Things aren't always what they seem

We have a pregnant teacher at our school who got put on bedrest. So we all rallied around and contributed money for gift cards. I told the gal who organizes these things that I'd go get the gift cards. So I did. {I love that I work at a generous school!}

And then, I texted the pregnant gal and said "I've got a surprise for you. When can I bring it?" It was like 9:30 in the morning. She said she was going to the doctor's. 

I text again, probably around 11:30. "How about now?" "Running some errands," she said. Me, ever thinking (and probably a bit lazy, and it was spitting sleet/snow) "Could you run by here?" No answer. 

Finally, at 3:30, thinking that the weather was going to get worse, and wanted to get this little job done with, I texted something like "Can I bring this to you? You don't have to answer the door, and I won't stay and talk." 

And so she sent me her address and I hopped in the car. And as I was on my way, she said they could stop by my house. I said no, I was almost to her place. 

We met there. And she looked worn out. They had gone to get tags for their new vehicle and it had taken a lot longer than they had thought it would.  

And I realized I was getting impatient with her for not letting me take care of this big, important job I had to do.... and meanwhile, she had a whole different thing going on. Things aren't always what they seem.  

And I wondered how often this happens with the kids I come into contact with. That bad mood might not have anything to do with me.... but I sure can make it better, or worse. That hoodie over the head... might be a signal for something, that I can either try to figure out, or just flat out ignore. And so on. 

Things aren't always what they seem.

It’s the little things

Sometimes it really is the little things.

I teach Science now... just science.
I teach to grades K through 4th.
My kinders we’re doing a rather dry bit on recycling.
I had a little brainstorm.
I had them pick about 4-5 small crayons from a big tub.
They peeled the paper off (next year got to figure out an easier way).
They put the crayon bits in a cupcake liner (with their name on it, cuz I’m smart like that!).
I took them home and melted the crayons.
(Some of them looked so pretty!)
When I took them back to school the next day....
“Can we keep it?”
Yes! Yes, this is your creation. You get to keep it.

What Worked 2018

It's been a little while, and I've realize I miss writing what's going on in my teacher life. I don't care (a lot) if nobody else reads this... I just like to write my thoughts down. 

So I've seen this title/idea a bit around the internet... so I thought I'd share mine {preferably before January is over!).
Here's what worked for me in 2018...

1 - Leaving close to the end of my contract time. I'm a morning person, so by the time it gets to be 4:10 (the end of our day), I'm more than ready to head out the door. I usually try to get a quick bit of clean up from the day done, and out I go.

2 - Tuesday nights. My hubby and a friend like to go to the local brew pub and tell tall tales. And it gives me a little time in a quiet house. So I hurry home (see #1) and get in comfy clothes and head to the computer. I get a good hour or 2 to really get some work down on lesson plans. For some reason, I just can't see to put these together at school. So if I get a good start at home, I can finish those up at school 

3 - "We're rich!" Ok, we're not really rich. But we're comfortable. And this phrase has been quite handy when I'm trying to decide whether I should keep some silly little thing. I've started to realize I don't need to keep everything... I'm in a position to buy, if I need to. And that's been pretty freeing.

Magical Fixes

Yesterday morning, I hadn't slept very well, and when I got to school, I just knew I had to finish doing my goals. Does everyone else have to do these? We have to write a student achievement goal {that can be measured} and also a personal goal; and our principal writes a building goal for us. Well, yesterday was the deadline. 
I was emailing back and forth with my principal to finish up. I entered my student achievement goal. And then I had the momentous moment where I clicked submit. And then there's a big scary screen that says, this is forever and permanent - or you know, something like that. And I clicked it. 

And then I went to enter my personal goal --- and realized I had put my student achievement goal under my personal goal! Argh!!! 

I didn't want to, but I emailed my principal. And guess what? She didn't yell at me, or say why did I do that, or huff at me. She had the magical powers to fix it. And she just did that, and sent me an email to try again. 

So later that day, when my first grade friends were cutting, and one of them accidentally cut on the wrong line, I was able to say, "accidents happen," and put some tape on it. 

I'll admit, I'm not always so good at magically fixing what I'm able to magical fix. Sometimes, I huff. Or I say "why did you do that?" Or... well, I don't yell. 
I sure was glad to get a little grace yesterday. Now I want to try harder to pass that grace on to others. 

