Educating Stephanie

It's that time again...

2010-04-21T21:32:00.002-04:00

Springtime Blues

This morning I rolled over and lifted my head
looked out my window then crawled back in bed.
Those sights and sounds could mean only one thing,
I muttered to my pillow, “It must be spring.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I really don’t mind,
the blossoming honeysuckle with smells so kind.
I don’t even despise the swaying trees
that blow pollen in the air with the slightest little breeze.

The bees sound so lovely as the sun warms the ground.
But it’s none of those things that are getting me down.
So what is it you ask, you really want to know.
All right, I’ll tell you. Here I go.

It’s the insane buzzing of the sharpener grinding number twos.
My teacher usually gives us gel pens, but for now that’s through.
The itchy, scratchy sound of pencils marking bubbles,
that sound lets me know that I’m in for trouble.

‘Cause next comes pieces of erasers blowing,
left over from tricky questions we had no way of knowing.
Drowsy brains are next and they’re the worst!
Reading long, boring passages makes it want to burst.

My friend Sam looks so pitiful with his watery eyes,
when he can’t find the right answer, he sits there and cries.
The pressure is steadily building up inside.
Even my teacher is looking a little fried.

I think we’d all rather just sit outside,
read some Sharon Creech and bask in the shine.
Benadryl works great for my allergies
Too bad there’s no pill for the CRCT.

Fluffy Bunny

2010-03-18T19:57:00.002-04:00

I'm a firm believer that there is NOT enough fun in schools. So my team and I decided to put a little fun back in our dysfunctional year, at least it was fun for us.

Since we're learning about graphing (see previous post), we needed to collect data. In the past, I usually have my kids think of a survey question to ask and then create graphs that reflect their data. Fine idea, but I did that last year and they've been doing that since Kindergarten and will probably continue to do it through the fifth grade.

So what was our briliant idea, you ask? We played Fluffy Bunny. My students were MORE than willing to stuff marshmallows in their mouth and it was really a win win situation. They had fun and they were quiet. This also proved my hypothesis about my loud bunch of kids. They have bigger mouths! My class, on average fit more jumbo marshmallows in their mouth than the other two third grade classes. I had one fit 7! Not even kidding!

My only regret, I left my camera at home. Triste

Key to success?

2010-03-18T19:52:00.002-04:00

I'm teaching graphing. My students need to be very familiar with different keys that could be used on a pictograph. I was trying to convey the importance of looking at the key so amid the dancing, jumping up and down, and overall excitement (displayed by me) one of my intellectuals raised her hand and responded, "it's like you can't drive a car without a key and you can't read a graph without a key." Brilliant! I had her repeat it again for the class to hear. I was hoping this would connect with my students, I didn't think they would connect like this:

"You don't have to have a key. All you have to do is lift the hood and touch some wires."

I'm wondering if there will be a question on the CRCT (standardized test quickly approaching) on how to hot wire a car...

Mondays are hard for me

2010-02-10T20:59:00.002-05:00

Tuesday, a student of mine was under my desk having a slight melt down. I crawled under to join him. He hadn't had too good a day on Monday, so I wanted to make sure he started Tuesday off right. As soon as he looked up he said in a half-sobbing way. "Ms. Smith, Mondays are hard for me." I always like to reward students who are able to express themselves with their words, so once I heard this, I decided to cut him some slack for playing hide and seek when he was supposed to be reading. "Well," I told him, "I understand because Wednesdays are hard for me. But luckily for you and me, today isn't Monday or Wednesday so let's get back to reading." He didn't seem to be buying anything I was selling. "Ms. Smith, I think Tuesdays are hard for me too."

Finding the writer within

2009-09-09T08:27:00.005-04:00

This past month has been challenging to say the least. But, when I see a child who, for the first few weeks of school would write a sentence, erase it, and then swear off writing each and every day during writer's workshop find his inner writer, it makes all the stress and frustration vanish and it gives me hope that this new challenge is indeed conquerable. Yesterday during writer's workshop, I was engrossed in what I was writing and happened to look up and notice that this student had more than half a page filled. I was thrilled! I stood up and walked over and claimed the seat next to him. I didn't say anything, we both just kept writing. Secretly, I was there in case his eraser took over again. When the timer went off (signaling time to clean up and bring your work to the rug for sharing), I happened to look up and I noticed this student writing on his way to the rug. The kid who couldn't wait for writing to be over, couldn't put his pencil down!
And that is why I teach. I can tell this kid is going to continue to impress me.

It's like a bad breakup

2009-08-13T20:50:00.006-04:00

They don't tell you how hard starting a new year of school will be. My first year was full of anxiety and exhaustion. "Am I doing this right?" "What if this doesn't work?" "How much longer can I possibly devote to lesson plans?" But beyond the stress of being a first year teacher, there was this unbelievable immediate connection with me and my kids. I loved them from the moment I saw their names on that class roster. I was slightly obsessed, but mainly just in awe. They were amazing and while they made me want to pull my hair own on a regular basis, I just knew I had found my place in life. I spent 180 days with these kids. I watched them learn and grow and I found myself learning and growing right alongside. Then, the end of the year came and went and as I watched them ride away on the buses I waved them goodbye partly believing I would be seeing them tomorrow.

Then school started. New grade, new building, new kids and I didn't want to do this "teaching" thing anymore. They just never tell you in any education courses in college how hard it will be to walk into a classroom and not see your babies. The ones you've taught and fed and cared about for a year. The ones who've left lasting impressions on your life. The ones you've loved as your own.

And while its still hard to come in my room in the mornings knowing that I won't see Tydarius' smile. And its misserable to think about Amiracle being all alone at a new school without me to take care of her, I'm ready to fall in love with my new kids. Boy do they have big shoes to fill.

You do know school is about to start?!

2009-07-29T21:30:00.003-04:00

Last night I received a frantic phone call from my lovely Trenton.

"Ms. Smith, did you send me this card from Chicago?" (Oh yeah, while I was in Chicago I sent my students a postcard)

"Yes, did you get it?"

"Yeah, but Ms. Smith, what are you doing in Chicago?! You do know that school is about to start."

"I'm not in Chicago anymore. I just visited Chicago on vacation."

"Well, where are you? School starts on the 6th you know."

"I know. I'm in Athens. Don't worry. I'll be there on the first day of school. I can't wait to see you."

As I wrote the postcards, I started to miss them. And judging from the phone call I'm not the only one who's missing friends. I have to be honest, I'm not ready for my summer to be over, but I am ready to see my kids again. My first day back for pre-planning is tomorrow. Bring it on!

I Heart Chicago!

2009-07-18T15:44:00.005-04:00

So far this summer I haven't had much to post...until now! While my mom and I are in Michigan visiting family and I dragged her to Chicago for a day. I learned that 1 day is not long enough to see this city so I hope to go back soon.

Skyline view from the Shedd Aquarium

One of Chicago's many theaters

Millenium Park's cloud gate or the big jelly bean, whichever you preferPlaying with the cloud gate

Still playing around underneath the cloud gate

Me and mom on top of the double decker bus ready for our tour
We jumped off so we could have some Chicago style pizza at Pizzeria Uno

We stopped by the cubbie's stadium too

Beautiful buildings. Beautiful park. Beautiful weather. Beautiful Chicago.

Swim Time with the girls

2009-06-16T21:01:00.004-04:00

Since Leah won't start a blog of her beautiful children, I'll just include them on my blog. On this day she brought over her lovlies for the afternoon to go swimming. There were some really great accomplishments by the end of swim time.

Here is Bizzy Beth kicking like crazy. While we never got her away from the stairs, she was very proud of those big splashes!

Suzie Q was the dare devil of the group. She was swimming like a mermaid all by herself...with a little help from Shrek. Maddie came to help with the pandemonium of 3 kids under the age of 4 in the pool. Sorry Roberto, I didn't get any pictures of your swimming adventures.

A Few Odds And Ends

2009-06-16T20:48:00.003-04:00

Here are some things that happened during those crazy last few days of school

The kids wanted to learn about volcanoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and such. Unfortunately we only really got around to earthquakes and volcanoes. Here are the kids making their own volcano that we later exploded.

Naji's Happy Birthday brownie Sundae. Yum Yum! It was so good. He actually was willing to share some with me.

Mr. Marcus showed up to help me with field day. As you can tell, the kids really don't like him much.

As part of field day, we also have indoor activities. Dance Dance Revolution is one of our favorites.

A Sweet Invitation

2009-06-16T20:34:00.003-04:00

My sweet Takaiyah called me on Friday. She was calling to invite me to her sister's birthday party they were having. Summer is so bitter sweet. I love having "me" time and I'm really enjoying the class I'm taking right now, but when I hear their voice or see old pictures of them, boy do I miss teaching.

I asked Takaiyah what her little sister wanted for her birthday. This was her response:

"So, what does your sister want for her birthday?"

"Well she already got like $22 dollars!"

"Wow, what is she going to do with all that money?"

"Probably buy a wig." (very nonchalantly I might add)

"A wig, huh?"

"Yep"

"Why does your sister want a wig?"

(A little Takaiyah giggle)

"Well, you know how when you and Ms. Neher push your hair away from your face when it falls? She really likes that. So she's getting a wig that has hair like yours."

"Well what color is she going to get?"

"Probably yellow like Hannah Montana."

I just miss them!

