My kids are just wonderful. I love them and all their energy. And I love some of the things they tell me! Here are a few favorites from this year so far:
- Said in all seriousness: "Miss Benscoter, two questions. If light sabers were real could they really cut something in half? And, how could you make one? Are there wires involved?"
- During spelling workbook time a student raises his hand. I go over to him, "Yes, Conner, how can I answer your question?" "Well it's more a comment." "Okay." "When I wake up in the morning I don't really want to come to school...." (my thoughts at this point, well that is sad.....thanks for telling me but he continues) "...but then I get to school and I like it and have fun!" (my thoughts afterward, that was very cute and brightened my day!)
- I'm grading spelling pre-tests and there is a note at the bottom of the page from one of my girls it says:
"There's a note for you" with a big arrow drawn up to the top of the page. The note says (spelling and punctuation not changed because it is cuter that way), "Thank you for being my teacher your fantastice and awsome and I love you. love, Allison."
I must say, I love my students. :)
Monday, October 31, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
The Secret to Keeping Students' Attention is....
Don't say a word.
At least it worked with my class today. I told them that I wasn't going to do a lot of talking today. So instead of talking during our transition times I wrote on the board what to do. An example of this is:
"When I say go, take out your crayons and send one team member up to get your poster."
They are all glued to the white board wondering and guessing at what I am writing. Then I ever so slowly write the word "Go" and they move and go. It also worked for lining up. I wrote "Please line up quietly." And one by one they noticed and stopped their work and lined up quietly! There was some talking and some stragglers so I started my usual countdown but not out loud, by writing it on the board. It worked 5 times faster than when I say it out loud.
I also tried writing "Give Me 5" on the board (our quieting procedure from Wong's marvelous book) and then went with my hand raised over by our table team points board. They soon noticed I was waiting to see which table would follow the directions the fastest and stopped faster than I've ever seen them stop and I didn't say one word.
We also had several laughs during it when one girl raised her hand to ask a question and wrote, "Yes, Rachel?" on the board and then my response to the question she asked as well. Then another girl had a question and asked "Why are you writing on the board and not talking?!" I wrote, "Because you pay MUCH more attention this way." They all laughed and said it was true.
So they day ended with everyone happy and laughing after a day of continual engagement and marvelous "listening"/watching skills (and positive peer pressure) all around. :)
I think I'll try not saying a lot tomorrow too. haha...
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The Trials of Third Grade
Well....This has been quite a week and it is only day 2! I have been discovering some of the trials and tribulations of being a third grader. One of them is walking in line.
During fire drills and earthquake drills I have seen the beautiful perfect line with no talking, straight as a board, and no gaps in it as we walk. However, this perfection quickly disappears during regular times. We then get into arguments about people supposedly "cutting" in line. This is a big deal. I have dealt with this issue several times (to say the least) during these few weeks of school. I did not give my class a line order because as third graders they can be trusted to walk in a line the correct way. (Today they lost that privilege though as I had to put them in a line order...they behaved beautifully because they knew the line order would last for the rest of the week if they didn't....;) )
Anyway, as I was saying "cutting" is a big deal. However, I had a conversation with a boy yesterday who was very upset that someone "cut" in line. He was upset because the other boy got behind him....Yes, behind him. Not in front of him. I looked at him very confused like when he first "tattled" about this...
Now I need to say that this boy was the 2nd to last in line before the other boy "cut" him in line by getting behind him. He was so upset by this! I tried to make him see that it wasn't "as bad" as "cutting" in front of him and that in then end we all made it to the same spot, but he just couldn't see that. He was so upset that the other boy got behind him in line. The other boy was just getting in line, there was no cutting going on at all. I'm still a bit confused by the situation but found it slightly amusing that we would discuss someone getting behind him in line.....Oh the trials in life as a third grader!
During fire drills and earthquake drills I have seen the beautiful perfect line with no talking, straight as a board, and no gaps in it as we walk. However, this perfection quickly disappears during regular times. We then get into arguments about people supposedly "cutting" in line. This is a big deal. I have dealt with this issue several times (to say the least) during these few weeks of school. I did not give my class a line order because as third graders they can be trusted to walk in a line the correct way. (Today they lost that privilege though as I had to put them in a line order...they behaved beautifully because they knew the line order would last for the rest of the week if they didn't....;) )
Anyway, as I was saying "cutting" is a big deal. However, I had a conversation with a boy yesterday who was very upset that someone "cut" in line. He was upset because the other boy got behind him....Yes, behind him. Not in front of him. I looked at him very confused like when he first "tattled" about this...
