board. I was verrry embarrassed, but pretended to not notice by erasing it quickly with my hand. I don't think I'm very subtle.

Another time this week, I was trying to convince my honors class to be creative with the story they were writing. They always ask me, "Is this right?" " "Is this OK?" So I announced, loudly and with flourish, "It's your baby! You create it!" Ohhhh boy. You can imagine the laughs with that one. Luckily it was my honors class, so they are a little bit more respectful, but if it had been my other classes, I would have never heard the end of it. They probably would have asked me where babies come from, just for spite. I made a mental note not to say that one again.

For the sad stories, there are so many kids that just have such bad home lives. It just makes me so sad. I caught one kid smoking in the bathroom this week, and later this month, he will leave to go to live in a foster home (not because of that incident, but because of other family issues). Another girl told me she had been up all night at the hospital with her mom who ran out of her anxiety and depression meds, so they had to take her to the ER. There are rumors flying around that a 7th grader is pregnant. Another boy showed me his wrists where he had cut himself with scissors the night before. There are countless other stories, but it makes me just want to give them all a hug and tell them it's going to be allright.

The good news is... it's a three day weekend! I looove that! I'm going to cook, have picnics outside, shop a little and swim. It's amazing how much less stressful the week is minus one day at work. Happy Labor Day!