Fighting Over Wheelchairs, Veterans, And More

Hi everyone! I'm pleased to let you know that things are starting to turn around at my new job! I am no longer feeling so overwhelmed, and am now feeling more confident and happy. The resource teacher actually came through with her promise to give me some training for working with Toko... and basically her "training" was to sit me down and tell me that I can do anything I want with Toko as long as it ties into education. She has given me permission to go into her room to get games and other materials to work with him on, plus a bucket of materials in Toko's classroom, plus encouragement to bring in anything else I have or come up with my own ideas. In addition, I will eventually be able to gather up a small group of other students from other rooms (such as Annie Elizabeth from my other classroom, because they are on a similar academic level) and work with them on basic things like phonics and simple math. So I'm finally going to be able to use my brain! I am really excited! 

Except I didn't really get to do anything at all with Toko, or even see him or Wyken, today. I had to stand in for another aide. You may remember that when I originally was hired for this job, I was told I'd be working with an 8-year-old girl named Bess who has cerebral palsy... but then when I arrived for my first day, I was told I'd be working with Wyken (and then two weeks later got told I'd be working with Toko, of course...) Bess ended up getting paired with a different aide who was already working at the school and who had more experience with children with physical impairments, but I have often gone along as a third party to help Bess use the bathroom. Usually I don't do anything but stand there while her real aide assists her, just for safety and liability purposes. Today, though, Bess's aide was sick, and for some reason they decided to have me work with Bess (I guess because she already knows me) and get a sub to work with Toko and Wyken. I was so sad to leave my little guys, but Bess is a pretty cool girl! The odd thing is that all the kids fight over who will push Bess's wheelchair from place to place. They don't really even have any interest in playing with her or talking to her, but they all clamber over each other to help her out in any way! It's hard to tell whether they just want the "fun" of pushing a wheelchair or the attention of being known as the helpful children who look out for the girl in the wheelchair, or if they genuinely want to be friends with her but don't exactly know how to play with her since she can't run around like they do. 

There is one particular girl named Sonya who actually does play with Bess at recess and stuff. The two of them make quite a pair! Bess is very sweet, but it is also pretty easy to tell that she is somewhat spoiled at home and that she spends most of her time with adults. She doesn't have the best social skills, she can be very bossy and demanding, and she'd just prefer to spend time with adults (maybe because adults are more likely to let her "run the show" than other children would be. For instance when Bess asks me to help her color, I don't demand that we play a different game instead!) On the other hand, young Sonya is an only child who is also fairly bossy and lacks social skills. She doesn't have many other friends in the class. So she plays with Bess. They both fight about what to play, and Sonya often ends up stomping off, with Bess wheeling after her trying to apologize. Sonya also really enjoys pushing Bess's wheelchair, reminding her to put on her breaks when they're stopped somewhere, helping her with her coat, etc. It would be nice if she wasn't so bossy about it, and will even push other kids out of the way! Also she's not great at pushing the wheelchair. While helping transport Bess from the playground to the classroom after lunch, Sonya crashed into a teacher and then nearly mowed down a group of three kindergarteners!

In other news, we had our Veteran's Day celebration today at school. It was very nice. The whole school went out to the flag in front of the building and said the Pledge together, and then sang "God Bless America" together. Two soldiers and some police color guards were there for the ceremony. Afterwards, several veterans came to talk to the kids and answer their questions. When I heard that veterans were coming to talk to us, I was picturing World War II veterans, or maybe some Vietnam vets. I just pictured old guys. Instead, the veterans were in their early twenties at most, and had fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. The youngster who talked with Bess's class had three purple hearts, and casually mentioned being shot three times, stepping on a bomb and getting "blown up," and having his best friend save his life by pulling him off of a landmine. It was kind of shocking to me... I guess in my naive mind I thought that today's soldiers are somehow safer than the soldiers in the past. 

Although I did start to become more aware this summer, when I went to a local amusement park and saw signs in front of the rides that I'd never seen before. Besides warning people not to ride rides if they had heart problems or were pregnant or whatever, the signs also mandated how many arms and legs a rider needed. A sign might say, "Each rider must possess at least one complete arm and one complete leg to ride." At first I thought that was a little funny... exactly how many people with multiple limbs missing show up at Six Flags? But then someone pointed out to me that a lot of people have been coming back from the war with their arms and legs blown off from landmines. Enough people to warrant special signs at Six Flags. Sobering, isn't it? Makes you really have a new appreciation for the people who voluntarily go off to war.

