Class Pet

Right before the break, my classroom got a new pet.

I think this is a sign that I am completely insane, but just haven't realized it yet.

The science teacher on my team has a great many animals in his room... turtles, mice, scorpions, snakes, a tarantula, plus many others that are mounted and preserved. The kids love his class, since he is such an awesome teacher, plus there is always something interesting to look at while they're in his class.

Well, somehow or other, I decided I wanted a classroom pet. I figured it would be fun, and could be used as a reward for the children, teach responsibility, and so forth, and since there is nothing more helpful than a 6th grader, I wouldn't have to worry about feeding, cleaning, or really doing anything other than playing with the pet.

My first thought was a cat. I love cats, but can't have one at home, so I figured, hey, this would work!

It wouldn't work, though, because of allergies.

So then I decided that a hamster would be nice. But I had never really given it serious thought, just a sort of idle speculation on how much fun it would be to have something.

Then I noticed the science teacher never really had to clean his own cages... his students fought over the chance to do it.

Then I was chatting with him about what would become of his mice, since he was talking about how he had a female mouse who was pregnant, and he said he keep one or two as classroom pets, and the rest would become snake food. He said he never would feed pet mice to the snakes, but he would make sure no one got attached to most of the mice, which would be helped by having some mice they were allowed to make into a pet.

I said that was a great idea, and wanted a baby mouse when she had some.

He told me I could have first pick, and I set about getting ready for a baby mouse.

Since mice have a pretty short gestation period, I knew I would need a home for my new baby mouse pretty quickly. I received a free, used (and pretty dirty, ew) wire cage, and got some students to clean it up. It was ready for my new mouse.

But no babies.

And no babies.

Still no babies.

I originally decided I wanted one right after school started. But nothing was happening on the baby-mouse front. The science teacher was perplexed, and decided eventually there was something wrong with either the male or the female. He planned to put a new mouse in the cage and see what happened.

Meanwhile, I have a cage sitting in my classroom, taking up space. Every single day, some student would ask me if I had the mouse yet. Every day. This was enough to drive even the sanest of people insane.

I eventually just started answering, "Yes, I did get the mouse. Can't you see it? There in the bottom?"

This caused all students to stare at the cage, desperately trying to see the mouse.

I just shake my head.

On the Wednesday right before school got out for the holiday break, we had a parent conference which ended a little early (A MIRACLE! They almost never end early. They usually end after the bell has rung and the children are screaming the hallways, pounding on the doors to be let in.) The science teacher had to feed his snakes, quickly, since he didn't want to be doing with all the kids in the room, as they get all wound up, and since it was almost break time, they already are all wound up.

So he brought out his cage full of 20 or so mice, and his student helpers (7th graders that we had last year) come to help with the feeding. I said, "Can I have one of these?" and he said, "Sure. Just pick it out, quickly, so we can get feeding."

It's almost hard to pick just one mouse out of a bunch, knowing I'm saving one, and the rest will be eaten.

They were all identical white mice, though, so I grabbed the smallest and picked it.

Another mouse was saved, a male, to be put in the breeding cage.

So I had my mouse! She was a tiny thing (I say she, because I decided she was female, but I have a sneaking suspicion now she's male, and will show her to the science teacher when I get back to confirm...) and I had to now get her set up in her new home.

The bell was going to be ringing in less than 10 minutes.

I had no bedding, or food, or anything but a cage.

She really was adorable, though, and didn't bite me, not even once. (She still has only bitten one person, my co-teacher, and she has bitten him twice. I think his hands must have had something on them...)

Then the bell rings. I still have nothing for the mouse, but I couldn't do anything about it now.

I go and stand at my door, like I'm supposed to do, with my mouse.

Several students do not notice the mouse, since she is tiny.

Once they did, however, kids everywhere yelling about the mouse. I let everyone look but not touch. She is just a baby, after all, and hasn't really ever been held. (She was less than a month old, apparently).