A Master of Education?

2009-06-04T16:26:00.003-04:00

I've said this before, but from the moment I had those 13 students alone with me for the first time I knew I had to go back to school. There was still so much more for me to learn about this whole "teaching thing." I received my acceptance to the UGA Masters of English Education degree program. School starts for me next week. This class will last all June from 8-4, but the bright side is that I don't have to teach it and I find that very refreshing and exciting.

Its only been a week!

2009-05-26T20:51:00.003-04:00

So much for the student stories waiting until fall. Yesterday, I was at home after a fun trip with my new almost roomie, Dawan. We were all sitting around the table and my phone rang. I saw the caller ID and it was one of my student's parents. I figured she was returning my phone call about Naji leaving his hat in his desk. I didn't answer thinking she would leave a message. The phone rang again. So I answered it.

"Hello"
"Hey Ms. Smith" I expected this to be Ms. Bailey. It wasn't.
"Hey Naji. What are you doing?"
"Nothing."
"Naji, are you calling about your hat? I put it in the office for you."
"No. My my told me that."
"Naji its only been a couple days since I've seen you. Do you miss me already?"
"Yeah, I was wondering when we could get together."

Knowing this would be the closest thing I'll get to a date all summer, I figured I probably shouldn't turn him down. He is so cute afterall.

"We'll get together soon. I'll call you and we'll go swimming. Ok?"

Confessions of a first year teacher

2009-05-26T20:30:00.000-04:00

Well, its officially over. I finally moved the last of my things from my current classroom. My first year definitely wasn't perfection, and here's some of my reasons why.

The moment my kids entered my classroom, I wanted to go back to college.

Those first couple weeks, I would lay in bed at night thinking how much I took college life for granted.

My normal bedtime was around 9:30 and I was usually home by 8. Yes, I'm aware that on many nights I was in bed before my 8 year old students.

Once, I ate a school lunch. It was a chicken sandwich with chips and I'll never do it again. Promise.

I wore tennis shoes with khakis. Hey, at least I didn't buy an applique sweater!

I took the best naps on Friday afternoon. Sometimes I would "nap" until Saturday morning.

Which brings me to my next confession, "what social life?"

I berated my kids when they showed no signs of indulging my desires. I think it went something like this, "Raise your hand if you think _____'s behavior is cool. (wait for a few seconds for effect) Wow, no thinks its cool? See _____ no one raised their hand, now sit down!"

I kept tangerine jelly beans in my top drawer. Along with laffy taffy. And ritz crackers and peanut butter. And truth be told, the large jar of aspirin was in my bottom drawer. These were for those less than perfect moments.

My aspirin jar is empty.

I once ignored a pushing match between two of my students because I secretly thought they both deserved it. What? I didn't just say that. I don't know what you're talking about!

This was the hardest year of my life.

I would do it all over again. Oh yeah, I am. Next year. So stay tuned for more student stories in the fall.

Trip to the Swamp

2009-05-20T21:34:00.002-04:00

Every year, second grade along with their book buddies in Kindergarten take a field trip to a camp near Athens. They have the chance to take a hay ride, roast s'mores, go on a short hike around the camp, and play on a huge blow up bouncy thing. Its the perfect field trip and this year was no exception! The kids had a blast and it was definitely one of our favorite days in second grade.

Dreams come true

2009-05-13T19:24:00.006-04:00

I started missing my kids months ago. Back in October (my favorite month of teaching) I would occasionally have this same dream: that it was the last day of school. I remember feeling frantic and anxious that it couldn't possibly be time to let my kids go. I would wake up missing my kids, then relieved that I still had over 100 days of school left with my them. Now, its day 176 and I'm feeling frantic and anxious, only I'm not waking up.

I mean, who wouldn't miss this? Luckily, I get to take some of my lovlies with me to third grade. Oh, yeah. I'm teaching third grade next year. Still warming up to the idea.

Sidewalk Chalk Saves the Day!

2009-05-10T10:45:00.002-04:00

I couldn't take it anymore. We needed to go outside. But we still needed to do math...

Brilliant!

My Little Boogers

2009-05-08T12:45:00.003-04:00

Words I never thought I'd say:
"which happened first, the booger or the french fries?"

But I said them today, right after I heard this:

"He dug in his nose and put his booger on my chair!"

"He took my french fry and rubbed it all over the table!"

And thats when I said those magic, never thought I'd say, but I said words
"which happened first, the booger or the french fries?"

And for those whose curiousity is peaked, the booger happened first.

Crafty-Thrify-ness

2009-05-07T20:31:00.004-04:00

I was sitting at home this evening watching Sex and the City on my T-Vo when I realized "oh, crap! I promised my kids we'd learn about plate tectonics tomorrow!" I had planned on making rice krispy treats to use as the "plates", but I didn't have any rice kripies or treats. I begrudgingly took my pajama pants off and put shorts on and ran to Publix. As I drove I thought about how much I did NOT want to make rice krispy treats tonight. Then I walked in the door and noticed their Sale Items...graham crackers. Perfect. Same idea, less mess, on sale. Sounds like a winner. Then I walked by the produce and there were navel oranges, on sale. Did you know that if you cut a naval orange in half it looks similar to the inside of the earth? So now I have a box of graham crackers and a naval orange for my plate tectonic lesson tomorrow. Hopefully my kids can appreciate my crafty-thrify-ness.

Suspend Me!

2009-05-06T20:08:00.005-04:00

Two of my charming students got suspended today...before 9 am. They had quite a busy morning. By 9 am they had pushed, bullied, turned chairs over, thrown object at an innocent bystander walking down the hall and threatened that they "didn't care if they got sent home because they hated this stupid school anyways." Pretty impressive. And it got me thinking, what would I have to do to get sent home?

Ownership

2009-05-04T20:40:00.002-04:00

All year I've been teaching the Georgia mandated second grade standards. I've tried my best to make it fun and engaging for all my students. Sometimes I'm more successful than others. However, now that the CRCT is over I have a little more freedom with what I teach (or at least that's how I perceive my current situation with only 12 more days of school left). So we had a class discussion about what my kids would like to learn. The two main ideas were 1: tornadoes, earthquakes, and hurricanes and 2: countries (especially India and Pakistan thanks to Dr. Greg Mortenson). The engery in my classroom today as I showed them the new books I picked up from the public library on these topics was contagious! Its amazing how excited kids are when they feel they're in charge of their learning. I learned all about this in undergrad, but since I have to teach the standards its not so easy to do this. At times this year I've "tricked" my kids into thinking that they chose what we were learning, when in actuality I was still the one in control. But I think today they really understood that they were in control of what and how they were learning and I learned how important it is for kids to have that kind of ownership.

I have a confession

2009-05-02T18:15:00.002-04:00

I fell asleep at the stoplight on my way home from work last week. The sun was so warm and I was so tired and I fell asleep. I quickly awoke (and luckily not to horns blowing).

Girls Night Out

2009-04-24T19:34:00.003-04:00

Takaiyah and Amiracle earned the Chili's Citizenship Award so I took them out to dinner to celebrate their winnings! It was a lovely Girls Early Afternoon Out!

Psyched!

2009-04-24T19:11:00.010-04:00

At first we were getting "Psyched" about the CRCT (standardized test given this past week), so we tie-dyed shirts with the help of parents, siblings, and of course our willing art teacher. It was so fun!

Tie-dye party take 2. Who knew you were supposed to take the rubberbands off AFTER you put them in the washing machine. Luckily, my kids had NO idea!

Now we're just Psyched its all over!

To celebrate how great WE all did on the CRCT (I'm including myself in that because it takes a lot to stay happy and positive while watching your lovely students, in whom you've donated your whole life to educating, bubble in the wrong answer, then erase it and bubble in the OTHER wrong answer) we played a rousing game of kickball with Trenton's new mentor, Marcus. He's always up for a good time.

Pretending

2009-04-14T17:09:00.003-04:00

I'm going to pretend I didn't hear Pinky say "poop" over and over while I'm trying to eat my lunch.

I'm going to pretend that Michael didn't just push Tydarius in line.

I'm going to pretend Trenton is paying attention to what I'm saying and not playing with that string.

I'm going to pretend that electricity in the whole school didn't just go out.

I'm going to pretend I don't hear the roar of screaming children in the lunchroom because the lights just went out.

I'm going to pretend my kids aren't in the lunchroom right now.

I'm going to pretend that we're not stuck inside for recess...again.

Welcome to my land of make-believe.

Easter Buddy

2009-04-11T13:49:00.003-04:00

"Ok Buddy, its Easter picture time. Say cheese."

"We're going for the happy, cheerful kid-friendly Easter Buddy. Let's try it again."

"I know being the Easter Buddy is hard work, but no laying down on the job. Take 3"

"That's better. But picture this, you're the Easter Buddy hiding bones for all the little puppies to find."

"Perfect!"

Happy Easter from the Easter Buddy and Molly and Steph!

My boys' new crush

2009-04-10T13:12:00.003-04:00

No, its not Hannah Montana or Rhianna. Its my sister, Ashley. She drove through Athens yesterday on her way to South Carolina to see her new flavor and she was kind enough to drop by and bring me lunch. She ate lunch with us and got a good taste of what goes on here at school (I think it was a great motivator for her to go into business). Needless to say my boys fought over sitting at the table with her and when she left they asked about her all day! Luckily for Ashley I have a standing rule in my class about having a girlfriend. I tell my boys that they can't be a boyfriend until they can drive girls places and buy them things. That should save Ashley for about 8 more years. You're welcome...and thanks for the Panera, it was the best school lunch I've had all year!

