A Whole New Year!

Well, it's a brand new year! How exciting.

Well, it should be exciting. And it is, mostly... but also challenging.

I have been very busy recently, and haven't really had a chance to get anything posted, but everything should be calming down soon... hopefully.

Well, a quick update on what's been going on:

• The first day back from break, we had a parent conference scheduled. We all thought that this was insane, and that we had a lot of work to do to get ready for a new year, and getting back into the groove, but we all met in the designated place... and the parents never came. It's not like we asked for the conference... they did. The child is getting all As and Bs, and while she could easily have straight As, it's just because she's being way too social. My whole team was irritated (since you have to wait, because if they show up, pretty much no matter how late, you have to meet with them.) They rescheduled the conference (never mentioning the one they just missed) for a few days later, then sent us all emails saying how sorry they were since they had to cancel the meeting. I was thinking to myself, "You're sorry for telling me in advance you're not coming, but you're not sorry for just not showing up?"
• One of my students, Trouble, may be going to an alternative school, which hopefully will get him the help he needs and give him the structure he needs.
• Another student, Stubborn, is being removed from my class and put into a special language class, since he needs so much low-level help... this might be good for him, but maybe not, since he seems to have bonded with me...
• We are now entering the push towards the standardized tests that are coming relatively soon... I feel crazed already. I need to get them to understand informational text, plus cause/effect, comparison/contrast, strong vs. weak argument, and fact vs. opinion, and not forget everything else we've done all year. Help!
• The kids came back totally mellow from the break... which is almost unheard of, at least with middle school kids. They must have been extremely busy, and are glad to get back to the slow pace of school...?
• The mouse is doing well, and she has grown an amazing amount since I got her... the kids were amazed. She is also fat (thanks mom, for taking such good care of her...) and doesn't like to eat her mouse food, as it's boring. She'll get over that really quickly, though, or starve. The science teacher on my team wants to give her a temporary mouse friend, so we can have mouse babies... but we'll see about that.

I think that's all the major stuff that happened this first week back... hopefully all will remain calm, and the kids will just learn everything just like they're supposed to do...

Well, I can hope, right?

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

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.

6th Graders are Adorable

Kids are cute. It's almost a proven fact. People make lots of money selling books that contain what they say, and they also include pictures of the cute things they do.

Sometimes, kids try to be cute, and fail miserably. Things they think are cute tend to be very not cute. It's the things they say without thinking, the things that show you that they have incomplete information but still use it to form opinions, ideas, and even facts that are the cute ones.

(Of course, some things are annoying. Like when you have just done something you wished you hadn't, and they ask you why, or what you're doing. Or when, in all innocence, they ask if you're okay, because you "have a rash on your face" when you're just having a poor skin week.)

But still... they are very, very cute.


Here are some of my favorite things I have heard recently.

• One of my students was telling me all about a book he was reading, which had an archipelago that contains dragons. He pronounced it: Arc uh pull AHHHH gooo. He said it so seriously, I almost laughed at him, but instead managed to hold myself together enough to answer him, then correct his pronunciation. (But him saying "goo" at the end almost killed me.)
• One of my students saw me in the grocery store, and she asked me, "You shop at the grocery store?" as if it was the craziest thing she'd ever heard of. I asked her how she thought I got food to eat, and she said she always thought the school fed us.
• One whole group of kids (when asking why they couldn't have their tests back) were horrified when I told them I didn't have a chance to grade them over the weekend, since I had a birthday party to go to, then I went to an amusement park. They said things like, "YOU go to PARTIES?" and " But what do you do there?" as if I am too old to enjoy an amusement park.
• One of the cutest things (and embarrassing for the kids) that they do is call me Mommy, or Mom, or their version of the word. They are so embarrassed about it, and I can't blame them. I just say, "Yes, dear?" and ignore it, or say, "I'm Ms. Language Arts Lady, remember?" to try to keep them from complete embarrassment.
• Some of my little angels are starting to become little vandals, starting the trend they continue throughout school. Writing on their desks, the bathroom stalls, etc, it drives teachers (and janitors) crazy. The best part about most 6th grade vandals is that (and this is the cute part) they are simply too foolish not to put their name on their artwork. My student, Trouble (you may remember him) drew all over one of my desks, then proudly signed his name. He then had the nerve to ask how I knew it was him. He just stood there blinking, holding the wipes he was going to use to clean my desks, and was stunned to realize I had read his work. It was hilarious.
• Kids arguing about politics. They sounded like they knew what they were talking about, but then they'd say something just slightly off... but they were quite impassioned.
• When they don't want to close their book when we're reading a story and it's at a good part when we need to stop.
• Playing the spelling game "Sparkle." It's hilarious to watch, and now that we've played it, it's hilarious to hear them beg to play it again. You essentially just all spell out a word out loud, but each kid says only one letter then the word 'sparkle.' It's so cute to hear them starting to confuse themselves with the word sparkle, and it starts to be speckle, Spackle, sprinkle, and so on. SO cute.

