My Sister's Keeper

Today's laugh and a half is brought to you by a kindergartner, featuring a first grader.

I spend most of my time in one kindergarten class. Obviously in a school there tend to be several sets of siblings. I went to a first grade class that I've spent some time in before so I know who the sibs are with my kinders. I go back to kindergarten and tell this little girl I was hanging out with her sister in first grade.

When I tell you she was so offended with me 🤣🤣

She actually called me a meany and pushed her back against me to push me out the class. 

I couldn't do anything but laugh because I was so surprised at her reaction.

Don't try to talk to this girl's sister!

It's In the Cards

In addition to substitute teaching and being an after school teacher, I also am tutoring students once a week.

I know, I'm doing the most right now but now that I've graduated I want to utilize my extra time and be more of a part of my school.

I started tutoring with first and third graders. Our first activity involved one digit addition and multiplication, respectively.

For this game we used UNO cards and a recording sheet I made on my own.

Here's how it works

The cards were in a deck and the students drew the first two cards on the top.

I drew a + and an = on index cards, not my finest work but I was creating this on the fly.

When using the game with my third graders I just turned the + card to the side so it would be a multiplication symbol.

After you choose your cards you lay them out with the symbol cards so it forms a sentence, then record it on your recording sheet.

I allowed the students to have a white board if they needed it to work out the problems. I was secretly using that as a way to see what strategies their teachers have taught them to solve these kinds of problems so I could be on the same page.

I was so impressed with how engaged they were and how much they enjoyed the game I decided to create an entire bundle of ten math games that can be played with cards. Check them out on my TpT store!

Math Card Game Bundle

Where The Wind Blows

My second grade after schoolers and I are working on weather, as previously mentioned, so I decided to do a little experiment about wind!

What you'll need:

• a bunch of different items (some heavy, some light)
• 2 copies of photos of each item
• something to provide wind such as a fan or vent
• a chart to record predictions and results
• a sheet for students to record their individual results
• tape or glue

My intended idea was to give each child an item or two, set them on a table, and have a fan blow them as part of the test. Now I could've sworn I've seen some fans in the building before but the day I need one, they're nowhere to be found. I even asked our lovely custodian but no luck. As every teacher knows, we have to have a plan B. Now my plan B was to have us all blow on the items to simulate wind. However by a stroke of luck when I got to our classroom I realized the air vent was blowing and we could use that!

We've recently talked about hurricanes and tornadoes as well as the damage they can do. We started by reviewing that and talking about the power of a strong wind. To prepare for the activity I chose an assortment of household/schoolhold items. (I know schoolhold isn't a word but I think it fits 🤣). I tried to choose enough for each student to have two but I managed to miscount, of course. Then I made and laminated 2 copies of small cards with pictures of each item on them. The items I chose included:

1. a stapler
2. an empty water bottle
3. a paper tower roll
4. a pen
5. a binder clip
6. a glue stick
7. a fish toy (a finding nemo toy I had in my house to be exact. One of my kids goes "you have kids?" and I said "no I just like finding nemo" 🤣)
8. a full water bottle
9. a plastic spoon
10. a master lock
11. headphones
12. a cell phone (wanna get your students engaged? hand one of them your cell phone)

After each kid was randomly given a card or two, they were handed their item so they could gauge the real feel and weight of it. They then wrote predictions, (in complete sentences) with reasons for whether they thought their item could be moved by the wind or not.

After each student had time to get a feel for their item and wrote their sentences, they were called up to the chart to tape their item to the column that reflected their prediction. Then they placed their item on the vent to see if it would move. The children were all so excited to watch each other place their items on the vent and see if they moved. Their predictions were shocking to me. Some of them thought items as heavy as a stapler could be moved by the vent.

After they tested their theories, they placed their second copy of their item card on the results side of the chart. The students then went back to their original recording sheet and wrote down their results. My kiddos had so much fun with this and learned a lot about the power of wind!

Water Cycle!

My after school class of second graders and I have been focusing on weather. We started off with the water cycle

which by the way inspired my first Teachers Pay Teachers item. I made it for after school then just thought what the hey and posted my first freebie.

Here's a look at the anchor chart I used to introduce the water cycle.

As you can see it gives a basic description of the four main parts of the water cycle. We talked in depth about each part. To see the other parts of the lesson you can click here to see the other parts of the lesson!

Where Did the Fro Go?!

To answer your question the Fro hasn't gone anywhere. Balthazaar and I have just been very busy the past few months.

December: I took a break from blogging because I was closing in on the end of my final semester of graduate school and it was important to me that nothing else came in the way of my finishing school strong. I did finish my Literacy Master's degree Birth through Grade 6 from The College of Saint Rose🎓. *picks fro* The same weekend my brother finished his Doctoral degree so I actually submitted my final assignment online from a different state so that I could watch my brother walk across the stage since his school had a winter graduation and mine does not. I couldn't be more proud of the two of us!

My family the weekend of my brother and my graduation.

January: Since I have some more free time, now that I don't have to come home and stress about homework every night, I decided to contribute to my school's after school program which is always looking for more teachers. I was feeling apprehensive about jumping in and taking over so I was assigned to work with a co-teacher. She was looking to only teach some days and I was looking to just get my feet wet and learn how things are done in the program. I must say I really lucked out with the teacher I got paired with she's so great to work with. She helps me out with anything I need and was great about showing me the ropes of the program. We alternate teaching days and planning weeks and from how it's been going so far I think everything is going great. It also gives me some experience in planning and in being in charge of my own class even if it is only for a few hours after school.