The possessed pencil

2009-04-08T20:24:00.004-04:00

We've all been given a worksheet (some of us more recently than others) where the directions tell you to draw a line from one column to the answer in the other column. Not so difficult. Sooo what do you do when you give a child a worksheet similar to the one described and they CAN'T draw a line connecting the answer? Every time he went to draw the line to the answer, his pencil took on a life of its own and veared in a different direction. I sat watching this train wreck as this student fell apart emotionally and thought, is he just doing this to mess with me, does he not know the answer, is his pencil possessed? I also must mention that with the CRCT looming just over a week away, I'm not nearly as patient and understanding as I should be. But, I put on my caring face and went over to help him. He's now almost torn a hole in his paper where he just keeps re-tracing the same line (thats going in the wrong direction) over and over. I ask him if I can help him draw the line. I ask him to point to the answer and I tell him I'm going to put my finger there and I just want him to draw a line to my finger. I knew I'd solved the problem, but wait! His pencil just continued down the wrong line again! What is going on?! I put my finger there again and had him try going the opposite way this time, nope. I'm losing it. So back to my original question, what did I do?
"Tyler, love I'm about to flip out. Can you just go on to Part B of the worksheet? Please."

Got the kids...where's the shoe?

2009-04-03T19:12:00.008-04:00

Thursday we went on a field trip to the Botanical Gardens. My friend Matt came to help supervise (thank goodness), but even with a 6:1 teacher-student ratio, we still managed to loose one. Not a kid, but a shoe. A bright red and white striped, lace-up shoe, belonging to none other than Pinky. She asked to use the restroom and considering the bathroom was in almost eyesight I said "sure". Off she skipped to the bathroom. When she came back (about 2 minutes later) like this:

Matt: "Hey, Pinky doesn't have both her shoes."

Me: "What?!"

Matt: "Look. She only has one shoe."

Me (turning to look): "PINKY! Where is your shoe?!"

Pinky: "I don't know. I only have one."

Me: "Didn't you wear both of them into the bathroom?"

Pinky: "I think."

Me: "Did you leave your shoe in the bathroom?"

Pinky: "Don't know."

Me: "Let's go look."

After looking in the bathroom, under the stalls, down the bathroom corridor, in the gift shop, and around all the lovely rain forest plants we were still 1 shoe short.

Me: "Pinky, I just don't understand where your shoe went. Who was with you?"

Pinky: "Amiracle, I think she took it."

Me: "Amiracle, did you take Pinky's shoe?"

Amiracle: "No"

Me: "That's what I thought."

After seriously contemplating taking her back to school with only one shoe, I decided to go back once more and look. Maybe it was my teacher intuition or just a hunch, but I checked the trashcan right by the entrance and what do I see...a red and white striped, lace-up shoe.

They teach you to constantly count your kids on a field trip, maybe they should have taught me to count shoes as well.

April Fools Day

2009-04-01T18:08:00.002-04:00

So I thought I'd play a little April Fools Joke on my lovely children. With the CRCT looming just a little over 2 weeks away, jokes and fun have been placed on the back burner unfortunately. So today for our lunch menu I decided to change our Chicken Nuggets or Chef Salad options to Liver and onions or Spinach casserole. Since that is one of the first things my students do when they enter the classroom (make their lunch choices) it was immediately a topic of conversation. I decided to observe the chaos and not get involved right away. It was hilarious watching them try and figure out what the lunch choices were and what they were going to pick because in the words of Tyler, "they both just sound so gross! I think I'm not going to pick either." Of course my fun had to come to an end. But I must say, we all thought it was pretty funny.

Hmm...What does it say about me that I enjoy the satisfaction of tricking 8 year olds?

Lots of Cupcakes

2009-03-26T09:59:00.004-04:00

Last night I made cupcakes. Today after we took our practice CRCT test, I handed out the cupcakes. My kids were delighted! Trenton was so happy about the cupcakes he told me that "if this cupcake had a dress on it, I'd marry it." Those must have been some GOOD cupcakes.

Our New Addition

2009-03-19T16:12:00.003-04:00

Our baby chicks arrived on Tuesday! We got 5 chick eggs from the USDA, who is one of our partner's in education on Monday and by Tuesday morning they had all hatched. It was so cool to actually watch 2 of them hatch out of their eggs. They are our class' FAVORITE thing! The kids even named them: Poche (from iCarly), Spike (when it was first born it looked like it had a mohawk), Spotty Dot (has 2 black spots on its back), and then the twins Zack and Cody from the Disney show.

They're so cute, Amriacle and Pinky love holding the baby chicks.

They even get read to during reading. Hopefully Buddy doesn't feel replaced.

Spring Break!

2009-03-10T10:21:00.005-04:00

Teaching is filled with tons of abbreviations (like SST, IEP, EBD) and euphemisms (we say a child is "progressing" instead of saying "your child's behind academically"). I think that "spring break" is another one of those clever euphemisms, because technically its not even really spring yet. If I were to name "Spring Break" I would call it "I'm tired, stressed, and I could snap at any moment if I don't get a break Break", or maybe "Reality Break". Whatever you want to call it, I'm glad that its here. Spring Break gives me time to visit friends and family, sleep past 5:30, go to the gym, and read those books I've been too busy to read. I just finished one of my new favorite books (a suggestion from my friend Becky) called The Glass Castle. Its a sad yet quirky memoir of growing up poor in Apalachia. I'm currently reading a book that has sparked a lot of excitement in my class. My kids have been hooked on Greg Mortenson's children's book, Listen to the Wind (a suggestion from my friend Dawan) and so I decided to read Three Cups of Tea to get more of the background on the story. My kids like that we're (kind-of) reading the same book.

Snowed In

2009-03-02T10:19:00.003-05:00

If you live in Georgia, there is one thing that is inevitable: every winter they will predict snow and so everyone will get really excited for the chance of snow and possibility of no school, then the day of the big "snowstorm" will come and go without so much as one measly flake. So after living in Georgia for 23 years and having only seen real snow about a handful of times, I've decided to ignore the predictions of snow. But then this happened...

So I invited my friend Andrea and her puppy Henry over to have dinner and play. The dogs had a lot of fun. The snow was deeper than buddy's legs so he was really funny to watch running through the snow.

This is what my car looked like this morning.

Oh, Buddy. Cheer up! There's no school today!

Its red and grows in the ground...

2009-02-28T15:03:00.002-05:00

While digging, George (a grad student whose writing his disertation on urban gardens) found a radish. He held it up and asked the kids what they thought it was.
"An onion!" one kid shouted.
"No, its not an onion, but close. It goes on a salad."
"Ranch Dressing!" yells Tydarius.
The college guys look at each other, then look at me, then they start dying laughing.
"yep, thats just the first of many funny things you'll hear while hanging out with us," I tell them.

Plants for Peace

2009-02-28T14:55:00.005-05:00

Andrea's first grade class along with my second grade class have decided to take what Greg Mortenson started with Pennies for Peace and grow a garden. We're going to call it Plants for Peace. We want to grow vegetables and then teach others in our community about the nutritious benefits of growing food. Our kids were really excited about it and we even got the attention of some college students in the Geography department to come help us out with our first project: turning over the gardening beds. In one hour we turned over 7 beds!

We were tired and dirty, but we were even more excited about our project! While walking back to class at the end of the day, I heard Trenton say, "This was even more fun than playing on the computer!"

Happy Birthday Janie

2009-02-25T19:02:00.003-05:00

It was 4 years ago, at Janie's birthday that I was first introduced to these girls. Now they're my best friends. Despite having gone through breakups, graduations, moves, and illness, they're still my best friends!

Happy Birthday Janie!

Friendship Blocker

2009-02-25T18:56:00.003-05:00

Our sweet counselor taught my class some new lingo:

friendship blocker - to do or say something that hurts someone's feelings and prevents them from wanting to be your friend

friendship builder - to do or say something kind that would make someone want to be your friend

The other day I got onto one of my lovelies for doing something that I called a "friendship blocker". Other students agreed and he removed himself from the group and began pouting. I then assured him that if he would be a friendship builder, others would want to be his friend. He then told me, "well you should talk to my momma and dad about that because I was born that way!"

Sorry to hear your genetics prevent you from being friendly

Valentine's Cookies Take 2

2009-02-19T20:06:00.007-05:00

When I was student teaching I got to do a lot of fun things because there were always at least 2 teachers in the room. It allowed for more creative things to take place. So last year while I was student teaching we made Valentine's Day cookies. My mentor teacher, and I were both there along with a collaborative teacher and a Special Ed teacher. It went really smoothly and everyone had a really good time. So what made me want to tempt fate and repeat the experience with only 1 teacher, I'm not sure. While it was quite the ordeal for me, my kids loved every minute of it!

We mixed, we measured, we rolled, we cut, we baked, we decorated, then we partied!

just to tide you over...

2009-02-18T21:01:00.003-05:00

I have plenty of things to post, but I have don't have plenty of time. So just to tide you over...

