School's out for the summer....right?

The school year is over and summer is here!!

Well, almost.

During the month of June, I will be teaching summer school.  And not just summer school...summer school for 4th graders! It will be an entirely new experience.  My certification is only for grades 6-12, so I'm really scraping the bottom of my expertise barrel. I'll be in a new school with younger kids in someone else's classroom (probably the weirdest part).  Fortunately, I was given the "reading comprehension" class, rather than math or phonics- I would have really been out of my league then!  It looks like I will have 14-15 kids at a time for 30 minutes a day, with 5 total classes.  I am hoping that 30 minutes will be long enough for us to learn, but short enough for us to have few behavior problems.  Fingers crossed that these kids are similar to 6th graders in most ways.   

I was planning on changing my blog's name from "Rookie Mistake" to "Totally Professional and Experienced," but I'll wait until AFTER summer school to make that change.  I have a feeling I'll be learning quite a bit over the next four months.  

Here's to more silly mistakes and getting more teaching experience under my belt!  I'll keep you updated :)

-Mrs. Combs

(or should I be "Mrs. Kerry" for elementary kids??)

Don't Stare at the Evil Eye!

After having a bird fly in my classroom and a student staple his finger, summer is here!  Today was a crazy, hectic day- but there was also a healthy dose of excitement mixed with nostalgia.  I can't believe my first year is over.  Of course I'm already missing my kids- they got sweeter as the days grew shorter.  The number of hugs multiplied, and although there were still some discipline issues, I grew closer with many of them.  I really really hope they come visit me next year!

I'm sure I'll write more lovey-dovey and eloquent posts later, but I wanted to share some of the funny pieces of advice that my kiddos left for my upcoming class.  I received a lot of very touching pieces of advice, but you know I love their humor. :)

"If you sleep in Mr. Johnson's class, he will yell at you and you will need ear surgery."

In my defense, I didn't implement this rule until after I found gum on the floor.

So, there's a minor spelling error here, but the locker monster is a real thing.  It raids kids' lockers and steals important papers that they PROOOMIIISSEEEE they finished at home.  Sneaky locker monster!

I wish I knew what "talk moments" referred to!

(Mrs. Combs DOES like worked turned it.  This is true.)

She really did bring me cookies...

BEWARE!

Or don't fight anywhere?

Yes, because I'm super scary!

"Listen and pay attention and be quiet and give Mr. Massey oreos."
Cookies seem to be a theme....

WHAT??! 

Good advice for anyone!

"Have a lot of fun, but don't do anything dumb!!!!!"
-Yes, please!

She WILL send you to the office!

"Don't ever stare at Mrs. Comb's evil eye when your in trouble"
HA!  I like to think of it as more of a "stern eye." :)

Aren't they adorable?  I'm off to lose myself in a book.  Happy summer!

-Mrs. Combs

Countdown to Summer!

School's [almost] out for the summer!  Only 5 days remain, which is truly insane.  I can't believe my first year is coming to a close.  I'm now in the awkard position of needing to finish strong, but wanting to plan for next year.  I've learned so much throughout the year that I want to create and implement the new procedures and lessons NOW!  For now, however,  we must finish our book report mosaics.  (They should look super sweet when they are complete!)

One thing I'm excited about is the possibility of using interactive notebooks.  There are many ways to use them, and they require a lot of time and prep, but I think I'm up for the challenge. My kids never found a solid way to take and retain notes (I blame the locker monster), so this method should help.  Plus, they will get to color, glue, and create, which is way more fun than regular notetaking.

In other news, Maniac Monday turned into Maniac Monday/Wednesday.  Halfway through 3rd hour, we started getting rained on. We toughed it out for 20 minutes, but finally "called it" and went back in.  Unfortunately I had to teach the last 2 hours of the day in soaking wet jeans and a tee shirt, hair tied up.  According to the words of a student: "You don't look like like a teacher, Mrs. Combs."  Classroom management becomes more difficult when you don't look the part.  Thankfully Wednesday was beautiful and we were able to get back outside and have some fun.  Wish I could post pictures!

Here's to a smooth last week and zero goodbye tears!  (Yeah right...)

-Mrs. Combs

Is that your suitcase?

Alright, guys.  I have nearly as many post in my "drafts" folder as I do my "published" folder.  For some reason I haven't been able to complete a post for a while.  Maybe I'll combine all of the drafts into one super post one day.  It would be an amazingly disjointed, passionate, mess.

School is so close to being let out!  I can't believe that I've already gotten one year under my belt.  I tell my kids that this year they are my guinea pigs, and next year I'll be PERFECT.  There will be no more typos on quizzes, no misspellings on the board, no failed mathematics, and certainly no misplaced Promethean board pens.  Oh yeah, and no more calling kids by the wrong name.  That one has to go.  We'll see how far my perfection lasts next year.  (I give it 2 minutes)

One of the things that I LOVE about teaching is the humor- whether a kid says something witty in my classroom, or whether I just catch one of our two hundred sixth graders lost in their own little dance in the hallway.  Today's humor was a little more serious, though, and it had absolutely nothing to do with students.

Background information: We (the other reading teacher and myself) are currently teaching the book Maniac Magee to our kiddos.  Maniac does a lot of "crazy" things in the book (besides bringing up a whole lot of racial issues....which is f-u-n to talk about).  For instance, he can outrun any kid in town, unties an impossibly large knot, intercepts a football from the star quarterback, etc.  From the beginning of the unit, we knew that we needed to take our kids outside and let them have fun doing some of the things Maniac did.  We are calling it MANIAC MONDAY and it will take place this next Monday.  We are using it as a motivational tool- students have to keep their grades up and stay out of trouble in order to attend. Right now, out of my 95 kids, 25 are on the no-go list.  That means only the kids on top of their game get to have a fun day.  The others will be inside with our instructional coach who has promised a "painfully" educational lesson.  Yikes!

