This Week At School

This week at school...

-  We had a truth and reconciliation day.  It started off with an assembly with multiple speakers (one being Phyllis Webstad the author and main character in Phyllis' Orange Shirt).  Then we had a couple of other sessions throughout the day.  In one of those sessions we played a game where students had to try to collect rights that people have.  There were 7 in total that they were looking for and they started off with some (some may have had 5 of the same right, others had nothing to start with, and others had 12 to start with).  So they had to trade to get their other rights BUT they weren't allowed to talk or they would have to sit out for a minute.  Then we had a discussion about how frustrating it was for those that weren't given enough rights to begin with, how we obtained the rights we were missing (some people stole them from other people if they left them on tables) and yet how easy the game was for others.  We then related it all back to residential schools and how even still not everyone has their rights being met.  It was a real eye opener and if possible very much worth a play with your students on (or around) September 30th.

I was in a classroom that I hadn't been in yet... ever of grade 3/4 students.  Since February was I Love to Read month they were having a "battle of the books" so I read them one and we watched a video of "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish"... they voted for the One Fish Two Fish book.

We watched a Bill Nye video when I was a science teacher (yes, they sang along... some with their own lyrics)

I spent the day teaching middle years basic French.



Wednesday this week was also Pink Shirt Day - a day to talk about bullying and how it impacks those around us.  If you didn't do anything for Pink Shirt Day it is never too late so here is a link to some things that I've done with my students in the past.

Losing Sleep

Every so often I see something on social media about teaching that catches my eye, usually because one of two reasons:

1)  It's so true

2)  It is definitely not true at all

Today we speak the truth

How many of us have lost sleep because we are teachers?

Be it marking, preparing, or worrying... we too lose sleep!

City Skyline Art Idea

I found this lovely picture in an art room I was in recently:

Middle Years City Skyline Art Idea

Now, I couldn't find the lesson online but it seems pretty straight forward

1)  Paint the background in some kind of gradient

2) Draw out a city skyline on a piece of paper and then cut it out

3)  Trace skyline onto black construction paper, cut out, and glue onto painted paper

4)  Create shadows in the water

The teacher also had some things the students had to include with their structures

I think these are some good criteria... that way you don't have someone doing a bunch of rectangles or houses and it makes it look more interesting.

When trying to find a lesson online to go with this I found loads of other city skyline art ideas (seriously, there are TONS out there).  So if you are interested in a slightly different version of this - they are out there!

If you are interested in reading some of my other art related posts here are a few:

What if I had Animal Teeth?

Winter Art Ideas

Halloween/Fall Art Ideas

Remembrance Day Art Ideas

Dutch Tulip Fields

This Week At School

This week at school was pretty swell.

I had a late start/early day off one day this week... which is kind of nice (because I get to sleep in a bit and get things done before my husband gets home) but kind of sucks because when all was said and done I ended up getting paid for less than a half day.

I had an afternoon with a couple of pretty easy ELA classes.

Then I was in kindergarten and found this

no nose picking!

And a giant Pet Palace.

It's hard to see but in this first picture there are even xrays of different animals inside the Pet Palace (I think it was like a vet)

I loved all the misspelled signs!

And that was my week!

I pretty much already have all of next week prebooked (which is nice).

Borrowing Supplies from the Teacher

Are you one of those teachers that freely "lends" out all their supplies never really expecting to get much back (but wishing that you would get those pencils, erasers, pens, etc back)?  Well, here's an idea I spied in an art room recently:

The sign is hard to read because of the glare but it says that if you need a pencil you have to sign one out.  Then, I'm assuming, once the pencil is returned to where the students name is they can erase their name.  AND, if the pencil doesn't get returned you'll know who stole it because their name is on the board.  

Genius!

Also, this could work for a variety of things, whatever keeps going missing of your supplies the most I would do this with (I mean, lets not get crazy and have students needing to sign out everything... you get the idea).

Bill Nye Makes an Appearance?

You may remember when I was teaching "dance" before Christmas break this year and we spent those classes watching High School Musical.  Well, according to one of my students they definitely saw Bill Bye (the science guy) in the movie.  This student was so insistent that he made us go back and rewatch the last 5 minutes until we were all positive that Bill Nye was not in High School Musical.

But... don't worry Bill Nye, you may not have gotten a role in High School Musical BUT the kids thought they saw you... so you are still very much a large part of their lives.

This Week At School

This week at school I....

Was a grade 1/2 Spanish immersion teacher (and no I do not speak Spanish)

English and Spanish word wall

Needless to say we had an English speaking day!

I was a home ec teacher!

We attempted to make brownies but very few groups had brownies that were done by the end of the class... so the vice principal came in to supervise them while I moved on to my next class (which was in another room).

I was an art teacher... we used clay and drew.