The science teacher across from me offered me an aquarium for the mouse to live in, but I said I had a cage, but would let her know if I needed it.

Well, long story short, I put her in a coffee canister that had been holding rulers, which worked for awhile during my first class... until she discovered she could jump.

Then I had her moved to a box that paper had come in... until she discovered it had a slit in the side she could climb.

I put the lid to block her, but she eventually discovered the other side, which had an identical slit, which I discovered as she was running across my classroom floor.

By this time I had bedding from the science teacher, and I put some in the cage I had. She was so tiny at the bottom, and the wire openings look a little large to me... so using a bit of cookie, I lured her over to the side, where the wire had the largest opening, and she just went out, like it was a door.

Oops... my cage wasn't going to work.

I got the aquarium, put food and bedding in for her, and a wheel I scavenged from the wire cage.

Now, each new class that came in swarmed the new cage, since it was in the front of the room, and since they had heard I had finally gotten a new pet.

They didn't realize that I would be at the door, holding the mouse, as the searched the cage, looking for her.

I would tell them, "Well, look really hard. She's really small."

I really am a mean person sometimes.

I can't wait to get back to school and get the mouse all settled in, and see how it goes...

I will have to get a picture of her and post it, so you can see how cute she is... but she has already grown quite a bit. I can tell you about the naming drama. (Ms. Language Arts Lady, let's call her HAROLD! Plus all the other crazy things they wanted. It was pretty funny).

Right now, she's staying with my parents, since I can't have pets where I live (let me tell you, my parents are thrilled. They were happy to have had their last rodent a long time ago, back when I myself was in middle school, or thereabouts.)

So we'll have to see how that all turns out. My mother is spoiling her. She claims the mouse doesn't like the food I bought for her, so she gives her cookies, cheese, apples, pretzels.

Mostly cheese, though.

The mouse is going to hate going back to school, since I will feed her the stuff she doesn't like, and maybe cheese once in a blue moon.

Oh, well. The children will sympathize.

Holiday Presents... Plus Updates on Stubborn and Trouble

When it's almost time for the holiday break, I start thinking of things that I could get for my students as a little gift, just a little something so they know that I care.

For an elementary teacher, it is slightly easier, I feel, since they have younger students who are happier with less expensive things, plus there are far fewer of them. Their class sizes go from about 14-25 generally, though of course there are classes that have a lot more. So it's easier to spend $1 on each student, or even up to about $3, perhaps.

I have somewhere between 100-150 students. Spending $1 each is crazy, and something I just cannot afford.

So I wrestle with wanting to get them something, and the practicality of it.

My first year, I bought each of the kids a candy cane and a pencil that had red or green glitter all over it, and tied them together with pretty ribbons, and curled the ribbon. Very cute, and it was something they could enjoy, since every single middle school student loses their pencil. (Sometimes, twice a day).

This caused a little heartache directly after the holidays, since the students were thrilled with the glittery pencils (they were really cute) and since they were all identical, it was hard to know which pencil belonged with which kid. So there was top of their voice yelling matches about pencil thieving.

So, after that craziness, I might have learned my lesson, and chosen something different for the next year. But of course, I didn't. I did the same thing, but could only find some of the red or green glitter pencils, so I had to substitute them with red AND green glitter pencils.

The children, every single one of them, decide immediately upon seeing the pencils, which one they MUST HAVE OR DIE.

And they fight over which one they actually get. I am a strong proponent of you'll like what you get and be grateful for it, but you are allowed to trade if it is quiet and fair and everyone is happy at the end. 6th graders, full of sugar, looking forward to their holiday plans, are seldom quiet.

So that was fun.

This year I decided something new was in order, so I found some cute gift bags that were 30 for $1, then found mechanical pencils that were relatively cheap, (you can buy them in bulk and save quite a bit, I've found), and then got a big bag of Starbursts, Dum-Dum lollipops, and holiday mints.

So, I then packaged all them in the little baggies, using my best friend as cheap (okay, free) labor to tie the bags neatly.

