A Rough Day Indeed. Plus Bonus Friday Eve.

Hump day was not a fun time in second grade. At least yesterday afternoon wasn’t. After a fun morning of reading groups and snow spelling (writing our words on our desks in shaving cream), we struggled to follow rules in the afternoon. Two of my students got in trouble for kicking another girl on the playground even after she asked them to stop. Another student (who is constantly vying for attention of any kind) spent the entire math lesson twisting and turning and playing with his coin manipulatives. Instead of chastising him, I simply put his name on the board and talked to him during recess time. He, along with the other two students wrote notes home to their parents (only 1 cried). In their notes, they explained their behavior and why it was not acceptable. They then had to take their notes home, get them signed and return them today. Woof. I know it’s a rough consequence for a second grader, but they will only be as responsible as we treat them. Obviously, we have high standards for the kids.

Luckily today has been a better day. After yesterday’s afternoon shenanigans, I had track practice, lifting, and Boyfriend came to visit. We went to cheer on BCVB in their last regular season game, and then came home and just did nothing. It was glorious actually, but the blog life was one of the last things on my mind. Oops.

On to today (Thursday, November 7^th as my students would write it).

Today was a really fun day for me because my teacher spent most all of the day out of the room. I know (Hey Miss Specht! Know is one of our spelling words!) that I have been teaching everything for 5 weeks now, but today was the first day that I was really by myself. No other teacher ladies. Just Miss Specht (the adult?) and seventeen little cherubs. Here’s the best news… No one died, and we all learned things :). I realize that died sounds a little dramatic, but I couldn’t use cried because I did have a crier today. He was upset that I kept him in for laying his head on his desk (literally) all afternoon. Whatever. Do the crime, do the time (your recess is MINE). Kind of catchy isn’t it? That gives me an idea for a blog segment… rhymes heard ‘round the classroom. Enjoy!

“You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.”

“Dot, dot, not a lot.” (For when we glue things.)

“Qué pasa calabaza? Nada, nada limónada.”

Capisce? Capisce! (That’s how I ask my kids if they understand or not. It’s hilarious.)

We say a whole lot of other cutsie sing songy things but I can’t remember what they are now. Ask me sometime!

And now, an excerpt from a second grader’s journal. The prompt was to write about what it would be like if they could build their own library. Responses were hilarious, but I only had time to write down one. (That’s what being an actual busy teacher lady and having to leave right after school (for track practice) will do to you.)

“My library would have twenty-nine flors of books. I will be strong. I will build a library so kibs can build stamina. love books I say.”

:) Those cuties always make me smile. On that note, I’m off to the library to finish my final reflection on student teaching. Did you catch that? Final Reflection. GAH! Wish me luck!

Until tomorrow… (ish)

Peace, love, and inconsistent blogging,

Jayna

Count Yo' Blessings.

Today was the first snow of the year. That’s right, we’ve got that icky sticky white stuff a-swirlin’ and a-flyin’ around the sky along with a mixture of rain today… which means that my kids are a little screwy. Teachers swear that the kids are like little barometers. If the weather is about to change, then their behavior will change too. It’s crazy how accurate they can be!

School today flew by. It seems like each day goes faster and faster. It’s crazy that I’m almost done student teaching, but it’s also really nice. I’m ready for a break and I’m glad that the days aren’t dragging on. Dragging days= dragging kids= crabby teachers, so it’s a great thing that teaching is going so quickly.

Know what else is great? Reading 2^nd grade journal entries. I am incredibly proud of how well the kids are writing and (today in particularly). Today my teacher even commented that she had read a few of the journals and SHE (after 25 years of teaching 2^nd grade) was impressed by how I had pushed the students to write so well. So yes, I’m very proud :) Even I didn’t know I could do that for my students. Check out what they wrote today. The prompt was to write about 2 things that they are thankful for and why…

“I am thankful for me and my famly. I am thankful for food. I am thankful for all theos thigs. If we did not have food we would diye. If we did not have a famly we would be lowle.” (You are right, we would be very lonely. I didn’t realize my kids would express that feeling through writing.)

“I am thankful for my famaly. I am thankful for Jesus. Becase thay love me. Becaue he is with us every day.” (He was so proud of writing this that he ran up to show me right away.)

