Germany Thoughts (not teaching related)

Guten tag! I haven't written a post for this blog in a while but I wanted to write a post about my recent trip to Germany. It won't be teaching related but using this blog is easier than creating a whole new one for one post :)

I recently returned from a trip to Cologne, Germany (Köln if you're German and way cooler than us Americans) and Berlin, Germany where I traveled for 10 days with 16 other people from my church in Dallas, The Village Church. The reason for going to Germany was as simple as this: to bring the hope we have in Jesus to whoever we'd get the chance to talk to in those two cities.

Just a group of people at the DFW airport who had no idea how the Lord would work over the next 10 days.

As a Christian, God calls us to share the gospel (the good news) with people (Mark 16:15, Matthew 28:19). People in my life know that I am a Christian and that part of my life is the MOST important thing to me. It shapes who I am, what I do, and why I do things. So, why is telling others about that so scary? Before going on this trip, I had probably really only talked with people about the gospel a handful of times.

Being an American (or really a human being in general), talking with people about your beliefs (whatever you believe) can be terrifying and intimidating and most of the time we keep to ourselves about our beliefs because we don't want to offend anyone. I buy into this 100% so going on this trip was a way for God to bring me out my comfort zone and boy, did He do just that.

Upon returning from this trip, I can't even count how many times I got to talk with people about Jesus and the reason I (and my team) believe the way we do.

Cologne, Germany. A beautiful place during the day and at night!

The team I traveled with were some of the greatest people I have ever met. They are kind, goofy, hilarious, loud, quiet, adventurous, etc. but most of all, they are a group of people who love God and love His people.

As a way to get to know the people in Cologne and Berlin, my team and I would start a flash mob to the Cupid Shuffle where we would gather people to dance with us. I tried counting up how many times we did the Cupid Shuffle while in Germany and I'm pretty sure we did it around 70 times. We are officially pros and I'm sure we will never be able to hear that song in the same way ever again, haha! After Cupid Shuffling twice, we did a short drama/performance to a song for the people who had gathered around for the Cupid Shuffle. After we finished our drama, we got a chance to go out and talk with people and get to know them.

The drama was a story that showed the life of someone trying to find fulfillment and happiness from worldly things but as the drama went on, they really only found true joy through the grace and fulfillment of a life with Jesus.

Kind of hard to see but my team are the people in the light gray shirts standing in a line surrounded by all the people. This picture was taken during the drama we performed.

We met so many wonderful people from all around the world and all different nations and we simply got to have conversation with them. We got to get to know them and talk with them about why some crazy Texans flew 10 hours to Germany to do the Cupid Shuffle but most importantly, we got to talk with them about the meaning behind the drama we just performed in front of them. Some people understood the drama without us explaining it, while others saw that the drama was moving, but were a little confused at its full meaning.

I think the biggest realization I gathered through the conversations we had was what people believe about God/higher powers. As a Christian and believing what I believe to be true, it was tough to hear what people believed but I also really enjoyed the conversations and hearing what so many different types of people had to say. While some people did not have a desire to talk with us, a lot of people (whether they agreed with us or not) stuck around and had conversation with us. We got to ask them questions and they got to ask us questions. We were not a group of "bible-beaters" but when people asked us why we believed the way we do, we told them. We believe what the Bible says to be true and that our greatest desire is to make the name of Jesus known, in a real and tangible way.

the "Dome" in Cologne, Germany

Through our conversations with individuals, families, groups of friends, etc. we probably got to tell the story of Jesus to close to 1,000 people. Did all those people believe what we told them and have a huge life change from our 20-30 minute conversation with them? Nope. But we did pray for God to do mighty works in the hearts of the Europeans we met and while we may never know on this side of heaven how the Holy Spirit moved in people's hearts during our 10 days in Germany, we hope to see some of those people someday again as brothers and sisters in Christ.

a piece of the Berlin Wall now graffiti-ed in the Eastside Gallery; so much history preserved in Berlin.

If you are a Christian in the US (and other places) reading this blog post, I want to challenge you to take advantage of the country you live in. Whether you actively go to church or not, you can find multiple churches that you'd enjoy going to in most cities. Big ones, small ones, contemporary, traditional, etc. The biggest "road block" for Europeans we talked to is that they don't have an abundance of churches that interest them where they live. Most churches in Europe have been around for hundreds of years and only their grandparents go to those churches. They are extremely "old school" and "boring" from the opinions we gathered. Contemporary churches are not common in Europe so many Europeans will never be surrounded by a community of believers like we have the ability and opportunity to be.

