This Week At School

-  My grade 8's got on their blogs and some of them (dare I say most of them?) are loving the concept!... although so far all most of them have done is left a comment.
-  My grade 4's made math games.  Hopefully by next weekend these will turn into weekend take home games to practice their multiplication
-  I had my first substitute in the classroom (just for Friday afternoon).  He said the kids were good!  Phew!
-  My grade 4's didn't end up finishing their optical illusion art projects... guess we carry it over to another week.
-  Went to my first cross country meet on Friday.  The good news?  One of the grade 5 girls I coached came in first!!  Another one came in 5th.  One of my grade 8 students also came in first (but I didn't coach him).  It was a little chilly but not too terrible... until it started raining and there was no shelter.  We all got a little (a lot) wet but I think for the most part we had a good time.

Since their art project didn't get finished I don't have many pictures to share.  In fact I only have one

Have I told you that I teach my afternoon classes in a portable classroom that we call "the hut"?  Well, that's my hut.  It goes a decent ways back and is a nice size.  It isn't located too far from the school (when I took this picture I was almost at the schools door) but I can tell that it might not seem so great come winter or a down pour.  Also, on most days, I'm the only one out here.  There is one other portable classroom beside mine but it is used only one day of the week as a daycare (and I've actually only seen someone go into it once).  If there ever was a problem (like a lock down) I would feel kind of a alone out there.

This weekend I'll be working on:

-  A handout for my grade 8 students on how to make a blog post

-  Planning math (lots and lots of math)

-  Making up questions for the grade 4's math journals (these will go home on weekends with their games)

- Marking some grade 8 work

-  Getting together some lessons for my grade 4's on legends (we are using them to help us learn about adaptations in animals)

-  Figuring out what I want to be for Halloween (at school)!  I work at a fairly religious public school.  I'll have a few of my students not even show up on Halloween because of the concept but those that will are allowed to dress up (nothing scary).  I'm assuming there will be a lot of super heros and animals maybe?... hmm.. maybe I should challenge my class to come as an animal so we can use it as a learning opportunity in science.  Anywho, I REALLY want to be a peacock but I don't know about finding that costume.  If you have any suggestions about peacock costumes let me know ASAP!

Take the Kids Outside

Everyone loves extra recess time but in a middle school they don't even get recess which is why going outside during the class time is awesome no matter what.

On this particular day I was teaching health and no one wants to sit inside learning (or teaching) sex ed or anything (although sometimes I think it might be kind of funny to teach it just because kids can be so awkward).

Anywho, I obviously opted to take the kids outside instead.

Some of them played football, some baseball, some brought a book. Who really cares. I basically set them free and started working on my tan.

Just kidding.

When a student who is all by himself challenges you to a game of horse you do not turn it down. It doesn't matter that today you are wearing an adorable dress and flip flops. You always accept an invitation to school someone half your age at a game you may not even win.

The game obviously took all class because we both sucked pretty bad at it.

And we obviously added a bunch of extra letters

"Oh you've already spelled horse? How about we play horsies instead?"

I'll admit it was touch and go for basically the entire game. That is until I found my sweet spot from which I dominated the last 5 minutes and came out a triumphant winner.

PS. I am now retired from the game of Horse so don't even ask me to play.

The Talk of the Hallways

Ah yes.

This will normally happen once you hit middle school/junior high.

One student pokes his or her head into the classroom sees you at the desk, beside the desk, under the desk, on the desk (ok, hopefully you aren't under or on the desk) instead of their teacher.  They ask if you are their substitute teacher (I'm assuming at this point you say that you are or you know you could come up with some hilarious made up story as to whom you are) and they run out of the room to spread the word to all their friends, friends friends, and even their biggest enemy.

Suddenly you became Ms (or Mr) popular.  

You are the talk of the hallways.

You are all that.

And a bag of potato chips.

ENJOY!

Wondering where I found the cartoon?  

click here

This Week at School...

-  Continued with cross country (only one more practice to go!)

-  I signed my teaching contract for the year!

-  We are learning about bears for our Habitats and Communities unit in science

-  We did the Terry Fox run... Terry Fox is a Canadian Hero

-  Discovered that my grade 8's have a free computer class... so I'm making them each a blog to keep up with.

-  Slugging it out with basic multiplication facts in math

-  My grade 5's learned (and memorized) the days of the week in French in order!

And... I managed to take a few photos...

My Grade 8's Blogs... Only the class will be able to view them so I won't bother posting a link.  But I created the blogs here.  So far it seems like it will be really great.  Stay tuned for updates on how we are doing with it and tutorials.

I only see my grade 4's in the morning and for the most part only teach them Math and Science.  There is one ELA class that I have with them on my own (without my teaching partner) so every day 4 we have a new Star of the Cycle.  My amazing, talented, and awesome boyfriend made the template for me!
  I might be willing to share...

Remember that amazing, talented, and awesome boyfriend of mine?  He also made us a job poster.  The kids picked these jobs at the beginning of the year and we will switch jobs every Monday (those who did not have a job this week will all get one next week)

This was our art lesson from last week.  You can find the tutorial here (I pretty well just followed the on screen instructions - we have a projector in the class so I was able to pull up the website and show it to the class)

It's hard to tell just how large this mug is but it's pretty large.  That boyfriend of mine gave it to me along with a bunch of treats to stash away in my desk when I first got hired... anywho, the mug finally made its way to school and my classroom on Friday.

When I went to sign my contracts I was given a present from the school division in the form of a book!... I'll stick it in my pile of books to read.

Stay Tuned for.. 

- a tutorial on an optical illusion lesson I did with my 4th graders in art. They enjoyed the lesson so much that some went home to look up more optical illusions and many are making second and third art projects on the illusion we did. Hopefully we will finish the project on Friday.

- A tutorial for how to use Kidblog and what we are doing with it

- A substitute teaching book!  What it's called, who it's by, and where to find it will all be coming shortly!