Unwrapping the Greatest Gift

This quote comes from a book given to me by one of my students for Christmas:

Teaching is one of the few professions that permit love. --Theodore Roethke

Third graders are so easy to love (most days, that is). They're so easy to please. You let them watch a movie, give them a snack and a gift, and they make exclamations such as, "You're the best teacher ever!" and "This is the best day of my life!" It's such a pleasure.

All month long, we've been talking about how Jesus is our greatest gift. I know that they "know" it in their heads, and I pray that they know it, in their hearts. I had them write a paragraph about Christmas, and one boy wrote this:

I will remember the real meaning of Christmas this year because my teacher reads a book it tells the real meaning of Christmas and is a countdown.

So we finished the countdown yesterday.

Here are a few of Ann Voskamp's thoughts on the real meaning of Christmas, taken from Unwrapping the Greatest Gift. I pray that all of us can remember this truth this Christmas.

Christmas isn’t about getting something big and shiny. It’s about God’s doing whatever it takes to be with us – and our doing whatever it takes to be with Him. 

All the other love stories don’t compare to this one – because this is the truest, realest story that ever was. 

God is with us. Jesus is with us. Jesus stays with us. The Christmas candle burns hot tonight, giving its brilliant light, because Christmas goes on forever. Because we have Jesus with us – the greatest Gift of unfailing, unbeatable, unstoppable love that we can keep unwrapping all our days.

Little snippets

Here are a few snippets of my life in the third grade from the last month.

• One student told me she had a dream that I stole her family's car. And here I thought I was having a good impact.

• Math problem: "Name an object in your classroom that is about one yard in length." Several students' answers: "Tanner."  Creative answer. 

• On a Social Studies test, the students were asked to write about one of the Christian martyrs from the Early Church. One student wrote this about one of the girls we learned about: "She was weak but strong innerwords." 

• I gained a little perspective on King Josiah from the Bible when a chapel speaker asked what 8-year-old boy would like to be king, and most of the boys in my class raised their hands. 

• We've been learning about homophones. (In case you've been out of school for too long: words that sound alike but have different meanings.) I gave them sentences and they were supposed to write the correct homophone on their white boards. I said, "My hair is brown." One boy raised his hand and said, "It could be either hair/hare." (Even though he obviously knew what I meant!) I said, "No, because I said, 'My hair is...' Oh, I see what you mean." Smile. 

• Teachers don't teach just academics. One of the many things we try to teach students is manners. So when students come up to me at lunch and say, "I don't have a spoon" or "I need a spoon," I just keep looking at them until they remember to ask, "May I please have a spoon?" This week one girl corrected herself before even finishing her first sentence. :) 

• I walked over to two boys who were standing at the mailboxes, because I suspected something fishy going on. My suspicions were confirmed when immediately, without me saying a word, one boy declared, "I didn't do that!" I'm still not sure what he didn't do. Sometimes my presence is all that's needed to stop mischief! 

• This last week, most of the class has gotten involved in solving this puzzle that one of the boys brought in. It was neat to see them work together and persevere until, low and behold, four students figured it out! They were so excited, that they begged me to take a picture of it. They were hoping to get in the school newspaper. 
  

Bubbly, fizzy laughter

For Christmas this year, I decided to read an Advent book with my class. It's called Unwrapping the Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp. On Friday we read about the gift of laughter. Ann puts it this way:

God brings us the gift of laughter - like bubbly, fizzy, soda-pop joy for our hearts.

Laughing is one of my most favorite things in life. I invited the students to share about the last time they experienced "bubbly, fizzy laughter." I loved hearing them tell their stories and smile and giggle the whole way through. One girl, who is typically very shy and quiet, could hardly get through her story because she was giggling so much. I've never seen her smile so wide. Another boy told us a story that made all of us erupt into fizzy laughter. He said he went to the bathroom and when he came out, his mom asked him if he flushed his hands and washed the toilet. 