It was quite a long task, let me tell you, and I think if I had not been watching television while I was doing it, I would have gone mad.

The nice thing, though, was the kids really seemed to appreciate them.

And I found out that a large bag of Dum-Dum pops contains 300 lollipops. So next time I need a lot of candy for a low price, I know where to go. No wonder Halloween candy is almost always about 40% of the little things... they're cheap!

After I gave out my gifts, the students gave me mine at the end of the week. My first year teaching, I got so much stuff, it was insane. Gift cards, candy, coffee, jewelry (mostly made by my students, but hey, it was mostly pretty), and candles. I was overwhelmed, and very thankful. The parents mostly included notes that told me how much they appreciated me. I was thrilled to know I was making a difference, plus I got some nice stuff!

Last year I didn't get very much at all. Maybe 5 gifts total, but last year was a really rough year with really rough kids. (The 7th grade teachers this year are now dealing with the same stuff as we did last year...)

This year I got a nice amount of lovely things. Cookies, candy, gift cards...

I think the favorite thing I got was a huge tray of cookies that my student had made and decorated. Sugar cookies, gingerbread men, very traditional. Very cute. And very, very good.

Now, moving on to some of my students I have written about before...

Trouble is really in trouble now... he was in and out of school right before the break, since he was constantly getting referrals and then getting sent home as his consequence. Well, now, instead of this continuing all the rest of this year, then next year, until he eventually drove us all mad, they are sending him to one of the alternative schools in our area. This will help him catch up with what he has missed, since he is really low, plus give him a very strict structure, so he can't get into too much trouble. The hope is, scare him now, and he'll be fine for the rest of school. I really do hope it works for him. He's so young to be behaving this way.

Stubborn is still stubborn, of course. He had been doing much better recently (at least in my class!) and had been doing some of his work.

The day I was giving out the bags to the students, he had a bad day. We were taking down notes from a PowerPoint slideshow I had created to teach Main Idea/Supporting Detail (tons of fun, let me tell you!) and he was mostly working on the notes. I did notice him messing around with his pen, though, and I was keeping an eye on him, because it's best to stop him early on in his distraction and get him right back on track.

I notice his pen doubled as a flashlight and laser pointer.

I hate laser pointers. They cause lots of problems.

So, I watched him shine the laser light into his eye instead of doing the notes. So I ask him to bring me the pen. He quickly tries to get his hands on a different pen, but I was too smart for him.

"Bring me the one in your hand now," I tell him.

He does, and I try it for myself. I tell him he doesn't need it, and he tells me he doesn't use the light or the pointer. I said, good, because then you really don't need it.

"But I need it to WRITE!" he informs me.

So I pop the top off (which has the light and pointer) and give him the bottom, pen part.

Then he shows me his paper, and tells me the pen doesn't really work (which it had been, but just had run out of ink). I said, great! Now you can borrow a pencil from me, and I gave him one of mine. He sat down and sulked. I threw the pen away. This made him really, really mad.

I found a pen I didn't need, and gave it to him, since he apparently needed a pen. He immediately knocked it to the floor.

This irritated me immensely.

"Pick it up, now!" I told him, and other things adding up to how dare you be so rude, etc, etc.

He just sat there, echoing his name.

I told him unless he picked it up right now, I was calling for the administrator to come and get him out of my classroom.

He sat there for a few more seconds, then picked it up.

I then ignored him, since I didn't want to antagonize him, but I also didn't want to acknowledge him while he was behaving so poorly.

When it was time to leave, I was giving the bags out, and he brought me back my pencil. I said he could keep it, if he didn't have another one. When I tried to hand him the bag, he said, "No thank you, I don't deserve it."

How sweet was that!

"You're right, you don't, at least not today, but I want you to have it anyway. And thank you for knowing that your behavior was not okay."

Anyway. A very stressful time, survived.

I am so glad for the break.

Now, it's time to get all their stuff graded that I have been avoiding.

