Familiarity Breeds Germs!

 Indulge me dear readers as I share this next brief account of an encounter I had in the classroom today.
       It was fairly mellow this morning considering it was our first day back from spring break and the students were relatively focused and on task.  After recess on Monday's I usually introduce several new concepts for the week and then the first graders begin working on their weekend writing assignments while the kindergarteners continue adding to their alphabet books.  As we were wrapping up our writing time, several students had come up to my desk to ask for spelling help or direction once their assignments were complete.
     About two minutes before I rang the bell to clean up, one of my kindergarteners approached my desk with a determined look on his face.  As I was finishing up an email, I quickly asked how I could help him (while multi-tasking) and did not make eye contact.  He began to pause, which caught my attention.  It seemed at first that he had forgotten his train of thought, until I realized he just wanted to be near me, like my little shadow.  Because we had a minute I indulged him and asked him how his vacation went, in which he nonchalantly shrugged and replied it was good.
     As he began to ask me what I was doing, he rather impulsively and without any warning shot his hand out and stuck it into a plastic cup on my desk containing trail mix.  I was so shocked I actually laughed out loud, then proceeded to ask him what he was thinking.  I've never encountered a student who felt comfortable enough to touch my food.  It is usually an unspoken but clearly communicated rule between teacher and students that all things on the teachers' desk are strictly prohibited.
This little guy clearly didn't get the memo.  I was so surprised and somewhat flustered but all together amused that I ended up turning the situation into a mini lesson about germs.  Its funny how the important things you end up teaching kids are usually in response to a "real life" situation.  I had to explain that if he continued to touch my food (with his unwashed hands) that I would probably get sick and not be able to teach.  After hearing that, he promised to never do that again which also made me smile.  This was a very funny and endearing memory that I will tuck away for safe keeping.
   I guess this is just a perfect example of the unpredictability of your average five year old and the fact that a child's brain is wired very differently than an adult.

Bootcamp + Big Shoes=can't BEND over

So I recently started bootcamp (about 3 weeks ago) which I decided was a good way to combat all the holiday treats & sweets lurking in the staff room.  It sounded like a great idea to get in shape and start eating healthy and really take charge of my life.  Little did I know the first week, bootcamp was going to take charge of me.  After the first work out I had no control over my body.  I was unable to sit (at all), stand comfortably, or move at a remotely normal pace.  The first week I looked like an old person, feebly hobbling around in search of my cane. I felt like the mayor from Hornton Hears a Who, after he went to the dentist and got stabbed with the novocain injection in the arm.  The scene was so clear in my mind of him running home and racing up the stairs as his arm waved and flapped behind him knocking over valuable objects and slapping him in the face.
That was me, hobbling/flopping around in complete and utter chaos.  I had lost all control of my four essential limbs, therefore driving walking, bending over and sitting down became dangerous activities (thank God I didn't run anyone over!).  Thankfully this excruciating pain only lasted the first week, but bear with me as I share this next story... Its pretty hilarious.

The Morning Of:
It really began to get interesting when I decided to wear a pair of open toed flats a friend had given me to work.  They looked really cute and matched my outfit.  I didn't bother checking to make sure they fit properly and quickly donned them on and skipped (or hobbled, but just work with me here) out the door.  When I arrived at school I was rather in a hurry to get into my classroom and get started preparing for the day.  I was in such a rush to enter my room that my shoes (which happened to be slippery and not a great match against tile flooring) slid down the hallway, sending me flying and landed me flat on my back.  Fortunately only a couple older students observed my tumble and graciously asked if I was alright.
After my embarrassing start to the morning, I commenced to crawl back to my feet, inch my way into my room and laugh for a good 30 seconds before pulling it together.

Later in the day...
My students had begun to notice my peculiar behavior and were inquiring as to why I was so slow.  Throughout the day, I was constantly asking students to help pick up crayons and markers from the floor, and for some reason it seemed the number of materials on the ground had multiplied making it impossible for me to ignore.  So apart from being driven crazy by my inability to ignore pencils, markers, crayons and glue hiding in all four corners of the classroom, I could not bring myself to sit and was constantly hobbling around from student to student checking work and answering questions.

In the late afternoon, about an hour before school was out, I had the students clean up and get ready for our topic study.  As the class was tidying up, I noticed a marker right by my foot.  Because I was tired of asking the kids to pick everything up, I decided to be brave and take the plunge.  As I descended down into an awkward squat in a feeble attempt to pick up the marker, one of my first grade boys turned to me and remarked "you look just like my mom, she can't pick anything up either!"  This made me laugh out loud.  You see, this boy's mom was 9 months pregnant and had a very valid reason for not bending over.  Me on the other hand, had no excuse and think next time around, I will just leave the marker on the floor.