I told them their assignment for the weekend was to enjoy laughing with others and to thank God for the gift of laughter. I had lots of opportunities to complete that assignment on Friday night with my sisters. I don't know the last time I've had such bubbly, fizzy laughter. 

I'll end with another one of Ann's quotes, because it's so good: 

Jesus is the end of our story - and the beginning of our story - and the best part of our story.  Because of Him we can sing fa-la-la-la-la and feel what laughter does inside of us - it sends soda-pop-fizzing, bubbly joy all the way down to our toes.

Feel the love

One of the things I'm most thankful for is having a job that I love. I'm so thankful for my students and all the little ways they show their love for me. This includes little gifts, post-it pads, love notes, and even a phone number. It includes cards and pictures of my very own bobble head doll!

Jumping Jacks in Math Class

Writing can be very difficult for children. For example, when using vocabulary words in sentences, one student wrote: "It is unusual for a mouse to eat a dog." Unusual indeed.

On a language worksheet, they were supposed to write two sentences with an action verb in present tense. Most students came up with sentences like these:

They run a lot. They hit the ball. 
The pitcher pitches the ball. The batter hits it. 
I like playing baseball. I play baseball with my dad. 
They run in baseball. The catcher catches the ball. 
We will find a book. (She missed the baseball part of the directions.)

This baseball fan's sentences made me smile:

Brad Lidge winds up and pitches strike three. The Phillies win the World Series. (A bit of fantasy involved as well, perhaps?)

The yearbook staff asked me to have the students write a 75-word paragraph about a highlight or special event from third grade. Those of you who know third graders can imagine how hard it might be for some of them to write about one topic using 75 words. If you don't know any third graders, let me enlighten you. Here are some sample sentences from a few paragraphs:

I love reading! It is fun!... I love the stories. Stories are so much fun… I like books a lot! Do you like books?

I like Bible class. Learning about Bible characters is always fun… Bible is always fun! I think I will always enjoy Bible.

Language is fun! Do you like language? I hope you do because I do… Do you have fun in language? Have fun in language… Did you write a letter? I like writing letters. Do you like writing letters?

I also like handwriting. I’m really good at handwriting. We are doing cursive in handwriting. Do you like handwriting? I do. I enjoy handwriting. 

They wanted 75 words? They got 75 words. 

I also have to share my all time favorite 75-word paragraph. 

Jumping Jacks in Math Class 

It is fun to do jumping jacks in math class. You've been sitting for a while and you can do exercise for a little. In Gym class we do jumping jacks but it does not feel as good because you can stand up and stretch. It is not all jumping jacks; you can do lots of other exercises too. In math class the exercises do not make me feel like they are hard work. They feel easy. 

We've done jumping jacks maybe three or four times in math class. But let me tell you, I think I should have this student teach persuasive writing, because today we did jumping jacks in math class.

The Romans built Agu-Ducks

I'm enjoying this school year so much, that I can barely believe we're halfway through November. I'm afraid that if I blink, it'll be the end of the year already. I'm not nearly ready for that. That's not to say there aren't still challenges. 

On Wednesday, one student walked into the classroom in the morning, looked at the schedule, dramatically sighed, and exclaimed, "Ugh! We have math today. I hate math!" I was thinking, Dearie, we've had math every day so far this year, and we're going to have it every day for the rest of the year. Get used to it.

I guess I should realize by now that when I tell students not to worry about correct spelling for words like "aqueducts" and "conquered" on their social studies test, they really don't... much to my amusement. It's a good thing I knew what they meant:

The Romans built _____________.

agunducks 

akadus 

acwaducks 

ocwabocks 

aqcduxs 

Agu-Ducks  

"I came, I saw, I _______________."

quntend 

cucer 

concord 

conkerd 

Okay, to be fair, some of those spellings actually make more sense than the correct spelling. I also had an honest student who wrote, "I could not get the answer so I skipped it."