“We are thankful for food. because we would stav to dath and we would not be here.” (Good thinking señor. Truth.)

“I am thankful for God. Because he made me and my friends. I am thankful for my Parents. They mean so much to me.” (Okay, I almost teared up when I read this. What a sweetie.)

“I am thankful for the food because we stay alive. I am thankful for the earth because it has oxgen around it. I am thankful for God because he made all of the plants. I am thankful for God because he made all of us.” (Pure genius.)

“I am thankful for christmas. Because Jesus rose from the dead. I am thankful for livying. Because I have fun.” (So close, and right idea!)

“… I’m thankful for a lot of things but the most thing I’m thankful for is Jesus died on the cross for us.” (She’s 8 years old and knows and accepts Christ’s death for us more openly than most people I know.)

“The first thing I am thankful for is my famliy. Because family’s are pepele that God gave you. Family’s are all children of God and they are loyal brother’s and sister’s to you. Family’s are peple who will help you along the way and they will teach you to walk in the light of God. When you you are just a yung little kid they will thech you prayers. The next thining is Jesus. Because God ast Mary to bring his son into the world. If Jesus was’n’t born there would be to much harm and fitis in the world.” (People, I cannot make this stuff up.)

“I am thankful for water. Because we can swim in it. And plants Because we get food from plants. And plants give air to us.” (Someone has been paying attention in our science lessons!)

“I am thankful for my famliy. And I am thankful for my home. Because they are really special to me. And because I wouldint have all these things if it wasint for God.” (I would also like to thank the academy…. Such a sweetheart.)

“I am thankful for my home. Becouse I get to sleep. I am thankful for food. So I am not hungry.” (Ladies and gentlemen… Breakfast Boy.)

Now if that doesn’t melt your heart, I’m not sure what will. Truly it reminds me of how we are to be child-like in our faith, full of love and wonder and trust in God. It gets so much harder to do when you’re experienced in the world, but hanging around little children can really humble you… at least it humbles me.

And now, I would like to add what I am thankful for today and why.

Today I am especially thankful for my grandpa on his 74^th birthday. I’m so thankful for him for being a wonderful role model to his children and grandchildren and to the thousands of college kids that he has influenced over the years. My grandpa is filled with patience and love and I aspire to be like him (although I will probably never be as calm) someday. Thanks grandpa (I know you’re reading this) for being wonderful. Happy Birthday!

And thanks to all of my other family members too…. My grandmas, grandpas, uncles, aunts, cousins, and all of the extended family. I would not be half the person that I am without your influences. You. Guys. ROCK. :) and I really, truly, with all of my heart, mean that.

These people are the best. Thanks for always being my #1 (and 2, 3, and 4) fans!

Okay, enough of being sappy and sentimental for tonight. Let’s break it up with our quote of the day from math class!

Me, “How much is a fifty-cent piece worth?”

Student,“$1!”

So. Close. :)

And with that, I’m off to do homework for the night. Until tomorrow…

Peace, love, and a month of thankfulness,

Jayna

Routine

Is it weird to say that I love the routine of elementary school? Even though school is madness about 67% of the time, the other 33% of the time totally keeps me sane. I love having a routine for the kids and it (surprisingly) makes the days and weeks go by much faster.

Speaking of those days and weeks going by…. I only have 17 days left of student teaching. HOW CRAZY IS THAT? And a better question… WHAT THE HECK AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY LIFE AFTER THAT? Obviously, I will spend one more semester taking classes and finishing up my degree. In the spring I will graduate with a major in elementary education, a minor in Spanish, and endorsements in reading and coaching. Then I have to be a big kid, like a real grown up teacher lady. With like a job. And probably an apartment and stuff. I’m not sure that I’m ready for that. How will I decide where to go? It’s been insane thinking about the preceeding questions and talking them over with my family and college friends. In a few more months we will all go off our separate ways. There will be no more walking down the hall or up a couple flights of stairs to visit everyone. There’s talk of North Carolina, California, Pensylvania, Colorado and all sorts of places. I’M NOT READY FOR THIS. But I suppose that I have a few months to prepare. Starting by setting my schedule for spring (my final) semester (tomorrow morning at 7… bleh).