Bake Sale Extravaganzas... Moderation is not in my vocabulary

Rainbow Jello Adventures        

I must begin this posting with my confession, hopefully it will pardon my crazy behavior and help you understand the way I am wired as a teacher and a person.

Confession:  I spent approximately 8hrs. on average creating layered jello cups to sell at for my class bake sale.  Granted I cannot be accused of my lack of enthusiasm though my innate need to try and fail something before learning its going to be painful and not worth the time investment remains one of my character flaws.

Tip: Definitely do not add a whip cream layer in between your jello colors.  It takes twice as long to harden and looks extremely messy regardless of how hard you try to smooth it out and not let it smear on the sides of the cup.  When I made the rainbow jello for St. Patty's Day, it took a very long time but the result was rewarding and they sold like hot cakes.  The whip cream Easter jello cups on the other hand were not as appealing and I had left overs.  Next time I will probably pick two or three colors to layer and make much smaller cups.  Then I will mark down the prices to motivate buyers to purchase more.

Pictures from our first Bake Sale on Valentine's Day:

We sold cookies, cupcakes, flowers, lollie-pops and marsh mellow chocolate dippers.

Pics from our St. Patrick's Day Bake Sale:

            Amazing Rainbow Cupcakes with Gold Coins and 

                                         Chocolate Shamrock Lollie Pops made by K/1 Parents

   

 

Our Most Recent Bake Sale: Celebrating Easter

Our easter goodies: Chocolate dipped pretzles, Fudge bunnies, sugar cookies, Easter Jello, Easter basket cupcakes and edible grass!

Missing Fish or Miscalculation?

Have you ever evaluated a situation and quickly jumped to a conclusion?  I am definitely guilty of jumping to the wrong conclusion more than I'd like to admit.  In this particular scenario the situation is especially embarrassing and I hope you will not only find humor in it, but also learn from my rather epic faux pas.  Let me preface this story by saying I was very enthusiastic at the start of the year to have my own classroom and was eager to fill it with everything your average classroom contains and more.  Among the things required to complete my classroom was a class pet.  I figured since I love animals but needed something low maintenance, why not get a fish.  Fish are pretty much guaranteed to survive being hardy by nature.  So after researching "hardy, durable" fish in my all time

 favorite google search engine, I decided a Beta fish would be the best fit for our classroom 

environment.  I was especially excited since the fish would be colorful and probably match my decorations (totally ridiculous but that is the way my mind works).  Anyway, after saving and

 researching I was finally prepared to take the plunge and make the commitment to purchase and care for a living creature.  All went according to plan... I fed it weekly (every 2-3 days give or take)  and occasionally cleaned its tank.  As the school year progressed and I got busier 

and more tired, the fish ceased to be a priority.

Flash forward with me-  After a lovely four day weekend, I came into my room and scanned the environment to mentally assess if everything was still settled in its assigned space (our school is located in a multi-use building that is accessed by other groups for events on the weekends).  After determining everything was as I'd left it, I went to the sink to check on our fish.  Sadly, it had been more than a week (I won't admit just how long), since the tank was clean and the water was very murky.  I scanned the water and then immediately did a double take.  THE FISH WAS GONE!!!  I couldn’t believe my eyes and began to survey the water more carefully.  

I shook the tank and did not see anything float to the surface.  

In all astonishment, I scoffed aloud and made an assumption I am now embarrassed to admit. I assumed someone stole the class fish.  Why anyone would be interested in a malnourished sea creature is beyond me, but weirder things have happened, Right?  

I was so flabbergasted, I included a memo in the class newsletter and asked the parents to report back if they heard anything.  Naturally, there was no response (which I was grateful for later).

Later in the week, I asked my T.A. (a high school student who assists as me in the mornings) to clean out the tank so I could return it to my storage area.  Needless to say, this was not the most well thought out plan.  I discovered very quickly, sometimes its better to do things 

yourself. 

About ten minutes after sending her out, my T.A. returned to the classroom.  Interrupting my calendar routine she announced to the class that she needed gloves if she was expected to scrub out dirty tank with a dead fish inside.  Thankfully some of my kids are oblivious and remained wholly unaffected by the announcement.  

My perceptive ones on the other hand were listening avidly in an attempt to assess the situation.  Meanwhile, after seeing the look 

on her face and predicting her next sentence, I ungracefully and somewhat freakishly bounded across the room to the door (as if in slow motion) yelling no, no, never mind (to try and drown out her statement) and stop her from blowing the lid off our investigation.  You see, I not only posted a "missing fish" ad in our class newsletter, I also made several announcements to the class in hopes that our mystery would be solved.

After the truth surfaced, I was all together humbled by my ridiculous assumption and wiser in The ways of parent/student/teacher communication.

