Celebrity Status

Today Parade magazine came out with its yearly issue about how much people make. I was insulted and incensed to find out how much Snooki makes. I'm not a judgmental kind of person, however, to see that this selfish, vain, stupid woman getting paid crazy amounts of money to act crazy really made me mad.
Then I remembered a sweet moment I had today in church. I heard a woman say "I see Miss Wonder" and I turned around to see a little girl waving shyly at me. And I remembered being hugged by a 5th grader this week (you know you're someone special when a 5th grader hugs you.) And all the little voices that call out to me "Miss Wonder!" as I walk through the school. And the Littles who grab me in the halls to hug me. I wouldn't trade any amount of money for that experience and the knowledge that each day I make a difference for small, powerless, amazing Little People.

Science Kids

I'm taking a day off to take care of my sick baby nephew. It's a vacation to spend a day with a kid who thinks everything I do is amazing.
Due to my friend Kristin (of Teeny Tiny Teacher fame) and her obsession with reality tv I checked out Jersey Shore. Really? Please tell me people don't really live like this. And Snooki gets $30,000 every time she makes an appearance? That's only a few thousand less than I will make next school year IF I get a job. So it pays more to use 2 curse words per sentence, get arrested and punched? Wow.
Anyway. I did watch some less toxic tv. We watched Sid the Science Kid and I really liked it. I love that rug song Teacher Susie sings- I'm gonna borrow that. There are lots of cool resources on the website that are geared towards preschools with a higher adult- child ratio, but I've been thinking about how I could tweek them to use them in a kindergarten or first grade class.

Whistle While You Work

I love music and I'm much more likely to remember something if you put it to a catchy tune. So I was totally charmed today by a kindergarten class who taught me this song...
Head, thorax, abdomen and six legs,
Head, thorax, abdomen and six legs,
And eyes, ears, antenna and wings,
Head, thorax, abdomen and six legs.
Of course, its not as cute without the six year old voices singing it, but you get the idea.

In another kindergarten class I was in recently the teacher played math and literacy songs to transition subject areas. The kids loved it and so did I. They introduced me to this new song from Have Fun Teaching that I just can't get enough of!

I've also recently found Mark D. Pencil. I really love some of the songs on the "Learning With Hi-Hop" CD. Some of the songs don't really live up to the name and they kinda drag. But many of the songs are really cool upbeat ways to introduce and review math and literacy concepts such as the alphabet and the two ways to make vowels say their name. If you're looking for great videos to go along with the songs, check out Harry Kindergarten on YouTube.

My personal opinion on Dr. Jean is that should be used like an antibiotic- only when necessary. I've seen her in concert (that's right people, I missed Elton John when he came to town recently, but not to worry, I have seen Dr. Jean) and she's got some geat songs. However, some of them can be hazardous to the health of adult listeners. If you don't believe me, try this gem. Sure its catchy, but by the end of the song it has turned your brain to some kind of jelly substance.

So how about it, friends? Do you have any great music suggestions?

My future's so bright, I gotta wear shades!

Y'all! I finally found the dollar section over at Wal-Mart! Ohmgeee! I had heard of this fabled place, but it truly exists! I got the cutest stuff for the Classroom of My Dreams. Speaking of the Classroom of My Dreams, yesterday Mrs. Happy threw me a teacher shower. It was the BEST party I have ever had in my almost 41 years! The kids were supposed to keep it a secret, but they were so excited they let a few hints drop. I was joking around and asked if Santa was coming to the school. One of my students said it was more exciting than that! That's right, she said a party for ME was more exciting than Santa! (Just realized I'm using a lot of exclamations. Hope y'all will forgive me.) They had me leave the room and when I came back they all yelled surprise! They ate ice cream sundaes while I walked around and hugged every one of those precious little people. Then I got to open presents! Some of the kids had brought in school supplies to get me started. One of the moms made me customized labels for my supplies and centers and they are so stinkin cute! Mrs. Happy got me a very generous gift card to Kohl's (our favorite place to shop) to buy teacher clothes. The gifts all came with notes from parents about how they appreciated what I had done for their children. And, as if all that wasn't enough, the kids stood in a circle and said something nice about me. The fifth child around the circle said "I love you because you're so nice" and then a lot of the other kids said the same thing. I managed not to cry. UNTIL one of the girls said she was sorry she wasn't able to get me a present and I said to all of the kids "you don't have to worry if you didn't get me a present. YOU were my present." Then I boohooed.

A couple of the moms came and one of them said she had emailed a friend of hers who is a principal to see if she would hire me. Can you believe it! It was such a great feeling to know that I had touched all of those lives.

