When you're working towards that college degree, working towards one day becoming a teacher, you don't necessarily think about or realize all the lunches you won't be able to sit down and enjoy, or all the evenings you won't spend out with your friends because you're writing or grading tests, or all the times you'll have your every error pointed out to you because you work with preteens every day. You don't consider the exhaustion that comes with parent/teacher conferences and Christmas and spring musicals. You don't think about your Friday nights being spent wrapping up everything from the past week, or about spending Sunday afternoons organizing your teaching life for the next week.
Do you know what else you don't realize when you're preparing for that one-day teaching career? You don't realize that your biggest teaching moments won't happen in the middle of math class, they'll happen when real life seeps into your classroom through everyday life struggles. You don't realize that the quiet-kid-free lunches you give up and spend with your students will mean the world to them. You also don't realize that there is nothing like the satisfaction of reaching the end of the day completely and utterly in love with the career you have immersed yourself in.
When you wake up every day loving what you do, well, that's something money can't buy. Did you consider that?
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Say it with a straight face... or at least without laughing.
Ever have one of those times where you set a guideline (being the adult that you are) and when it comes your turn to play by the rules, you miss the mark? I've had more than one but today won't soon be forgotten by my students. Each school day 2 selected students from my class announce the "ACS News." This includes birthday announcements, lunch menus, predicted weather forecasts, etc. Due to my extremely small class size this year, one of my students asked if I would do the news with him this week. Well, the ACS News isn't super high tech -it's announcements on the school PA system. There is no redoing or recording. One stipulation in doing the news is that the "anchors" must take it seriously -no goofing around. So today I am beginning to announce the morning news with my sidekick, a 5th grader, and about 4 words into the lunch menu I misread "homemade marinara meat sauce" as "homemade marinara meat sausage" and upon realizing my error begin to laugh. The menu normally begins with a main dish. What is this non-sense about sauce?! Unable to keep my composure I have to turn off the announcements for a brief break. When I get back on, doing my very best to take it seriously I glance up from the speaker to see my principal looking at me, a smirk spread across his face. Let's just say, I may not have entirely kept it together. Turns out, my students take the morning news more seriously than I do. Props to them.
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Be who you are
You know, I can't remember the last time I had a "bad day." Honestly. As a teacher, one of my goals is to create a classroom where my students feel loved and accepted for who they are. What's funny is that I don't put myself into that equation -I'm not trying to create a place where I feel loved and accepted. Yet, in the beautiful bond that has formed among the students in my class, I have found myself loved and accepted among them. Here's a couple of examples:
I have a very respectful, orderly class this year (I've told them since day 1 of school: "We are a class of order, not a class of chaos." and, thankfully, it has stuck.). Lunch is difficult though because several classes are eating in the lunchroom and it can easily get rowdy. Well, after one or two teacher complaints about the goofy-ness taking place at the 5th/6th grade table at lunch I decided that I would eat lunch with them a couple days a week -not as a punishment -simply as a way to help manage the lunchroom for the teacher on duty and to spend some out of class time with my students. For any teachers out there, you know that giving up an already short lunch period is a real sacrifice. But in this case it has turned into one of the highlights of my day. My students excitedly ask me every day if I'm going to eat with them -and when the answer is occasionally no, they are quite offended! What's been interesting is that my presence doesn't quiet or silence them or bring about forced conversation, it's still a natural flow to their lunch period.
Secondly, while on morning duty the other day, one of my 5th graders came sprinting into the waiting area (because we don't have a bus system, students are dropped off anytime after 8 and the teacher on duty supervises until everyone is dismissed to their classrooms at 8:15.). She stopped just short of me, with a huge smile on her face. I said, "Wow, you couldn't get here fast enough. School must be the best place to be!" She kept her big smile and said, "It is!" The cool thing is, this girl comes from a great family, she has a great home life, and so I know school is not simply a safe haven for her.