Now I need to say that this boy was the 2nd to last in line before the other boy "cut" him in line by getting behind him. He was so upset by this! I tried to make him see that it wasn't "as bad" as "cutting" in front of him and that in then end we all made it to the same spot, but he just couldn't see that. He was so upset that the other boy got behind him in line. The other boy was just getting in line, there was no cutting going on at all. I'm still a bit confused by the situation but found it slightly amusing that we would discuss someone getting behind him in line.....Oh the trials in life as a third grader!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Apples and Columbus and Grandparents, Oh My!
Wow...What a crazy past three weeks it has been! So much has happened in school life that I'm not sure where to begin this update. I guess I will have to go all the way back to Johnny Appleseed Day!
Johnny Appleseed Day:
- Both third grade classes combined to do an apply observation activity. The students tasted 8 different kinds of apples and wrote down observations about the taste, color, size, smell, etc. of each type. They then ordered the 8 apples in the order they liked them best. Once this was done we took a poll to see what the favorite types of apples were. Then, we created a graph showing the third grades' favorite apples. The next day we wrote a paragraph about the activity and introduced the idea of topic sentences. My students did a great job! Their apple writings are proudly displayed in our room. This was a great activity for many reasons. One of them being that it combined English, Science, and Math all into one activity!
The next week was a short week as we teachers journeyed up to the ACSI convention. It was a good time of learning and fellowship. I went to a great seminar on Singapore Math which will help a lot as I prepare to teach my first every Mental Math lesson tomorrow and Bar Model lesson on Tuesday (scary!). I also attended a session by Carolyn Coil on differentiated learning. So many great ideas! But it was also very overwhelming as I really want to be doing all those things but just don't know how it is possible right now in this stage of my teaching life. I am determined to try to do some of them though!
Book report number 2 was due on our short week. The students did a great job with it! Those are also displaying nicely in our classroom for all to see!
And then it was Columbus Day. We had just finished our unit on Columbus so it was perfect timing! We, of course, had to celebrate! So I gave students the choice of a couple of activities they could do. They could draw a picture of Columbus sailing and his three ships. Or they could make a map of the world as Columbus thought it was. I set out a lot of construction paper and told them to go for it. WOW! They did an AMAZING job. I had no idea they were so artistic!! Several made 3D pictures, one made an actual ship, and all the others just did fantastic by cutting out construction paper and gluing it on the paper to make the scenes! These of course had to be displayed as well:
Then this past Friday was Grandparents' Day. As part of this school wide event there was a big program for the grandparents and parents and special guests who attended. For this program each class had to perform. Oh my! Thankfully I was able to join with the other 3rd grade and the 2/3 class for the performance. We sang a cute Grandparents' Day song. There were so many rehearsals to get this ready - but it turned out wonderfully! My students did a marvelous job and I made it through my first performance experience. After the performance all the grandparents, etc were invited back to the classrooms. So our classroom doors were open for all the visitors to come visit! Thanks to my wonderful parents a refreshments table was put together and we had a nice visiting time Friday afternoon. I loved seeing everyone and getting to meet the other special people in my students' lives. Good time of fellowship in the school family!
And now, I can breathe for a bit. But not for long. My class' chapel is coming up on November 4th. So planning and preparations for that are already happening. In fact, at this very moment I am procrastinating on working on that.....I've never planned a chapel before so this should be interesting! We will be presenting on Barnabas and what it means to encourage one another (something my class is really working on this year...).
Okay....okay.....yes....Here I go. Off to work on planning the chapel. Good night all!
PS Do you know how difficult it is to put together a decent seating chart? I've been trying to change mine every couple of weeks as we do table points and prizes at the end of every week and it just mixes it up for the kids...but goodness! This person can't sit anywhere near that person, that person needs a chance in the front, that one can't be too far away form me, etc etc. But I'm sure you all know about that!
Johnny Appleseed Day:
- Both third grade classes combined to do an apply observation activity. The students tasted 8 different kinds of apples and wrote down observations about the taste, color, size, smell, etc. of each type. They then ordered the 8 apples in the order they liked them best. Once this was done we took a poll to see what the favorite types of apples were. Then, we created a graph showing the third grades' favorite apples. The next day we wrote a paragraph about the activity and introduced the idea of topic sentences. My students did a great job! Their apple writings are proudly displayed in our room. This was a great activity for many reasons. One of them being that it combined English, Science, and Math all into one activity!
