Christmas-y Classrooms!

So I've decided to take the liberty of giving myself some time off from the blog for a little bit (if the kids get a 2 week vacation then shouldn't I as well?).  You can expect me to be back on January 8th though (along with the school buses and extra cars on the road because schools back in session - at least here it is).

In the meantime enjoy some pictures of what some of the classrooms I sub in were looking like during this festive season (is it odd that I have so few pictures... I really tried to snap a picture whenever I saw something Christmas-y... it just didn't happen very often folks!)

Hope we're all happily recovering from our Christmas Concerts (I even attended one as a substitute this year!) and enjoying our break!

This Week at School

What I thought was going to be a nice slow week before Christmas where I might have lots of time off to get some baking, last minute shopping, and cleaning done turned out to be a much busier work week!.. it didn't help that I've been fighting a cold for the last week and a half now either. I'm sure now that I'm officially on break I'll get hit with the actual cold.

Anywho, my week...
Monday and Tuesday I was at the same school. Monday was easy because I was just there to support teachers and cover for meetings. Tuesday I was left without a plan because the teacher had been absent for a while. Luckily, the kids had gym first thing which gave me enough time to plan an art lesson I had already done when I taught 5/6 on the book "Snowmen at Night". The art part took up most of the day (other than a bit of silent reading after gym and some other stuff that was already scheduled in) so I actually had to plan very little. Anyone that finished their art wrote a story about what their snowmen did at night.
Wednesday I had booked a while ago... turned out that I was covering for a bunch of different teachers in the morning and nursery in the afternoon. The morning was busy because I had a bunch of different classes to visit PLUS recess duty. In the afternoon I played a lot of Lego and rewinded their Christmas songs tape a few times.

I came home from work on Wednesday telling John that I think I was done working for the year so Thursday Friday I stayed home. I had a special project I was working on anyways that needed to get done Friday morning.  However, I did attend a Christmas concert at one of the schools I often go to on Thursday evening.

Merry Christmas!

My Former Grade 1 Teacher

The other week I ran into my former grade 1 teacher while substitute teaching. She mentioned to me that she still had a number of the ornaments that myself and my sisters would have given to her as gifts at Christmas time. She specifically mentioned an angel ornament made out of pasta of some kind to which I responded "that sounds like something my mom would have made". This all got me thinking though... what are some gifts from my students that I've kept over the years...

Fake Flowers

I just really liked the look of these. I even kept the tag on this gift so I'll know who it was from and that she thought I was a great teacher.

Fidgeter?

             

I'm not at all sure of what this actually is but I've kept it. You can manipulate it to look different ways. I still remember who I got this from, the store she got it from, and the grade this student was in when she gave it to me.

Red Star

This is the first gift that I don't recall who I got it from... I do recall I got it from a student the year I taught grade 4 half time though. It comes out every Christmas.

I've also gotten and still have some candles that I've gotten from students, stuffies, soaps, nail polish, tea, and other odds and ends... some of them end up in a giveaway bag and some of them I put out for guests to enjoy (like tea... because I haven't come around to being able to enjoy it myself yet).

Tomorrow is the last day of classes before the 2 week break!

Enjoy your time off (teachers AND students)!

Think Outside the Box

The other week while subbing the teacher had left me this sheet for the students to do as they walked in.  She said they would know what to do with it.  

All they had to do was use their imaginations to come up with what this picture was the start as.  Most kids did something to do with a diamond but then this one kid shared his and said it was an alien with a Christmas door in the back... now that's thinking outside of the box!

It reminded me of when we were in middle school and would doodle in church.  One person would start a doodle and the next person would have to finish it into a picture... so if you don't want to photocopy a bunch of papers with a simple shape on it then just do a random simple doodle on the board and the students could copy it onto a paper and go from there!  

This Week At School

Busy week this week out and about!

Monday I was a grade 2 teacher.  We wrote letters to Santa, read some Flat Stanley, and made community posters.  It was also wear a hat day and no one told me... I have reindeer antlers that would have been perfect!

Tuesday I was at the colony school teaching kindergarten-4th grade we did a lot of read alouds and after school they were very excited to set up their Christmas tree in their classroom. 

Wednesday I was back at the colony school but this time teaching 5-8th graders.  This means I get to play them on Sumdog for at least a little bit (and I don't always win).

Thursday I was at a school close to home.  We spent pretty much the entire morning in the gym practicing for their Christmas Concert.  A teacher asked me how the day was going and I said I had hardly seen my students in the classroom so I couldn't complain.  At the en of the day we had choice time and ended off the day with having them clean up to find a "mystery mess" (and let me just tell you... I've never had students clean the windows at clean up time before!... they did an amazing job!)

