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 :)