After the talks with the veterans, Bess's class watched a video about Honor Flight, and then started writing letters to World War II veterans, which will be passed out randomly to passengers on the next local Honor Flight trip. 

So it was a nice day I got to spend with Bess. But I'll be happy on Monday to see Toko and Wyken and all my little buddies again! 

Happy Veteran's Day, everyone!

Earth Day

You thought I was done writing about what I did at Tree Elementary? HAHAHA! I still have one more unit to write about! Well, this one was just a mini-unit. Earth Day fell right in the middle of our egg unit, so I did a short, one day unit on it. We learned about the importance of recycling and taking care of our Earth. 


I read the book Earthsong, by Sally Rogers. The book is actually an illustrated version of Sally Rogers' song, "Over In The Endangered Meadow", which in turn is based on the old song "Over In The Meadow." (If you've ever had or worked with young children, you may be familiar with Raffi's version.) The book has adorable pictures of mother and baby endangered animals. Before reading, we talked about the fact that, when we make our Earth dirty and use up its resources, we take away homes and food that animals need. I reminded them of what happened to the dinosaurs, and asked them, "You know how we'll never see a real dinosaur? What would the world be like if we could never see a real tiger, or a real penguin, or a real parrot, again?" We then read the story. 


As a special treat, I had bought the mp3 of the song "Over In the Endangered Meadow" on Amazon for 99 cents.  I brought in my iPod and speakers. After I read the story once, I turned on the song, and turned the pages as the song lyrics went along. I soon discovered that the song isn't exactly like the book. The book has more animals, and I think the song has one or two animals not seen in the book. If you are going to do this activity with your students, it would be a good idea to listen to the song first, and mark the pages that are mentioned, so you can flip to them without having to search around and skip pages. I didn't think to do that, but luckily my kids didn't notice. They love music and rhymes, and they asked me to play it two more times before we had to leave for lunch! 


For unit, we talked again about why it is bad to let our Earth get dirty, and to use up all its resources. I explained to them that when we throw things away, they go into a landfill, which keeps using up more and more space on Earth, and which also puts nasty things into the air and soil. I told them that they can help save the earth by either recycling the things they use, or finding new uses for old things. For instance, if you needed a pencil holder, would it be better to buy a new one, or find something old that can be used as one? I had brought in a giant garbage bag of, well, garbage. (Such as toilet paper tubes, oatmeal containers, cereal boxes, soda bottles, etc.)  I also had colored tissue paper, masking tape, string, stickers, and other random materials. I asked the students to be creative and make something new out of these old things. I provided them with a few books about making crafts out of used items, but reminded them that these were just ideas. We wouldn't have all of the exact items used to make the items in the books, but they could use the things in the books as starting points.


The day we did it, Martin, Kite and Triller were absent, so there were really only five kids doing it. Of those five, Rosella had a really hard time with it... she kept on taking more and more items but wanted to sneak them into her backpack and take them home. She has a slight hoarding issue! (The other day she came to school with the Yellow Pages book in her backpack. Another day she showed up with a whole bunch of dirty clothes belonging to various people in her family. Yet another day, she came with her mother's cellphone. Since they don't have a land line, we had no way of calling her mother to let her know we had her phone... because we had her phone!) Jay had an awesome idea to create a solar system out of container lids, but he kept daydreaming about outer space and didn't manage to finish. Starling didn't want to do it at all, but finally agreed to make a picture frame out of a meat tray. But two people, Towhee and Oriole, got really into it! They didn't want to stop. They even ended up taking home a few extra pieces. (Although I didn't let Rosella take any garbage home, I let Towhee and Oriole take things home because they actually had ideas on what they would make, whereas Rosella would have just tossed them into her bedroom!) 


Take a look! 


Rosella did make this pencil holder.

The beginning of Jay's solar system. (An adult cut out the sun shape for him!)

Starling's picture frame. (She's supposed to paste a photo in the middle when she gets home!)

