A good week

I hope that I am not premature in calling this week at school good.  The behavior of my kids has improved I am happy to announce. Today was a bit rough and I was behind most of the day. I was constantly waiting for kids to stop talking so I could give directions either to the whole class or to the grade level that I am working with.  I had kids in at all recesses and some that chose not to come in! They don't realise that their choices affect the whole class and that when I have to shorten assignments or continually wait, I have to take their time after the school day.  I had kids who's bosses came looking for them after school today. Oh well, if the kids waste my teaching time and then I am going to "waste" their time after school or recess.  They had seven minutes owed to me today and I had to restart the timer about three minutes into the time because someone talked! BUMMER!!!  It takes everyone's efforts to work together and particularly in an environment like this, one person who is not putting in their best efforts affects the process. It's like an assembly line, if the person who inspects the item to standard doesn't check thoroughly every time, then less goods of poorer quality will be produced. 
I also gave out report cards for midterm grades.  Needless to say I once again had to give several of my students my standard lecture of " I don't GIVE you grades, like you are "GIVEN" presents. You have to earn them." Many of my students are convinced that I am grading them wrong or giving them poor grades because I don't like them. Ha...we all know that is about as far from the truth that you can get!  Once again, I am seeing a familiar theme with the kids of no not holding themselves accountable and blaming the situation on someone else.  Of course, when you put 14 students in one room with a teacher, it always becomes the teacher's fault!!!

Many of you are probably wondering what I do every day after school until 6pm (or, in today's case, 6:45pm). Well, here is a picture to give you an inkling of what I grade everyday after school. Sometimes the height of the pile varies depending on whether the students do work out of workbooks or text books (in which case they just turn in loose-leaf notebook paper. If it weren't for the wonderful help of my aid, the height of my pile would be double because of the daily workbooks the kids do for all the subjects.  Tomorrow is Friday...TGIF!! Then it's off to another adventure for the weekend!

Potpourri

It's been a few days since I have posted and I thought I would give you a sample of the art work that my kids did.  It turned out very well and I was stoked that their behavior during the art project allowed me to decide that I will do another one.  I am thinking that I will do something with Halloween next month. They don't actually celebrate Halloween but they do get candy and know about punpkins and such. They don't dress in costumes though.  This week has been a week of lows and highs. Monday was decent, Tuesday, I think my kids forgot their manners at home and didn't remember them until Wednesday morning.  They were so rude and mean that it drove me up the wall!!!  I don't think they realize that their cultural tendencies of shouting out and being opinionated are not something that I will accept as it.  I know that I cannot change the culture but there is a fine line of being boldy opinionated and being rude and mean at the same time.  I have almost all of my kids figured out now.  I know who the class clown is, I know which ones just want to please, I know which one is the most devious, I know which ones just want to come in, get their work done and get out. and, shockingly enough, I know which one hates me. This is actually most of them because of their preconceived notions about school and its unimportance. The attitude towards school and its purpose is by far the most challenging thing I am faced with this year. There is a constant struggle going on inside of me of how I want to teach and give them the knowledge. Part of me says that I should just give them the basics and let them slide though because of the society and culture they live but the other, more creative side of me says that I should teach to push them to be creative, less literal thinkers so they can contribute more to their society than just what is expected of them. I find that my kids tend to be minimalists-just doing what they need to pass.  I also am in a time crunch as well.  Getting a day of school taught for four grades in the normal school time is a lot harder than you think. Even though my setting is closer to an English elementary classroom, I have to run it like a high school classroom.  The morning is spent shifting from task to task with them constantly changing subjects.  On a good day I get reading, english and math taught before lunch (and yes, that is all four grades) with social studies in the afternoon.  I am working on them to be more creative writers so after I get the book clubs started I am going to do a unit on creative writing so the kids can understand how to make their own sentences, creatively without copying out of a book.  Currently, I am teaching the fifth and sixth graders how to write good beginnings to personal narratives.  The assignment yesterday was to write three beginnings and then make them better by describing the scene, adding descriptive detail or dialogue.  We did an entire lesson on it and then here's what I got.  student:  (1st) I didn't know the lights went out. (2nd) I was in the living room when the lights went out.  Mmmmmmmmmm....though they can pick out of the examples in the text book which beginning is better, they can't apply the concept. They don't see why it would need to be improved because it's written down and it's there.  This is where their lack of educational value really shows through. I have learned that having them redo an assignment or giving them a zero is a very effective way to get them to understand the importance of doing their work well the first time.  I spent a lot of time at the beginning of the school year talking about what quality work means. I use that phrase so they understand the expectations are higher than doing the minimum to pass.  Yesterday was midterms and I will be sending home grade reports.  There are going to be some shocked students and parents to know that the grades are suffereing because of a nonchalant attitude towards turning in stuff on time (no late work in my room). I will be sending them home on Wednesday. I just spent last night and this morning in the town school updating my grades so they would be ready to do report cards. 
Yesterday, we had the birthday celebrations for the kids who have August and September birthdays.  It's very creative and organized how it is done. The birthday kids get to pick out a type of drink and snack we bring a sweet treat of some kind. Then for the last 45 minutes of the day on Friday, we sing happy birthday to each student individually, clap for their birthday "spankings" and then hand out treats.  Then they get to sit and socialize until we have decided that there is entirely too much sugar energy in the rooms and we send them home!  Good teacher plan...give kids lots of sugar and then send them home. Yesterday the drink of choice was Mt. Dew......

