Day 32 - Open House!

 I'm not sure if I should start with the good news or bad news of the day, so maybe I'll just start with the bad because so much of the day was great!
Well, one of my students stole from my classroom today. It made me so furious and I know that it's going to sit with me for a while. This student tends to lurk around the classroom as I walk the other students out to the gate when school is out. Then I walk students to the office when their parents don't come to pick them up and this other student will often times be near the classroom. Today, she claimed to need to use the restroom, but looked suspicious. A few minutes later, a teacher from the after school program called me to ask if I had given this student cookies. So, I checked my grocery bag and sure enough, she didn't steal just one box of cookies, but two.
I brought these cookies because tomorrow is my birthday and I promised the students that I would celebrate with them and bring treats. The student that took them, didn't even know they were in there and she didn't take the muffins that were on the top of the bag, telling me that she went through stuff, didn't just take the first thing and to top it off, when I got more of the story, she had taken one box and then told the teacher that she forgot something in the classroom and ran back and took the second box.
Long story short, I called her mom and she is dealing with her tonight, but I am still so pissed. How dare a student take something from me when I would never do that to anyone!
So, now that I've gotten that off my chest, here comes the good news.
Tonight was Open House. I pushed the kids so much last week to get work done and I was so happy with how the room looked. I took a few pictures, but it only gives you a small idea of how everything looked.
The parents arrived a little before 5:30 and it was so neat to see the students taking their parents around the room and showing them all the work that they had done.

Here is a picture of some of the sunflowers that we did. I actually measured the students' height and put their picture in the middle. On the leaf above, they wrote a sentence or two to describe what they looked like.

This is our bulletin board from Earth Day! Which I am so proud of.

One of the things that really touched me was that a student walked around the room with so much excitement and later came back to me to say that he is getting better at reading. It was neat to see him so proud of himself and it made me so happy to hear that he can feel a difference.

So many students were filled with excitement as they showed their parents where they sit, the work that they've finished, and where other students sit. A few parents told me that the room looked beautiful, which just felt wonderful.

We re-created Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" with pastels. As you can see, some are very abstract.
 





All in all, I feel really good about the work that I'm doing. And even though there are some things and students whose actions are really bothering me, I'm focusing on the positive and on the students who I know I can make a difference with!

Day 28 - Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!
It's been a crazy, long, tiresome week. I'm not sure if it's the weather or the fact that Open House is next week or that the kids already sense that the end of the year is almost here, but they were crazy this week.
I found myself in a bad mood and frustrated with their lack of motivation and their lack of ability to follow directions, but I decided that I needed to find something during the day that made me smile and made me proud.
It's so easy to focus on what's wrong and which students are driving me crazy, but it's more important to focus on what's right.
I had a moment of peace yesterday that I really appreciated. The wind was going crazy outside as the kids had their lunch recess. Two students had come in to the classroom, while recess was still going on, saying that they saw a "twister." Of course, one of them was "E" as student that I've mentioned before and one that always brings a smile to my face. The students went back outside and I could catch a glimpse of them as I made copies in the copy room. They were spinning around near where they saw the "twister" and pretending to get pushed around by it. I'm smiling again just thinking about it. I wish as adults, we could let our imaginations take off and enjoy simple moments like that.
Today, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed again and found it really hard to start my day. I do my best not to take my moods out on the kids and I tell myself to focus on the positive. Well, positive it turned out to be.
Yesterday 13 students (more than half) didn't bring all of their homework, but today EVERYONE brought it. I guess the lecturing eventually got to them. Even though I still felt in a bad mood, I did my best to tell them how proud I was of them and that I hoped that every morning they would do their work quietly and have their homework ready.

Most of the day was our usual routine, but we had the last portion of our Language Art's OCR test to take. There's a comprehension section, spelling, word reading, writing, and fluency. I saved the hardest part for last, writing. I prepped them for the assignment briefly and then they were on their own.
Most of them wrote for about 30 minutes and only three really "gave up" and didn't completely finish. I stopped them after an hour, but I have to say that my class has NEVER been that quiet for that long. I guess we should do writing "tests" more often.