Towhee's truck. He even used cellophane tape to make a realistic windshield! 

Oriole's pickup truck. Its kind of hard to see because his hand is covering some of it, but you can tell he worked hard on it! 

I absolutely love activities that allow kids to be creative and use other parts of their brain. Towhee has ADHD and a learning disorder, Oriole has an intellectual impairment, and both are far below grade level in reading and math. But, given an activity that didn't involve any reading, writing, or written math problems, look at what they did! They worked so hard and put so much thought and effort into their projects. I think they did as good as, or even better than, some of the students in the school's gifted program would have done! This type of project gives kids like Towhee and Oriole a chance to shine. 

I think, next time I do this, I might allow a whole week to work on things. This time the kids managed to crank these things out in the half hour before gym class. If they had half an hour or more each day, for a week, imagine what they could come up with! 

My Easter Themed Week

Hi everyone! I'm back to report on my Easter-themed week! I already wrote about my Bunny Writing Prompt a few days ago. And now for the rest of the week!


On Monday, for Language Arts, I read the book Quiet Bunny, by Lisa McLure. We read Quiet Bunny's Many Colors during Spring week, so the kids remembered the character. This time, I created stick puppets for most of the characters in the book. Each kid had a puppet to be in charge of. When their character came up in the book, the kid had to make the correct animal noise. At the end, when all the animals make their noises together, all of the kids had to join in with their animal noises!

On Tuesday, we read The Easter Cub, by Justine Korman Fontes. We played the 5 W's game. All I did was take a poster board and divide it into 5 categories... who, what, when, where and why. I wrote questions about the story on the sticky side of Post-it Notes, and then stuck them to the poster board in the right categories. The kids couldn't see the questions. They had to pick a category, and I'd read them a question from that category. Basically, its just a more novel way to do comprehension questions on a book. 

That same day, we did the Bunny Glyph I made last week. The kids who have more difficulties had to get very close, step-by-step assistance from teachers or aides, but all in all it worked out as a great following directions activity! It was a good exercise for the kids because they had to listen, make a connection between the choices I gave and which one applied to them, follow the direction that went with that choice, and then stop and wait for the next direction. I actually took pictures of the completed glyphs so you can see how they turned out! Starling, of course, got a little out of control with hers! If you want the code to decipher their pictures, here it is:

GLYPH CODE

I colored this bunny in a special way, so you can learn all about me.

If his EARS are BROWN, I am 9 years old.

If his EARS are GRAY, I am 10 years old.

If his EARS are WHITE, I am 11 years old.

His EYES are the same color as MY EYES!

If his NOSE is RED, I like CHOCOLATE CANDY.

If his NOSE is PINK, I like FRUITY CANDY.

If his NOSE is PURPLE, I like CHEWIGN GUM.

His FACE is the color of my HAIR.

If his BOWTIE is BLUE, I like READING best.

If his BOWTIE is RED, I like MATH best.

If his BOWTIE is PURPLE, I like SCIENCE best.

If his BELLY is PINK, I have BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

If his BELLY is WHITE, I’m the only child.

If his FEET are YELLOW, I like GYM CLASS best.

If his FEET are GRAY, I like MUSIC CLASS best.

If his FEET are BROWN, I like ART CLASS best.

If the REST OF HIS FUR is BROWN, I like playing outside.

If the REST OF HIS FUR is YELLOW, I like video games.

The FLOWERS are MY FAVORITE COLOR.

Now you know all about me!

On Wednesday, we read a very funny book called Here Comes the Big, Mean Dust Bunny, by Jan Thomas. The story is about some dust bunnies who love to rhyme, all the time. So we brainstormed a whole bunch of rhyming words! 

That day we also played an Easter memory game. A lot of people may have heard this idea. I bought lots of Easter erasers and Fun Foam sticker shapes from Dollar Tree. I put an eraser or sticker in each egg, making sure that I put two of each item in both sets of the game. The kids played it just like regular Memory, but instead of turning over cards, they had to open plastic eggs and see what was inside. Each set had about 26 eggs. The more higher-functioning group (Kite, Towhee, Martin and Oriole) loved this game, did very well with it, and played it twice in a row. Meanwhile, the lower group (Rosella, Starling, Triller, and to some extent Jay) played one game for the whole time, with two adults assisting them, and never got a single match. By the end, we were really coaching them, saying things like, "Remember, the BUTTERFLY is in the DARK BLUE EGG! If you get another BUTTERFLY, choose the DARK BLUE EGG!" And at some point I just started rolling the correct egg towards kids and hoping they picked it up. I wanted everyone to get at least one match before we went home! The lesson I learned? Next time, give the first group the large set of eggs, and make a very small set with about twelve eggs. for the Rosella-Starling-Triller-and-kind-of-Jay group. 