Friday I was back at the school I had started things off with at the beginning of the week (only this time it was a grade 4/5 classroom).   Only the morning this time which was fine by me because I had already worked all the other days this week (plus I had a return to make and some shopping to do in the afternoon when it's slightly less busy).  Today was pj day which if I'm being honest I did know about... I definitely COULD have worn some pj's but I didn't want to have to pack them in a bag of some kind and bring them there and change in and out of them multiple times... plus I wasn't just going straight home after work.  So what I'm trying to say is, the kids wore pj's this day... I did not.

One more week of school left before the much anticipated break!  So far, I've got one day booked... I'm thinking it likely won't be much more than that.

Whisperings

The other week when I was subbing in an early years class I heard the students whispering about this new substitute teacher they were having.  

One had asked me my name when they were walking in and I guess he had shared it with some of the others and they were giggling and whispering about that - which I'm surprised about... I didn't think it was THAT funny of a last name.  I asked my husband if he had gotten teased about his last name growing up and he hadn't... I guess it just isn't as popular as my maiden name... well that and the first half of the name implies that I have no hair (which I clearly have!)

But other than the whisperings about my hilarious name was that "I hope she speaks English".  Living in a very multicultural city means that we have a lot of cultures in all areas of employment... including substitute teaching.  Apparently the substitute they had the previous day was a little difficult to understand because she had an accent.  Anyways, I guess they were happy when I FINALLY introduced myself (and there was no giggling about my name then) and they could see that I spoke without an accent.

Name Tags

I've done a number of name tag/art posts in the past here's one that I did with my grade 5/6 students and here's one I spied in a grade 6 classroom that I was subbing in.

Name art for a grade 2 classroom

I found these ones in a grade 2 classroom... simpler than ones I've done in the past. I'm assuming the teacher pre cut the paper into those little triangles... otherwise you would have some much bigger triangles and some itty bitty ones. They looked nice all up on the wall together.

Do you get your students to do any name art?  

Post links to what you've tried in the comments!

This Week At School

Not much happened this week... I'm not even sure why the teacher that I was in for one of the days this week even really required a substitute. I didn't have a class of my own and was to just offer support to a few classes throughout the day. Needless to say, it was a pretty easy day.

But the most exciting thing to happen this week was that I got to go substitute teach at the school my husband went to growing up! I was told promises of carpeted floors, no real gymnasium, and just two classrooms and well the school didn't disappoint.  I had a grand total of 10 students in my class too!

In other news... I spotted this book in a classroom this week.

Home Alone - The book

Now we have the movie AND the book to enjoy!

Our Community

I saw this bulletin board in a grade 2 classroom I was recently in.

Our Community bulletin board

There's a McDonald's, trees, a lake, people, houses, animals, a bowling alley, and oh wait... what's that.  A minion?.... with a dead dog beside it?  I only live a short distance from the school I saw this at... I'm not in the same community but am within a long walk to it... never have I ever seen a minion killing a dog around (thankfully) but I'm beginning to wonder what goes on in this community!  I later asked the student what that picture was all about it... she told me it wasn't a dead dog but a stuffed teddy bear (one of the minions always carries one but I don't recall the name of that minion).  I also asked her where in their community she saw all of this and she wasn't able to answer that question.

Guitar Class

There have been a number of times when I've been in a position to teach something that I don't have a hot clue about... a high school computer class, French music class, and even a violin class but it hasn't happened in a long, long time!  I guess being around for so long and having my name in at so many schools means I can be a bit more selective about what I'm teaching nowadays.

That is until you end up at a school with a grand total of 2.5 teachers (one only works in the afternoons).  When you're in a school with only 1 other full time teacher you pretty well just do it all... and this includes guitar class. 

Do I play guitar?
Absolutely not.
Did I learn the first couple of lines of "Petit Jean" on the guitar.
You better believe I did!

You see, I've often found that the best way to teach something you don't know is to have the class teach you instead.  In this guitar class I was lucky and only had 4 students which meant I could fiddle around on the guitar to my hearts content pretty well as we were just a small circle of guitar players.

This Week At School

It was a less busy week this week however...

-  Over the course of the week I covered teaching every grade from grade 1-8 (one of them was at the colony school so that pretty well covered all the grades in one day but I did work other days as well!)

-  Every day I worked in a multi grade classroom this week

-  One day we played lots of math games (they actually begged me to play SNAKE... so we did) 

-  Books I read from include "Where the Red Fern Grows" and "A Perfect Day"

A Perfect Day

-  I left my name and number for one teacher this week (in the hopes that maybe she'll book me to return again sometime - although I find in this particular division teachers rarely put in requests so who knows).... all the other classrooms I had already been in before so one could say that it was a good week of work