Field Trip Fun

This week we braved our first field trip of the year to the Discovery Children's Museum.

It was a first for my mentee and my student teacher.  It was a first for one of my students.  It was of course, the first field trip for our elf as well.

We found a way around the "no touching the elf" rule with a plastic bag. Naturally, it's a magical bag:

Ms. P was super excited for her first field trip. 

She led the kids on a sing along on the bus.

We had some amazing chaperones and the kids had a great time doing some hands-on learning.  The museum staff was helpful and attentive.  

They even replied on Instagram, which made my class super happy.

Post field trip plans? We made thank you cards for our chaperones, worked on our essays, began typing, and silently read.  

After school I had tutoring, decorated for a baby shower, and then went to buy paper goods for the shower. I got home around 7 pm (after picking up Taco Bell for dinner), ate quickly, and passed out.  Field trip days are rough!

Stuff and Things

If you're a frequent reader, you may have noticed my new blog header.  Welcome to the revamped version of my blog.  

This year marks a significant chance in my teaching career.

This year is my first year in third grade.

This year is my first year with a predominately male team. 

This year is my first year as a mentor to a student teacher (from BYU-I).

This is a year of changes and firsts.


While I still firmly love my polka dots, flip flops, and novels, it was time for a change.

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Frey (of Fisher and Frey).  My students had just returned from a magnificently educational field trip.  We'd studied various scientific concepts and this was a well planned, efficiently executed culminating learning experience for the fifth graders.

However, they are also hormonal ten year olds.  So when we encountered Dr. Frey in the hallway returning from my field trip and they were asked what they had learned, one of my snarky students simply replied "stuff".  Dr. Frey politely probed for more information (as we teachers do).  Another student piped up "things".  Dr. Frey shot me a disapproving look, said "well then" and turned to walk down the hallway.

That's right, they learned:

I have never been more embarrassed and simultaneously amused by my students.  With all the preparation in the world, children still say the most ridiculous things.

In respect to these unpredictable moments, I shall rename this blog in their honor.

In teaching, we cover stuff and things.  In life, we deal with stuff and things.  Cheers to the unexpected moments.

Field Trips & February

I didn't do so great with my whole finish a book a month goal...

To be fair, a lot of events {occurred in January}, so I can't be too upset.

I'm currently dealing with a sinus infection.  They've lessened with frequency post {surgery}, but are still quite unbearable.  I get another new student today (that makes 37 in case anyone was keeping track) and we have an outdoor field trip...with a wind advisory.  Clogged nasal passages meant I woke up at four having trouble breathing (despite medication and a humidifier), so it's been an incredibly productive day before seven am.  I scheduled our tax appointment, took out the trash, tweeted my senators about blocking DeVos's nomination for Secretary of Education, graded, and read two chapters of my novel (ya know, the one I was supposed to finish in January).

We also got our Donor's Choose project funded! We've got another one collecting funds on another one entitled {I am Not the Enemy}.  This one requests books on the Holocaust, Jewish and Muslim faith, non-violent resistance, and Native American Indians. Subtle, right?  I'm not ashamed of providing my students with information about the world. They shouldn't be scared of their neighbors. They shouldn't be ashamed of their backgrounds.

I've been asked if I fear a censorship letter from the government.  Quite frankly, it'd be an honor to receive such a letter.  To be viewed as a threat for spreading truth.  I'd be right up there with the scientists, the media, and the National Parks Service.  #goals

Looking ahead to February...

We've already celebrated a 30th birthday party, hosted a Super Bowl gathering, and enjoyed a Netflix marathon. I also attended a friend's bridal shower and went #blackout for a stand against DeVos.

Also up on the docket for this month:

1) We have three field trips.  Today's is the Springs Preserve, we're going to the middle school for a tour, and my class won a bonus trip to the Smith Center at the end of the month for a play.

2) We're celebrating our four year anniversary with buying a mattress and getting our taxes done. Hooray for romance and adulting.