Lastly, while my students were studying their Bible memory verse this past week, a few of them were saying how hard it is to memorize things like that. One of the other students suggested making it into a song because "it's way easier to learn that way." Some of the girls seemed fine with this idea, but the rest of the girls and the boys seemed to turn their noses up at the idea. So I chimed in, "Or you could rap it" and I began to make a rap of their Bible verse. It was obviously poorly done, but got several laughs and when I finished one of my 6th graders blurted, "Miss Sjoberg, that is why you are the best teacher ever." I wasn't trying to win any teacher awards by turning a Bible verse into a rap, but I'm sure the whole experience will not be soon forgotten by anyone.
I have a very respectful, orderly class this year (I've told them since day 1 of school: "We are a class of order, not a class of chaos." and, thankfully, it has stuck.). Lunch is difficult though because several classes are eating in the lunchroom and it can easily get rowdy. Well, after one or two teacher complaints about the goofy-ness taking place at the 5th/6th grade table at lunch I decided that I would eat lunch with them a couple days a week -not as a punishment -simply as a way to help manage the lunchroom for the teacher on duty and to spend some out of class time with my students. For any teachers out there, you know that giving up an already short lunch period is a real sacrifice. But in this case it has turned into one of the highlights of my day. My students excitedly ask me every day if I'm going to eat with them -and when the answer is occasionally no, they are quite offended! What's been interesting is that my presence doesn't quiet or silence them or bring about forced conversation, it's still a natural flow to their lunch period.
Secondly, while on morning duty the other day, one of my 5th graders came sprinting into the waiting area (because we don't have a bus system, students are dropped off anytime after 8 and the teacher on duty supervises until everyone is dismissed to their classrooms at 8:15.). She stopped just short of me, with a huge smile on her face. I said, "Wow, you couldn't get here fast enough. School must be the best place to be!" She kept her big smile and said, "It is!" The cool thing is, this girl comes from a great family, she has a great home life, and so I know school is not simply a safe haven for her.
Lastly, while my students were studying their Bible memory verse this past week, a few of them were saying how hard it is to memorize things like that. One of the other students suggested making it into a song because "it's way easier to learn that way." Some of the girls seemed fine with this idea, but the rest of the girls and the boys seemed to turn their noses up at the idea. So I chimed in, "Or you could rap it" and I began to make a rap of their Bible verse. It was obviously poorly done, but got several laughs and when I finished one of my 6th graders blurted, "Miss Sjoberg, that is why you are the best teacher ever." I wasn't trying to win any teacher awards by turning a Bible verse into a rap, but I'm sure the whole experience will not be soon forgotten by anyone.
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Failure or success?
Failures and successes are just a part of life and that's certainly true in the teaching world. The thing is, I'm not sure if this story is a success story or a total failure on my part as a teacher. But here it is:
I pretty consistently push the "reduce, reuse, recycle" philosophy in my classroom. It's something I'm passionate about and I think it's important that my students learn to use their resources well. When that really back-fired on me was when I started receiving homework assignments on reused paper. They were literally squeezing words in wherever there was space on the already-used-once page. My first reaction was disgust because it made my life more difficult as I tried to read and grade their assignments. My second response was a pure amusement -way to take me seriously, kids.
As another story, last week I reached my limit in picking up/vacuuming little tiny scraps of paper. So I removed the scrap paper box and had a demonstration with my students about what scraps are acceptable to keep and be used again and what pieces are too small and simply need to be thrown away. I had a couple of students who were devastated at the scraps I was throwing away. They very respectfully asked me if they could keep a personal stash of the scraps and that they would use them.
Thus began the masterpieces... and today I received the first one with the following note: "This is to prove to Miss Sjoberg that we want to save scrapes to make a piece of art."
Ok, so I need to focus on spelling and grammar and not resourcefulness. Here's to another day of teaching!
