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 6th 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 6th 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.
Teacher out,
Ms. Crabtree