Anyway. Kids are really cute. I know there are some things I'm not remembering, but I'll have to write those later. I just can't think...

Hooray for the cute kids!

Small Favors...

So, after my terrible day of the previous week, I have had a few very calm days, despite there still obviously being something in the water. Instead of just my students being crazy and getting in trouble, it's now all the students.

I guess I feel better, knowing it's not just me.

My calm days mostly come from the fact that the misbehaving students received ISS (in school suspension) for their misbehavior, so they were not in my room. Not only were those two out, several other students from my team were also in ISS for various reasons (thankfully none that had anything to do with me or my class).

Now, on a normal day, one or two or three students will be in ISS. We know how many and which kids are in there each day because the supervising teacher (I really would not want her job) emails all the teachers a list first thing in the morning, so we can know who is there. (If it's one of our students, we're supposed to send work down to them, so they're not just sitting and staring at the wall all day.) Then, she emails us whenever a new student enters ISS, almost an on-the-spot news-reporting about which students are misbehaving that day. Normally, one student may enter ISS during the day, occasionally two. Today, six students entered it.

I am telling you. Something is definitely in the water.

It's almost fun getting the emails, I think just because it's a throwback to the days when you were young, and said things like "Ohhhhhh... who's in trouble!" in a sing-song voice. The best part is when you see a name on the list you recognize... followed by "7th grade" or "8th grade." Because that means that while they were my problem last year, they are not my problem this year. I'm already looking forward to those emails next year.

Trouble has been in trouble almost constantly lately. His mother says we're responding to him the wrong way. She says we don't understand him. While that may be true, it seems a bit suspicious to me that he's not getting along in any of his classes, with any of his teachers. At least one of the teachers should be relating to him if it was us causing the problem. He has 7 different teachers! I do worry about him, but he is just not making it easy to help him.

And Stubborn has killed two more spiders for me (boy, he's helpful when he wants to be.) For some reason, he has recently bonded with me, which I guess is a good thing. He shows me all his work, and wants to tell me all about it, and about what he's doing this weekend, etc, etc. He shows me his Geography project (which I still have no idea what it was he was showing me, but he did get a C so I'm proud. I guess.) It's very sweet, and I am really glad he's attached himself to me, because he is doing much better in class, but sometimes, it's really hard to listen and give him my full attention. I don't want to discourage him, so I'm trying really hard to listen.

So anyway... I am just grateful for small blessings, like having a peaceful day, free of the trouble students. I know they'll be back soon, and I also know I'll be back to trying to find out what works for them, because I truly do want to help them, and I also want to be one of those success stories you hear about. But until then... I'll relish the peace.

Music Soothes the Beasts? Not Today... (Plus Trouble's Introduction)

Well, after the wonderful, joyful, perfect lesson using music, I was thrilled to go into work today, ready to introduce my kind of music to my students, and see if they enjoyed Josh Groban as much as I do.

But then, as it always does, reality crashed in.

