Black widows and homemade deliciousness

Morning with 5th & 6th graders: "Miss Sjoberg, you look like a black widow. I think it's the hair."


Afternoon of parent/teacher conferences: homemade gluten free cookies from one my student's moms. If I used hashtags that one would be #winning

The Things We Say

It was late morning and I was in the middle of teaching a 6th grade math lesson. One of my students who often refers to me by name of the former teacher or by "Mrs. Sjoberg" (to which I generally reply, "That's my mom, but she might be happy to help you") was struggling to come up with my name. Finally he said, "Can I just refer to you by your initials, 'BS'?" I didn't respond to his request right away and I soon heard murmurs of "BS" throughout the room when one of my 5th graders said, "Wait, that's not right! We can't call her by her initials BS." The room erupted in laughter and I informed them that no, they could not call me BS. I got them settled and went back to teaching but there were still whispers of "BS" in my room. After a moment or two I made the announcement, "Enough with the BS. Back to work." No sooner had the words left my mouth than a parent (from another class) peeks in my room.

Only time will tell if I'm the one to get sent to the principal's office.

Those darn English words

Part of my reading assignments are vocabulary words from the book. I give the students a list of words from the reading that they are responsible for. They know these words are free game for quiz questions.

Well, the question was "What is the meaning of austerity?"
Student: "Austerity means to stair astray."

Life in 5th & 6th grade

Life with 5th and 6th graders is never dull. There aren't enough hours in the day for me to blog all the ridiculous and yet serious answers they give on homework and tests. On a math test I recently gave, there was a rather difficult problem. All but one of my students attempted some sort of answer. The one that didn't simply put a frowny face. Understood, kid.


Because I teach both 5th and 6th grade, spelling tests can tend to get tricky. I give them at the same time and toggle back and forth between grades: "fifth grade your word is...." Periodically during the test I check to make sure everyone is tracking. Yesterday I even repeated the ENTIRE list for each grade at the end. The students turned in their tests but one came and personally handed his test to me: "I have an extra word in here and I listened while you read our list but I couldn't figure out what was off. So you're gonna have to figure it out." So much for me teaching them responsibility...

The Start of a New School Year

After a period of silence, I'm back. It's a new school year. A new class. And yes, a new job. Nearly three weeks ago I said goodbye to my sad and confused preschoolers ("My mom said you're going to a new school. I'm sad." And: "Are you going to go to a new school for 1 day?"). Two days ago I welcomed a world of almost-middle-schoolers into my classroom. Some of them are taller than me. Sometimes they're smelly (especially after outside recess in 90+ degree weather). But this teacher is very excited for this school year.

Mom and Dad

This conversation was too good to not share:
Preschooler 1: Do you live in a blue house, Miss Britta?

Me: No. But I used to. My mom and dad live in a blue house.

Preschooler 2: You have a mom and dad?

Me: Yes, I do.

Preschooler 2 [very seriously]: I never knew that.

Me: My mom and dad are going to come visit me this summer.

Preschooler 1: Are they going to come visit us?

4 year old joke telling

At breakfast this morning
4 year old: Why did the chicken and the bunny cross the fire hydrant?
Me: I don't know. Why?
4 year old: Because they wanted to drive the fire truck! [laughs hysterically]

Did I miss something?!