It's almost Christmas, don't stress...

Sometimes, when you are a teacher, you have really cool ideas. With those ideas, generally one of the following things happens: 1.) you plan, you account for possible reactions/behavior from your students, and the lessons goes without a hitch (these are rare, but beautiful moments). 2.) More likely you plan, you account for possible reactions/behavior from your students, and something goes wrong, if not terribly wrong (the internet stops working, the groups you made are much more argumentative than you planned for, the students are unable to come to the conclusion you had hoped to lead them to, etc.) or 3.) you plan this really cool project and it ends up being much, much more time consuming than you anticipated and now you feel the stress of time. You don't want your students to hurry and finish in a sloppy fashion, and yet, how much more time can you afford to give up?

Well, I'm currently dealing with the third scenario. At the beginning of the school year a publishing company contacted teachers all over the country, offering them a free publication of a book their classes could write. Going with the confidence of a second year teacher, I jumped at the opportunity. I have to say, my class has worked really hard on this book and I've been really impressed, but we have a bit of a ways to go. And our final draft for submission is due this Friday. It's going to be a week of authors' and illustrators' workshops. Wish us your best! :)

The life of a teacher

Here are a few memes to give you a fairly accurate glimpse into my job:

Just Take the First Step

It's quite possible that a day doesn't go by that in some form or another I ask a student or several students to step outside of their comfort zones. I may not say it like that, but the content may be beyond what they are comfortable with, the learning setting might stretch them, they might have to work with people they don't get along with...and the list goes own.

I suppose it's only fair that I demonstrate to them how I've been pushed outside my comfort zone. Today was a perfect example. The P.E. teacher had mentioned (more than once) that if I "ever wanted to join them for P.E." she could use an extra person (with eleven 5th & 6th graders I guess that's fair). Well, anyone who knows me knows how much I love the outdoors including hiking, biking, canoeing, and swimming. However, I am far from athletically coordinated. Anyone who knows 5th & 6th graders knows how brutally honest and judgmental they can be --you can imagine my excitement about participating in P.E. Yet, I did it. I got out and played soccer --a sport I never spent anytime doing. As in, zero energies from my childhood were focused on soccer. I wiped out. I got tired. I wasn't confident in my abilities. And I would totally do it again.

A day in the life of...

Like I previously stated, every class is unique. I have a group of 5th & 6th graders who like getting stickers on their papers -especially scratch and sniff stickers. Who would have thought?! My class last year would have mocked and teased me incessantly if I had marked their papers with stickers (even if they had secretly enjoyed it).


In other news, I have picked up an additional job this semester working in our childcare/preschool after school two days a week. I have to say, they test my patience sometimes, but overall it's proven to be quite entertaining (no, I don't miss teaching preschool full time -still not my calling). There is one particular enthusiastic, extremely animated three year old girl. The first day I met her she acted like we were (and had been) best friends. As she was leaving one day (a day that I was not working in childcare) she stopped by my classroom to tell me about her day. When I saw her the following afternoon she ran to me, hugged me and exclaimed, "I haven't seen you in a long time...like 4 days!" I guess when you're 3 going 24 hours might feel like 4 days.

Pollution

Well we're here back in the swing of the school year. Every class has it's own uniqueness and that keeps life interesting.

We've been learning and talking about pollution in science and today I had my students respond to a writing prompt where I asked them to explain pollution to someone who didn't understand it. Here a few snippets of their responses:

"Polluted mean careless people leave junk around and so it can go into the water. It can make it hard to purify our water when that happens."

"Things that are okay to throw out the car window are apple cores, banana peels, orange peels, etc. The things that are not okay to throw out your car window are paper, Styrofoam, egg cartons, plastic, etc."

"Littering and pollution shouldn't be happening because we need stuff to eat. We need air, but if this keeps happening we will die."


I think they get it.

Kids still saying the darnedest things...

School is out and summer is here. But, of course, I'm still spending lots of time with some kiddos this summer. I'm nannying for a family with three kids (ages 2 to 8) a couple days a week. Thankfully, they have not disappointed me in the things they say. Here are a few:

I sang a few lines to a song when the 5 year old jumped in: "You could sing that in your mind."

