I had a conversation with the Superintendent today at my BEGIN class. She said he was so cute, but she couldn't get him to say a word! I assured her that he was very excited and proud of himself. She then proceeded to talk about me when she was addressing the whole group (of more than 90) people. She talked about how we are the future of teaching and it's stories like this one that keep her going. It just made me more proud of my little man and myself and team!
He's the one in the tie that looks completely miserable! He really was happy, I promise :-)
http://wesdschools.org/News.aspx?type=viewArticle&article=1266
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Actual Kid Comments
This week we are doing a fun writing project. Well I guess the writing isn't fun, but the end result is. The kids have to write step by step instructions for how to make a PB&J sandwich. On Thursday they will follow a classmate's directions to actually make the sandwich and of course they get to eat it. The kids are very excited about the making and eating portion of the assignment ( I will be sure to post some of the instructions and some pictures to go with them). But a few had some interesting comments about the preparation.
One student said, "My parents said I'm not allowed to touch or eat jelly, can you do that part?" Of course I will kindly oblige and eat a sandwich.
Another said, "please don't get wheat bread, it's pretty much nasty".
My favorite comment of the day, "do I have to eat the sandwich? I don't trust the people who make the peanut butter and jelly." My response..."honey it's from the store." His reply to that..."I just don't trust the people in the factory who put it in the jars." Seriously, how do you respond to that?! Truly bizarre.
On another note, we are starting to study Ancient peoples of the Southwest this week. The kids are going to be making a bunch of dioramas in their table groups. They don't know it yet, but I'm sure they will be very excited and I can't wait to see how all the dioramas turn out. Luckily, last summer when I taught summer school a woman gave me a TON of shoe boxes (though I only needed 13). I have more than 100 boxes which is awesome, since over the next few weeks I will need 56 for the dioramas! Of course I'm sharing with my teammates, also, but they are doing things a bit differently, so they don't need as many shoe boxes as my class does. I'm super excited to see how they all turn out! I will post pictures as we get started!
One student said, "My parents said I'm not allowed to touch or eat jelly, can you do that part?" Of course I will kindly oblige and eat a sandwich.
Another said, "please don't get wheat bread, it's pretty much nasty".
My favorite comment of the day, "do I have to eat the sandwich? I don't trust the people who make the peanut butter and jelly." My response..."honey it's from the store." His reply to that..."I just don't trust the people in the factory who put it in the jars." Seriously, how do you respond to that?! Truly bizarre.
On another note, we are starting to study Ancient peoples of the Southwest this week. The kids are going to be making a bunch of dioramas in their table groups. They don't know it yet, but I'm sure they will be very excited and I can't wait to see how all the dioramas turn out. Luckily, last summer when I taught summer school a woman gave me a TON of shoe boxes (though I only needed 13). I have more than 100 boxes which is awesome, since over the next few weeks I will need 56 for the dioramas! Of course I'm sharing with my teammates, also, but they are doing things a bit differently, so they don't need as many shoe boxes as my class does. I'm super excited to see how they all turn out! I will post pictures as we get started!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
AIMS Week Has Arrived
Well, it's that time of year again. Time for me to be bored out of my skull while my kids test for 4 days. I'm hoping they are as ready as they seem to be. They are excited to get candy and gum during the test, let's just hope they don't get it everywhere and ruin their test books. Friday we had another student of the month assembly.
My little man who FINALLY started meds was the kiddo for my class. His mom came with her boyfriend and when his name was called mom was a total wreck. She sobbed for a good 5 minutes and thanked everyone for caring about her son enough to try to help him. We all just reminded her that he couldn't have done it without her. She took a bunch of pictures of him with myself and the other people that were on the team to get him help. He is doing SO well now. He has stopped saying that he's dumb and no one loves him. He cares about his learning and tries hard to get things done to the best of his abilities. He is still low in reading simply because he has to play catch up, but he has learned more in the last month than he had all year. He jumped from a 32% on a district test to a 72%. I think that speaks volumes. He is so proud of himself. I made sure to write him a letter telling him how proud I am of him and he just kept thanking me. He got TONS of hugs on Friday. When I asked him if he was surprised, his response was "I knew I could do it Mrs. Barnes". I wanted to cry, he never would have said that before. It's so amazing to know that this little guy actually has a future now, where before I would have said the opposite.
ADDED APRIL 18 Well, my little guy has been selected for another reward. This Friday, he will be taken to lunch with the Superintendent of my district. Every month she takes 2 kids from a few schools out for pizza and calls them SUPER kids. SUPER stands for "students' unique performance earns reward". My principal asked for nominees who have worked hard and changed behaviors drastically. I, along with multiple other people, nominated him last week. This morning at the beginning of the day I announced the news to the class. Before I said his name, I explained that it was for kids who worked hard to change their behavior and out of the corner of my eye I could see him smiling and pointing to himself. It was so cute. He was very excited and everyone in my class congratulated him by giving him a cheer (we do cheers constantly to tell each other good job). My ltitle guy's favorite cheer is what we call the gold cheer, "if good work were gold, you'd be a millionaire!" Needless to say, this little guy has certainly learned how well he can perform and how much people care about him (remember he used to say that no one liked him and he was stupid). It's truly the reason I got in to teaching and it's certainly a success story for so many people at the school (even those people who thought it could never happen)!
My little man who FINALLY started meds was the kiddo for my class. His mom came with her boyfriend and when his name was called mom was a total wreck. She sobbed for a good 5 minutes and thanked everyone for caring about her son enough to try to help him. We all just reminded her that he couldn't have done it without her. She took a bunch of pictures of him with myself and the other people that were on the team to get him help. He is doing SO well now. He has stopped saying that he's dumb and no one loves him. He cares about his learning and tries hard to get things done to the best of his abilities. He is still low in reading simply because he has to play catch up, but he has learned more in the last month than he had all year. He jumped from a 32% on a district test to a 72%. I think that speaks volumes. He is so proud of himself. I made sure to write him a letter telling him how proud I am of him and he just kept thanking me. He got TONS of hugs on Friday. When I asked him if he was surprised, his response was "I knew I could do it Mrs. Barnes". I wanted to cry, he never would have said that before. It's so amazing to know that this little guy actually has a future now, where before I would have said the opposite.
ADDED APRIL 18 Well, my little guy has been selected for another reward. This Friday, he will be taken to lunch with the Superintendent of my district. Every month she takes 2 kids from a few schools out for pizza and calls them SUPER kids. SUPER stands for "students' unique performance earns reward". My principal asked for nominees who have worked hard and changed behaviors drastically. I, along with multiple other people, nominated him last week. This morning at the beginning of the day I announced the news to the class. Before I said his name, I explained that it was for kids who worked hard to change their behavior and out of the corner of my eye I could see him smiling and pointing to himself. It was so cute. He was very excited and everyone in my class congratulated him by giving him a cheer (we do cheers constantly to tell each other good job). My ltitle guy's favorite cheer is what we call the gold cheer, "if good work were gold, you'd be a millionaire!" Needless to say, this little guy has certainly learned how well he can perform and how much people care about him (remember he used to say that no one liked him and he was stupid). It's truly the reason I got in to teaching and it's certainly a success story for so many people at the school (even those people who thought it could never happen)!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)