I pretty consistently push the "reduce, reuse, recycle" philosophy in my classroom. It's something I'm passionate about and I think it's important that my students learn to use their resources well. When that really back-fired on me was when I started receiving homework assignments on reused paper. They were literally squeezing words in wherever there was space on the already-used-once page. My first reaction was disgust because it made my life more difficult as I tried to read and grade their assignments. My second response was a pure amusement -way to take me seriously, kids.
As another story, last week I reached my limit in picking up/vacuuming little tiny scraps of paper. So I removed the scrap paper box and had a demonstration with my students about what scraps are acceptable to keep and be used again and what pieces are too small and simply need to be thrown away. I had a couple of students who were devastated at the scraps I was throwing away. They very respectfully asked me if they could keep a personal stash of the scraps and that they would use them.
Thus began the masterpieces... and today I received the first one with the following note: "This is to prove to Miss Sjoberg that we want to save scrapes to make a piece of art."
Ok, so I need to focus on spelling and grammar and not resourcefulness. Here's to another day of teaching!
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
What's happening in the silence
It's been 6 weeks or so since I posted. Let me start off by saying the very nature of my blog and the fact that I've been silent for a while now are no indication of how my life (in general, but more specifically as a teacher) is going. In fact, the last several months have been some of the most rewarding months of my life.
I LOVE WHAT I DO EVERY SINGLE DAY. My first year of teaching was a lot of "I should have done that differently" and "Why didn't I plan for that to happen?" and "Just put one foot in front of the other: one class period at a time." Now, I'm no perfect teacher --I'm still learning from my mistakes every day. But I've taken my rookie teacher failures and turned them into opportunities to learn about myself, my teaching, and my students.
Teaching in a small, private school gives me a unique opportunity: my class is tight-knit --for better or for worse. That's a truly beautiful thing: we see each other at our best and our worst because we spend 40 hours or so a week together. We celebrate our victories. We learn from our mistakes. We console each other through losses. We're navigating our ship through the delicate preteen years of life, and while I may be the captain of this ship, it's an effort from my whole crew that keeps us above water and headed in the right direction.
For those who know me personally, life's thrown some curve balls at me the last month or two. In those challenges I've been humbled by the families at school, and more specifically by my students. For someone who finds it difficult to accept help, I've been given no choice at times. Many would argue that 10, 11, and 12 year olds are rather preoccupied with themselves. I'm here to tell you that not all of them are. My students have shown me compassion, love, and grace in some of life's finest moments of defeat. The maturity and responsibility that they have demonstrated at times is admirable, to say the least.
My hiatus from blogging could be summed up in this way: I've been too busy loving life to sit down and write about it.
I LOVE WHAT I DO EVERY SINGLE DAY. My first year of teaching was a lot of "I should have done that differently" and "Why didn't I plan for that to happen?" and "Just put one foot in front of the other: one class period at a time." Now, I'm no perfect teacher --I'm still learning from my mistakes every day. But I've taken my rookie teacher failures and turned them into opportunities to learn about myself, my teaching, and my students.
Teaching in a small, private school gives me a unique opportunity: my class is tight-knit --for better or for worse. That's a truly beautiful thing: we see each other at our best and our worst because we spend 40 hours or so a week together. We celebrate our victories. We learn from our mistakes. We console each other through losses. We're navigating our ship through the delicate preteen years of life, and while I may be the captain of this ship, it's an effort from my whole crew that keeps us above water and headed in the right direction.
For those who know me personally, life's thrown some curve balls at me the last month or two. In those challenges I've been humbled by the families at school, and more specifically by my students. For someone who finds it difficult to accept help, I've been given no choice at times. Many would argue that 10, 11, and 12 year olds are rather preoccupied with themselves. I'm here to tell you that not all of them are. My students have shown me compassion, love, and grace in some of life's finest moments of defeat. The maturity and responsibility that they have demonstrated at times is admirable, to say the least.
My hiatus from blogging could be summed up in this way: I've been too busy loving life to sit down and write about it.
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