Serafina's Corner of the World

So, a couple months ago, I got really into imagining my classroom when I get back to it. I decided that I would really like a princessy-girly room done in lavender and white with pictures of Disneyland everywhere. I even put that up in my dining room, which is my current classroom. And I was super happy with that.

And now, it's all about Captain America and The Falcon and Winter Soldier and I'm like, "Tear it all down and make it superheroes!!!!"

This is why I don't have themes in my classroom. I can't stay one person long enough to commit.

There are four more days left of this school year and I am… hanging in there the best I can. This week was interesting because we did all the traditional last week of school activities. Tuesday, we the school talent show, which took an hour and a half. Then, we had to go back to class and teach. Which was hard. Hard for me and hard for the students. Thursday was the final awards ceremony which was also well over an hour. And then today we had the school carnival which is an hour of playing games outside before heading back in and having to maintain some semblance of normalcy.

It’s been rough. If my motivation to be there is low, I know the kids are worse. All I can think of is Disney World and how I am SO CLOSE to getting to go. But I have to do teacher things like report cards and cleaning my room. Luckily, I am done with report cards, I’ve made all the copies I need for next week, and my room is decent. There’s still some stuff that needs to come down, but that’s mostly just student work and anchor charts. Student work will start coming down next week and anchor charts will come down Wednesday or Thursday (the last day!!).

Today, the last hour of school, we did painting. I broke out the water colors and let them do whatever they wanted (provided it was school appropriate). Once again, some of the kids were done in fifteen minutes while others took the whole time. Luckily, I got some magnetic shapes from Toys R Us over the weekend, so the students who were done could do some engineering. I was impressed with the results:
Link to post with pictures

So, next week, we’re making our Important Book, which is a class book I make every year where every kid gets to write what’s important about them, as well as their favorite things. We’ll do some math mystery pages where we try to solve where… some sort of gremlins hid something? I don’t remember. But it’s fun. And I’m going to make them read the last story in the reading anthology, learn some vocabulary and high frequency words, and maybe do some writing. We’ll get through this.

Four more days. Also, 24 days.

Kung-fu Monkey came back today! The student sort of sheepishly came up with him in hand and gave him back to me. I thanked her for doing it and rejoiced. I’m so happy!!

Yay!

Also, I posted about the joys of doing watercolors with second graders here: There's Always One

I’m just crabby this week. It’s been a weird week. Like, yesterday, I was out half day for a training, only in the middle of that training, I had to run back to school to do data analysis on a test we took a month ago. We got through the analysis, only to realize we were analyzing the wrong test, so we had to do it all again. Then, I ran back to the training to find that they were doing the part I was most looking forward to–math games–and were almost done. And then I went back to school and had to teach. It was just… weird.

Anyway, one of my students is on a daily monitoring system where he has three goals and I check in with him every few hours to see how he doing on those goals. Then, at the end of the day, he checks in with the counselor to discuss how he did. One of his goals is “Keep hands to yourself.”

I decided that it was imperative we get out to PE today. We don’t get out as much as we need to, and we had some time, so out we went. We were playing kick basketball, and the first kid kicked the ball, they play was done, everyone was excited. My darling was so excited that he ran up to me and smacked me in the head.

“Please don’t hit me on the head,” I said, because, dude. Don’t hit the teacher in the head.

“I didn’t. I just touched you.”

*sigh*

So now, instead of it being a little thing were he did something, I told him not to, and he apologized, I have to go into the whole “we don’t touch people and if we do touch people and they ask us not to, we say we’re sorry and DON’T TOUCH PEOPLE.” It just sort of put a damper on PE. And then, I’d already filled out his goal sheet so I wasn’t able to change it. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but, man, I hate being hit in the head.

(also, plugging my BookTube channel again. Come watch me talk about books)

I have a student who is not able to subtract single digit numbers to 8 fluently. He’s been struggling with it for awhile. His parents came to Math Night and were taught some games to play with him to help increase his fluency. They’ve bought flash cards. I recommended some apps. I also suggested that Mom made sure he did his homework every night (finishing his timed tests).

Mom said, “I try, but then he gets mad at me.”

What I said was something like, “Oh. Well, it will help him out, giving him the extra practice he needs.”

What I should have said was, “That’s okay. It’s okay if he gets mad at you. You need to set the boundaries and enforce them, even if he gets mad.”

I just… don’t have the confidence. And it sucks because, by this time, I’m not the youngest person in that room like I was when I was a beginning teacher and I should have developed the confidence by now.