This is looking east on Highway 12 yesterday morning....

I am driving out to the colony on Highway 300-looking east.

Art!! This is oil pastel on black paper.

This is a fifth grader.

This is a 6th grader

This is an 8th grader

Looking east again on Highway 12. That little green sign is the gas station in town and the grocery store.

Lemon Bars!

Okay, I know this has nothing to do with school but I made Lemon Bars tonight! I haven't tasted them yet because they are still too warm to cut without them turning all into mush on the plate.  Though this is an entirely delectable way to eat them it is much more fun to cut them into little squares and eat many of them!  Enjoy!!!

Tomorrow is the first five school day week that we have had in a while.  It will be interesting to see how the kids deal with having to go to school for a full week.  It is a good thing that Fridays are early release and I can use that time to finish up any last minute planning I have, grade papers and take down my classroom for the weekend.  Each week, on Fridays, I have to clean off the top of my desk, put away and lock the teacher manuals (the kids will come in and copy them) and lock anything up that I don't want taken.  They clean the desks and the floor every weekend and at Christmas, they clean the walls and the ceiling, too. I am looking forward to a good week at school with students being successful at their work and behavior.  I will hand back their essays tomorrow and try an art project too!!  This is the art project I was going to do on Friday but didn't get a chance to prepare for.  I spent yesterday cutting out leaf patters for the project.  I hope they like it and take it seriously because I want to put their artwork on a bulletin board in the room so I can have a fall bulletin board.  Yay!!

Little to none

I have managed to teach for two days with almost no voice.  I went to the doc on Monday and he was no help.  He told me there was nothing wrong with me. I went to the doc today who promptly told me I have a sinus infection and gave me the Z-Pack. Awesome doc. Then it was a marathon drive back to school to do some ever quick grading at the minimum.  There is always stuff to do around the classroom. My classroom very much parallels my house. There is a list of never ending projects to do and I usually don't get all of them done in a timely manner.  I however, have gotten into enough of a routine to be out of the school by six pm or so and occasionally back to the town school to enter grades in to the computer. We are still working on the discipline issues of kids not actually believing that I am serious and expect them to behave and be respectful. They keep telling me not to be grumpy and would like me to laugh some more and I would love to laugh some more and not be "grumpy."  But, their behavior tells me that I can't be easygoing and silly yet. It's always easier to be grumpy and mean before fun and silly right? (That's rhetorical) I want to get to that point and I do find that there are little bits of time during the day that I get to be just plain old me and not have to always be the stern grumpy teacher. Like tonight when the Reverend stopped by to give someone a tour.  The days seem to be getting better with more and more plusses than minuses.  I think I will try art on Friday. A nice fall art project is im my mind right now. Of course I didn't think it up, I did it one day subbing at View Ridge....thanks View Ridge! I hope my kids will love it.  I like doing simple art activities. Hopefully giving them this small dose of fun will help their behavior. We'll see. They're doing okay on their english assignments this week.  I would have like to have seen more effort but in the end I think they will improve. I've seen some creative edits and revisions already. Well, maybe a more exciting post will appear next time. There was not much to talk about and no crazy stories.

Days go by...

It is days like today that I live for in the teaching world.  These are the days when your kids actually "get it" and realize that school can be fun when they are not having the endure the wraths of punnishment all day!! Yesterday was not a smooth running day.  No way, at all.  It was a constant battle to get the kids to behave.  By the end of the day, all students had produced an essay on what the word respect means in our classroom (one to one and half pages handwritten-remember there are no computers here) and an apology letter to the other teacher for taking up her valuable planning time. Many of my kids chose not to act like the ages they were and I send them to the little kid room to teach them how to behave! If they are going to act like kindergarteners, I am going to put them in a kindergartener desk!! Oh, and beyond having to write an apology letter to the other teacher, I made them stay after school and one by one all deliver it.  They wasted so much of my time yesterday that I decided to waste theirs.  Many of my students have chores to do and I knew that the parents would come looking if I kept them long enough.  I am proud to say that all but one of my kids went in and aplogized properly.  One had to try it twice and one's apology letter was a bit pretencious and artifical. ( I really wanted to use the word phoececious there but I have absolutely no idea how to spell it and my dictionary is at school) I have made copies of everything and have them in files.  Little do they know that I am going to use their essays on respect next week for an english lesson because they need help on the 6 traits!! I know, that is very teachery of me to tie in a discipline item to a lesson the next week to follow up on.  Very sneaky of me but very standards based and educational.
I am proud to say that my kids kept almost all of their recess time today and were able to enjoy it!  I had to call one dad to ask him to come and babysit his child who couldn't remember that slamming their hand on a desk to "catch a fly" is not appropriate behavior.  The flys are annoying for sure but they are a part of the farm.  If there are cows, chickens and hogs on a farm, there are surley going to be flies.  I just had a random thought about my sentence related to my English that I have been teaching for the past week.  Bizarre.  Anyway, this is the same behavior that this student was kicked out of my class yesterday for. They also got to go sit in the kindergarten chair. However, they shaped up their attitude and were one of the better students in the afternoon.  I love when parents come and chastize their children and then it makes a difference.  I have a lot of parental support for the discipline I impliment onto their children. It's wonderful. 
YAY FOR GREAT DAYS!!! I always prefer to have these kind of days. I am more productive and less tired at the end of the day.

