Nice try, but...

     So I have this kid this year who really does not like to tell his mom when he gets into trouble; he's not a bad kid, just your typical third-grader who occasionally cuts up a little and has it noted in his take-home folder.  So, he was in trouble twice this week, and after the first day, he scribbled over the note in his folder and gave himself a happy face.  Day two, I write another note, and explain that if it is not signed, I will be calling home.
      He comes to school the next day, and I don't get around to checking folders until right before time to leave, and when I look at his folder, the note has been cut off of his calendar.  I call him over and explain that as soon as I'm done with dismissal, I will call mom.
    Tears begin, and he tells me that he cut off the paper so he could show mom, really, he did.  I say, then it won't be a problem when I call; she'll already know about it.
    Kid:  "No, wait, Ms. Haines.  I didn't really tell her.  But you see (tears streaming down his face and a catch in his throat), I did it for you.  I really wanted to earn five dollars so I could get you a present because I love you."

I called home anyway.  No word yet on whether I'll be getting my gift.  : )

Gooaaaalllll!!!!!!!!

      As a school, we are working on setting goals for each kid in reading and math.  So far, I've only been working with my students on reading goals, and today, three of my kids met their goals and I AM SO PROUD!!!!  They were the first three in the whole school.

    One child has been fascinated with the Titanic since school started, and he kept asking about it and looking at this book I have on it.  However, the text was really dense and really dry, and very over his head, so when I was at the bookstore a couple of weeks ago, I found an easier read called Titanic, Lost..and Found.  It was one of those little Ready to Read book...a Level 4 one, which fit with this kid well because he's a fairly proficient reader.  So, we made his goal to read the whole book and then give a little presentation to the class.  And it was SO GREAT!!!  He's one of my most wiggly children and I've had a lot of trouble getting him to stay on task during Reading Workshop, but all of a sudden he was self-motivated to work on his book every day, and I didn't have to say a word.  It took him three days to finish all the way, and then yesterday, he came up and told me all about it...how the captain wouldn't leave his ship and what happened with the iceberg and everything.  So then I let him do it for the class, and it was so funny because when he did it for them, he would tell a little bit and then say, "Chapter 2" and then tell a little bit and then "Chapter 3," which I found hilarious.

    My other two kids both had to practice an at level book and read it with smoothly and with at least 95 percent accuracy for the one kid and 90 percent for the other.  I monitored them to make sure they read the book repeatedly, and then I tested them today by just giving a running record over a random page I flipped to.  And they succeeded with 96 and 95 percent accuracy and nice, smooth reading! 

     They all got to go see the principal, and since we were having grade-level meetings, all the third-grade teachers and coaches were in there too, and everybody cheered them on, and then they got to have stickers saying they'd met their goals and treats from the principal's treasure chest and their name on the announcements for the whole school to hear about how they'd been the first ones to meet goals.

     They were so proud of themselves, and smiling and happy...and it was extra special because school hasn't exactly been a success story so far for any of them.  It was today.

   
   

No spiders, Thank You!

So we are outside at recess:

Kid: Ms. Haines, that spider's about to get on you.
Gigantic huge big spider-ish looking thing with long legs appears on picnic table in front of me.
Me (getting up quickly): Kill it, kill it, kill it.
Child one: I got it Ms. Haines
Child two: No, Ms. Haines, those have thin little legs, that means that kind is ok.
Spider flees across picnic table in desperate attempt to get away
Me: I don't care.  It's big and scary looking and I don't want it on me.
Child one climbs onto picnic table to stomp on it.  Spider jumps off table and onto ground.
Child two: Really Ms. Haines, those kind are ok.
Me: Kill it, kill it, kill it.  I want it dead.
Child one (finally managing to step on it): There!  Don't you mess with my teacher, spider.
Kids run off to play.

It really was a big, scary looking thing.  I didn't like it.  Just to show that I'm not all anti-insect and arachnid though, here we all are later on watching the inchworm walk.  I even made sure we returned it to the ground so it could get food or whatever.  It really was cute, it kept standing up and looking at us and it crawls so cute.  (I'm letting a kid use my camera phone, so you can hear me directing the whole time in this).

 

Little Moments and a Positive Attitude

     This week was LONG; there's just no two ways around that.  The beginning of the year always is, and no matter how many hours I work in a day, there is more to do, and the more to do is ALL imperative, necessary, need to do ASAP why is that not done already? kind of stuff.  Which, frankly, combined with the fact that I'm still putting classroom routines into place, can leave you a little tiny bit cranky, exhausted, and overwhelmed.  But my biggest, most important goal for this year is to have a positive attitude because last year I DID NOT.  And last year stunk.  And I truly believe that if I stay upbeat and focus on the positive, I can make this the best and most successful year of teaching I've ever had.  So here are my little moments of bliss in a very long week:

• "I don't want to go to P.E., Ms. Haines.  I have to finish writing."
• I used my Italian voice teaching math this week and the kids absolutely loved it.
• The principal came in and got down on the floor and chit-chatted with my kids about what they were doing, which they loved.  (We were working in partners on completing a graphic organizer.)
• One little boy took his writing notebook all around school and then wrote a "seed story stretched out" about everything he did.
• These kids LOVE to be read aloud to.  They are begging me to read Sideways Stories from Wayside School in the afternoon, and they are so into anything I'm reading. (Last year's kids so did not appreciate my read aloud skills.)
• We built up to 12 minutes of Read to Self time.

Small Successes

      So, I've been envisioning starting this blog for a few months now, and I have to say, when I've been planning out how it will go, I figured I'd start off talking about some cool thing I implemented or showing some pictures of my little pinterest projects that I've tried.  But we've been in school for a week and a half now, and do you know what I'm most excited about?  This quiz over addition properties (commutative, associative, and identity) that my kids took yesterday.
     Now, you have to understand that this little group of third-graders this year did not come in with a wealth of mathematical understanding.  All of third-grade gave a little pretest of math skills--very basic stuff like adding numbers to twenty and place value to the hundreds place and comparing numbers--and my very highest grade was a 73.  And when we've been doing math and I've been asking them how they added a number, looking to discuss some mental addition strategies, I haven't found a single kid who can go beyond "I counted in my head."
     So, as I was saying, we've got a lot of work ahead of us in math.  But here's the thing.  I gave this quiz, and all but one student made at least a C!  I had three 100s and a whole bunch of As.  I taught...and they LEARNED!
     Which I guess is the whole point of this blog.  I mean, I didn't do anything exceptional to teach this.  We used counters to practice commutative and associative properties, and I let them use Twizzlers to make the parentheses for associative.  Then we did a couple of word problems and talked together about what property the word problem showed.  I put them in partners and let them do a few more of those on their own while I pulled about 6 kids who still didn't get it and worked with them in a small group.  Then I gave them the quiz.  And they ROCKED it!  And I LOVED it!   It just felt so great to be successful at what I was teaching, to have what I work so hard at add up into something good.  It might not have been anything spectacular, but it worked.
     I put their graded quizzes into their homework folders to take home today.  One little girl came up to me and said, "Ms. Haines, I did so good on that quiz!  It was so EASY!"  What makes that so great is that she's one of my most struggling math kids.  And what a few days ago she had no idea about, is now way easy.