On Thursday, we read the book The Night Before Easter, by Natasha Wing. For this one I used an idea given to me by someone from this blog (I cannot find the comment anywhere right now, but I remember it well.) I told the kids that there were three ways to read a book. (The commenter actually told me about four, but the kids don't really write during Language Arts... thats more of a Unit thing.) First we did a picture walk through the book. (Even though I hate the phrase "picture walk." I have no idea why but it gives me the heeby jeebies! It may be the Asperger's coming out in me... when I first heard the word "picture walk" I imagined a teacher taking a group of children on a cool walk through lots of giant pictures. When I found out it just meant looking at the pictures of the books, I felt sort of nauseous. Ever since then, I've felt sort of sick whenever anyone said "picture walk." I'd rather say, "Look at the pictures." But I digress...)

 The second way to read the book is just the normal way, for me to read it to them. And finally, the third way, was for them to retell the story to me. Whenever we retell a story, it is really just Kite who retells the whole thing. For the other kids it seems nearly impossible! So I've been trying to get them to practice it often. 

Today we also painted eggs. The kids had been asking to paint eggs, but Mrs. Eagle thought it would be difficult to bring hard boiled eggs into the classroom and then have them transport them home. Three quarters of them would probably forget to take the eggs out of their backpacks for several weeks, and they'd start to rot in there! So I found some Styrofoam eggs at Hobby Lobby, and I brought them in with some paint brushes and neon poster paints. I stabbed each egg with a toothpick and then stabbed the other end of the toothpick into the bottom of a small paper cup, to make a little egg stand. This way the kids could paint all of the sides of the eggs, plus the top and bottom, without trying to turn them around in their hands or having them roll all over their desks. The eggs turned out rather lovely, if I do say so myself!

After that, the kids got to do an egg hunt, which Mrs. Eagle plans every year. They do it in a kind of unusual way... One student goes into the hallway, while another student hides five eggs. Then, when the hallway student returns, he hunts for the eggs while the others give them hot-or-cold hints. Its kind of a problem solving and team building exercise, as well as a fun party game! 

So that ends my Easter week. I had a blast planning and carrying out this week's unit! Next week is my plant unit, and then we start eggs and chicks. 

In an interesting side note... Yesterday I logged onto Blogger and saw that I had gotten 75 views on my Monkey In My Chair post! I was kind of excited, thinking so many people had been interested in the organization. But when I checked my stats, I saw that 65 of those views had come over from a large anti-Obama website! (In case some people reading are not bloggers,this wouldn'tmean that people did a Google search for something and came up with my blog. There would have had to be a link to my blog somewhere on the anti-Obama site, so viewers could come straight here from there.)  I cannot figure out why... I went to the site to see if somehow my post had ended up in some sort of news feed. I couldn't see it anywhere. So, where did all of these anti-Obama readers come from? I guess I'll never know. 

I hope you all have a nice weekend, and a nice Easter if you celebrate it! Thanks for reading! 

Free Bunny Writing Promt

Hi everyone! Still working on my lesson plans! Today I wanted to share a bunny writing prompt. It begins with, "One day I woke up, and noticed I'd turned into a bunny!" Students then write a short story about what happened. Once they've finished writing, there is also a bunny picture for them to color, making this assignment worthy of hanging on the wall or including in a portfolio! 

I've also included a "cloze" version, which you may choose to use with younger students or students with cognitive impairments. I'm going to use it with Starling, Triller, and possibly Rosella. The cloze version has a short story already written, but includes blank spaces for students to personalize the story. It reads, "One day I woke up an saw that I'd turned into a bunny! I felt _________. I said, '______________.' The first thing I did was ____________. Then I went to ________. I saw _________. I ate __________. When I turned back into a kid, I felt ________." It also includes the bunny picture for them to color.


