What I really want to tell THAT parent.

As with every job there are some things I don't like about teaching:
Grading papers,
Forms, forms forms,
Meetings that have nothing to do with my students,
And sometimes... parents.

This is the internet and any parent tracking me down can find that I wrote this.  But any teacher who has worked with kids long enough has had the parents who drive her crazy.  Teachers, you know what I'm talking about.  Parents, we love your kid, but you can sometimes make our lives miserable.  It isn't all parents by any means.  In fact, it's really only a small percentage every year.  The rest are great... appreciative, kind, give me gifts to the spa.  But those one or two (or sometimes more if you're cursed), can overshadow everything and make you rethink your career options.  And the poor kid... it's not his fault.  So you keep on loving him and teaching him regardless of his parent who you'd like to say a few choice words to.

Well, one principal did say it in a CNN article.  So if you are the parent who actually searched me out on-line and are reading this, read this article too.  Because I REALLY do have your child's best interest at heart.  ALWAYS.  And teachers, read this and be encouraged... you're not the only one who wants to say THAT to a parent.

What teachers really want to tell parents - CNN.com

Winter Bulletin Board

A display for those snowy months was my most recent success.  I'm really not a great bulletin board teacher, in all honesty.  Usually my displays are mostly student work without much "cute factor" or vocabulary words and posters the kids can use as references.  But I've been inspired lately with the blanket of snow outside Budapest where my school sits.  So with pinterest's help, I think I've been more creatively successful.  You be the judge.

The kids wrote winter poetry.  I used a really simple method for guiding them in creating these poems.  Giving them strips of paper, I asked them to write different ideas on each strip:

What do you see when you go outside in winter?
What does the snow look like?
What do you do outside in winter?
What does it feel like?
And so on...

After they had several strips of paper with descriptions of winter, they arranged them in an order that made sense and sounded beautiful as a poem.  They could add strips or take away strips of paper to make it more poetic.

We typed the poems, revised (we're really working on revision a lot), and printed them.  In addition to the poems, the kids each made a snowflake and pasted a wintery photo I had taken in the center of their snowflakes.  The result is what you see above.

It's December now, but this bulletin board can stay up through January too.  Maybe even February if I push it!

Angry Verbs Bulletin Board

You've probably seen this on pinterest.com.  This is how I used the idea in my classroom:

Angry Verbs Lesson Plan

Learning Objective: Students will be able to identify the verb in a written sentence.

1. Verb Sort

To review nouns and verbs I gave the kids a stack of flashcards, which they had to separate into piles of nouns and verbs at their table groups (4 kids in each group).  Next we did a "Museum Tour" of their piles, in which one child from each group shared their verb lists aloud and the class discussed any changes to the pile if needed.

2. Verb Lists

The whole class together made a list of Happy Verbs (danced, sang, shouted, etc), a list of Sad Verbs (cry, frown, slump, etc), and finally a list of Angry Verbs (yell, fight, run, etc).  These were written on the white board for future reference.

3. Angry Verbs

I showed a trailer of the Angry Birds video game to transition from the Angry Verbs list to the creation of Angry Verb sentences.  Then we discussed and shared ideas aloud of sentences you could say using an angry verb.

4. Angry Birds

Finally the kids were given their own Angry Bird to write an Angry Verb Sentence upon.  After writing the sentence and highlighting the angry verb in the sentence, students were asked to color their Angry Bird.

5. Display

We hung the birds up for display, as you see in the first photo.  This bulletin board attracted the attention of every student who passed in the hallway the next day.  Popular!

My kids LOVED this lesson.  It was simple.  They learned their verbs.  And it made a great (and easy) display board.

Click here for the printable template of Angry Birds.

Boggle Bulletin Board

A great idea from another teacher's blog:

My kids love this!  I keep one "boggle board" up for two weeks maximum and give awards for participants: the longest word and the most words.  It's a great spelling activity for those free-time moments.  I had one little girl this year, who struggles with spelling, get the Most Words Award one week.  The whole class cheered and the smile on her freckled face was priceless.

Click here get all the print-outs to make this board for your classroom.

Kid stories to make you laugh and sigh

All teachers have their stories.  Here's a few great anecdotes from a co-worker of mine that I LOVE - the co-worker and the stories.

Great Christmas gift for your teacher
friends and family.
Find it here.

Or a gift to put in your own stocking.
Find it here.

You can also read his blog at: An American in Budapest

A Kid Story 2

Today I kept a kid in from recess to redraw his Halloween monster.  This Halloween activity involved creating a monster and writing a description to match.  The purpose being to pass our descriptions on to students in another class to see if they could draw the same monster by only seeing our descriptions.  Good practice in writing.  Good practice describing.  Good community building.  Good fun for Halloween.  Until... a boy in my class drew a monster with male and female body parts defecating.  He then proceeded to describe one of these parts as "booms", being that English is not his first language.  Oh... these kids just make me laugh.  Happy Halloween!

A Kid Story

While cleaning up at the end of Writer's Workshop last week, one of my shy little girls, H, came to me and said, "Ms. P, I love everything about school."  The big grin on her face told me I was doing something right with my Writer's Workshop this year.  H is loving writing.  Although I have only gotten her to read her writing aloud once during Share Time, she enthusiastically sits and writes and writes in her Think Pad.  She shows me ideas she's added.  She's into it.  I love moments like these.  Another plug for Janiel Wagstaff.