Coming to a Close

This morning I realized that we only have 4 weeks left of school.  I can't' believe that in a month, I may never see some of these kids again.  They are definitely feeling the end of the year because they've started to go NUTS!  It takes everything in me to not go ballistic everyday.  Although it seems like I do a lot more yelling these days.  The end of this week was a little more controlled because they finally realized that I was serious in my rantings.  I took away probably close to 25 Bee Bucks in the last two days alone and right before our class auction.

I don't think I ever shared on here that I had my interview with Michele!  We met on a Friday after school about 2 weeks ago and she asked me a few questions.  Then she called references and within about 2 hours, she came back to my room to officially offer me the position!  I will now be teaching 3rd grade at Southland in the Chinese Immersion program.  My roommate and fellow intern, Jessica, speaks Chinese and has been hired as the 3rd grade Chinese teacher.  So we will be working together again next year.  Jessica is only allowed to talk with the students in Chinese, so a lot of the responsibility of management and discipline will fall back on me.  She is also teaching math, science, and social studies completely in Chinese.  I will be teaching some of the vocab to go along with that but mostly, I will focus on the language arts (i.e. reading, writing, spelling).  There are two classes and so we will switch groups halfway through the day which means that while I have 1/2 the planning, I will have twice as many students.  Because of the intensity of the program, there can be no new students added to our classes which means we already know who will be in our class and can start planning for numbers.  Its looking like about 40-41 students that we will share next year.

On Thursday this week, I met with Joy, Jennifer, and Michele to have my final Exit interview for my internship.  They averaged my scores from the whole year and out of 5 my score was a 4.5 from Joy and a 4.6 from Jennifer.  Not bad!  They also both wrote letters of recommendation that I can use when looking for future employment.  After that meeting, I went to another meeting but this one was with the 2nd grade Chinese Immersion english teacher.  She gave me some insight into how things work, how to do the switching of classes, tips on how to handle certain things and was able to answer a lot of my questions.  I was feeling pretty overwhelmed because I had absolutely no idea where to start planning for next year but I'm way excited now.  This is a completely different kind of planning than I had to do for this last year because now I have some very specific requirements and have to do everything in tandem with another teacher.  It will be an interesting experience, but I'm glad that I'm doing this with Jessica.  We both work well together and we are new enough teachers that one can't boss the other around and dominant the partnership.

I'm looking forward to the many new adventures ahead of me!  Wish me luck!


P.S.  Here's a look into a few things I'm hoping to do next year in my classroom.  I'm thinking I might do an OWL theme.  Still not 100% sure but I'm really liking it at this point.

O - Outstanding
W - Wise
L - Learner

Check out my Pinterest page to see some of the great things I've found!  http://pinterest.com/beckaw/classroom-ideas/

Fun, "New" Thing

Tomorrow I have my FINAL observation from Jennifer (yes, I know...BYU is done but she's not.  Bummer).  But it should go fairly well.  We are doing a shared reading lesson about heros.  Today for their journal prompt, I asked "What do you think makes someone a hero? Who is your hero?"  And then later in the day I brought out this bad boy...

THEY LOVED IT!!!!  :)  They thought it was so hilarious when I told them I grew up with these.  I had to explain how to work it but I let them go out in the hall and record what they thought about heros in preparation for tomorrow's lesson.  (Mom & Dad - thanks for getting it for me for Christmas!)  Their answers are so cute!  One kid said his heros were Jesus and Samuel the Lamanite, another said Thomas S. Monson....ADORABLE!!!!!!  I love these kids.

I'm sitting here listening to their answers and thought I should share this fun experience with you.  :)  Happy Wednesday!

Field Trip! and Teacher Appreciation Week

Pretty sure that the Field Trip this week was a big-time success.  I didn't lose any children, no one broke any dinosaur fossils, there was no bus-sickness, and they all had the time of their life.  I had several students tell me that it was the best field trip EVER!!  :)  I'm so glad they think so.

I hope this works...I tried making a slideshow out of all the pictures I took at the museum.  Not all the kids are mine.  The last two pictures are actually another 4th grade class.  I took the pics for their teacher because her camera died while we were at the museum.  And we were the only two teachers out of 5 to bring a camera.  So the others asked me to take a few pictures of their kids as well.  You'll see from a few pictures that they had LOTS of hands-on activities which kept the kids' attention for nearly 2.5 hours!  That's a lot of walking and exploring.

When we got back to school, the class was so worn out.  I'm glad I planned on a read-a-thon when we got back.  We spent 45 minutes just laying around the classroom in dim lighting, shoes off, voice quiet, and just reading.  It was a relaxing end to a fun day.  I don't know that I could handled anything else.  On the bus ride back from the Museum, the two classes on our bus ended up having a scream-singing competition with the Utah songs we've been learning.  I have to say that I'm glad they know the words, but the screaming got old REALLY fast.  I had a huge headache by the time we got back to the school and relished the quiet time to sit and read.

