Red Ribbon Week

This week was Red Ribbon Week at school. We had a great week with the master plan in place! Each day we had a different dress up day and I was excited to sport my Gator jersey to school, especially on the eve of the Fl vs Ga game. Our class put red cups in the fence to spell "Just Say No". Unfortunately, a few days after all of our hard work and problem solving (the cups kept falling out) we had a pretty bad storm and most of the cups were knocked out of the fence. The day we went outside to fix them, there were district men out there picking up the cups. So, we didn't get to fix them. :( The kids could not believe that someone threw away "our cups". I think I told you about the art tag in a previous post. We were tagged last by a kindergarten class. They made us a powerpoint and came to our room and read it to us. I forget how little kindergarten kiddos are but they were so cute and my kids were excited to have them come visit us.

We were having a class discussion on how important it is to find something that you like to do so you don't get involved in drugs and I was amazed when one of my students asked, "What do drugs look like?" I realized how innocent these kids are compared to the kindergarten students I had in Florida. My kids in Florida were bringing lunch money in weed bags and knew what most drugs looked like. I had a few kids this year who knew what weed looked like but that's about it. I am so thankful for parents that keep their children sheltered. However, it is also important to talk to our kids about drugs, how they can hurt our lives and bodies, and what to do if they are ever offered drugs.

Part of my master plan is to have students earn back rewards. In order to earn back an award everybody in the class has to complete the mystery assignment for the week. To help the kids manage this without creating more work for myself, I have made a check sheet and they have to mark off their name when they turn in their work. This has made a huge difference in keeping up with missing assignments. Well, yesterday the mystery assignment was a Fraction Walk and everybody had turned it in! The class decided as a school family to earn back tickets. I give tickets for making the right choices, as well as incentive to bring in supplies for contests around the school (fundraiser, recycling drive, etc.). They were very proud to see that their hard work has paid off and I am glad to have an engaged class of students that want to learn again. I think their progress reports were a huge wake up call when they saw their grades. Here's to a great remainder of the year!

Side Note

We are reading "Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing" this week. I gave my kids some questions to answer after reading the first two teachers. One of my fantastic fourth graders said, "Mrs. Edugator is like a regular teacher now." Some of my colleagues thought that was great. However, I don't want to be a regular teacher. I want more! I did have a good chuckle though. :)

Baby steps are still steps in the right direction.

    The past few weeks have been pretty emotional. The funeral for the family that died in the car accident was last night. I didn't go but there was standing room only at the funeral. There is a fund set up to help pay for funeral expenses. I feel for the pain that their loved ones are feeling. I watched a teacher pack up one of the girl's belongings and I almost started crying I couldn't imagine packing up a student's things because they died and knowing that I would never see them in my class again would be so surreal.
    This week is Red Ribbon week at school. To start things off my class started "Art Tag" by creating a piece of art for another class. The class we got was one of the classes that lost one of the little girls in the car accident. My kids made them "wish you well" cards and read them a book. The class we read to was a bilingual class that speaks 80% Spanish and 20% English. Some of the kids took my students over to their celebration wall where there was a picture of their classmate that passed. My kids were very touched and sad to be included in their pain.When we got back to the class the kids could not stop talking about how well the Pre-K kids listened. It was so nice to see my kids being leaders and helpful to younger students and so caring about their loss.
   So, after looking at my grades and the amount of missing assignments I decided to bring the Master Plan into action. Last Thursday we made a list of all the rewards that we have in the classroom and they thought of things that I hadn't. Progress Reports and Missing Assignment Reports went home on Friday and I have seen a huge change in my student's work habits. Okay, here is my master plan. Students must have all assignments turned in, no referrals, an average of 90 in their planners (for behavior) and grades of an A, B, or C. If they have all of these things then they are invited to an afterschool Guitar Hero Party!! They have been begging for this. In addition, I have a check sheet where the students cross off their name when they turn in an assignment. Each week I will draw one check off sheet and if everyone turned in that particular assignment, then they will get to choose one reward to have back.
    Usually when I get on to a particular group of students in my class I get a lot of lip and arguing. Since bringing in my master plan, the arguments have cut in half. Also, I kept in half my class from recess due to incomplete work and I had NO ARGUMENTS!! I keep seeing these little changes. They are baby steps but I will take them. Even with all of the frustration, stress eating, late nights grading and grey hairs I am still very proud of the baby steps I have seen this year and I am looking forward to their continuous growth throughout the year. I'm sorry that this post is a little long. Every group is different and has different needs. This group is bringing my teaching to a whole new level. The nice thing about teaching is that you never stop learning or growing and I think God gives us challenging groups to keep us on our toes. Seeing my students makes me realize how fortunate I am because they deal with struggles that I can't even imagine. More power to them! Here's to more steps in the right direction! Here! Here!