I've uploaded it at 4shared.com. I used a special font that allows you to make your own lined paper. I embedded the font, so it should reach you the way I intended it to. If not, you may have to fix some things so that it looks right with your own fonts. 


I hope you like it! Later in the week, I'm sure I'll add some more freebies!

Free Bunny Glyph For Kids

Hi everyone! Today is the first actual day of my spring break, and so far I've spent almost all of it working on lesson plans. (I did take a break to watch SVU while I ate my lunch, I took my dogs into the backyard for a while, and I had to clean up after one of my dogs who has diarrhea and had accidents on the floor a few times.) 


I wanted to share one of the products of my genius with you. Next week we're going to be doing Easter activities. (We have to keep them secular, and concentrate on bunnies and things like that more than on the actual holiday.) One of the things I've created is a bunny coloring glyph.


I got the coloring page from a different website. I can't share the picture here, because of copyrighting, but I can share the link with you so you can go get it yourself! Here is the coloring page. 


The directions and key for the glyph are on a Google doc, here. 


You could either make one copy of the directions and read each direction aloud to the class, so that everyone works on it at the same time (which is good for kids who don't have strong reading skills or who need to work on following verbal directions) or you could give each student a copy of the directions and let them work at their own pace (good for kids with stronger reading skills or kids who need to practice following written directions.) Or, do both! Afterwards, staple a copy of the key to the bottom of each student's coloring page, and hang them up for all to see.


By the way, if you use this glyph with your class, you may have to change the numbers in the first direction. The kids in my class are 9, 10 and 11 years old, so those are the choices I used. You can change them to the ages of the students in your class, of course. 


I hope you like this! I love glyphs! 

Saint Patrick's Day Language Arts

Hi everyone! I just finished my second week of teaching Language Arts! I think it is going really well. I try to help the kids get into the books and really enjoy the lessons. Sometimes it works. My Skippyjon unit is still considered a big success, in their eyes! This week the kids went to the school library, and they all begged the librarian for Skippyjon books! The school library only had two, and Rosella and Kite were the ones to check them out. Kite was also heard asking the music teacher to buy her a Skippyjon book! LOL! I guess that just proves my theory that Skippyjon encourages kids to read! 


This week I did a Saint Patrick's Day unit, for obvious reasons. Here's what we did. 


Day 1... I read them St. Patrick's Day, by Gail Gibbons, and we made a KWL chart on it. The kids were very interested in the KWL chart. They came up with lots of contributions for the K and W sections. For the L section, after reading the story, I usually let them look through the book to help jog their memory. (On the chart, the clover and rainbow are disguising the name of the teacher's aide whose birthday is St. Patrick's Day!) You may notice that someone asked "Why is he green?" in the W section, referring to St. Patrick. Most of the kids had this misconception that St. Patrick is actually a leprechaun. I tried to explain to them that he was actually a person who lived long, long ago. I showed them the illustrations of St. Patrick, and talked about the parts that discussed his life, to make sure they understood. Then at the end, after we completed the chart, I went over what we had learned. I asked, "So, who was St. Patrick?" And about four kids chorused, "A leprechaun!" Sigh. At least I tried! 

Day 2...We read both Jack and the Leprechaun, by Ivan Robertson, and The Leprechaun's Big Pot Of Gold, by Patricia Reeder Pubank. The Leprechaun's Big Pot Of Gold is actually a board book. When I bought it I thought it might be too simple for the kids. However, there aren't that many St. Patrick's Day books in existence, and I needed enough for five days! So I bought this one. And actually, the kids liked it better than the other book! I think because the cover is shiny, and there are a cute dog and cat in the story. We did another Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the two books. I want to do a Venn diagram every few weeks so that it sticks in their head!

