Week 7: Drug Free is the Way to Be on Halloween

Confession: I don't like Halloween.

It's kind of a weird day. If you remove yourself from the American culture and look at it objectively, adults dressing up in costumes is pretty lame. It's not quite so weird if you're a kid because I mean, c'mon, you get candy. But, adults? Mmmm, I don't know. I mean, I'm definitely guilty of dressing up as a poor man's Bill Nye the Science Guy and a pirate in the last two years, don't get me wrong. But, I was just trying to be cool. I think this is one of those things I hate when other people do, but I still do it. Like talking on your cell phone and driving. Or typing sentence fragments.

Most of the teachers are dressing up tomorrow. Partly because it's Halloween, partly because it's the last day of "Kick Drugs Butt" week. (That's what I call it. I would call it "Hugs, Not Drugs" week, but unsolicited hugging is frowned upon.) Anyway, I went to the Halloween store to see if they had any good, cheap costumes. No. How about $40? I'm going to wear that lame Luke Skywalker costume how many times? Once. $40 per wear is a horrible cost per wear ratio. If I bought a $10,000 watch and wore it for a year, it would be a better cost per wear ratio. So, I decided if anyone asks, I'm the "Awesomest Teacher Ever" for Halloween. I mean, I wear that costume every day! Plus, Halloween stores smell like cheap rubber masks and failed dreams.

For my observed lesson on Wednesday, I taught about solids, liquids, and gases. At the end, the students had to draw several different example of each. This was one students example of a gas.


Needless to say, he got a 100.

Anecdotal Records

- I have a student who likes to read the thesaurus for silent reading time. I know, awesome. He likes to try out words on me to see if he can use them correctly and to see if I know what they mean. On Monday, he calls me over and says, "Mr. Puffer, me and you are very intellectual." To which I reply, "Yes, Student R, we are. I'm glad you recognize that."

- During indoor recess on Tuesday, some of the students were playing a board game version of Hangman. I was helping out one of the teams when they lost. As I'm walking away, Students T says, "Mr. Puffer, sometimes you stink at this." I thought that was hilarious.

- On Wednesday, the class was working on descriptive writing, specifically showing what someone looks like when they're sad. While brainstorming ideas, Student R (same as above) says, "When I'm sad, I drink a lot. I don't know why." Clearly, he meant juice or something.

- On Wednesday, I was walking the bus riders to the gym, when a little girl from another class turns to me and says, "You be lookin' handsome, today!" To which I replied, "Well, thank you, but I'm dressed the same as I normally am. What's different?" She said, "I don't know, you combed your hair." Oh. Okay. Thanks?

- About once a week or so, one of my students who is Jewish will start debates about which is better, Hanukkah or Christmas. One went like this: "Well, Hanukkah has eight days. They say that there's twelve days of Christmas, but there's really only one." Point, Judaism.

- I got an awesome picture, yesterday. Here it is:


It's Halo. Plus, he wrote sentences about it. He basically did a writing assignment without me even having to make him.

- Here's my jack o' lantern.


Get it? :-/

Week 6: What? It's week six already!?!

This week's blog won't be as long.

Two awesome things happened this week.

1) They gave me ten free book fair bucks. CHA-CHING.
2) I was booed. (Like a Halloween Secret Santa, sorta)
2b) My sister ate the candy from my boo bag as soon as I got home. (Not so awesome.)

Oh. One thing I'm starting to learn: (probably an improper use of a colon) We don't grade for the sake of grading, we grade to assess. I know that's drilled into us from our first education course, but it just clicked with me. During the independent practice in math today, I came to a realization. No, I will not walk you through this assignment step-by-step (day-by-day) because I want to know what YOU know. /epiphany And you know what I found out? There are a bunch of them that can't order numbers. So, guess who gets some extra help with that? They do!

Next week is 'Don't Do Drugs Week.' Also known to teachers as 'Wear Jeans All Week' Week.

I start full-time teaching next week. I'm a little nervous, but much less than I was at the beginning of the semester. It sort of feels like my dad's taking the training wheels off of my bike and pushing me into the street. Or the time my mom was teaching me to drive a stick and I killed the engine in the middle of an intersection.

