Stay Sane for the Holidays!

So I’ve been reminiscing lately, thinking about all that transpires in a classroom between Thanksgiving and Winter break.  It’s such a jam-packed time, there’s so much you have to accomplish.  Grading, assessments, report cards, not to mention keeping up with all the stuff you usually do on a regular basis.  All this is coupled with the fact that the last place you want to be is at work and kids are crazy during holidays.  Any holidays.  They go insane. Then you go insane.  And this happens:

This is my #1 tip for not going insane yourself during the holidays:

Make sure to overemphasize the fact that you expect rational behavior.  I know this sounds super awful of me, but here’s how I make it happen.  I’ll print out strips of paper that say “POLAR EXPRESS” or “HOLIDAY PARTY” or something like that, whatever is the theme of the season.  Then I have my kiddos earn letters with good behavior.  When I catch them doing the right thing, or going above and beyond, or showing any kind of self-control, I tell them to color in a letter.  When all the letters are colored in, they get to participate in the party/movie/whatever you do the day before the break for your kids to do while you finish report cards.  Gosh, that sounds harsh now that I wrote it out, but it works. 

Here’s my favorite example of this at work.

I did a train unit to lead into a Polar Express (here is a little part of it!) unit for a few years.  My first year trying this out, it was fantastic.  Like, FANTASTIC.  I felt like a genius.  But despite the greatness of what was happening, my kids were getting a little out of control.  Can you blame them?  It was almost Christmas.  That’s when I came up with the “earn the party” idea.  Worked like a charm. 

But there was this one student (I mean, there were a lot of them, but this one sticks out), this one that was just not going to get on board.  I kept giving him little reminders, “If you’re going to keep acting a fool, this is going to be the consequence.”  I guess he thought I was bluffing, but I was not.  Weeks later, when the time came for my class to join the one across the hall to watch The Polar Express, he did not have the quota of letters earned.  Lo and behold, I was not bluffing.  He was astounded, and that quickly turned to anger.  But I was not backing down.  I’m tough.  That was one of the most intense expressions of anger I’ve ever witnessed.  He spent about 30 minutes growling at me from his desk, then he put his head inside his backpack for a while, and growled from there.  Eventually, he was ready to talk about it. 

“I want my Hawaiian Punch back,” he said. 

“I’m not sure I understand,” I replied.  I had no clue what this meant.  Maybe 

Hawaiian Punch is a slang term I haven’t picked up yet. 

“I brought Hawaiian Punch for the party.  I want it back,” said through gritted teeth.

“Ah, ok.  Tell me why.”

“If I’m not going to the party, it’s not going to the party.”

“Fair enough, you can have it back.”  I think that’s pretty reasonable.  I liked his logic, and he explained it well.  So I went with it. 

I tried the “earn the party” tactic again for the end of the year party.  Guess who was the first to earn all their letters…

Good luck to you all, I hope you survive the season!!!

Jodie

50 Thoughts That Plague Teachers At The End Of Summer

The end of July is a strange time for teachers.  It’s still summer break, and you aren’t contractually obligated to work, but you know in your heart you have to start working.  There’s no way you can be ready by an August 14^th First Day of School unless you start preparing July 14^th (or is it just me?).

Here's a little taste of what is going on in my spare bedroom.  It's seriously like moving twice each summer.

So in the spirit of the end of July, I’ve come up with 50 Thoughts That Plague Teachers At The End Of Summer.

1.     What day am I supposed to report?

2.   So what day should I start moving all my stuff back?

3.   What day is today?

4.   Where is my key?  Did I have to turn that in?  How do I get it back?

5.   I bet the air conditioner isn’t on yet.  It’s going to be hot as crap.

6.   What are the odds that all my furniture is still in my room?

7.   Whew, I got in my room.  Somehow, all my matching chairs have been replaced with 27 different kinds of chairs.

8.   I didn’t know we had that many kinds of chairs. 

9.   How did I get 34 desks?  There’s no way all those desks will fit in here?  Besides, I only have 27 chairs to go with them.