After five years of teaching, classes still manage to do new things to surprise me. For example, one day they were listening to Adventures in Odyssey, as they do every day at lunchtime. Apparently there was a prearranged plan, because all of a sudden at a certain point in the theme song, half of the class got out of their chairs and hid underneath their desks. Although now I appreciate the creativity a little bit more, at the time I did not think it was funny. (No wonder it takes so long for some of them to finish their lunches.)

Another day I gave directions to the students to "Write your answers on paper." One boy quietly said, "On your head!" At the time, I didn't think that was funny, either. Now that I stop and think about it, I guess I wouldn't have had to say "on paper." Either way, he didn't follow directions: he wrote his answers on his hand, which I realized when I called on him and he glanced at his hand for the answer.

Just a typical day

A typical day in the life of a third grade teacher might include some or all of the following:

• Untying a girl's shoelaces which she knotted together and couldn't unknot, because her fingernails were just trimmed

• Telling one of the boys that he should not take his snack with him to the bathroom

• Listening in amusement when the boys think one girl's birthday treat is a fishing rod... and listening to the girls explain that it is actually a shoe

• Having one of your students tell you she is saving her birthday money in her piggy bank for a car... She already knows the one she wants. 

• Marking answers wrong on a language test, even though they make sense. (The plural of wife could be women.)

• Deciphering answers written as doodles. 

(Okay, I admit... not all of these events happened in one day. But they did all happen in the last two weeks.)

Taken literally

Today I had a laugh out loud moment, and I couldn't wipe the grin off my face for a good five minutes afterwards. My poor, sweet, innocent girl. We were walking out to recess and this student suddenly asks, "Was he in a cage?"

Me: Was who in a cage?
Student: The ant eater.
Me: What ant eater? I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Student: She said “Thanks for bringing the ant eater.”

This is the point where I laughed out loud. Poor girl.
Well, actually what the second grade teacher said to me was, “Thanks for bringing them in earlier.” She had passed us in the hallway and was thanking me for bringing her students in from recess. Second grade already has a pet rat. I don’t think they need an ant eater too. But I guess it makes sense to check to see if they did have an ant eater, if it was in a cage.

That wasn't the only amusing part of my day. Sometimes students take directions so literally, and then you think, Yeah, that should have been worded differently.

For instance, the directions said: Write the plural form for each noun in a sentence. The word penny was listed with a line after it, and underneath was the word wolf with a line after it. Most students understood this meant to write a sentence for each word. One student, however, wrote a sentence.

The wolves found two pennies.

Or take the math worksheet today.  What is the difference between the rounded number of miles and the exact answer?

One is exact. One is not. 

The round number has a zero at the end and the exact does not.

In reading, I think they came up with some pretty good answers to these questions: What do you dream of doing? What would you have to learn before you could do this?

astronaut; how to run a rocket 

going on a trip into the woods for a month and getting lost; how to know how to survive (I knew before I looked that this was written by the boy whose favorite birthday gift was a knife and a set of utensils!) 

being a mom; get married 

mom; how to clean all the time 

I bet you moms appreciate the last one! 

Making cents

I've been kindly reminded that I haven't written in a while... It's not for a lack of interesting students. Unfortunately, in the midst of keeping track of 30 of them (or trying to), I sometimes forget to jot down a note when one of them does something cute or funny. But these are some of the stories I've managed to remember.

I gave the class a journal writing assignment to write down the best birthday gift they'd ever gotten. There were the typical responses one would expect from third graders: Legos, dolls, toy pets, and dolls and toy pets that talk and walk and meow and bark. One student's favorite gift was a Holy Bible, and a couple girls received baby brothers! Perhaps the most interesting favorite gift was a knife and a set of utensils. I love the variety! 

I continue to receive lots of notes and drawings from my sweet girls. But I was pleasantly surprised to find this in my mailbox from one of my rough-and-tumble boys:

I think I mentioned before that this class laughs at my jokes. They even laugh when I don't realize I made a joke. We were going over the answer to a math problem, and I asked "Does that make sense?" After a pause, I heard giggles throughout the room. I thought I was missing something that someone was doing. "What's so funny?" I asked. Finally, one of the boys piped up, "The answer was seven cents, and you asked, 'Does that make sense?'" Haha, clever class I have! 

