Turn Up The Heat

But seriously, it’s freezing in my school. On Monday, the janitor turned the heat OFF at 9:30 because “he was hot.” Yes, probably because you are a 43 year old man who is working while my seven and eight year olds are shivering in their seats. Not to mention the poor student teacher (that’s me) who is also shivering despite her socks, shoes, and sweater.  It has been three days and it’s not even that outside cold yet. At some point, the heat is going to have to be turned up. That or I will be sitting on the windowsill/countertop/heater during class. Crazy to think that just a few weeks ago we had early outs of HEAT. Darn this crazy Midwestern weather.

Today was yet another hilarious day in 2^nd grade. (In case you couldn’t already tell, I’m feeling much more optimistic and motivated today. Thank the LORD!) Here are some journal entries from the kids (because I know you've missed them). The prompt was to write about what might happen if you spent a school day with your hands tied together.

“You would fall over and Skin your Knee and cry.” (The capitalized words were obviously very important!)

“I couldint be abe to do anything with my hands tied together.  I could only play soccer. If I only new how to play iny other gomes for your feet. I can’t play baskitball and for sqwaere.” (Soccer. Clutch.)

“It would be hard to write because we have to sit backwords. Do you like to write backword. I would be bizzy. Do you like to do it.” (Do I like what? Like do I regulary tie my hands together and sit backwards? Uhh…)

“I might have trouble writing. And I might not be able to grab my pencil. And I might not be able to write. And I would not be able to read.” (Because having your hands tied definitely effects your eyesight. Naturally.)

“If I had my hands tied together I could not pikc up a cop or I could not eat food I could not do my homework. I could not play baseball. I could not do inethg. I could not rite in my notebook.” (I’m so proud of how much this little guy’s writing has improved so far this year!)

“ If my hand’s were together I can’t eat in the Luchroom. And I can’t pick up a rock. And I could not turn on the TV. And I could not hug my friends.” (I would miss hugging my friends too, you little heart-melter.)

“I would eat. But it would be hard. It would be hard to get on the bus. How would I write?” (This is my breakfast boy for those of you devoted blog readers. Of course he’s worried about how he will eat… typical :))

In addition to hilarious things written in class today, other hilarious things were said.

The secretary came on over the PA to relay a message, and I thanked her by saying, “Thanks Kelly!” This is what I heard next from two students partner reading by the door...

(Whispering) “Who’s Kelly?” “That’s Mrs. S’s real name….” (I really did laugh out loud at that.)

While the kids were still partner reading I was attempting to finish reading their journals. One of my students (who is ADHD and just started medication this week) was sitting next to my desk reading with his partner. This kid (besides for being adorable) is very smart. And now that he’s medicated, he can actually focus (not that I’m an advocate for medicating kids, but this one really needed it). This kid continually impresses me by spreading his learning across all of the disciplines. Here was our conversation while he was partner reading…

“Miss Specht! I found different. That’s an –er word. And I wrote it on my –er, -ur chart.”

“That’s great! Keep reading!”

“Other seeds stick to the fur….Hey, fur! One of our spelling words!”

Honestly, the kid is impressive. He spent his whole recess making two charts for our spelling patterns this week –ir, -er, -ur, and –ar. He’s been filling in words as he comes across them. I’m so proud. Slightly annoyed that he wants to tell me every. single. time. that he finds a word, but mostly just proud.

Well folks after all this ranting, it’s time to set sail off the procrastination nation of blogging and back to real life lesson planning (yuck, I know).

Until tomorrow,

Peace, love, and hump dayyyyee,

Jayna

Unmotivated. Part Two.

Happy Tuesday friends! Today was nothing special from the student teaching end. Nothing too awful, nothing too great, just one student who drove me a little (okay, a lotta) bit CRAY. It's strange how one person (even a little eight year old person) can put a damper on your whole day. And let me just say for the record and I, Jayna Lu, HATE taking away recess. It's no fun for the kids, it's no fun for me. Honestly, I am running out of things for some of my students to do. I'm on the verge of reverting to dictionary copying (using children's dictionaries of course). It astounds me how some kids still aren't getting it. You're not going to get away with blurting out in class. You're just not. Hopefully a few of my students experience some sort of epiphany about this soon. Before I'm totally loca. 

Bonus things. My timing in the classroom has really improved and is coming along nicely! Today I met with all of my reading groups (4) and did such in a timely manner. Like perfectly timed. Even my rockstar teacher commented on it (pre- neat!). In addition, my students took a chapter math test today. It was rough for me to correct. I know that the kids know the information and I literally watched some of them answer their questions without reading them or change correct answers to incorrect ones. I taught them this stuff! (Place value, predicting, estimating, and writing numbers in words.) It's a lot, it's a hard concept, but it's their curriculum. They have to learn it. So we will be doing some reteaching, reinforcing, reviewing and hoping for the best :). 