A lot of Europeans desire to be involved in a church surrounded by fellow believers so I challenge all of you reading this to check that church out that you've been wanting to check out but haven't yet done so. Find community of fellow believers. Have conversation about Jesus. And most of all, pray for a revival in Europe. From the eye of a believer in Jesus, Europe is a dark place filled with people searching for Hope.

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading! My time in Germany truly changed my life, my view of the gospel, and most of all it strengthened my relationship with Jesus. And for that, I will forever be grateful.

Haley

Year 2!

I am horrible at being a consistent blogger, actually, I don't think I can even title myself with "blogger" at this point so I'll just title myself as "teacher who has a lot of funny student moments written in a note on her phone but forgets to actually type them out on a blog for the world to see." There we go, much better.

Since I have not blogged this ENTIRE school year, here is a little update on this year:

1. My students absolutely rock. Yes, they at times make me want to pull my hair out, but I am honestly getting sad thinking about them moving onto 6th grade next year. Insert crying emoji.
2. One of my team members/ mentor teacher from last year moved on to bigger and better things this year (hey Happy :)) so therefore my team gained a new team member (hey Brienna!) and she is a great asset to our team. I thought I was a freak about organization until I met her and now work with her and let's just say she blows me out of the water and I'm totally okay with it ;)
3. STAAR for my students (reading) is in two school weeks and I'm glad to have already experienced it last year and know how it works and what to expect so it makes it less terrifying.
4. Not being a "first year teacher" anymore (not that I'm by any means a veteran with my second year status) is really great. I, of course, am still learning new things practically every day, but it's definitely nice to feel like I actually know what I am doing this year...to an extent ;)

Alright, alright, enough about me...here are some funny moments I have had written down in my trusty "blog" note on my phone that I am now going to type out for your anxious eyes to read:

1. At the beginning of the year, I was wearing a floral shirt (can't even recall what shirt it was at this point..) and one of my students who doesn't have a mean bone in her body turned to me in my floral shirt and said "my grandma has a dress that looks JUST like that!" Grandma: 1 Me: 0

2. I was walking down the hallway after school got out one day and there were some of my students hanging out in the hallway because they are in the after school program and they were saying "Ms. Crabtree! Hi! Hi Ms. Crabtree!" and since at this point all I want is to indulge in silence not having to talk to 10 year olds until school started again the next morning, I held up a peace sign. You know, as if to say "sup" but not having to actually use my vocal chords? Well, I underestimated their generation and one of my students replied with "Why are you holding up a #2?" Ms. Crabtree: 1 5th Graders: 0

3. Conversation with one of my students after lunch one day: "Ms. Crabtree, my stomach hurts from eating the tacos at lunch today. I can't even stand up straight!"

4. After telling my students they are still little kids despite what they think, one of them responds with "Ms. Crabtree I am not little. I have an Instagram!" This, my friends, is the next generation of world leaders. Let us all pray for them.

5. I saw one of my students from last year walking in the hall during the day headed to the office with her backpack so I asked her "Are you going home?" to which she replied "Yes, I'm constipated." Glad to know they feel comfortable enough with me to flat out tell me stuff like that without even a hint of pause before answering.

6. We were doing a poetry lesson a few months ago and students had to write down lines such as "I am good at playing basketball" but instead of using words such as "good" or "great" (because that is B to the ORING) I had them choose words that were more exciting. One student called out and said "can we use 'swagtastic' as a describing word?" to which I replied with adding it to my Microsoft Word dictionary because let's be real, if "selfie" made it into the dictionary in 2014, what's to say "swagtastic" won't be in 2015? Now my students like to refer to me as "Ms. Swagtastic" every once and a while and I ain't mad bout it.

7. We give "marks" for students not behaving responsibly or if they don't have their homework turned in on time and since our school wears uniforms, we sometimes give out marks for not having their shirts tucked in. So, one day, one of my students shows up to school with her shirt untucked and immediately says: "Ms. Crabtree PLEASE don't give me a mark for my shirt not being tucked in. I literally can't tuck my shirt in because my new pants were dirty so I'm wearing my pants from last year and they are too small and I can barely even move."

8. Conversation in the hallway with one of my hilarious students from last year moments after the dismissal bell rang:

Student: Ms. Crabtree!! Can I share a pickup line with you?!
Me: Um, actually, no.
Student: Our love is like diarrhea, it never stops!!
Me: ...............

9. Conversation after not allowing my student to read a book in my classroom library that I deemed too inappropriate for a 10 year old to read:

Me: You can't read it, it's inappropriate.
Student: What?! I watch the tv show Dallas!
Me: ................

