So, those new glasses I got back in March actually made my vision feel worse over time and computers were not something I cared to look at. I have been busy subbing, but not able to sit down and look at a computer long enough to say anything about it.
I got new lenses and my vision still feels kind of goofy, so I will slowly and surely be filling in the post-dated gaps...
Thursday, May 05, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Day Twenty Nine
Subject: Art
Grade: K-4
Today was the first of my last days with these kids.
All my morning classes were cut short in awkward ways by a super cool concert by the Minnesota Sinfonia. They started out with a performance with the after-school choir. It was super sweet and hilarious to watch the tiniest kindergarten girl standing in the front row with her arms crossed all the way up to her neck and pouting. Then the Sinfonia performed Peter and the Wolf. The kids were SO into it. It gave me little Art Educator Goosebumps all over.
One class had only 10 minutes of work time with me after the performance, so I threw some paper and colored pencils at them and had them make a Peter and the Wolf drawings. They were super funny and the one instance where I didn't cringe at how to handle a kid drawing a gun. One sweet girl with an unmistakably Russian name declared "I'm from Russian too!"
One kid just drew a leprechaun cat.
Grade: K-4
Today was the first of my last days with these kids.
All my morning classes were cut short in awkward ways by a super cool concert by the Minnesota Sinfonia. They started out with a performance with the after-school choir. It was super sweet and hilarious to watch the tiniest kindergarten girl standing in the front row with her arms crossed all the way up to her neck and pouting. Then the Sinfonia performed Peter and the Wolf. The kids were SO into it. It gave me little Art Educator Goosebumps all over.
One class had only 10 minutes of work time with me after the performance, so I threw some paper and colored pencils at them and had them make a Peter and the Wolf drawings. They were super funny and the one instance where I didn't cringe at how to handle a kid drawing a gun. One sweet girl with an unmistakably Russian name declared "I'm from Russian too!"
One kid just drew a leprechaun cat.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Day Twenty Eight
Subject: Art
Grades: K-4
Joke of the week:
What Beatles song did one Octopus sing to the other?
I Want to Hold Your Hand Hand Hand Hand Hand Hand Hand Hand
All week I had been teaching a lesson on monochromatic colors showing a painting of a snowy evening with many shades of blue. I asked the students what color snow was and what other colors it could look like (I was going for blue like the painting) and it wasn't until Friday that someone shouted out "Yellow!" I should have seen that one coming.
At the end of the day I was really wishing for a cupcake and then two birthday kids came around with just what I needed.
Grades: K-4
Joke of the week:
What Beatles song did one Octopus sing to the other?
I Want to Hold Your Hand Hand Hand Hand Hand Hand Hand Hand
All week I had been teaching a lesson on monochromatic colors showing a painting of a snowy evening with many shades of blue. I asked the students what color snow was and what other colors it could look like (I was going for blue like the painting) and it wasn't until Friday that someone shouted out "Yellow!" I should have seen that one coming.
At the end of the day I was really wishing for a cupcake and then two birthday kids came around with just what I needed.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Day Twenty Seven: Learning to Soap Box
Subject: Art
Grade: K-4
I miss out on a lot going to bed at 9:30 to wake up at 5:15. I've been following what's happening in Wisconsin pretty closely as I happen to be moving to Madison this summer to go to a state university to get my second teaching degree. When I went to bed, things were still as they had been for the past three weeks. In the morning, the radio filled me in on what had happened in the night. The 2004 election was perhaps the last time I felt so directly bummed out by politics.
I spent the whole morning bus ride thinking about how laws should restore rights, not take them away and dreaming about making every politician who gets to make choices about education sub in a public school for just one day. A few friends had posted a Daily Show clip showing conservative pundits defending the Wall Street bailouts and then scolding teachers for being greedy. I clicked on it because I wanted to laugh about it all, but the clips bad mouthing teachers just made me angry. The "they only work 9 months a year" argument drives me nuts. Fine then, fund year round school, I'll be there. Nobody is going to want to be a teacher anymore, which makes my odds better when I re-enter the job hunt, but it stinks for kids. At the end of that same episode was this interview that filled me with hope to know that there is a legitimate expert out there who is making all my points for me. I can't embed the video, but seriously, click on that link.