Eclipse

Did anyone else watch the eclipse? I really enjoyed it. We were already back in school, so spent a couple days learning about what an eclipse is AND how to safely watch one. On the big day, we had sack lunches, special glasses and a little music. It was a fun couple hours.
I really thought it would get darker -- we were 90% of the sun blocked by the moon. We had told the kids that it would get dark, we'd be able to see stars and the street lights would come on. Well, nope. So a good chance to talk about scientists making predictions and having to revise those.

So this was a fun way to start the 2nd week of school!

Reflection

This post starts with a vent and ends with reflection. Just so you know going in!

You might have read that this past school year, was not my favorite. {If not, and you're interested - see here -- and I won't bore you with all the other links.} 
I had a class that was.... interesting... challenging.... different than I'd ever had before. And this was compounded by the fact that we got a new literacy coach and a new math coach. The literacy coach's room was right across the hall from me. Yikes! And there were a couple times that I wanted to say to both of them -- this isn't normal for me. I'm trying to figure this out! I'm doing the best I can right now. 

And to be honest, I felt a little judged. 

So now, after I can look back a little better -- I wonder about a couple of my little friends in my room last year {and maybe from other years, also}. Do they feel judged? Do they feel like they just can't get it right? Do they feel like they make one misstep after another and oops, again? 

I hope not. 

But as I go forward, I want to do a better job of being inclusive; of reminding that we all make mistakes; that it is worth it to try again; and I accept you, and you, and you. Really, truly, I do. 

{Sometimes it's scary to write things like this. I end up feeling like I'm the only one who had that kid that just rubs me the wrong way; or can get under my skin without me even realizing what's happening.} 

There goes another.....

I had these shoes that were very comfortable -- Ecco's -- but in my humble little teacher's opinion, they are a little expensive - over $100. But man, were they comfortable! Yes! 

But then they started not being so comfortable. And every time I'd wear them, I'd just wonder why they weren't as great as they used to be. 

And one day I came home and noticed this:

If you can't tell, the whole heel has split in two - sideways. {And I have no idea what the water stain is about???}

{This is not the first time this has happened -- other story! I must be hard on shoes; or teachers do a lot of walking/standing. I'm not sure. :)}

I thought this would be a funny little story to tell my students, so I shared it with them. And one of them says, "I saw that your shoe was doing that." And another said, "Me, too." And I'm thinking, ummm, why didn't you tell me? 

Summer Vacation

Is anybody else like this? Every year, I try to have the perfect summer vacation. One year, I didn't do any school work for the whole month of June - I mean, none! Another year, I dedicated the last two weeks of June and the first two weeks of July to school stuff. I think that ended up being the whole month of July, but whatever. Last year, I did a two week professional development deal during June - that summer went by pretty quickly.

This year, I have another new plan. My idea is to spend one afternoon - a couple hours - once a week on school stuff. My thought is to not overwhelm myself, but to also do some thinking throughout the summer. I spent yesterday afternoon - I had planned an hour, that stretched to about 3 -- on looking at my new curriculum and getting some ideas on classroom management. 

I'm not sure this is perfect -- maybe there isn't such a thing. But I'm really hoping for a relaxing summer, where I can 1) catch up on all the things I didn't get to in the last 10 months; and 2) catch up on my sleep! My body still thinks it needs to wake up about 5am. Ummm, no thanks on that!

So, what are you doing this summer? 

Graduation Weekend

A couple weekends ago was graduation weekend here in my town....

*** Let me take a little space to say -- this was also College Girl's graduation. So darn proud of her. As her dad said, she did better than both of us, She went to the University of Kansas and they have a wonderful tradition where the graduates walk "down the Hill" and the spectators line the sidewalk and cheer them on. Her dad and I were standing there, waiting, waiting, waiting... and all of the sudden he said, "There she is!" I got a couple of nice pictures and she was off. {Kind of like in real life, if you know what I mean.} Anyway, back to the regularly schedule blog post....

So when we got home from College Girl's graduation, we got a bundle of newspapers from when we had been gone. One night, when I couldn't get to sleep, I started looking through them. 

And inside one of them, were pictures of all the graduates from our high school. Our newspaper is nice enough to do this. So I was looking through all those faces and names -- and all of the sudden, I thought, I know this one! I know her! And I realized these students that were graduating were my very first class. I started at semester, teaching 3rd grade. And here were those little babies. 

