Funny first grade drawings...

Ok - these are too funny not to post. The first ones are drawings the students made after we read an informational story about "Ants". The drawings are of the ants laying eggs. You can draw your own conclusions about what YOU think they're doing =)

This next one is from a science activity I had the students complete. They had to draw four pictures (two "living" things and two "non-living" things), then they had to write "living" or "non-living", and then write a sentence describing their picture. This little girl doesn't have her subject/verb agreement quite down yet. =) Enjoy...hee hee

Being a teacher...

Definitely has its perks...but it also has its drawbacks, such as having to make sure that every word is spelled correctly, that grammar is used correctly and basically that everything I say, do, or write is absolutely perfect.  If not, I have people LIKE MY DAD AND SISTER who find things wrong and correct me. =)  So the credit goes to my Dad, Larry, and my sister, Elaine, for catching a spelling error on my profile.  "Throws" is now corrected to be "throes"...=)

I'm so glad I came from such a SMART family!!!

Plus, I'm not too proud to admit when I'm wwwrrr...um...wrrrooo...hmmm....wrrroooo...fine, when I'm incorrect. =)

Love you both Lainie and Dad!!

~Lara

Dead rat...

Ha ha...so last year at this time, I think, we came to school and found a dead rat impaled on someone's door.  Never did find out who did it or why...it was just weird.  Thankfully, nothing like that has happened this year....YET! =)

Nothing new today...I just had perfect attendance for the first time in about 6 weeks...all the students were here...it was wonderful! =)

Middle Schoolers

As some of you know I often take in middle school students who need some place to go for ISS (in school suspension).  Most of them, actually ALL of the time, until today, I have never had a problem with any of them.  These students range from 6 - 8th grade and have normally committed enough small infractions that have led to their three day suspension.  Today I had a kid who has a notorious reputation for being a punk.  With that said, I always spend time with these kids to try to get to know them, to find out what their internal issues may be, so that I can help to point them in a different direction.  This normally starts with a few questions such as, "Who do you admire?", "What do you want to be when you grow up?", "What motivates you?"  I also always ask them what they did to get ISS.  If a students "doesn't know" what they did for ISS, then they're flat out lying and you know it will be difficult, but if the kid admits what he did they are generally willing to answer the rest of the questions I listed above and they are, generally, remorseful about what they've done.  My kid today was not like this.  Today was actually his second day in my classroom and I had no problems with him at all until this afternoon.  

Our school has a closed campus, which means (among other things) you may not bring certain foods on campus...things like candy, gum, and junk food.  We have several students who bring these items on campus and they are confiscated (when found).  Today this student was feeding my first graders "hot" Cheetos while we were walking to art class.  When questioned, he lied about it and it spiraled downhill from there.

To make a very long and angering story short, as he walked by a trash can he threw something from his pocket into the trash can (I was in front of him, so I couldn't see him do this, but I heard it and there was another teacher behind him who saw him do it.)  When I asked him what he threw away, he said, "Nothing."  Knowing he was lying, I went back to the trash and picked out his full bag of 'hot' Cheetos...to which he replies TO MY FACE, "trash digger."  When I asked him again what he said (because I was in TOTAL disbelief), he gives me this cocky sideways smirk and says, "I said, trash digger."  

OH MAN!  All I can say is I had to remind myself that I do have teacher's liability insurance...but even with that insurance, I would still go to jail for spanking this kid. ;-)

Clearly the kid has some other issues besides calling me a "trash digger" and unfortunately for him now, he as MUCH bigger issues for the 5 or so infractions he committed during this whole little tirade.  He's officially out of my class for OUT of school suspension, which for him could mean retention and/or summer school.

I did take 45 minutes after this incident to try to find out what is going on at home or in his life to figure out why he's this way.  He started crying, but wouldn't really open up.  Before I had to go things were pretty much calmed down and I asked him what he would do differently if he was given another chance?  He said, "Nuthin'".  So I asked him if he wanted another chance?  His reply?  "Nope."  So there we are.  I tried!!

So - praise God for teachers...but praise God especially for middle school teachers who put up with this on a daily basis, because it just re-affirms the fact that I couldn't do it.  I will take my little 6, 7 and 8 year olds and their peed pants, snotty noses, drooling faces, germy hands, (not to mention a plethora of WONDERFUL things too) ANY day.  I know that middle-school teachers say the same about elementary age teachers, but seriously...no friggin' way.  I'll coach them, I'll mentor them, but it would take ALOT for me to ever be put in a position to have to teach them every single day.  

That was MY day! =)  and it's Friday...thank God. =)

Cinquain poems...

We did them today for our district poetry contest...hopefully one of my kiddos will win something.  I'll scan a couple tonight and post them, because they were SO cute (especially the pictures).  If you're not sure what a cinquain is, it follows this format.

Title

two describing words

three verbs

four feeling words (or a four word 'feeling' phrase)

Title

Here are some that my students wrote today.

Lizard

Orange and yellow

Scare, run, eat

It makes me happy.

Lizard

Grila (Gorilla)

Fury and gray

Climbs, swings, hangs

It makes me excited!

Grila

Lion

Yellow and brown

Jump, eat, chase

It makes me silly.

Lion

Barnacles...

What kid or person says "barnacles"?  Is it off of Spongebob or something that I don't know of?  I have a kid in my class (three guesses who, first two don't count) who says this whenever he makes a mistake.  It's hilarious!  This young man is an interesting kiddo...wooo boy, interesting.  

"Hey buddy, you forgot to put an end mark on your sentence."

"Barnacles."