If you want good teachers, pay them well. Obviously I'm not going into teaching for the killer salary and awesome benefits. I don't dream of owning jet skis and getting my teeth professionally whitened, I just want to be able to pay off my loans and get new glasses more than once every five years.
With all this happening, it might seem kind of silly to be giving all my money to Wisconsin for more teacher school, but me not going there isn't going to change anything. Me moving there, getting involved and voting, will.
Grade: K-4
I miss out on a lot going to bed at 9:30 to wake up at 5:15. I've been following what's happening in Wisconsin pretty closely as I happen to be moving to Madison this summer to go to a state university to get my second teaching degree. When I went to bed, things were still as they had been for the past three weeks. In the morning, the radio filled me in on what had happened in the night. The 2004 election was perhaps the last time I felt so directly bummed out by politics.
I spent the whole morning bus ride thinking about how laws should restore rights, not take them away and dreaming about making every politician who gets to make choices about education sub in a public school for just one day. A few friends had posted a Daily Show clip showing conservative pundits defending the Wall Street bailouts and then scolding teachers for being greedy. I clicked on it because I wanted to laugh about it all, but the clips bad mouthing teachers just made me angry. The "they only work 9 months a year" argument drives me nuts. Fine then, fund year round school, I'll be there. Nobody is going to want to be a teacher anymore, which makes my odds better when I re-enter the job hunt, but it stinks for kids. At the end of that same episode was this interview that filled me with hope to know that there is a legitimate expert out there who is making all my points for me. I can't embed the video, but seriously, click on that link.
If you want good teachers, pay them well. Obviously I'm not going into teaching for the killer salary and awesome benefits. I don't dream of owning jet skis and getting my teeth professionally whitened, I just want to be able to pay off my loans and get new glasses more than once every five years.
With all this happening, it might seem kind of silly to be giving all my money to Wisconsin for more teacher school, but me not going there isn't going to change anything. Me moving there, getting involved and voting, will.
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Day Twenty Six: Emo
Subject: Art
Grade: k-4
The lesson in the book for first graders was about portraits and the kids were supposed to get dressed up and then draw each other. I couldn't find any dress up clothes but I found some mirrors instead and thought self portraits would be a bit more meaningful, not to mention that the results are usually tear inducingly adorable at this age and I will post some when all the classes are done.
Unfortunately, there were quite a bit of the sad kind of tears in the first grade class today. One girl was having a really hard time getting the shape of her face to her liking and after exhausting both sides of her paper and scribbling over the results on one, she was given one last piece of paper and that was to be it. She got frustrated again and I sat with her and showed her on some scratch paper how I would draw the shape of her face so she could work from that. She did a great job but you could still see the erasings from her old attempts and she started to cry a little and said "It looks like an ice cream cone. I don't like it" I asked her what parts she didn't like and then we fixed them and I went off to help other students. A few minutes later, she was in full tears, which was not common for her, so I sat down again and asked "what part don't you like" so we could fix it again, she just said "They're going to laugh at me." I asked who (she sits at a table of super supportive kids) and then she told me that the kids on the bus make fun of her hair. She is one of two African American girls in her class and wears her hair in rows. She's having major self image issues and here I am making her stare at a mirror. I asked her if she had told any other grown ups yet and she said "no". She sees the social worker once a week, but I wrote a note for her to take with her for both the teacher and social worker to see. I sort of went into Mama Bear mode and ignored the fact that it was time to clean up while I wrote the note. At most of the schools where I work the majority of the kids are black and I don't have to deal with this. It's not just about hair, it's about race. I know I posted this before, but I wish I could show her this:
Today's kindergarten class has a crier. Other days I would deal with it and take time away from other kids to make sure she was ok, today I spent some time ignoring it and she stopped.
During free drawing time, I saw a 4th grade girl writing things like "Why did you leave? You hurt my feelings." on the back of her paper and then ripping them up into tiny pieces and throwing them away.