Some of them, I thought "hi you." And some, I thought "yay you!" or "good for you" and then I looked through our elementary school yearbook for that year, and realized some were missing, and wondered what happened to them.

And of course, like any teacher looking back at their first year, I wanted to apologize to those little 3rd graders - there was so much that I didn't know what I was doing. 

Do-Over

So, it's been awhile. There are cobwebs in the corners of this blog site. I've thought of different ways I wanted to start a post -- but haven't actually taken the time to type it out. 

I'm a little afraid -- afraid I'll post today, and then... not again. And if I make this start, I want to be more consistent. 

So here goes today: 

We've got 10 days of school left, and I want a do-over. 
This has definitely been the most challenging year I've had. I've had 3 that have challenged my thoughts on behavior management, and then 3 others that ran a close second on that. One boy, in particular, really affects the mood of the classroom. That's compounded by the fact that I have the largest class I've ever had. 

I've started most every morning thinking: I want to do better. I want to meet them where they are. I want to look for the positive. I want to give the grace that I'd like. 

And I come home thinking: argh - not the way I wanted. So frustrated. 

My do-over would involve me really taking time to get to know my students. I try - but I'm not as successful as I'd like to be. My do-over would have me asking "why" more - and hopefully have students think about the reason behind the behavior that makes it hard for me to teach, and students to learn. 

Well, I won't get a do-over. And I can't even say next year will be better. I'm changing positions and will only be teaching science next year -- it's a special in my district. The desire to have a do-over is fighting with my desire to try something new. I'm not sure how much I'll miss having my own little class of 23 or whatever. We shall see. 

3 Happy Things

So... I thought to myself, I want to be more consistent in blogging, because....
this may be the year, the year that I end up bald because I've torn out all my hair. 
This is the year that I told a teammate, "I was not sympathetic enough to you last year."
Because this year, my blogging friends, could be my worst year yet. Ack! 
And I definitely want to record it, so I can remind myself that if I can do this, I can do anything!

I got this for myself -- 

You can see, it's simply named: 3 Happy Things. I realized this morning, I need to get that out and record 3 Happy Things from school every day so I don't feel like things are a total mess. (And I hope I NEVER have to write as 1 of my happy things: 1 day closer to the end of the year LOL!)

So how is your school year going? Are things going well, or do you need to start a "3 Happy Things" book, also? :) 

Caring

So the other day, I wrote about my one little friend. 

Last weekend, I started thinking that maybe my most important job with my class this year is letting them know I care. 

I've got the one little friend. 
I've got a Limited English student, who didn't get picked up until after I left school at least 3 times last week. She was one who gave me a hug on the first day of school. 
I've got a student whose dad told me they thought about holding her back, but they were getting a divorce (last year) and thought she was doing better now. (Not so sure on that, dad.)
I've got another student whose parents are separated, and she's got 7 siblings -- probably lots of half brothers and sisters.
One little girl is so interested in her possessions -- not sure what's going on there.
I'm concerned enough about what one friend wrote in her writing sample, that I'm going to copy it and show the counselor. 
And these are just what I can remember off the top of my head after 2 weeks of school. 
Oh, Lord, I just want a big lot of Love to spread around to all these little children that you've placed in my care this year. 

I have a little friend

So I have a little friend....
Wait, haven't I started another post this way? Why, yes, yes, I have! 

This little friend didn't even give me a honeymoon -- he was up and running on the first day. He talks, talks, talks. And lets me know when he doesn't like my corrections. And I'll admit, I haven't been as consistent as I should be in trying to figure out what will work with this little guy. 

But Thursday, heading out after school, I vented to the wrong teacher. And when I said something about him talk, talk, talking, she said, "I just knew there would be conflicts. I thought you wouldn't be able to handle him." I'm sure what she said was just off the cuff, and didn't really mean exactly what she said, but....

First it made me sorta sad, like "really??" And then a little mad. And finally, I was driving home, saying out loud to myself, "NO! That isn't true!"

And after Friday, I'm sorta glad she said that {well, only in the way that it spurred me on!} - because Friday, I took time to bend down and really listen to this little guy {he really is little}. And even though I didn't believe everything he told me, or at least didn't think it was the whole truth, I think it helped that he knew I was actually "hearing" him. 

It will probably be a long year with this little guy. But I want to try to keep remembering that he's an individual. Well, I don't know... that sounds pretty smalshy.  But I want him to know I care about him. And that I'm going to keep on trying with him.  

