Ootd 11/4

Whoa folks, a good hair day on a Monday? Must be that extra hour of sleep!

Top: forever 21

Tank: Maurice's

Trousers: JCP 

Scarf: new! Rusty Tin And Boutique 

OOTD 10/28

Skinny Jeans: JCP

Top: JCP
Blazer: Charlotte Russe

Flats: K-Mart!

The latest....possibly the longest post ever ever ever

Okay I know, I'm a horrible beginner blogger. I'm teaching full-time (all day, err day) now and let me tell you, it's exhausting! Here's an update on what we have been up to in first grade...

We started a unit on caterpillars & butterflies. We actually had about 5 baby caterpillars to start with. Mrs. Hoffman got them from the courtyard at our school! Unfortunately, only one little guy made it (not surprised....I saw a few students bump/bang/knock over our little planetarium once or twice or daily). We got to watch him form his chrysalis and during math a week or so later he hatched from his cacoon! It was so amazing and the students were thrilled to be able to witness that entire life cycle! It's the first time I've seen it up close as well! 

     These are pictures of the chrysalis the day before It hatched. I love how you can see the colors and details of the wings through the shell!

They love love loved it! We finally released it before the weather started changing. We let it go outside the school and as a class we read that Monarchs tend to fly to Mexico during the cold months. I overheard one little boy say "awww I really wanted to keep the butterfly" and a girl replied "Dont worry, he's going to have a great life in Mexico!"

They are so great!

Last week was parent-teacher conference so I got to undergo my first PTC experience as a teacher, rather than a student! It was so interesting! We had 2 14 hour days.....a school-day followed by 5 hours of PTC.....2 days in a row. Don't worry, that was followed by a 4 day weekend so we all got to rest for days afterward! In PTC we discussed their child's reading, math, and writing levels. We also addressed behavior concerns and discussed at-home methods we might be able to carry into the classroom. Okay seriously, parents are intimidating! Fortunately, we have amazingggg parents in our class! They are so cooperative, and easy to communicate with, which makes life as a teacher so much easier. I've noticed (not in my class, but in schools in general) that less and less these days parents are holding their child accountable for their actions and academics. People are so quick to blame the teacher or the curriculum or the teaching method. It makes it soooo difficult as a teacher (and I'm sure equally as frustrating as a parent) because when we see student behavior or academic struggles, we have so many different things to try and attempt to fix that, all while accommodating for 20-some other bodies. When we don't see progress, we DO blame ourselves! Of course of course we do,! We also hold the student accountable, however, for THEIR choices. Especially when addressing behavior problems. The student makes a choice, receives the consequence, good or bad, for that actions and then chooses to continue making those choices or change that behavior. Parent's are often fast to blame teachers for the consequence of their child's action. Let me say that again......teachers are blamed for the consequence of a student's choice.  Some parents reaction is "no my child wouldn't act that way" or "They don't ever do that at home" or "well maybe you just aren't seeing it that way" etc etc. As a teacher, we have to see through a teachers perspective, 25 students, 50 parents, and be able to accommodate all of those different people, while also making them happy :) Easily understandable, it doesn't always work out that way! It's difficult because I am young and don't have any perspectives of an actual parent, but I can only imagine the difficulty of adding that someday as well! Anywho, I'm blabbing. It was exhausting. It was relieving. It was enlightening. First Parent-teacher conference experience: check.!

Love our class. Our students. Our parents. Thankful to have this experience going so wonderfully!

At our school the students and faculty aren't allowed to celebrate Halloween. I understand their reasoning behind this but when I was growing up, dressing up for school was even better than actually dressing up to trick or treat! We got to wear our costumes all day and parade through each classroom and then the whole school would walk downtown and the store owners would be out front passing out candy! I have so many fond memories of Halloween! My favorite being my beyond-words-talented AUnt hand sewing all of my sister and I's costumes growing up! We had such unique, extravagant costumes! Showing them off to my teachers and classmates was the best part! (Yes, that beyond-words-talented Aunt is reading this right now and I'd like to give her a shout-out! Hi Goey! I love you! Thank you for every Halloween costume growing up!!)

Anywayyyyyy, what I'm getting at is we can't celebrate Halloween at our school, so instead we have a Fall Party! Here are some pictures of our Fall Party. Our classroome Mom did a phenomenal job of arranging crafts and treats! The kids had such a good time......as you can see :)

Their faces are so expressive! It's very obvious they all had a wonderful time!

