Things I'm Loving: Teacher Edition

This Christmas I got a gift I was head over heels for that most people in the world would not understand. Kason was stumped when I opened the box on Christmas Eve. My parents bought me a pocket chart...yes, a pocket chart!My partner teacher, Sabrina, has the exact same pocket chart and I have been eying it all year. Most people's mind was automatically tell them to use it for a webbing exercise or brain storming. I, on the other hand, see this as a perfect way to organize my math and science groups. I have two classes of students and I am big into flexible grouping. Using this chart, I can put name cards in each colored circle to indicate each group and simply move their name cards as I need them to switch. I am hanging it in my classroom tomorrow and I can't wait to try it out!

My First Formal Observation

Yesterday morning I had my first formal observation. I really didn't feel that nervous about it because I have been observed serval times before but I didn't want to disappoint the administrators. I felt very confident in my lesson but it wasn't till afterwards I got the full impression of how it went.

As I walked around my classroom after the assistant principal left, I found sticky notes everywhere! One on my computer said "Awesome Hook!" one on my papers said "FABULOUS VISUALS!" one on my Smartboard said "Great use of technology!" one on my overhead said "SUPER lesson!" and I found the last one by my door that said "You are a ROCK star!" The best note was the one she left on my desk where she told me she knew I was right for the job when she interviewed me but today I confirmed what she already knew. It felt so wonderful to hear that the administration is still confident in hiring me now that they have observed a full lesson. This job has been a lot of hard work but it is paying off greatly!!

The Musician

The fourth grade has been preparing for their holiday musical for the past couple weeks during music. This week one of my girls returned from music and walked up to ask me a question in the most serious, concerned voices. "Mrs. Knight, may I go get some water? I hit too high of a note in music." Apparently the music is more intense than it was when I was in elementary!

Marbles and KISSes

During science today, I wrote the page number on the board for the workbook page the students were suppose to complete. They quickly let me know that they had already completed that page and I realized I had written the wrong page number on the board. Right away my "special" student interrupted "Mrs. Knight, you must be losing your marbles!"

Today was also KISS Day (Kids Invite Someone Special) when students can eat lunch with family members. One of my sweet girls came over and asked if I would meet her grandparents. When I was introducing myself and telling the grandparents how grateful I was to have their granddaughter in my class, she told me that "I like you because you always have a smile on your face" :) Of course, she made my day!

Happy Halloween!

Monday morning all my students wanted to talk about was how much candy they got trick-o-treating and the costumes they wore. They wanted to know what I dressed up as and how much candy I got. I told them that I stayed home and let the kids come to my door.

This afternoon one of my girls brought me a Reese's peanut butter cup and said "Here is candy for you Mrs. Knight since you didn't get to go trick-o-treating for your own candy!" I was even more excited than normal to get a piece of chocolate because I ate it during my 3 hour professional development online course...

Lunch Talk

A fourth grade boy told a teacher in the cafeteria that he thought a girl from another class had a crush on him. The teacher asked why he thought so. The boy began to tell her how he normally goes over to another girl's house every day and one time he went over with his shirt off. Immediately the teacher asked him why he would have his shirt off at the girl's house. The student's response: "So I could show them my great reflexes!"

He is going to be a ladies' man :)

Encouragement

The past week I have been getting a lot of encouragement from people at my school. Besides the continuous compliments from co-workers I also have these examples:

• A card from one of my students: "Week 1 - You have been a good teacher! I'm happy to have you!"
• In a staff meeting, the librarian stood up and called me out in front of the whole faculty to tell them she had been listening to my lessons when she was setting up for the book fair in the library (next to my room) and she said I was teaching my heart out and she learned so much for my class.
• During lunch, the vending machine filler gave me a free bottle of water and a 3 musketeers bar...ok, I know that is not exactly "encouragement" but it encouraged me to make it through the day :)

Being at a school with a positive environment can make all the difference!!