Oh, joy

Please, No More Sugar

The kids were feisty today. I had to assign two of them to a lunch detention. I personally hate lunch detentions, because it means that I have to give up my kid-free lunch to do it. My team eats together every day, and when we have kids we have to meet in a different room, which isn't as comfortable.

But today, we had 4 kids total serving detention. The kids really are finished for the year. They don't care about grammar, they don't care about the story we're reading, they don't care about anything... not even the candy I was trying to use to bribe them. They just want to talk to their friends and eat things they're not supposed to be eating in school (which I would give them to eat, if they'd just do what they were supposed to be doing).

One of the kids that I had serving today was a girl who is constantly late to my class. She has lost privileges, she has written essays, she has had a "lunch delay," which means she gets to sit with me for 5 minutes of her lunch, but it just doesn't sink in. I warned her the last time that she was tardy she'd owe me a detention next time, but apparently she thought I wasn't serious.

The funniest part is most mornings since I warned her, I would see her in the hallway dawdling with her friends by the water fountain, and I would call down the hallway to her and tell her to get a move on. But this morning I just watched her mosey to my door. She came and almost went in, but then the call of her friends were just too much, and she headed back to the water fountain, where she was standing when the bell rang. I told her to sign in, and that I'd be seeing her today for a lunch detention.

"WHAT?!" she shrieked. I reminded her we don't yell indoors, and not to "what" me. (I sound like my mother when I say that, and I hate it, but I hate it more when a kid says, "what?" when I call their name. No wonder it drove my mother insane.)

I told her that I had been watching her messing around in the hallway, and that I just knew she was going to be late.

"Why didn't you tell me then?!" she asks.

"Because I shouldn't have to tell you. It's not my job to tell you every morning that you need to be in class. The bell does that. I just observe whether or not you are, in fact, here on time."

"But you have for weeks been telling me!"

"You're right, but you're a big girl now, and you know what a bell means. When the bell rings, you know you have five whole minutes to get to class. Now, stop arguing, and sit down. I'll be expecting you at lunch today."

She grumbled, but she's not a bad kid, just one to push to see where the boundaries are.

My other kid who had to serve today was a boy who is a little mouthy sometimes, and this gets him in trouble pretty consistently. Today the kids were talking while they were taking a test, and I was not amused by this. I had to correct them a couple of times, then got tired of that and told the ones talking to bring me their planner so I could record their misbehavior (something we do on my team, which is a good deterrent usually for misbehavior).

He yelled back at the top of his voice, "I don't have my planner today, so I guess you can't have it!"

This irritated me.

The kids are all required to have their planners every single day. If they don't, they're not allowed to use the bathroom, go anywhere for any reason, and many other things. Since it's their homework tracker, they're supposed to have it to record what they have to do that evening. So for him not to have it, that's strike one. Then for him to yell during a test that he left it at home, so I couldn't record this negative behavior?

Not a good choice. I told him he had a lunch detention, and instantly, the other kids were all very studiously doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing.

He also argued, but I didn't even engage... just told him that unless he'd like to escalate it to an after school detention, he would do what he has supposed to have been doing this whole time.

Mercifully, he gave in. He can be a real problem, as he loves to argue, and is a little ham who sees how the kids are watching him, so he can't back down. Today, the kids were all ignoring him, since they have finally started to notice that he drags them down with him when he's mouthing off and gets them involved.

When it was time for their lunch detention, the boy showed up right on time, took his place on the floor, and didn't make a sound the entire time. Good job, boy.

The girl? She didn't show up. And she didn't show up. And she wasn't there.

Finally, she shows up, 10 minutes after lunch starts. This may not sound like much, but lunch is 23 minutes long. She missed 1/2 of her entire lunch detention.

I told her that she has just earned herself a lunch delay tomorrow, and have a seat on the floor.

Why are they so feisty?!