We are planning to have Maniac Monday in our school's outdoor learning environment.  The kids will be contained, which is especially important as we are doubling up our classes.  Today we decided to go take a look at the area and figure out how to set it up.  The other teacher had just gone down to the 7th grade room to borrow a suitcase from someone.  We thought we would use it in one of the activities.  When we stepped outside, she left the suitcase by the door, and we propped the door open with a rock.  Not 2 minutes later, the assistant principal came out the door and started asking us questions about the bag.  Little did we know, but we had set up the perfect school emergency situation: leaving an unidentified piece of luggage in the central area of the school, and exiting the building.  What makes it even worse/better is that our assistant principal had very recently been to a training that covered issues like this, so he was on the lookout for situations just like the one we accidently created.  At least we know how it would be handled if the situation DID arise!

12 days to go!

-Mrs. Combs

But First, Let Me Take a Selfie!

TESTING IS OVER!

I repeat:

TESTING IS OVER!

At least for Language Arts.  Math is Monday, but who cares about math, right?  ;)

We don't know what constitutes passing/not passing- still waiting on the State to figure that out and surprise us.  I did get some feedback from the curriculum instructor, though, who said...and I quote "I thought they looked pretty good," when referring to the kids' raw scores.  Most people would think "pretty good" is lame...but I'm all about it!  I can breathe now.

While breathing today, I allowed my kiddos to take one of their favorite quotes and draw/write it on pages of old books.  It is a hobby that I had taken up a while back, and thought that the kids would enjoy the rebelliousness of destroying books in a reading class.

Some of the quotes I got were sweet...some were inappropriate, and others were funny.  Here are my favorites!

I think I'm rubbing off on them!

Oh dear...

Girl is very self-aware!

So, if you become president, you won't know?  Scary!

These are a few of my favorite things!

ME EITHER!

True.

#precious

Let's pretend the spelling was on purpose...

-Mrs. Combs

Fingers Crossed!

It is official.  I have absolutely zero minutes left with my kiddos before they take their state reading test tomorrow. 

I wish I could say that I felt confident about how they will all perform, but I can't.  I'm actually kind of petrified, for several reasons.

1. I'm a first year teacher in a tested subject.  Although it may not be true, I have this thought in the back of my head that if they don't test well, my employers won't be happy with me.

2. The way that test questions are worded very easily trip them up.  My kids know how to find the main idea, but will they understand "To which paragraph does this subheading belong?" Thou art confusing, question!

3. The reading test requires them to GO BACK TO THE TEXT to find the answers...and some of mine are barely motivated to read it once...let alone twice. 

4. It is 50 questions long.  If you have the attention span of a gnat, 50 questions is daunting.  Squirrel.

5. It's on MONDAY MORNING!  I can't even form complete sentences until Tuesday afternoon.

6. The kids are stressed..and it's our fault. The pressure that the state puts on school districts is filtered down to the kids. They know very well that they HAVE to pass or people will be unhappy.  

 7. Not every kid thinks in multiple choice.  I recently had a girl answer a poetry interpretation question by drawing a diagram of how the metaphor compared the sea to a dog. By test score reports, she is very low....but I saw something completely different.  Not only did she understand it, but she could portray it through art. She won't have that chance tomorrow.

I could go on and on.  Basically, I know that tests are "necessary," but I'm not a fan. I can't wait until they are over so that I can go back to teaching. I'm tired of practice tests. 

-Mrs. Combs

Sweet Motivators

A veteran teacher once told us first year teachers that "You should spend at least $300 on candy each year" as a form of classroom management.  I thought she was crazy.  She was dead serious.

Over $100 later, I totally understand.  I doubt I will EVER drop $300 a year on candy, but I do understand why she does it, even though there is a part of me that fundamentally thinks it is wrong to bribe children to answer questions or do the right thing.  If used sparingly, candy rewards can turn the entire class period around.  Here are my candy procedures.  You may or may not want to follow them.

1. ALWAYS have candy on hand.  You never know when you will need it.

2. ONLY allow kids to eat candy in your room if YOU give it to them.  If they are allowed to bring in their own or carry it over from another class, your reward will be old news.  A tootsie roll won't look enticing if they are already working with a bag of skittles.  On the other hand, a candy-less kiddo will do just about anything to earn a piece of that chocolatey taffy weirdness. #perspective. 

3. NEVER reward students for simply following an everyday class procedure....unless you want to intentionally leave a few students out for messing around.  Sound mean? It is.  But I betcha those kiddos tow the line the next day!

4. When giving candy for correct answers, do NOT cave and give candy to the entire class each time.  Because honestly, did they alllllll really earn it?  Next time they might not even try if they know you are a softy. 

5. (This is my Common Core Candy Standard) Make sure that the answers they provide are thorough and based on evidence.  You infer that the character is angry?  What's your evidence?  Partial answers do not earn a super juicy Starburst.  They just don't. 

6. Don't give candy out during a review game.  They're already playing a game.  Seriously.  They should thank their lucky stars they aren't doing a worksheet.  Having bragging rights is way better than candy anyway. 

7. ALWAYS test the candy for quality of taste.  I find that planning periods work well for this step.  It also allows you the privacy of stuffing your face without shame. 

8. Keep them on their toes.  Throw a few sour candies in a bag of sweet candies for some interesting reactions. :)

Have a good one!

-Mrs. Combs