12.07.09
do you hear what i hear?
This is what I have heard in the past week from my kids:
assistant: It’s time to go to the bus!
student: I don’t wanna go to the bus.
assistant: Well, I’ll just go give your back pack to the bus driver. If you want it back, you can go get on the bus. (She walks away.)
student: You come back here, you lumpy potty biscuits!
(This is the same kid who called a teacher “lumpy pizza pants.” Apparently “lumpy” is the new trend in insults.)
—–
Friday the kids convinced each of their teachers to let them play in the snow.
One girl burst in from playing in the snow, threw her arms out, and proclaimed (in the most dramatic way),
“It’s a Christmas miracle!”
—–
I turned on some Christmas music while my kids were working, and I hear someone singing along quietly,
student: Alicia Navidad! Alicia Navidad!
me: Are you saying Alicia Navidad?
student: Yes.
me: I think it’s “Feliz Navidad” which means “Merry Christmas” in Spanish.
student: No it isn’t. It’s Alicia.
—–
My students are funnier than your students.
11.18.09
flattery
Yesterday I had my 4th graders write a rap song about nouns and adjectives.
It went something like this:
Nouns are people, places or things.
The mall is a noun.
A ball is a noun.
A doll is a noun.
A house is a noun.
Mrs. H is a noun.
Ms. Moore is a noun.
An adjectives is something that describes a noun.
This pen is yellow and black.
My water is see-through, too.
Ms. Moore is very, very special.
She is awesome and nice.
She has pretty hair.
I’m such a sucker for the shameless flattery! It reminds me of this time. Needless to say, they got a 100.
11.17.09
new class pets!
Since Rico died, I have been extremely lazy about going to buy a new fish.
But Sunday night I was at the carnival, and there was a game where by throwing a ping pong ball into a fish bowl, you could win a goldfish.
I told the lady working the booth, “Oh, this is great! My class’s fish died, and I have been needing a new one!” We exchanged a short conversation about my classroom, and she was really rooting for me to win.
Sadly, I did not.
But as we were walking away, she pulled a coupon out of her pocket that said One Goldfish and said, “Here, before you leave, come back and pick up a fish. For the children.”
So at the end of the night, we went back, and she gave me not one, but FIVE goldfish for my classroom! Isn’t that so kind? I am really excited about it.
So yesterday I let each kid put one name into a jar, and I pulled out five winners.
My new fish are named:
Star
Yoshi
Foofy
Chocolate Coin
and Wario
Seriously, my students crack me up with their fish naming skills! Their creativity never ceases to amaze me.
11.03.09
blue blocks
I enjoy teaching kids with autism. I enjoy figuring out how their minds work, how they tick, and how to teach them.
Teaching kids with autism really affects my speech and behavior as a teacher.
These are the things I find myself saying on a regular basis:
“Don’t put this in your mouth.”
“What’s going on in your world right now?”
“Come back to my world!”
“It is never okay to lick people.”
“Whoa, too close!”
“Take that out of your mouth!”
“Why did you call her ‘lumpy pizza pants?’”
“If you find it on the ground, it doesn’t belong in your mouth.”
“Look at my nose when I am talking to you.”
One of my favorite things is the mathematical mind that one of my students has. He sees the world in patterns. If we are using tiles or blocks, I cannot give him a mix of colors because instead of doing the assignment, he will build elaborate patterns.
Last week I forgot and gave him multicolored blocks, so instead of building arrays, he was patterning. I switched his blocks with other students’ blocks until he only had blue. He threw a fit the whole time.
But ever since then, he has been begging me to play with them. I knew it would all be okay.
Today, he looked up at me and said with the sweetest sincerity, “Ms. Moore, I love my blue blocks.”
It was like he was talking about his very most precious posession in the whole world. I’m surprised a single tear didn’t fall down his cheek.
“Ms. Moore, I love my blue blocks.” Those are the moments that make my day.
10.28.09
Renaissance Festival
Today my class took a field trip to the Renaissance Festival! “School Days” at the Renaissance Festival are fun and non-sketchy. It was a lot of fun and now I am exhausted.
Don’t tell anyone that I posted school photos on my blog. I don’t want to go to special ed jail. Okay, thanks.
We saw a hip-hop version of Romeo and Juliet.
We met beautiful Renaissance ladies.
We learned about birds of prey.
We ate Polish food!
We ate turkey legs – every last bite!
We watched this guy play in (and EAT) mud. My boys loved it!
We cheered for the jousting competition.
We watched this lady spin wool into yarn.
We saw men minting coins.
And despite the looks of this abysmal attempt at a class picture, we did have fun!
10.01.09
funny things kids say
In desperation to make me angry enough to kick him out of class, a student yelled, “I’m not doing this!” as he tore an assignment in half and threw it in the trashcan. I just ignored him.
10 minutes later, “How’s your paper coming?”
“Nothing!”
“Oh, well, get busy please!”
“I threw it in the trashcan.”
“Oh, okay, can I see it?”
He got it out of the trashcan and brought it over, “See?? I tore it up!”
“Oh, I have some tape.” I fixed it. “Okay, great. Now go finish it.”
He works on it, finishes it, class ends, and I ask to speak with him privately.
“When you tore up your assignment and threw it in the trashcan, was that a respectful thing to do?”
“No.”
“So I am going to call your mom and let her know.”
“But you can’t call her, the phone’s cut off.” (Untrue.)
