Bull's eye

I've never realized how tough it was having to teach and go through an entire day when you feel like absolute crap. I know I've been sick for the past few weeks but it was tolerable. Late last night, my entire right side of my throat was hurting so badly! I can't swallow anything without feeling massive pain. Plus, I'm having severe body aches everywhere.

So what exactly made me feel even worse today? How about 2 students vomiting? I do NOT deal well with vomit, not that most people do. Whenever I go anywhere near the sound or smell, my eyes tear and I feel myself on the verge of vomiting as well. But of course I have to fight my urges and reactions to tend to the student. One was right in the morning and the 2nd one was right at lunch. She walked towards me and before she could finish "I feel like I am going to ...", she vomits! On me! I'm talking direct hit, hands, shirt, pants, shoes, everywhere! I quickly grab the garbage can and put it under her so that she could finish up. It was so hard fighting the urge to lose it myself. I couldn't even try to clean myself up because I had to take her to the nurse first. Of course I lost my appetite after that and didn't eat lunch.

I just hope that it's not some kind of bug that's going around.

Look before you put things in your mouth!

For lunch yesterday, I bought a salad with me to school. I was going to try out this new sun-dried tomato vinaigrette I got the day before. As I was eating it, I thought the taste was a little weird but not in a gross way, I figured it was just the way the flavor was. Well, I tend to like read random things so I was just looking at the bottle. My eyes scanned across the expiration date. What did it say? November 2005!! What the heck? Why do I always buy expired things from the supermarket? Honestly, I only look at the expiration dates on things like bread, yogurt, milk, that kind of thing. I never check out things like dressings or cookies. I immediately stopped eating it. I don't know if it was my mind making me feel sick but I was definitely feeling queasy. But I'm pissed because they shouldn't be selling expired products at the supermarket! Oh, but my mouth stupidity doesn't stop there. While driving to class, I had packed myself one of those CapriSun things. Just playing safe, I look at the date, yeah that expired months ago too. But this one was my own fault for not throwing it out sooner.

An exhausting week!

This past week has been so tiring and rough. I ended up having the snow day on Monday. Luckily, I stayed up a bit longer the night before and was able to hear that Philly districts would be closed. Apparently the district either has a closing or it doesn't. They don't have delays because all the grades share the same buses so it's too difficult for them to get everyone to school when they have delays. The snow day was definitely a pain in the butt though, because it put us a day behind with all the work we needed to do. It was so insane trying to play catch up! The only good thing about the snow day was that I was able to stay home and bake Vday stuff for my kids and the staff.

When we returned back to school on Tuesday, the day was cut short because the kids would be having their Valentine's Day party. I got a few valentines, actually Hannah typed me this poem which was incredible for someone her age. I left it at school because her mother wanted me to make a copy for her. At first glance, I thought she just copied it or it was printed from a template. But the computer teacher came downstairs and told me that she wrote the poem all by herself. Oh this was cute, Megan gave me a box of CareBear gummies and she goes, "They're fat free!" Haha, it was funny how she stressed that part but I guess her mother told her that women usually only want fat free food? Oh yeah, I got my first apple too! I still do not know why teachers are correlated with apples. Oh man, the amount of candy they brought in for each other was ridiculous. I was setting up and I swear, each plate was like a tower of sugar. I was just glad it was the end of the day and we were sending them home to their parents!

On Wednesday, I had my first observation. That's an entirely long story which I won't get into. Oh so gross, there was a cockroach in the class! The kids were flipping out. It was huge and running towards me! You all know how I feel about bugs, I had to fight so hard to keep my cool even though I wanted to cry and scream on the inside. I told them to leave it alone and finally the tiniest girl in my class, Simone, runs towards it and stomps on it saying, "It's just a little bug! Geez!" I was so relieved that she got rid of it.