This was not the only conference where I should have said something I didn’t either. I had another one where one of my students is starting to display disrespectful behavior towards me. I told Mom, hoping to get a, “Well, I will talk with him and if he continues the behavior, there will be consequences, so let me know.” What I got was, “I know! He’s the same way with me! I tell him to do something and he won’t do it. I don’t know what to do.”

Again, that boundaries and consequences things was what should have come out of my mouth. But, instead, I said I was going to start cracking down on him at school, taking away recess (we get two 20 minute recess blocks; he can miss 10 minutes for being disrespectful and still have time to get his energy out on the playground), giving infractions, etc.

But I wish I’d said the boundaries and consequences thing. That’s something I’m going to practice this summer so it’s in my arsenal next time it comes up.

Because next time, I will have the confidence to say it.

104 days to Disney World.

So, Friday, second grade took a field trip to the “local” natural history museum. I say “local” because my school is in the middle of nowhere and it takes an hour to get to the natural history museum. Which isn’t bad, but when you’ve got over about 80 people squeezed onto one bus, three to a seat, it feels like it’s forever.

I’m going to start out by saying that the kids were awesome. They were well behaved, attentive, well mannered, and put up with everything that happened beautifully. Honestly, except for one thing, they probably weren’t aware of the snags the field trip hit, which is good. But they handled everything well.

So, the field trip was to the natural history museum. There were three stations: the “classroom”, where they learned about monarch butterflies; the museum, where they did a scavenger hunt; and the sanctuary, where they got to see butterflies in the wild. What was supposed to happen was one class took a station and rotated through, but one of the docents was unavailable, so my class was split and we did the museum/classroom first, had lunch, then all went to the sanctuary after. This turned out to be a good thing, because one of the other teachers lost their voice, so I went with her class so I could be her voice.

The first snag was the trip to the museum. We got lost. The bus driver missed both possible exits and ended up taking us to the next town. Finally, another teacher went up front and, using her phone, guided him in the right way. Unfortunately, it was the back way, which is a long, winding, twisting, turning road through tall trees. It’s absolutely beautiful, but not much fun to do when you are on a bus of loud children. Especially when the bus driver decides to go way to fast through the curves and twists. It was just not fun. But, we got there in one pieces, sadly right on time so we were unable to give the kids their snacks (but that turned out to be a good thing, actually).

The museum tour and classroom lesson were very good. The kids were really into it and one of my kids got turned into a butterfly. He was a natural showman about it, too, just very funny.

Then, it was time for lunch. About ten or kids had brought their lunch, so I took them back to the bus to get it. When I got back, it was to a livid teacher. The cafeteria did not pack enough lunches for everyone and we were 13 short. The really bad thing is none of us knew that kids were going to be bringing their lunch, so when we entered our count, it was for the full 75 students in the class. So, we were a lot short on lunches. Luckily, some of the parents had driven themselves, so they took a count of students without lunches and went to the local Safeway to buy food for them. In the meantime, we handed out granola bars to the kids without and fumed.

Last, we went to the sanctuary. First, we got lost again, but eventually we found our way. It’s a beautiful bit of forest where butterflies come to winter. Most of them had flown off already because it’s been so unseasonably warm, but there were still a good few. I missed most of it because I ended up on port-a-potty duty, watching the kids who had to go to the bathroom and giving hand sanitizer when they came out. It was lots of fun. But, that’s what teachers do.

Then, we went back out to get on the bus. Which was not there. We waited for about five minutes before another teacher decided to walk down the road to see if he was waiting anywhere. He was, but the fact that no one had made any arrangements for meeting him was just… ugh. So, we made it back onto the bus. This time, sadly, I was sitting next to the aisle seat so half my butt was hanging off the seat and my back got tweaked. I’m okay, but was so uncomfortable. But, we made it back to school without anymore disaster.

I have never been on such a poorly executed field trip before. And it wasn’t our fault. The teacher who set up the lunch orders checked several times that they would make enough lunches. And why did the bus driver get lost? Just… dude.

So, that’s over. We survived, the kids had a good experience (mostly) and it’s one more hurdle toward the end of the year. So. What’s the worst field trip experience you’ve ever had?

I had my second informal observation today. We were doing writing and I was in the back of the room juggling students when the principal walked in. I kinds of froze, because while I was working with students, I was also trying to grade spelling tests at the same time. My students are currently are writing research reports on animals, so some of them are reading books on Epic, which is an iPad app, and others are doing physical books and some are done with research and writing while others are coloring pictures of their their animals to add to their books and and and….