Reasons for smiling

Some of my reasons for smiling this week: 

One of the sentences on their spelling homework was:

"Noah walked with God and was _____."

They had to choose the word "bright" or "upright" to fit into the sentence. My aide came to me and said, "Well, half of the class thinks Noah was bright." We counted it right. I mean, I think it takes a pretty bright man to build a giant ark.

On another assignment, they had to write directions for whistling. Here are some of my favorite excerpts.

"First make a hole in your mouth." 

"You put your lips in a circle like you kiss someone on the cheek."  

"First shape your mouth like you're going to kiss someone, then blow through the kiss." 

"If you blow wildly you are not going to get anywhere." 

7 things to know before becoming a teacher

If any of you out there are thinking about becoming an elementary school teacher, there are a few things you should know.

1. Your students will love to come to the board for any purpose, and they know how to strongly express their disappointment when they're not chosen.

2. You will get to know the unique personality of each student. For example, when you set the timer for break so they know when to be back in their seats, there will be some who wait until the last possible second, while others, to be on the safe side, are in their seats with a couple minutes left.

3. It's quite easy to amaze your students... Bubbles on the screensaver never get old... Laminating is a wonder that transforms a boring old name tag into something truly wondrous.

4. Every day, your students give you another reason to smile, whether it's the girl that raises her hand and asks, "May I use the facilities?" or the boy who writes this opinion sentence on his worksheet: "I love pizza, I repeat, I love pizza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Or it may even be when a student misinterprets directions:

5. You will run out of time to hear everyone's stories. In Science class, when one student shares a story about a reptile, suddenly there are 29 more stories waiting to be told.

6. You will also run out of space to exhibit all their displays of affection for you.

                    (You may also start receiving snow flakes in September.)

7. Children know how to make you feel loved.

Alive and well

A wise colleague told me that if children are noisy, that means they are alive and well. I'm happy to report that my students are alive and well. Although I have a feeling the noise level may have something to do with the number of students in the classroom. To give you an idea, this was my class last year:

And this is my class this year:

Sometimes, the classroom feels a little like that tree looks: full and overflowing. But the students are doing very well, and I'm thoroughly enjoying this class. The middle of last week, one student asked me when we're going to start using the behavior chart. She hadn't realized it started on day one. :)

So maybe it's not fair of me to say that they're noisy. But it turns out that students make generalizations about teachers, too. I heard one say, "That's how teachers are." (Stopping a story just when it gets to the good part.)

They're also doing well academically. I've enjoyed reading some very creative sentences in language class. For example, on one worksheet the directions said to "Pretend you are the teacher. Write a command for your students."

"You all go to the principal's office for 24 hours while I go four-wheeling." 

(When I asked if they thought it would work if I tried that, they were too distracted by the very idea of me going four-wheeling.) 

Another time they had to write an exclamatory sentence, pretending a flock of wild ducks just landed in their backyard. 

"There's some ducks out back! And sadly one bit me." 

I'm looking forward to much more entertainment!

 

A good start

When people ask me how the first two days of school went, I say, "Good!" It may sound like a generic reply, but these are the reasons why it's true: 

1. The students are already showing their eagerness for learning. 

2. A student already asked me a question about Valentine's Day. (My answer: "We'll talk about it closer to Valentine's Day.") 

3. I received my first gifts from a few sweet students.

4. My "Wall of Art" is already filling up! :) 

5. This class giggles at my jokes. 

Although I know there will be many challenges that come with having 30 students (getting all their names straight, finding a place for everyone to sit on the carpet, flipping the breaker with our two microwaves, to name a few...), I am excited for the school year. I am confident it will continue to be good, and that I'll have plenty of stories to pass on to you! 

Sweet goodbyes

I think I was just as ready for summer this year as my students.

But they almost made me cry today. They were so sweet.