"Oops...don't forget to tuck in your shirt (more often than not, it's "zip your zipper")."

"Barnacles...BARNACLES."

At least he doesn't say, "Dammit!  DAMMITT!"  Like one of my students last year.  Or..."That's f*&@ing ridiculous!" (same student from last year).  

Mittens...

This is a gem from my kindergarten teacher.  Kinders here range from 4-6 years old, so keep that in mind...oh - and most of them don't really know what a cow looks like.  (have you figured out what "mittens" could be yet?)

The kinder teacher was reading them a story that involved a cow and apparently the cow had a really big udder and teats.  As she was reading the story, she showed them a picture of the cow...to which one of her students replies, "Oooo...look Ms. G...that cow has really big mittens!!!" (the young student points to the cow's udder)...

That's my future first grader!

Boogers...

So when dealing with first graders there are some things you just get used to...things like little noses full of snot, kids who pee their pants, farting noises (real or imaginary), shoes that need tying, lots of hugs and "I love you's", messy handwriting, sweet handmade pictures, and etc.  But the one thing that I haven't been able to get used yet is a certain level of disgustingness (my own new word) that comes with some students.  Normally, and no stereo-typing involved, boys are the ones that seem to be the little gross ones...picking their noses and eating it, dirt, germs and the whole 9 yards.  Well, last Friday I was surprised to have the following incident occur between two girls.  We were waiting outside the Phoenix Children's Theater and all the students were leaning up against a window ledge outside.  Two of the girls scream "EEEEK!" and point to a really big, green, sticky booger on the ledge.  I tell them to take a deep breath and just step away from it...no need to get all freaked out, just don't stand near it.  I walk away thinking to myself, "Sweet...no worries."  I was horribly wrong.  Seconds later I hear one of the girls scream, "MS. EKLUND SHE PUT IT ON ME!!!!!!!!"  Ummm..yep...not joking...I walk back over there and sure enough one of the girls had wiped the booger off of the window ledge and onto the other girls' hand.  

It was one of those moments where you just stand there and stare at them in utter disbelief, thinking, "Really??  Did she REALLY just wipe a FOREIGN-UNKNOWN booger onto another student??"  (As if she would have gotten in less trouble for wiping one of her own boogers on the other girl...but when you don't know where it came from - it's much more gross!)  You're kind of left speechless.  I stood there thinking all of those things and then promptly reprimanded the booger wiper for #1 touching the booger (which has it's own set of issues...like GERMS) and #2 WIPING IT ON SOMEONE!  Ultimately both girls were sent to wash their hands for a FULL 30 seconds with soap and they still got hand sanitizer.  Ugh.  Boogers.  Gross.

"Because I'm peeing right now..."

Yep...those were the words from last week's trip to the computer lab. One of my little girls was sitting in her chair in the lab, she quietly raises her hand and says, "Ms. Eklund, can I go to the bathroom?" I gently ask if she can wait just one minute, as we're getting ready to leave and will be going to the bathroom on our way back to class. She puts her hand down, and I ask the class to stand up and line up at the door. She looks at me and says, "I can't." I walk over to her and and ask, "Why honey?" She replies, "Because I'm peeing right now and I can't stop." Sure enough, the dark spot on the padded chair grows bigger and bigger. I kneel down next to her and tell her it's ok and that I didn't know her bathroom request was an emergency, and that we all have accidents. She finishes peeing and we quietly head to the nurses office so she can change clothes.

At least it didn't pool in the chair, run down her legs and fill up her shoes like my student last year!!

A Teacher's Immunity...

There are a few things in life, that I've recently discovered, a teacher does NOT have immunity from...the giggles (if you teach - I can guarantee you've caught the giggles before), referring to anyone (including adults) as "sweety", "friends" (as in, "Friends, remember to walk in the hallway!"), "lovebug" and the like. A teacher is not immune to making statements like, "Use your words!!!", "Make a better choice.", "Yes, you can!", "But if you DID know, what would the answer be?" (used most often after a student's response of "I don't know...") and more of the same. Most recently, however, I've discovered that I have NO immunity to the plethora of childhood diseases that these little minnions carry! Just for fun...let's recap...in the past 6 weeks I've had a horrible cold, strep throat and just recently...the FLU! Now this past one was probably the worst case of the flu I've had in decades. I lost 9 pounds in 2 days, a total of 11 all told...throwing up for 24 hours tends to do that to someone. I had muscles hurt in my mouth, stomach and legs that I didn't know were involved in throwing up. I've memorized the serial numbers on BOTH toilets, and been comforted by the cool feel of the bathroom tile on my face as I lay there in wonder at how one can actually puke back up their own saliva??? All in all, not a fun experience. Needless to say, I'm happy to be on the mend and eating real food again...not chicken broth and bread. I didn't know that your stomach would actualy rebel against food once it was reintroduced...that made for some fun stomach cramps.

So now I'm hoping, praying actually, that I don't get some other childhoold malady...that I can get healthy, stay healthy and get back to some assemblance of normal life. I would like to work out again...I would like to sleep through the night...I would like to be able to concentrate on something other than how crappy I've been feeling for what feels like an eternity! =) Thank goodness I have 23 little smiling faces that love me on matter how bad I'm feeling...or they've "made" me feel (you know...cuz of their GERMS!!) ha ha

I hope to be back to regular blogging soon...I've had some FUNNY things happen, but because they've blocked access to blogspot.com from my work computer, it's been hard to document them all. Valentine's Day is this coming week, as is our field trip to the Phoenix Theater...both should provide for some interesting moments!