Meanwhile, I’m printing pictures of animals, handing out maps of the world and showing them what continent their animals live on. I’m editing papers, telling kids they need to add details (they are very stubborn when it comes to describing what the animal looks like; I keep having to remind them to tell me if it has fur or skin or scales, what color is it, how many legs, etc). Plus, I have about three non-readers/non-writers who need me to really hold their hand the whole way through so…

So, I’m doing a million things at once. It was chaos.

But… But…

She loved it. The principal was so happy with everything she saw. The kids were able to tell her what they were doing, the room was neat (not my desk, but otherwise), the kids were all working and the chaos was the good kind. The “room to grow” she had for me was for me to stick a magnet on the board next to the posted standards so it’s completely obvious what standard we’re working on. That’s it. The only suggestion.

This is the millionth great informal observation I’ve had. And yet, every time, instead of feeling like, “Yeah, it’s because I’m a good teacher and know what I’m doing”, I think, “Man, I got lucky she walked in while this was going on.” *sigh* I need to change my thinking around. I’m not lucky. I’m just good.

Link to wordpress with picture

So, today the math book read:
Mrs. Herrell had 427 pinecones. She gave 249 pinecones to her children. How many pinecones does she have now?

I think the real question is why does Mrs. Herrell have so many pinecones and why has no one called "Hoarders" on her? I don't know why this was the question that broke my suspension of disbelief, but it was.

Today I continued my seemingly futile quest to get the kids to count up when they subtract.  We did 30-19 and they solved it in a variety of ways: decomposing, regrouping in their heads, imagining a number line, using the hundreds chart.  But the target skill?  Nope.  *sigh*  Ah well.  It's only the fourth number talk we've done on this skill.  They'll get there.

I was also able to talk about my favorite thing today.  In ELD, we had the vocabulary word "patient".  I told the kids that I had to be really patient right now because I was going to Disney World in 140 days and I want to go right now.  But it's a long way away, so I had to wait calmly for a long time.  They were super impressed, although one kid immediately said, "I never get to go on vacation!"  So I told him that I've never been either, and when he was grown up, he could go to Disney World or wherever he wanted.  He just had to be patient.  Vocabulary in action.  It's a beautiful thing.

140 more days!

1. Every sentence starts with a capital. Yes. Every single one. All the time.

2. You always have to regroup in subtraction if the number on the bottom is bigger. Even if I don’t remind you. You can’t solve the problem by taking the bottom number and subtracting the top. It’s not possible. No, it’s not. Not even if you want it to be.

3. You must start adding in the ones place. Every time. Even if you know how to add the hundreds.

4. You’re not allowed to run in the walkways EVEN IF there is no teacher around to remind you.

5. Yes, you need to do the word problem.

6. My name is not Teacher.

I survived the first day back!! I almost didn’t think I was going to make it. I woke up to rain, which I expected but still hoped that maybe it would wait until after school. But, alas, rainy day all day. Then, as I was driving to school, I realized that I’d forgotten my lunch. So stupid, because I made it last night and had it ready to go, but for some reason when I went into the kitchen to get my water bottle, lunch just completely slipped my mind. Luckily, I get to school fifteen minutes before I need to (which is a half hour before school starts), so I had time to run to Subway and get a sandwich. I knew there wasn’t going to be time at lunch, and I was not going to subject myself to whatever they’re calling food these days in the cafeteria (plus, I only had a 20 and they don’t have change for twenties in the cafeteria).

I won’t tell you the state of the coffee pot, which was not emptied before winter break (not my job because I didn’t make coffee the last few days of school; whoever did should have emptied it). I just threw the pot in the sink to soak and resigned myself to the flavored coffee at the Keurig (I’m not a fan of flavored coffee, but coffee at recess is one of the things that makes me happy so….) But, the coffee god washed the coffee pot and brewed regular coffee, so I got my coffee at recess the way I like it! Yay!

The kids were good. They were tired and draggy, but well behaved. They (mostly) remembered how to subtract, which we reviewed today. I struggled with one student who needs help but just. Wouldn’t. Follow. Directions. I pulled a group, including him, and he kept refusing to get over to the table. I finally started without him because it wasn’t fair to the other kids. We finished early so I was able to work with just him but, man, I really had to dig deep to remain patient.

So, yeah, made it through. And tomorrow I get a new student. He’s the… nephew or something of one of the other teachers, brand new from Mexico and doesn’t speak any English. This will be a challenge. I’ve done this before, but with older students. It’ll work out. I can do this.