Day 3... I read The Last Snake In Ireland, by Sheilla MacGill Callahan. Its basically a retelling of the legend of how Saint Patrick got rid of all the snakes... but there's a twist at the end!  Before reading it, I explained that a legend is a story that is about a real person, but the story itself has been passed down throughout the years and nobody knows for sure if it is true. I asked them again, "Was St. Patrick a real person?" and, thankfully, they replied, "Yes!" My plan was to read the story and then have them all tell whether they felt the story was true or made up, and give a reason. However, towards the end of the story, five of the eight kids got pulled out to go to Social Skills. (Social Skills wasn't scheduled for that time, but the social worker had some spare time and wanted to make up minutes the kids missed during ISAT week.) The kids that were left were Rosella, Starling, Triller and Jay. Rosella, Starling and Triller are the kids with the most cognitive impairments, and Jay has mild autism and was probably busy daydreaming about outers space when I read the story, so the activity sort of fell to pieces. I showed my power of flexibility and dismissed them to free time!

Day 4... We read St. Patrick's Day Alphabet, by Beverly Barras Vidrine. I had printed out a small picture to represent the word for each letter of the alphabet in the book. Each kid got three or four pictures to hang onto. I brought in a poster board. As I read about each letter, the kid holding the matching picture had to come and stick his picture onto the poster board. At the end, I gave them sheets of St. Patrick's Day stickers and let them decorate it. They loved this! The picture of the poster is at an odd angle, because the only place we could find to hang it was up above the bulletin board, and I had to look up with my camera! 

Day 5... We read The Night Before St. Patrick's Day, by Natasha Wing. We did a simple story map on it, which I didn't take a picture of because you probably know what a story map looks like. The kids were pretty good at identifying the characters, setting, beginning, middle and end. They also really liked the story, and Towhee even noticed it's similarity to The Night Before Christmas. After reading it, I made a pie chart with a "slice" for each person in the room. I asked each student if they thought leprechauns were real, or made up. For the students and teachers who thought leprechauns were real, I colored a slice green. For the students and teachers who thought leprechauns were made up, I colored a slice blue. Want to see the results?

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, everyone! Come back next Friday to hear about my Spring unit! 

My Broken Heart On Valentine's Day

I don't have good news. Things are going horribly awry. 
I may have mentioned before that I don't yet have my placement for my ten week student teaching assignment, which begins one week from today! Five weeks ago when my professor decided to pull me from the student teaching assignment I'd been placed in, she assured me that I'd have a placement when the time came. It hasn't happened.
Yesterday my professor (I'll call her Professor A, so I don't have to keep saying "My Professor!") came to observe me for the second time at my internship placement. She had told me ahead of time that she wanted to observe me doing a whole group lesson. Well, the only whole group activity they do in the preschool class is Calendar, so I told her I could do that. Our calendar time is very basic, with no songs, rhyming, sharing, or other "nonsense." You just take attendance, tell them the month, the day of the week, the date and the year, and then the kid in charge of weather comes and does the weather, and finally you read a story. For this particular calendar session, Mrs. Wing also gave me a little Valentine game to do, involving counting different colored hearts, I guess to draw Calendar out a little longer so Professor A would have more to observe. 
For the most part, Calendar went well for me! For the first time ever, Ani actually said, "I'm here!" during attendance! All of the kids are supposed to say, "I'm here," but Ani usually just raises his hand. He said it, and I took that to be a great sign! Calendar went well. The weather went fine. The story was great. The game was a little haphazard because Mrs. Wing had just given it to me fifteen minutes ahead of time, and some of the pieces included were different from what was in the description that I was given to read... but it still went well. Calendar ended, and Mrs. Wing came over to describe to the kids what their cut-and-pasting activities for the day would be. 
So. Professor A wanted a short conference with Mrs. Wing, and they left the room while I ran Mrs. Wing's cutting and pasting activity for her. I was actually feeling pretty good about things, especially when Robin told me in his slow motion way, "You did good, Miss Angel!" 
Then Mrs. Wing returned to the room. Right away I felt like something was weird, because of the way Mrs. Wing said, "I think your professor wants to talk to you in the other room." 
I went into the other room. Professor A was all friendly as she told me that she thought my calendar time went well. Then she went on to say that she thought I looked too much to Mrs. Wing for direction and that Mrs. Wing stepped in too much for behavior management and for helping with the Valentine game. She said, "It doesn't seem like you're ready to really lead the class! Remember, during the ten weeks, it goes very quickly. By the fifth week, you'll be responsible for all of the teacher's responsibilities!"