I love teaching, but it can be so frustrating. (Let me clarify, it can be abundantly rewarding too!) And on that note, I'm off to enjoy some Hunchback of Notre Dame with my roommates. 

Until tomorrow, 

Peace, love, and Disney movies, 

Jayna

Unmotivated.

There is no other word to describe my mood. I just don’t want to do anything (for school... I did go on a 40 minute run tonight. I *heart* exercise). It doesn’t make sense, but when it comes to school…. I don’t know. I love my kids, I love teaching, but I just don’t want to. Like at all. Blahh.

So here’s the synopsis of my day… Monday’s are great. They are (conveniently) especially great days to be unmotivated because 1. we have early outs and 2. my class has art, which means that I get to pawn them off on another teacher for an hour. It’s glorious. Today was very helpful in getting me caught up on planning (I forgot my laptop last Friday).  And let’s be honest, I do as little as possible on the weekends. I’m too tired and attempting to have a social life. C’mon people.

As a matter of fact, I think I would much rather talk about the weekend than about school. This weekend (for most of my college friends) started on Thursday night because classes were cancelled Friday for mid-term break. Awesome for them, less awesome for those of us student teaching. Also, remember that I had a bonus visitor on Thursday. :) After school on Friday, I left school and trucked up to visit Thursday’s surprise visitor. (I’m sorry this is all so vague, but I’ve done a pretty decent job of not name dropping thus far in the blog. You can bet your little butt I’m not going to start now.) Let’s just say that Thurday’s surprise visitor happens to be a boy. Who was a friend. And is now (officially) Boyfriend. Big news! Surprise!

Well, now that I have dropped a very vague bomb (haha) let’s move on to Saturday. I went home!! <3. I spent Saturday afternoon with my fam bam watching some good old highschool volleyball games (OGAG). I really miss playing. Saturday night I headed back to school. I spent the night bonding with my roommate Monica (I guess I didn’t do a very good job with not name dropping in her case…) and another friend over some silly movie with James Franco and a questionable love story.

Still undecided on how I feel about it... probably because I talked through the whole movie and was super confused. Typical.

Sunday, I was up early to cantor at a local parish before heading to the mall on a quest for new cute, winter, teachery shoes. I didn’t find anything I liked, so naturally I spent a ton of money at Bath and Body Works. Let’s just say I won’t need to buy lotion again for a while… Like months. Anyway, Sunday night was pretty uneventful except for one event, an education club meeting. I’m still talking up the new peer mentoring program so we hosted a panel meeting for all ed majors to come and ask questions and discuss educationy things. The most popular topics were observation hours, professionalism, and Praxis II. It was a fun time to get everyone together and to hear their perspectives on teaching, education, and all sorts of other things. I’m excited that things seem to be working out and that people are legitimately showing interest!

That summary of the weekend leads us back to today, where I am currently sitting in the campus atrium sipping hot chocolate with a hint of caramel (because I will be up forever if I have caffeine) and typing the blog out for all you lovely folks, random passer-byers, and loyal readers. Here’s a funny couple of stories to wrap up Monday with giggles…

While on lunch duty today, one of the first graders (who has a very traditional Mexican name) raised his hand and stuttered (he has a cute little speech impediment), “Miss Specht. Guess what?” Me, “What?” Him, “I found out this weekend that I’m Mexican! Know how I know….? Cause my brother is!”

I just about lost it laughing.

Later in the afternoon, the same student’s teacher was dying laughing in the hall and preceeded to tell me this story... She had been quizzing our little Mexican friend on his address, and he was holding his head in his hands saying, “Mrs. F, my brain hurts. My head is on fire, do you know why?” To which another little boy responded, “Is it because you’re Mexican?”

I love elementary school.

Goodnight readers!

Peace, love, and semi-racial jokes,

Jayna

"Que pasa calabaza?"

Friday at school today was awesome. One of the teachers this morning even brought in breakfast for all of us :) Okay, other than that, not particularly cool for any reason other than it was Friday and Fridays are semi relaxing (if the kids aren't all hyper) because we don't really do much.

Naturally, even our journal prompt was relaxed. "Write at least 4 sentences about anything you want!" Ever wonder what's on a second grader's mind? (If not, you should. Kids are hilarious.)

The following are the topics that the kids wrote about. (Sorry I don't have any exact quotes, I left my laptop in my dorm :( Seriously a sad day.)

• Being the school pe teacher
• Aunt visiting
• Diamonds and iphones
• American girl dolls and world peace (I am totally not kidding. She said something like, "it's the best thing that all good people should wish for." Someone's been watching too many Miss America pageants.)
• Dreams
• All holidays and months of the year
• Colors
• Grandma's farm (written in letter form)
• New house
• Kirby's Dreamland
• Trip to the store (to buy cat food and eggs... from my boy who always talks about breakfast food)
• Pizza Hut
• The second grade teachers and how nice we are (Truth! Two kids talked about it!)
• Family (There are 8 pepoel in my family 1 is a dog.)
• Sleepover with a friend

The kids also had pe, an extra recess, and a spanish lesson today. They truly were spoiled. They were also incredibly adorable and excited to have spanish! Because of our weird schedules, we hadn't had a spanish lesson in about a month. Today we worked on conversation words and phrases. Nothing too hard, just your general hello, how are you? what is your name? I also taught them the phrases, "Que pasa calabaza?" and "nada, nada limonada." (Translation, "What's up pumpkin?" and "Nothing, nothing lemonade." Cute and pointless, just the way I like my lessons (KIDDING). But really, they are adorable when they say their newly learned spanish words. It just tickles me to see their excitement. Spanish is a great way to end the day, my week, and my blog!