Adding to the fact that I’m (willingly or unwillingly) becoming a big girl (adult?) is the fact that I passed the second part of my Praxis II test! Which means that yes, I am smarter than a 6^th grader (questionable in math though…) and that I am one step closer to licensure in the state of Iowa. Unfortunately, I am still waiting on the results of the first part of the test (PLT). It should be any day now. CRIPES.

Ps….

Bahahahaha. Funny every time. 

Bonus things.

I am SO ready to be just a college student again. I love teaching, I really, really do, but it has been INSANE trying to be an awesome teacher lady, college student, college athlete, education club officer, roommate, girlfriend, sister, daughter, etc…. and trying to do them all super well. Mostly it results in little to no sleep (pretty normal for those of you who know me). Also totally exhausting. Then again, I have to keep reminding myself that I don’t get to do this forever. This is my last year of doing all of the things. My last year. Yes, after this I will more than likely be a busy teacher lady and coach and many more things, but it will never be the same as it is right now. (Sorry guys, apparently I’m feeling extremely sentimental right now.)

But really, I was thinking about it all earlier. This will likely be the last year that I live in Sioux City. Not that I love Sioux City, but it’s been my home for 4 years. BCU has been wonderful to me, and I’ve never been more glad that I came. (Shoutout to 18-year-old-super-unsure- and-indecisive Jayna who made one of the best (and scariest) decisions to come here. Well done.)

As Grace would say, “MEEEEMORRRIIESSSS!”

And on that note, here are some photos from memories made this past week… enjoy :)

 My sister, the cheerleader. And of course, my beautiful momma. 

My sister, the dingus. Gosh I love that little nugget.

 The pre-picture...

The picture. Love these girls. 

 I love the friends that might as well be family. I've been blessed with a lot of them....

See what I mean? 

Until tomorrow...

Peace, love, and sappy reminiscing, 

Jayna

PS- My class is STILL waiting on our pen pal letters from Nevada. Darn USPS.

But Really, The Worst Blogger Ever

… okay, I know I’m really not the worst blogger ever, but I’ve been pretty stinking bad this week. It has been a very crazy, busy week. Track practices have finally picked up which is very exciting, but also highly inconvenient. Our practice time is usually at 3:30 or 4:15. I can’t leave school until 3:45 and I usually need to stay behind so that I can be prepared and planned out for upcoming lessons. I’ve also been attempting to have a social life (ehhh), and have been an avid Charger cheerleader in the final matches of volleyball season and for upcoming wrestling season. (I can’t wait for wrestling!!) (And basketball too :))

Okay, anyway I really have been making an effort the past few days to get the blog up. Here’s the proof…. The drafts of Wednesday and Thursday’s blogs. I had even started on today’s already!

Wednesday:

Our journal prompt today was to write about your favorite book. Here are blurbs from two of my favorite writers, Breakfast Boy and The Ranter.

“My favorite boob is Green Eggs an Ham. It is funy. I wont to eat Greer eggs. Sam I am is funy!”

“My favorite book is Click Clack moo Cows that tpye. I dont know how cows know how too spell and tpye? It was funny when they wrote a letter too farmer brown. Saying were closed no milk too day and it said to eggs too.”

Thursday:

HAPPY WEEN!

“Halloween is the funest holiday because you get to where costume’s and you get candy!”

My kids are so stinking sugared up. Good thing we didn’t plan on learning much today!

Friday:

Apos’trophe’s

This week we have been learning about apostrophes. Apostrophes are a hard concept for second graders so we have spent a lot of time talking about ownership, singular words and plural words. (We have not addressed contractions yet.) The kids are catching on, but there has also been a hilarious amount of apostrophe abuse in our journals.

Despite how crazy these kids can make me…. I do love second grade.

Here’s what else happened today…

We had to do the mass today for All Saint’s Day. The kids did an awesome job of reading and singing and participating, but especially reading. There were some hard words like Solemnity, extraordinary, and surprisingly enough Lamb and pure were tricky for them to spit out. But they practiced and made me very proud today :)

The cutest faithful journal ever…

“I contit wate for November 1^st it is all saints day we have mass saints day is very fun. Some days’ are fun like Halloween and crismis so is sanse day to! Saints day is all abawt all the saints that follow Gods 3 cmandmits. Saints are holle pepolle in the world and they blev in God.”