10. My students were writing informational papers about a body system/body organ earlier this year and I always tell them to come up with a creative title before turning it in. So, these two girls who were researching the eyes created a title that said "The Wet Balls Between the Eyes"...I kindly told them to rethink their title....insert monkey with hands over its mouth, eyes, and ears emoji here.

As you can see, despite my blogging failure, the good times keep on rolling with 5th graders and there is literally never a dull moment with a bunch of 10 and 11 year olds packed 25 deep into one classroom.

Until next time blog readers!

Teacher out,

Ms. Crabtree

A New Group of Crazies :)

Hello again blog readers! I think I may go down in history as one of the worst bloggers in the sense of never updating it............BUT no fear, I am back! Well, at least until my next blog post and by the looks of my last post being in January, I can't make any promises on how often these posts will be written ;)

To bring you all up to date, I finished my 1st year of teaching on a high note and I only cried one time!! Apparently that's a big deal for first year teachers so I'm going to take that as a great feat accomplished. STAAR testing was a booty-kicker but my students worked their booties off and did awesome.

Summer break was 10 full weeks of bliss and I never wanted it to end. I traveled to London and Paris with a couple friends (shout out to Katy, Suz, and the Queen herself) and read a TON of Harry Potter. My parents didn't let my sisters and I read HP growing up because of all the "witchcraft" (they cray) so I officially blame them for me missing out on a bit of my childhood. My twin sis and I (hey hollz) have read HP all summer and she just finished Deathly Hallows, proud of dat gurl. I am not finished with Deathly Hallows yet but I will finish ASAP. I love you 'Arry.

Fast forward to present day and I am a week into my second year of teaching! Y'all being a second year teacher is da bomb. I actually know what I'm doing, what a concept?! Yes, I will continue to learn new things daily and see which things don't work, but it feels good to not be a total newb.

Highlights of my 1st week of my SECOND (holla) year:

1. For one thing, my students from last year are absolutely insane. My district goes up to 6th grade in elementary school so I get to see my students from last year as they walk past my classroom everyday and into their big boy/girl classrooms in 6th grade. I feel the love from them daily as they literally tackle me with hugs (mind you they have each grown about 5 feet in the past two months so this can be problematic) and come into my classroom when school is out. They like to say things like "ohhhh my gosh you wore that shirt last year Ms. Crabtree!!" and then I follow that statement with a look that says they are nuts and I kindly reply "ummmmmmm do you want to pay for a new wardrobe for me each new school year?!" (they have it easy....they wear uniforms). I also got contacts over the summer so I don't rock my glasses every day so my former students think that's absolutely insane. They like to "kindly" tell me "Ms. Crabtree, you look prettier WITH your glasses on" or "Ms. Crabtree, you look WAY better without them." It's just so hard to please 11 year olds these days...and they sure know how to give an opinion............

2. I have received three, count them, THREE, apples this year from 3 different students. I only received one last year so getting three in the first week was pretty humorous. If only they knew I don't really care for red apples......hehe.

3. At the beginning of the year we have the students fill out "Get To Know Me" forms so I couldn't help but share this following bit of info from one of my students' pages. Favorite place to eat: "Chick A Flake."

4. On the first day of school I shared a PowerPoint all about myself and mentioned how I traveled to London and Paris this summer. After sharing this, one of my students (who is actually very bright might I add) asked me "Did you drive to Paris??" to which I replied ".................Nope.... I flew..." to which he exclaimed "PARIS IS AN ISLAND?!".....yep you can betcha bottom dollar that I pulled out an atlas to give a quick geography lesson.... feel free to pray for my students ;)

5. It always seems like sayings that we, as humans, use on the reg usually become part of a pop song so that that normal saying can no longer be said without someone snickering or singing along to what just came out of your mouth. I realized this last week when I started a few of my classes with "Alright, first things first..." which was followed by random bits of "I'm the realest!!" erupting around the room. Yep, it's a struggle teaching older kids sometimes....they know too much about pop culture! But......it is slightly funny :) I've since then substituted "first things first" with "first off" to get rid of the random singing. The things I have to go through.....

