NASA Time Travels

It's hard to get students to settle down when they enter the classroom. Questions like, "How many number one hits does Miley Cyrus have right now?" and "Who found hair in their hot lunch?" flood the airspace. English isn't always the most exciting subject, aka it's not science and they do not get to make exploding volcanoes to learn about adverbs, and getting them to be quiet can be tricky. I have found the solution to this problem, and it has to do with candy.

Everyday, the students come into my classroom looking for the trivia question I have written on the board. Sometimes they have something to do with the English language, and sometimes they have nothing to do with it.

Examples:

English- What organ in your body stores food, and is also a part of speech? (your colon)

Nonsense-What country is Rihanna from? (Barbados)

If a student can answer it correctly, they get a piece of candy. Lucky!!!!!!!!

Today, my question took us out of this world in the sense that it was about space. Usually kids try really hard to answer these questions because if you answer it correctly, you win. This did not happen today.

Question:

Who was the first woman to travel in space?

Answer: 

Harriet Tubman

(this is incorrect, so do not take notes on this section)

My Comment: " I didn't know the Underground Railroad used time travel as their mode of transportation."

NO CANDY FOR YOU!

Pungent Abbreviations

Assignment: Teach the rest of the sixth grade class about abbreviations. Give them some examples so they can become more familiar with the topic. 

No where in the directions did it say they must teach the class about abbreviations that would be specific to their age group. However, one group went above what I asked for by including this in their presentation.

Picture 25 middle schoolers, right back from gym, learning about abbreviations. The example written in the biggest and brightest writing is: B.O.

We all know what that means, but it is confusing when the full term is written: Body ORDER.

Hmm, I guess they are trying to master two things at this age: Spelling and Smelling.

Group Project/Group Prayer

When teachers assign group projects, they put themselves at risk. There is the risk that students won't be able to work well with one another. There is the risk that markers will be launched across the room during work time. There is the risk that students are more interested in entertaining the opposite sex than making a skit about adjectives.

The biggest risk is that students will finish early; finish early and have lots and lots of time on their hands. Time to do what? Time to fling rubber-bands at one another, time to gossip about the Jonas Brothers, time to harass every other person in the classroom. Welcome to the life of teaching middle schoolers. 

So, in order to combat the risk of students reaching the point of having 'extra time', I decided to talk with them before the last class day to work on their projects. We talked about what steps should go into the project, how detailed their skits and songs should be, what their class activities should be like etc. I then asked the students what they thought they should be doing if they had extra time. I was looking for them to say work on something for another class, read or practice their skits. Something along those lines. 

The answered I received?

"Pray?"

Sixth graders can be so holy and yet, so off task. 

magic locker tricks

 Sometimes Fridays are the craziest day of the week. Sometimes kids are forgetful. Sometimes kids are so small they can fit into their own lockers. Sometimes all three of these things come together to create an incident.

Fridays are really chaotic in the second grade. First, on Fridays you are not only a teacher, but also the manager of a prize store. Kids that have earned 'happy tickets' during the week are able to buy priceless prizes at the store. Kids can become the proud owners of stickers and leftover Mcdonald's toys or even score lunch with the teacher. This event makes the end of the day a little busy and a little crazy. 

Friday folders need to be passed out after the manager shuts the door on the prize store. These folders contain all of the essential information about 'another week in second grade' and parents rely on their appearance at the end of the week. The process of getting these folders into each students' hands can be tricky when they are trying to get their winter gear on to race home and watch High School Musical.

One particular student, the smallest in the class, always seems to be missing when this chaos breaks out. I noticed at the end of the day that his folder was still on his desk and that his backpack and body were nowhere in sight. Teachers really like to leave on time on Fridays. Students like this make it hard to reach that goal. 

I popped my head out into the hallway to see if he was out there, maybe at his locker. I asked another student if they had seen him and then something happened almost on cue. Have you ever seen in a movie or TV that classic moment when the dad wakes up, has his coffee in his hand, opens the front door, sort of stretches and looks around and then grabs the newspaper? Well, that is sort of what happened to me. 

As if on cue, the student proceeded to emerge from his shut locker. He sort of looked around, not responding to me calling his name, grabbed his stuff like the dad would grab the newspaper, and walked back into the room.

TGIF.

Valentine's Day

Middle school kids have a certain mind set when it comes to lovey dovey things like Valentine's Day. Here are some words of wisdom from a eighth grade boy:

"Guys only make Valentine's Day cards that think they are going to get lucky."

Poetry

Here is a look into the mind of a fourth grader. These works were contributed by none other than Sam, the most entertaining  child to nanny for in the Twin Cities area. I don't really feel like these need any sort of introduction or explanation. 

Romance

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Romance is love

love is for you.

Aliens

Aliens are fun

Aliens are cool

I hate them because they're fat, ugly

and attacked my school.

Planes

I hate planes

They make me hurl

Unless I am sitting next to 

a cute, hot, pretty, girl

Lockdown

Kids need to practice many things at school in order to master them. They participate in countless activities to learn how to multiply, they must be told several times how to line up quietly at the door for recess, and they must also practice how to respond to several emergency situations. 

When I was in elementary school, we did the standard fire and tornado drills. These procedures really boiled down to 15 minutes less of math and 15 minutes more to poke kids in your class or pick dandelions outside where you were 'safe' from the imaginary fire. Even though kids are so great at pretending, it's hard to get them to take these drills seriously. Since I have been in classrooms the past few years a new drill has been added-the lockdown. This is due all of the tragic events that seem to hit the news year after year about violence breaking out in schools. 

For second graders, this drill means locking the door, turning off the lights and huddling on the carpet. Kind of similar to a slumber party, except I doubt kids would be working with math manipulatives and hundreds charts on a Friday night. During the few minutes that the kids need to be quiet and wait for the principal to give the go ahead that everything is clear, it gets hard for them to be quiet. And, like a slumber party, you hear little whispers.

I overheard one boy talking to another about his thoughts on the lockdown. He whispered to his neighbor, "Even though I'm not, I would use dynamite to into the school if I was a bad guy."

I highly doubt those words were comforting to the student next to him in the dark and quiet classroom. Some thoughts are better left unsaid.