And on Valentine's Day I was a kindergarten teacher!

For some reason I thought it would go over better than what it did... they had WAY TOO MUCH SUGAR!

We also watched a movie for part of the day (thank goodness)

Naturally I had to get a picture of me in my Valentine's Day ensemble... so basically the pink shirt with blue hearts all over it.  One of the kindergarten kids added a sticker onto the pocket of my sweater though.

And yes I purposefully included all the words of encouragement this mirror had to offer.

I'm on fire...why thank you!

Matchomatics

Anyone ever done a Matchomatics questionnaire?  

Essentially it's a bubble sheet of questions you answer about yourself or preferences you have.  The teacher will collect all of them once they are filled in and I guess they send it off to the Matchomatics people.  

What do the Matchomatics people do?  They compute a "match" for you (who will be someone else in your school) and who your ideal friends would be (according to your responses), etc.

But, here's the catch, it's a fundraiser.  So, in order to get your results you have to pay for them.

Anyways, back about a month ago I was in a school that was doing them (I guess students had gotten the question sheet the day before because they were all handing in these bubble sheets to me the day I was there) and I remembered doing one back when I was in high school (though I'm not sure I paid for my results).  I'm surprised a middle school was doing them... oh how the times have changed (now everyone needs to find their match in middle school apparently).  

I'm assuming right about now all those kids are getting their matches figured out.... just in time for Valentine's Day!

Anyways, I guess if you are looking for a really easy fundraiser... this might be one to consider? 

Teacher Life: Memes

Here is the Bored Teachers article that this post is referencing.

#4 is my life as well.  They do have a million questions about the assignment (because they weren't listening) but those aren't important.  When your birthday is WAY more important!

#5  If you aren't putting out fire after fire are you even doing your job?

#8  This is always a challenging one.  One year I was teaching a 5/6 split class and when I asked the science head at the division for his recommendations on how to do it he said I had to teach all 8 units (4/grade) which would have been a huge undertaking with very little knowledge actually being retained and to be honest, likely quite boring.  In the end I split up the units and went with 2 from grade 5 and 2 from grade 6.  If I'm remembering correctly I even had my grade 6's choose our final unit (it was one from the grade 5 curriculum) because they would have (hopefully) learned it last year and so it was going to be a repeat.  No one ever came back to my classroom and told me I was doing it all wrong and I think the kids got a better science education this way than having to learn 8 units.

#9  This is a reason I do not like teaching ELA.  You have to read all their stories and try to make sense of them (and sometimes they are just SO boring).

#10  It's true.  Usually, the classes I sub in have wonderful kids that treat me well.  But, every so often, you get that one student who is just SO rude (and likely all because you suggested he do one page of math instead of two before drawing a picture).

#11 Thankfully I cannot relate to this one.  From what I hear, American teachers are way under paid and it is definitely not fair.  You are raising up the future generation of doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc and that is what they have decided is fair?  Hopefully at the end of the week you can afford more than a pack of gum.

#12  Maybe I was just way too detailed when I prepared for a sub but it did take a lot of effort!  I would stay at school later then I typically would, lay everything out on my front table for the day, and write a detailed sub plan for every class.  It always went very well (but I had pretty good classes)... I just like to be prepared (even when I'm not going to be there).  BUT, if you are really in a pinch hopefully your sub is more than capable of getting through a day where you have multiple periods of "read/write/draw" time written out.

#13  I experience this at least once a month.  Why oh why can't they go during the lunch hour!?!

#15  Yes!

#19  Yes, again!

#22 You know what I hated most of all about creating a seating chart?  My students insisting they needed a new one every month!  For some reason I obliged.  So there I would sit at the end of the day with all the desks drawn on a whiteboard scribbling in who would work well with who and who needed to be on the other side of the room from someone.... there was a lot of erasing!

#27  This is one of my biggest annoyances with being a teacher!  If you aren't going to listen the first time can you at least listen the 2nd time so I don't have to say it a 3rd time!?!

#33 One year I taught grade 4 and then the following year I would be teaching grade 5/6 (so some of those grade 4 students would continue to be my students the following year).  We would have meetings at the end of the year to decide which students everyone would be getting (so in my case I met with the other grade 5 teacher) and it wasn't necessarily the "problem" or "difficult" students we argued over but it was the sweet ones that we fought hard to have in our classrooms.

#39  Definitely!

#48  I'm not having you do the assignment as torture, I want to make sure you understand the material... go ahead and complain but the assignment will still be there when you are through.

#50 Because they are at home!  Are the rules the same at home?  Is your child expected to learn and work at home?  Is he/she with all of his/her very best friends at home?  Didn't think so.

#56  There was once a day that I think we had multiple fire drills in one period (and for reference one period is about 40 minutes).  It's not always the students that are doing the interrupting!