6. Having the last name of Crabtree, most of the boys I teach have heard of Michael Crabtree, the football player. Therefore, I never get failed to ask if we are related. Well, on the first day of school these two boys come up to me in class and I hear the following whispered exchange:

Boy 1: You ask!
Boy 2: No, YOU ask!
Boy 1: Ms. Crabtree, are you married to Michael Crabtree, the football player?
Boy 2: (stands there with eyes wide in hopeful anticipation that a pro football player would be coming to career day)
Me: ..............do you see a wedding ring on my finger to even indicate that I'm married?!
Boy 1: (points to Aggie ring as if to answer yes to my wedding ring question)
Me: Yeah, no. This ring is a class ring for the college I went to.
*Boy 1 and Boy 2 walk back to their seats feeling defeated*

7. Lastly, on Friday my students were playing with a dodgeball outside at recess to which they somehow eventually got it lodged high up in a tree. After watching many failed attempts to retrieve the ball by use of throwing shoes and a basketball up there, I walked over and took the basketball, dribbled it a little (for dramatic effect you know) and underhand threw it up in the tree and knocked the dodgeball right out of the tangled limbs. The crowd (students) went wild and I secretly thanked God that I was able to get the ball out on the first try so that I could keep my cool factor I had going ;)

So far, I absolutely LOVE this group of kiddos that I will get the opportunity to teach this year. They are respectful, kind, and have already shown a huge desire to learn. Thank you to my main man Jesus for another year at a wonderful school and for helping me feel prepared, rejuvenated, and ready to teach 75 fifth graders all about Reading and Writing....Oh, and thank you God for giving me the gift of remembering names, I had all their names down on the first day of school. Holla shot colla.

Teacher out,

Ms. Crabtree

Hello, 2014!

Sometimes I’m not the best blogger out there but then sometimes people remind me to blog (Stephanie Beltran hehe) and then I remember why I decided to blog about my teaching adventures in the first place: to remind myself years down the road the craziness and silliness of my first years of teaching and to allow people to get a glimpse into the life of a teacher. So here I am, finally blogging after a couple months of blog neglect J

2013 ended in a great way and boy was I excited for when two weeks of blissful Christmas break came up on the calendar! (one of the perks of being a teacher).Those two weeks off were honestly just what I needed after my first semester of my first year of teaching came to an end. One of my roommates (also a first year teacher) and I were sitting on our couch on one of the first days of Christmas break and we just looked at each other and fully took in the realization that we had just completed HALF of our first year of teaching, HALF Y’ALL. August-December absolutely flew by and so did those wonderful two weeks off ;).

2014 came in full swing with the students coming back to school at the beginning of January. It only took a few hours into the first school day back for the students to realize Christmas break was over and it was time to say goodbye to call of duty/minecraft all day and slumber/dance parties every night, and say hello to half-way to 6^th grade and STAAR preparation. It was a huge wake-up call to me and especially to my students. Being almost February, it means we are about two months away from STAAR testing in April. Excuse me while I go crawl in a hole and pray that I’m doing enough as their Language Arts teacher that they can pass their Reading test and move on to 6^th grade. Feel free to take a moment and pray for me and my 75 students, I’d greatly appreciate it J Oh, and pray that they pass Math too (you’re welcome, Happy!)

Highlights from my students since the last time I blogged…in November…SORRY AGAIN FOR MY HORRIBLE-NESS:

1.       I was working at my small group table answering questions for a couple students when I mentioned something about the weekend. Then, one of my students asked me, “Ms. Crabtree, what do you do on the weekend?” and then another student immediately answered, “she grades papers…” and then I looked at her, laughed, and said, “only SOMETIMES” and I reminded them that I, too, have a life outside of the classroom J

2.      One morning when the students were arriving at school, a student of mine asked me what my favorite color was and y’all, I get asked this question A LOT and I never know what to say. I don’t really have a favorite color so it changes a lot. Well, this particular time I told that student that I didn’t have a favorite color and she said “well do you like pink?” and I said “yep!” The day continued on and after lunch/recess, this student was in my class and she brings me a hot pink iPhone 5 phone cover. Y’all, this took me by surprise because it wasn’t the usual rainbow loom bracelet or pencil-drawn picture with crabs in a tree type of gift. I was so grateful for this gift despite the fact that I have an iPhone 4S and the cover doesn’t quite fit my phone….but I still use it on my phone every once and a while and just hide the fact that it isn’t very snug J

3.      My students KNOW I am not married, hence the “Ms.” and not “Mrs.” But despite that, two of my students still asked me if I was married and when I responded with a slightly sarcastic “well what do YOU think the answer is to that question?” I guess they took that as me being irritated with my single-ness. They then hugged me, pointed to my vacant left ring finger and said “Don’t worry Ms. Crabtree, you won’t be Ms. Crabtree FOREVER.” Thank you girls, thank you.

