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.