Monday, February 26, 2018

Stop Drop and Read

We've been wrapping up I Love to Read month at pretty well every school I've been to.  At one particular school they've been doing Stop Drop and Read at various times throughout the day.  They single the start and end of this time with a roar of a lion being played over the PA system.  Well, on this particular day we all heard the roar loud and clear and we stopped what we were doing and started to read.  Half an hour later... we were still reading (or well, some of us were and some of us were getting pretty tired of it).  I asked the EA in the room if it usually goes on for this long and she informed me it never does... which is when I made the executive decision to end reading time.  Which was probably a good thing because we never did end up hearing that roar.

Saturday, February 24, 2018

This Week At School

This week at school I...

- Had a shortened week with Monday being a holiday here and having one other day without work
- Was never more thankful to be on outdoor duty... because on the way inside we had a fire drill which meant everyone went back outside... since I was lucky enough to be on duty that meant I at least already had all my winter gear on and stayed relatively warm.
-  Took an entire group of grade 3-8 students curling ( every single one of them... which amounted to 10 kids).
-  Had a super easy Friday by just offering support in various classes


Thursday, February 22, 2018

Wrong Substitute?

I'll often leave my name and phone number for a teacher if I've had a good day in their class.  But there have been times when I wasn't entirely sure I was the substitute the teacher was looking for when they contact me about subbing for them...

One time I didn't recognize the number that was texting me and once the job was booked I realized that I had only been in that school once before and had zero recollection of leaving my information there (because I knew the teacher I had been in for and knew that they didn't need my information... in addition to this that teacher didn't even teach at that particular school any more which made the whole thing all the more odd).  Anyways, the teacher sent me a message asking if my last name was one that is very similar to mine but not actually mine.  I just corrected them and ended up going in for the day.  I later looked up to see if my first name and this other last name was a teacher in the division and it turned out this other Christine did work in the division (although I have a feeling not as a teacher so I'm hoping I didn't steal a job from any one).

The second time the teacher had thought she had booked me and when I let her know that the booking hadn't come through on my end she sent me a picture of the confirmation she got about booking me.  Once again, she had the correct first name but the wrong last name (it started with the same letter though so I just assumed there was confusion because my last name had changed a year or so earlier).  So, I informed this teacher of my last name and she changed it online and I thought nothing of it and went in for her.  When I got to her class, however, I noticed her collection of substitute teaching cards and one of them was for the other person she had booked!  I still have no idea who she actually wanted... but I was thankful for another day of work!

Monday, February 19, 2018

Birth Days Vs. Birthday Parties

A couple of weeks ago we were doing a page about being an Olympic athlete


One of the things the students needed to fill in was their birthday.  Being that it was a bunch of grade 1 and 2 students I directed them to the birthday chart in their classroom for those of them that either didn't know when their birthday was or weren't sure how to spell the month.

"But Mrs. my birthday is changing this year" says one little boy

Which is when I informed them that their birth day never changes... the date of their birthday parties however, might.

Saturday, February 17, 2018

This Week At School

This week at school I...

- was outside of the city for work

- taught students about fractions (specifically equivalent fractions for the purpose of ordering them from least to greatest). I don't mind teaching it now that I understand it... but I can definitely understand the frustrations of students because I remember fractions not making a bit of sense when I was their age. 

- played some badminton

- watched some CNN 10 (formerly Student News

- Made some Valentines boxes 

valentine boxes
The kids made these boxes in their family groups which in most schools would mean a smaller group of students that likely aren't related.  This however was the colony school so I asked them if "family groups" meant their actual siblings... and folks, on the colony a family group is actually their family!

- Played some bench ball

- I also returned to that classroom and got a shot of that window that I took a couple of weeks ago during the storm... this wasn't a very nice day but you can easily see the buildings in the back!


Thursday, February 15, 2018

Rotten Sandwiches

I get the point of it... I do.. except I just can't get behind the idea of having moldy, rotting bread hung up on my classroom wall for months at a time. 

