Winged Distractions

Birds used to (and likely still do) fly into the big living room window at my parents place often. They just thought inside looked super inviting I guess. Never have I ever been in a classroom when a bird has wanted to get in there though. What this says about my classrooms I'm not sure... I guess they weren't very bird inviting?

That is until the other day.... I'm going to leave out the grade level and we can all play a fun little game where we try to guess what grade I was teaching.

So we are all quietly doing our work when all of a sudden we hear a bang at the window. A couple of heads turn around and I ask "did a bird just fly into the window". That's when nearly every student in the room instantly got up and dashed to the window. The window in this particular room wasn't even very big.. so kids were sitting on the counter, standing behind the counter and then standing on chairs just to catch a glimpse of the outside world and the bird that may still be there.

Turns out it was a bird that flew into the window... or at least they found one on the ground (I'm assuming the two instances are related). Of course, when you see a bird on the ground your first instinct is to go out and help it out. Numerous students then asked me if they could go outside. I told them they couldn't because I didn't want them picking up the bird. They also asked if they could bring the bird inside... I definitely told them no to this because I didn't want to be the one responsible for a bird flying around the school. Eventually though a couple of very concerned girls didn't care and rushed out there... the rest of the class looked on from inside.

About a minute later one of the students from inside told me that one of the girls was now holding the bird... great I think to myself... so I go outside and see her stroking the tiny bird's head. Eventually the vice principal happened to walk by and I told him what happened and he convinced the girls to put the bird back on the ground (apparently it fell right over as soon as they put it down) and we all got back to the classroom.

This was when everyone had to share their bird stories.

"Once a bird flew into our window"

"Once a bird flew into our house!"

"Once I had a pet bird"

It went on and on... in typical grade 1 fashion. Only this wasn't grade 1... it was grade 8.

I guess you are never too old to share related stories when something exciting happens.

Flowers!

It's that time of year..

When I start recieving lots of flowers every time I go subbing!

... well... 

when I go subbing in an elementary school

Tornado Drill

This week, while I was substitute teaching, we had a tornado drill.

First, let me start off by saying that it is pretty rare that we would get a tornado here.  So rare that when I was a student not even once did we practice a drill in case one did come.  But now we practice them.

A number of years ago one of the schools I was in had a tornado drill and we all went to a windowless hallway and sat facing the lockers (I believe) but the school I was in this week had a basement that we could go into.

sidenote:  This was my very first time ever being in a schools basement

Anyways, they let us know via the intercom that we are going to be practicing a tornado drill and that it is just a drill.  They tell us which classrooms will be going downstairs first and everyone else can wait for further instruction.

So eventually what the administration assumes to be everyone is down in the basement and they start telling us why it is so important (apparently in the next couple of days we are supposed to be having some crazy weather around these parts) and right in the middle of their speech... another TWO classes come down the stairs.  That's right... everyone was safe except those 2 classes.  Later on I heard a rumor that there was a third class that never even bothered to go downstairs.

Whoops

I guess they still have time to work out some of the kinks.

Hope we are all having a safe and tornado free weekend!

Portraits (round 2)

Last week I showed you a drawing one of my students had done for me (of me) and I thought it was a pretty good representation of what I look like.  Then this happened...

I feel like it's actually a doubly bad photo of me.  I look strange in the actual colour photograph of myself and I look strange in the drawing.  In the defence of the girl that drew it... the scarf and badge combo was likely a hard one to draw.  She did well on my hair though... I actually think she did a better job on my hair than I did that morning.

Ah well, you can't win them all... a lesson I learned many years ago when I received this drawing of myself with a giant tenhead... yes my forehead is so big in that drawing that I don't think it could be called a forehead.

Pranks

This was new.

When I was teaching grade 8 I went through a month of pranks with them (as in them pranking me on Friday's by pushing tables up to the door of the room so that I couldn't get in... except I could because there was a 2nd door, they also strung tape across from my desk to a counter at ankle level so that when I walked by... and I did... I would get tape on my pants. They thought it was hilarious). But I digress.

My grade 11 Social Studies class almost got me.

It was a quiet class with about half of them missing (likely due to the fact that they were writing a test). Anyways, at the end of the period one group of boys decided it would be funny to take the cap off their water bottle (their water bottle still containing water) and turn it upside down (so that when I grabbed it the water would spill everywhere).

Unfortunately for them they never even got to witness me discovering their little prank because I never did. What they weren't counting on was another very helpful student that noticed the prank and cleaned it all up for me.

Better luck next time!

Portraits

When I go subbing one of my students favourite activities is to draw pictures of their new favourite substitute *ahemMEahem*.  Sometimes they turn out great.. and well sometimes you begin to wonder if that is actually what you look like.  I've been holding onto one of each of these for a while now and I went back and forth whether I wanted the more flattering one up first or not and I've decided I do.  So come back next week to see another portrait of yours truly done by a student!

You can't tell in the picture of me but that cardigan has elbow patches and she nailed it!

She even had me giving the peace sign... one of us was Asian.

To see other examples of pictures students have drawn of me click here (he even included the car I would drive and it's pretty cool).

Don't forget to come back next week to see the picture(s) that make me question what I look like