Highlights, Lowlights...and Snakes

Highlight of the Day

I left home early this morning in the search of gas before going to work.  After passing over 8 stations I finally came across a gas station right next to my school.  Too good to be true! And even better, there was no wait!  I had to go inside to pay but I got my car filled up.  Most exciting commodity for around here lately.  Started the day of in a much better mood than I had been feeling.

Lowlight of the Day

This afternoon while checking my email at school I got some sad news.  All field trips in Hall County have been canceled until further notice due to the gas shortage.  Oh and saying you do not have gas is not an acceptable reason to miss work... Hmm... Very depressing.  I always have the most issues with field trips.  In high school it was always our band trips.  One trip someone almost died from toxic shock syndrome, another we invaded Iraq, September 11th  and one of the lasts ones the highway shooters ended our trip to Kings Dominion early.  So basically if you want to go on a field trip do not involve me.  After 2 years of interning at schools in college, I never went on one field trip.  So now I have this strange desire to really want to go, and also I had 20 very sad 4th graders.  Oh well...hopefully it will be rescheduled.

And lastly...snakes

Today at Recess I was sitting on the bench and I hear my very dramatic boy screaming at the top of his SNAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As he's running from the door to go into the school all the way across the playground.  You would have thought it was on him.  It was really quite comical, the kids were fascinated.  The snake had curled up behind the door in the shade.  Very small and black, really cute, we named him Sam. I took a picture with my phone, maybe I can get it up on here.  We called the custodian and he came to the rescue.  He took poor petrified Sammy back to the woods.  He will probably think better next time of his location for an afternoon snooze...

"I had a dream about my teacher."

J- I had a dream about my teacher

Me- What teacher?

J- My teacher

Me- Your teacher now?

J- Yes

M- You mean me?

J- Yes

M- Ok... Well what was it about?

It really wasn't about anything interesting, it just cracked me up that he went in the most round of about way of telling me that the dream was about me...

And it just got exciting

So I had my first fight...no not me but two of my students on the playground.  I can't exactly give full details but it was quite nerve wracking.  Let's just say it wasn't your normal playground scuffle.  So my question is, how do you not treat this student differently when he hurt another one of your students?  

Can I Broom the Floor?

My "Blonde" Student: Can I broom the floor?

Me: Think about what you just said

"Blondie":  thinking very hard...Can I please broom the floor?

Me: ohhh nevermind, yes you may SWEEP the floor

"Blondie":  OK! And runs off

sigh... what can i do?

Enema's Anyone??

Short funny story that happened to not me but the teacher across the wall.  Two of her girls get tutored by the Vice Principal in the mornings.  Since they did a good job they got a special treat.  They came back into the class and were so excited to share that Ms. G had given them enemas!!  Ms. W was a little taken a back, and asked the girls, she gave you what?  Enemas! And showed the M&Ms in her hand.  Hmmm...I don't think enema's are quite the treat that I would want. :)

New Life = New Blog

Yes, this is me actually updating my blog here.  No idea if I will keep this up, but we shall see.  Since I already had this up for my trip to China, I figured I will just change the name and start using it to post little tidbits and stories about funny or interesting things that happen to me or my class.  I have had a few fun stories so far that I have wanted to write down so I can remember them later on.  I am not sure if anyone actually checks this anymore since I have updated it in 4 months, but anyways we shall see. 

So background of my class.  I am teaching at a Title 1 school in Hall County, GA.  I have 20 wonderful students, 13 girls and 7 boys.  16 are hispanic, 3 white boys and 1 African-American girl.  I have been blessed with a wonderful, with very few behavior problems, and only quite a bit chatty.  Anyways, here are a few stories of the past first 25 days of school.

-  On the first day of school I had my students write me a letter about what they want to do this school year, and anything they want to learn or tell me.  A couple of nights later I finally got around to reading them.  After a few I got to one that was quite funny from one of my boys that said and I quote: "I'm going to give you the best year of your life."  Now wouldn't that be something. :) We will just have to see...

-  It had to happen sometime.  Last week, we had our first Open House night.  One of my girls was explaining to me why her mother was not going to be able to make it on the way to gym.  Apparently her mother was going to the hospital to have a baby?  Anyways, another student says "how do you get a baby?"  I quickly say, ask your mother as I thrust them into the gym.  Then I hear another girl behind him: "I already got the talk, and it's gross."  Well that's good to know...good to know.

-  Since many of my students are Hispanic, they are also learning English.  Although most of them are quite fluent in English, I have to be careful to not use a lot of idioms and very southern phrases.  The other day, I was modeling how to label the regions of the United States.  I was showing them where the MidWest was when I pointed to North Dakota, and said to start drawing the boundary "smack dab in the middle."  I then proceeded to show them the rest of the outline and told them to label the region.  As I'm walking around to check that they were doing it correctly, I got this question: "Do we label it Smack MidWest?"  I then looked at many of the students maps and saw a lot of Smack Midwest labels.  My phrase of smack dab apparently went right over their heads.  I wonder how many times this happens??