Halloween

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Headache of the Week

We had a speaker from the community come a few days ago to give an anti-bullying presentation. He asked what kids feel like doing when they are mad. One of mine responded that he'd like to punch the person in the face. Then continued after the speaker acknowledged his response and moved on, "That means you (insert classmate's first and last name)!"

Apparently he didn't get the memo that this was an ANTI-BULLYING presentation! Sheesh!

He spent a few days picking up one piece of trash at a time--sighing and pulling up his pants after each retrieval. The principal supervised by standing behind him to keep everyone else from catching a peek of his bum each time he bent over.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Sex Education

Why would I be less happy teaching third grade? Because I wouldn't get to teach sex ed every year!

I love talking with the girls about all the important juicy details of growing up and I always show them my "supply drawer" where I keep just about anything a menstruating female might need. I tell them they can come in anytime, even if I'm teaching, and take anything they need. I'll replenish if it gets low.

Just the other day I had a sixth grader (that means I had her in my sex ed class two years ago, mind you) swing by to say hi and sheepishly ask if I had any tampons. I grinned and happily rolled open the supply drawer and told her she could choose her color-coordinated size. She pointed to the pads tucked in the back and said she'd rather have one of those. I told her to take as many as she needed. As she stuffed two into her sweatshirt pocket an headed out the door. I'm quite sure I was the proudest teacher you've ever seen.

Petey: Part Deux

Last weekend I got the opportunity to see Ben Mikaelson (the author mentioned in the previous post) when he came to visit my school district. The man lives with a 750-pound black bear named Buffy in a log cabin in Montana. His presentation lived up to all my expectations. Awesome Buffy slides and stories and really interacted well with the kiddos there to see him. I'll have to tackle some more of what he's written this summer.

Petey

I recently finished the most amazing read aloud in my class suggested by my uncle who retired from teaching fourth grade not too long ago. It's called Petey by Ben Mikaelson and is historical fiction following the life of a guy born with cerebral palsy before the medical field knew too much about it. He spends most of his life in a mental institution and is such an endearing character. I cried through most of the last chapter (first time I've ever done that in class) and one of the kiddos came up to me at the end and said, "At first I thought you were just making your voice do that to get the right effect for the book. Then I realized you were really sad!"

Thanks for the great recommendation, Unc! I've passed it on to two other classrooms. The kids LOVE it!