Making Rain

We had a two-hour late start this morning. I found out not two minutes after leaving the house. I just went to school instead of turning around and trying to get up the driveway. I got quite a bit done at school before the day started, though! It's amazing what an extra two hours of work time does for the day. :)

Due to the late start, we skipped Advisory and first block and just went straight to 3/4 block.

Now, 3/4 block, no matter whether it's A Day or B Day, is always a crazy class (B Day more than A Day, but still...). With the delayed start today, I was expecting a full-blown riot in class today. Much to my surprise, there was no such thing. The kids were the best I've seen them all year long!

As I was waiting for the last couple kids to turn in their assignments before starting the lesson, I was absent-mindedly snapping my fingers rhythmically. The kids thought it was so cool and wanted me to teach them how, so I did: snap with the top hand, snap with the bottom hand, then slap your bottom closed fist with your top open palm; snap-snap-slap; snap-snap-slap. Soon, the majority of the class was doing it and it started to sound like raindrops around the classroom.

Flashback to my freshman year of high school when our marching band made rain in Memphis, Tennessee, waiting to compete indoors due to sleet and out-of-tune percussion instruments - IDEA!

I told the class that if the lesson went really well and we had time at the end of class, we would make rain.

Like I said before - the kids were on their best behavior today!

At the end of the lesson, I asked the kids if they wanted to make rain. It was a unanimous "yes!"

I had the kids move some tables out of the way so we had a decent amount of space for everyone to sit in a circle. Once everyone was settled in their circle, I turned the lights off and gave the directions: stay quiet, wait until I face you to start doing the action I am showing, do exactly what I do until I face you again. Then I stepped into the middle of the circle and started.

At first, the kids had looks of confusion on their faces. I could just imagine what they were thinking: What in the world is she doing?? Then, as I continued going through the circle a second and third time, increasing the volume of the rain, I could see their expressions change to a look of awe. After the "rain" had ended, the kids broke out into excited chatter: "That was so cool!!" "It sounded totally like rain!" And on and on. :)

I told the class my story about making rain in Memphis and then they wanted to make rain again, so we did. The kids added some sound effects at the appropriate moments of heavy rain this time (thunder, mostly, along with a few random louder splatters of rain as the rain slowly moved off into the distance).

It was so much fun. :)

Epic Fail

So, I've basically had an Epic Fail at this blogging thing the past two years. It was pretty much a choice between blogging and getting everything accomplished for school. Obviously school won out (as it should, in all honesty).

I honestly am going to try really hard this year to get a blog entry up once a week this school year. Hopefully my husband will be able to keep me accountable for that (pretty please!).

Speaking of posts...I do have a post in draft form from last spring that I will eventually get on here. It's filled with explanations of stuff and I never was able to get it to sound the way I wanted it to, so once I finally tweak it enough to be to my liking (yes, I am a bit of a perfectionist, and yes, it is quite annoying at times), I'll finally get that posted. It's something I was really happy with and proud of last year with my algebra students, so I know that post won't just get dumped. It will appear!

Cookies

The beginning of 7/8 block today brought with it one of my students carrying a package of cookies into class. It's his birthday. He asked if he could share them with the class. There were enough for everyone in the class, so I said that he could.

Once the homework had been collected and the lesson was getting ready to begin, he came up to my desk to get the package of cookies to pass out to the class. I was giving two students the lesson's note packets to give to everyone in the class and heard him thinking out loud, trying to figure out how many cookies each student could have.

He asked me how many students were in the class (27, but add 2 more if you're counting adults). Then he counted up the cookies. "There are about 18 in each row....18 times 3, what's 18 times 3? Wow, look, I'm doing math!" I couldn't help but smile when I heard that.

He then went on to figure out how many cookies each person could have - it turned out to be exactly two cookies each.

I had to share his story with the class, because it was just too cute not to. The whole class applauded when I got to the part about his "ahah" moment of using math somewhere not directly related to math class.

Seventh graders are funny. :)

This is Not a Drill

So, my Friday was short. I didn't even finish teaching one class before my day ended. On my way to my car, I called my husband and then my mom letting them know I decided I didn't want to teach today, so I was heading up to Mom's school and helping her out the rest of the day. Both recipients of my phone calls were quite confused when I retracted the first part of my statement and said that I actually had no choice in teaching or not today - school had been evacuated.