So many things going on in so many lives.
Grade: k-4
The lesson in the book for first graders was about portraits and the kids were supposed to get dressed up and then draw each other. I couldn't find any dress up clothes but I found some mirrors instead and thought self portraits would be a bit more meaningful, not to mention that the results are usually tear inducingly adorable at this age and I will post some when all the classes are done.
Unfortunately, there were quite a bit of the sad kind of tears in the first grade class today. One girl was having a really hard time getting the shape of her face to her liking and after exhausting both sides of her paper and scribbling over the results on one, she was given one last piece of paper and that was to be it. She got frustrated again and I sat with her and showed her on some scratch paper how I would draw the shape of her face so she could work from that. She did a great job but you could still see the erasings from her old attempts and she started to cry a little and said "It looks like an ice cream cone. I don't like it" I asked her what parts she didn't like and then we fixed them and I went off to help other students. A few minutes later, she was in full tears, which was not common for her, so I sat down again and asked "what part don't you like" so we could fix it again, she just said "They're going to laugh at me." I asked who (she sits at a table of super supportive kids) and then she told me that the kids on the bus make fun of her hair. She is one of two African American girls in her class and wears her hair in rows. She's having major self image issues and here I am making her stare at a mirror. I asked her if she had told any other grown ups yet and she said "no". She sees the social worker once a week, but I wrote a note for her to take with her for both the teacher and social worker to see. I sort of went into Mama Bear mode and ignored the fact that it was time to clean up while I wrote the note. At most of the schools where I work the majority of the kids are black and I don't have to deal with this. It's not just about hair, it's about race. I know I posted this before, but I wish I could show her this:
Today's kindergarten class has a crier. Other days I would deal with it and take time away from other kids to make sure she was ok, today I spent some time ignoring it and she stopped.
During free drawing time, I saw a 4th grade girl writing things like "Why did you leave? You hurt my feelings." on the back of her paper and then ripping them up into tiny pieces and throwing them away.
So many things going on in so many lives.
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Day Twenty Five: "My Brain Hurts"
Subject: Art
Grade: K-4
There is this one really funny little first grade girl with a very fitting character trait for a first name. She has this really quiet way about her but she's always coming up to me telling me what ails her. One day it was "My nose hurts inside" I told her to blow it and she came back two minutes later saying that it still hurt, I told her to blow it again. Today she said "my brain hurts" I told her to have a seat on the rug by herself for a while. Two minutes later she told me "my back is itchy." I told her to try laying down on the rug and then it got too busy to deal with any more ailments.
Today I got to work with the kindergarten autism group again. I found some patterned sponge rollers in a cupboard in the back of the room, and I remembered how much one boy liked to make the brayers go like race cars when we were doing printmaking, so I did another color mixing lesson with rolling the primary colors around on the paper. The race car fan wasn't even there today and we got through the lesson in about 7 minutes, leaving 23 for other things. I brought out the playdoh, which kept them engaged for a while. The highest functioning boy had been in the bathroom for a little too long, so one of the two S.E.As went to go check on him and I scooted over to take her spot next to the lowest functioning student. He's non-verbal and requires some hand-over-hand assistance with the projects. He loves to tap things to make noises. I caught him bringing a wad of playdoh up to his ear and tapping it to see what kind of noise it would make, which was pretty funny to me for some reason. At one point he looked over at me and just stared at my eyes. I stared back and smiled and then he grabbed my glasses right off my face. He wasn't the first to try this trick and certainly won't be the last.
After we exhausted playdoh and viewfinder time, we all sat on the rug and looked at this book on colors and animals. The boy who grabbed my glasses earlier was having a squirrely time sitting in the S.E.A's lap and she kept trying to restrain him as he wiggled away but she eventually let him go and he crawled over to me and plopped right down in my lap and was still.
In Minnesota, special ed licensure is K-12, in Wisconsin where I will be getting my special ed license, you need to choose between elementary and secondary. I want my license to work in Minnesota so that I can come back when I'm done, so I checked both elementary and secondary on my grad school application. Getting the extra licensure adds a good semester or two and I was contemplating just getting a secondary license, but working with these guys keeps reminding me of how much I like to work with elementary kids as well.
