new blog! http://adventureswithpolarbears.blogspot.com/ check it out for updates on alaska.

today was a really good day. i didn't have to teach anything so i spent my day (when i wasn't talking to or helping any of my kids) applying for jobs and looking for places to live in the cities. i found a bunch of really cool apartments that ALL have pools, fitness centers, and are cat friendly. can't really ask for anything more!!

i just got back from a meeting about alaska and i CAN'T WAIT FOR SATURDAY!!!!!!

i have figured out the worst thing about being a teacher BBBBBBAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRFFFFF

ew ew ew

ps. i really want to apply here:
http://www1.stcloudstate.edu/joblistings/edpost/displayRecord.asp?index=94&postID=52221&orderSort=Date

we made paper today--it was really fun. for my first class there were only 5 kids so it was really easy. the next class had 19 so i had to work with them in different groups. it was pretty chaotic but i think everyone had fun and the kids that weren't making paper were working on their western state project. not everyone had time to make paper so we'll be making more tomorrow.

i have almost no homework anymore. i am able to work on standards at school during prep hours and i have all of my lessons planned for the week. i've been watching a lot of smallville.

a spider walked across my chest last night while i was reading in julia's bed. i had to move back up to my bed. i'm pretty sure i killed the spider but just in case i will be sleeping in my bed the rest of the week.

sorry to my sister for making her worry! i left my phone at school. woops.

today was a good day. i had 5 kids (FIVE!!) for my first social studies lesson. and i was being observed. lolz. we're working on a writing project where each kid gets to write either a journal, a letter to a friend, or a report (as if they were a reporter) pretending that they are in one of the western states. some of them have written some really really good ones! a lot of them haven't even started though.

play practice is going well. i'm glad i am not in charge of it but on the other hand there are many times when i want to jump in and tell some of the kids what to do. i'm very excited for the 4 performances on friday. i will be taping it so that i can show off how great/precious my students are.

we're making paper tomorrow! i hope it works....i tried it tonight with newspaper and it didn't really work. i have regular paper for tomorrow so it should be better. right?

i have nothing interesting to say. a lot of the girls in my class have a crush on tony. he's one of the other student teachers that goes with me. they always want me to go and tell him that they like him.

lunch today looked soooo disgusting. it was ham patties on a bun. sure it was. i think it was just uncooked hamburger. it was NASTY! luckily i had leftover pizza, cheerios, and white chocolate chips.

i downloaded a bunch of phil collins songs. julia inspired me. i'm listening to them on repeat and it. is. AWESOME!

today was my first day of social studies and writing. i thought it went pretty well even though the content i had to cover today was pretty boring. tomorrow will be better--i made a slideshow of animals and plants that are found in the west. we're also going to talk about weather. today was more about capitals and which states are found in the west.

it was amazing only having to teach for 2 hours! i like to teach, but i also love to watch my kids while someone else is teaching. it is really interesting to see who pays attention and who gets off task.

my class has been working on a play. they are going to perform it next friday and i am so excited! they are so cute when they go through it. only a few of them have their lines memorized and none of them do much acting. but today some of them had their costumes and it was really cute.

on a completely unrelated note, i have been eating a lot lately. i hope i don't get too fat. i figure i'll burn it all off trying to keep warm in alaska--i looked up the average weather for april and may. the average HIGH for april is -6. may is a better-- its 24. the warmest it has EVER been there in may is 46 degrees.

i forgot to blog yesterday. sorry sue.

i have been observing a lot more now that i am not full time. i still teach a major part of the day, but not all the time anymore. it's been really fun to be able to watch my students. i observed most of the first week but i didn't really know any of them yet. now i notice all kinds of funny things that they do. for example, yesterday one of my students said to the other boys at his table, "i'm not really here today. it's just my soul." he looked so serious when he said it and he didn't know i was listening. i've also noticed a lot of note passing going on. sheila can't see it when she is teaching so i've started to go and take the notes. they get sooooo mad! the notes are usually stupid "how are you?" "i'm fine" "good" but sometimes they say "will you go out with me? circle yes or no.

i have to take a math test on saturday! ish! me no wanna.

today was my third day observing "social studies." the first day they talked all day about dairy. the second day they talked all day about dairy. today she decided to mix it up. they talked about soymilk. they are learning so much about the midwest!!

today i started observing in the other 4th grade room. i'll be teaching social studies/writing to two different classes. it's all the same kids, though, which is nice because i don't have to get to know anyone knew. in my first class there are only 7 kids because the ESL kids have ESL during that time.

social studies is 70 minutes long. today all they did was watch a very strange video about a cow that subs for a class and teaches them all about dairy. then we made homemade ice cream. that's all they got accomplished. in SEVENTY minutes. the unit they are working on right now is the midwest. i know wisconsin produces a lot of dairy but i really don't see how watching a horrid video and making some ice cream taught them anything. the ice cream was really tasty though.