4.      About a week ago, one of my students walked into my classroom and said, “Ms. Crabtree. I have a compliment for you and a dis-compliment for you. Which one do you want first?” I really didn’t know where she was going with this but I told her to tell me the “dis-compliment” first. She then responds with, “You’re outfit doesn’t match AT ALL, but I really like it and you look super cute!” Y’all, I was wearing maroon pants, a cream polka dot shirt, with a navy cardigan. In my eyes, that matches pretty well and I like to think I have a slightly better fashion sense than an 11 year old so I responded with, “hasn’t anyone ever told you navy goes with anything (except black) and that colored jeans are all the rage right now?!” She then laughed and trotted away to her desk. Kids these days…

5.      As a lot of you know, the movie Frozen has been a big hit with most everyone who has seen it. I saw Frozen over Christmas break and absolutely adored it. I was happy to find out that all my students who have seen it, girls AND boys, have all really enjoyed it too. Well, the soundtrack is one of the best parts of the movie with one song in particular called “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” Whenever it’s too cold outside or raining, we have to have indoor recess which means students can play board games (these kids love Connect Four y’all), draw, or SING! Normally I wouldn’t exactly allow singing to happen during all of recess but when I heard two girls sitting in a corner signing “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” together, I allowed it to happen because I happen to love that song. After a few minutes of singing and HARMONIZING together, these two sweet girls came over to my desk and said “Ms. Crabtree, can we sing you a song?” I, of course, said yes and they proceeded to sing me “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” and it was so cute and my heart melted the moment they started singing. It was like my own personal Frozen soundtrack concert and it was PRECIOUS.

6.      Last but not least, we have spelling tests every Thursday. Spelling tests are pretty simple in the sense that I stand at the front of the room, say a spelling word, followed by a sentence with the word in it, and then they write the word down. Well, last week one of their words was the word “trouble” and of course the first thing that comes to my mind is some T Swift. I had an internal debate on whether I wanted to be a tad silly and nonchalantly say “Next word: trouble. I knew you were trouble when you walked in. Trouble.” or just be boring and say something like “you could get in trouble if you don’t do your homework.” Well, I decided with the former and spoke some T Swift lyrics for their sentence and luckily that was the last word on their spelling list because of their eruptive laughter that followed. Trouble, trouble, TROUBLE.

 

T- minus 4 months until Summer Vacay. Lots to do before then and lots more highlights to write down for my blog. I’ve heard 2014 is the year of the blog sooo hopefully that means I’ll be better at updating this thang? (I totally made that 2014 year-of-the-blog thing up beeteedubs.)

Teacher out,
Ms. Crabtree

Field Trips and Funny Moments

Well October through early November has clearly been jam packed with stuff and my blog has officially felt the fullness of neglect. Sorry bloggy, I’m back for ya! We just ended the second six weeks and started our third six weeks last week. I’m sorry, what? Pretty sure it was just the first day of the first six weeks AKA the first day of school. Time you are flyin and it's cray. I’ll just share the biggest highlights of the past month so that I don’t make you read an extraordinarily long blog post ;)

Highlights:

1. One of the biggest highlights of this past month was going to Sky Ranch for “Science Camp” with all of my 5th graders! We went for three days and two nights and it was an absolute blast y’all! It rained the entire first day we were there so just take a moment to think about 70 ten year olds filing off a bus, in the pouring rain, hopping on a wagon type of thang trying to cover themselves and their precious luggage as they were taken to their cabins. It was a sight to be seen and a funny one at that. Then you have me and my two partner teachers hopping on our own state-of- the-art golf cart covered in our rain ponchos being pelted by rain as we drove to our own teacher cabin. Being the youngest teacher out of the three of us I usually offered to sit on the back of the golf cart..you know..the part that isn’t covered by the roof of the cart? Servants heart yall, servants heart.  Even with the rain the kids got to play tons of fun gamesand learn so many cool things about Science using the outdoors, animals/reptiles, and debatably the coolest thing at Sky Ranch: the Zipline. Being only 23, I saw that thing and immediately envied the kids that got to ride it. Well, the students actually did not get a chance to ride the Zipline but you know who did? You guessed it…yours truly! A parent of one of my 5th graders and myself got to be the “variables” of an experiment about the effects of weight onmotion. So we got to ride the zipline three times in a row…can you say HOLLA?! Cause I can. The kids gave us names to cheer for as we went down the zipline so they called me “Ms. Zipster” which then the Sky Ranch worker who was teaching the lesson changed to Ms. Hipster…I'm guessing it had to do with my glasses so sure.. I rolled with it. Speaking of Sky Ranch workers, some of my cute little 5th grade girls were determined for me to “get asked out” by one of the Sky Ranch workers who was my age that these 5th graders thought was “super cute.” So because of this, the whole time we were at Sky Ranch, these girls would give me to “eyes” whenever this certain Sky Ranch worker was anywhere near me. Goodness gracious, this is 5th grade Science Camp not E-Harmony people. It was cray-zay. It was a fun filled three days and I have always wanted to see Sky Ranch because of knowing some people who were counselors over the summer there. I can officially say it’s pretty awesome. 

