*shaking fist*

Four of the little boogers are stealing stuff from me.

Little stuff. Like rubber bands.

I wouldn't mind if they were using the rubber bands for good-- that's what rubber bands are there for. To be helpful. To hug posters into submission. To bundle up pens if you are a bagless wonder.

But my kids aren't using them for good.... they're using them for evil. And I am not pleased.

For your viewing pleasure....

This is by far the lamest picture of the bunch. It can't be helped. I'm in the process of setting up two more centers-- the code breaking one will be full of math, actual codes and ciphers, and words they have to decode for reading comprehension, plus strategies to do so. I like to mix the subjects in the centers if I can. The unsolved mystery one is on a similar curiosity driven theme, and will feature such mysteries as crop circles, Stonehenge, the Bermuda Triangle, Nessie, Easter Island, Roanoke, alien abduction, hauntings and more! Wooo! How's that for fun?






This next picture shows my teeny windows (thank the great flying fish for them-- the AZ sun is KILLER!) You can see the start of my Travellin' Through Space and Time Center. Again... more exploring and fun!






Here's a shot of my Reading Rainforest. The four levels of the rainforest double as a learning tool-- those that read 1 book a month are on the forest floor, those who read 2 are in the understory, 3 are in the canopy, and 4 a month are my emergent level readers. I know, I know. Emergent readers are those people who are just starting to learn to read. But it's the highest level of the rainforest! So... that's that. If you look on the right you'll see Louie, my chameleon puppet. He's a hit. The only sad thing? I don't have NEARLY enough books!!




My skeleton has lost his jaw. Plus several teeth. And an arm. He's not doing so well. My globe isn't either. Apparently the sub broke it. Sad, sad, sad.



You will notice that my prized possession-- my little blue elephant-- sits on my desk. My CLEAN desk. It's clean and gorgeous until, say, 2:00. Then, somehow, everything explodes.
Behind my desk, on the right you can see my art wall area, and an area for the student of the week and daily student awards.




A view from the back. I had the kids in rows. Rows are rotten. Then I switched it to groups, because kids learn better that way. They also talk more that way. So I switched them to groupy-rows. Its working well so far AND I still have plenty of space to walk.

The white board on the far right is NOT a regular white board. Its a SmartBoard. It hooks up to the LCD projector, so we can watch movies on it (oh yeah). ALSO, any webpage I pull up on my computer, I can project automatically onto the screen. As a super awesome added bonus-- its touch sensitive. I can write, draw, or type right ON THE SCREEN. How amazing is that?


Well, that's all for now! I'll try my best to keep posting.... I've been spending 12 hours at school, then coming home, working a few more hours, and then just passing out. My kids always ask me what fun things I did over the weekend, and I just kind of laugh at them. It's okay though. They laugh at me the rest of the time. :)

Homework Excuses: Part 1

It's the first week of school, and already I'm getting homework excuses. Can you believe it?

Among them are all of the usual suspects--
Mr. I Left it at Home! It's on the Kitchen Table, I Swear! and
Ms. I Left it Here so it's Not Finished. And of course, there's
Mme. Uh....We Had An Assignment? Yes, yes you did.


So far, here's my favorite...




"Miss J? I didn't get my homework done because my brother had to have surgery on his privates."






*blink*




So.... you need your brother's privates to do your homework?

Somebody explain that one to me. On second thought... please don't.



.

The First Day

Again, let me reiterate the strangeness of my situation. I started teaching after the students had already been in school for two weeks. They had, as it turned out, a rather sub-par substitute. Let's call him Mr. Terse. Cuz that's what he was. One terse dude.

Anyhow, the deal was that I'd start on a Monday, but would have until Thursday to get myself together-- meet the other 6th grade teachers, go into their classrooms and see what they were up to, get to know my kids. And plan.

Monday came around, and I sauntered in, teachery glasses perched on my nose, pen stuck through my hair. I met Mr. Terse, the substitute, and he ushered me outside to meet my little darlings.

As I walked to meet them, I heard the voices of several kids "Is that our teacher?" and then, "HEY! ARE YOU OUR TEACHER?" I just looked at the shouts, unamused. Then, more quietly...

"Hey... um. Are you our new teacher?"
"I am."
"Are you nice?"
"No. But I'm fair."

The kids didn't quite know what to make of that. They exchanged slightly worried glances that said "Is this chick going to be as bad as the sub?" On the inside, I was already giggling. They were in for a wild ride.

Two minutes later, I was in the classroom. I snapped on my orator voice and told them what was up. I was their new teacher, I would be starting permanently on Thursday, but until that time I expected respect to the substitute as well as myself, and excellent behavior.

I sat in my desk (My desk! MY desk!) and learned their names. But before long I began to wiggle. I couldn't just sit there and watch. I had to take over. Mr. Terse was doing as best as he could, but the students (or was it my presence?) made him nervous. Half of them weren't listening, and those who were didn't get what he was saying. They all stared at him with dead, glassy eyes.

I raced to the board and explained math as a code, and the students as codebreakers. Sherlock Holmes-es, every last one of them. Superheroes about to save the world. I drew pictures and made up stories. Questions shot from my mouth like horses at a racetrack. The kids were paying attention. And to my glee-- the principals walked in at that very moment, grinned, gave me thumbs-up signs, and walked back out.

Yes!, the little voice in my head said.

And the day was to get better. Science came around, and similarly to math, I couldn't sit still. We talked about the world's oceans, the water cycle. One of my kids asked "How come there are no oceans around here?"

Mr. Terse said "Well, that's kind of a long story," and looked at me like "Go ahead if you want."
I thought for a second, and in an exhaustive 2 minutes, explained Pangea, continental drift due to plate techtonics, and the makeup of the Earth beyond the crust.

The student who asked the question just kind of stared at me in wonder.
"You know everything!"

On the inside, I grinned. The student's comment just about made my week.

Which was damn good, because, as it turned out, the week was about to get hairy.

Teacher Telepathy

The second day of class, my students had to present historical reports. The group assignment had been given by the substitute teacher and he had left no rubrick behind. I sat in my desk, wondering how to grade them, and listened as my third presenter stumbled over the words.

"At one time," he said, "ka-ka-ka..."
"Caesar?" I asked, looking up from my notes. He looked at me in surprise.
"Yeah. Yeah! I think it is."

Then a few minutes later...
"The p-p-p,"
"Parthenon?"
Again, he looked at me in astonishment. "How'd you DO that?"

I shrugged. "I'm a teacher. I'm good."
The class giggled.

Two minutes later, it happened again.
"Eh... Eh....." He looked up at me expectantly.
"Espana?"

"Man. You weren't kidding. You ARE good."

Indeed. :)