Just Smiling

This week has felt like a fairly long week, and I think that the kids were feeling it as well.  I had so many grumpy kids today, it was almost depressing.  Fortunately, a few of them were still funny enough to make my day.  

During my fourth hour, my "all things science" kiddo from my last post was being his normal self- teaching us all sorts of science things that we may or may not have ever needed to know.  (He reminds me of Matthew in that he can remember numbers and statistics that most couldn't begin to recall.)  Sometimes it gets to be a bit much, because his hand is ALWAYS raised, but on the other hand, he is my go-to-guy whenever the rest of the class is unresponsive.  

I digress.   

Today we were discussing the difference in facts and opinions. One of the sentences caused my science guy to give us another lesson that involved the way orange juice and toothpaste could affect our enamel (or something along those lines).  Now, I will be honest- I have perfected the 'wide eyes, smile and nod,' and I thought I was getting away with it.  Halfway through his spiel, however, one of my ornery kiddos jumped up, and pointed at me, and said, "You have no idea what he's talking about!  You're just smiling at him!"

Guilty.  

Another situation that made me smile today is actually began yesterday.  I've copied my posts from the last two days that explain it fairly well:

I love my job because I end up smiling 97% of the day.  One of my kiddos is super stoked to go home and see his family's new carpet. He was on the phone with his mom saying, "Don't tell me one SINGLE detail! I want to be surprised!" #presh 

Update: "The carpet is soft but firm. Some of it is shaggy, and some of it is polkadotted." (See yesterday's post 

I am so lucky to get to work with these guys!

-Mrs. Combs

Logic and Science

For those of you who do not use Facebook, I thought I would post a funny student response that I received yesterday.  As I mentioned before, we are currently reading Holes, by Louis Sachar.  In the book, the main character, Stanley, is described as overweight.  This fact must have really stuck out to one of my kiddos.

Q: Stanley's father was smart and had perseverance.  What did he not have and why?

A: A skinny son named Stanley.  Because Stanley always finished his food.

According to the book, the answer was "luck," but this was so unintentionally genius that I let it slide.  The funniest part is that I am certain he wasn't trying to be funny.   This was his legitimate answer!

On another note, I have a student in my fourth hour who is obsessed with school and everything scientific- so much so that he tends to ruin our fictional stories.  When reading "All Summer in a Day," in which a group of people live on Venus where it rains for seven years at a time, he informed the class that this story would be impossible.  Anyone who is anyone knows that rain on Venus would be acidic!  He has also decided to let the class know that the yellow spotted lizards (an important element in Holes) are not actually deadly like the book says they are.  Sigh.  I never know for sure whether he is right or wrong, but he says it with such conviction that I always believe him.  Next he is going to tell us Santa isn't real!

-Mrs. Combs

Hole-sitting

          Wow! It has been over a month since my last post. So much has gone on that it would take me days to catch up.  For the sake everyone's time and sanity, I'll take the easy way out and simply list the  major events:

• Quarterlies went well!
• I wrapped up my first semester as a real life teacher.
• My friend/mentor moved to a new job :/
• I found out just how awesome Christmas break is!
• Christmas break was extended two more days due to snow.  Bittersweet.

          We have finally been in school for an entire week!  Things have changed quite a bit from last semester.  Because my mentor was also the other sixth grade reading teacher, I'm now working with someone else- thankfully it is another teacher that I am already familiar with.  They moved her to work with me, and hired someone to take her place.  It has worked out very well!

           To kick off the semester, we are teaching the novel Holes, which has been a blast!  It feels good to be reading a book that I have to set limits regarding how far they CAN read, not setting a minimum number of pages they HAVE to read.  Even the kiddos who begin class in a trouble-making mood end up with their nose in the book.  It's lovely.

         Here are a few of my last-minute decorating ideas.  I threw these together last minute- so next year I'll be taking it up a notch, for sure.

(Side note: This is the door my runner used to exit the building!)     

    

I posted this sign that was in the book.  The kids' reactions were pretty funny!  Several of them darted back to their lockers, pretending to put their "illegal items" back before class.

          One of the pre-reading ideas in the novel guide was to have students draw pictures of things that they already know about holes, and display them on the bulletin board.  The three categories we talked about were: 1) Why people dig holes, 2) What things have holes, 3) What things live in holes.  I'm not sure how much this added to their education, but as usual, I received some funny pictures, like the one below.   This Pre-AP student was assigned the category, "Why people dig holes." Her response...?

Apparently I need to try hole-sitting.  It looks like great fun!

-Mrs. Combs

Scout's Honor

Today's bell work asked students to outline or summarize (two of our test-taking vocabulary words) what is happening in the current chapter of a book that they are reading. I left it open for the kids to either write about ANY book that they are reading.  

Throughout the day. I had at least 4 kids swear up and down that they weren't reading any books at all right now.  "Scout's honor, cross my heart, pinky promise, Mrs. Combs!   I'm not reading anything!"

Now, I'm not saying that they lied, but....we have LITERALLY been reading a novel for 2+ weeks in each of my classes.  Sigh.

Option C

No one was psyched to go back to school today.  Nope, not even me.  However, after two cups of coffee and a department meeting, school was back in session.

