Cool Cucumber

I know I’ve been a bad blogger… but I was prompted to write because 1. someone noticed I was missing! and 2. because of something one of my students wrote. 

My class has writing homework each week in which they have to write a paragraph in response to my prompt.  I know, I’m such a meanie.  Last week’s prompt was: If you could offer three suggestions to someone about how to live a happy life, what would you suggest?  I received a lot of really neat pieces that spoke about treating others fairly, not using drugs, following your dreams, etc.  But what made me laugh out loud SEVERAL TIMES was this boy’s paragraph:

In my opinion, the three suggestions on how to live a happy life are the things that involve common sense.  First is not to eat yellow snow.  “Duh!” Everyone knows that!!!  Well you shouldn’t eat yellow snow because you might get sick.  You should also think, “Oh, this is pee snow,” not, “Oh, yay!  It’s lemonade flavored!  Yippee!”  Another suggestion is to not try to impress girls by saying, “Look what I can do” and try and stand on a monkey bar and fall and then- well, you know what I mean.  Don’t do this becasue one you’ll be made fun of and second, you’ll not be liked by a girl and thirdly, you’ll get hurt.  Third is not to pick your nose in public or period.  You shouldn’t do this because it is disgusting and gross.  Also because it gives you nosebleeds that are really bad.  In conclusion, these are three suggestions on how to live a happy life. 

Have a happy Monday!

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I have a child in my class whom I’ll call Daniel. He’s a fun kid; smart, charming, and very likeable.

I got a big surprise when I received a message yesterday from his mother. Here’s what she said:

“Hi Sarah… We have somewhat of a mystery at our house… well, um, I guess we’ve solved it, but… (fumbling for words) I just wanted to let you know what was going on. I got a call from the school office today to tell me that a screw came out of Daniel’s glasses, and they replaced it. Um… but, Sarah, Daniel doesn’t wear glasses.”

What? ‘Yes he does,’ I think, ‘All year long, he’s worn sleek, thin, black glasses!’ He puts them on every day before reading class and wears them faithfully throughout the day. Why, just today during our measurement unit, he discovered that the width of his glasses is exactly one decimeter. What in the world….

As it turns out, our charming little Daniel fessed up to stealing his dad’s reading glasses from home and wearing them at school… for MONTHS now. His dad has been tearing up the house looking for his favorite glasses, while his son is masquerading as a glasses wearer at school!

I laughed for 5 solid minutes with this parent on the phone. She is a good friend of mine (and, strangely enough, also an EU grad) and I had to just chuckle at the grand heist that Daniel pulled off. Not bad, I thought, although VERY, very naughty.

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Today at school we held Field Day- the first one to occur in September instead of May. Anyone who’s familiar with my part of the country knows that spring/early summer means lots and lots of afternoon rain, so they decided that fall weather would be more predictable.

So, wow- what a great day. I was expecting to not enjoy myself as much as spring Field Days, simply because the weather wasn’t as warm and you don’t have that ‘Yea- the year’s almost over!’ feeling you do in May. However, I had a great time… I got to know a lot of my class better (yes, we’re still bonding and learning to appreciate each other and work together as a whole) and I feel like I have some fantastic memories as a result. I also have some killer sore hamstrings, due to a few intense 50-meter dash races and an ongoing long jump rivalry.

I have always competed in Field Day alongside my class (well, not exactly competed, but more like “played along”). One of the few simple joys of teaching, though, is that when you compete against another adult in front of the kids, they really think you are the most incredible athlete in the world, and they cheer for you with vigor! One of my teaching partners last year barely squeaked by me in the 50-meter dash, so I demanded a re-match. This year- I crossed the line just ahead of her. So much fun…

Also, when we do the relays, I jumped in on a team that had a lot of slower kids- I ran one leg and ended up helping them win 2nd place ribbons… one kid who’s not very athletic at all said with extreme pride, “My first red ribbon ever!”

One funny story… at the end of the day, we do a cross country run, around our school field. They dismiss one class at a time to run, then greet them with popsicles at the finish. So I started running with my class when all of the sudden I practically tripped over a kid who looked to be about 3 years old, walking on the pathway. I stopped to help him up, when he started walking the opposite direction, toward the stampede of kids behind us. What does a gal do??? I grabbed him, picked him up out the of the way, and set him on the sidelines. I felt like such a hero. I tried to find who he belonged to, but I had to run on with my class. I bet some parent on the sidelines was saying, ‘Why is that teacher touching my child?’… but I just got scared and saw horrible things if he was in the pathway of 100 3rd-graders.

Awesome day today. These kids and their senses of humor make my recent breakup seem a little more distant.

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We saw this movie today, as well as the Aliens of the Deep film. They were both interesting, but I was more captivated by Aliens of the Deep. Some of my friends commented that the last part of Aliens was fantasy, and it was a little hard to know if what you were seeing was real (it wasn’t). I’ll admit, it was a little odd (I won’t ruin it for everyone by telling what exactly I’m talking about from the last 5 minutes). Anyway, I loved that Aliens was not narrated, as most IMAX films are. The scenes were simply shown to the viewers, and you were left to make connections on your own and draw your own conclusions.

I think it’s somewhat like the inquiry method of teaching, which is something I’m really working on nailing in science class. I try to give the kids guidance, make them wonder and ask questions, help them investigate their own questions, then let them present their findings to their peers. Pretty cool stuff- this is why I’m in education.

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I’m so excited to go see TWO IMAX films tomorrow for free. It’s a teachers’ free day at the IMAX, and two other members of the 4th grade team are going with me. They give you free things like neat-o pens, highlighters, and last time I got little flag post-it notes, and they stuff you with free popcorn and pop also. It’s probably a little amusing to witness how excited I am- enjoy it, blogosphere- because this is sheer joy, and I’m not ashamed. I told a non-teacher friend how I felt like I was being treated like a queen, and she just laughed at me.

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I had limited amounts of patience with my class today. I have this great spelling program that I have worked really hard to create- so today, for the first time, we were selecting words to use. The kids just were not getting what I was saying- I re-stated the directions about 15 times (and 10 of them managed to finish the task on their own). Thinking back on it now, I can’t figure out why I was so short with them. Frustrate with myself for not giving them enough time in the first place? I don’t know, but I know I was rude to a few of them. One of my best students, a really sweet girl, was near tears, and I tried to ease her worries and be warm but I was so overwhelmed by this “We have to get this done today!” feeling. (The students are not in school tomorrow or Friday, and we had to prepare for next week) I just feel awful. I don’t do this teaching thing for so that I can make good kids feel like they’re incompetent, and I want to be the warm, gentle teacher all the time who gives students confidence.

I think I need to apologize on Monday.

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