Rocket building at Sky Ranch. I told them to smile "really big."

 

Filling out their Science Journals. What what.

Hangin' out in the "Mammal Room" touching some hedgehogs.

2. This next one isn’t necessarily a highlight because it made me want to pull all of my hair out BUT I think its worthy of sharing so that you could get a chance to feel my pain ;) A couple weeks ago we went to the Dallas Museum of Art with our 5th graders. Take another moment to visualize and think about the idea of taking 70 ten-year-olds to a museum where they can’t touch anything and have to be relatively quiet and how that is around 100% impossible. I ended that day with a headache and 6, count it, 6 freshly written out detentions. One of my best friends and I actually went back to the DMA without a bunch of 10 year olds a couple weeks later and it was relaxing and fun :) Until next year, DMA!

 

3.  In my school district we do these “classes” called Enrichment Clusters where each teacher will think of a class they could teach and bring in outside speakers that has to do with a career these kids may choose when they get older. For example, some clusters are: using Legos to work/play with in relation to Architecture, a fitness class where they learn about and get to try out Zumba, and a cluster where the students choose a room in the school to re-design in the sense of Interior Design. I chose to do a First Aid type of class and since this is my first time ever doing an Enrichment Cluster I really had little idea of what I was doing on that first day when sixteen 4th-6th graders flooded into my class to learn about First Aid. Luckily I always have something up my sleeve (sarcasm) and I had talked with some other teachers and found 16 stuffed animals. I decided we were going to use strips of Kleenex and popsicle sticks to make arm and leg splints for these stuffed animals. It seems like such a ridiculous concept when I type it out but hey yall..it was a hit! The students actually really enjoyed it and I made it a contest so the person with the best stuffed animal splint got a piece of candy. It’s all about the incentives y’all. 

Winner of the stuffed animal splint activity! Professional.

Here are a couple small highlights which don’t require much of an explanation:

  
1. One of my students blatantly told me that she judges teachers based on the cleanliness of their desks. She said I passed her judgement and therefore she likes me? Score?
  
2. When taking a spelling test with the word “direction” on it, I saw one of my students flip her test over to write something out before writing her answer down. When I looked at it after she turned in her test, she had written “One Direction” on the back. Whatever it takes y’all.

That's what makes you beautifulllllllll

3. In my First Aid enrichment cluster, our school nurse came down to teach kids hands-only CPR using a dummy. The students then practiced what they just learned on the dummy to the song of “Stayin Alive” because apparently the beat to the song is the same rhythm you should use when giving CPR. Fun fact and funny sight: check! 

ah ah ah ah stayin alive stayin alive

  4. Yesterday one of my students was doing his writing prompt over a book he had just read in the trilogy of Lord of the Rings and when I asked him to tell me more details (as in, write it down) about the main character, Frodo, he proceeded to tell me for literally 5 straight minutes about the story line of Lord of the Rings. I didn’t have the heart to stop him so I let him talk and talk. I now know a lot more about the "LOTR" than I thought was possible in 5 minutes.

5. I had to literally give a lecture to some students the other day when one student came up to me saying someone was making fun of “country people” and that it hurt their feelings because their grandparents are “country people.” Let’s just say it took all of me to not let out a slight giggle when I was lecturing them, even though it was a serious matter you guys!
  
6. One of my students was writing about her experience at the State Fair of Texas a couple weeks ago and as I was reading it she mentioned the yummy taste of a “powdered pretzel.” I then figured out she was meaning “funnel cake” lolz yall.

Well there you have it folks! The funny and crazy moments of my previous month of teaching. Pretty soon it will be Christmas Break and I will have completed a whole half of my first year of teaching. It is flying by and I’m getting the hang of things more and more each day. I am at a wonderful school on a wonderful team with even greater students. Jesus, you rock.

Teacher out,

Ms. Crabtree

It's Fall Y'all

Well it's officially Fall and maybe it's because of the *slightly* cooler temperatures or the occasional falling brown leaf that has made me miss a couple weeks of blog updating, but on this lovely day off, I'm back! Stop your fretting!

