This Week at School

-  My grade 8's discovered I can't say the word "more" and now that it's out I feel like I say it all the time.  How do I say it... "mahr".  I don't notice that I say it wrong.  It sound right to me.  But everyone else notices.
-  Final cross country run was on Friday.  It was a high of 7 but without any sun coming through the clouds and the wind I'm sure it was much cooler.  But we survived!
-  Finally convinced my grade 8's that blogging isn't lame, boring, or a waste of time.  Or... at least I convinced 90% of them.  (I will hopefully get around to posting more about blogging in the upcoming week or 2)
-  Gave my grade 5's a French quiz that they all did AMAZING on
-  Had my first full day substitute in on Friday while I went to cross country.
-  Gave my grade 4's the option of finishing up art or working on their legends... they choose legends *shocked*
-  Planning  "Art Around the World" for my grade 4's.  And by planning I mean I thought up the idea one night... but haven't looked further into it.  I'm sure it can take us through the entire year though which would be good.

I'll take more pictures next week... I promise we do get things done in school... some of it is even up on the walls as proof!

One of my (female) students really likes me!  This was the comment she left on one of my blog posts.  I have some pretty great students.

Teaching What you Don't Know

I've already told you about the time I became the go to French Music teacher and the time I became a violin substitute. But I also do not know much about a high school computer class. Especially when they are doing fancy things (which they almost always are).

So this teacher is in a grade 5-9 school and I naturally assume going in that I'll be teaching something normal like math or social studies but no no no... that is only a small part of the job. The majority of the day is computer class.

I should also say this school was located in one of the more well to do areas of the city and so all the kids had cell phones or iPods and had a way to sneakily work their way around the schools security system to access Facebook all class.

I should also say that since it was grade 9 students I basically blended right in with them.

So they are all in Computer class with their cells under the tables and on Facebook. I know all of this and my way around it is usually "oh that's cool what you are doing right there, can I just see you mouse for a second" and then close out of whatever program/website they are using that they should not be.

But grade 9's are scary and this was in my first year as a substitute teacher.

So instead, of fighting them all day on it, I let it happen writing down all the usernames of students who were not working on the assignment (which let's be honest was basically everyone).

At one point one kid even decides to print off what ends up being hundreds of pages of a website.

The teacher must have received my detailed note about how horrible computer class went and what does he do?

He keeps inviting and requesting me back every day he cannot be there.... and I keep accepting because let's face it I'm new to the game and need all the jobs I can get.

It wasn't terrible but it did make me look poorly on some of the students...

When I asked them to do their work they said they didn't need to because their parents would or it didn't matter what marks they got because they wouldn't have to really work.

Sometimes I think that the presents may get bigger and more expensive when you work in a school in a well to do area but I think the kids are just so much more appreciative of you when you head to an inner school... Definitely not true of all students or schools. Just sometimes.

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.