*Rewind*

Just as homework questions were ending, our principal came on the intercom and announced that everyone needed to evacuate the building immediately due to a chemical spill at the high school (which our middle school is attached to). I instructed my class of 28 7th graders where to go and meet me outside and headed out to our meeting point. Not ten minutes after we got outside, we saw the waving arms of the administration standing at the doors signaling to us that we could go back inside and continue our classes.

I need to break in my story here and commend my students for being really wonderful with that evacuation. Every student spoke to me and let me know they were present when we were outside and, once back in the classroom, were all ready to go with the lesson almost immediately. Wow!

Once we got back in the classroom I told my class a story about a chemical spill that happened at my high school when I was a senior there. Chemicals had been spilled while they were being disposed of and we were evacuated from the building. Due to the explosive nature of the chemicals and their fumes, we got to leave school early (for those who rode the bus and for those who brought their car keys outside with them when the fire alarm went off in school). I finally got to leave once my friend, who drove me to and from and school, got her extra set of car keys from home.

The rest of the class went quite well. I was handing back homework and had just started speaking with students who still had missing assignments for the chapter when our principal came back on the intercom and made another announcement. This time the evacuation that was taking place was a big one.

Students and staff were to gather their things and head out of the building and down the block to the church which is our evacuation site. Buses were in the church parking lot to pick students up and bring them home, while parents picked students up who called them and let them know what was happening.

As we were walking down the block to the church, a couple of my students walking near me said, "Mrs. S! This is just like your story!!" I couldn't help but notice the striking similarities, too.

All but four of my students found to check in with me before heading off to their bus or ride home or to walk home. Pretty impressive, given the mass chaos that was going on!

The staff was debriefed in front of the church once the buses filled with kids had left. Apparently a custodian at the high school was neutralizing chemicals before disposing of them when the system got backed up and a spill occurred (yup, sounds just like what happened at my high school). Emergency procedures began and that's why the first evacuation took place. High school buses bringing students to school just turned around once reaching the high school and dropped the kids off back at home.

Later, as district administration evaluated the situation, they decided to evacuate our school yet again and end school for the day. The vent systems for the high school and our middle school are separate, though the buildings are connected, so there was no danger for fumes to be spread to our school through the vents. The administration was concerned that, with the way air could move between the buildings, that students may begin to smell odd odors as the day wore on and, as a precautionary measure to this, ended our school day.

Everyone was safe, no one was hurt, life went on, and everyone was happy to have a shortened week, even if by just a few hours. Granted, it's Homecoming this week, but the parade is still on and the game is going on as scheduled tonight, too.

And to think, next week is a short week, too! :)

Blast From the Past

After school ended today, I was packing things up in my classroom when my classroom door opened. In walked three high school boys, two of whom I knew and the third looked familiar, but I never had him as a student.

The first one who walked into the room said, "Hello, Miss Grivna. Do you remember me?" in his slight German accent.

"Of course," I replied. Really, how could I forget this kid who moved from Germany to our school halfway through my second year of teaching? He made me laugh almost every day in class and was a bright kid. Back then, I taught the math support class for kids struggling in their core math class. This kid was there mainly to get up to speed on how the book was set up and vocabulary support (Chicago Math is practically all vocab.).

Yeah, he's a junior in high school now.

The second boy who walked in asked me if I remembered him at all. I could never forget his face, but it took a couple minutes to recall his name. I was confused by this at first (I've been pretty good at recalling names when I see former students) until he said that he was surprised I remembered him since I only had him for two weeks...in summer school.

The memories came flooding back then. Oh, the behavior challenges from that one!

My mother had actually been in my classroom during summer school one day that year, helping me with some stuff in my room. After this boy left my room when summer school ended that day, she laughed and said that he was more than a couple handfuls! She didn't know the half of it, either.

That boy, as well as the other familiar face, are high school seniors this year. Wow.

They have study hall last period at the high school. They said that there are 65-some students scheduled for that study hall period and only about 10 show up. The rest just leave school early. From what I've heard from other years, this is common. If I remember correctly, students have to fill out and sign some form to be able to skip last period study hall.

No matter what, though, it was a lot of fun to see these kids and visit with them for a few short minutes. I love it when former students come back and keep me updated on what's happening in their lives! :)

It's Good to Laugh

This year has started out so much more stress-free than last year. My 7th grade math colleague agrees. Last year was just so much push, push, push with the brand new text books and needing to write new lessons for everything and new assessments along with everything else new for the new books. Ick.

This group of kids continues to be fun.