3) Our bathroom cabinet remodel will be almost done. I'm staining our new built ins myself to save on cost (and because I want them to perfectly match the other cabinets).

4) Finalizing the details of a baby shower.  Unfortunately, the bridal shower I was planning is no longer happening because the couple split.  I don't know the details but I wish them both the best.  I don't have the receipts for the items purchased, but luckily another friend is hosting a baby girl baby shower in the upcoming months and is willing to buy some of the items off of me at cost.

5) Hosting a bridal shower for a co-worker (and his soon to be wife) on Friday.  I've got help for this one and hopefully enough supplies. I'll find out Thursday night when I set up!

6) Finishing The Hammer of Thor, creating the TpT products, and starting the next novel for Battle of the Books.

In the mean time, feel free to visit {my store} and enjoy some discounts with the flash sale!

Grateful November 3: Field Trips

We successfully survived our first field trip of the year!

Five classes, twenty chaperones, and 180(ish) excited fifth graders headed to the Henderson Pavillion last week to experience KidsVention.

Prior to the field trip, my students learned about debates, what "pro" and "con" mean, and practiced four debate topics during breakfast.

Careful to steer clear of the current political climate (because it's gotten a bit nasty), the topics were focused on kid-friendly ideas:

1) The United States should end its use of the penny.

2) Students should be required to learn a second language for high school graduation.

3) There should be screen limits for students on school nights.

4) All students participating in sports should earn a trophy.

In class, we talked about how each topic has both pros and cons (because otherwise it'd be a super boring debate).

The kids got clappers at the event, which were promptly confiscated when we got on the bus.  Not to worry, they got them back at the end of the school day.

The event was amazingly well organized, high school students debated with government officials about the four topics, and the whole theme of the event was on the importance of civic responsibility and voting.  

Many of my parent chaperones thanked me for inviting them along.  One described it as a wonderfully safe environment to talk about government because it's been hard to watch the Presidential debates with her children.

After the field trip, our day was devoted to making thank you cards for the chaperones, an empathy lesson from the counselor, and silent reading.

Hooray for field trip days!  

Skidding

The end of the school year does not come to a graceful stop.  Instead, much like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland, the end of May into June is a whirlwind of heightened emotions, long hours, crying students, a never ending to do list, and triple checking lists to make sure every task was accomplished.  

Then, it's over.

If you're wondering what it's like to teach in May, {this video} does a fairly good job at capturing how it feels to be in a fifth grade classroom.

My students are officially on summer break.  I am a few hours away from that joy as well.  My brain, however, decided that 2:38 am was a good time to start the day, so here I am.

Let's recap, shall we?  Since there's a lot that's happened, I'll stick to one topic:

ABC Count Down

The last twenty six days of the school year are devoted to an ABC countdown with each day having a different spirit concept.  In theory, this is wonderful and helps the kids finish the year strong.  However, we also were standardized testing until the end of May and it's incredibly difficult to keep kids motivated on spirit days.  I failed spectacularly at taking pictures this year, so I'll just describe our spirit days.


A: Art day. My students had a math test and I told them their art was fraction models.  They didn't find it funny.  I on the other hand, found it quite amusing.  I gave them some doodle time once their tests were all turned in.

B: Beach towel day.  Students brought in towels (I forgot) and we read outside in the court yard once standardized testing was done.

C: Crazy hair day.  No dye and nothing to distract from testing.  I let my hair dry naturally so participation was easy.

D: Disney day.  I'm sure I was some sort of Disney princess.

E: Exercise day.  We laid on the ground and did some stretches.  We also worked on calming breathing exercises before taking the SBAC.  I walked around in circles for hours "actively monitoring" testing, which means I make sure they're on task, but can't look at the specific questions that are asked because it's confidential.  I also try to win the fitbit step challenge of the day with my coworkers.