When reading about the tooth fairy today Tydarius remembered a time when the tooth fairy visited him:

"I have a connection because I lost a tooth, not a long long time ago, but a short long time ago..."

Made me laugh.

Teaching Effect and Cause

2009-02-11T20:41:00.005-05:00

One of the standards we teach in second grade is effect and cause. For example, the little boy gets his pants dirty (effect) because he rode his bike through the mud (cause). Its always easier to teach when there is a real life experience to connect to the topic. So I guess I should consider the fact that my students had a Totally silent day today (effect) because their behavior in music yesterday was horrendous (cause) just another teachable moment.

Goooo Dawgs!

2009-02-05T18:56:00.004-05:00

I took two of my boys, Andre and Trenton, along with Andre's sister to a UGA basketball game. And for the record, boys are so much easier than girls! We had so much fun. I took them to my place and played Wii and they played in Becky's closet (it takes so little to entertain them), and then we went and grabbed dinner and then on to the game. They wanted to sit as high as possible, which we did and we had a blast cheering on the Dawgs (too bad we lost). Cheepest date I've been on in a long time.

Dinner at Stevi B's on kids night: $ 7.60

Tickets for the UGA basketball game: $8.00

Taking kids to their first UGA game: Priceless

I shouldn't be a teacher today

2009-02-05T18:38:00.002-05:00

I shouldn't be a teacher today. My kids are too loud, my patience is too thin. All I want is for them to sit and listen, is that so much to ask? I take a second to close my eyes and take a deep breath, and chaos erupts. All of a sudden I have one kid in tears and two others playing sword fight with the new pencils I just gave them. Seriously, are you really hanging upside down on your chair?! I give up! I want to go home and crawl in bed and try again another day. I look at the clock, I laugh out loud. Its not funny, its only 9:30. If a first year teacher began the year with 13 kids, 2 kids moved away, and 2 more students moved in, 1 student is crawling under the desk, 2 boys are tying their shoe strings together, and 3 students are in timeout, how long will it take their teacher to loose her mind? Ugh!

Buddy's Buddies

2009-01-30T19:35:00.005-05:00

Buddy is now our in-house therapy dog, thanks to Dr. Rogers (my principal). He came today to cheer on the students for their first SWYK (Show What You Know) test. We will take one every Friday until the CRCT (our state standardized test) in 10 weeks. After the SWYK, Buddy got in some quality reading time with his best buddies. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, Buddy or the kids.

This is Stephanie. She just arrived from Florida and joined our class on Thursday. She was delighted that at her new school, dogs come to visit.

Janek and Buddy are so cute together.

Buddy loves being read to by Amiracle!

100 days down

2009-01-24T14:50:00.004-05:00

I can't believe that I've been teaching for over 100 days! We celebrated the day by making fruit loop 100 day necklaces. The 100th day of school also landed on the same day as the Obama Inauguration so it was quite the exciting day for my students.

Here they are modeling their necklaces while playing their new favorite math game, War (with dominoes). I also have a student intern coming to my class on Tuesday and Thursday mornings to observe/help. Welcome to our crazy class, Ms. Evelyn!

2 months later...

2009-01-24T14:26:00.004-05:00

My lovely students don't always make the best choices during their specials each day (ie they don't follow instructions, they push and hit one another, they talk out, and forget all about R-E-S-P-E-C-T) so in order to keep the Specials teachers from wanting to kill me, I set up a rewards system. I told them that I got a Wii and told them how much fun I had when I got to play it (a little dramatization is all my kids need to get them really excited) and they started begging me to bring it so they could play. They fell right into my trap.

"Oh, so you guys want to play the Wii too? Hmm, I don't know if I would even be aloud to bring the Wii to school"

"Please, Please"

"Well, I guess I could ask Dr. Rogers, but I'm not sure I would want students who hit one another at PE to use my Wii. So, I'm sorry. I just really think that you have to have self control when you play the Wii."

"We won't hit anymore!" "Yeah, we'll have self control"

"Well if you want to earn the Wii then you will have to earn the Specials award 10 times. That will show me that you are ready to play the Wii."

"TEN TIMES?!"

"Well, if you don't want to..."

"No, we do, we do!"

Even though this conversation happened more than 2 months ago, I'm still proud of their accomplishment and Wii really had fun!

Ta-Da!

2009-01-24T14:06:00.005-05:00

I've finished the headboard and my room makeover is almost complete. I spent all last weekend working on the headboard. It was definitely a group effort and I'm glad that I have such a handy dad and such a helpful mom. I'm very happy and I've found myself spending much more time reading and just spending time in my room. This is my unvieling of my new adult room (minus a few accent pillows that I haven't found yet).

Me and dad cutting the board

Hanging the headboard

Ta-da, my finished project!

Birthday Bliss

2009-01-17T20:15:00.008-05:00

Thursday was my birthday. Happy 23 to me! Even though I did have to go to work, it was still a very wonderful day! Here's my list of why my day was so special:

~ Free Jeans Day (and what could be better than that?!)

~ Millions of "Happy Birthday" from my kids

~ My kids sang our Happy Birthday song to me for Morning Meeting

~ All day my kids were constantly reminding their friends "be nice, its Ms. Smith's birthday"

~ We got to have an ice cream and dance party at the end of the day (you can't beat sprinkles

and the Jonas Brothers)

~ My dear friend David came over and brought me an amazingly great Tres Leche cake he

baked, then he left...sorry, I'll try and get a boyfriend before next year :-)

~ My sweet girl friends came over and ate David's cake with me (thanks guys, it was fun)

~ I took the day off from work on Friday and came home to spend time with the fam
~ My mom, dad, Ashley, Roberto, and Spiers went out to eat with me for my birthday

The Ice Cream and Dance Party.

David's Yummy Cake! Thanks David

Phew! I'm exhausted. It was quite the busy couple of days. But it was very fun! I can't wait to see what this year holds

Four Legged Foe

2009-01-12T18:34:00.007-05:00

Don't let these cute, cuddly faces fool you. They've been quite mischievous lately.

For those of you think that my weekends are uneventful and boring, I have news for you. This past weekend I stayed very busy thanks to my two lovely dogs.

Day 1 : Molly frolics through the woods behind my house and comes back covered in mud. Bath numero uno.

Day 2: Molly gets let out and comes back covered in poo. Oh my gosh, seriously. Bath time take 2.

Day 3: Molly gets let out on a leash!

Day 4: memories of bathing Molly have fled from my mind and she comes back covered in poo...again. Molly is the most well-bathed dog in all of Athens.

Later that day: Buddy gets the credit for this one. He found an atomic red hot and opened the wrapper and when I woke up from my nap my floor and the dog bed was covered in red food coloring.

I'm tired of cleaning!

I Have a Dream Writing Contest

2009-01-12T18:29:00.003-05:00

After studying so much about Martin Luther King Jr. and his impact on our society, my class wrote their own I Have a Dream Speech. They turned out really well and so we compiled them into a book. Since they were so good, I decided to submit them into a writing contest for all of Clarke County. And I found out over the weekend that Andre won first place and Daniela won Honorable Mention. I'm so proud. They're going to be delivering their speech at a MLK luncheon on Monday. I'll be sure to take pictures!

Ready Or Not...

2009-01-06T20:37:00.002-05:00

So, my wonderfully relaxing and enjoyable Christmas break has come to an end and it was back to work bright and early this morning. As I was driving to school it almost felt like the beginning of the school year all over again. I thought that I'd forgotten how to do this whole teaching thing, which was ok because my kid-o's forgot how to do the whole student thing. But I got over my "I don't know how to do this" as my assistant principal walked in to do a formal observation. I didn't think that I had missed my kids until I saw them walking down the hall. None of them entered my room without a big hug hello. They've just become part of my family and I missed them, even all the crazy, patience-testing, pulling my hair out times. Because eventually they will willingly appologize for saying "shake your booty" on the carpet during a mini-lesson and it just makes me forget all the difficult times and love them even more.

P.S. The shake your booty comment came of Pinky...of course!

Pajama Day

2009-01-02T17:54:00.006-05:00

Twas the day before Christmas break, and all through the school

Not a teacher was teaching, having fun was the rule!

So, we put on our pajamas, popped some popcorn and drank hot chocolate, and snuggled in for the Polar Express. Buddy even came to enjoy the laid back day.

This is my definition of "peace on earth"

8 Fabulous words!

2009-01-02T17:45:00.006-05:00

On the beach, in a swimsuit, in December!

Amy and I went to visit her aunt, uncle, and cousins in Titusville, Florida. We read at the beach (did I mention it was warm enough to wear a swimsuit?), shopped till we dropped at the outlets in Orlando, and fixed a flat tire on New Year's Eve on the interstate after dark.

Enough of this cold, rainy weather. I'm ready for summer!

Ok, so my dad changed the tire, but it was still quite the fiasco!

Its better to give, than to receive

2008-12-25T18:02:00.004-05:00

The story of my favorite Christmas gift:
Naji came into the classroom on Friday and told me that he had a gift for me in his bookbag. I stood beside him as he dug through his bookbag to find it. He handed me a sour gummy candy. "Here, sorry the bag broke on the way to school." "Thats ok Naji, is the rest in the bottom of your bookbag?" He looked in his bag, then he looked back up at me. "No, I ate them, but I think there might be one more left in the bottom of my bag." He dug around for a few seconds and pulled out another sour gummy candy. "Here, Ms. Smith." "Thank you so much Naji (me trying not to laugh)."