Hasta lunes!

Peace, love, and espanol, 

Jayna

Just Your Average Thursday

2 weeks full teaching down, 2 (ish) to go.

Today was literally just your average Thursday. It was awesome. Seriously, it’s so nice to get back into the swing of things. Part of being a teacher lady (apart from being flexible) is living for the structure and schedules. (It’s that liiiiiittle bit of my type A personality.)

Anyway, you may ask yourself, “Self. Just what is this crazy Jayna semi-teacher-lady even teaching those darn kids?” Well folks. Here it is, a glimpse into what we did at school today.

Thursday Oct 16

·      Journal

·      Show and Tell

·      Finish Farm Pictures

·      Guidance- bathroom break

·      Reading work

o   Read with partner

o   Read to self

o   Word work proofreading with spelling words

o   Read at the table with Miss Specht

·      Lunch

·      Religion- Ch. 4 Prayers of Celebration, Praise and Thanks

·      Science- review parts of a plant (roots, stem, leaves, flower)

·      PE

·      Math- Estimation

·      Cherry Pie Spelling game

·      Afternoon recess

·      Dismissal

This is what the kids made for their science review today...

And here’s another sneak peak into our journaling today. The kids reflected on their farm trip.

“My favorite part at the farm was the hayride. Because I got to sit in the front the tires look like there going fast. But you are going slow but it looks like your going fast. I almost fell off because when he swiched gears my body went forward and it was fun going on the corn because it was a litille bumpe and I liked it when it tillted because it kind moved you to the right and the left.”

… and now, a bonus blip into my personal life.

Here’s what my room looked like earlier tonight.

MY LIFE IS A DISASTER.

Just kidding, it’s pretty neat actually. Just not in the organizational way.

Well loyal readers, I’m out until tomorrow.

Peace, love, and surprise visitors,

Jayna

Ps- Have fun wondering who the surprise visitor is :) 

E-i-e-i-oooo

As in oooo-h my goodness field trips are a lot of work. Our farm trip today consisted of 31 2^nd grade students and (luckily) 4 teachers. It was finally a nice, sunny day and I think that the kids really enjoyed the trip. We got to see roosters, chickens, goats, cows, bean and cornfields, and a large garden. I was on photo patrol with the ipad, documenting our experience (naturally). Our presenter (part-time farmer, Mr. S.) was fantastic. The kids were fairly well behaved and I think they learned a lot. They all got to eat lunch on the lawn, take a hayrack ride, watch the combine go through the cornfield, and pick their own ear of corn. All in all, it was a very fun day. Although I didn’t teach much (like at all), I’m glad we all had fun :)

Here are some of the memories we captured!

Watching the combine was really cool, even for the teachers. 

Da corn is diiiissss tall! (9ish feet)

One of the kids helped out by snapping this one of the teachers eating lunch! I'm blessed to have such great experienced teachers and role models.

This rooster was rowdy, he squawked the whole time. The class dissolved into giggles. 

Our class photo! Minus two. One boy was sick, and I think another was cut out of the picture :/

Until tomorrow... 

Peace, love, and muddy shoes,

Jayna

For All You Loyal Blog Readers

loyal |ˈloiəl|adjectivegiving or showing firm and constant support or allegiance to a person or institution:

I'm talking to you, whoever you 5 valiant readers are! This blogger website is pretty cool/informative/creepy because I can see how many people visit my page, which posts they specifically view, and even which country they are reading from. Anyway, props to you guys! You rock! Thanks for reading every day. :)

So today I skipped school. GASP! Just kidding, I didn’t really skip, I took my Praxis II test in Sioux Falls! And it went pretty well. I won’t get my scores back for 10-15 days, but I’m not feeling too nervous about it. I felt pretty prepared for the test (even though it took about 2 hours).

After my test I took the rest of the day off for traveling back and sleeping. I feel like I’m coming down with a cold of sorts. NOT OKAY.

Anyway, tomorrow my class is headed out on our field trip to the farm! I’m not as excited about it because I don’t feel great and I don’t think that standing out in the cold will help much. I’m sure that I will have plenty of stories about the trip for you tomorrow!! Stay tuned!

Until then,

Peace, love, and Emergen-C shots,

Jayna

Ps- The font came out this way from my dictionary definition, and I'm too lazy/don't know how to change it. Enjoy :)