F: Fruit day.  Some of my students brought in snacks to share.  B brought me flowers and pineapple (since this was also teacher appreciation week).  Happy coincidence that it was fruit day!  Because I still had a lot of math concepts to teach before the math SBACs (we took ours in three parts: ELA, math, and science while spacing them out three weeks apart), I used this to teach about surveys (favorite fruit), organizing data, and making graphs to represent the data.  Since it was derived from our classroom, the students were super engaged.  They also generated questions that could be answered by the class data, which helped them practice thinking critically.  I paired them up and had them share their questions before analyzing if the question was answered explicitly by the data, inferred by the data, or not supported by the data.

G: Geography day.  This happened to coincide with a digital field trip from {Discovery Education}, so we visited Indiana and learned about cars.

For our first digital field trip, this went fairly well.  We missed the first twenty minutes (because they were out at recess) and this was geared toward high school students, but it was still a fun experience.  We made connections to perseverance and the scientific inquiry process, so they were still able to get something out of it.

H: Hat day! This also coincided with a visit from {Dr. Frey}, a field trip to the {Springs Preserve} for their {Butterfly Habitat} AND May the Fourth (Star Wars Day), so I had to plan accordingly.

Luckily, B's new BB8 hat did just the trick! 

(Naturally, Waffles is in the picture!)

Students learned about life cycles, so this was a perfect tie in with standards.

I: Inside out day.  One students wore a shirt from the movie, while others wore their clothes inside out.  I accepted both for spirit day points on {class dojo}.

J: Joke day.  They brought a joke to share.  Their jokes were not that amusing.  My jokes are rarely child-friendly. 

K: Kickback day.  My first of several opportunities to wear yoga pants to work.

L: Lollypop day.  Students could enjoy a sucker during independent reading time (if they brought their own).

M: Movie day (?).  Again, this was weeks ago and a lot has happened.  If it wasn't movie day, it should have been.

N: Neon day.  Another year has come and gone where I realize that I own nothing neon.

O: Octopus day.  This day, by far, makes the least sense.  We are a landlocked state.  We are in the middle of the desert. Yet, we use this day to discover the {Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus}:

Except this creature isn't real, so instead we have the life chat that not everything you read on the internet is true.

Next year I vote this is orange day. It would be much easier.
 

P: Pajama day in all its glory.

Q: Quiet day.  This coincided with testing, so it was a breeze.

R: Red & read day.  This one was pretty straight forward and a great opportunity for me to rock a red Gryffindor shirt. 

S: Superhero day.  I failed in my attempt to ban Superman shirts.

T: Team day? (This was only a week ago and clearly not a memorable one.)

U: As much as we tried to convince the students that they were to wear their underwear outside their pants like Captain Underpants, the true spirit day was uniforms.  Some of my students came in their boy scout uniforms, some dressed as doctors, and most rocked sports attire.  My request to come as Batman was denied.

V: Video day.  We Facetimed with a teacher who is in the hospital.  Her students loved it.  Mine shared their Vokis that they made on the American Revolution.

W: Watermelon day.  If they wanted to, students brought in pieces to share.

X: x-change autographs.  We took all the fifth graders to the courtyard and gave them twenty minutes to sign yearbooks and t-shirts.

Y: year-end clean up!  They took all their stuff home and I took down everything on the walls.  My classroom is being painted, so everything has to be cleaned and put away.  My room is also being used for summer school, which means everything of value (all my books) that can't be locked away must come home to the garage.  B's been awesome at helping.

Z: We spent the day at the pool, then had a BBQ so I'm not quite sure what the official spirit day was for yesterday.  I shall call it zzzz for naps day!  (Although I had no nap and probably could have used one.)



When I wasn't handing out spirit day points and remembering the ABC count down, the end of the year also brought:

*Teachers vs. Students Kickball: (I did not strike out and the teachers won.  Success all around)

*Assemblies

*Hosting a bridal shower

*Hosting 3 baby showers

*End of the Year Staff Party (we had a taco truck and a fiesta)

*Observations (because there's no better time than the end of the year!)