What can I say about Thursday? It was a very upsetting day, full of rudeness and disrespect. I had to write my first parent note about their child's behavior and I also had to have my first conference with one of the parents as well. It's very frustrating to see parents who do not want help their child with their work and those who downplay everything that their child does.

Friday was their 100th day of school. They have a huge celebration about it. In my opinion, I would have pushed the party back until the following Monday. The way they all behaved on Thursday was not deserving of a party. I felt that by giving them the party, it was just sending the message that they can still get rewarded for disrespectful behaviors. I gave them my first math test but I had reviewed with them before for a good 40 minutes. They are soon going to have a mid-year assessment and I want them all to do great so I'm giving them as much practice as I can in the mean time. I felt bad, I had a few students crying and asking for help. I normally give extra help and use my free time to tutor them but I tried explaining to them that on tests, I'm not allowed to help them. It's not even that they don't understand it, they just get all worked up and their brains just freeze. It sucks because I know they know more than what their test scores show. But the reality is, what counts is what they can show, not what they know when it comes to assessments. I wish it wasn't like that but that's not something I have any say over for the time being.

100th Day Charts

These were the charts that they had to fill in with numbers and stick 100 things to in honor of their 100th day of school. The students who used food on theirs, you'd be amazed by how many times they had to redo theirs. Why? Because they left it out to dry in a reachable place and their pets ate off all the pieces. Oh yes, they used the "my dog ate my homework" excuse except it really was the case!

Sand layers

The past week I have been teaching them about sand and its properties. I wanted to tie in social studies with science so I talked to them about how the Navajos and Tibetan monks made sand art. They actually made their own sand art but I haven't gotten the chance to put them up yet so there aren't any pictures yet. I wanted them to have another art project so I figured that they could use sand to create layers and patterns. Something educational and fun! I was filling in my own vial at one of their tables and I decided to see if I could use a paperclip to create the lines (like the top of cake). It worked and of course Andrew saw me and was like, "Woah, cool, I want it too!!" Uhm yeah, as a result I had to go around because everyone wanted it. Hehe. But I was smart, I told them that only if I saw them writing sentences in their journals would I do the lines for them.

Dragons, rargh!

I had them make these dragons for the new year as well. I think the rest of the 1st graders are going to be doing the same thing. Having to go around and glitter for each student was so time consuming! At first, I let them choose 2 different colors but I soon realized that would have taken forever. You really learn by doing! I was finally able to find time to staple the plates and put the bells on them. Now they're all up in the hallways, very festive! I told them that the dragons would scare away any evil or bad luck from their classrooms.

No snow dance

I must have been the only person in school today hoping for no snow this weekend! All the students were doing their little snow dances. When you're at that age, snow just meant fun times for you. I just don't want to have to deal with the shoveling or having to commute in that type of weather. Plus, I had a lot of stuff I wanted to go out and do and I don't want to be snowed in.

This past week has been exhausting! I always have to be "sitting" on the kids, if you lose control for one minute with my class, it's all downhill. It's sorta funny, every time I talk to some of the other teachers, they always tell me that they feel bad for me for having my placement, just because it's such a tough environment. Eh, you just roll with the punches. It's always up and down all day, but at least I'm learning. You learn quick that what worked for a few minutes probably won't for the next. It really makes you develop this internalized stress alert.

I went on my first field trip on Wednesday. It was to UPenn to see this "Dance Asia" show. Honestly, I wasn't amazed by it. I don't think there were enough performances, too much talking. I forgot how tiny the seats on the bus were! I had half of my ass hanging off the seat the whole time. It was a long bus ride but it was nice being able to talk to a few of the kids. Luckily, they were pretty well behaved for the most part. But I was definitely constantly counting heads! Totally random but one of the girls was telling me a story about going to the bakery. Apparently she and her mother went to pick up her bday cake and her mother refused to accept the cake because it was inappropriate. There was supposed to be a little girl on the cake and the legs on the girl were spread out too far (as she told me this story, she spread her arms out really far to show me). I didn't really know what to say in response. I'm not even sure that she knew what the inappropriateness was about. But I can't imagine a bakery making an inappropriate bday cake for a little girl?