Grade: K-4
There is this one really funny little first grade girl with a very fitting character trait for a first name. She has this really quiet way about her but she's always coming up to me telling me what ails her. One day it was "My nose hurts inside" I told her to blow it and she came back two minutes later saying that it still hurt, I told her to blow it again. Today she said "my brain hurts" I told her to have a seat on the rug by herself for a while. Two minutes later she told me "my back is itchy." I told her to try laying down on the rug and then it got too busy to deal with any more ailments.
Today I got to work with the kindergarten autism group again. I found some patterned sponge rollers in a cupboard in the back of the room, and I remembered how much one boy liked to make the brayers go like race cars when we were doing printmaking, so I did another color mixing lesson with rolling the primary colors around on the paper. The race car fan wasn't even there today and we got through the lesson in about 7 minutes, leaving 23 for other things. I brought out the playdoh, which kept them engaged for a while. The highest functioning boy had been in the bathroom for a little too long, so one of the two S.E.As went to go check on him and I scooted over to take her spot next to the lowest functioning student. He's non-verbal and requires some hand-over-hand assistance with the projects. He loves to tap things to make noises. I caught him bringing a wad of playdoh up to his ear and tapping it to see what kind of noise it would make, which was pretty funny to me for some reason. At one point he looked over at me and just stared at my eyes. I stared back and smiled and then he grabbed my glasses right off my face. He wasn't the first to try this trick and certainly won't be the last.
After we exhausted playdoh and viewfinder time, we all sat on the rug and looked at this book on colors and animals. The boy who grabbed my glasses earlier was having a squirrely time sitting in the S.E.A's lap and she kept trying to restrain him as he wiggled away but she eventually let him go and he crawled over to me and plopped right down in my lap and was still.
In Minnesota, special ed licensure is K-12, in Wisconsin where I will be getting my special ed license, you need to choose between elementary and secondary. I want my license to work in Minnesota so that I can come back when I'm done, so I checked both elementary and secondary on my grad school application. Getting the extra licensure adds a good semester or two and I was contemplating just getting a secondary license, but working with these guys keeps reminding me of how much I like to work with elementary kids as well.
Monday, March 07, 2011
Day Twenty Four: Two More Weeks
Subject: Art
Grade: K-4
It is strange to think that I am only going to see today's classes one more time. It has been nice being at the same school every day and actually getting to know some really amazing kids. At the same time, I miss working at my favorite special ed school, and not having to grade projects or actually use prep time to prepare. This teacher had asked me to be her maternity leave sub, but I turned her down because I don't want to lose my mind and I want to ride my bike to school. This might be my last year subbing, and I want to still like it when I'm done.
I was too far away to have any sort of conversation about it, but I overheard the same first grade girl who talked about Mr. Handsome "making out" with girls last week call a bunch of things sexy today.
While the 4th graders were cleaning up, one of the sassier girls came up to me in a real quiet tattle and said “um, they're talking about puberty and stuff”. I chose different words, but I basically said “So what?” the more they talk about it the less weird it becomes and if I make a big deal out of it, it becomes a bigger deal than it already is to them.
Grade: K-4
It is strange to think that I am only going to see today's classes one more time. It has been nice being at the same school every day and actually getting to know some really amazing kids. At the same time, I miss working at my favorite special ed school, and not having to grade projects or actually use prep time to prepare. This teacher had asked me to be her maternity leave sub, but I turned her down because I don't want to lose my mind and I want to ride my bike to school. This might be my last year subbing, and I want to still like it when I'm done.
I was too far away to have any sort of conversation about it, but I overheard the same first grade girl who talked about Mr. Handsome "making out" with girls last week call a bunch of things sexy today.
While the 4th graders were cleaning up, one of the sassier girls came up to me in a real quiet tattle and said “um, they're talking about puberty and stuff”. I chose different words, but I basically said “So what?” the more they talk about it the less weird it becomes and if I make a big deal out of it, it becomes a bigger deal than it already is to them.
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