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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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| Rocket building at Sky Ranch. I told them to smile "really big." |
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| Filling out their Science Journals. What what. |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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