They were talking about how the year flies by when they have a teacher they really like. Just to clarify, I asked, "So... did the year go fast or slow?" They assured me it went fast. For me, too. Looking back over my blog posts, just about every month, I made a comment about the year going by so fast!

I gave the students individual certificates of appreciation, and at the end, had them all clap one more time for each other. One student (the "class conversationalist") then piped up, "Let's give Miss Weaver a round of applause for being a great teacher!" They did, and I smiled and thanked them uncomfortably. But it is extra nice to be appreciated.

One boy told me he wishes he could fail third grade so he could come back next year. I also received a phone call, an email, and several cards from parents expressing their appreciation.

We ended our year by praying together. It blessed my heart to hear them thanking God for their friendships and for the good year they had in third grade and praying for a good year next year, especially as some classmates won't be returning.

Once again, I'm feeling a little sad at having to say goodbye to another group of great kids. But sad goodbyes mean that you made meaningful connections, and so I'm thankful.

We also took a moment to share what we're looking forward to about next year. Many students are looking forward to getting to know their new teacher, learning new things, and getting to sit in the bathtub which is in the fourth grade classroom. :) And I'm looking forward to the challenge of having a class double the size of this year's class.

But first... let's all have an enjoyable, relaxing summer!

6 more days

Six more days of school. 

As is evidenced by the stack of research reports on my desk. I'm proud of my students for their hard work. I emphasized that they need to write sentences in their own words, and I'm very happy to see proof that they were listening: 

"A guy named McKinley was the president." 

"She helped the Switzerland soldiers" (in the Silver War). "She met up with the Red Cross."

 "He had to go on a wheelchair." 

"She got famous because..."

"A bit later, Jefferson and Burn were going to see who was going to be president."  

It's also obvious that we're nearing the end of the year when my students start doing my job for me. Sometimes when the boys come in from recess, they can't quite let go of things that happened that they didn't like or agree with, so I'll often say, "Boys, recess is over, so you need to stop talking about it." The other day, I wasn't paying much attention to their conversation until I heard one of the girls saying, "Recess is over. Boys, recess is over."

As ready as I am for summer, it starts to feel bittersweet when I receive notes like the one I did today:

Time for a break

You  know we're nearing the end of the year and that it's time for Easter break when:

1. Our guest speaker for devotions asks the kids if they ever don't follow directions so they can get done with their work early, and the most earnest "Noooo!" comes from the student who just handed in this:

2. Students get creative on their science tests:

3. A spelling test looks like it's been through battle:

Happy Easter!

Life lessons from third grade

I've been learning some interesting lessons from my students:

Newborn babies are slimy.
Even more important than winning is losing.
Playing video games clears your head. 

Allow me to elaborate.
A few weeks ago, we were practicing spelling words. I read a sentence with a word that didn't make sense, and they were supposed to choose the rhyming spelling word that fit in the sentence and write it on their white boards. The sentence I gave was, "Newborn babies are shiny," looking for the word tiny. One boy wrote the word slimy.  I pointed out that slimy doesn't rhyme with shiny, and that it doesn't describe babies. (However, as Mom commented when I told her this story, new newborn babies are slimy! But that's not a discussion for third graders.)

A little later, I told them to write the word anything on their boards without looking, because it was posted on our Word Wall. I guess my directions weren't clear enough, because I glanced around the room, and saw several students trying to write the word with their eyes closed.

In Gym class, the teacher organized a volleyball tournament with all the third and fourth graders. At the beginning, she sat them down and had a chat with them. She said, "What's even more important than winning is..."
and I heard a little voice say, "losing?"
"...attitude."

Today I heard one of my boys telling his classmates that, "playing a video game every once in a while clears your head."

Spring, please hurry!

The past few weeks have seemed rather long with no snow days or delays. Nevertheless, I think it's safe to say that we're all ready for spring. Before the last big snow, I asked the students if they were excited. They answered with a collective groan and comments like, "I used to love snow, but not anymore." "I'm tired of snow!" and "I'm done with shoveling." Me too. But unlike my students, I'm not proclaiming that it's hot outside. Last Thursday they begged to eat lunch outside. It was 21 degrees.

