A week in review

Last week went by so quickly.  I love having Mondays off.  The government should include Monday in the weekend.  People would be less stressed and much happier! 

Lets see...I taught several lessons.  All of them went fairly well.  Once you're done you always think of something you could have done better- its inevitable. 

I created a door display for the class.  'Mrs. Cade's Class Is Sweet on TAKS" All the students got a heart.  The heart had their picture on it and they had to write their TAKS goal on the heart. I know I know...I'm so clever.   :)

Thursday, I, as well as the other teachers, got to break up a fight between two fourth-grade boys.  Why on earth they were fighting? - we have no clue! Their punishment was school suspension for 2 days...not nearly hard enough...these boys seem to be in trouble all the time! Mrs. Cade surprised me by bringing in two Diet Cokes from the coke machine in the afternoon - Absolutely made my day! I needed it after the recess commotion. 

The best part of my  Thursday..... Jacob told me he loved me.  Sorry for getting mushy on ya pop - but it was the best part of my day. Dont worry- I'll always be your little girl no matter what.  Promise! Couldn't ask for a better set of parents.  

Friday - best part of the week- the PTO catered lunch for all the teachers.  They do this once every 6 weeks.  It was soups - chili, chicken noodle, taco sup, beef stew - all scrumptious.  I tried basically all of them...I had to!  They also brought sweet tea with the good sonic ice and a plethora of desserts to choose from.  We were like a bunch of hippos after...so full! It was a much needed treat! Later that afternoon we had an ice cream party for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students for doing so well on their practice TAKS test.  

I spent the weekend relaxing.  Slept till lunch everyday and took naps in the afternoon. Very very very very lazy.  Loving every minute of it.  But if it helps - I did grade papers in between sleeping periods :)   

I only have two weeks left before my Full Responsibility starts...Yikes! Im starting to get very nervous! I also have to begin studying for my ESL test...especially since I didnt pass it the first time...by one question! :( 

Raiders, Magnolias, & Holes

Today began just as a Monday would....except it was Tuesday.  It was one of those days where as much as you try do what your suppose to do.... that's just not going to happen.  

The first lesson of the day was on Hooks & Grabbers in writing.  We are trying to teach our students to create a hook at the beginning of their stories to draw the reader in.  To do so, we got to show 2 min clips (the law only lets us show 2 min)  of Raiders of The Lost Ark, Steel Magnolias, and Holes.  My favorite of course was Raiders of the Lost Ark, but all the kiddos liked Holes (it's Disney!)......You should have seen their expression when we played Steel Magnolias.  It's safe to assume they would never read the book.....they all thought the beginning pretty much sucked.  hahaha 

Our lesson this morning was interrupted by the inauguration.  The entire school watched it for a good hour.  Obama was the first president I have ever witnessed being sworn in.  The whole time I just kept thinking....please dont get shot in front of all these people! Aretha Franklin performed, as well as an amazing concerto.  Sassy Franklin wore a hat with a HUGE bow on it...the kids found it quite amusing.  

Lunch flew by, as well as recess.  The afternoon was interrupted by an assembly in the cafeteria. Fundraiser time! It's for cookie dough, and I, of course, have already been asked to buy some.  These kids dont waste time when it comes to prizes.  I told one little girl I would buy some for her....but that's it! I don't need any cookie dough anyways! 

I finally got my trips to the gym going again...it only took 5 months???  Luckily, I have Ms. Amber Storm there with me now. It's  much more motivating! 

Tomorrow I will be teaching 3 lessons - reading, writing, and science.  All of which are very time consuming and hectic! I will also get all next weeks lesson assignmnets.  That means I will be sending the next 5 nights typing them up.  Byebye lazy relaxing evenings! 

 

Spencer's 10th Birthday

The birthday boy! He turned 10 on Friday. His mom brought the BEST cupcakes for the class! 

    Kiddos being silly: Jessica, Catherine, Caleb, Zariyah, & D'Stinee 

  Sweet sweet girls. Shannon and Amanda. They sit at my table!