Anecdotal Records

- Student hands me his monster drawing.
Me: "I like it. I like the color. That's a nice blue."
Student: "It's cerulean."
Me: "It's what?"
Student: "Cerulean."
Me: "Isn't that blue?"
Student: "It's lighter than blue."
Me: "OK."
(I don't know. It was hilarious to me. Maybe it's the way he said it.)

- Another thing that second graders do that I did when I was their age:
"Tic tac toe/three in a row
Barney got shot by a GI Joe
Took him to the doctor and the doctor said
Whoop, Barney's dead.
That's a horrible, horrible thing to type. Where did this chant/song originate? And why is it so popular with second grade boys?

- Introducing contractions today, I asked, "Who likes to use contractions?" To which Student T (who always responds contrarily) says, "I don't!"

- Note: A Google image search of the word "contractions" yields numerous photos of women in labor pains.



But, I was able to find an interesting picture anyway. Take that Google!
_________________


P.S. I'm going to have the best jack o' lantern on the block. I'll post a picture of it in the next couple weeks.

Weeks 4 & 5: Okay, I'm starting to get used to this...

Well, there goes having a weekly blog. I guess I'll just have to double up.

I've been fighting writing another one lately because I have been lacking inspiration. I'm really settling into the routine of being around second graders all day. Their seemingly endless supply of unintentional witticisms has run dry. Or maybe I'm just not noticing them as much anymore.

My Last Two Weeks in Three Words (or more. probably more.)

"Move your clip." I added that to my arsenal last week. Did the text size just change? Yes.

I was observed for the first time last Wednesday. It went alright. The lesson was off the chain; the students were their usual selves. Student G does this thing in the middle of meeting area time where he/she'll just get up and walk off. It's kind of like sleepwalking, but not. Daywalking? Maybe. You have to say her (oops I gave it away, she's a she. I'm too lazy to go back and change all the pronouns) name to snap her out of it then remind her to stay seated. It would be funny if she didn't do it ALL THE TIME. I sympathize (empathize?) though, because that was me in elementary school. I remember taking the "scenic route" to sharpen my pencil countless times. Not ADD, just ... constantly interested in things happening around the room. And maybe a little ADD. Undiagnosed, of course.

They're awesome in PE. They've won the citizenship award three weeks straight. Too bad that doesn't translate to walking in the hall. They refuse to walk in a straight line without talking. It drives me crazy. We're working on it, though.

Parent teacher conferences were enlightening.

In the last four weeks, we have spent at least sixteen days doing indoor recess.

Maybe I'm just weird, but I think faculty meetings are kind of fun. I mean, free candy? And I get to learn about Facebook privacy settings? Save some for Christmas! (I'm only kidding a little. They aren't that bad.)

I went to a PTO meeting/4th grade program. Ratio of meeting:program? 1:30. The meeting was literally less than a minute long and consisted of one announcement. So, professors, can I cross that off my To-Do List?

Anecdotal Records

- Walking down the hallway, one student said to another, "I'm not ACTUALLY a vampire..." That was the only snippet of the convo I heard, and I spent the rest of the day imagining what the rest of it was.

- Student G (same as above) likes doing cheers in class. Upon clapping her hands together, throwing them in the air, jumping into the air and landing, she proclaimed, "That felt good."

- Student J was quietly singing a country song to himself one day. I couldn't tell what it was, but I know it had the word 'whiskey' in it. This student also cannot believe that I have never been on a hog hunt.

- Whenever students come to me and try to talk about something they shouldn't really know anything about, I play dumb. Example:

Student: "Mr. Puffer, do you know Jason from Friday the 13th?"
Me: "Where's Jason going to be on the 13th?"
Student: "No. Jason. From the movie Friday the 13th."
Me: "You're going to see a movie with Jason on Friday?"

At this point, they usually walk off.

- My look is getting better.

(The text editor for blogger is so wack. I know the text changed sizes a couple times. Sorry, I tried to fix it.)