A New Year...A New Grade

Last year was grueling. I think I lost blogging ground after about two posts. I pretty much sold my soul for the chance to become a principal and came up short. Slowly I've been picking up the pieces--spending time working in a funky resale shop, reconnecting with those I love, and turning a significant chunk of my hair a sound shade of purple. The last part is a bit of big deal because I think I mentioned that I changed schools last year. This school is muy differente than my previous one. It's high scoring, composed of families with 2.5 kids and students I can't tell apart--Are you Sam or Fred 'cause you both have blond hair and blue eyes--and "unnaturally" colored hair is again the rules. I'm serious. It's in the handbook. Last year I did my best to fit in in the new neighborhood. This year I showed up with purple hair and I'm trying to hang on to my spunk a midst the serious stuffiness.

I'm in a second grade classroom now, learning how to downshift and teaching how to perfect the art of the elbow sneeze. I hope you'll check back often as I hope to be posting regularly during this new adventure.

All About the Hair

Day 1: Hair down = No comment.

Day 2: Ponytail = You're wearing a ponytail.

Day 3: Up in a bun = Could you please stop changing your hair so much?!

Who knew they even noticed?

The New Kid

I had a kiddo who just started school after an extended summer break today. Glad to know that school is so important. Rrrr. His birthday was a couple days ago apparently and I hastily agreed to allow for birthday treats this afternoon. They arrived in the form of naked cupcakes with a huge bowl of runny icing, a can of whipped cream, and a handful of plastic knives. No one wanted to take the cupcakes my two frosters were trying to hand off dripping icing everywhere and the birthday boy was manning the whipped cream repeatedly asking if he could squirt some right into his mouth. Somehow I managed to hold it together and get them out the door. I was also proud to have kept my grin in check when birthday boy came to me to say the frosting bowl had spilled in the paper bag he was carrying everything home in. Oops! Sorry about that, Mom.

Summer's over people!

So I've decided to launch myself into/toward the frightful word of principal-ing. I spent the summer interning at summer school, which left me with about 3 1/2 days off. I quickly began to understand the complaints of those not adhering to a luxurious school schedule.

Apparently I'm a glutton for punishment because I decided not only to take on the role of principal intern in addition to full-time teaching, but to also uproot myself and change schools entirely. I'm proud to say that my biggest screw up so far was taking my class to lunch 10 minutes late. Whoops! Really, the kids didn't seem to mind at all.

My big complaint? Smelly markers!! Crayola, really??? Did you have to do this to me? The first day of school it was, "Ohhh, smell this one! (pass) It smells like ice cream! Yum! (pass) It does smell like ice cream!" The second day of school it was me saying, "Go to the bathroom and return with a skin-colored nose, please." The third day was me saying, "I'm thinking smelly markers might be turning into 'at home' markers." Not a happy teacher, Crayola.

Cuff 'em and stuff 'em

I confronted my first plagiarizer today. He copied and pasted the entire report. Funny that I figured it out after he couldn't pronounce one of the words in the first sentence during his class presentation and then openly admitted that he had no idea what it meant. Sheesh!

When I talked to him about it today I told him what he'd done was called plagiarism and asked if he knew what happened to you when did that in college. "You get arrested?"

Teacher face--the most valuable tool I have.

Fame & Glory

I'm always telling my students to put their name on the front of a project if they'd like to be famous and on the back if they'd prefer to remain anonymous. One kiddo watching another put his name on the back of his work today burst out, "You don't want to be famous!?!" Priceless.

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.

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.

Check him out at: http://www.benmikaelsen.com/

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!