Last week was also Teacher Appreciation Week for us.  Our room moms decorated our doors and the school sent home a note for the students to bring little treats for their teachers throughout the week.  It listed our favorite candy, soda, school supplies, restaurants, color, etc...It was fun to see what came back and I'm so amazed by their generosity!  Here's a few of the things I got:

The last few pictures are from a sweet little scrapbook they made for me.  I may have used the word "skeewhompus" a few times and apparently they noticed!  :)  They LOVE that word now and even tried looking up the spelling in the dictionary.  I had to tell them that it's not a real word but it's used somewhat frequently.  Their answers and drawings of me were so fun to read through.  I love teacher appreciation week!!!

3 More Months!

Wait, what??  Only 3 more months.  Yes, that's right.  I can't believe how quickly this year has gone past.

Well, today was our grading day for the end of term 2.  I almost have them completed, I just have to put in comments for 12 more students and then they'll be finished.  It went a lot faster this time around since I knew what I was doing.  I still went into school today though so I could get more things finished.  In addition to nearly finishing grades, I also redecorated my bulletin board (so it's different for when parents come for conferences next week) and I rearranged/organized my classroom library.  This last project took a few hours, but I now have nearly all books labeled individually by reading level and genre and they are sorted into buckets by genre as well.  I hope that this will help some of my students find books a little easier.  They can just look up whatever genre interests them and then find one that's close to their level.

I'm super excited about my bulletin board too!  Today is Dr. Seuss's birthday so this week we did a Cat-in-the-Hat themed writing activity as well as started to draw some mini Cats.  We aren't finished with the Cats yet but I'm hoping to have those finished in time to put up for conferences on Wednesday.  We'll see how that goes.  And even if not, we'll at least have their writing up.  Here's the pictures of the bulletin board and the "new" library as well as a few other changes around the room.

This poster will hopefully make the class more aware of what their attitude is on a daily basis.  It's right on my door as they come in so it's always a reminder.

 Here's a fun little art project they did in their science class as they learned about soil.  It's their profile in soil!  :)

 I'm so tired of only having one whiteboard so I bought another little one that sits off to the side and has their reading group assignments on it.  Now I don't have to race to put them on the board each day and erase it an hour later.  This has been a real life saver!

 And finally, for a laugh, here are their new group names!  Try saying these 10 times fast!

Career Day

So today was "Career Day" at school.  We didn't have guest speakers or anything, the kids just got to dress up as what they want to be when they grow up.  Most of them were doctors, lawyers, nurses, professional athletes, etc. We even had a few Moms & a pet trainer.

I wish I had my camera to get a picture of the pet trainer. The only thing he had done to dress up was wear a flamingo hat.  Yes, you read that correctly, there was a flamingo on his head.  When he first walked him, I jokingly asked him if he aspired to be a flamingo one day (he's one of the few that I can joke around with and he understands). He answered back, yes. :)  What a goof.  Well, I just laughed and let it slide. Then during Guided Reading, right before lunch, I looked up from the table I was at and was looking out at the class.  I saw Richie bobbing his head up and down so that the flamingo head would bounce in front of his face.  That in itself was hilarious, but what made it even better was the fact that at the exact moment that I looked over, the flamingo flew up and hit him in the eye!  Haha!  He wasn't hurt at all but I busted out laughing and he did too.  No one else saw it and the whole class looked at us like we were crazy.  It was definitely the highlight of my day.

I'm also looking forward to the weekend. I've already finished with my plans for next week and I'm going to the movies with some of my teammates.  It'll be a great weekend.  Better gear up for report cards next week!

Class Picture!!

WARNING!  Cute kids lie ahead. Please use Adorable Shield when viewing image.  

We finally got our class pictures and teachers also get a free copy of this one!  I looked at all the pictures and realized that Brady is still on it.  I miss that kid.  I hope he's doing well at his new school.  And our new girl, Lizzy isn't on there.  :(  

Our class Valentine's party is this Tuesday afternoon and I'm so excited!!!  I can't wait to hand out my Valentines and get all their cute ones!  The party should be fun, I've got lots of fun games planned for them. One of my room moms has her birthday on the 14th and she's going out of town so the other room mom and I have been planning.  Usually I just get an email saying to hand out a note and that everything's taken care of, but this time I actually got to help plan things.  Mrs. Larson is in charge of the decorating Valentine's Boxes and I'm in charge of the games.  I found this one that I'm really excited about.  You split the class into groups and then give each student a straw.  The objective is to get all your Q-tips (or Cupid's Arrows) into the bucket placed a few feet away from the group.  I tried it this weekend and it's super fun to shoot the "Arrows" through the straw/blow-gun.  I can't wait to see me kids try it!  I've also got three jars full of candy that they can use their estimation skills to guess how many pieces are in each (see you can still do MATH during a PARTY!)  The winner will get to keep the jar of candy.  It should be fun!  I'll  be sure to take lots of pictures so you all can see how it goes.

