Chase: Ms. G., when you're an adult, do you get paid when they put your poems in a book?
Me: Well, sometimes. It depends on the poem and how good of a writer you are.
Chase: I can't WAIT til I'm an adult.
This week was the final week of the extended day Remediation program-- I've been filling in for various people when they couldn't be there. I brought sugar cookies (uh, slice-n-bake, duh) and icing and sprinkles so we could at least have a little something fun. I even found a grade-level activity sheet about cookies and ratios. Hollah! (I'm shaking my head at my nerdiness there.)
Me: You need to get started on your warm-up problems because we won't have time to make cookies otherwise.
Rafael: (clearly math is not the area he needs help in) We're going to bake cookies? We're only here for 45 minutes, Ms. g. There's just not time.
Me: Uh, we're Making cookies, not Baking them. I should be more clear. We're decorating and eating cookies-- the good part.
Rafael: Well, alright.
And, PS, on the cookie situation-- I totally ate WAY to many of those and had a sugar coma as SOON as I got home.
It's Spring break next week and also April Fool's Day this week... so I've been asking the kids to write about possible pranks. My fav? "I'm going to get a cup of warm water and sneak up on my mean brother while he is sleeping. If he is completely sleeping, then I will put his hand in it and make it look like he peed on hisself."-- I wish I could put the picture she drew to go with it...it included a stick figure and a blob next to the legs, and a key describing the water, the "wet spot" and the brother.
In other, non-teaching, news...took Bella for a walk tonight and realized that Decaturites TOTALLY do not understand what is and is not supposed to go in recycling. Hello! Styrofoam, NOT it. Plastic bags of all varieties? NOT it. Dirty, dirty, dirty bottles not cleaned out in the least, NOT it. The nice thing about it being co-mingled recycling is that most of the households in my neighborhood participate. It majorly cuts out on garbage for the landfill. I like it; but, dude. Read the list of things.
Also, planted part of my garden before the tiller either, a. ran out of gas, or b. realized it has been sitting out since last summer and its fuel is old and rancid, so it quit working. Meheh. Planted some of the seedlings I've started indoors in peat pots-- including arugala, spinach, basil, parsley, bell peppers, carnival peppers, cucumbers, squash. I also planted the beans that I yanked out of over-zealous students' cups-- um, you can't put 8 lima beans in a 3 oz. cup of dirt. We shall see...I'm hoping for gentle rain, lots of sun, few insect problems, and that the dogs will chase all the rodents and birds who eat my produce away. :-)
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
So glad they can't...
...hear what I'm thinking in my head.
Couple of things this week...it's been a funny week.
I've been teaching plant life cycles and so we've been planting seedlings and most of these kids are so used to watching tv, that they have absolutely no life experience. It's kinda sad, but enlightening to see the looks on their faces when they touch real DIRT for the first time.
--One little boy took what I said about planting seeds to save the earth to heart-- he stopped me in the hall way to give me orange seeds, apple seeds, and corn kernals he'd picked out of his food at lunch all week. (I'm saying, "Thank you, baby, you're a good earth citizen!" and thinking "omg, gross, gross, gross, when can I wash my hands!?")
--This little boy (approximately age 5) has recently lost the ability to say "L" sounds because he has lost his front teeth. He had a vocabulary word this week: piglet. When asked, he announces, "a piggwit is a yittel baby pig." I asked him multiple times just because it made me laugh too much inside.
--Since overcrowding is a fact and realization in most all of the classes I teach, I assign "captain" positions to the crowded classes mainly for my sanity and to get stuff cleaned back up. I made the really OCD prissy kids be the Soil Captain who had to make sure no one got too much soil in their cup for seedlings. Watching their faces as they HAD to touch something dirty was just too much.