During the morning, I teach five hours in a row, and fortunately, four out of five went absolutely smoothly.  I have never had such a quiet, focused group of kids!  Because we attempt to use a data teams system, we pre-test and post-test most of our main topics.  Today, my kiddos took a pre-test, and then silently read chapters from their novel.  It was lovely.  I actually got some work done while they read.

Then there was 5th hour.

I've finally figured out how to deal with the spaced out kids, the ADD kids, the ADHD kids, the kids with terrible families, and the kids that smell funny.  What I have yet to figure out how to deal with are kids who have some sort of emotional disturbance whether from medication or "natural" causes.  Please let me know if you have any tips!

Some background on this kiddo:

1. His good days are GREAT days.
2. His bad days can ruin an entire class period.
3. He is the muse for my August 23 blog post.
4. He has a great arm.  I clocked one of his pencils at 75mph the other day!  His glasses aren't as aerodynamic, so they only registered at 35mph.  Still, not shabby!
5. If you have any papers that need to be destroyed, he's your go-to guy.
6. He really is very sweet when he wants to be! 

Apparently, he was already somewhat worked up when he came into my class, and the pre-test I administered set him off.  After several thrown pens and at least three destroyed answer documents, I had enough and recorded his actions on the referral sheet.  Throughout the hour, he continued to destroy things, kick the desks, talk out, and disturb the class.  I've been instructed to give him options when he gets upset.  His final options were A) Go to the office by himself or B) Wait for the assistant principal to take him.

He chose C) Run out of the school.

Luckily, he was mostly bluffing, and stayed on school property.  It was an exciting time, though, and I am very grateful for the teacher across the hall.  She helped me to find a male teacher to bring him inside while I watched both of our classes and kept an eye on the escapee (an impossible task). Even though it added some spice to the day, I do hope that this is my first and final runner!

-Mrs. Combs

Yo Mama

"Your mama's so fat that...."

Yep.  I actually encouraged one of my classes to create these on Friday.  It was either a stroke of genius or a horrible mistake.  I'm going with genius.  There really was a method to my madness, though.  I had momentarily run out of good examples of hyperbole (an extreme exaggeration), and was searching for another example or two, when I realized that these obnoxious jokes are the epitome of hyperbole.  Thankfully, I wasn't being observed, because I'm not quite sure how it would have looked on paper..."Teacher encouraged students to make fat jokes about other students' mothers." Hey, at least it was affective!  I had to almost chase this kiddo out of my room.  He didn't want to leave!

Some of the gems I heard were: "Yo mama's so fat that she fell on your TV and made it a flatscreen," and "Yo mama's so dumb, it took her 2 hours to watch 60 minutes."  Precious, aren't they?

Obviously, many things have gone on at school since my last post, but I simply haven't had the time or motivation to post them.  On Friday, several funny things happened, although this one was my favorite (Apologies for the repeat, Facebook friends.): 

During my morning auditorium duty, I asked a little outgoing jock to move away from his friends because he kept hopping seats.  When he was in his assigned seat, I playfully asked him if he was lonely.  Without missing a beat, he started singing, "Nobody knoooowwwwsss the trouble I've seeeen!"

I only wish I was that witty!

-Mrs. Combs

...then I will go to Burger King

I realize it has been a while since my last post.  Apologies.  When Kyle said that we would have an extra hour today due to Daylight Savings Time ending, I knew I had to seize the opportunity.

I feel as if all I do is grade.  Grade grade grade.  It is getting out of hand.  When I am not grading, I am counting box tops, documenting negative student behavior, rewarding positive student behavior, emailing parents, calling parents, documenting parent contact, repairing books, attending meetings, making seating charts, pre-testing, post-testing, analyzing data, hounding students for late work, and - most importantly - consuming large amounts of Ramen noodles.  They don't teach you how to handle all of this in college.  Fortunately, I do know how to put together a bogus online portfolio (Am I right, Crystal?).

All this being said, I still love it!

I love grading tests and finding that my "D student" made an A.  I love calling parents and telling them how their child showed amazing character that day.  I love analyzing data and seeing the progress that a student has made.  I love spending a lunch period in classroom eating Ramen while helping a student with his history project.  It's a pretty great job!

Another thing that I enjoy is being able to let my kiddos be creative.  My Pre-AP classes recently created book covers that were supposed to showcase one specific genre or subgenre.  Whether they nailed it or were way off base, their pictures and creativity always make me smile.  Here are a few gems I received:

 I would not mind an alien invasion this adorable! Cute Sci-Fi for the win!

I think someone might read the Percy Jackson books.  Great example of a myth.

 This is just creative!  An informational text over his favorite sport.

 Of all of the animals to add wings to, she chose a giraffe.  They already have a height advantage...

 I had to google this next one.  I had no idea what a "dubstep launchpad" was.  Clearly, I am aging.  On another note, his question mark and magnifying glass were perfect images to portray the mystery.  Proud teacher here.

I have highlighted my favorite parts of this one. Sounds like an interesting fairy tale!

Even though they have drawn awesome pictures, I know that both of my brothers could draw better ones!  This is one of my personal favorites from Jonathan, that still hangs on my wall.

Goodnight everyone,
-Mrs. Combs