The past two days of lunch have been filled with crazy stories and so much laughter. It's nice. We had a fun discussion about California's Proposition 19 (legalizing marijuana-related activities, among other things about marijuana) during lunch today. Yesterday the conversation was about concerts, old cars, and quoting movies. Well, the quoting movies part seems like it is turning into an everyday occurrence at lunch now. As long as our new health teacher keeps coming to lunch in the staff lounge, I have a feeling we will continue hearing movie quotes as we eat.

I was just about to shut down my computers today after the kids left when I decided to read one last e-mail. It was from our secretary who works in the copier room, making copies for teachers. I had put in an entire chapter of guided notes to be copied this afternoon for my Trans Math kids. It was the whole first chapter. That felt incredibly nice to be that prepared! The e-mail from our secretary was about making all of the copies that I requested this afternoon. This is what her e-mail stated:

"Hi Meg,

I did an oops. I was copying your projects and was wondering what was taking so long when I realized that your first project got entered as 1005 instead of 105 copies, so you have about 400 of one of your packets. :)"

Whoops is right! I figured that I now have copies of that lesson for a few years worth of teaching now at least. :) As I replied and let her know that, I found that I was laughing pretty hard about the whole silly situation, mistake and 400 copies and all. Again, it felt good to laugh and really mean it at school.

That's when I realized how really and truly stressed I was last year with the new curriculum. I can only remember a handful of times from last year when I laughed as hard or as often as I have this week. And it's only the first week of school.

Let's hope that this is the beginning of a theme of laughter and fun this year. I need that kind of year at school.

Mrs. S

First day of teaching with my new last name is now over. I'm exhausted.

Today brought with it my largest classes of the year: 28, 24, and 27. My first hour, with 28 kids, was so quiet you could probably have heard a pin drop most any time during class. I know one kids' name from that hour now - he was the one who actually raised his hand and said something during class, as well as volunteered during class. The only kid out of 28. Weird.

My second class may prove to be an interesting one. I'll be keeping my eye on a couple of those kids.

Lunch was good. A nice break in the middle of the day to finally sit down. Oh, and eat some food that my husband packed in my lunch. :) I always enjoy the realization the first day of school that, once lunch hits, I only have one more class to teach before the day is over. SUCH a nice thought.

Last hour was my class of 27 kids...and a para, thank goodness. I've never had a 7th grade para in my last hour class before (always has been during 3/4 block). Last hour with a para is a very nice change. And with 27 kids in the class, a much needed change. These kids were pretty chatty, but that's no surprise. Last hour is always chatty, without fail.

The end of the day brought an early dismissal, which continues to be annoying. It seems like the early dismissal comes earlier every year. I barely had time to explain one of the homework assignments (the one that required explanation, not the "cover your math book" assignment) before the kids were dismissed to their buses.

Once the kids left, homemade cookies and brownies, along with chocolate and white milk, were in the lounge for the teachers - a fun tradition for the first day of school and something I look forward to every year. The cookies were yummy. I probably ate more than my fair share. :)

On to Day 2, which brings Algebra my way. :)

How Long Does it Take?

So yesterday was the last day of the state tests for the year; Day 2 of the Math testing. I’ve learned from experience that the kids can’t handle much more math after being subjected to the state tests for two hours in the morning. So the two days of the state math tests are game days in my classroom – very rare occurrences for my students.

My last hour class started out pretty good until after I had them rate how the state math tests went. They answered with a finger rating (one finger for going really well; five fingers for going very poorly; two, three, and four fingers for somewhere within that spectrum).

Their hands went down and I began to let them know what they would be doing in class that day – having a free day. I got two words out of my mouth before the whole class erupted in chatter. I walked over to the light switches near the door to turn the lights off, signaling the class to be quiet. As I approached the switches, I realized that the past few times I have tried that, it has not done anything to quiet that class. So I just walked out the door, letting it close behind me.

I stood with my ear at the small opening of the door, waiting to hear the kids quiet down. There were shouts of “Guys, we need to be quiet or Ms. Grivna won’t come back in!” and whispers of “I think she’s not coming back.” I just tried hard to stifle my growing laughter at their statements.

Our 7th grade counselor walked by and gave me a questioning look. I told her that I was waiting to see how long it would take for the whole class to be quiet. She peeked in the room to see who was in the class. We talked for a minute or so and laughed at the whole situation. She was still chuckling and shaking her head as she left.