It's so so so hard to believe that it's already mid October which means we are coming upon halfway through this Fall semester. (Sidenote: I'm still in "college term mode" so half the time when I say "semester," I don't think my students even understand what I'm saying..maybe that should be a new vocabulary word for next week? hmm.) It still feels like school started just a couple weeks ago and I'm convinced that even the long-feeling weeks fly by in the blink of an eye! But I'm not exactly complainin' 'bout dat.

Highlights of the past couple weeks:

1. I wear pants (straight leg/skinny type so they're cute, I promise!!) every day to work simply because half the time I spend bending down to pick up trash/broken pencils/torn up pieces of paper in between classes to make it a clean environment for my following classes (I hate trash/clutter okay?!). Therefore, I don't choose to wear dresses because A. I don't find them very comfortable to wear around all day when I'm go-go-go and B. I don't have a plethora of choices of dresses soooo therefore it just doesn't happen. Well, my students, well..the girl students, picked up on my no-dress-wearing-style after about the 5th week and then asked me if I owned any dresses. I replied with a "yes" to which they replied with "then why don't you wear them?" to which I replied with "because I like pants better........but maybe I'll dig one out of my closet to wear tomorrow...just for y'all." So, in order to make my students happy as clams, I wore a dress the next day and I also happened to wear my hair up for the first time that day (main reason being I was too lazy to straighten my hair) so Ms. Crabtree was lookin all sorts of different that day at school! Let's just say my day was filled with "Ms. Crabtree! Your hair looks so good up!" "YOU'RE WEARING A DRESS!!!!" "Ms. Crabtree!! So-and-so (a 10 year old boy) thinks you look pretty with your hair up hehehehe" and so on and so on. I half felt like a person who had just participated in Extreme Makeover: Fashion/Hair Edition and half like a celeb. It was strange yet humorous.

2. The YouTube video/song of "What Does The Fox Say?" (click on the link...you know you want to) has been all the craze lately among my elementary school posse and lucky for them, I had seen the YouTube video already so I was already aware of this ridiculous song before it swept into the brains of all my 5th graders. Let me tell you, it's something that when you hear it once, you'll never forget the tune, unfortunately. Therefore, I about made the life of a couple of my students when they came up to me and simply said "Ms. Crabtree! Ms. Crabtree! What does the fox say?" to which I replied with the tune that comes right after it. They stared at me wide eyed and then busted out laughing. They either think I'm cool or that I need to get a life? I'll go with cool?

3. At the beginning of last week, we had just come in from recess and one of my fifth graders approached me in class shortly after and asked, "Ms. Crabtree? What do butterflies eat?" to which I replied, "um, leaves?" and then told her that's a question for the Science teacher (I teach Language Arts okay?!) She then proceeded to ask me this questions again about every 30 seconds until I finally said, "*Sarah, why do you keep asking me this?" and she stared at me for about 5 seconds and then said, "Okay...I keep asking because I caught a butterfly at recess and it's currently in my locker..." I honestly had to hold back a small chuckle and then had to persuade her that the butterfly needs to be placed back outside because it needs sunlight to survive and a bush is much more appealing to a butterfly than a musty old locker. She was pretty bummed that I asked her to do this but I told her I'd give her 5 minutes to place the butterfly back outside and to say her goodbyes. Bless her little heart.

4. Mid last week, one of my homeroom students came up to me at the end of the day and presented me with a Prezi presentation (kind of like a PowerPoint but much cooler and done online) titled "Why We Love Ms. Crabtree." She then proceeded to show me how she had asked all of my homeroom class and a handful of other students what they thought about me (I'm guessing she threw in the word "positive" because there weren't any hurtful comments lolz) and then she assembled them into the cutest/sweetest Prezi presentation simply because she felt like doing it. It was honestly one of the kindest gestures I've ever received and it made my heart melt into a big ole glob of goo on the floor. One of my students said "I love Ms. Crabtree because she helps bring out the inner me." I love my students.

This was a letter I randomly received last week. Heart melted again.

5. This past Friday, my twin seestur, Holly, came in town from Austin so I told her she had to come up to my school at the end of the day to meet some of my students. Well, she got there a couple minutes earlier than I expected and as I am slightly shouting at a student to return to his desk for the 5th time that period, Holly walks in to which all my students went CRAY-ZAY. Some of them forgot I had a twin and I didn't tell this certain class that my sister was coming to visit so once they saw the Ms. Crabtree look-a-like waltz in, they morphed into students I didn't even recognize anymore. Their eyes were wide, they were looking at me and then looking back at Holly, and then they began rushing towards her. Because of their barbaric-ness, I had Holly leave my room to which my students got real pizzed. Once Holly left, I told them that she would not be entering this class again until everyone was in their seats with their mouths zipped shut. Once they proved they were normal human beings again, I had Holly come back inside and it was like all my students had straight jackets on and were tied to their seats against their will based on the amount of wiggling that was occuring among each of my students. It was like they have never seen a twin before. ISSUES PEOPLE. ISSUES.