A very sad day.

We got news this morning that 3 students in our school family died in a tragic car accident last night along with their parents. The girls were in headstart, kindergarten, and second grade. We told the students in our class at the end of the day and we had a crisis team on campus all day notifying parents. I hope that I never have to deal with a tragedy within my own class. Having three students at our school alone was rough enough. My prayers are with the teachers, staff, and students at our school. More importantly, my thoughts are with the family members and hope they have many happy memories to remember this precious family by. 

2 days off and a mountain of grading

I took of Thursday and Friday for a friend's wedding, the first time in a few years that I have taken time off for something fun. This was the first time this year that my class had a Guest teacher. After a few days of talks about proper behavior and my expectations, I was interested to see what I came back to. Well, I came back to a lot of grading, since I did not get any done over the weekend. However, my fantastic fourth graders were well behaved for the most part. We are having some drama between the boys, which usually occurs with girls and resulted in some loss of recess and talking through an action plan.

After grading their work, I learned that what appeared to be complete work turned out to be half-done work and definitely not my students best work! I was not a happy camper and Mrs. Viola Swamp took over today! Let me take a minute to explain the kind of teacher I am. I like to make learning fun and enjoyable for all of those involved. Usually this includes playing music, letting the kids sit around the room, and of course letting them converse when they work. We know that teachers are the worst culprits when it comes to working quietly. After noticing that the work is not getting done, I decided it was time for Mrs. Swamp to visit and they would not be happy! It started out rough but it was the quietest day I have EVER had! The little gators came in and cleaned out their desks and got right to work on their bellwork without being told! Then, I explained my expectations and how this will transfer to their life as an adult. (If you don't do your job, you get fired) I demonstrated how one zero can greatly impact a grade and I hope they finally got the picture. Time will tell but my expectations are high and will remain high because I know they can do it.

Pizza Ranch

On Thursday, we had our first field trip of the year. If you are a teacher, you know that students expect you to know everything. I had a million questions about what was going to happen on the trip and I had no idea! I told them I was learning with them. We left the school at 9:15 in our colorful t-shirts, ready to represent our school with pride. Upon arrival at Pizza Ranch we were rushed to our first activity. Throughout the course of the day we went to several rotations and learned about agriculture and the connection to a favorite food of a lot of kids... PIZZA! The kids got to see a huge tractor, steer, pigs, chicks, rooster, hen and a dairy cow. We saw a man actually milk the dairy cow and the kiddos got to pet the chicks, rooster, and hen. We had a little complaining because it was hot, humid, smelly (think farm smell), and the kids were hungry. Considering they are used to a snack at 9:30 and they didn't eat until 1:00 I think they did great! They were well behaved and only complained a little bit. Even though they couldn't hear that well, they tried their hardest to hear what the people were saying. After our last session, our bus was running late so the kids ran in the field to wear off some of their energy.

A huge thanks to Wal-Mart

My name was drawn today for a $100 gift card to Wal-mart for classroom supplies. I told my kids I would give them some input and within 5 minutes I had several emails asking for Guitar Hero 5. I have created monsters! So, after I left school I went to Wal-mart and picked up Guitar Hero 5, a football, Sorry, Trouble, Scrabble, High School Musical game, and a Bakagon game. I am excited to give the kids an opportunity to play with these things. They have worked very hard and have earned Playstation time this week!

We have Homework Hounds tomorrow for all of the kids that have completed all of their homework for the first 6 weeks. My kids are so excited about Playstation that they do not want to go to the park for Homework Hounds. :) I can't believe that the first 6 weeks are already over. We had our first math benchmark this week. Our scores were not so great so I gave my students another chance to fix their answers today and their scores greatly improved! I wish they would take their time the first time. They will...eventually. My kids made a lot of growth in the first 6 weeks. I can't wait to see how much they grow throughout the rest of the year.