Things They Don't Prepare Teachers for in College

This will be a constantly updated post - A list, rather, of things I'm learning as I go along. Things I'm learning to do, react to, and just go with that I wasn't prepared for in college. The little things they don't mention, or test you on, or that fancy-smancy Dr. psychologist men have a spiffy theory for. It's just......life. Teacher life.

1. How to draw your students on the white board (without making them look like a monkey)
2. How to draw Justin Bieber on the whiteboard (without making him look like a girl)
3. How to talk to your students about 9/11
4. How to tie 25 pairs of shoes in 3 minutes
5. How to respond to 25 students asking you to tie their shoes AT THE SAME TIME.
6. How to end the day without even a trace of marker on your hands


to be continued........

Outfits Updated!

 Top: JCP

Slacks: JCP
Necklace: AKA Student Teacher name badge! LOL Sassybags

 Top: Charlotte Russe

Slacks: Walmart!

And I HAD to share the shirt my aunt had made for me for my birthday!
It is my new favorite shirt! SO CUTE right? I'll have to find out where she had it made, the t-shirt is American Apparel brand :) I would have it in 10 different colors if I could!

Science Experiment numero uno

After Finally finishing the morning King & Queen routine (We finally finished all 25 students!) we have an extra 30-45 minutes to our day. While I say "extra time", it really means time we can now fit different lessons, seeing as we hardly have enough time to get through all the lessons scheduled daily! We've decided to add in some social studies and science time into our day along with starting spelling practice! Our first science experiment involved M&M's and a cup of water. 

We paired the kids up and gave them each 1 m&m and a glass of room temperature water. Imagine the disappointment of the kids when we told them they wouldn't be eating the M&ms! Before we did the experiment we made a list of 5 predictions. The students thought an entire range of different things might happen. We had them drop their candy in the water and wait........

The color started fading, it turned white, and if they waited very patiently, the "M" on their candy floated, perfectly intact all the way to the top of their water :)

Look closely in this picture, you can see the "M" on the water!

They had a blast watching and waiting and finding out if their predictions were right or not!

 

 So, the blue M&M's took a bit longer than the rest. This is the "Okay miss Faust when's the magic going to happen" face :)

 not yet.....

 They loved making observations and being scientists!

It was fun watching them be interactive and watch the different sequence of events unfold! 

And yes, when they were done, we gave them each some M&M's to eat :)

Trip to the Zoo!

Last week we took a first-grade field trip to the Rolling Hills Museum and Zoo! It was the most perfect day for it! The weather was wonderful and we had such an awesome group of students on their best behavior and some really great chaperones and parents to help out. It was 1 adult to every 4 kids. This was an all day field trip so everyone had sac lunches and comfy shoes and off we went. 

Our class stopped at the museum first while the other class hit up the zoo first. In the museum the students got to learn all about different habitats around the world and the animals that live in that ecosystem. The animals on display were so beautiful and life-like! The tour guide made the tour fun and was always involving the students in questions and trivia so they had a good time and learned so much! 

Here's a class group shot! 

Here's only part of our class and if you look closely in the background, you'll see which animal we were visiting at this time! Notice my friend in the front holding the map? I'm not sure there's a picture in here without him holding up that map with pride! We got one per group and he sure did guide us around that zoo! I finally had to convince him to share with the other students who wanted to be the "Zoo Guide" for a little bit, but somehow it always ended up back with him! And he was very proud! They gave us enough maps to pass to each student once we got back to the classroom!

Here is my group! They are such goof balls! We had way too much fun :)

A picture acting (and looking) like monkeys!

Thank goodness for cages! This cougar was pacing back and forth wherever this little girl walked! I think he may have been hungry! She is convinced that she is a cat whisperer and they just had a connection, I like that better :)

 

Right as I told them to pose for a picture this white tiger walked right up and roared as if to say "I want to be in the picture too!" He laid right in the corner of the cage where we were standing!

 

See the white tiger on the right side corner!

They wanted to take pictures to look like they were holding the tiger!

"Miss Faust it's my turn to take a picture on the bench!" Remember this picture and this little boy as you continue to scroll down :)

Once again, THANK GOODNESS FOR CAGES! YUCK!

This is a new exhibit at the zoo! They have penguins! okay seriously, they are so cute. They were swimming through the water and looked like beautiful silver fish! Such funny little creatures :)

And then of course we came across 4 penguins of our own! Ha!

The zoo we got to visit was huge! A lot of walking and it was a long day! We still didn't get to see everything we wanted! We were wore out by the time we got back on that bus!

Some of us, more than others ;)