So I can't say that I ate those 2 sour candies, but I can say that I was very touched by my students' willingness to give his last 2 pieces of candy.

My To Do List

2008-12-23T13:14:00.003-05:00

So over the holidays I have 2 main things I need to get done:

1. Study for the GRE that I'm taking in January
2. Fill out report cards (the thing I hate most about teaching)

So far this holiday I have...
gone to my friend, Leah's wedding reception
finished Christmas shopping
wrapped all the presents in my parent's house
made myself a new blanket for my bed
decided to redecorate my bedroom in Athens, including making a new upholstered headboard
taken Buddy to the vet
started reading my new book that Becky gave me

I wonder what else I can find to do instead of what I'm supposed to be doing.
Hmm...
Hey Dad, need help raking the yard?

My Shoes are from China

2008-12-21T19:12:00.004-05:00

Many of you may know that one of the loves of my life, Pinky was adopted from an orphanage in India about 3 years ago. Since then she has captured the heart of many teachers and students at our school. I've never met anyone so full of life and as many of you have heard me say, everyone should have a Pinky in their life.

Anyways, on Friday, Pinky wore these cute little orange shoes with jewels on them. She never gets to wear these because they're just little flats and her mom usually makes sure she wears shoes that tie so she keeps them on her feet. But since it was pajama day she got to wear her beautiful orange shoes and she LOVED wearing them! She had them off most of the morning just looking and noticing things about them. Whenever she found something else to share she would rush to tell me. "Ms. Smith, these shoes are from China!" "Wow, Pinky thats amazing." Next thing I know, Pinky has practically told everyone at the assembly who would listen to her that her shoes are from China. "I'm from India and my shoes are from China" I heard echoing around. She was so thrilled.

I just didn't want to be the one to tell her that 95% of most things are from China too.

Getting Ready for the Holidays

2008-12-21T15:22:00.005-05:00

Amid all the assessments and Holiday performances, we did have a chance to do a little giving back. We made my family's favorite Christmas goody (buckeyes) and distributed them to Fowler Drive's little elves that help make our school run smoothly. The kids had a great time making the buckeyes and then delivering them to people around the school. I was nervous about undertaking this the day before they got out of school, because in case you haven't been around school right before the break - its CRAZY, but my kids actually exceeded my expectations and no one was killed in the making of the buckeyes. In fact, we listened to Christmas songs on Pandora (see dad, you're not the only one who uses it) and laughed and had a really great time. I told Tydarius that I would tell everyone that he was the best peanut butter ball roller.

Our Buckeye Recipe

Mix 1 1/2 pound of powdered sugar, 2 sticks of butter, and 1 small jar of peanut butter together. Roll into small balls. Refrigerate. Dip into Chocolate candy coating and allow to set. Mmm Mmm!

After making buckeyes and delivering them, it was time for clean up! I have to say that my gold character is rubbing off on my students. My kids are cleaning machines because we do it every Friday before we leave to go home. We stack chairs, empty the recycling box, set things up for Monday, clean the boards, sanitize the tables, etc. But I thought we would do a little deep cleaning since we'd be gone for a couple of weeks and I was noticing that some of my lovlies couldn't fit one more thing in their desk. Yes, we tackled cleaning the desks. And boy and I'm glad we did. I won't tell you what Daniela had stored in the back of her desk, only that it was growing mold! Ugh!

Gingerbread House Fun

2008-12-18T20:02:00.006-05:00

Bless our Librarian's heart. Every year she lets the first and second graders come and make gingergbread houses in the media center. The kids LOVE it! There were just a couple guidelines:

Rule 1: Do NOT lick your fingers until you are completely done!

Rule 2: If you get frosting on your fingers, DO NOT lick it until you done and a teacher has told you that its ok to lick your fingers!

Rule 3: Don't put your fingers near your mouth, even if you REALLY want to lick the frosting! Wait until you are completely done before you lick your fingers!

I know what you're thinking. You just said the same thing 3 different times. If you think thats not necessary, you haven't been around 7 year olds with frosting lately. We were trying to keep things as sanitary as possible. I kid you not, I looked over and my student dropped frosting on the table and reached down and licked it right off. Comical. Next time there will be 4 rules.

Rule 4: DO NOT lick ANY surface even if icing is involved.

Ok, NOW you can lick your fingers.

Our creations!

Dear Ms. Smith

2008-12-16T16:38:00.003-05:00

I received this apology letter today from one of my friends:

Dear Ms. Smith,

I will be a good man.
And I will not hit pepull.
You are Street.

Love your student,
Tydarius

Is this "street" or what?

Weekend with my girls

2008-12-14T20:00:00.003-05:00

I took the weekend off from planning, Christmas shopping, wrapping, baking, etc. and decided to act my age and go visit my good friends in Augusta. Adam and Janie just moved into a precious house and so we decided to hold our annual Holiday party at their new house. Amy and Nathan made the long trek from Alpharetta.

We all got there around 3, by 4 we were all hungry, and we finally decided on a place to eat by 5. When we got back, we hooked up the Wii for the boys and us girls went shopping. We had a great time. I haven't laughed so much in a long time. I miss my friends!

Field Trip!

2008-12-12T21:14:00.010-05:00

Some how I got put in charge of planning our first field trip. Actually, I kind of volunteered because I didn't think we'd ever go on a field trip if I didn't. So we took at totally free field trip to downtown Athens. We rode the city bus from Fowler to downtown. We started at the Athens Banner Herald newspaper, then headed to the bank, and finally to City Hall. We had planned on eating lunch at Lay Park, but because of the torrential downpour, we opted out of that.

Here we are on the city bus just leaving school. Notice the smiles and general "good mood" of the students. At this point, we're really happy to be out of school for the day, embarking on a fun journey.

At this point, we all looking at the nice tour guide, giving her our attention and respect. We're all still really happy to be out of school and doing something new.

Getting a little tired, but we're still listening.

If you're thinking "hey, that girl looks really over it," its because she is.

By this point we've been to the bank and got caught in a heavy downpour while walking to City Hall. By this point I'd also heard "I'm hungry", "I'm starving", "my feet hurt", "will you carry me?", and "I'm tired" about a million times. I'm channeling my inner zen.

Our last stop, and THANK GOODNESS! I'm not sure who was more tired, the kids, the teachers, or the poor intern (who luckily is also my friend who I asked to come with us). Hopefully she still wants to be a teacher.

I was just so very tired after this whole ordeal. Its just all controlled chaos.

Breaking the record

2008-12-05T17:35:00.002-05:00

I know with how much I brag about my students, you may not know that I have a couple of really severe behavior issues. And don't think I've cured them, I just choose not to talk about them. But I will tell you, that on any given day you could walk into my classroom and see a child banging his head forcefully against a wall, another child screaming at the top of his lungs, and another one aggressively kicking or hitting something or someone in my class. One of my boys, I actually had in one of my student teaching classes. He can be defiant, aggressive, disobedient, and so on, but he had and AMAZING day today! He has a behavior check sheet and today he got a perfect score! I was like a proud mama. Today was a good day. No tears, head-banging, or defiance. Woo Hoo!

Pray Always

2008-12-05T17:28:00.003-05:00

Today is Friday, which means Friday munchies, jeans day, and spelling tests. During our spelling tests, Tydarius has a hard time staying quiet. Actually, he has a hard time staying quiet at ALL times, but thats another story. Today, I threatened Tydarius in my meanest teacher voice (after he kept talking) that if he talked out again, I would have to send him to another class to take his spelling test, which would be hard because no one will be there to call out the words. He got quiet and I turned away. When I looked back, he had his hands clapped in front of his face, eyes closed, and mouth quietly mouthing words. I said, "Tydarius, what are you doing?" "I'm just praying hard." Precious.

This was "Wii"ly fun!

2008-11-29T19:50:00.004-05:00

While I was home with the family for Thanksgiving break we play A LOT of Wii! My sister's boyfriend, Rob bought Ash a Wii for Christmas (why he let her open it over a month early, I'm not sure, but I'm not complaining). We played bowling, tennis, boxing, baseball, and Mario Kart.

This is me boxing. I won all 3 rounds!

Where has November gone?

2008-11-22T18:42:00.012-05:00

I need Andre here to give me the accurate countdown, but I know that the holiday season is quickly approaching. It seems like time is just flying by. And no, I haven't quit teaching (although looking at my blog you might think that). In actuality, I have just been so busy. Here's the spark notes for what's been going on in my classroom.

Mayor Davison came to visit our class and teach us about her job and her role in our local government.

Buddy visited our classroom. The kids adore him, and he comes home exhausted. Its a win-win situation.

We had a story book character parade. My class chose the book Piggy Pie so they dressed up as farm animals, a wolf, and a witch, while I dressed up as the farmer. It was a lot of fun.

I was also given the opportunity to speak with soon to be teachers at UGA about being a first year teacher. In a nutshell this is what I told them:

I always thought I'd be a teacher. I enjoyed college and I liked student teaching. But I never knew how much I would LOVE teaching my own kids in my own class. With the tears of joy, have come tears of frustration. There are times I want to give up and go home. And most of the time I feel like I'm 55 instead of 22. I don't get paid enough and I work really long hours. But when Trenton turns around from me dropping him at after school and says "wait, what about my hug?" its all worth it.