They're getting antsy, which tests my patience. The beginning of the month, I switched their seats. Within an hour, I already had to move a couple of giggling boys. The other day in Bible class, we were listing five main events from the story about King Josiah we had just read. I called on one boy, and he said, "I got new sneakers yesterday." (What that had to do with King Josiah, I still can't figure out.) In the library one day, I was staring down a couple of boys who were talking after several reminders to be quiet. The one boy finally noticed me and stared back at me with the biggest, cheesiest grin ever. I lost. I smiled and looked away. One morning I commented to one of the boys that his haircut looked nice. "Yeah, my mom thinks I can think better and get better grades since I got a haircut." I thought to myself, In that case, let's have all the boys get haircuts! Whatever helps... like the boy who raised his hand and was upset because his leg was bleeding. I inspected the faint scratch and gave him a band-aid. The same thing happened with a girl a couple days later, except this time the scratch was on her hand. Sometimes I tell them if it's not bleeding a band-aid won't help. But sometimes I think, oh well, a band-aid is worth it if it makes them feel better and helps them focus on school work!

In Social Studies, we're studying Colonial times. I asked if they knew who the Quakers were. Some had ideas, but no one really knew. One girl, kind of confused, asked, "Isn't it a kind of oatmeal?"

My sports fans boys made me feel really old. I found myself explaining to them who Michael Jordan is. They had never heard of him until someone's sister told him that's who their shoes are named after.

Flashback Friday

For those of you who are wondering what's happening in the third grade, be patient. I'll soon be posting. In the meantime, here's a little flashback Friday for you, taken straight from my journal from a little over a year ago. (The names have been changed.)

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Thank God for days like today, when amidst all the struggles, my students amuse me and make me laugh. The things they said and did are still making me laugh! 

Although I wasn't laughing at the time, it makes me laugh now because it's so ridiculous. At the end of hot lunch, Johnny threw away some of his food. Bobby saw the crackers in the trash can, and in the blink of an eye, snatched one out and popped it in his mouth. Right in front of me! I scolded and said it was disgusting and made him put it back. Apparently, when I turned my back, he took it back out and proceeded to eat it! When I talked to him about it, he told me he was "starving." After I saw him eat his big lunch plus another student's whoopie pie!

One of our Reading vocabulary words today was "somersault." Johnny raised his hand and asked if I knew what a backwards somersault was called. I asked what, and then when he answered, I asked him to repeat it three times, because I didn't understand. Wintersault. I didn't get it until he said off to one side was a springsault and off to the other side is a fallsault. The whole time, the other students were nodding their heads like everyone knows this. 

At recess, Ted and Johnny both had to stay in to do work. Johnny was doing a Reading worksheet with the vocabulary word "lanky," and we're reading a story about a midget. He made a comment about how he doesn't want to get fat - he likes being lanky - because he doesn't want to be a midget. I told him that just because you're fat doesn't mean you're a midget because you don't get shorter if you gain weight. Ted piped up and said, "Yeah, Johnny, because I'm taller than you and I'm plumper." And Johnny responded, "Well, Ted, I wouldn't call you fat. You may be plumper, but you're not fat."  

Winter blues aren't getting us down!

With all these snow days and delays, it's hard to believe we're getting any work done! But the students have been very good about focusing. :)

Time for you to play the teacher. What is this word, misspelled by many of the third graders?

cyrele
serle
seerol
cerl
ceral

A few days ago, the directions on their Language worksheet said to "Write a sentence telling what you ate for breakfast." Many of them ate what you have probably figured out was supposed to be "cereal." (It is a weird word to spell, isn't it?) One girl's sentence was: "I ate cookie cereal. Boring." Doesn't sound too boring to me! (But then again, my breakfast is usually a granola bar.)