I long for the time after the holidays. Yes, it's a stressful time because of the standardized testing that is coming, but I love the kids so much more when I come back. It's my favorite time of the year... I am fresh off of a break, but I know the kids now. Starting school is stressful, since you've got to teach the children who you are and what's expected. Coming back from a break just takes a little reminder.

I need this break, and I think they need it from me.

Plus, it's just enough time to miss them and want to come back.

Thank goodness the holidays are almost here!

Worth 1,000 Words...

Some of the things I write about are activities we've done, what the children said, how they reacted, etc. Sometimes I am able to describe things pretty well with words, but sometimes it would be better to have a single picture.


I have debated about posting pictures, since I don't want to have anything that is identifiable on the Internet... but still wanted to share some of what makes my kids so awesome... I have picked some things that I feel I can share without causing problems. So...

Here's some pictures of things I have mentioned before. Hope you enjoy!

This is the tree I have told you about. Isn't it cute?

Here's a close up of the star. It stays on the tree now, but it can't be lit, since the cord is way too short. Since it was too heavy for the little tree, I had to use 4 pipe cleaners to get it to stay.

Here's a closer look at the bald patches... this is a huge stripe down the middle. Apparently, you just can't trust 12-year-olds when it comes to decorating. (the tree has a matching stripe in the back).

Remember the projects I had the kids start just before Thanksgiving? This is one from a couple of years ago.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this, but this is a great activity that I have the kids do with new vocabulary words... it's called a mnemonic. They draw a picture that demonstrates the meaning of the word, but has to incorporate the word as the picture. (It takes them a bit of time to understand me, but then they love it). This one is the word intricate.

Here's another one... incognito.

This is a sign I have on my cabinet... I ask them to get stuff out of it for me (or if they need scissors or something) and it's called the "Listen and Silent" cabinet. I don't even want to know how many times I've said that.

I have had something called the "Wall of Shame" for the past couple of years... the kids find errors in the printed world, like grammar, spelling, and they bring it in, and we post it, with their name on it, the finding date. They then get extra credit. They find tons of stuff. Our textbooks, popular novels, the newspaper, local advertising, and even greeting cards have been put on the wall this year. (I remember a teacher when I was in school doing this same thing... it's such a good idea, as it teaches the children to be analytical readers.

This is a close up of one of the items on the wall of shame. Pretty amazing, right? I can't believe it was sold this way. (It's a teacher Valentine's card!)

Well, that concludes our little tour for today... I will perhaps be posting other pictures periodically of things the children have done, made, or maybe some of the posters in my room... exciting things like that.

The Holidays

It's been awhile since I've posted, but the holidays are always a hectic time, and it's never less true than in the classroom.

The kids get infected with a restless spirit, which causes them to go a little insane. Just a little. They forget rules. They hit other kids. They throw things. They talk back. They spit sunflower seeds on my classroom floor (one of my students cleaned my entire classroom after that one...).

I don't usually write referrals. I think I've mentioned that before. It's not that I don't believe in them, because I do, but I generally take care of the behavior before it gets that far.

But this week alone, I wrote two. And I was out one day this week! And it's only Wednesday! One was for an 8th grader who ignored me when I told him to go back out of the hallway (because it's a 6th grade only hallway, and he was cutting through.) When he didn't, I told him if he didn't, I would have to write him up... I had to follow him to the front office to get his name.

Then, one of my students had a toy taken from him earlier this 9 weeks (incidentally, it was Trouble...). I told him he couldn't have it back until he earned it. So yesterday, he went to the sub that I had and lied to her, saying I had told him to come and pick it up, and then he went through my desk until he found it. I do not like children in my desk. And the fact he deliberately lied to the sub also made me unhappy. He's done it before, so this was the last straw.

Still, I want to focus on the happier aspects of the holidays.

Today in my critical thinking class, we talked about Hanukkah, and what it meant. It was really funny what the kids thought they knew about it, like the kids who celebrate Hanukkah get a full Christmas every day of Hanukkah. Like, as many presents as they get for Christmas, but every night. I was like... not really, dears. I compared it to them getting stockings... they get stocking-type presents each night, then the final night is something more substantial.