A couple minutes later, my door opened and a piece of paper was thrown into the hallway, with the door slamming shut moments after. On the piece of paper was a note stating (in muli-colored highlighter):
“Declaration of Algebra
We the
People of
7/8 B Algebra
are really
sorry and
will be quiet.
-class”

I laughed quite loudly and had to read it aloud to the two students sitting across the hall from another class, as they had been witnessing the whole course of events.

I cracked open the door just slightly to hear if the class was going to stop talking finally. They had! I opened the door and got half of one foot into the classroom when three of my girls, on bended knee in front of the door, started to break into song.

I turned my back on them and walked out of the room, completely closing the door behind me. Once the door was closed, I started laughing again. I could hear the volume level increasing again, so I cracked open the door.

The kids began arguing about what they should do to get me back in the room. I thought I would help them a little, so I folded the note they had thrown into the hallway so that just the last two lines were showing (“will be quiet – class”). I held that part up to the door window and stood there, waiting to see if anyone noticed my little hint.

Two students did notice. They yelled to their classmates and pointed out the note in the window. Not more than a minute later, they were silent and I made attempt number two at walking back into my classroom. This time the kids stayed quiet. I looked at the clock. TEN MINUTES had passed since I had left the room.

But, oh, what an amusing ten minutes that had been. :)

"Silent" Lesson

I went to my youngest sister's high school band/orchestra concert last night. As I watched my high school band director conduct, I thought of when he would do silent rehearsals with us. He would not say a word for the entire 85-minute class period. He would get his point across with only his gestures and facial expressions. The only sounds that were heard in the band room were the sounds we made with our instruments. I loved those rehearsals.

I decided to try the whole "silent" thing with my last hour class today as I listened to them correct (yes, listened) their homework. I collected the homework and then started to say as little as possible throughout the rest of class. The kids caught on pretty quickly. It turned into a really fun lesson. Well, at least for me.

The kids who wanted to learn paid attention. The kids who didn't care were talking a little, but were usually shushed by their classmates who were trying to pay attention to my charades at the front of the room. I felt like I got my point across better than for any of the other classes with respect to teaching the kids how to reflect images across a line. :)

I was even able to stay mostly silent when explaining the reflection project the kids worked on today.

And you know what? I felt so much more relaxed throughout the entire class period. I wonder if I could pull off a "silent" lesson again....

"You're Smart Enough"

I just had a student come up to me during a test and ask how she would find the answer because the number wouldn't fit in her calculator so she couldn't figure it out. I told her that she should look at the numbers and find a pattern of the numbers so that she wouldn't need a calculator. She didn't like that answer. I told her that I knew she was smart enough to figure out the pattern and the trick. She glared at me! Apparently telling a student that they are smart and they can figure things out on their own is a horrible thing for a teacher to do, at least in her lazy attitude mind.

Less than a minute later, back in her seat, she whispers, "oh!" She looks up at me and smiles. Uh huh. I knew she could do it. I just wish these kids would believe me once in a while.

The Wonders of Technology

Oh, yes. Technology is so much fun (I'm serious), especially when it doesn't work (okay, now I'm sarcastic).

I set up this interactive assignment on Edline, the site our school uses for students and parents to connect with teachers, classes, and happenings at the school. I only want students to respond on the assignment, so I set it for only students to be able to view and respond. Well, apparently many of my students only ever log in under their parents' account because I got many e-mails the first couple days asking me why they couldn't see the assignment. I had no idea what was going wrong until I had a student log in at school today. It took me a minute of looking at the pages to realize that she had logged in using her parents' account. Once I noticed that, the puzzle pieces fell into place and that's when I figured out that all the kids who couldn't see the assignment were logged in with their parents' account instead of their own. Ugh.

So I had one of my other students who couldn't see the assignment log in with their own username. Of course, I had to look up their username because they couldn't remember it. And obviously they couldn't remember their password either. Most of the kids hadn't set up a security question or an active e-mail account so they couldn't get a new password for their account e-mailed to them either. The media center is closed to students this week due to text book distribution happening there all of this first week. I plan on sending the kids down during my classes next week to get all of that stuff sorted out for them. In the meantime, the assignment is due for the kids at the beginning of next week, so the ones who can't get into their student accounts have to either e-mail me the answers or write them down and hand them in. Oh, the flexibility needed for a teacher.

I also got to register five of my students for a new student account on Edline today. Those weren't difficult once I had done the first one. It just takes a bit of time for each one. I can handle that.

And to think I get to go through all of this same stuff again tomorrow!