Today I had the students start working on a "Multiplication Tic-Tac-Toe" board, where they have to choose four activities in a row to complete. At the beginning of Math time, one boy exclaimed, "I'm so excited to do this! Finally Math is going to be fun!" Another boy said, "I don't know, it might be more boring than you think." I'm not sure what the final verdict was, but they seemed to be enjoying it. :)

And finally, I just have to show off their cute penguins from Art class.

I have a dream...

Last week we learned about Martin Luther King Jr. We listened to a clip of his speech and discussed his dream. On Friday I had the students write about what some of their dreams are. I was so excited to read what they wrote. I was not disappointed.   I have students who want to be doctors, horse trainers, cowgirls, teachers (yes!), baseball players, and car racers. I have students who want to learn how to drive, want to have children, and want to work at a store. Here are some highlights for you:

I have a dream...

• ...to become really strong.

• ...to be able to fly.  

• I want to be famous.

• I want to be liked. 

• One day I want to make a cake on my own. 

• One day I want to learn children. 

• One day I hope that I will be an archaeologist in Egypt. 

• I want to swim with the dolphins. 

• My dream is to become a doctor... I'm going to go to college but first I'll get a job before I become a doctor to pay the money for college. 

• I am going to become the president's bodyguard. 

• When I become policeman I want to have two other policemen along and stroll the streets of Ephrata. 

Some dreams are simple. Some are brave. Some seem hard. But I pray that that won't stop these boys and girls as they grow into men and women. After all, Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream was hard.

All of these dreams are good, and all of them make me smile. What is your dream? (It's never too late to dream, you know!)

Patience, please

I'm afraid that my blog posts may give you the impression that everything is always wonderful in Miss Weaver's third grade classroom. As much as I wish I was the perfect teacher, there are many times when I struggle with impatience (among other things). So today I'm going to share a few of those with you.

My patience is tested when I have to constantly remind students to stop talking during class. However, this may be partly my fault for arranging them in groups. So I told them that next month we're going back to rows! One boy responded by saying, "I don't talk to anyone."
I said, "Yes, that's because I moved your group apart because I had to remind you every day to stop talking!"
To which another student replied, "Not every day. You didn't have to tell him on Saturday and Sunday."
"Yes, that's true," I smiled.

Sometimes I don't have patience for typical 8-year-old boy behavior. Like when I read a Did You Know devotional which said that, "A cow burps (and worse, releases gas) all day long." The sound effects and the giggling took a lot of time to quiet down.

It was hard for me to be patient today when we were reviewing science vocabulary, and I asked for examples of physical properties. About five students in a row gave answers like, "eyes," "smelling," and "sight" no matter how many times I said, "Not the senses, but the properties." I finally gave up and gave my own examples.

I was not patient when in language class I asked, "What part of a sentence do you think a subject pronoun comes in, the subject or the predicate?" and half of the class answered, "Predicate?"

And telling time is definitely a subject to test a teacher's patience! Some students have been writing times like 1:64. And then today we learned A.M. and P.M. One student's answer on the board was 10:32 P.A.

However, one simple little note like this one that I got from a student this morning make all of these frustrating moments so worth it.

And once more I resolve to be more patient tomorrow than I was today.

Yay, school!

I know I sound like a broken record, but I can't believe we're halfway through the year already! This year is just going so fast! Hopefully for the students, too. I know at least one of them in enjoying the year. One day I let one of my boys know that his mom was coming to pick him early for an appointment, and he was disappointed, "because I want to stay here!" Later, his mom told me he'd been praying that we wouldn't have any delays or snow days because he wanted to come to school! Music to a teacher's ears. :) Last week another boy told me he can't wait for January 15, and he hopes it doesn't snow that day! I couldn't think of anything special going on, so I asked why. "Because we're having pizza for lunch!" Oh yes, good reason.

To celebrate all this wintry weather, we made my favorite kind of snowmen on Friday. The kind that you make from the warm, cozy classroom.

One boy accidentally made his snowman "float" and he didn't know how to fix it. I was just about ready to suggest he make the snow a little higher or make his snowman a little bigger. But someone else suggested he give the snowman legs. That works too. :)