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!"

:)