Monday, February 12, 2018

Winter Recess Duty

Having recess duty generally doesn't deter me from booking a job... I just ensure to come prepared so that I'm not freezing outside.  I think where I live kids will still have outside recess until it hits about -27 or so (but there are factors like windchill and actual temperature that play into this as well).  What this means is that... we could still be going outside when it's quite cold out!  Being a well seasoned substitute I've come up with a few tips for those of us that want to come prepared for the possibly of outdoor duty.

1)  If I go to a school often enough eventually I'll snap a picture of their recess schedule (assuming it stays the same and teachers are just on a rotation).  Here, most divisions operate on a 6 day school cycle so once I book a job at a school I frequent I'll look for that teachers name on the duty schedule before even going in to work... I'll usually also have to look up what school day it is too.

2)  I'm often dressed warm enough for a not so cold recess duty in winter... a good coat and decent shoes but if I want to wear some shoes that are not so decent I'll wear my boots and bring a change of shoes (for example, I often want to wear flats but those are not very practical in winter time here).

3)  Finally, if it's a really cold day and there is a chance I might have outdoor duty I have a bag already packed that I just need to grab on my way out the door.  I'll usually leave it in my car once I get to the school and if I happen to see that I have duty I'll run back to my car to grab it.

Outdoor Duty Bag



Inside the bag you'll find:
warm mitts
warm toque
neck warmer
ski pants

But you know what I most appreciate when booking a sub day on a cold day?  When the teacher adds it to the online notes that I have outdoor duty that day.  

Saturday, February 10, 2018

This Week At School

This week at school I...

- Participated in a cooking class (we made grilled cheese sandwiches and cut up carrots and pickles)

- Played a lot of Uno and Scattergories 

Card Scattergories - the kids loved it!

- Played some bench ball (some how my team lost... not sure how that happened since I excelled at Sink that Ship just last week

- Had a health day... and was reminded about Canada's food guide (after thinking about everything that I eat in a day I've come to realize I'm likely lacking in the fruit and vegetable category of the food guide and am eating an excess of grains)

- The classroom that I was in on this health day had a bit of a greenhouse inside that was kind of cool. We were reading a book about farms and food that is grown there and I told them about how I was going to go to the local library to pick up some seeds and we talked about the seeds that I picked up from the library after lunch (I went during lunch).

Greenhouse inside of classroom

- One of the classes I was in had done this art project

Tin Foil Sculptures

and it reminded me of these and these art projects I had done in the past 

- Ran into some of my grade 4 students from last year and I never noticed it before but a lot of growing up has gone on between grade 4 and 5... not only do some of them look more grown up but boy are they acting like a lovely bunch of students.

- But perhaps my biggest accomplishment was finding my way to a VERY rural school that I haven't been to in months without taking a single wrong turn. Go me!

Thursday, February 08, 2018

Picking Teams

Sometimes you have to sub in a gym class and you need to put your students in teams to play (or you might even have to put them into teams for something in the classroom too). Here is my fool proof way for picking teams when you don't know the students.

You'll be tempted to line the students up and go 1,2,1,2,1,2 which is most of what I do. Except usually, you'll see a few students switch places in the lineup so that one team will be stacked or Jimmy gets to be on the same team with all his friends. If I happen to see students switching spots (and they usually do) I'll switch up the way I'm counting so it might instead go 1,2,11,22,1,2,111,222. That's it. Congrats, you've created a mixed team that doesn't consist of one person and all their besties. But I'm sure there are many more simple ways to create teams when you don't know the students... leave what you do in the comments.

Monday, February 05, 2018

Tie Dye Snowflakes

A couple of weeks ago I was left subbing without a sub plan and I knew from previous experience of this happening that an art lesson could easily occupy a lot of time (especially if you pair it with a poetry lesson too). 

Luckily, I had already been in for the teacher without a sub plan the previous week and quickly came up with a plan for this Monday prior to leaving on the Friday... so I had already made sure we had all the supplies and were good to go for Monday.

This was a pretty simple art lesson (assuming your students know how to cut snowflakes out of paper) that I found on A Faithful Attempt. She goes over the lesson and what you'll need and the steps you take so I'll just post our finished results...

