Strategic Planning

I didn't know that part of my job description would be detective.  It wasn't on the contract. It's a good thing that I have a great partner who will do most of the grunt work for me.  Haha.....It's a good thing that I can learn something new each day though so that there are more positive things to focus on than negative.  Today I learned that it is not a good idea to wear a scarf because the kids will pull on it and ask you if they can have it.  No, I tell them. I am English and the things that I wear belong to me and me alone.  I also learned that the kids don't actually know how to use a stapler and then return it to where it belongs.  They misused the tape last week that I had set out for them so they lost the privilage of that and today they lost the use of their stapler.  I knew the kids were just stapling paper to staple so every time a student asked to use it I would hand them a small section of staples and then let them use it.  That way if they took the staples out I wouldn't be losing a bunch, just a few. Today, however, one of my students decided to staple the bulletin board that I had made just because she thought she could.  Bah! I'll show her who's boss!!!  Mmmm...what else did I learn today. Oh yes!!! Making kids take a handwritten note home to their parents is very effective form of communication.  I had two parents come and talk to me tonight.  Then, as I was leaving (finally) the reverend on the colony invited me over for coffee and chat. He's a very chatty guy and I didn't leave until 830!!! I am glad to have finally met him but I need to remember next time to do it sooner than later so I am not up so late.  I am tempted to do some more work now but I am zonked from the long day.  The kids keep doing things that I am not going to notice like copying down answers from the teacher's edition.  Seriously, do they think that I am not going to notice it when they get perfect answers when I know that they rarely get 100% because they can't listen to directions because they are too busy telling me, "BUT I CAN'T DO IT!" in their whinyest voice.  However, I have counter measures that will be taken tomorrow! The other teacher and I have figured out a plan and talked about the things that are working and what are the biggest culprets of time wasters.  The biggest one is "Can I go to the bathroom, it's an emergency." I obviously know that the majority of the time there is truly no emergency and I tell them know and if they really, really have to go they will usually come up to me in a quiet voice and say, "I've really got to go. Can I please go?" I usually relent.  So!! As of tomorrow they are not longer allowed to go to the bathroom on my time! They can go during recess, lunch or afternoon snack break.  I am tired of kids sneaking out and putting candy and gum in their mouth.  I then get complained to that I am wasting theyr candy. Well, if they wouldn't chew or eat it in the first place when they know they are not supposed to, then I wouldn't have to ask them to spit it out!!  Duh! Not sure they get it yet. I will just continue to search their pockets and have them empty them out as they enter the room.  I am hoping that they get annoyed with having to empty their pockets each time they enter the classroom and stop bringing it in.  Time will tell on this one.  More adventures tomorrow. Signing off for now...

It's working.....It's really working!

I had another successful day in the classroom today! It's a miracle...no not really, it's due to my supurb determination to win this bunch of kids over by my sheer niceness and determination to make this work.  I had my first case of cheating today....not fun but hopefully resolved.  It was during this resolution that the other teacher was in my classroom working with my kids and I later learned that my hard work of repetative behavior practicing was paying off!! **Insert Halleluja Chorus here**  The kids knew just what to do during read aloud and also while working on their journals.  This even earned me a hi-five from the other teacher.  It still makes me smile to think that I actually know what I am doing and all those years of subbing and putting up with the mostly wonderful students is paying off.  I am learning that I am much more patient than the other teacher but my kids are slowly getting the hang of my expectations.  The raising the hand thing still is a hard one for them along with the smirky faces I get after they know they've been naughty.  The great desk shuffle was also a success today.  I got a few complaints about who they had to sit next too, but it was less than five.  I think that's awesome.  I purposely separated a couple of students and that is challenging in a tiny room with 14 students.  I did it though, and there is a bit more shuffling around as kids are working on some of their work, it is an organized shuffle.  Organized shuffle might sound like an oxymoron but it is not.  Not in the teaching world at least.  It was a great day today.  AND, it was topped off by an invite to go to Yellowstone Park this weekend!!! YAY!!!! I am super excited because I have not been there since I was 12 and I don't remember much except we watched Old Faithful errupt some rediculous amount of times, like 10 or something.  Signing off for now...