Thursday, April 28, 2011

Who Needs Paid Vacations and Bonuses?!

When you can get personalized magnets and cupcakes! Hahaha.

After 11 GLORIOUS days off for spring break, we returned to school this week.
I must admit, I REALLY missed their sauce-stained-after-lunch faces oh so much!

First day back from a long break is usually rather awkward. The kiddies and the teachers need some time to get back in the groove of things... so there we were trying to get back into our normal routine when one of our students (let's just call her Jenny) walks up to us and hands us two little pastry boxes. Apparently, Jenny's family went to New Jersey the day before and stopped by Carlos Bakery of Cake Boss (famous from the show on TLC) so she got us two little cupcakes. I mean, of course I've had cupcakes before and honestly, these cupcakes weren't the most delicious of the cupcakes I've had in my life time BUT it was oh SOO sweet of Jenny to think about her teachers during her break. Really melted my heart!


Another student of ours (let's call him Robert) went to the Great Wolf Lodge (water park located in Pennsylvania) over the break and came back with personalized magnets for us! Hahaha. I couldn't help but giggle when he handed us our magnets! What was even sweeter is that he remembered our first names (kiddies LOVE it when you share things like that with them and they will often never forget things you tell them about yourself).



Gotta love em (kiddies, cupcakes, and personalized magnets that is)!

Monday, April 18, 2011

Stick 'Em Up!! (or into the envelope...)

Every Friday, in our (yes, our because it's me and my co-teacher's) classroom we have FUN FRIDAY. What exactly is Fun Friday? Well, it's exactly what the name suggests. We devote a period of instruction on Fridays to something different such as arts and crafts and other things we don't normally get to do during the week. Our children REALLY look forward to this time on Friday and me and my co-teacher are constantly looking for activities to do with our students. Anyways, I will share my favorite Fun Friday activity so far this year....

It all started around Valentine's day, with my co-teacher talking about the abundant amount of post its we have in our classroom. Post its are part of the 3rd grade supply list. However, over the years my co-teacher has collected a whole box of them which was sitting on top of our closet collecting dust. This is when I started to think about an activity that would incorporate post its and be worth while for our students.

We decided to have a week of "SAY SOMETHING NICE TO YOUR CLASSMATES, TEACHERS, & SNOWBALL, ON A POST IT AND STICK EM' INTO THEIR ENVELOPES." The whole idea was to write nice sayings, compliments, or notes to one another everyday for an entire week. In order to do this, we first had to create and decorate our mailboxes AKA white envelopes.

We spent a period decorating and individualizing our envelopes and designated a spot in the back of the room to hang up our mailboxes. It was really adorable how each child was able to put a little bit of him/herself on to the envelope (see below).


Now the waiting game began as we spent an entire week writing post its to one another. We allowed the students to write post its if they finished their classwork early and also at the end of the day. My co-teacher and I also got a chance to write a note to each and everyone of our twenty-five students. Each day, every child's envelope began to fill up. However, we did notice that some students were not getting as many post it notes as others so by Wednesday for homework, we assigned each student to write a note to someone they don't know very well or haven't written a note to yet. This solved the problem and by Friday, each student had collected a minimum of 6-7 notes! On the last day which was Friday, we all took our envelopes off the wall and read through our notes. Even as a teacher, I felt a rush of excitement and joy as I read through each and every one of their SWEET little notes.

In order to help preserve our notes, we gave each student a piece of red construction paper. We glued down our envelopes and post its and made a collage. Here are the finished products! We are happy to say that along with the students we thoroughly enjoyed this activity and some of the notes made me want to tear. It just showed me how much our students have grown and matured with one another and how genuine they are!


P.S. Snowball had an envelope too and needless to say, Ms. Popular Bunny Rabbit received the most notes.... her envelope almost fell off the wall... hahaha.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Children's Book Pick for the Month of April


Being a teacher, I read more children's books than adult books (I can't recall the last ADULT book I finished from front to back... but I can name a million children's books that I finished... hahaha). Therefore, I decided that every month, I will do a review/recommend some of my all time favorites! The books that I feature here may be a classic or it may be hot off the press but I hope to feature books that I think should be included in every child's library.This is a book titled,
The Next Place by Warren Hanson. I was first introduced to this book in one of my undergraduate courses. We were talking about books that would help children cope with death and loss of a loved
one. It's really a hidden treasure and explains that once we die, we go on to the next place. In the next place, there is no more hurt or suffering.... we will be in the best condition of our lives. Here is a sneak peek from the story!