Road Trip

2008-11-03T20:44:00.005-05:00

Its Fall Break and there's only one way I wanted to spend my time off school: with my dear friends Wendy and Daniel in Chawlstin (aka Charleston). It was quite the road trip, but it was so worth it. This was my first time visiting Charleston and it was such a beautiful, history-filled city. We took a horse drawn carriage ride around the city (thanks Kevin) and then went shopping in the open market. Then we journeyed to the beach, which was all of 5 miles away from Wendy and Dan's house. Champ had a wonderful time chasing the waves. I miss my friends, football season hasn't been the same. But it was great to see them and spend some much needed Dan and Wen time. Thanks for the fun guys!

Me, Wendy, and Kevin (the horse). He's the biggest horse in Charleston, a whopping 19 hands!

I saw this and thought of Janie. A whole street of houses in all different colors and we all know how much Janie LOVES color. Its called rainbow row.

Love this house. But there's a story. So this house was built by who once was the richest man in the Charleston. He had 6 children and built each of them a house just as elaborate. Hmm, what do you think dad?

Election 2008

2008-11-03T10:12:00.005-05:00

So in my class, we've been learning about government over the past 5 weeks or so. My students are just gobbling it up. They have really loved learning about their government, especially about the new president, which they have been claiming has already been decided and Obama won. They learned so much about the election and the Presidential candidates that first grade wanted them to come and teach their students about the election. So I thought I would be doing a great disservice to my students if I didn't allow them to vote. So I set up a polling place at the end of the hall and my students got to vote for who they wanted to be the next President. I'm sure you can guess who won in my class election.

My students were such great examples of being a good citizen that I decided to go and vote on my day off. After 2 hours of standing in line (luckily I brought a book and some water) I casted my ballot and I'm a proud Georgia Voter.

Haunted House Publishing Party

2008-11-03T10:02:00.008-05:00

On Thursday, we had our Spooky Story publishing party, where all my students got to share their spooky stories and then, we made haunted houses out of graham crackers, frosting, and tons of candy. I normally don't promote eating all those sweets, but I made an exception for halloween. Boy, were those houses scarry (sort of like my students ALL day!)

My new student, Janek! Isn't he so cute?

"James, James where are you?"

2008-11-03T09:44:00.003-05:00

So on Friday Dawan and I, and almost the whole branch from church went to Clemson for some Halloween fun. We were supposed to dress up like half of a famous couple in hopes of finding our "other half" there. I dressed up as a Bond Girl in search of my James Bond. However, "Double O" must have been off catching bad guys and totally missed our rendezvoux. Apparently, James wasn't the only one running late, Gomez Adams and Joe the Plumber didn't make it that night either.

My Dinner Date

2008-10-28T20:57:00.004-04:00

My lovely student, Daniela won the citizenship award which entitled her to a free kids meal at Buffalos. I thought I would take her out for dinner to celebrate her award. What a wonderful date!

Sweet Pinky

2008-10-22T21:37:00.003-04:00

Me: "Pinky, will you shut the door for us?"

Pinky: "yeah"

Next thing I know, Pinky has closed the door, only she is on the wrong side of the door. My class has now made the comment, "where's Pinky going?" In a second she realizes that she is in the hall and not in our class so she opens the door slightly, pokes her head in and says "oops!" She then comes in the class and proceeds to shut the door and this time she stays inside the classroom when she does it.

Yea Pinky!

The Congressman Makes A Visit

2008-10-22T21:21:00.006-04:00

We've been learning about government. Never in my life did I think that second graders would be able to, let alone would want to learn about our nation's government. I guess that's what I get for assuming things about my amazing class. I could tell it was something on their minds because I heard them talking to each other about Obama. I decided to tie government into our huge Peace, Power, and Action unit and it has been so fun watching my 7 and 8 years olds soak up all this information about our nation's government. A lot of our learning is focused mainly on learning the vocabulary and what's amazing is that they not only understand the vocabulary, they can use it in their writing, their speech, and they can teach others about what they know. Its the most amazing thing!

Anyways, we had Congressman Paul Broun come to our class today to talk to us about his job, working in the capital building, making laws, etc. We had the usual questions:

"How old are you?"

"Do you have kids? What are their names?"

"Have you ever met the President?"

"How much money do you make?"

I breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that the question I was fearing would be asked, wouldn't be asked. Oh, I thought too soon.

"Who are you going to vote for, Obama or John McCain?"

Needless to say I have quite the Democratic class and when they heard he was voting for McCain they all gasped and then looked at me, as if to say "But Ms. Smith, why would someone do that?" It made me laugh. Poor Congressman, he didn't know what he was getting into, but he took it in stride.

Getting to know a legend

2008-10-21T15:54:00.007-04:00

We've been learning about Martin Luther King Jr. lately in my class. Partly because its a standard, but mostly because I want my students to use peace, power, and action in the same way that Martin Luther King did to create change. My students are lovely, but sometimes they aren't very lovely to each other. I told my friend the other day that they are quick to see injustice in the world, but slow to see how unfairly and meanly they treat others. So, I brought in a guest speaker. Her name is Dr. White and she used to work for the King family. She shared stories and memories of the Kings, but mostly of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was amazing. Unfortunately, some of my students didn't understand what a terrific learning opportunity was before them. So after Dr. White left, we practiced how to act when we have guest speakers. This is in preparation for when we have Congressman Paul Broun come tomorrow. We're also having Mayor Heidi Davison come the following week. Its an exciting time in my classroom. Full of talk of government, peace, and the election.

Dr. White brought a cutting board that Coretta King gave her when she had them over for dinner one night. Each student got to touch it and look at it. They thought it was really cool to touch something that Martin Luther King touched too. Then each student read their own "I Have A Dream" speech that they wrote that week in writer's workshop. They were really beautiful dreams (now if I can only get them to practice what they "speech")

Here's our class picture with Dr. White. She is holding a newspaper cut out of her walking with the King children at the airport after Dr. King was shot.

And this is Trenton (also known as Mr. John) who pretended to be a guest speaker and the kids are asking him questions. I pretended to be a student who was being really rude. It was hysterical. I think they finally began to understand how they should act when guests come to our class.

Marriage Advice from a 7 year old

2008-10-16T12:11:00.003-04:00

So I'm 22 and not married and not dating anyone. Most of my friends are married, or engaged, or at least dating seriously and I think I'm beginning to be a "concern" for some friends and family. I know its out of love, and I appreciate (sometimes) their concern. And I thought I was safe in my classroom from these "concerns", however, today Trenton informed me, "You have to find a cute boy who you like, and HOPEFULLY he will like you too and then you can marry him"

Thanks Trenton

So for all those singles out there...a little advice from a 7 year old.

Running Behind

2008-10-14T21:25:00.003-04:00

Today I woke up and to my utter horror, I had turned off my alarm in a state of delusion and it was now 6:55. In case you aren't aware, I usually wake up around 4:45 if I'm going to gym or 6:00 if I'm not. Luckily for me, its Tuesday (a non-workout day) and so I was only an hour late getting up. The only problem is that I have to be to school no later than 7:20! I brushed my teeth, fed the dogs, and raced out the door. Its amazing I made it with two matching shoes I was moving so fast. I have never done this before, but I've had nightmares about it many times. I contribute my state of delusion to all the cold medicine I've been taking trying to combat the coughing, sore throat, and sneezing. Moral of the story: cold medicine and early mornings don't mix.

Meet Knowshawn

2008-10-12T20:46:00.003-04:00

This weekend, me and some friends had a tailgate for the Ga/Tenn game at my friend Natalie and Josh's house. Natalie and I actually got to meet Knowshawn!!!

Meet Knowshawn

All the girls

Advice for the Dawgs (from a seven year old)

2008-10-07T19:09:00.007-04:00

Andre's resonse to the dawgs miserable lost against Alabama written during writer's workshop:

"One Saturday I was furious because the Georgia Bulldogs lost. It was a horrible, no good day. I mean who would loose like that. The Georgia Bulldogs know better. I may not watch them anymore. It does not make any sense. If that was me, I would be disappointed. I wish they won."

Andre, you took the words right out of my mouth.

Too Many Tamales!

2008-10-03T17:30:00.007-04:00

Its Hispanic Heritage Month and our class decided to have a tamale party today. One of the dear, sweet mothers from my class came in to teach us how to make tamales and then we got to eat them! Yummy!

Kneading the masa.

All my kids wanted to put their hands in the gooey mess. If you look closely, Takaiyah in the green shirt is putting her hand out to stop Eduardo's (boy in red shirt) hand from going in.

Aileen and Andre think they are finger-licking good.

Tydarius, how did you eat that so fast? Seconds, Amiracle?

Felis Cumpleanos Carlos!

2008-09-28T15:44:00.004-04:00

A few weeks ago I received a birthday invitation from one of my students. I didn't really know what to do with it when I got it so I told him thank you. After looking at it on my desk for about a week, I decided that it might be fun to go to Carlos' birthday. Carlos lives in a part of town that I am not so familar with, but after 3 turn arounds and stopping at the wrong house I finally made it. It was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon. There were tomales, rice, and yummy Mexican birthday cake! It reminded me of my time in Mexico, filled with food, family, and lots of fun. Happy 8th birthday Carlos! One of my students' parents took pictures. Hopefully I can get those from her and post them too. They were so cute!