Confession:  It took me all of five seconds to conclude someone had stolen our fish and it didn't even occur to me that the dead fish may be nestled at the bottom of the tank, don't dead fish usually float?

Tip: Always have someone proof read your newsletters and "censor" your comments.  It may really protect you from making a fool of yourself.

Amusing side note:  When complaining about the incident at family dinner, my dad after hearing the story concluded someone ATE the fish.  *Note: He usually says eccentric things because he knows we find him amusing.

Back to School Night

Fulfilling the honorary duty of a first year teacher... bringing the staff starbucks- so we could get through the night! It was definitely a loong day! Oh, and I almost fell over with all those drinks.

My crazy insane back to school night cookies. Yes they took three hours to make, and yes I hand cut them, and yes I mixed the frosting myself.
I don't know what I was thinking. Totally an insane venture.
When I was finished, my dad asked me why I made monkey cookies!!! AHH, those are scissors if anyone was wondering.

These are the second batch of cookies I made for the parents to enjoy at back to school night.  To make them, I used sugar cookie dough (store bought) rolled it out, cut the shapes I wanted (I drew the shapes on paper and used the templates to cut around) then baked them.  To make the frosting I started with white frosting (store bought) and added food coloring. I also bought black icing since its just easier.

*Note: I was inspired from pictures I found on google images.

I had the parents decorate these pop sickle sticks to look like their child.  I thought they turned out really cute.  I now use them to pick students randomly to help me with things or answer questions.

This is our class wishing tree.  For back to school night I wrote things we were wishing our classroom had onto apples and attached them to our classroom tree.  Then I invited parents to take a wish and fulfill it for us.  Some parents did and it was a splendid exercise.  What a great way to allow parents to help anonymously.  They loved it and we actually received some of our wishes.

This is the flyer I put up which explained what our wishing tree was and its purpose.  This turned out to be a nice display to have up around the classroom for parents to peruse while they walked around.  

Before…

If you ere on the “tad to ambitious side” as I do, you might be thinking about trying to impress your student’s parents with fun crafts and packets and interesting things when they visit your room.  Picture this, I’m in my new cute black dress and grey wedges running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to find the stapler. 

I originally thought back to school night started at 7:00 and at 5:45 discovered the start time was in fact 6:30.  To those of you who are always prepared and a week ahead on everything… disregard this caution.  But for the rest of you normal people out there, don’t save your speech practice/flyer packet assembly for the thirty minutes before parents arrive.  Something may come up that will catch you off guard.  Also, when assembling packets, it is best to invest in a paper sorter.  Putting packets together when they are comprised of more than five pages is maddening, especially when you’re on a time crunch.

During…

Be prepared, most likely you will not have full participation.  Don’t get offended if some parents don’t show up.  Inevitably there will always be at least one family that doesn’t participate (forgets to bring back folder, doesn’t send back signed forms, doesn’t come to school functions)

Tip:  Just make sure you figure out the basics before adding all the interesting flourishes.  I was so consumed creating cookies, designing fun activities (like writing their child a note) and cleaning my classroom that I saved the most important task for last. 

When in doubt- Use a rubber band

The beginning of the year is no doubt hectic and moves at light speed.  The first few weeks, I was primarily concerned with staying on top of my schedule and one step ahead of every bloody nose I encountered.  There was on rare occasion, something that would stop me dead in my tracks and produce something I like to call belly laughs.  In the case of the rouge geo-board assignment, I had a student who had a particular fascination with rubber bands.  This curiosity and excitement did not spring from his enthusiasm for math, or even the artistic aspect of designing shapes with the rubber bands, instead it was his passion for dress up which spurred his eccentricity.  

One hectic afternoon, as the class was immersed in choice time, I was approached by a colleague with a question, but we both became immediately distracted by this student.  Before we could converse, our attention was struck by this student who had taken a jumbo rubber band and placed it around his head.  He had bands on his fingers and wrists and was humming to himself.  The sight of this little boy calmly humming with a giant rubber band head dressing while the rest of the class was enthralled in boisterous chaos was absolutely hilarious.  Every time I remember this scene I crack a wide smile.  It is such a giddy memory.

The First Day of School

I found this idea on other Kinder teacher websites. Seriously they have the cutest ideas for the beginning of school.  These are Survival kits I made for my students parents.  They contained several items which were explained by a paper I enclosed.  

This paper has the explanation for all of the items I added to the parent goody bags.

Explaining calendar to my class for the first time.  They look mesmerized.  I'm pretty sure they just didn't know what to do with me. 

Going over classroom rules.  We had to review ALOT. Still reviewing actually.

Singing the weather helper song. Teaching them the hand motions.