I had to lecture a 5th grader today about respect. I'm sure he was cursing me off in his head but as if I care, he's not my student. I wasn't yelling at him or anything. While walking down our hallways, he started throwing his lunch bag in the air and completely knocked off most of my students' lanterns! I was so annoyed!! It took time to get them up there and they were all over the floor along with the paperclips. I knew that if my kids came back from prep and saw them all over the floor, they'd be really upset. It was frustrating because I couldn't find a custodian to get me a ladder. I ended up having to use a desk and hopping to get them back up. Afterwards, I think I became even more annoyed because I had a lot of stuff I needed to get done but couldn't.

Oh yeah, I went into the lottery pool with the other teachers. I figured that if they won it and I wasn't part of it, I'd kick myself. So cross your fingers! I'm also having my first observation next Wednesday. Wish me luck! I'm not sure what time yet because I have to coordinate with the other student teacher working there.

Our water collage

Instead of following the guide and making brochures, I had the students create a class collage of where water is found. I figured that they'd have more fun working together. Luckily, I was wise and told them to find the pictures for homework. I swear, the people who create the curriculum are so clueless. I really liked my raindrops idea, it kept them all busy. When they were done with the big lake, they worked on the raindrops with partners. That way those who finished earlier would have something to do and not be creating havoc in my room. Oh and I so laminated all of it! Gotta love that machine. It's actually funny because Beth hates using that machine so she never laminates anything, while I use it every chance I get. It took me a long time to cut out the letters. Of course only after I'm done, I'm informed that there's a machine for die-cuts as well. I haven't tried it out yet but I'm sure I'll enjoy it when I do. I've been getting compliments for it though, yay! I am so going to plaster the hallways with the kids' work as much as possible.

My science lab rules

I had to waste too much time constantly reminding the students of a few simple rules, so I decided to just post them. They've been good with following them in the beginning of the lesson but normally towards the end they start to waver from it. It doesn't bother me really because I believe that it should be loud when it comes to science, as long as they are keeping to the topic. I want to see them excited about it! It is such a pain trying to write now. It doesn't even look like my handwriting anymore. Actually, it takes me a while to write. The b, d, g, p, and q all have to be complete circles first before putting in the line. My kids look so cute in their goggles though, they come in pink and green. A few days ago they were all complaining that the goggles were too tight so I loosened all of them. What happens? They all then say it's too loose, of course!

Christina made this for me at Girl Scouts, so cute!

Marking my territory


My science word wall, well more like strip (the orange ones)

I started with teaching all of science this past week. It was pretty intense, you can't even begin to imagine the hours I put in preparing and prepping for it. It was a bit stressful because my cooperating teacher wanted me to try and squeeze in weeks of lessons into one. A little ridiculous if you ask me, especially since she's been teaching for over 26 years and she wasn't even able to do it within the designated time frame, yet she somehow expects me to do it?

Anywho, I was real excited because I was able to start putting things up. It makes it feel more like my classroom. This is so sad on my part but the huge laminating machine is loads of fun! Every chance I get, I use it!

Chinese New Year dragon lanterns in the hallway (red & orange ones)

I had my students make these lanterns, they turned out really good! They look really good in the hallway...when you walk down, you feel all squishy inside. Or maybe that's just me because I know my kids did such an awesome job! The other 1st grade teachers liked it so much that they "borrowed" my template.

Sand castle poem

In order to connect science with literacy, there was this poem about sand castles that goes along with the sand investigations. Strangely, the poem isn't inside the students' textbooks at all. It was suggested to just read it to the students. But I strongly believe that although students can't read all the words yet, it's beneficial for them to see it as I read along. So I decided to make this cute little poster and I also printed them copies as well (oh yes, and it's laminated). The principal saw it and said to me that if I continue to make cute things, other teachers will come and bother me.