Writing samples

So... woke up early on this beautiful, cool Saturday morning, and decided I'd get the yuck out of the way first --- grading baseline piece of writing. I got through it pretty quickly, and I'm glad I went ahead and did it because I got a few chuckles. 

Right in the middle of this piece: "I did a gasp. Then I said wow!!!"

And this one, "I pinched myself. Owch! Ouch! Nope I am not dreaming.

Another child wrote, "I am going on a hike. I forgot I was going home. I was like all men." Does this mean Amen? because he's so happy he remembered to go home?? Just using that, if that's what it's suppose to say, is certainly interesting word choice. 

One girl started hers with "There was a shooting star..." but it went downhill from there. 

Another student, one of my sweet ESL kiddos, said "we teleported to the fishing place." Wow! Love it!

Another ESL student added dialog! Whoo hoo. {No quotation marks, but I'm so happy about the dialog!!!}

One little friend added "zzzzz" for snoring. Ha, made me laugh!

I had another friend that used lots of colons. Pretty good for a 2nd grader -- except they are in the weirdest places: it jumped up and down and then: someone...

And I realize why some of my friends have a hard time spelling: "In din we wint..."  Translation: And then we went. Probably the way he actually talks, if I listened closely.

I'm overall happy with these -- and I was thinking -- I need to send the first grade teachers a happy note and let them know their work is appreciated!

Hope you feel appreciated today! 

First Day 2016

Well, we are back at it. We started in-services a week ago, and I had kids for a half day on Thursday; all day on Friday. 

One little friend was gone on Thursday, but present on Friday -- what a little talker. That makes such a big difference in the classroom. {It also seemed to encourage two other little friends to be blurters.} 

And so, I had to have a little talk -- with myself on the way home from school. I'm the one who sets the tone of our classroom, I'm the one who sets the environment. And worst of all, I'm the adult - argh! 

So, started this beautiful Saturday by sitting outside on my patio, just enjoy the birds talking, the stray cat visiting, a piece of pie for breakfast. And now I'm doing school work -- with a refreshed mind. Starting with a seating chart, then lesson plans, grouping students for centers, what did I miss in our first two days that I want to make sure I get to. 

And just a little side note -- mainly for myself. First impressions CAN often be wrong. Like the little friend who came to Open House with his dad and was being pretty squirrely -- nice boy, who does a great job following directions. The boy with long braided hair who is almost taller than me and has a stoic look on his face -- polite and respectful and helpful. The ESL student who is willing to give me a hug. So a reminder to myself to keep an open mind, and let those first impressions be counter when I really get to know my students. 

Project Achieve

So, first.... a little summer beauty --

My zinnias are blooming. They remind me of College Girl because we'll see a flower, and she'll say she likes it and then ask what it is. Almost always it's a zinnia!

And then there's this....

I did this for 2 weeks this summer. K-State, for the first time, offered a two week math professional development course here in my southwest corner of Kansas. 

And.... the bad was pretty bad. It was soooo cold at our high school where we did this -- I wore a sweater every day and long pants. And when we'd get done at 2:30 or 3, I'd drive home in complete bliss because my car was like a sauna and I could finally warm up. 

Also, we spent a little over an hour a day on math history. Gotta love the math geeks that were teaching us -- they loved what they were doing. However, my starting point is way down here {ok, just imagine me touch my knees} and their starting point is right here {here I'm touching my shoulders}. Do you see the problem? I never took calculus, so .... frustrating. I love when PD reminds you of what not to do in your own classroom. :) 

But the good --- oh, the good far outweighs the bad. We had a wonderful former professor who was so excited about sharing with us -- yes, yes, give us more! I got to collaborate with teachers from K - 6th grade; and collaborate with 4 other 2nd grade teachers from our district. The 5 of us broke down our math curriculum and looked at what we need to do to help 2nd graders become fluent in math. Oh! and fluent is defined as accurate, efficient, flexibly and appropriately. Not necessarily the tradition algorithm that I learned. And the wonderful former professor -- she's going to come observe my class at least twice. 

All this makes me very excited for August. 

My next year notebook

So I did this ---

Because I like fun little pretty things -- so my planning notebook is all that -- fun and little and pretty. Well, maybe not little. Anyway, I've got pages torn out of magazines, written notes, stuff I copied from the Internet, like from websites, Pinterest, and this one twitter chat I do {yikes - yes, I really do a twitter chat!!!} -- just all sorts of things. 24 pages of things. 