Complements go a long way

2008-09-22T20:30:00.002-04:00

Everyday I take my students to specials (ie PE, Art, Music, etc). Its a nice break and a chance to get some planning done, however, I'm always nervous when I go to pick them up. What will the teacher tell me about my class? Were they bad? Were they disrespectful? Did they forget to raise their hand? Were they kind to their friends? Did so and so's bad attitude effect his time in specials? And on...and on...and on. I've become very good at picking my students up and quickly leaving so as not to give time to get a bad report. I don't have a bad class or anything, they're just full of personality and sometimes a bit roudy. And I can almost predict what the teacher will tell me. However, today I got a pleasant surprise. One of my dear, sweet children, who's chronically in trouble left the gym in between 2 of the most calm, well-behaved girls. I looked and wanted to hurry and run because I just knew a bad report was coming. The PE teacher began by "Michael is in between those two girls" and I wanted to say "Stop, I know. He's between the 2 girls because he hit another child, was rude and disrespectful to you, and/or he didn't make good choices." BUT this is what she said, "Micheal is between those two girls because he had such an AMAZING day in PE that I didn't want him to ruin it so I put him there. He had a great day!" I can hear Handel's Hallelujah in the background and I want to cry. You better believe I told everyone between the gym and our class that Micheal had a great day in PE! I'm glad that people take the time to pay complements, it makes such a difference!

Trenton my love

2008-09-13T20:28:00.004-04:00

If you were to enter my classroom on any given day will you here me refer to my students as "friends" about a hundred times. You will also hear me call my students "my love"
Here are some examples:

"Friends, we don't need to hide under lunchroom tables when we're supposed to be eating."

"Friends, next time you need to empty your shoes, do it outside, not on your desk."

"Friends, please be kind."

"Pinky my love, you need to stop spinning."

"Tydarius my love, why did you just kick that?"

"Aileen my love, please stop playing with the things on my desk."

I find myself saying these 2 phrases hundreds, maybe even millions of times! I guess my students have caught onto my lingo because the other day I heard this from Pinky:

"Trenton my love, you need to push your chair in"

Trenton quickly looked at Pinky, then he looked at me with horror on his face ("did she really just say that?!"), then looked back at Pinky "I am not your love" he responded and pushed his chair in.

Funny what kids pick up.

Lunch and Learn

2008-09-13T20:18:00.002-04:00

On Thursday, September 11th we had a class lunch and learn. We had our usual morning meeting and I asked the class what was special about September 11th.
"Is it your birthday?"
"No its not my birthday, its in January remember."
"Halloween?"
"No Halloween is at the end of October, and its still September"
"Oh! The twin towers!"
And so it began. We spent much of morning meeting discussing the happenings of 9-11 and when we had to move on to math, I had them begging for more. (I have a very equality-minded group). We returned to the topic throughout the day because they had so many interesting questions. I decided to have a lunch and learn where we watched movies and news clips about September 11th. They were enthralled. I had to keep pausing the movie so that we could talk and answer questions. At the end of the day we read a story called Fireboat about a boat that helped put out the fire in the twin towers. My students were horrified that people would hurt our country, but so proud to know that average citizens decided to step in and help. They drew pictures and wrote about how they felt. It was a day filled with touching moments as I looked out at the young faces feeling the pain and frustration of that day. I remember being in undergrad and wondering, along with other soon to be elementary teachers if I was going to even talk about things like 9-11 to such young children. Well, I guess I figured out my answer and I think I made the right choice.

Ooey Gooey Oobleck

2008-09-05T17:55:00.006-04:00

If you ever read Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss you may have an idea what my kids and I made today. We've been learning about matter so we made a colloid today. It has properties of both a solid and a liquid, but the bottom line is that its just fun!

We just love ooey gooey science!

Oobleck Recipe:

1 cup cornstarch, 1/2 cup water, place to get a little messy

Dance Dance Revolution

2008-09-04T19:42:00.004-04:00

I thought I would get on my students' good side by letting them watch You Tube one friday afternoon. I knew I would be a "cool" teacher if I let them watch The Evolution of Dance. I, however, had no idea I would be voted the best teacher in the world for letting my students dance along during our morning meeting activity this morning. You'd have thought I became Spiderman or something (my boys really Love Spiderman). I have a class that LOVES to boogy and I love watching my kids dance. Its really our favorite thing to do. I thought I would take some pictures this morning when my kids were dancing so that you could enjoy it too. Its really hilarious!

"You Shook me all Night Long"

"Thriller"

"Walk Like an Egyptian"

Labor(some) Day

2008-09-01T20:29:00.006-04:00

While I was busy laboring over my lesson plans for the upcoming week, my dad was busy laboring around Nashville hunting bluegrass celebrities, my mom was busy laboring around the house cleaning, my sister was laboring in her bed (recuperating from her week at school, wink wink), and the dogs were laboring in the backyard hunting squirrels and chipmunks. It was quite the Labor Day. Now, we're all tired including my two pooped puppies.

(Notice that Buddy's droopy ear is covering his eye)

The Very Proud Teacher

2008-08-28T18:06:00.004-04:00

This week we've been reading Eric Carle books such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Grouchy Ladybug, The Very Lonely Firefly, The Very Busy Spider, etc. While we've been reading these books we've been collecting Razzlin' Dazzlin' words (for those of you grown ups out there - it just means interesting or new words). Today during Writer's Workshop we collected more words and then I had the students write whatever they wanted, but they had to use at least 1 of our new Razzlin' Dazzlin' words. I thought it was a decent assignment and I love writing so I was excited to see what they did, but I wasn't expecting what I got. I was so blown away. They gave me writing that definitely has bragging rights. So I bragged to my teammates, my friend in first grade, and my literacy coach. I'm hoping that I can get some of my kids to put them on our blog because they are really fabulous. Just for a taste of their writing...

" I encountered the elephant at the Atlanta Zoo and I saw a lot of animals. And my favorite animal was the gorilla and my brother too."

One of our Razzlin' Dazzlin' words was encounter. Isn't that wonderful! I was such a proud teacher!

Wishful Thinking

2008-08-27T20:38:00.005-04:00

Today we had a half day at school. I had wonderful dreams of planning for the week, getting a jump on next week, cleaning my classroom, disinfecting tables, and reading student work. I realized very quickly that was just wishful thinking. We actually had to sit in meetings ALL afternoon. My planning time is getting to be non-existant with all the meetings and workshops and such. So I brought my work home around 5:00 to finish. And I'm just getting finished. I don't know how people with families do this job. Oh well, life of a teacher.

Science Tool-ensils

2008-08-25T15:52:00.002-04:00

Growing up my mom often called our grocery store Krublix. Me and my sister used to laugh when my mom made this mistake and my mom would always blame it on her age. Well mom, I have good news for you. Maybe it wasn't age after all. We have been learning about tools and utensils that scientists use. We learned about forceps and we also learned that some people call them tweezers. That might explain why one of my little girls called them for-tweezers today (and she's just 7).

We Are Fearless Spellers!

2008-08-23T19:26:00.002-04:00

This week, my class all became super heroes. We are all Fearless Spellers (to get the effect you have to say that in your best super hero voice with your hands on your hip, pretending you are wearing a cape). This is just a new way of saying invented spelling, but its so much more fun. My kids have really caught onto it too! During writer's workshop the other day I was conferencing with one of my students who had signed up for a teacher conference and he started to ask me, "Ms. Smith, how do you spell..." and he caught himself, covered his mouth really fast, and then whispered with his hands at his hips "I'm a fearless speller". I could hardly control my excitement. I bragged and bragged on this student for being a fearless speller and so it began. I have fearless spellers in math, science, and reading. Its a teaching tool, adorably cute, and saving me TONS of time not having to spell every single word. One of my students even wrote her blog post this week about being a fearless speller. My little kid-o's are so smart!

Come to Jesus moment

2008-08-19T19:43:00.003-04:00

So we had our first (of I'm sure many) "come to Jesus moment" yesterday after I went to pick up my kids from the lunchroom on their very first day of eating lunch by themselves in the lunchroom. I thought something was wrong when my kids walked slowly down the lunchroom and formed a very straight, quiet line (who are you and what happened to my roudy class?!). I was soon met by my assisstant principal, and then I knew something was wrong by the look on her face! I don't remember much of what she said, something about putting their apple sauce in their napkins and throwing them at each other (I mean seriously, who does that?!). Words cannot describe my frustration with my lovely students and words cannot describe the looks on their faces as I let them have it in the lunchroom line. Long story short, the lunchroom staff got nice appology letters from my class about how they will now act in the lunchroom and how "sorre" they are for their bad "behavur". Today was much better in the lunchroom, Thank Goodness! Whoever said this was easy and fun was definitely lying. I feel moments of joy and then moments of absolute panic and frustration. I guess this is the rollar coaster of teaching.

Sliding Into Second

2008-08-13T21:12:00.002-04:00

Now introducing...(drum roll please) my class' class blog. I know many of you could care less, but for those of you who want to read a blog written mainly by my second grade class. Here is your chance. Hope you enjoy!

www.slidingintosecond.blogspot.com

The Mustard Did It!