*Grade level trivia with iPads and Kahoot (more on that later!)

*parent/teacher conferences

*report cards and awards 

*Fifth grade promotion ceremony
 
*Fifth grade pool party and BBQ lunch

*meetings.  Lots of meetings.

*Skyping with the Chief of Staff for Arkansas's governor

*Dunk Tank:

 

Oh yes, and finishing my grad school class.  45 non-contract hours in 3 weeks.  That was rough to say the least.  But I'm done (for now) because there is literally no incentive for me to take any additional courses (but more on that later).

On non-teaching related things, some of my bridesmaids and I planned the bridal shower and ordered invites, B and I escaped to Arizona, we took in a 51's game with friends, we puppy sat for a week, and had our AC start acting up (thank you home warranty), and I had car issues.  Fun times!

No wonder I'm exhausted!  

All that stand between me and summer break is finishing the last dozen items on our end of the year check list and officially signing out.  T-8 hours until break! 

 

Teachable Moments, Part 1 (field trips)

A large part of teaching relies on being reflective of one's practices.  Some lessons I've bombed and that's alright. I made corrections and retaught it with a different strategy with a different outcome.

Sometimes I embark on various different tasks and when I'm done, I realize there was a much more efficient way to get the job done.  Here is part one of teaching lessons I've learned the hard way.

Field Trips

I completely messed up paperwork for my first field trip.  I didn't know I was supposed to collect permission slips by a certain due date and that you're supposed to call and remind parent chaperones a few days ahead of time. I didn't know you should have a back-up wait list in case the parents are unable to attend. I didn't know you had to clarify a dress code with chaperones and inform them that infants and other small children are not invited.  Reading the list, most of these things are common sense...but they weren't to me.  

My undergraduate degrees are not in education.  I started teaching at 21.  I was a first year teacher, on track 1 (meaning I started three weeks later than everyone else due to year-round schedules) and I didn't have a good mentor.  My mentor teacher was quite hostile and took it upon herself to try to make me look incompetent at any given opportunity.  So many of the things "I should have known"...I didn't.

So, newbies, here's your field trip helpful hints:

1) Have your permission slips spell checked by admin.  

2) If you're taking chaperones, make a note that just the chaperone is welcome (and not younger siblings).  Have chaperones fill out contact information.  Include a blurb that indicates if more chaperones volunteer than are allotted, you will be holding a lottery system and have a wait list.

3) Send reminder slips and/or phone calls to those chaperones a few days ahead of time.  It's very frustrating to learn the day before that the mom you were counting on is no longer attending.  Have a backup plan (and a back up, back up plan).

4) If you have to collect money, check with your office administrator about receipts.  One school just wanted a white receipt turned in daily while another has the teacher write out receipts for each child.  In most cases, money is turned in daily. Ask first to make sure you know what's expected of you.

5) The print roster option that's available in most electronic grade book systems?  Use that.  Print off one and use it as your master list for who has turned in what.  Way more efficient than a post-it note list of who's done what.  Even better, staple that list to the outside of a folder or manila envelope.  Keep everything (except the money) related to that field trip inside.

6) Reward students that bring back slips or money on the first day they can.  The more that are turned in on time means the less work you have to do (tracking down the slips, sending home second and third copies, making phone calls, etc).

7) Make sure you tell the specialists that you are taking a field trip, that way they aren't looking for you.  They appreciate the heads up (and in some cases, the extra prep).  If possible, see if you can switch preps with another grade and have your specials when you return.

8) Make sure to check the master calendar before scheduling to make sure there aren't any assemblies.  Again, speaking from experience...ask first.

9) Whenever possible, schedule field trips for a Thursday or Friday.  It's difficult to get kids mentally back to classroom procedures after an exciting field trip, so choose your date carefully whenever possible.  