 Cupcakes were a hit! : Nick, William, Zachary, Curtis, & Nathan

Nathan acting goofy. For some reason, it was the thing to do.

Goofy picture - Go!     D'Stinee, Jennifer, Ashley, and Allison

My girls ~    Rachel, Catherine, Zariyah, and Kenlee 

The magnificent Caleb! 

They enjoyed smearing icing all over their faces for the pictures!

Jessica, Taylor, Lilia, & Ross 

TAKS DAY

TAKS RELEASE DAY.  Poor kiddos were stuck in chairs ALL day long working on a practice writing TAKS test.  For the most part they did good though.  Mrs. Cade and I worked on grading some of the writing. It’s really a difficult thing to do. You become biased. Tomorrow all three 4^th grade teachers and 3 student teachers are meeting to grade them.  Then we will get a score from that.

 I spent the majority of the day in our pod (a small room that connects to all four rooms, basically in the center).  One of our students needs modifications, particularly reading aloud. So, he and I sat in there. He read aloud and did his test, and I worked on lesson plans.  Really today was a blessing in disguise.  I needed time to work on lessons.  Got stuff done finally!

 Mrs. Cade and I made a deal with the kids. A rather large deal.  If ALL the students pass the test :

 1.      Mrs. Cade and I will let the kids spray our hair with fun colors

2.      Kelsi, Mrs. Cade’s daughter, will visit. They all love her.

3.      Kelsi’s boyfriend, a gymnast, will do a flip for every 4 scored on the writing part of the test. (4 is the highest you can get – ranges 0-4)

4.      Mrs. Cade will do a cartwheel for every 4 scored

5.      I will put my legs behind my head for every 4 scored

 Well, for this test not everyone passed.  Mrs. Cade and I don’t have to deal with the hair spray YET. If they all pass the real one – we will! … But this is already a 4 and I have a feeling there will be a couple more. I need to start stretching so I don’t break my legs off. Definitely should not have agreed to that condition, but they wanted it. Any incentive we can give them to do well is worth it. Of course, there were the few today that really didn’t care at all (the few that SHOULD care) and basically finished in a matter of minutes.

 We did have a few good papers though.  Some of our students, if they would practice their skills, could become great writers. The prompt was: Write a composition about your favorite adventure.  The boys loved it…girls not so much.  One boy, I hate to say it – but my favorite – wrote about his day in the woods and this hidden trail he found. He described part of his adventure (where he came to some water) like this: The water sparkled like diamonds.  There was a large stick in the water. I walked on it like I would on a rope at a carnival. ………..Pretty great. 

 At recess, we had a mini-drama situation.  The little clique of girls – mean ones- started on the uni-brow kick.  They started making fun of anyone they could.  The tall girl in my class became the butt of their jokes today.  Poor thing.  She doesn’t break easily.  Never gets upset or cries.  Today…they broke her. She was so upset.  The girls kept making fun of her. We didn’t notice until we saw her against the building crying.  The funny thing is – She is probably the prettiest girl in the 4^th grade and she DOESN’T even have a uni-brow.  Mrs. Cade and I told her she was way to pretty to be getting upset and those girls were just jealous.  Watching her sit there though made me teary eyed. I really hated seeing her like that- letting those girls get to her- her self esteem basically plummeting. Poor baby.

 The day went by quickly…real quick.   Tomorrow is Friday. I can’t wait to be home. Time to REST!!! 

Science Lesson - Yes Mom, I know my hair looks great!

I'll teach monkeys to swim!

            Today I taught two lessons, both of which I wrote.  The first went off without a glitch. The students got to work in groups, brainstorm ideas for writing prompts, combine all their ideas on a large piece of poster, and present them to the class.  Some of their ideas were off the wall.  One prompt they had to brainstorm was: If you were an animal trainer, what would you teach your animal to do?  Answers were all over the place – Monkeys to swim and dance, Horses to do flips, Cats to do the worm, etc.  I think they really enjoyed it.  I know I did. Mrs. Cade said I did great, looked like a pro! J

             This afternoon I taught a social studies lesson.  My supervisor was there to grade me. While I was nervous, I knew the lesson would be fairly easy to conduct.  As I sat on the couch at the back of the classroom, the students gathered on the floor to listen to me read the chapter aloud.  After, I handed out a crossword puzzle for them to complete.  My supervisor gave me a good review. Her only critique was my voice.  Now either I was just nervous or she just isn’t used to my Minnie Mouse voice, because normally I feel like I am too loud. Mrs. Cade has never mentioned my voice being too soft. 