Which is great because last week I made a whole bunch of 6 year olds cry. We did this really cool Christmas M&M place value activityhttp://www.teacherspayteachers/Product/Christmas-MM-Fun-A-Place-Value-and-Graphing-Activity. I made a really big deal about how we had to follow the rules in order to play and that at the end we would get to eat M&M's. (Which I thought would be enough incentive to get everyone to follow the rules.) We talked about and practiced the rules for about 5 minutes. There were only three rules. If you didn't follow the rules, you were out of the game and you had to sit on the carpet and not get M&M's. During the course of the "game" I had to send about 6 kids to the carpet. That's approximately 1/3 of my class sitting on the carpet crying because they didn't get M&M's. It was a very interesting experience. I hated seeing those kids cry. But I had set down the rules and they didn't follow them. when I started teaching them in the semester I did not consistently follow through with consequences, and I think I had a lot more behavior problems than I needed to.

Anyway. Now that I'm wrapping up student teaching I'm not sure what to do with this space. It looks like I will be subbing for a while. I hope I will have my own display room for all my cool stuff I mean classroom and my own group of children to love next school year. I will be thinking over winter break about how I could use this space to give back to the blogging community which has given so much to me. I don't really have cool ideas to share. And I'm not funny like some folks (Kristin). But I would like to contribute somehow.

Celebrate Success!

After pondering and talking to teacher friends (thanks, y'all!) I have realized that I have been obsessing over all the things that go wrong in my classroom. So here, in no particular order, are all the things going right in my classroom:

1. I have finally learned to tell time.

2. The principal happened to walk into my room on the tail end of one of the three flawless lessons I have taught this year. Everyone was focused and paying attention and I knew what I was talking about!

3. My little friend E has become so much more confident. At the beginning of the year she would not write anything down on paper until she had checked with me to make sure it was right first. A couple of weeks ago we started something bew in math and I asked if she needed help. She said no, she had it. Yahoo!

4. My little friend N, who Mrs. Happy and I agreed at the beginning of the year had the worst case of ADD known to man, has calmed down some, is more attentive and is making progress in his reading and writing.

5. A parent came in for our Thanksgiving feast and went on for a few minutes about how her daughter talks about me constantly. She's one of those quiet kids I never hear from, so that was a really pleasant surprise.

6. One of my naughty boys really doesn't like school. When I announced Tuesday morning that I was going to be out on Wednesday, he said "you and Mrs. Happy are the only reason I come to school!" Tears in my eyes!

7. I am so lucky to be surrounded by some of the most talented and dedicated teachers in the business. (In real life and blogland.)

8. My coopearting teacher is my teacher soulmate. She has been so encouraging and so supportive. She has given me all the space I need to screw up and then helped me pick myself back up. I truly am a lucky girl.

Wow! I can't believe how much of a difference that made in my mood. But I have to go get ready for church- I'm trying to maintain a life outside of my teaching. Last night I was trying not to talk to my boyfriend about school and found I had nothing to talk about!

I'm not the teacher I want to be

I wonder if exhausted bloggin is similiar to drunk dialing....just a random thought.

The good news is I'm not the teacher I want to be. That's good because I know I have lots to learn and I'm open to learning. I just realized the other day (can't imagine how it took me so long to figure this out) that becoming a teacher really is a process. I was so worried at the beginning of the semester because I though the objective of this whole student teaching thing was to turn out a fully prepared teacher. HA!! The joke's on me! I have barely scratched the surface, and that's ok. After all, when you stop learning you grow stale and rot like a pumpkin that didn't get picked and grow black spots on you and rot. How's that for a visual?

The bad news is I'm not the teacher I want to be. I'm not really sure where I'm going wrong. I have disciplin trouble in my room. Are my expectations too high? Too low? Am I focusing too much on the negative? Do I need to be more strict or am I fighting battles that are better left alone? I tried to be more strict on Tuesday thinking that I needed to lay down the law. I ended up wasting 5 minutes in a power struggle with one of my students in front of the whole class. I just don't know what to do. I'm observing a couple of teachers next week and hoping to get ideas from them.

Today we had a meeting for all of us student teachers at the university where I'm getting my master's. I was not loooking forward to it since "meeting" is my least favorite word in the English language. But it turned out to be really informative and inspirational. It gave me some time to reflect on what kind of teacher I want to be. I'm not sure yet how to get there, but I must remind myself to celebrate all the progress I have made. After all, its a journey.

Are you smarter than a first grader?

I don't think I've ever felt so stupid in my whole life. You would think teaching first grade would be easy, right? Wrong answer. Of course I understand place value. But explaining it in terms a 6 year old can understand are a little difficult. And teaching phonics turns our to be way more difficult than I would have thought. And my kids take every opportunity to let me know I'm wrong.

This week was my third week teaching full time and I am just beginning to recover. Teaching half a day was fun. Teaching all day was such a shock! Suddenly there were all this details to remember and I just was completely overwhelmed. Mrs. Friendly, who is really hard to upset, looked like she was going to fire me when I forgot to take attendance for the umpteenth time and the office called to remind her. I'm so tired and my brain is so fried I'm not sure I'm making any sense. I spend an average of 10 hours a day at school, and I still don't get everything done. The other student teacher (who is approximatly half my age) always looks so cheerful and energetic. I kinda hate her.