"There's a tornado coming tomorrow so we're probably going to have to come stay with you."

"How are old are you? 24? Wow, you are OLD."

While playing a matching game: "If you put two cards that are the same beside each other when you are laying them out, that's cheating. [Someone] told me that and it made my heart a little sad. A lot sad actually."

We need a babysitter

My blog posts have been few and far between. Not because nothing funny ever happens but because I seem to have filled my time with things other than blogging. I still cherish and appreciate the humor I see in the classroom. Yes, the students are a little more cranky these days - it's spring and they're still in school, but there's something about spending 7 hours a day with these kids that whittles away at my heart - the truth is, I'll be sad to say goodbye to many of them after this year. Enough with the sappy stuff though, here's a couple highlights from the week:

Monday while giving a spelling pretest, I say the word "parachute." Suddenly a sixth grade boy breaks into song "I came in like a parachute." This will only mean something to those of you familiar with Miley Cyrus's song "Wrecking Ball." Any-who, it got the whole class laughing -myself included.

Secondly, while on lunch duty yesterday, and during the 5 minutes of quiet eating time, a second grade boy raises his hand. I walk over to him and ask what he needs. Student: "We don't have a babysitter this summer. [short pause]. So we were wondering if you would want to do that?"

Not a kid anymore

My 5th & 6th graders all have email accounts through the school. We use them frequently for school related things but the students also send personal emails back and forth. As domain administrator over them I can view the emails they send back and forth (just to make sure nothing inappropriate is going on). Well, just to keep them in check, I sometimes make reference to an email that was sent from one to another that I clearly was not part of. Two of the girls in my class send emails back and forth that seem to make no sense and I mentioned this to them back a while ago. Today, out of the blue, I received this email from one of them:

Subject: My gmails

"Ms. Sjoberg, I think that why you don't understand some of our emails is because you aren't a kid anymore. You are past the age of 18 and you are past college. If you think I am wrong then just say so, but that's what I think."

Using those resources!

The 5th & 6th graders would tell you they are on a new business endeavor, but I'm not sure it can be considered a business endeavor since the service is free. A public service, perhaps.

The sink in my classroom has had a dripping faucet since I took over this classroom in August but it seems to have gotten worse as the school year has progressed. I've mentioned it as a maintenance request but I don't think it's been a priority. Anyway, last week, my students decided  to measure the amount of water being wasted at our sink. It was a bit alarming when we realized how much was indeed being wasted. So we have a bowl permanently placed under the faucet to catch the dripping water. This morning it became apparent that we are not able to keep up (24/7 water collection) in using the water so when my students went to make the morning announcements to the school they announced the following: "Breaking news: the 5th & 6th graders will be providing free water to anyone who needs. Bring your water bottles down, kids!"

For a moment we thought no one was coming. Then in streamed 5-6 2nd graders with water bottles ready. My students welcomed them to the new business, filled their water bottles and left them with parting messages such as "Be sure to come back again" and "Tell your friends about us."

They are now in the process of trying to make a plan to discourage the use of the drinking fountain and instead use the water we have at hand. They are also trying to figure out how to reward frequent and faithful customers.We'll see where this leads. For now, I'm happy to have them channeling their energies to something of value.

I'm with Dr. King

From winter break to the winter blues: 5th and 6th graders fell prey to the winter blues not long into January. There just hasn't been a whole lot to blog about. But February has brought beautiful snow and the hope of downhill skiing (possibly as soon as this Friday).

Anywho, my students wrote essays inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. and here are some of the highlights.

"Why it is difficult for most people to [have peace] is because they might not want to forgive someone so they don't treat that person equally. They could be mad at someone and want revenge and even though revenge sounds like treating people equally, it's not."

"Martin Luther King Jr. thought outside of the box and saw what was going on in the real world and thought of how to fix it. I like how it's changed and we can make a difference too."

"I think peace is the right way to go. So I'm with Dr. King on that subject."