6th Grade Poetry

We're doing a poetry unit. And one of my students wrote this poem that he claims is not about me... but my name is Miss Sjoberg, I sometimes wear black glasses and I do have 13 students. I'm skeptical. For your entertainment:

Miss Spikeburg

With spidery legs that glow in sight

as the helpless children run in fright

with nerdish glasses so so black

you can see her fangs go on back

with 13 cutish, innocent kids

she'll be so awesome...

... or will she.

Freedom of Speech

I feel that teaching my students real life skills is a vital part of my job. In 5th & 6th grade a big part of that is responsibility. From Day 1 I've tried to make them responsible citizens of this classroom. When they leave out the reading bean bags, they find they are without those the following day. This is just one example.

Well, yesterday one of my students left his binder in the middle of the classroom floor. So I confiscated it. However, I  knew that he would need it today so I left him a note that said: "Your binder was found on the classroom floor. What are you willing to do today to get it back?" His solution: give a speech to the class - and a well dramatized speech it was. At the conclusion of his speech I asked for a copy of it. Here it is:

"Citizens of Sjoberg:
Responsibility is the source of growing up. Leaving your binders is not responsible. I think that Ms. Sjoberg taking my binder is very heinous, but I think all of us can prevent her from taking our stuff.
Say 'aye' if you agree with me.
Say 'aye' if you can fight back from her taking our stuff.
Then have RESPONSIBILITY.

Citizens of Sjoberg:
Have a fantastic day and victory is ours.
Yeah."

* I will note that I have never referred to my students as "citizens of Sjoberg" or anything along those lines That was all him.

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.