i now have 2 cooperating teachers because i still do most things in sheila's room but i am now in social studies for a major part of the day with rhonda. she wanted to meet with me quick at the end of the day to discuss next week since i'll be taking over. when i went to her room she didn't mention anything about what i'll be teaching. she only talked to me about casual friday and how, since i'll be in her room now, i need to think about how i dress on fridays. "I know that a lot of people dress very casually, but they already have jobs. if you do wear jeans you need to dress them up with heels or jewelry." i was really mad. there are teachers at the school that wear sweatpants. SWEATPANTS. and not just on fridays. and she was telling me that i can't even really wear jeans anymore. ugh! i was annoyed.

the rest of the day went really well. it's been so nice to have less to be in charge of. i am able to talk to my students a lot more and am not constantly thinking about the next lesson i need to teach. plus i've had a lot more time to work on my semester projects so that i can get them done before i go to alaska.

today was seminar. it was basically 30 people sitting around and talking to each other about student teaching. that's pretty much what i do all the time so it was no different. we also talked about resumes and applying and other horrible things to make me stress out.

i also had an alaska meeting. we didn't really find out anything new, though. my professor did bring in some pictures from when she was there and they made me even more excited. i keep forgetting that i actually have to do work while i'm there. i feel like i'm just going to be exploring barrow but i'm going to be really busy.

tomorrow's another day. i have hardly anything to teach this week and i'm looking forward to having time to work on my other projects for the semester. blah blah.

this weekend went by too fast and i got very little sleep. boo. i did get a lot of work done, though; i already have all of my lesson plans done for next week mostly because i have way less to teach. i'm done with full time!! wooooooo!

my birthday was a really good day. it started with being sung to by my carpool friends and ended with phase 10 with julia, lisa, and deja (i had a real kitty in my house! it was awesome!). in between there were many cards and a lot of good food. overall it was one of my better bdays!

tomorrow i have seminar which means i get to sleep in an extra 2 hours! woohoo! but seminar is extremely boring. but i do get to see all my education friends that i haven't seen since the last seminar.

sorry that this isn't very long, but i have laudries to put away. seacrest, out.

my ebd boy had a terrible day. he swore in spanish at kids, slapped someone, and lied constantly to me and all his other teachers. i'm making him stay in at recess tomorrow.

i gave my math test today and they all did way better except one girl who did worse. frustrating!!

i feel like more must have happened today but i can't remember any of it. today was a loooong day and i don't want to think about it any more.

in other news, tomorrow is my birthday! hannah is buying everyone in the carpool breakfast!! yay! and lisa is coming. we will be consuming lots of cake and ice cream.

also, lost is awesome! i don't how i will be able to wait 2 whole weeks for a new episode!

i did a lot of yelling today! sheila was out of the room pretty much all day and i don't know if that's why but my kids were out of control today. we played a review game and for my second class i had to stop playing early. i made them sit quietly at their desks and study on their own. i was really dissapointed because up until the last 15 minutes they were doing so well. they were understanding the material and were doing what i asked, but then they started getting restless. i gave them several warnings and then decided they had had enough and made them stop the game. i really really really hope they're ready for the test tomorrow. i want them to do really well. mostly because i just want them to do well in school but also because i am using this test for my project and i want there to be a lot of improvement from the pretest.

we're working on plays this week and today we tried one out all together. i let them pick their parts after we had read through it once. c (a boy) thought it would be hilarious to be mother bear. they all laughed so hard whenever he had a line. they were really cute when they read through it because every so often they would forget and would read the parts in parenthesis. lolz.

for your viewing pleasure, here is a picture of hannah's cooperating teacher. she once had students write something they liked about everyone in the class and two of the comments she received were that she had hair like a sheep and "i like your fro."

i'm watching arrested development. i can not decide who my favorite is. probably gob, but tobias, buster, and lucille are also perfect. it's the mrs. featherbottom episode.

school went well today. my kids were good (at least until pretty much the end of the day). we're working on reader's theater this week so i'm basically having them read through different fairy tale scripts during guided reading. they love plays and they love fairy tales so they are enjoying it so far.

math went well too. today was our last day of new material before the test. we worked on input/outputs. most of them caught on right away--i just had a few who got really frustrated but i was able to work with them one-on-one and i think they started to get it. we have a review day tomorrow so they'll be able to practice even more. they've actually already taken the test because i gave them a pretest. one of my semester projects is to show how students have improved on a certain unit. we have to give a pretest, teach a unit, and then give the test. we then have to show how each student did and whether or not they improved. blah blah blah.

my birthday is on thursday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

because it seems to be the cool thing to do

click the picture to see the full version