First of all, this is internship, so I never thought I was supposed to be completely taking over. On the calendar we were given in class, it said by the fifth week we were supposed to have "shadowed" the cooperating teacher, interacted with students as directed by the teacher, and worked on our individual projects. Not "take over the entire class!" I swear on my soul, I've been doing everything according to that calendar and the syllabus! I've done my best not to step on Mrs. Wing's toes, and to be more of a helpful sidekick than a takeover teacher!


Second of all, Mrs. Wing hasn't really seemed open to my "taking over." Even when I tried to handle small things, she often stepped in to do it her way. She's a very experienced teacher with her own way of doing things. I pointed this out to Professor A, and she even agreed, saying that she herself was like that as a teacher, and that it can be hard for teachers to accept someone else doing things differently. 


Third of all, I pointed out that when we had a sub for a week, I did feel able to take over and do more things with the class, because my help was more needed. I assured Professor A that I thought that, if I was given the chance, I could lead a class.


Anyways. That wasn't the worst of it. Professor A then went on to say that she had looked at the long list of schools that had denied me placements, and was alarmed. She said, "There must be something wrong with your application or your resume, or maybe your transcripts! Something is making these people dislike you right away! Maybe you should have gotten help from the writing center at school."


I told Professor A that writing has always been one of my strengths, and that I never thought to seek help from the writing center. This center is more for students at my school who can barely write at all. I think I can write on a college level. The A's I receive on every single term paper or essay I turn in should prove that! (I'm not bragging... its just that I have loved writing since childhood. And since I often do poorly on tests on subjects like science and history, I depend on those essays and term papers to bring my grades up! 


Professor A continued to say that there must be something wrong with my application, or possibly something in my transcripts that people weren't liking. (The transcripts could be part of it. I get a lot of As, but I am not a straight A student, especially in mathematics, history, science, and that type of thing. I have plenty of B's and C's mixed in. My grade point average is 3.4.) She then told me that it would take a special person to be my cooperating teacher for the ten weeks, and that they would really have to work to find someone who would take me. She added that I might even need to stay in student teaching for an additional week or two. And, as I was crying internally (not outloud... on the outside I was just sitting quietly with my heart in in my hands) Professor A went on that she knew about a teacher who retired recently and that 800 people applied for her job. She said my chances would be slim for even getting an interview, if I was being rejected just for student teaching! She said some people were better off working as aides, and that she thought I was on the level of an aide because I was doing about the same types of things that Mrs. Wing's classroom aide was doing. 


Ever since then, it has been torture for me to be in the classroom. I still adore the children, of course. I made little Valentines goody bags to bring to them today, and some of them gave me Valentines as well. I love when Ani talks to me. It makes me feel like he feels safe around me, and that's a big part of being a teacher. I love when Wren asks me to play with her, every single day. I love how Robin loves to have long conversations with me when he's supposed to be working, and how even Ibis, who rarely talks, will sometimes whisper to me that he watched basketball with his dad yesterday.I love how they are always so excited to show me their shirts when they take off their jackets... they always have such great, colorful shirts! I love how even the small little 3-year-old special ed kids, in the afternoon class, who are just learning to talk, can say my name now... and sometimes just say it over and over for no apparent reason. I love how they'll hold my hand in the hallway. I love how I can make them laugh when they're about to cry. Today in the afternoon gym class I was trying to teach two little kids named Noddy and Pitta how to play catch with the gym balls. They were supposed to be taking turns tossing me their balls, and I would throw the balls back to them. Suddenly I was being pummeled by ten gym balls, because all of the kids wanted to play catch! I somehow got them all lined up in a row, and got them to wait until I said their name before they threw their ball to me. They were all giggling like crazy! We spent the whole gym time this way. Usually the teachers spend gym time sitting against the wall and talking while they watch the kids. Usually I do to... its a nice, relaxing break in the day. But I have to admit I had fun playing catch with the kids today. Even though Kokako pegged me in the face, like, five times!
I do love the kids. But it is still hard to be there. Because I just want to be at home, in bed, bawling! I want so badly to be a teacher, and I've put four years into it, including having to spend lots of money and having to ask my parents for lots of favors (such as letting my dog and cat and I live with them since student teachers aren't supposed to have jobs so I'd have no way of paying rent!) I've come so far. SO FAR! Especially considering that I was once a kid who was told I would never go to college at all, and would have to be in a special home for disabled people. Frown! Its so hard to be teetering at the edge of success, and then have it snatched away!
Please, if you are a praying person, I could use your prayers! And if you are not a praying person, I could use your positive thoughts! 
Okay, now for a funny story to lighten the mood. Today the kids got to exchange Valentines. They had white lunch bags to collect their goodies in. A lot of them included candy with their Valentines. One kid even gave each friend a small heart-shaped box of chocolates! Mrs. Wing stapled the bags shut, and the children were told that they should not open the bags until they got home and had their parents' permission. Anyways. The kids also got brownies and chocolate milk at snack time as a special treat. By the time they lined up to go home, lots of them were pretty hyper! Pewee, in particular, was in rare form. He was actually spinning around and laughing at nothing! I asked Pewee if he'd eaten too much chocolate. He said, "no." I told him, it must have been his invisible twin brother Lewee who ate his brownie! Pewee laughed like a maniac. 
An hour later, there was a call from his mother. Apparently, on the bus ride, Pewee cracked open his bag and ate all but two pieces of his candy! He was sick to his stomach! 
Okay. That doesn't sound so funny. I don't mean to laugh at a kid who got sick to his stomach. But if you knew Pewee...  the cutest, funniest, three-year-old trouble maker I know...you'd be laughing too! 
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. Thanks for listening. 