             My stress level has diminished a bit.  I might not have a life every evening for the next few months, but I’ll be okay….Hmm.  I just need to be ahead….I simply must know exactly what I am doing the following week so I can prepare.  If everything flows that way I will be fine.      

             Tomorrow I will be teaching, rather conducting, a science investigation.  Hopefully the kiddos can calm themselves…..they hear the word experiment and chatting immediately proceeds.  

Did you do something different to your hair?

          BLITZ started back up today. It's a TAKS intervention program the school uses for all grade levels.  We have it every morning in either language arts or math.  I'm not the biggest fan of it....I'd rather use that time to write in journals.  In the past I’ve never witnessed teachers use them much, but Mrs. Cade does.  It's just hard to find time to fit them in.  Something I plan on doing though! I enjoy hearing the kiddos stories.  Last week they wrote on someone who has influenced their life.  One of the little girls wrote about her dad.  She didn't meet him until she was eight - Her mom never told her about him.  Broke my heart to hear that! She was funny though.....she mentioned getting off the plane and seeing a man stand there with a "white girl" and wasn’t sure she had the right person.  Poor thing...I can't imagine going through an experience like that. How nervous and frightened she must have been! 

             Mondays are always crazy.  Mrs. Cade stayed at school till 9 last week cleaning up the back counter so I would have a space of my own :) She’s so sweet.  I love to watch her with the kids, especially when she’s disciplining them.  She uses a serious face to correct their behavior and moments later the sweetest smile breaks across her face.  The “I love you, but you’re getting on my last nerve grin.”  She’s good at it!

             My day went sour at 9:20 a.m. Mrs. I Don’t Know What I’m Doing (my supervisor) was on campus to watch Lauren teach.  She lost my schedule…. It was in a mess of papers.  Aren’t teachers expected to be a highly organized species? She is the definition of scatterbrained.  I found out at lunch she decided to do a little switch-a-roo on our lesson plan requirements.  Instead of writing ten LONG lessons in the next four weeks, I now have to write twenty-five.  TWENTY-FIVE! I about had a heart-attack.  Anger built up….stress set in….tears were on the verge of falling.   I was even more aggravated that she failed to notify me of the change…she only told the other two fourth grade student teachers.  I asked mom if it would be alright if I strangled her….. Unfortunately, I don’t imagine it is. 

           Trying to concentrate on school throughout the day was impossible.  I was constantly wondering where Jacob was.  Is he flying? Has he landed? Wonder what he’s doing? Wonder if he misses me as much as I miss him? …… It’s going to be a long eight weeks…..BUT I managed to pull myself out of my sparkly pink bubble world.  I taught a science lesson this afternoon – Natural weather events.  The kiddos worked together at their tables to illustrate a natural weather event and then presented it to the class.  It went over well and Mrs. Cade said I did a great job J ….. Always nice to hear.  In a few weeks I know she will have a difficult time critiquing me.   She hates to hurt people’s feelings just like me. 

 I came home and sat in bed working on lesson plans till 8. …Still not done.  So this is the life of a teacher? Hmm…..great.  Who said being an adult was fun? I would like to strangle them too. 

 Spencer, a sweetheart who tends to stutter and forget homework often but is very intelligent, asked me this afternoon, “Ms. Rhodes….Did you do something different to your hair (waving his hand in a motion around his head)? I had worn my bangs down today….mainly because I didn’t feel like washing my hair last night and I knew it would still be pretty today.  “It looks different….it looks nice,” he said.  I smiled and told him I just wore it differently today. That was all.  Mrs. Cade broke out into a snicker when he said it looked nice…..it was completely random, but adorable!  See mom……men do notice when you change your hair! Haha