2008-08-13T21:05:00.004-04:00

Another lunchroom story...sorry, but they're just so funny. So today one of my lively and totally fun students (I wish everyone could have a Pinky in their life) came up to me in the lunchroom with a bewildered look on her face, a napkin filled with condiments, and a shirt with fresh mustard stains. I looked at her and immediately tried to control the chaos that is lunch. "Pinky, go get napkins, throw that dirty napkin away, lets get a paper towel for your shirt!" Pinky, however, wasn't as concerned. "Ms. Smith, I didn't do it...the mustard did it." I laughed, kissed her head, and told her to go throw away her napkin and get a new one. On days like today when meetings run way TOO long and my kids are acting like monkeys and parents drop by just to visit, I'm grateful for the precious moments spent learning my students. I'm telling you, I'm obsessed.

Mysteries from the cafeteria

2008-08-08T21:13:00.005-04:00

Since its the beginning of the year and there are A LOT of routines to teach, our prinicpal wants each teacher to eat with his or her class for about a week. Ok, I thought. That won't be too bad. I might even get more time to actually sit and eat my lunch. What was I thinking?! I was sitting at the lunch table when I realized there was something in my shoe...it was a piece of cracker. Ok, not too myserious right, except I wasn't eating crackers, but the two lovely children next to me were! This mystery of how that cracker got in my shoe led me to ponder on other cafeteria mysteries. For example, how exactly did my student get Dorito chip residue all over his face...and in his hair? Or, why is it that children on Christmas can open almost any toy package when properly motivated, but they can NEVER open their katchup packet, even with chicken fingers waiting? But the biggest mystery of all, will I ever get my appetite back after eating with 13 seven year olds?

My Very First First Day

2008-08-07T17:26:00.007-04:00

I know I've been absent from my blog lately, but if you only knew how much time and energy and money it takes to start a classroom. But I'm here to tell you that I have officially lived through my very first first day of school. It all seemed so surreal. I was living the day that I had thought about, hoped for, dreamt about ever since I was in 1st grade playing school in my mom's speech room. I have been having dreams/nightmares about my first day, but I'm glad to report that I did not show up to school in gym shorts and they didn't move my room to a place I couldn't find. I'm not sure how many of you know that my class looped up together from first grade. Meaning they were all together in first grade and are now all together in my second grade class. Also meaning, they were not shy and they were not quiet! Most teachers told me my first two days would be easy sailing because the kids are really nervous and shy. I realized how loud my class was compared to the other classes when I had to run around asking about a million questions about "how to do this" and "what to do about that" and I could hear my class down the hall.

Top 3 things I learned about my first day of teaching:

1. No matter how perfectly you have organized the bus routine and asked the parents how their child will get home, it will NEVER be perfect.

2. If one of my sweet, yet slightly grumpy child wants to sleep, let him!
3. Acting out the WRONG way to do something (and then the right thing) never ceases to be funny, even after child 13 shows the class how NOT to sit in a chair.

Anyways enjoy the photos. And just a warning, if you become tired of hearing about how bright and wonderful my students are, I appologize, but I'm pretty obsessed with them already.

Wedding Weekend

2008-08-03T16:21:00.018-04:00

As some of you know, one of my friends from UGA, Wendy just got hitched to her best friend Daniel. I drove up to Chattanooga for the affair on Friday July 18th. We had our rehersal at the church and then went for a wonderful rehersal dinner. And FYI for all my friends out there, when I get married, PLEASE don't make a slideshow of all my pictures from birth until present. One of Wendy's friends thought it would be sweet and funny, and although it was definitely funny for us, I'm not sure I would think it was too funny being the one spotlighted. I mean really, pictures from middle school should just vanish away! So after the rehersal dinner I went and stayed at Wendy's house. I crashed around midnight, Wendy however stayed up way later than that. I didn't even wake up when she came to bed. The next day was full of wedding! First on the list of things to do was go by Victoria's Secret (Wendy had a craving for shopping on her wedding day. The sales lady thought she was CRAZY! But we thought it helped calm some nerves), next we had hair, then off to the church for make-up and photos. It was quite a busy day! Wendy looked beautiful! And that doesn't even begin to describe how she looked. The church was amazingly beautiful as well. After the ceremony we went to the reception in downtown Chattanooga. Talk about the party of the year! Some friends from school came up and I don't think I've had that much fun in a long time. Those pictures will be posted soon. As for now, enjoy these beautiful photos from Wendy's big day! Love you Wen!

Rehersal at First Cumberland. It was one of the most breath-taking churches!

The 7 stunning bridesmaids...and Wendy

Wendy and I with some very eligible groomsmen

Getting my makeup done.

Relaxing before the big walk down the aisle.

The beautiful ceremony. The only thing was those shoes were murder! The bridesmaids devised a plan to take them off at the front of the church but then decided against it. However, I wish we would have. Luckily the ceremony wasn't too long.

The Jr. Groomsman was such a ham! So cute! He had a little crush on the Jr. Bridesmaid.

All the girls in front of the church

The Bridal Party in front of the church.

My Fortune

2008-07-30T21:56:00.007-04:00

After 3 LONG days of new teacher orientation or NTO (us educators like to use abbreviations) we had a chance to have a catered lunch with our principal and all the new teachers at our school for the year. Our Fowler Drive group filled up a whole long table. We had Chinese for lunch and well, you can't have Chinese food without a fortune cookie. I love fortune cookies, not sure why, they really don't taste good and the fortunes are just shy of cliche. However, in the spirit of finished NTO I went and gathered a bunch for our table. We were all opening and eating when our Literacy Coach aka literacy goddess said, "you know what you're supposed to do when you read your fortunes, don't you?" All of us youngin's looked at each other and laughed, of course we know what we're supposed to say at the end, we just didn't expect our seasoned, proper literacy goddess to say it! To avoid sounding crass, I'll let you fill in the ending to my fortune.

Stephanie's Fortune:

"you may loose the little ones, but you'll win the big one."

I'd say my love life is looking up :-)

My Newest Child

2008-07-27T21:54:00.006-04:00

Many of you know that I have a maniac dog named Molly May. I got her two years ago and I love her dearly. She's a great little four legged friend, despite her horrible jumping habits.

Molly in all her glory, sleeping on the couch after a long day of sleeping on my bed.

Now Molly May has a new adopted brother, Buddy Lee. As you can tell, Buddy is really happy to be living with us.

We're not sure how long Buddy will be staying, but we're happy to have him. He fits right into our little family (and my mom is already calling him her "grand-dog")

A Promise Kept

2008-07-26T11:09:00.004-04:00

I told some of my students from last year that I would bring them back over to my house during the summer and take them swimming. And you totally can't promise something like that to 8 year olds and not deliver. So, on my last day of summer vacation I called some of my girls and had them come over for some swimming in the pool. I judged by their excitement that that actually enjoyed swimming and playing in the pool. However, when I went to pick up the girls, both their parents informed me, "now you know they don't swim, right?" Not swimming was an understatement. These kids not only didn't know how to swim, they didn't know how to play in the pool. But that changed pretty quickly. With the help of my roommate, Becky we had them floating and playing volleyball and mother may I, and the most impressive transformation was Naj jumping into the deep end all by himself. We had fun, and I'm reminded again how different my childhood was from their's.

Here the girls are holding on for dear life!

Not sure what Naj is doing, but he thought it was really fun.

Back to School Shopping

2008-07-17T19:24:00.002-04:00

My mom and sister came up to visit me today. We went up to the Commerce Tanger Outlet Mall. My mom likes outlets because she likes walking from store to store, my sister and I on the other hand like outlets for all the great prices! We went to my favorite store J Crew, not once, but twice. (my mom is indecisive-good thing she has two daughters to talk her into buying things for herself) I'm glad to know that I'm not too old for my mom to buy me back to school clothes. It was fun to have my mom and sister come visit, and hopefully it made my sister's day a little better.

Shabby to Chic

2008-07-15T16:32:00.010-04:00

If you're close to me, you know that one of my FAVORITE things is to find old, grubby, rough-looking furniture and transform it into something beautiful. It all started because, well, I was a college student and I had NO money and I NEEDED furniture. It has grown to be a hobby of mine, maybe even an obsession. (I won't mention how many times I "drop by" Goodwill and Potter's House on a weekly basis). I've gotten pretty good at it over the past couple years. Here are a few of my past projects.

This used to be a dresser topper, but I sawed off the bottom and changed the knobs, and voila! Its my new tv stand/bookcase.

These are my chairs for my dining room table. I found them at a little antique store in Statham. These chairs took a lot of TLC. I had to sand through quite a few layers of paint, but they were worth it.

This chair is my FAVORITE! I found it at a local flea market while shopping with my mom and sister. It used to be this ugly green color and it had no seat. My mom helped me move it to the car, my dad and I rebuilt the seat, Lillie helped me cover the seat with fabric, and I painted it. It was quite the team effort. See dad, it did turn out like I planned.

My new project: My classroom. I'm teaching at a Title 1 school here in Athens. The school itself is old and way past due for renovation. My classroom is not inviting. I know some people don't think that color or decoration has much to do with how students will learn inside the classroom, but I totally disagree. I know that if my room looks bright and happy, that we will all like being there a little more. So here are my before pictures. Stay tuned for the make-over results.

I think there's a connection between my love of transforming furniture and my chosen career of teaching at risk students. I think people give up on things/people way too soon. There's beautiful in everything, you just have to work hard to find it.