Also, one of my students (Breakfast Boy) has been journaling about a pet lizard that he got for his birthday. Today, Breakfast Boy (who sits in the front row) quietly gets my attention and says, “Miss Specht, I have to tell you something.” Then he proceeds to tell me, “We found out that my lizard’s not a boy; it’s a girl.” I asked how he found out and he replied, “She had babies.” So now instead of one birthday lizard, my Breakfast Boy has 7. When I asked, he said that they were keeping them for now and that he changed the lizard’s name to Mrs. Leatherhead.

It’s so hard not to laugh out loud sometimes. It was impossible when he told me that the new name was Mrs. Leatherhead.

So! I have exciting news! Next week is my last full week! Of teaching absolutely everything! So that we be really cool! Also kind of sad. It’s crazy how fast this semester has gone by!

Speaking of almost being done, I am almost (almost) done with all of my Praxis testing. I take the last part of the test tomorrow morning at 8. Say a prayer for me please!

Until Monday,

Peace, love, and surprise sex changes,

Jayna

I'm the Worst Blogger Ever.

More to come tomorrow...
and I promise that it won't suck!

Peace, love, and rainchecks,
Jayna

The Longest Day of the Week

I’m so sorry my loyal bloggers! Tuesdays are the longest days of the week. Not really because of school because we do have music and 45 minutes of library and computer. But no, after school is what makes things impossibly long. Our student teaching night class is held on Tuesday nights from 4:30 to 5:30, which means that I miss practice. So after class, I get to go lift solo (with another team). Today that team was boys basketball. I love their sound track, but it’s hard to lift with all of them around, plus I don’t want to show them off by out lifting some ;). Kidding! (Mostly.) Anyway after working out I took a nice nap and then headed to the NFC for wrestle offs. (I love wrestling.) In all the crazy, I totally (almost) forgot to blog! Luckily I had already written down a few funny journal entries from today. The kids were supposed to write about their favorite book… here is the aftermath from two of my favorite writers, Breakfast Boy and The Ranter.

“My favorite boob is Green Eggs an Ham. It is funy. I wont to eat Greer eggs. Sam I am is funy!” (Careless, careless spelling. Hilarious ideas.)

“My favorite book is Click Clack moo Cows that tpye. I dont know how cows know how too spell and tpye? It was funny when they wrote a letter too farmer brown. Saying were closed no milk too day and it said to eggs too.” (I just love the way that he writes.)

Since it’s late o’clock, I’m going to keep this short and sweet and head off to bed!

Goodnight until tomorrow…

Peace, love, and (almost) hump day,

Jayna

Right On Time

… or a couple of minutes late. That’s about how my Monday has been. We were a couple of minutes late starting math, a few minutes late to lunch, right on time for art, and a few minutes late getting ready to go home. Sheesh. I’ve been trying to watch the clock, but I also (sometimes) forget that it takes a long time (sometimes a very long time) for us as a class of 2^nd graders to get anywhere.

Monday has been a pretty typical day, with the exception of a few students being stubborn and difficult. About 7 students got the privilege (misfortune?) of staying in for some of their recess to finish or correct their work. And we did have one with water works. They are so stinking cute, and you really want to feel sorry for them, but some of my students are just plain stubborn and stinkers. I can’t let myself pity them too much…. However…

After a long discussion with my rockstar teacher today, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on families. Each student comes from a unique family situation. I really believe that the core of each person, the heart, the root of their being comes from the family. Parents need to cherish, encourage, and challenge their children to grow everyday. Not just to become better students, but better people. I don’t know, I suppose I could rant on and on about the importance of parents and siblings and a positive, loving, attentive but disciplined family, but there’s no point. I just sympathize for some of my students who seem to be lacking somewhere in the family or personal life. I realize that in my school, familial issues are less common, but I still just feel so bad for the sweet little kids who sometimes don’t have a choice or know better because of their family and background.

I suppose, as my teachers often say, “That’s just the way it is.”

Deep sigh.

The only good news about today (other than that it is Monday and I love Mondays) is that I have all of this week planned out so I don’t have anything to do! The bad part is that with my lesson planning done, I should be working on my electronic portfolio. Which I (REALLY) don’t want to. But I suppose “that’s just the way it is.”

Until tomorrow,

Peace, love, and homework,

Jayna