10.  I wonder if the custodian will yell at me if I put some of these desks in the hallway…

11.    Yep, I got yelled at.  You’re not allowed to do that.  It’s a fire hazard or something.  Time to get creative…

12.   Ok, I turned the desks into larger tables.  That’s better for cooperative learning anyways.  The table in the middle can hold the supplies!!!  I’m a genius!

13.   I think I saw something about that on Pinterest.  Maybe that wasn’t my idea…

14.  Ok it’s hotter than Hades in here, I’ll come back in the morning.

15.   Next morning: What in the world?!  How had they not cleaned the carpets yet?!  Starting over.

16.  I should have taken pictures yesterday.

17.   I give up.

18.  Let’s decorate a bulletin board!!!!

19.   Wait…what’s my color scheme for this year?

20.  Obviously chevron and polka dots, but what colors?

21.   How much is appropriate to spend at Mardel?

22.   I saw this really cute thing on Pinterest!!!

23.   I think maybe I need new organizational plan, all the Pinterest plans look better than mine.

24.   It would be easier if I take everything out and start fresh.

25.   Oooo, those shelves are really dusty.

26.   Where did I leave the Clorox wipes?

27.   Ahhh…clean shelves.  Holy cow, how did all that stuff fit on that shelf?

28.   Oh wow!  Where did all this stuff come from?  I’ve never seen this before in my life.  What other stuff have I never seen before?

29.   Do I need it?  Can I trash it?  Will someone else want it?

30.Think of Hoarders.  THROW IT AWAY!!!

31.   Has it been 5 hours already?  How do I have less done now than I did 5 hours ago?

32.   NEED SONIC DRINK

33.   Just get it all back on a shelf somehow.

34.   Should I reorganize my classroom library?

35.   I saw a really great idea on Pinterest about that.  Oh this is going to be great.

36.   Has it been 5 more hours already?  What in the world did I do today?

37.   NEED WINE

38.   How many more days do I have before professional development starts?  Can I get this done?

39.   Well I already started, I have no choice.

40.            Is it seriously August already?!  What in the world?!

41.  What is my team doing?

42.   Class list!  What percentage of these kids will actually show up?  How many others will show up unannounced?

43.   Blank nametags.  Leave them blank.

44.  Shoot.  I have to leave blank all the personalized things.

45.   How long have I been here?

46.  What am I doing here?

47.   Wait…what day is it?

48.  What day does school start again?

49.   I need to get my act together.

50.  If someone comes in and moves everything while I’m gone again, I’m going to lose it.

Just in case your brain is as scrambled as mine, here are ready-made "Back to School" literacy and math center activities to make your life a little easier!  

Here’s to the end of summer!

Jodie

Sometimes, in the Summer

Every so often, during the summertime, I get a little reminiscent of the craziness of teaching.  Never reminiscent enough to want to go back any more quickly, but just enough to laugh a bit.  What a better way to share the reason I’m laughing than to share it here?!

This is what I’ve been thinking about for the past few days:  My kindergartners wrote a class book to give advice to the Pre-K students who will be starting next fall.  It was a long and drawn out process (which was actually REALLY cool, and I’ll write a post about it at some point this summer), and to keep them feeling like they were accomplishing something they were writing individual books at the same time.  Kindergartners have the attention span of a gnat.  Some real gems came out of these individual projects.

“At first I was scared of my teacher because she had crazy hair.  But don’t be scared of crazy hair.”

“I didn’t know what to do, so I just listened to the teacher.”

“It was crazy because we switched tables!”

“You can have friends in other classes because you can see them outside.  But sometimes you won’t see them outside because they will run right past you and not play with you.” (he was obviously dealing with some things in a healthy way- teacher win!)

“I had fun playing video games.” (no clue where this came from…not once did we play video games)

“100+100=200” (another teacher win!  My kindergartners can do 3-digit addition!!!!!)