Since it was Earth day, I wanted to take the time to celebrate and do a little science and social studies. There are so many great resources online. I really like edhelper.com, but there are other great sites as well. I printed out a booklet about the three R's for them and we read it as a class. They took it home to share with their families. Also, I found a great bulletin board idea, which was handy because I wanted more decoration for the room for Open House. We came up with two lists, as a class. One listed the things that are precious on the Earth and the other list was ways that we could help the Earth. They were so into contributing that I actually had to stop them so that we could go to lunch.
When we came back from lunch, I didn't read them a story and we didn't do math right away. We continued our project about the Earth. Each student received a picture of a flower and a leaf. On the flower petals they wrote precious things about the Earth and on the leaf they wrote how they would help the Earth. They worked so well that I almost didn't want to stop them and start math, but I needed to so that they could do their math homework tonight.
Changing the schedule today helped us, being more flexible and complimentary made the day go by smoothly, and when we started our math lesson, we were able to move very quickly because everyone was engaged. What a great day in what has otherwise been a really rough week!
Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday!!!!

Day 26 - Is it the weekend yet?

So just as I'm thinking that everything is going so smoothly in my class and students are making progress, they have to regress. My behavior problems are back to their old antics, my students who were struggling are back to cheating and guessing and NOT doing their homework and the listening skills have gone down the tubes. Maybe it was a case of the Tuesdays? Maybe the 45 minutes of rain threw them off. Who knows? All I know is that I am super disappointed and very frustrated.
It's very ironic, though, that after long, frustrating days, I'm ready to plan more exciting activities and I'm willing to stay late at school.
I guess that I was inspired by another teacher's classroom. She had student work covering every wall and with open house coming up in a week, I suddenly started panicking. I really don't have to stress too much, though. I only came into the classroom about a month ago. I spent the first two or three weeks cleaning out the junk and I spend so much time catching the students up on work that was missed for the first 4 or 5 months of school, that there isn't a lot of time for art or extra work beyond math and reading and writing. Even writing takes forever to finish. Hopefully tomorrow we will be done with our writing assignments and will finish our art projects (recreating Van Gough's sunflowers).

I'm a perfectionist and I know what these kids are capable of, so it's just frustrating to see them falling short or losing motivation. I can only hope to start fresh tomorrow and that it will be a better day!

Day 22 - A Trip to the Zoo

What a great day!

The kids have been so excited about our field trip since they found out about it a week ago. You never know how a class will behave on a field trip, but I was really proud of how well they did.

They sat on the bus nicely, with a few reminders to keep their feet in front of them. Plus, for the first time in my life, we were on a bus with seat belts, which helped to keep them in their seats. A few kids actually fell asleep on our way to the zoo and one student kept asking me over and over again if we were there yet. Classic!

We arrived at the zoo with a few parents in toe, who had followed the bus. I had two aides with me, so there was more than enough adult supervision. I instilled the partner system before we even left the school and so it was really easy to keep track of the students.

We had a lot of animals to see and only two hours to do it in. I pretty much stuck to the map and what worked for me and seemed to work for the class and the other first grade class that was following us was to see the animal(s), watch for a minute or two, and then line up again to see the next animal. My idea was to keep the students moving, but not leave anyone behind. So basically we would all line up at the fence or glass wait for a minute and then I would ask everyone to line up next to their partner.

Both my aides complimented me on my tour guide skills. :)
I was so happy that my students responded to my voice and directions so well.
It was nice to see most of the animals out, but many animals seemed sickly or lethargic and the weather couldn't have been any better. The sun was out (enough to give me a slight sunburn) and the air was cool, but not cold.

We did a lot of walking, up hill, down hill, around corners, over bridges, and as we seemed to get to the last of the animals that we wanted to see, we started to make our way back to the exit to meet the bus. We had about 15 minutes left before the bus was picking us up and then I realized that the path that we were going to take back was closed and we pretty much had to walk all the way back, the same way that we had come. I can't say how proud of my students, I am. So many were starving (I just don't understand why parents don't feed their kids breakfast) and so many were ready to sit down and rest. We walked as fast as we could and made it to the exit just five minutes late. Whew!!!

We boarded the bus for a short ride to the park to eat lunch. Lunch was nice and then before you knew it, it was time to get back on the bus and go back to school.

I love the bus ride back to school after a field trip. The students are super tired and the excitement has finally worn off. The bus gets quiet as students fall asleep. I just love it and feel this sense of relaxation and accomplishment.

We got back to school, I handed out popsicles, and we watched a movie. It was a great end to a great day.