Year 5

Well, day one of my fifth year of teaching went well. Lots of siblings and fun connections. It was weird...everything felt so natural today. The kids are a lot of fun and I'm feeling pretty good about names already! I've made some connections with some of the more difficult kids, which is a good feeling. :)

My last hour TM class was surprising. They were fun, respectful, and a large class! Double the size of my last hour TM class two years ago and twice as clean and respectful the first day of school (seriously!).

Day two brings with it my algebra kids!

Heartfelt Moments

Two of my first hour A Day students put together a video of their algebra class. They asked me weeks ago if they could make one and I said that would be fine, as long as they took the pictures and video during Connect Time (our school’s advisory time which happens at the end of first block each day).

They brought the video to school today and showed it to the class after they had worked on reviewing for their final for most of the hour. The video wasn’t very long, around five minutes or so. It was put together very well, though. The girls had made sure every student was in at least one of the pictures and made it into the “live action” video of their antics during Connect Time. They even had pictures of things they did during Connect Time the day I was gone last week!

After the video finished, one of the girls who made it told me that she didn’t have time to burn it onto a DVD (she had brought in her laptop to show the video, but she wanted me to have a copy of it if it was okay with me. If it was okay?! Of COURSE it was okay with me! I couldn’t believe that, on top of making this great video of this tight-knit class of 19 and dealing with algebra in the early hours of the morning, these girls wanted to spend their money and time to make a DVD out of it for me. (Yes, I know it really doesn’t take that much time and it is pretty cheap, but still…these kids are 8th graders.)

Fast forward to lunch....

One of our security personnel in the building had a heart attack at the beginning of the school year and then a second heart attack not long after that. The second one took him out of the building for months. The kids and staff all love him and have sent him countless cards and well wishes during his recovery time out of school.

He made a short appearance in the lunch room during 8th grade lunch today. When the students saw him, they jumped up and ran over to him, giving him big hugs and asking how he was and telling him that they missed him and were so happy to see him in the building again. I had started counting how many kids went up to him, but quickly lost track.

After lunch, as I followed all the kids out of the cafeteria into the hallway and towards class, I stopped to say welcome back and chat for a few moments. He had a huge smile on his face the whole time and said that the support and love from the kids and the staff at our school were what pulled him through and helped him throughout his recovery. He smiles a lot on a normal basis, but I have never seen a smile bigger or more genuine than the one that he wore today. :)

Who's Got the Button?

Setting: "A" Day. Beginning of 5/6 block. Right after lunch.

Most of the students are in the classroom, getting settled and starting on their warm-up. The timer that I have going after lunch each day shows that class begins in just under a minute.

Enter: student of interest.

Student: Ms. G! Can I got to the FACS room? My button popped off!

I look over and see him walking like a cowboy, with legs widely straddled, trying to keep his pants from falling down. Needless to say, I could barely keep myself from buckling over with laughter at the sight.

I let him go down to the FACS room and started class. He came back not quite 10 minutes later with pants properly held in place with a proud look on his face. His comment when entering?

"I sewed the button all by myself!"

:)

Binary Clock

So I got this really awesome clock from my boyfriend during winter break. It gives the time (hours, minutes, and seconds) in binary. I put it up in my classroom during first hour yesterady. It's been driving my students absolutely crazy for the past two days (my whole goal with it). :D

They keep asking me what it is. All I've been saying is that it's a clock and that it tells me the hours, minutes, and seconds. I also tell them the time by reading the clock (never deal with the seconds, though).

The kids then ask me, beg me, attempt to bribe me, into explaining how to read it. I refuse. I let them know that it's up to them to figure it out and that the clock will be up for the rest of the year. If they don't figure it out by the end of the year, I MIGHT be nice and tell them. Probably not, though. :P

During 5/6 block today, one of my students asked me about the clock. I gave her the same explanation as always. Five minutes later, she exclaimed, "Ms. Grivna! I think I got it!!" I had her come over to me and tell me the time and then explain how to read each part. She didn't know that the pattern had a special name, but she totally had it figured out. I explained to her about binary and asked that she let others discover the pattern for themselves. She's not the kind of person to blab the fun secrets to others, though. She likes to watch people squirm while she sits back with all the info. hidden away. :)

I wonder how many more kids will be persistent enough to figure out my fun new toy of a clock. :)

Full Moon

Okay. First and foremost, I KNOW that technically there is no proof that people lose it/go crazy when there's a full moon. I never believed in that stuff anyway. Then I started teaching.