Nothing goes as expected the first day of the rest of your life.  You arrive later than planned, forgetting then remembering lunch for the day as well as finding students waiting for you.  Inevitably, there will be at least one student who arrives inordinately early.  This is good to keep in mind if your classroom is connected to the outdoors and there is no yard duty in the morning.  Always have something for your students to do.  Also, don’t let the parents of your students leave without finding out who is picking their children up.  This again is very common sense but if someone gets sent home with the wrong adult or gets put on the wrong bus it will be traumatic for you and your student.  

The Night Before School Starts…

Tis’ the night before school starts and all through the house, not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse. You can hear a pin drop as you crawl into bed, going over and over your checklist instead, of succumbing to slumber you’re tossing and turning.  You rehearse and go over your mid morning greetings, praying to God that you don’t have a crier.  Knowing full well your flexibility will be tested, since the morning schedule is sure to be adjusted.  Still you wish it was seven and the day was beginning. Though it’s been nearly three hours and you still aren’t sleeping. No yawning or dozing, absolutely no dreaming, struggling to keep your limbs from going numb. Now it’s almost 12:30 and your breathing steadies, you know if you don’t sleep, you’ll have bags in the morning.   So slowly but surely, after much apprehension you fitfully slip into an in between dreamland, filled with apples and singing and runaway children till finally all fades to black.

Tip:  Take a bubble bath or hot shower (something relaxing), drink tea and by all means try not to over think your upcoming week.  Do whatever you can to make your body relax!  Try last minute pampering, pretty soon you’ll be flat out exhausted.

Momentary lapse of Credit….

 As any first year teacher who is fresh out of college can attest to, the interim months leading up to your first position is anything but lucrative.  If you are like me, you were so excited about teaching you decided to take the summer, relax, live on graduation money, and prepare your classroom and curriculum.  Unfortunately, the rest of American Society is not privy to this particular arrangement, which many post college grads seem to expect out of school.  Of course, being no exception to my peers on this count, I naively thought I could continue living frugally until my first paycheck arrived (which would come at the end of August).  What I forgot to take into account was the unexpected expenses, which inevitably arise with the dawning of a degree (i.e. paint, a classroom fish, fabric for curtains, hot glue gun, laminating expenses and Starbucks coffee among other things).

 Sadly, parents as well as generous family members admittedly and somewhat intentionally forget the awkward three month lapse of income and begin accruing expenses at your bedroom door as if to say, “all right well done, but now its time to be a grown up.”  Granted, the generosity offered while in college, is and always will be appreciated and there is a sense of earnest gratitude that for many seems a life long debt that may never be repaid. 

*Note: To all those loving parents who have graciously sacrificed their wants and needs to meet their children’s financial expenses, we are all eternally grateful.

Tip: This is extremely commonsense, and many people before me have learned this the hard way.  Check your bank account regularly.  Try to use cash as much as possible, and by all means, when depositing your first paycheck to an account with approximately $36.27 please refrain from using the all inviting and non-judgmental ATM.  Swallow your pride, take a deep breath and walk into the bank, prepared to deal with the menacing figures behind the counter.  You will in turn, be rewarded by the fruits of your labor immediately being deposited into your starving account, ready for use. Brace yourself; they will diminish rapidly.

Confession: Stupidly depositing my first paycheck into the ATM (instead of walking into the bank) and being left momentarily without funds, I borrowed money from my best friend to pay for my manicure/pedicure which in fact was not a necessity. 

Pepto Bismal…

 If there was ever a question regarding which product worked most effectively when dealing with constipation and regularity, forget the yogurts and pills and syrupy liquids offered at your local convenience store.  Instead, skip everything and throw yourself into the position of a first year teacher two days before school starts.  All doubts completely crumble and you find your self “googling” the first day of school checklist.  Then all of a sudden and without any kindly warning, you leap out of your seat and onto the chamber pot. This sickness brought on by apprehension and the sheer uncertainty of your next nine months attacks you in tsunami like torrents until finally it subsides long enough for you to tweak a muscle while preparing your pretty much perfect classroom.

This is me; 18 hours 29 minutes and 56 seconds before taking on my first major assignment. 

Anticipation Level

Nerves: 30%

Nightmares: 7%

Tweaked Muscles: 3%

Excitement: 60%

Ability to sleep: near too impossible

        

Tip: read something calming (not school related) before going to sleep, otherwise it may take you hours to stop thinking about pocket charts, behavior plans and the inevitable parent teacher conferences.

This is my first year as an elementary school teacher. I teach Kindergarten and First grade at North Bay Christian Academy located in Novato, California. It has been quite an adventure and huge learning curve. You are invited to join me in my journey as I reflect over the past five months and record the proceeding four months of school. I hope you enjoy and find humor in my experiences as well as learn from my blunders. Enjoy!