In other news, last week I had an interview with the head of hiring & firing for all Elementary Schools in the district.  Our district has a screening process that you have to go through before you are eligible to interview with a principal.  I know its early but he wanted to get all the Intern screening interviews done early.  I won't lie...I was pretty scared out of my mind but somehow I did really well.  He was very personable and the interview was conducted in more of a conversational way (versus Q&A session).  He would usually respond personally to the answers that I provided.  During the interview, you get a score on how well you answer what he is looking for.  While I met with Kyle, Jennifer took my class.  After both mine and Jessica's interviews were over, Jennifer then met with Kyle and our principal, Michele.  They talked about our scores and then Michele and Jennifer talked about possible openings for next year. When Jennifer came back to talk with me right before our lunch, she said that I had scored really well.  There's a possible 50 points that you can earn and she couldn't tell me the exact score but she said that it was in the 40s.  YAY!  Kyle also mentioned at the end of our interview that I was very well situated and that I had no reason to worry.  He would gladly recommend me to principals for possible job openings within the district.

I also had my second round of JPAS observations with my principal.  And I got those scores back too.  They were pretty much the same as last time and she was very impressed.  On a range of not effective to highly effective, my overall score was barely in the highly effective range.  Michele said that a score that high for a first year teacher, especially an intern, is very impressive.  We talked a little more about where the scores came from and then we veered to next year.  She asked what grades I would be willing to teach.  We don't know yet what will be available for next year, but she just wanted to know so she could keep her options open!!!  :)  That sounds like a pretty good sign!

I'll keep you posted!

Sorry Its Been A While

There's so much to share!!  These are the turkeys that my cuties made the day before Thanksgiving.  I just barely got the bulletin board up though because it took forever to get them laminated.  We recently got a new copy aide and its taking her MUCH longer than anticipated to get used to everything she had to do.  But a week later than planned we finally got them back and put them up.  Here's some pics:

I'm so impressed with how quickly they picked everything up!  Don't these look incredible??

Also, today I spent most of the afternoon rearranging things in my room.  Here's the finished product.  I'm excited to hear the kids talk about it as they walk in on Monday morning.

Now for some adorable stories!

Our book reports are due this Monday and today I wanted to do a sample report for them so they could see what kinds of things I was expecting.  It was so stinkin' fun and the kids loved it.  We just finished Harry Potter 1 as our Read-Aloud book and so this morning I dressed in black pants & a button up shirt and right before I started I pulled my hair back into a bun and put my glasses down on the crook of my nose.  I started talking in a British accent and the kids burst out laughing.  Oh my goodness.  They thought it was hilarious and begged me to talk like that forever!!  :)  So much fun.

Yesterday was our Christmas Choir program at a school-wide assembly.  I played for the Choir and afterward I found that I was pretty much a star to them.  After school, I was outside for bus duty (making sure the kids get off school grounds safely) and I had kid after kid saying "HI MISS WISER!!"  Half the time I had no idea who they were.  It was nice to see that so many kids looked up to me and they were all so impressed that I could play the piano.  Oh and I didn't get to sit with my class during the assembly but I'm proud to say that they were FANTASTIC and sat quietly listening to the whole thing.  I'm so incredibly proud.

We have one boy in our class that is moving over the break.  His family's house they were renting got foreclosed on so they are moving out pretty quickly.  He's the most adorable kid and is probably one of my favorites!  Well, needless to say, he's been kinda bummed about moving and the other day for our journal entry I asked: "What if there were no Winter Break?"  Two of the students shared with the class that they would be happy because then Brady wouldn't have to move.  Then that afternoon, Brady asked me if I could fill out this page for his "memory" book.  I agreed to do it after school so he left it out on my desk.  When I finally got to it he had written questions like, "Are you happy/sad that I'm moving?" "What is your fav't holiday?" "What's your fav't restaurant?" Just silly little things but it was sweet.  And then yesterday I found this note on my desk and I just about cried in front of all my kids.  This just breaks my heart!!!!!!  I'm gonna miss this kid SOOO much :(

And last but not least, I can't tell you how incredible it is to work with so many children everyday, especially at this time of year.  The last song we sang at the Choir assembly was "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and the whole school was asked to sing with us.  I caught myself tearing up as they all cheerfully, enthusiastically, and genuinely sang the words "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".  The feeling in that room was too brilliant for words.  They truly are children of God and have such a sweet, pure spirit.  I'm truly blessed to have them around me to help remind me of why I chose to teach and what the true meaning and spirit of Christmas should be.

Merry Christmas!!!!