So that was fun, as the kids were getting all excited about learning about different cultures. Before I explained that they didn't get 8 Christmases, several wanted to "convert," but they called it "change over." They wanted to know who to talk to in order to change.

I have some decorations in my room... nothing that is not allowed, of course. My county has strict rules about what is okay and what's not okay, and I am careful to follow them... (I did get in trouble with the fire department last year during inspections, because I had hung Christmas lights from the ceiling and it wasn't Christmas...). I have Candy Canes cutouts all over the place, hung by magnets I cut up and taped to the back of the paper. I have a bear with a Santa hat on that says something like best teacher. I have some various other winter-y type things.

But my favorite thing? It has to be my Christmas tree.

I love the little thing. It's so cute. I have had a small tree in the past, like 1' tall, with tiny decorations.

But this year while I was at Walgreen's to get something I really needed, I spotted the trees on display. They were on sale... well, you could get a rebate, anyway.

They were pre-lit. They had many sizes, even. From about 1.5' to 6', and some had white lights, and some had multi-colored lights.

There were also those truly ghastly pink or white foil ones, but honestly, does anyone like those?

So my tree is 4.5' tall. It's covered in lights, and it is adorable. It's a little like the tree from A Charlie Brown Christmas, because it looks a little raggedy (apparently, balancing the branches on artificial trees takes skill; I've always had real trees at home). I bought some small little glass balls for it at the dollar spot at Target, and put them on with red and green pipe cleaners, so they wouldn't fall off onto the tile and shatter.

It was transformed! It looked like a REAL tree. Sort of.

I also told the kids to bring stuff in, since it still looked sad... One little girl brought me two tiny ornaments. She added those.

Another child brought a pack of drum ornaments from the dollar store, and a tree topper (which was too heavy by FAR for my little tree, causing it to bend in 1/2, making it even more like the Charlie Brown one... I fixed that by using another bunch of pipe cleaners and securing it to the top... it now is quite... sturdy...) One little disco ball was added recently.

And today, a girl brought a packet of tinsel. I told her that was a wonderful idea for the tree, and asked if she wanted to put it on (I let the kids put the ornaments they brought in on the tree themselves, which made them very happy, and me too, since I didn't have to drop everything to do it, because if I didn't drop everything to add it right then, they'd be very sad...)

She wanted to do it, so she did.

And may I say... she has an eye for... creative expression...?

She put it on like a 4-year-old does: by grabbing ball-shaped handfuls, then putting it on top of the branches. She almost used the entire package for my tiny little tree (I use only one packet at home for my 8' real tree, and it looks completely silvered.)

It was, and still is, hilarious. I sat and watched her decorate, and I laughed and laughed. Every few minutes, she would look at me suspiciously, but go back to decorating.

She finally finished, and had tinsel in her hair, hanging off her arms, her rear end, her shirt, and some in her socks. I told her, very solemnly, that she did a WONDERFUL job, and I loved it.

Honestly, I did love it, since I know she brought it just for me, since she knew I wanted more stuff for the tree, and my kids all know I love sparkly things, and color. I know she did her best, and she worked so hard to do it.

I was proud of her, but still, it was hilarious.

I nearly lost it when the next class came in, and one of my students said, "Ms. Language Arts Lady, what happened to the tree? It looks TERRIBLE! It has clumps...! And...!" She almost couldn't find the words to tell me about how it was wrong.

Then, suspiciously, she asked, "Did YOU do that?" I kept laughing, almost not able to answer. When I had assured her it wasn't me, she seemed satisfied, but begged to fix it. I said it was fine, but don't make a mess.

As I walked the kids to the bus this afternoon, I saw tinsel all the way to the bus stop. The stuff is insidious. It got everywhere.

And the entire trip to the bus, I laughed.

The kids must have thought I was nuts.

But I'm not... I'm just loving the holidays.