Some highlights along the way:
- A student who often annoys me in class with his talking out of turn sat near me on the bus and we had some great conversations. He told me that I'm a good teacher and that he has a lot of fun in class. He also asked if I would miss the class when the year was over and if I would cry. It was so sincere and honest and it's the most maturity that I've seen from him.
- On our bus ride to the zoo, a few students decided to play a game called, "making patterns." They took turns saying patterns to each other. It melted my heart.
- On the way back to school a couple students were practicing their counting.

I just love how inspired the students suddenly seem to be. I'm so proud of them and how far we've come in the 22 days we've been together. I wish that we had more than two months left together.
I wish that everyone could experience the passion that I feel about teaching.

Day 18 - Inspiration!

Day 17 was actually my day of inspiration and rewards, but today was pretty good too!

The school that I am working at has been more than welcoming and they continue to "wow" me with how much they are supporting me and really supporting their students.

I have seen so much growth in just the small time that I've been with these kids. It truly inspires me and keeps me wanting to teach.


Yesterday started out just like any other; however, the students seem to be working more quietly these days and doing a better job of following directions. It makes my life so much easier and it allows us to learn more during the day.

The kids were so excited because I had promised them that we would plant sunflowers that day. One of my teacher's aides took the students two by two to plant their seeds. It was so neat to see them smile and a few mentioned that they had never planted anything before. All day the kids kept asking me if their sunflowers had grown yet! It was so cute. I told them that it would take at least a week, so hopefully all goes well and the sunflowers begin to grow.

After lunch, I read them a story and then it's math time. I had looked at the quarter test that I have to give them next week and realized that they really only knew half of the material. So, how could I possibly teach them everything they needed to know and stay on track with our daily math? Well, luckily I had two aides in the classroom and created 4 different groups based on ability. I gave each group a cute animal name so that the students would always remember what group they were in and get a little excited about it.

Our math lesson on patterns went well, so I explained how the groups would work. I started out with my highest group working independently on their desk with a packet of math practice. I took a group to teach them about the "tens" and "ones" place, another group learned about time, and the other group worked with flash cards to get better at adding and subtracting. We had about 20 minutes of group time and my group was so attentive and so motivated. I started simple and then gradually asked them to work harder. Eventually, I used a white board to draw examples of how we see "tens" and "ones" in every day life. It took a while for the students to see how to count everything up, but they never gave up. One student said that she was having so much fun. As soon as one student figured it out, the rest of the group wanted to keep trying until they understood it also. My heart was so warm and I felt that it was truly what teaching was all about.

I was on a natural high at the end of the day and went gushing to the principal about how great it was to have to aides and that I had created learning groups that were working really well. Apparently, I won't always have the two aides, I'll go back to just having the one next week. I guess I was getting a bit spoiled, but it made me realize that with three adults in the room, every child could have access to learning.

Today was also a good day, but yesterday will really stand out as a very proud moment in my teaching career!

Back to Work!

It's amazing what the promise of a doughnut will do. I knew that not everyone would bring their Spring Break homework back for a doughnut, but I was surprised by who really did. There were a few kids who were a given. They always turn in homework and are my overachievers, but the other students who brought back the completed work were some of my lowest students, who needed the extra practice the most. They were so cute with their doughnuts. One student took care of his all day, so that he could take it home to share with his mom and brother.

One of my students "E" says the cutest things and I wish that I could remember half of them. Part of it is in his delivery and the expressions on his face. Today at recess one of my students brought her cousin around to introduce him to me. "E" was in the class and immediately walked over and said, "Hi, I'm "E" it's nice to meet you." It just warms my heart, especially because so many of my students have learned English all on their own. Most of their parents only speak Spanish, so it's amazing that they are as fluent as they are. I'm sure that "E" saw someone on T.V. introduce themselves to someone, but it was just so confident and formal and I loved it.

Today almost felt like the first day of school. We were only on break for 9 days, but it felt longer. I felt a little rusty before the day began, but as the students trickled into the classroom, it all came back. They were on great behavior today and I really enjoy being their teacher.

"E" said to me this afternoon that he was getting smarter. I agreed and told him that I'm proud of how hard he has been working. Another struggling student walked up for me to correct her work and "E" noticed that she got all of them right. He immediately said, "She is getting smarter too!" Whatever I am doing is working and if I reach just these two students, I've done something!!!