--I've been going really green for both St. Patrick's Day and early Earth Day stuff and reading Dr. Seuss's The Lorax to most all of my classes. When giving advice on ways to save the earth, the most ridiculous one has been (age 8)..."it's important not to litter because littering is bad for the earth. when you throw gum on the ground it messes up the roads for the animals eating the gum and the cars might get stuck on the sticky gum. the gum might make accidents because cars have pollution smoke in the back and the cars would get stuck in the gum and not go very far." What's this kid's brain like???
-- We're charged with making these "Academic Galleries" or "Standards-based boards" and part of it is student work with both teacher and student comments. My favorite comment today? "I liked the way she rimed in her poem. I woulda drawed the picture better."
--Teaching transition words (first, then, next, last, etc.) always makes me want to say, "Step one, cut a hole in a box. Step two..."
And last, but certainly not least...
-- overheard this week "miss g is a slut. I saw her thong. girls who wear thongs are sluts." ...interesting since I never seem to have my pants off at work, and I'm not really sure how this child got this information and managed to draw this conclusion about me. Can a kid be sued for slander?
Oh, but maddddddd props go out to Atlanta Community Food Bank and the Kids in Need store. I got 141 pounds of stuff...donated to my class for my students to use. I've already put paper, pencils, new crayons, pencil bags, toothbrushes, chapstick, and gluesticks to work. Can't wait to use the Environment funbooks during Earth Week! If you have funds to donate and don't already have a favorite charity-- this is a good one and you can know that your money will be put to great use. :)
Couple of things this week...it's been a funny week.
I've been teaching plant life cycles and so we've been planting seedlings and most of these kids are so used to watching tv, that they have absolutely no life experience. It's kinda sad, but enlightening to see the looks on their faces when they touch real DIRT for the first time.
--One little boy took what I said about planting seeds to save the earth to heart-- he stopped me in the hall way to give me orange seeds, apple seeds, and corn kernals he'd picked out of his food at lunch all week. (I'm saying, "Thank you, baby, you're a good earth citizen!" and thinking "omg, gross, gross, gross, when can I wash my hands!?")
--This little boy (approximately age 5) has recently lost the ability to say "L" sounds because he has lost his front teeth. He had a vocabulary word this week: piglet. When asked, he announces, "a piggwit is a yittel baby pig." I asked him multiple times just because it made me laugh too much inside.
--Since overcrowding is a fact and realization in most all of the classes I teach, I assign "captain" positions to the crowded classes mainly for my sanity and to get stuff cleaned back up. I made the really OCD prissy kids be the Soil Captain who had to make sure no one got too much soil in their cup for seedlings. Watching their faces as they HAD to touch something dirty was just too much.
--I've been going really green for both St. Patrick's Day and early Earth Day stuff and reading Dr. Seuss's The Lorax to most all of my classes. When giving advice on ways to save the earth, the most ridiculous one has been (age 8)..."it's important not to litter because littering is bad for the earth. when you throw gum on the ground it messes up the roads for the animals eating the gum and the cars might get stuck on the sticky gum. the gum might make accidents because cars have pollution smoke in the back and the cars would get stuck in the gum and not go very far." What's this kid's brain like???
-- We're charged with making these "Academic Galleries" or "Standards-based boards" and part of it is student work with both teacher and student comments. My favorite comment today? "I liked the way she rimed in her poem. I woulda drawed the picture better."
--Teaching transition words (first, then, next, last, etc.) always makes me want to say, "Step one, cut a hole in a box. Step two..."
And last, but certainly not least...
-- overheard this week "miss g is a slut. I saw her thong. girls who wear thongs are sluts." ...interesting since I never seem to have my pants off at work, and I'm not really sure how this child got this information and managed to draw this conclusion about me. Can a kid be sued for slander?
Oh, but maddddddd props go out to Atlanta Community Food Bank and the Kids in Need store. I got 141 pounds of stuff...donated to my class for my students to use. I've already put paper, pencils, new crayons, pencil bags, toothbrushes, chapstick, and gluesticks to work. Can't wait to use the Environment funbooks during Earth Week! If you have funds to donate and don't already have a favorite charity-- this is a good one and you can know that your money will be put to great use. :)
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