Third Week's a Charm

Well this week was a whole day longer than last week so I was convinced it would feel like a millennium after the heavenly 4-day week from last week. But, much to my surprise this week flew by despite the week being jam-packed with "to-do" lists, spelling tests, and persuasive letter writing. By the time Friday came along, I had said "T.G.I.F." so many times that at the end of the day my kids asked, "what does that even mean?!" I then responded with, "Thank Goodness It's Friday!!" as they stared at me with a look in their eye that said this woman is craaaaaazay. It was pretty humorous and TGIF has now taken on a whole new meaning to me post-college.

Highlights of the week:

1. On Monday we were finishing up our activity we started the previous Friday where each student had a blank map and were told to use an atlas to fill in all the empty states with the names of the states. I also said approximately 1,346 times to write out the whole name of the state and not abbreviate but did I receive maps into the "turn-in basket" with abbreviations? You bet I did. But that's besides the point.......Anyways, my students all sit at round tables with 4 to each table and one table in particular just HAD to all get up and come up to me while everyone else was working and tell me a joke that just could not wait until after class. I finally gave in because they were literally bursting at the seams to tell me and couldn't even focus on what they should've been doing. They then, *on the count of three*, said to me, "Have you ever been to Tennessee?!" and right when I was about to answer with "no" they practically yelled, "BECAUSE YOU'RE THE ONLY 10 I SEE!!" They were practically in tears from laughing so hard and it was actually pretty funny so I gave them a little bit of a laugh...just a little one ;)

2. Once Tuesday (September 10th) rolled around, being the only 5th grade Social Studies teacher I knew I had to quiz them on their history for this week. I asked them, "Okay class, what is tomorrow?" and they all responded with "Wednesday......?" which I responded with, "What's the date tomorrow?" and that's when the gears started turning for some and some responded with, "September 11th....?" and others with, "Ohhh 9/11!" Shortly after asking these questions, I was walking around checking planners when a super sweet and smart girl turned to me and asked, "Ms. Crabtree? Did the planes fly into the World Trade Centers because of Hitler?" My brain at first was thinking ummmmmm whatttttt until I realized that these students weren't even alive when Sept 11th, 2001 happened. I cut them some slack and at that point, I knew the next day would be a day where we would have a kid-friendly September 11th lesson. The lesson went over really well the next day and when the short lesson was over, hands were raised all over the classroom with questions and comments about September 11th. Hopefully they retained the information they were taught and will remember it for future reference. Oh, and for the boys in my classes who thought the terrorists parachuted out of the planes before they crashed, well, now they know that was not quite what happened.

3. This week was "College and Career Week" for my school district so we got to sport our college gear this week and there was a door-decorating contest to partake in. Being a first-year teacher, I wanted to participate, and participate well, in this contest. Therefore, I got to school early, cut out some letters and got a big piece of butcher paper to fit the size of my door so that I would be ready when my homeroom had time to all pitch in to help. Well, decorating a door with 25 fifth graders all shouting, "I want to hold the tape dispenser!!" "Can I color the letters?!" "No I want MY pennant to go right here!!" I about had a head ache after the 15-20 minutes we had to decorate my classroom door was over. We didn't end up winning the contest which is understandable because I realized too late that I didn't read the directions fully (you'd think being a teacher I would know to read carefully) and we were supposed to put the years our colleges were established and where our colleges are located. Sorry kids!! Here's the finished product:

The students each decorated a college pennant
of their choice and when I asked them what they wanted
our door to look like, they immediately had the idea to
print out a picture of the world (circle in middle) and
then place a graduation hat over it to show that they would be
going to schools all over the world. They are pretty cool kids.

4. I wear my glasses everyday to school so my students only know me with glasses on my face. I have had my glasses since January but haven't worn them as much as I should (I don't have contacts) so I decided that when I start teaching full-time I will start wearing them. Anyways, by the end of the day my glasses really need a good cleaning so in my last period class as students were getting settled into their seats and writing in their planners, I took my glasses off for less than 10 seconds to wipe them down real quick and I heard a sweet girl's voice say to her table-mates, "Ms. Crabtree has her glasses off! Quick, look!" but by the time her table-mates had looked over I had already put them back on and the same girl then said, "You missed it!" and I walked away from being near that table having to force myself not to crack up at that "secret" conversation I had just heard. :)

5. This last highlight is to all my Aggie fans out there. In order to get my students attention when they are all talking I will usually just say "5th grade!" and they will stop what they are doing and look at me. Well, my voice is sick of shouting over their already loud voices so I decided to implement a new clapping technique to get their attention. Therefore, I gave them some background info to the "hullabaloo caneck caneck" beat that many people will honk their horns to in College Station. I then told them that when I clap 4 times to the beat of "hu-lla-ba-loo" that they will clap 4 times back to me to the beat of "ca-neck-ca-neck" and when we practiced it, I about died. It was beautiful.

This week was a great week and it ended with some of my students staying in my class a couple minutes after they were dismissed for the day to cover my whiteboard with "graffiti." I remember being their age and finding so much joy when my teachers let us write all over the whiteboard even if we knew he/she was going to erase it the moment we left, so, I let them draw ALL over that whiteboard. When they left I stood back and looked at all they wrote and was again reminded why I do what I do. They really do rock.




Teacher out,
Ms. Crabtree

P.S. BTHO BAMA! Gig 'em Ags!