These past couple weeks have kind of been a whirlwind but remembering these little moments reminds me again that despite the difficult/stressful moments I experience each day, that Jesus reminds me of his goodness when my students really know what to do/act like to make me smile.

Teacher out,
Ms. Crabtree

*Names have been changed

Being "That" Teacher...

Report cards are being sent out next week which means the first six-weeks is almost coming to an end. Seriously cray-zay to think about. 1 six-weeks down, 5 more to go, and then it's summer break. If every six-weeks flies by the way this first one did, I'll be soaking in that Summer sun in a matter of seconds! But let's not even think about Summer right now with Fall quickly approaching and my heart skipping a beat at the thought of boots, sweaters, and scarves.

Highlights of The Week:

1. Above the door of my classroom, on the inside, I have the words "You Are Loved" spelled out so that my students can always see it from where they are sitting and especially when they leave my classroom. I've only had one or two students out of my 78 students comment about it so hopefully the others have noticed it too. Well, on Tuesday when my students were lining up to leave my class to go to their next class, a sweet girl who was standing at the front of the line read it out loud and then turned to me and said, "I like that Ms. Crabtree. It's a really good self-esteem booster," and I about died on the inside. Being in a public school, you can't exactly explain that the "You Are Loved" is more than just me, Ms. Crabtree, telling them they are loved but that more importantly, they are loved by Jesus. I just hope that even on the days when I am getting on to them over anything and everything, that they leave my class, see that they are loved, and I pray that they believe it.

The only picture I have of the words above my door, but you get the gist :)

2. So my students are obviously part of the generation where technology flows through their blood stream and the idea of simply going outside after school to ride bikes or play tag on their street is gag-inducing. Therefore, the conversations I hear a lot are about video games, mainly, "Minecraft" or whateva these 10-year-olds call it. Being a girl (who was never even that good at any video game I have ever played, meaning my Peach could never beat my older sister's Mario in Mario Cart), I never sat in front of a TV screen playing hours upon hours of video games. Nowadays, these kids can sign onto their Xbox and live chat with their friends and sometimes complete STRANGERS to play their games. I think that's just crazy and that they are frying their brain cells by doing so so I made sure to let them know that when I have kids, especially if I have boys, that I'm not going to let them play video games. (sidenote: I was semi-kidding because I don't want to be that mom but then again, I don't think I'd mind being that mom if my kids were more well-rounded by playing in the sunshine rather than wasting their life away trapped in the alternate universe of video-game-playing). Well, the gasps that erupted around the room were plentiful and one boy in particular shouted at me, "Ms. Crabtree! Your kids are going to hate you!!" and I said, "Probably!" and continued on with my lesson with a smile on my face knowing my students think I'm all bunch of crazy.



3. On Thursday, one of my homeroom girls ran into my classroom with a bag of apples and exclaimed, "Ms. Crabtree! I have a present for you!" and proceeded to hand me a fresh, beautiful, honey crisp apple. At first I was just thinking, yum I'll eat this at lunch, until I realized this was my first "teacher apple" given to me by a student! There was another girl standing nearby and when I said, "Thank you so much! You just gave me my first teacher apple!" the look on the other girls face was pure defeat in the sense of she was bummed she didn't give me my first teacher apple before the other girl. It was cute, sad, and funny all at the time time.

4. Last but not least, at the end of the day yesterday (Friday), after my students had been dismissed for their weekend adventures and I was in the middle of partaking in a happy dance, three of my 5th grade girls ran back into my room. One was nudging at another girl saying, "tell her!" followed by "no! you tell her!" followed by "JUST TELL HER!" and at this point I exclaimed, "Okay, y'all are freaking me out!" So finally the girl being nudged said, "Some of the 6th grade boys just came and talked to us in the hallway and asked us if Ms. Crabtree was our teacher and when we said yes they said 'Lucky y'all, she's hot!' so we just wanted to tell you that!" I told them that my life was now complete that 11 year old boys think I'm cute and they started laughing andddd probably thought I was crazy again. But, you know, I kinda like being that teacher that students think says weird things and acts strange sometimes. It's kind of a glimpse into my life when I become a mom someday and my kids become embarrassed of me. Can't wait for the day!

Here's a self portrait to end this post with:

I think the circles around my eyes are supposed to be my glasses...

Its da freakin' weekend, y'all.

Teacher out,
Ms. Crabtree