But how will we eat snack if you have no teeth?

Six year olds have no teeth. It's a rule or something. It was funny when it was one tooth. It all started when one got swallowed during snack time. I barely prevented mass hysterics by telling him that one time I swallowed a tooth and it's fine. No harm done. I promised to email his moms and let them know that they needed to write a letter explaining things to the tooth fairy.

Then his best friend did the same thing- and guess what was the terrible tooth losing tasty treat? Apples. Then a little boy from the other class came up to me and said "Look!", proudly holding up a plastic baggie. And lo and behold it was his tooth. Gross.

I don't know what it is about teeth. I like clean teeth. Attached to your mouth. "Lost teeth" (is that the right term?) make me shudder just a little bit.

So I guess I could have bigger problems than my parents giving my class healthy snacks like apples, but what use is a healthy snack if my kids don't have teeth to eat it?!?

~J

Rounding third base.....

I've got three more days to teach before a five day weekend. Thank goodness. I don't know why, but this week has just dragged on forever. Maybe it's the bad weather. Maybe it's the fact one kid left and another new student came two days in a row. I haven't even been able to leave my room feeling organized for like a month. Today I had meetings from the minute the kids got on the buses so I literally shut everything down before all of it. Not good when you need to print something and can't take the time to turn the computer back on to do it.

The plus side of all of this is I'm not the only one. My teammates are also feeling stressed and a bit overwhelmed by everything. It doesn't help that my district keeps adopting things across the district that IS NOT AVAILABLE IN SPANISH. I mean really, what do they expect us to do? Just keep creating things out of nothing? Well I'm sorry. Not only do I not have any personal resources on federally approved RtI curriculum, but I also have no ELL training. I may teach 30 min of my day in English but that does not mean I have a degree that says I do it well. I do what I can but that's about it. So please stop expecting me to reinvent the wheel here.

Oh yeah, and we still need a laminator. Thanks.

The superintendent is all hyped about starting a STEM k-5 school and I think it's a bad idea. Science TEchnolongy Engineering and Math are all good things, but starting a new school when a new school program is still building its enrollment is a BAD idea. We still need money to buy classroom libraries, we could use general office funds, oh and THE LAMINATOR.

On a plus side, I really enjoy the district staff development committee that I am on. Turns out I'm meeting with some pretty powerful people and getting my voice heard. Lets hope what I have to say leads to some action!

Also, we just finished up a Flat Stanley Project. We've gotten pictures from Vegas, Seattle, Melbourne, and many more are on the way. President Obama got one, as well as Mylie Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. If that list isn't a perfect description of what this generation will grow up to be, I don't know what is.
~J

Professional Development

This phrase takes on many lives in different careers.

As a teacher, "professional development" translates loosely into "A day where you are not with students, but everything you do revolves around they anyway." I've got three this week. Sweet.

Also, can anyone explain why my first graders are talking about Twlight characters? I swear I heard one of my girls say "Edward Cullen is one of the Twilight. He's a vampire but he turned alive. And the books are way better than the movie. I don't even want to see the one this week."

And finally, before I get a good night's rest for my two days of developing, I had a moment today when I saw my students learning. It was really cool. We were doing math. Counting by 2s and 5s. Then I went WAY outside the box and asked if anyone could count by 3s. And guess who said she could? Yeppers, my little friend who refuses to do any work. Only the last few days have been stellar. And she totally showed up the class by busting out her counting by 3s. It was a pretty great moment. I know what I'm doing. Who knew?

~J

Been a while- sorry!

Well, things have been happening, let me tell you.

I've had 4 confirmed H1N1 cases in my class, one case of Strep Throat, and 3 Influenza Like Illnesses. And 16 sneezy, runny nosed, coughing, and snot filled first graders the other days. We went through an entire box of kleenex in three days! So far I'm doing okay. I'm washing my hands, gargling with mouthwash the minute I get home from school to kill anything that may be lingering, you know, the usual.

We are getting new material for our English language development. Cheers to having a real curriculum! Also, we are getting some money from our budget to help make classroom libraries. There has been issues with how we are doing homework and I basically had to throw down. We are sending home one book each week (a paper copy, printed at school, usually on 3 pages front and back) and then every night the students have a different task to complete using their book. And we were getting told it was taking too much ink and resources to do this. I'm sorry but last year the homework was seven or eight pages every week, both sides. This is half the paper and ink usage. Good thing my team agrees with me- we are all banded together on this. Whew!

I've got two busy weeks coming up. It's time to send out Flat Stanleys out into the world! Esteban el Plano will be making his way to Argentina, Australia, Miami, Seattle, President Obama, Mylie Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, and a few more. Should you be interested in receiving Esteban el Plano, send me your address and be ready to 1) Write us a short letter telling us what you did with Esteban, 2) take photos of Esteban in your city/at famous places/with you, 3) email me pics and the letter (in the interest of time). Also, I've got a two day training, one day of professional development, and two busy weekends. It's going to get crazy.

Alright, that's all for today. I promise to post at least once more this week.