I also took my final Literacy exam in January. I am still waiting on the results but I felt pretty good about the exam when I left. This is my last exam before I can apply for my initial certification in Literacy. I haven't quite decided what my next step is after that. My family is looking to move, but we can't decide where. Once we figure out where we're going I can see about moving my certifications to another state and figuring out how to count my substitute teaching experience toward my professional certification.

February: I've been using this month to take The Teacher With the Fro to a whole new level. I now have items for sale on my Teachers Pay Teachers account which you can always see in the sidebar. I've set up a Facebook account for The Teacher With the Fro! You can also follow me on instagram!

Thank you all for your support through liking and sharing my pages as well as making purchases!

There's more to come!

Ah The Good Ole Days

The other day I received an email about teachers that were going to Boston and the teachers that were being assigned to cover them... The only problem was these teachers work at a different school than I do. I went to ask my principal if she knew anything about it and she said yes. Apparently there is some professional development going on and because of the amount of teachers they had going to it they were scrambling for subs and my principal was like "cool borrow my building sub!" The only problem is she didn't tell me about this conversation and I wasn't notified that I was going to another school until I got that email. After I asked her about it she asked if I was comfortable with it, at that point I didn't want to be a problem. Honestly I was/am comfortable with it, when our district is in need I want to be a team player and help out any way that I can. I just would've like to have been asked or at least notified as opposed to being loaned out like a piece of furniture.

Anyway....

While I was talking to a teacher about being loaned out another teacher that works at my school and the school I'm on loan to so she knew the teacher I was subbing for. She said the class was good and just had one heavy hitter that they probably would keep home. Fast forward to this morning when I got there. There were no kids in the classroom yet and I was reading through the plans and saw a behavior chart with a students name on it and I immediately flashed back to a year ago, which was the last time I had been in this building, and remember this kindergartner flipping out on me. I had no idea she had any special needs, although at the beginning of the school year in kindergarten it's possible she had not been diagnosed with anything yet. So this adorable little girl, now a first grader who somehow remembers me... came in, went to special, spit on someone flipped out and was sent home before 8:15.

Meanwhile, the kids are in special and this school's building sub decided to come chat me up... clearly not noticing I'm trying to familiarize myself with the math lesson before they get back, I'm sure she was just trying to be nice and I wasn't in a bad mood but for some reason she was just rubbing me the wrong me. Later during lunch she came in again and I mentioned that I was writing an email to the teacher I was in for and she looked at me with this face and said "You have her email address? And why are you emailing her??" Like it was the strangest thing ever and I was like "Since I have a district email it's easier for me to leave a detailed account of the day than to try and write it on a piece of paper and I'm sure the teacher wants to know how the day went, I would if it was my class." And she's like "Not me, if it was my class I wouldn't care, I wasn't there so I don't wanna know." Which to me that was an insane answer, if it was my class I would want to know behaviors of my students while I was away and what work was done so I'd know where to pick up and didn't have to rely on kids because whenever you ask a group of kids something you get 100 different answers. Honestly I've been a building sub for almost a year and she's been one for less than a month and she's question how I do my job? I've never had a teacher be like "thanks for the email, next time a little less detail."

Also...

My biggest surprise came when this huge child came up and gave me a hug, didn't say a word, and walked off. After about 20 minutes of contemplation and trying to figure out where I knew that kid's eyes from I realize, he went to the school I work at last year and let's just say he's not one I'd expect to give me a hug on sight. I feel bad that I just kind of mutter out "hey" when I saw him because I didn't recognize him, I actually was happy to see him and would've been happy to talk to him and ask him how he's adjusting at this school. Maybe tomorrow when I go back I'll see him again. I later saw 2 of my other former students and couldn't immediately place their names. It weird to me that I knew their faces but after only a few months I'd dropped their names from my immediate memory. I also saw one of my former coworkers who I really admire as a teacher, and I got to hang out with a library media teacher I like, but I see her sometimes at my current job.

Lastly...

I was reminded of my favorite thing about working at a school where people don't see me everyday, the compliments. I'm down about my ability to be a teacher sometimes but I'm damn good at it. Other teachers and principals always come up to me and talk about how strong of a teacher I am and how I can keep the kids in line, followed by the "are you going to be applying for a job in the district soon?" It's a huge compliment when someone takes notice of how I can do my job. And the substitute principal came in the room today during a moment when the class was behaving amazingly and I was enthusiastically and confidently modelling the math lesson. He gave me a fist bump.

In the Pocket

Continuing my work with my fifth grade tutor student, she tends to not only use run on sentences, but she repeats words several times in her writing. I thought to myself, "How can I help her to come up with other words?" So I decided to have her come up with other words instead of me just telling her what to write.

We began with some commonly overused words in writing: big, small, good, fun, happy, and the dreaded said. #SaidIsDead.
We've all read those papers where every time the student wants a character to talk it's "Bob said, then Jeff said, and Bob said" on and on and on and steady as she goes.

I began by cutting out different color construction papers into the shape of pockets, like pants pockets. I intended to use popsicle sticks to write our synonyms on but I couldn't find my popsicle sticks so what do teachers do? Improvise. I cut up the index cards I had on hand. Together we worked one word at a time to come up with synonyms. It actually ended up being pretty difficult at some points. For her coming up with synonyms, for me coming up with questions to prompt appropriate synonyms. Our end results were awesome! I hung our pockets on the wall and they are available for her to use when she is writing.

Next week we start the writing process so we may be able to use the pockets during revisions!