The next week was a short week as we teachers journeyed up to the ACSI convention. It was a good time of learning and fellowship. I went to a great seminar on Singapore Math which will help a lot as I prepare to teach my first every Mental Math lesson tomorrow and Bar Model lesson on Tuesday (scary!). I also attended a session by Carolyn Coil on differentiated learning. So many great ideas! But it was also very overwhelming as I really want to be doing all those things but just don't know how it is possible right now in this stage of my teaching life. I am determined to try to do some of them though!
Book report number 2 was due on our short week. The students did a great job with it! Those are also displaying nicely in our classroom for all to see!
And then it was Columbus Day. We had just finished our unit on Columbus so it was perfect timing! We, of course, had to celebrate! So I gave students the choice of a couple of activities they could do. They could draw a picture of Columbus sailing and his three ships. Or they could make a map of the world as Columbus thought it was. I set out a lot of construction paper and told them to go for it. WOW! They did an AMAZING job. I had no idea they were so artistic!! Several made 3D pictures, one made an actual ship, and all the others just did fantastic by cutting out construction paper and gluing it on the paper to make the scenes! These of course had to be displayed as well:
Then this past Friday was Grandparents' Day. As part of this school wide event there was a big program for the grandparents and parents and special guests who attended. For this program each class had to perform. Oh my! Thankfully I was able to join with the other 3rd grade and the 2/3 class for the performance. We sang a cute Grandparents' Day song. There were so many rehearsals to get this ready - but it turned out wonderfully! My students did a marvelous job and I made it through my first performance experience. After the performance all the grandparents, etc were invited back to the classrooms. So our classroom doors were open for all the visitors to come visit! Thanks to my wonderful parents a refreshments table was put together and we had a nice visiting time Friday afternoon. I loved seeing everyone and getting to meet the other special people in my students' lives. Good time of fellowship in the school family!
And now, I can breathe for a bit. But not for long. My class' chapel is coming up on November 4th. So planning and preparations for that are already happening. In fact, at this very moment I am procrastinating on working on that.....I've never planned a chapel before so this should be interesting! We will be presenting on Barnabas and what it means to encourage one another (something my class is really working on this year...).
Okay....okay.....yes....Here I go. Off to work on planning the chapel. Good night all!
PS Do you know how difficult it is to put together a decent seating chart? I've been trying to change mine every couple of weeks as we do table points and prizes at the end of every week and it just mixes it up for the kids...but goodness! This person can't sit anywhere near that person, that person needs a chance in the front, that one can't be too far away form me, etc etc. But I'm sure you all know about that!
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Busy busy
Busy week!
Today after school I ran to get a smog check on my car. Then went back to school for a Parent Teacher Fellowship night. Got home by 9:15pm after being gone since 6:45 am.
Tomorrow is a half day of school. I then run to the DMV to change my AL plates and license over (Lord willing everything goes well there...). Then home to grab my packed bags and head off to an ACSI conference with the other teachers!
Thursday and Friday we will be at the ACSI conference. :)
I still have lesson plans for next week, a huge pile of grading, a Slice form due, and a bunch of other non-school life stuff to take care of. But it will all get done. And besides, I remind myself that I would rather be busy than not. :)
I think I'm going to miss my students tomorrow afternoon, Thursday and Friday....Some of them were actually sad that tomorrow was a half day. (I take that as a good sign! ;) )
Good night, yall!
Today after school I ran to get a smog check on my car. Then went back to school for a Parent Teacher Fellowship night. Got home by 9:15pm after being gone since 6:45 am.
Tomorrow is a half day of school. I then run to the DMV to change my AL plates and license over (Lord willing everything goes well there...). Then home to grab my packed bags and head off to an ACSI conference with the other teachers!
Thursday and Friday we will be at the ACSI conference. :)
I still have lesson plans for next week, a huge pile of grading, a Slice form due, and a bunch of other non-school life stuff to take care of. But it will all get done. And besides, I remind myself that I would rather be busy than not. :)
I think I'm going to miss my students tomorrow afternoon, Thursday and Friday....Some of them were actually sad that tomorrow was a half day. (I take that as a good sign! ;) )
Good night, yall!
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