The next place that I go
Will be as peaceful and familiar
As a sleepy summer Sunday
And a sweet, untroubled mind.
And yet . . .
It won't be anything like any place I've ever been. . .

Or seen. . . or even dreamed of

In the place I leave behind.
I won't know where I'm going,
And I won't know where I've been
As I tumble through the always
And look back toward the when.
I'll glide beyond the rainbows.
I'll drift above the sky.

It takes a really harmonious approach to the subject of loss and expresses death as something that brings comfort and peace.

P.S. If you appreciate really awesome book illustrations, the pictures in this book are beautiful!

In summary:
April's Recommendation: The Next Place

Author: Warren Hanson

Good for ages: 4-adults (yes, I would even give this as a gift to a friend going through hard times)
Purpose: To bring comfort to children about the subject of death, suffering, and loss.













Sunday, April 10, 2011

Superbunny to the Rescue



Meet Superbunny, AKA Snowball (our beloved class pet).
What's so special about this fur ball (you may ask)?!

Well, let me tell you what kinds of super powers this special bunny holds.

1) She has saved a highly unmotivated student from failing the 3rd grade and has brought sunshine on to his cloudy days. Yes, sounds dramatic but this student, who I will refer to as Thomas has some major issues at home and at school. That is until, Snowball came into his life. Thomas' parents basically don't/can't support him emotionally or academically. Thomas had ZERO motivation or a reason to want to do well in school. He would often walk into class with a glum face and NOTHING would motivate him to do his work. That is until, Snowball came into our class. This is when things started turning around. Thomas started to come into class in the morning looking forward to seeing Snowball. He would want to tend to her and clean her cage. He would talk about her, write about her, make drawings of her. Although 3rd grade isn't over yet, I know that Snowball has indeed saved this little boy.

2) She is the best behavioral management tool (animal). Ever since day 1 of her arrival. Me and my co-teacher have been milking this super power for all its worth. "Boy and girls, we must work in a quiet manner because we don't want to scare snowball. Bunnies don't like loud noises. Snowball may get scared! Snowball will visit the quietest tables first." She is truly amazing!

3) She has taught our students about responsibility and what it means to tend to something we care about. Every month, we choose monitors to help take care of Snowball. The jobs vary from cage cleaner, water bottle filler, etc. The students absolutely love having responsibilities to take care of her and really take each one of their jobs seriously. They will often come in in the morning and ask if they can do their job, which just reminds us of how much they love her and how much they look forward to being able to do something FOR her.

4) She has helped our class become a real family. Now, I'm sure it wasn't just the bunny but the works of TWO fabulous teachers that ultimately helped our class become a community. However, I do believe that Snowball deserves a lot of the credit. Ever since she came into our class as a pet, there has been a difference in the way our students react to each other and to us. Maybe by working together to tend to her and take care of her, our students have grown closer with one another. Of course, there are still the normal kid stuff like "she said this.... he said my name sounds like a girl's name.." etc but I can confidently say that each and everyone of our students this year really do care for each other.

5) She became the hot topic for our persuasive writing unit. It was maybe around October when the students first mentioned wanting a class pet. At first, my co-teacher and I were hesitant. However, we came to realize having a class pet could benefit our classroom in a lot of way (as you can see from this list). We decided that the students would have to persuade us through writing into getting a class pet. The pencils started to fly off their notebook pages and the rest is history.

All in all, I think having a class pet is truly great in many ways.
Of course, that is IF your principal approves of having pets in your classroom and
you realize that there will be expenses, time, and responsibilities involved.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Third Times the Charm?

Hello my invisible & non-existent readers!
I have been thinking about blogging again for awhile now. AGAIN?
Well, I've started a number of blogs attempting to document my 1st
"official" year of teaching(" " because before this year, I permanently
subbed in one class for 7 months which to me FELT like my first year).
However I was an EPIC FAILURE at updating and maintaining my blogs.

This is officially the 3rd blog I've started and I do believe 3rd times the charm, right?!
So here I go again in trying to squeeze in here whats left of the school year.

Just to give you a little background info.
I am currently teaching in an Integrated Collaborative Classroom (formally called Cooperative Team Teaching). HUH? What the heck is that (you may ask)?

Well, roughly translated, it's a class with a mixture of special education and general
education students and there are TWO teachers in the classroom.
1 general education teacher and 1 special education teacher.
Honestly, I love it because I admire and respect my co-teacher and we just
happen to have a group of fabulous, curious, and SWEET (like honey)
students in our first year of I.C.T. together.

Therefore I will use this blog to document all things related to teaching (mostly the good, the stressful and the rewarding). So here I go.... AGAIN.