After the perfection of the previous day, I should have known that it wouldn't work. My first class of the day, which is an advanced class, were wound up as they came in, and they didn't ever really settle. They listened to the music, made their comments, and gave the song a title, but they mostly were silly. (When asked to describe the pictures that formed in their minds, they mostly said things like, "A man eating a taco," "a woman walking down the road in Mexico, with tacos," and "a man dumping his girlfriend after she shot him." They all did enjoy the music, though, so that was a good thing. The only one who had anything negative to say was one boy who told me he didn't like it because it sounded so sad it made him feel depressed.

Then, during the next block, to add insult to injury since I was already feeling a little down about how I didn't really get the responses I wanted, the Internet, computer network, and phone system went down. No Internet (which is how I was playing "The Nutcracker" for my example), no projector to show them the journal prompt, nothing. So I couldn't even do it with them, so my remaining lesson was short, which is always frustrating.

Then the air conditioner broke, which just had the effect of making me really grouchy, since it was hot, I wasn't able to do what I wanted, and the kids were still wound up for whatever reason.

Suffice to say, it wasn't the joy-filled day I had anticipated.

I will try again Monday, though.

In response to the person who commented and wanted to know what the kids had thought and said about the song:

-A girl said: I really like this song because it's so peaceful and calm, and it sounds like the man singing is really passionate about something or someone (this is exactly what she said, because when she said passionate, it made me want to laugh at her. I didn't, though, I was good).

-One of my boys created this whole story to go along with the song. It was hilarious! The other kids wanted to hear the song again while they thought of his story, to see if it fit. His story was about a man strumming a guitar while singing in a boat going down a river, then the same man is singing to a woman in a house with a candlelight dinner nearby, while the woman looks on "lovingly" and smiles, because she has forgiven him for "forgetting her birthday."

-I don't like this song, because I think the man has just lost his girlfriend, who he loved very much, and he's so sad and lonely sounded, it makes me sad.

-I love this song! Who is the singer?

-I know who sings this! It's that guy... you know, the one named Santana. (Nope, I said, sadly. Not quite.)

-One of my students (one of my favorites, just because she's such a sweetheart) and I had a little giggle-fest about him, because she did know who he was, and she wanted to know if I thought Josh was cute. I said, oh, yes, I do. And he's the perfect age for me (because for some reason, my kids really want me to marry one of the twins from the Harry Potter movies. More than a few students have told me that. I keep telling them I'll get arrested because they're so young...) My co-teacher (a male) told both of us that if he didn't have such a gorgeous voice, neither one of us would give him the time of day. We both looked at each other and shook our heads sadly at his ignorance. I said, "Um, he's hot, regardless of that voice. Add in his voice, and Josh Groban is perfection." He just shook his head sadly in return.

-It's a song full of hope, and this one man is hopeful his girl will come back to him.

The titles they gave the song were almost all silly, stuff like:

• Mi Amor (is this spelled correctly??)
• The River (the boy who had the man boating)
• Hopeful Days
• Love Stinks
• Please Forgive Me
• The Taco Man

And many more.

As I mentioned yesterday, I have a student that is just pure trouble. He actually might be almost redeemable, because he still can get excited and participate in the classroom assignments. For example, we were illustrating our portfolio covers, and he drew a car, and had to show me all the details as he added them, telling me how much each one would cost. I would say things like "Wow! People are crazy to pay that!" and "Looking good, Trouble!" But this is involvement on his part is rather rare, and mostly he's just a pain in the rear.

The first day of school, I had to get on him for tripping another student, a teeny-tiny one. He likes to make sound effects constantly. I don't think I have made it through one lesson without calling his name. Not a single one.

Plus, he's Mr. Sound Effects. He must constantly whistle, sing, make cat noises, and bird noises. He's enough to drive anyone insane.

If you ask him a question, he will just sit there and stare at you defiantly, and refuse to answer.

Trouble has already had to meet with my entire team of teachers to discuss how he needs to change, but it hasn't really made a difference. Next step will be a parent conference, then I know there'll be trouble for Trouble. When mom's are called to the school, it rarely goes well for anyone.

Oh, joy.