And then one day last week, yes, just one day, I got on my computer to sort through ideas I'd saved on there. That's good, that's good, oh that one is too. 

Are you getting the picture? 

I've got Too Many Ideas! 

Anybody else? I just want to try all these things. Because they all sound -- well, terrific. 

After a couple weeks, I'm going to have to start narrowing some of these down. But for right now, I'll just enjoy my pretty little notebook! :)

And just in case anyone is interested in my continuing saga of difficulties actually posting a post - this was hard, too! Couldn't get Dropbox to let me use my picture. 

Class Story on Dojo

So, we went to visit College Girl for the long weekend, and I went on a walk, stepped off a curb, and crashed! I landed sorta sideways, and my ankle swelled into a huge goose egg. (I never really knew how that term came about until now.) And I realized, in a funny sort of way, God was telling me, yes, take a little break here; catch your breath; relax on the couch for a while -- and since you won't do that on your own, I'll help you. 

I'm feeling much better and able to walk without a crutch, but I'm going to take the next couple days easy. It's given me a chance to watch some videos and etc. that I wouldn't have made time for otherwise. 

And, the biggie! This year I've used Class Dojo to connect with parents. The Class Story feature has been wonderful! I've taken pictures of things we are doing, or something the kids have done and shared it with parents. I have about 2/3 of my class connected, and about 10 parents that regularly check. Anyway, the biggie, I just posted a picture of me reading the newspaper -- and within 5 minutes, I had a message back from a parent telling me what their daughter is reading! Win-win!! 

So I hope to keep this up throughout the summer. Maybe it will help a couple students do some reading! Here's hoping!!

Being Called Mom

OK, first I have to say that I am not happy with Yahoo or Google or somebody who is making it very hard for me to get into my blog.  That's all I'm saying about that!

Second, school's out for summer! And I'm alternating between doing a happy dance, and yelling, "No! I'm not ready yet!"

Third, I have this little friend. Or should I say I had this little friend. He was an interesting character. Always yelling out -- and sometimes the most off-topic things. The biggest one that sticks out in my mind is when he yelled, "I pooped my pants!" Umm, thanks for sharing. {And NO, he had not pooped his pants!} 

Throughout the year, he would sometimes call me 'mom' and a couple times, he asked if I couldn't be his mom.  

The last two weeks, the behaviors were going through the roof, and though I'd made it pretty much through the year without getting too upset at him, the Friday before school was out, I had had it! 

I'm slow to catch on, but a weekend away helped me take a minute to reflect, and I was able to go back with a good attitude on Monday. And part of that was because I realized this little friend is going home to a chaotic house, where "mom" is grandma, and mom, who is around, isn't really a mom at all. Our classroom was mostly stable and consistent. And perhaps unconsciously, he was realizing what the end of the school year meant for him. 

One winter break, I read a blog post by some lovely person {whom I can't remember now} who said something like -- enjoy your break, but remember for some of our kiddos, break is tough; it's not relaxing, it's not necessarily fun. 

This really isn't much more than a reflection piece for me, because I really want to remember my little friend. I want to remember that I was {mostly} able to find a way to work with him. And I wish I could do that with all my kids.  

Phonics Posters

Oh my goodness! It's been so long since I've wrote a blog post, I had to move heaven and earth to get into my settings -- ok, really, I just had to try to remember my password. That's what makes getting a new hard drive so much fun!

If you can imagine, we only have 17 days of school left. No, I can't believe it either! 

I've got all sorts of things that I want to share with you -- I always think of them when I'm driving somewhere, or trying to go to sleep, or something like that. 

Anyway, we did these posters right before Parent Teacher Conferences. Always gotta have something pretty hanging in the hallway. 




Umm, yeah. The mind reading was not working that day. They could not see my vision - at all! Ok, maybe a few came close. 
My idea was to have groups take one phonics pattern we had recently studied and make a poster for it. I had hoped they would put our key word -- like for "ar" it's artist, and then write some other words that followed the pattern, and draw a couple nice pictures. Well, my AR kids came pretty close. Some of the others did, too. 

This reminds me yet again why it is so important to model, model, model what I am wanting. {Will they never learn? Yes, I mean me!} 

Happy Wednesday. I'm off this afternoon to get a filling. Really, as an adult, I should not be having that sort of problem!