A Fun Lunar New Year Game

Hi everyone! Lunar New Year (aka Chinese New Year, Korean New Year, etc) begins on January 23. Did you know this is the year of the dragon? Its a really exciting year! (Assuming the world doesn't end... although I guess that would make things even more exciting...)
You may remember I wrote before about my little cousins, Birdie and Tiger, who I often spend time with. Last week, since they were on school vacation and I was also on school vacation, I spent the night over at their house. Whenever I see them I try to bring activities for them. They are very active kids who need to be kept busy... but keeping them busy is actually really easy because they love things like crafts, games, coloring pages, word searches, etc. 
Since Lunar New Year is coming up, I made a Yut Nori game for the kids! I made this game before when I was a nanny for a family that was part Korean. Its kind of a simplified version. (The original version is a lot like the Sorry game we all know! If you want to read more about the real Yut Nori and try to make a more authentic version, check here.) I thought I'd share this, in case some of you are doing Lunar New Year lessons or celebrations with your students, or even with your own children at home! It can be played in partners or small groups. It would work great as a Centers activity. If you wanted all of the kids to be playing it at the same time, you'd have to make multiple Yut Nori sets, of course. You might even want to have kids make their own Yut Nori games as part of the process! 
My simplified Yut Nori game can be made using a poster board or a file folder. All you need to do is make colored circles all around the board, in a pattern. Label a "Start" spot and a "Finish" spot. Next, you need four craft sticks. Decorate one side of each craft stick. Finally, you need playing pieces. You can use whatever you have handy for this. Those shiny, colored pebbles from Dollar Tree work great!
Here is what my board and sticks looked like. 

Now, here's how you play. 
The first player picks up the four sticks and tosses them gently into the air. The way they land will determine how many spaces the player can move. If just one lands with the design up, go one space. Two with the design up means two spaces, and so on. But if all four land with the design down, you get to move five spaces!
Each player does this same thing during their turn.
If someone lands on you're spot, while you're on it, you have to go back to the last spot of the same color. So if I were on yellow, and you landed on my spot, I'd have to move six spaces back to the last yellow. 

This game is the most fun when more than two people are playing it, because then landing on someone else's spot becomes more common. When just two people play, you're sort of just moving around the circle. 
I also printed out these Chinese Zodiac coloring books for Birdie and Tiger. If you don't mind using up some ink, you could print these out for your students as well. The cover page lets you figure out which zodiac sign you are, and then each page is an animal to color and a little description of the animal. Birdie and Tiger loved figuring out what they were and what all of their family members were! 
I just thought I'd share this. I am starting student teaching tomorrow, but since its just the internship I have no idea if I'll be allowed to plan any activities... but if I do get the chance, around January 23, I definitely plan to use this! I hope you can get some use out of it too.