Since school started this year, the dynamics of my classes change as time goes on, ebbing and flowing throughout the weeks and months. That happens every year. I do 8th grade lunch duty this year, though. Every once in a while I've noticed that the kids are a bit more active and more nuts than usual. I commented on an unusually crazy day in September to one of my lunch supervision colleagues and she said that it made sense, seeing as how there was a full moon. I just smiled and inwardly rolled my eyes, not believing she bought into that connection.

The same thing happened the next month and the next.

Today I had the enjoyable chance to talk to one of my angels in lunch and let him know that if he could not learn to control himself during lunch (i.e. - sitting down in his own seat instead of in the lap of another student, walking around the lunchroom instead of running and leaping over objects, eating his food instead of throwing it at others or stealing other's food...) I would find a nice, isolated spot for him to enjoy his lunch in every day. Two separate tables were kept to clean up the lunchroom - usually there are none, or maybe half a table. The kids singing happy birthday to their friends were screaming the song. Oh, right. I forgot to mention that these groups of kids singing the song contained about 40 kids (no joke - I counted one of the groups) surrounding the table of the birthday kid.

My best class could not focus today (granted, it was right after the crazy lunch) and my last class today took the cake for insanity. I kicked out four kids. FOUR! Two missed the first half of the lesson and two others missed the second half of the lesson. My throat hurts from trying to talk over the kids to get their attention (bad, bad habit that I've been trying to curb, but just wasn't able to today). I first tried just waiting for the kids to realize I was waiting for them to pay attnention before moving on. That usually works really well. Not even close today.

By the time the bell rang at the end of the day, I was exhausted both mentally and physically. I went to msn.com to check my e-mail for any important things I might need to check on right away before heading home. There, on the front page of msn.com, was a link to an article about tonight's full moon and how it would appear to be larger than any other full moon in the year. The old belief that full moons affect people's behavior came rushing back to me.

I'm starting to believe that there's something to that belief.

I'm going home to nurse my sore throat with some hot chocolate and a good book.

Race to the Theorem

I'm in the middle of my 7/8A geometry class right now. Seriously.

We've got a lot of new theorems today. Like, 11 of them. Two sections, 11 theorems. Wow.

I have my classes write down all the theorems and postulates we learn so they have them easily accessible while they do their homework and take their quizzes, instead of needing to flip through their book every time they're trying to find a theorem to use.

The kids don't really enjoy this. At all. But they've started to see the use in it. Yay.

Today, the kids started to make writing down the theorems into a competition. As soon as they finish writing down a theorem and underlining the important words, they sit back and say, "done!" We're getting through these things in record time, even with me waiting for them to stop talking between each theorem.

It's a fun atmosphere in here with this. I hope my other two geometry classes have this much fun with the theorems tomorrow. :)

I Thought of You

First hour this morning during worktime, a student looked over at me and said, "Ms. Grivna. I thought of you this weekend!" My thought was, why?

Backtrack a bit...

Today was the first day back to school after a five-day weekend for the kids (teachers had school yesterday) due to the state education conferences, so many families took trips. The student who thought of me went to NYC with her family. They went to see the musical "Legally Blond." She said that their seats were quite high in the balconies and they had a perfect view of the pit. And that's why she thought of me, with all of my community theatre pit stories. What a sweetie. :)

Week of Wednesdays

Yesterday (Tuesday) I welcomed my last hour class with "Happy Wednesday, everyone!"

Everyone stopped talking and gave me the weirdest look. They were confused.

I again said, "Happy Wednesday!"

Again, the looks. This time, the students were beginning to get worried. Has she finally gone insane?
One brave student voiced her classmates' thoughts carefully. "No, Ms. Grivna...today is Tuesday, not Wednesday."

My response? "No it isn't. It's Wednesday! Yesterday was Wednesday, today is Wednesday, and tomorrow is Wednesday. I love these weeks!!!"

And slowly, lightbulbs began to go on around the room. The kids started shaking their heads in disbelief, their thoughts easily read on their faces. Wow, she is such a dork.

I love three day weeks. :D

Naming Properties

If you don't know the answer, make it up! At least, that's what a few of my students have been doing with naming the multiplication properties for their latest math test. One student came up with a partricularly good property in place of the actual "Multiplication Property of Zero": "anything times zero = zero property". I think I'm going to change the name of the property to that! :P

Personally, I'm waiting to see how many PoO's (Property of Opposites) I get next chapter.