10) See the nurse and get trained on any emergency medical procedures beforehand.  One of my students has diabetes, so I learned how he checks his blood sugar, what to do if it's low or high, and who to call when.  See the nurse before you leave for a field trip to take the necessary materials with you.  Take band-aids and tissues just in case.

11) The emergency backpack that's in most classrooms?  Take it.  For me, it's obnoxiously red and quite old, but inside it contains student information in case of emergencies.  Put any medical supplies inside along with a set of flash cards.  

12) Plan for a debriefing period after the field trip.  I like to set aside 10-15 minutes to let students talk out what they learned.  Set a timer and after that, move on with instruction.

13)  Inform the cafeteria and order sack lunches just in case.  For the most part, field trips will be taken in the morning.  In our district, buses are expected to be back by 1 pm (to start making pick up rounds at schools).  Depending on traffic and where lunch falls, you may want to order sack lunches for everyone.  The ideal situation is that you're back in time to have a normal recess and lunch, so you get your teacher lunch too.  However, on field trip days this isn't always the case.  Be prepared to have the kids eat outside, picnic style, while you and the other teachers take turns running to heat up your lunch.  Eat outside with them. It's one day, it'll be okay.  Plus it gives them the chance to run off their extra energy before continuing on with your day.

14) Wear appropriate shoes and take your cell phone, just in case.  Sunglasses and sunscreen aren't a bad idea either.

15) Make student groups strategically.  Those troublesome students? Don't put them together.   If possible, don't give yourself a group of students.  Plan to be the emergency chaperone and take any students who are off task and need to be separated from the class.

16) Speaking of chaperones, check how many you're supposed to take.  Special education classrooms and general education classrooms have different legal quotas in terms of chaperones to students for field trip purposes.  Some students may need a one on one chaperone.  

17) Ask if there is an additional fee for chaperones.  Include this in your budget numbers and for bus purposes.  Make sure any cost for chaperones (like admission price) is disclosed ahead of time, usually on the field trip paperwork.

18) Whenever possible, try to have both male and female chaperones.  This makes the bathroom situation much easier to manage, especially if at an event with the general public.

19) Make sure you fill the chaperones in on any expectations before the field trip.  An easy way to do this is to send a reminder slip to the chaperones before the field trip, outlining what to expect.  Be sure to include if there's any behaviors to watch out for in your students (behaviors, medical situations, etc)  One year, we took our fifth graders to a baseball game for an anti-smoking presentation.  One of the chaperones bought a beer during the game.  We had to quickly intervene and share that this wasn't appropriate for the field trip.  Again, a lesson learned the hard way.

20) Enjoy yourself!

Veteran teachers, anything to add to the list? 

Kid vention

Today we went on our field trip to Kid Vention in Henderson:

On the way there, I read aloud The Lightning Thief on the bus.  Our sweet old bus driver was a little bit confused when I asked for the microphone to host a read-aloud, but he willingly obliged.  To be fair, I wasn't going to take no for an answer, so his compliance was appreciated :)

As a side note, the read aloud did not go as well as I expected.  I sat on my knees, facing the back of the bus and between the construction zones and swerving, got a little car (bus?) sick from reading.  Plus, some stinkers in the back were being disrespectful.

At least we tried to cram in more reading :)

We got to the ampitheater:

We saw four debates today:

And my students got really, really into it:

Hurray for democracy and voting!

Debates and KidVention

Today we went to Kid Vention in Henderson for a field trip. 

It was a wonderful experience and I'm so impressed with how our fifth graders did! 

They were polite and respectful listeners.

On Monday, we worked on debates:

Our class had the topic: "Should recess be shortened to allow more time to eat?".  We made a pro's and con's list and students worked in teams to write their arguments.  Each side then picked two speakers to represent their side.

We had a practice debate before today's real one, after our field trip.

I'm proud of how well they did!