“That’s okay, I’ll call her anyway.”
“Oh, no I can just tell her.”
“Okay, great, we can both tell her then.”
“But I’m gonna get in trouble!”
“Well, maybe it will help you remember next time not to throw your assignments in the trashcan.”
“But I didn’t know!”
“Didn’t know what?”
“That you didn’t want me to throw it away!”
“What?”
“But I thought you wanted me to throw it away!”
—————————————————
Someone else, after completing an assignment:
“I am done! D-u-…whatever…”
09.29.09
ashes to ashes, dust to dust, bowl to bowl
Rico the fish, age 2 months, passed away Monday in Ms. Moore’s Resource classroom. Services were held Monday at 12:00pm in the faculty restroom. Rico was adopted from the College Station Wal-Mart in mid-August 2009 and lived out the rest of his days in a classroom in Grimes County, TX. He enjoyed listening to the morning announcements, rolling his r’s, and watching Hannah Montana. He was a caring friend and a great listener. He is survived by Moore, her two Instructional Assistants, three 4th grade students, eight 5th grade students, two custodians, and countless other loved ones. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Animal Savers Club would be greatly appreciated.
09.26.09
a story
He was frustrated with me and so antsy he was about to jump out of his skin.
I was frustrated with him and using every ounce of self-control not to lose my temper.
Tensions were high. Everybody felt it. Things were about to go south any second.
“Ms. Moore, there’s a cricket under the cabinets,” she whispered.
My initial reaction was to get even more frustrated. I find crickets in my room every day, and can’t seem to get rid of them. But then I got an idea. He needed to get out of his seat. I needed him to take his mind off of the assignment that was making him so frustrated.
“Oh no!” I screamed. “Can anyone come kill this cricket????”
He immediately ran over, as the frustration on his face gave way to joy. “Don’t kill it! Crickets be good luck!”
He spent the next five minutes chasing the cricket around the corner trying to catch him in his eager little hands.
We walked outside to let the cricket go free. But when he opened his hand, the cricket just sat there.
“It doesn’t want to leave. It must like you.”
He smiled.
He shook it off, and we walked back inside.
The tension was gone.
He happily finished his work, and I happily taught the rest of the lesson.
When I was at the end of my rope, Jesus met me there with a cricket.
Thank you, Lord, for crickets!
09.02.09
school
People keep asking me, “How is school going?” which is actually quite a complicated question for me due to the volume of school in which I participate. So here’s the long answer:
School has been a lot of fun so far this year! It is so easy – I already know 7 of my 11 kids because I had them last year, and the new ones are pretty low maintenance. I have the big picture of the curriculum in my mind, and already have lessons written from last year that I can use again. I am way more organized because I spent the last two weeks of school last year prepping for this year. I am so glad that I did!
Also, I just printed pictures of my students (which I wish I could post here, but since I can’t you’ll just have to see them in person!) and realized that I have a really cute-looking group of kids! I just love them. I am especially attached to the kids I had last year, and feel really blessed to get my students two years in a row. AND, my kids from last year who moved up to the Junior High for this year all have Amanda (my carpool friend) as their math teacher this year, so I still hear from & about them.
Yes, the fish is named Rico and I may or may not have added more than a few votes into the mix to make it happen. You’ll never know.
I am going to be our campus UIL coordinator this year. I don’t even know what UIL stands for, and I wasn’t involved with UIL last year, so I am pretty much a UIL idiot. But I have a meeting about it tomorrow, so maybe I’ll learn something. My reasons for taking on this position are 3-fold. 1) There is a pretty nice stipend, and I unexpectedly had to purchase a new laptop for seminary that really set me back; 2) the teacher who had this position last year took a job at central office, and teacher who took her position didn’t want to do it; 3) The position is basically organizing people, and you know how I feel about organizing.
The other school in my life, seminary, is going full-force. Lots of reading, writing, and deep thinking. Right now I am taking a class about church planting which is proving to be very thought-provoking. I just finished the first book, about which I had mixed feelings. I might share some random deep thoughts on that later, but I haven’t had enough time to process it all yet, so we’ll see. Later this semester I will take Systematic Theology 1. I’m a little terrified about that one, so I try not to think about it.
The other other school in my life (kind of), Sunday school (except we don’t call it that), will really begin next week. My friends Wesley, Geoff, and I will be leading the break-out group for college freshmen. I am excited about this – a new area of ministry for me that will hopefully give way to another ministry next year, which I have mentioned before in the most vague of terms, and am not yet ready to reveal…
How is school going for YOU?
08.27.09
class pet, part 2
Last year my class had a pet. You can read about him here and here.
At the end of the year I gave him to a student who had an affinity for animals, whom you can read about here.
This year, we have a new class pet!
On Wednesday they brainstormed names for this little guy. Here is the short list:
Nemo
Apple
Nutcracker
Peppermint
Chocolate
Dragon
Longtail
Flame
Bigfoot
Reaper
Jason
Fred
Scooby-doo
Jordan
Redfish
Toodles
Ladybug
Ketchup
Germ-X
Stewie
Steve
Bobby Lashley
John
Hannah Montana
Silver
Rico
Justin
Fur
Prettyfish
So we narrowed it down to our two favorite: Dragon and Rico. Today we voted…tomorrow we will reveal the winner!
But I have to be honest. His name is going to be Rico. I mean, Dragon is great and all, but Rico is clearly superior. Excuse me, I have to go stuff the ballot box…