You may notice that each of my students have a short little haiku poem at the bottom of their pages... that's not a coincidence. After making the snowflakes and putting them to the side to dry I taught them how to do a haiku poem... If you want my opinion (and I'd like to think you do) haiku's are kind of tricky for students to get because you have to count syllables. The previous week I had students make couplet poems about hot chocolate and they were far better at rhyming than counting syllables. 

I've actually talked about this many times before... but when I taught in my grade 5/6 classroom I had my students write a piece of poetry for every single art piece we did. I also never gave my students back their art during the year and instead filed it all away (along with all their poems) and at the end of the year I gave them a book full of their artwork and poetry from the year... sort of like an art portfolio. In my opinion it was a pretty great idea. Plus, as a bonus I didn't actually ever do a "poetry unit" because we just did it throughout the year (and I never heard a single groan about it when we did poetry in connection with art.

Saturday, February 03, 2018

This Week at School

This was the week of the big snowstorm here where I live in Manitoba (one has to happen at least once a year). On Monday the weather was fine. I was sending students out for recess and making them put on their snow pants even though they were claiming it was "so hot" outside (it was likely around -20... definitely not hot). 

I went to a new school this week and had such a wonderful time that I left my name and number to hopefully make a return trip there sometime. This new to me school had a climbing wall in their gym that my grade 3/4 students were climbing on during gym class. It was also here that I got to meet Bubbles... the class fish. 

Later in the week we did another Olympic activity (they had already seen the videos I had shown a previous week so we didn't watch those. 

Biathlon was a popular pick for a sport to play


and we played "Sink the Ship" in gym class where I was picked first to be on a team both times (yes I played with them.... there were only 5 of them and they needed me to make the teams even).  I also scored all the points for both teams that I was on 
*pats herself on the back for beating a bunch of grade 1-3 students*

I also got to go on a bit of a "field trip" and we headed back into the big bad city (in which I live) to go for some swimming lessons and gym time (I was at a small rural school this day). It was a super easy afternoon since all I had to do was help with supervision.

I was supposed to be at 2 rural schools on the day of the snowstorm (one in the morning and then driving about 30 minutes to the next one for the afternoon). I checked for school closures multiple times that morning and never heard of any so off I went to the first school. This was also the day I failed to realize I was nearly on empty for gas until I got to the first school (which is when my gas light came on). Not a big deal though... there was a gas station about 20 minutes away that would be on my way to school #2. Anyways, it was on this day that no one (other than the principal) managed to make it in to school. I mean, there are only 2.5 teachers at this particular school but there are 4.5 staff members. Luckily for me, it was jello day on the colony and so I didn't have to share my dessert with anyone!... The staff at the kitchen must have been told I was the only one here though because they did end up sending more individual sized portions


Anyways, in the end, because visibility was so low (which is why no one was making it into the first school) they decided they didn't need me at the 2nd school that day and I should just stay at the colony (which was fine by me). I finished up my day there, drove home (and stopped for gas once I got back into the city) without a single incident (thankfully)

the view out one of the classroom windows during the snowstorm (yes, it's rural so there isn't much to actually see out the window but there is a building out in the distance that would easily be visible on a more clear day - I'll take another picture one day soon).
Sidenote: When I got to the school I mentioned to the principal how I was surprised that school wasn't cancelled for the day and he told me that apparently if the snowstorm would have started an hour earlier and they would have seen then how bad it was going to be they would have cancelled school. So for all of you living in the states (or elsewhere) that get school cancelled at the drop of a single snowflake.... just think of us up here in Manitoba freezing cold, a foot of snow, and with next to nothing for visibility and still going to school.

Thursday, February 01, 2018

100 Day

Not sure when exactly this is happening (I imagine it's different depending on where you live) but I know here in Manitoba it's coming up soon!  One of the classes I was in recently was celebrating 100 Day early (not sure why) and this was one of their activities:



I tried to encourage the student that made the banana out of Lego to take one piece off and say he could make 4 bananas out of 100 Lego's but he wasn't interested in removing a piece.

I also had one student make a slice of watermelon out of Lego's but I never saw her completed worksheet.

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