#62  Confession:  I would buy these pretty inexpensive gummies in bulk at Superstore and file them away in my filing cabinet.  I bought them for my students when they did something extra I asked them to do (like a few of them might stay late to tidy up the room or put art on the walls) but I allowed myself 5 at the end of every day.  Some days 5 turned into 10 which turned into 20.  Needless to say I made many a trip to the Superstore bulk candy section that year!

#79  I remember the time this happened to me. It was when I FINALLY started math groups and I finally heard what that little girl knew about math.  It was wonderful!

#91  Right?!?  They have loads of awesome ideas that sound oh so great but then when you try even just a little itty bitty thing that they suggested it goes nothing like it does in a room full of adults.  Ah well, at least you tried?

This Week At School

This week started off with an hours long power outage!

I was working outside of the city on the power outage day and had a late start to my morning so I started around 10am instead of 8:30. When I got there the secretary was outside (I think to get cell reception) and informed me that the power was out and likely would be out for a while. What dis this mean for classes? Well, apparently when you have newer septic tanks (or something) it means classes continue on [relatively] as normal. We didn't have heat so kids weren't going to go outside for their lunch or pm recess' so that we wouldn't let the cold air in and they put little lanterns in the bathrooms (because they didn't have windows to let in sunlight). The class that was most effected by the power outage would have been gym since once the emergency lights went out after an hour it was pitch dark in there! For lunch, anyone with a frozen lunch was going to be given bread and cheese to make a sandwich out of since they couldn't warm up their food. Everyone else was left to eat what they had (cold soup - yuck!). Luckily, the power ended up coming on for brief spurts around noon so even though we were still in class I let the kids warm up their food (30 seconds at a time since the power still continued to go out every 30 seconds). 

The power outage reminded me of another time when I was teaching grade 4 and the power was out for an hour or so one morning and then there was the time I was teaching grade 7 and it went out (thankfully at the very end of the day). 

The rest of my week wasn't nearly as exciting!

I went to the colony a couple of times where I was a little bit of everything) and spent a morning in a middle years classroom.

** Edit **
I nearly forgot!
This Friday is Valentine's Day!

So if you still need some Valentine related things to do (or make) here is a short list:

Valentine's Day Art
Valentine's Day cards (free printable)
Valentine's Day box ideas

I printed the mustache cards for my students when I taught grade 5/6 and put a Tootsie Pop through them... they loved them (and I still have our class pic of us all with our mustaches)!

Found in a Teachers Classroom

I found this in a teachers classroom recently....

Needless to say it's been a bit chilly here lately!

Valentine's Day Bulletin Board Ideas

Now that you have your Valentine's Day Art all done here are some ideas for what you can do for a bulletin board (if you feel so inclined, and I don't blame you if you aren't at all inclined.. switching a bulletin board can be so much work!)

These first 3 I all found here

This first one looks like an art activity where they made cupcakes out of construction paper - great way to incorporate an art activity into a bulletin board!   Of course you could switch it to Forth Grade is Sweet! as well... or whatever you need!

Is Frozen still popular?  I think it is.

I'm not entirely sure on this one but it definitely looks like the teacher had a writing activity for the students and put it on the bulletin board... I wish I knew what the written words were!

And the rest of these I found here

Because one Olaf bulletin board is never enough.

I thought this was beautiful bulletin board for a library!

Another teacher that looks like she used an art activity where the students made owls and incorporated them into her bulletin board idea for Valentine's Day!

Do you make a Valentine's Day bulletin board? 

What does it look like?

This Week At School

It was another busy week at school!

I worked outside of the city twice this week... on one occasion I nearly slid right past the turn off from the highway to the school because it was icier than I had predicted it was... but I got there in one piece without an accident so all is well!

Sometimes I wonder why they even bother to get a sub at a school... on this one particular half day I had the possibility of having 3 classes... but the teacher only taught during one of those periods.  Luckily I had a book that I was trying to get through this week (which I ended up getting through and starting a new one) so I did a lot of reading those periods.  Then other days a school purposefully doesn't get enough subs because they expect the subs that they do have will cover everyone's recess duties and classes... which I am nearly certain is NOT allowed but I digress.

Anywho, I was also in a new to me classroom this week!  It was a very busy class of grade 1/2 students and a couple of the girls drew me pictures!

This first one is clearly a unicorn and under it is a nest with an egg that it laid.  Did you know that unicorns lay eggs?  You learn something new every day you're in a grade 1/2 class!

This one is a less than amused cat wearing a party hat.

Finally, an observation I've made from being in schools this first month after winter break.  Tik Tok blew up over the break!  I wrote this post about Tik Tok over the summer and what we all need to know about it and it seems more important then ever that we learn about these apps that our students and children are using on a regular basis now!