“10x10=100” (they can do 2-digit multiplication too!!!!!!)

Haha!  I know people always say that kids say the darnedest things, and they say it because it’s true.  

Jodie

5 Greatest Gifts I've Ever Received From Students

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, I have been reflecting (teachers have to reflect ALL THE TIME) on the wonderful gifts I’ve received over the past few years from students.  Now there were quite a few options to choose from, but I managed to narrow it down to the top 5.  Sadly, I couldn’t find pictures of some of them, so you’ll just have to imagine.  I’ll do my best to describe them accurately without exaggeration.

5.  Flowers

Last Valentine’s Day was a pretty spectacular gift day.  Now, I’m not the biggest Valentine’s Day fan, but I tried to rally since that kind of thing is really fun for 5 and 6 year olds.  One of my students (and it was THAT student, you know, the one that you learned their name first because you have to say it SO much because they are such a hot mess) brought me flowers.  It was the sweetest.  I even teared up a little.  I showered him with thanks, gave him a hug.  He did the shy shrug and half-smile thing, almost making up for the hours of frustration he had caused me.

I lovingly placed the flowers in a vase and placed them on my desk.  A few hours later, his mom comes in to help with (or be there for) the Valentine’s Party, which is my least favorite school activity.  She comes up to me in a panic asking about the flowers.  I showed her how I had proudly displayed them. 

And she says, “Oh, those aren’t for you.  They are for a girl in the class he has a crush on..”

So I had to take the flowers out of the vase and give them to a 5 year old.  That was a personal low point in my life.

4.  Grocery Bag Full of Hot Cheetos*

This was not a bag of Hot Cheetos.  Nor was it a grocery bag with a bag of Hot Cheetos inside it.  This was legitimately a plastic grocery sack with loose Hot Cheetos inside of it.  I wish I had taken a picture, just to prove that I’m not exaggerating.  But, sadly, I did not.  You’ll just have to take my word for it.

*For the life of me, I do not understand what the huge deal is with Hot Cheetos.  They are disgusting.  But I can’t tell you how many fights I’ve had to break up started by Hot Cheetos.

3.  A Shofar

Yes, a shofar.  If you are not familiar with this, it is a musical instrument (usually made from a ram’s horn) typically used in Jewish religious ceremonies.  This would have been a much cooler gift if either this student or I were Jewish, but we are not. 

Also, this gift was not for any particular reason.  Just a random day, he walked into the room and handed me a shofar.  I did take a picture of this to prove that it actually happened (see picture 3)

2.  Put a Bird on It!

In The Hood, you get lots of notes and pictures from kiddos who are trying to suck up to you.  This particular picture has been my favorite so far—partly because of the fact that it is of birds, partly because the birds are labeled, mostly because of the craziness of the situation surrounding the picture.

I was going about my day, having a relatively calm day (that should have been my first clue that things were about to explode).  I was doing small reading groups, and heard some door slamming and yelling going on in the hallway right outside my room.  I happened to glance out my door window to see my teammate being swung around the hallway by the lanyard around her neck.  She was desperately trying to get the lanyard off, but the student on the other side of it was having none of that. 

In an effort to save her life, I ran to the hallway and said “Hey student!  Do you like birds?”  I have no clue why I said birds.  I don’t really like birds.  Maybe I had subconsciously noticed him reading a book about birds.  But he stopped dead in his tracks and turned his attention on me.  I did a quick scan of my body, making sure I had nothing he could strangle me with, but this huge smile spread across his face.  He let go of his teacher and ran to get colored pencils and paper. 

We teachers took a second to regroup in the hall (and of course follow all administrative protocol).  Twenty minutes later, student showed up at my door with this picture (see picture 2).

From then on, every time he got angry at a teacher, we’d just ask for a picture of a bird.   He’d do all this research on the best birds to draw pictures of, and do these fantastic representations.  Teacher success!

1.  Panda Bear

I don’t really know why, but I think panda bears are really cool.  Not cool enough to collect figurines or know random trivia facts about them.  This is just a general interest that I have.  This note from a beloved student used to have a panda bear button on it, which made it even more precious than it was originally (see picture 1).

Also, the story behind this note makes it more precious.  I had a classful of super-emotional girls.  They could not go a full day without crying.  It would usually start with one crying for some non-reason, then another would start crying because the first one was crying.  Then another would cry because all her friends were crying and she didn’t know how to make them feel better.  I know it sounds sweet, but really it’s just annoying. 

We had just come in from recess, and of course all the girls were crying.  None of them could explain to me who started it or why anyone was crying, so I pulled them all out into the hallway for an intervention.  After what seemed like HOURS of snottiness and tears, it came out that one was upset because she couldn’t decide which of her best friends she should play with.  The others were crying because they could sympathize, they also couldn’t decide which best friend to play with.  So, naturally, I suggested they all play in a group together.  Apparently, second graders need more intentional time together (2’s company, 3’s a crowd).  So we made a schedule for the week of who should play with who each day at recess.

So this picture reminds me that I fix people’s feelings when they are sad.  Crushed it.

Jodie

What are the best gifts you’ve ever received from students?

Field Trips

Spring is in the air, and spring always makes me want to take field trips.  Now, from a teachers’ perspective, field trips are the worst.  The absolute worst.  They involve so many stinking forms and permission slips.  You have to fill out a separate form for each person involved in any aspect of a school (teachers, parents, principals, district administration, transportation, food service, nurses, specials, any type of aide or resource teacher). 

Then there’s the money…the dreaded money.  How much does it cost to get in?  How much does it cost to drive there?  How do I divide the $20 per mile bus/gas fee by 120 students?  Will they round up to 5 if we go 4.7 miles?  What about chaperones?  Oh shoot, what if no parents will come help me?  Oh shoot, what if all the parents want to come help?  How do I decide which ones have to pay and which ones don’t?  What if I get robbed between collecting money from students and turning it in to the office (because that is a legitimate fear in The Hood)?  What if half my class can’t pay?  Can I afford that?  What if someone pays, then doesn’t show up that day and their parents demand the money back?  But then the financial secretary can’t refund the $4 because it was already deposited?  What if they just start yelling at me to give them their $4 back?

These are just the extra questions on top of the gajillion you already have to deal with because you are a teacher and nobody knows what the crap is going on in public education.

Anyways, my first year in The Hood, I somehow managed to get my kindergarten class to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.  

This is mostly a museum for adults, but they had a transportation grant (which eliminated all the $20 per mile x 7 miles to the museum divided by 120 students madness).  And I somehow got enough adults to go that we could have manageable-sized groups.  Plus God blessed me with 1-on-1 parental support for my kiddos who liked to run off.  I figured that things would mostly go okay, and I would be pretty available in case of emergency or overwhelmed parent.

I don’t know if you realize this, but museums with important and expensive pieces of art, like the Oklahoma Western Heritage Museum, have many alarms and such that sound just in case people try to steal the said important and expensive pieces of art.  Also, kindergartners like to touch things they are not supposed to touch, like important and expensive pieces of art.  And when these kindergartners are not monitored with an eagle-eye, they WILL touch what they are not supposed to regardless of how many times you said not to or the extreme consequences you threatened.  When they do this, it looks as though they are trying to steal the important and expensive pieces of art and ALL the alarms in the museum will sound.  And even if you saw it coming and slo-mo launched yourself at the kindergartner to stop them from touching the art and were only a half-second late, the alarms will STILL sound.  And they are very loud.

So I locked them in a jail cell...

They also tried to climb onto the horse, but they were too short.  Luckily this was in the "hands on" section of the museum.

I know all this because it happened to me.  Never again have I taken a large group of young children to a museum for adults.