The Family Stone Takes Us Into Christmas Break

It's Wednesday and today was my final day of school this year. The basketball concession I worked last night till 9:00 p.m., plus the day today, which involved taking a windy, noisy bus ride to McAlester to the movies with all of our elementary school, plus cookie decorating and WAY too much sugar intake for all involved, caused me to hurry home by 3:30, unload my goodies given by the cutest students yet, then head STRAIGHT to the bathtub to begin my vacation.

I lazed around for about an hour before Parker and Vaughn got home.  Oh, I think I folded a towel or two. But nothing significant.

After scraping together a meal of sandwiches and chips and some more of my gifted goodies, we gathered upstairs for The Family Stone, one of the Johnson's favorite Christmas movies.

Game on. Christmas is coming.

Thanksgiving Blessings

The class and I created Thanksgiving "Blessings Mix" at school on the last day before the Thanksgiving break. Get a VAT of some kind to put it in, because these are the ingredients necessary to make the mix.

Each ingredient represents something about Thanksgiving.

Bugles: Shaped like a cornucopia or Horn of Plenty, a symbol of our nation's abundance.

Pretzels: Arms folded in prayer, a freedom sought by those who founded our country.

Candy corn: The sacrifices of the Pilgrims' first winter. Food was so scarce settlers survived on just a few kernels of corn a day.

Nuts or seeds: Promise of a future harvest, one we will reap only if seeds are planted and tended with diligence.

Dried fruits: Harvest gifts from our bountiful land.

M&Ms: Memories of those who came before us to lead us into a blessed future.

Hershey's Kiss: The love of family and friends that sweetens our lives.

What a yummy mix of salty and sweet with a wonderful message included. 

Happy Thanksgiving, Everybody!

 

When a Girl Needs Inspiration

Pinterest began for me as a way to pin photos and ideas from blogs I follow. Having the cute little pin at the top of my screen downloaded, waiting there for me to grab and tack plans and recipes and design ideas...wow, that blew my mind. Up until then I had been bookmarking pages! Now Pinterest is quite daily, a quick glance sometimes, but at other times, a study of ideas, recipes and designs. Searching the boards of friends and acquaintances (and strangers) has helped me hone the style I'm always attempting to perfect or at least confirm. Pinterest has become a wonderful source of inspiration for me in my life.

A source of inspiration for me professionally is observing and talking to other teachers. Yesterday Moss Elementary teachers visited Cottonwood School, near Coalgate...an elementary school that is doing very well (to say the least) with the new grading system (good test scores). When schools receive this good rating, other schools notice and want to see what they're doing. Because I teach third grade, I observed two wonderful third grade teachers, Mrs. Adams and Mrs. Mixon. I took note of the discipline plan. I admired some curriculum. I couldn't help but notice the good behavior of the students. I observed the classroom layout. The teachers were doing what I do, in some ways different, in others, the same. Yet being there at Cottonwood, watching them do what they do (what I do), made me inspired to continue doing what I do, to investigate ways to do it differently, to raise my own bar and walk bravely into this Common Core world, to keep on keeping on toward the goal of educating children.

The inspiring hallway in the elementary building at Cottonwood. Christmas lights. Magical and quiet and calm and spectacular at the same time.

Thank you, Cottonwood, for the teamwork and dedication I observed. And thanks for the feelings I came away with. The feeling that there are so many good teachers out there, working hard every day, changing the lives of the children of the world. And the feeling I'm glad I'm one of them.

My Third Grade Classroom

All set? You BET! (At least I hope the kids say this tomorrow when school starts.)

Third Grade Classroom at Open House.

JUNK is still the theme for my class. The kids really get into creating things from other things.

The famous closet Mr. Johnson built for me.

I'm tickled to be teaching Saxon Math again this year. It's perfect for 3rd graders.

New Social Studies standards this year, so I'll be teaching all about Oklahoma to my third graders, starting tomorrow!

Bulletin board out in the hallway created from packaging.

Our theme for the building is Art Gallery. We framed laminated, lovely prints of paintings, drawings and sculptures with all kinds of duct tape. We plan to use the art for writing prompts or teaching moments.

Because we are using the Art Gallery theme, we thought the Italian Artists should show up. Heroes on the Half Shell! These guys are guarding the 5th and 6th grade classrooms.

More art framed in duct tape.

Raphael and Leonardo are hanging around above the 3rd and 4th grade doorways.

Coffee filters were stained and reused for a bunting/greeting outside my classroom. The frame will be filled with a collage of the students photographs.

Anticipating School

I have already had one of those back-to-school dreams. The I'm feeling unprepared nightmare. 

Sometimes in my back-to-school dreams,  I'm trying and trying to get to school on time, but wind up there without my clothes on. Other times I can't find my things in my classroom. I've had lots of these kinds of dreams throughout my teaching career, but the week before school is usually when they flair up big time.

Last week I had a dream I was teaching kindergarten (which I never have), and I had 34 students. No matter what trick I pulled out of my teacher skill bag, nothing worked to settle them down. I'd think of a fun way to get their attention and try it, just to have them roll their eyes at me (imagine) and continue on with their unruly selves. I woke up feeling worn out and totally freaked out.

So the dreams have begun, even in early July.

Next year our social studies standards are changing, so I brought home some curriculum to review. I'm pretty excited about teaching Oklahoma history to 3rd graders. Not a whole lot of time, but some, has been given to thinking and studying new things to teach. 

Many people think summer is one giant vacation for teachers, but let me tell ya, no matter how hard I try to stop thinking about school, ideas float in and out of my mind the whole time I'm off. Pinterest is totally contributing to this, Friends. I'll just be minding my own business, looking at recipes and home decorating ideas and wham, someone has pinned a great idea for getting kids to put their names on their papers. (Anything to manage kids, I'm a sucker for!) Before I know it, I click on it, search out the original posting (and maybe 4-5 other posts from that blogger), and there I go again, consumed in school and better ways to do this thing I do.

I'm looking forward to another school year, but this tired teacher needs her sleep. Sweet dreams, please. No more back-to-school nightmares.

State Tests: A Big Deal These Days

Oh, they're a big deal alright.

THE state test for my third graders will begin this week at Moss Elementary.

The students will take math this Tuesday and Wednesday, then reading the next Tuesday and Wednesday.

So much has gone into preparing for the tests. I have watched them grow and learn so much this year.

I'll be praying for my students that they'll feel "prepared...not scared".

Please join me in praying for all students who are taking achievement tests in the coming weeks.

At Home at School

There's so much that goes into the houses we live in and own. We're committed deep. Yes, in debt, usually, but also to the beauty of the home, at least in our visionary minds. To the dings and dents. To the sounds of laughter and joy of the ones we love who inhabit or come to spend time there.

It's not quite the same, but I'm connected in a pretty deep way to my classroom as well. There might as well be a connection since the students and I "live" there possibly more hours a day than we live in our homes.  There might as well be hints of who we are and what we appreciate.

3rd Grade won the most AR points for the month...two months in a row.

The menu is posted on the old metal tray. Each day the person in charge of the lunch menu reads it out loud.

We celebrate lots of things.

We count the money in the coin cup (colander) daily.

Each student writes the amount on a slip of paper for a chance to win the daily candy prize.

A very tidy cubby is rewarded with fruit chews.

Lots of students in 3rd and 4th grade are qualified for the first AR trip, coming up soon.

Q-tip skeletons were such fun to create!

Have Fun

I finally got to dust and rearrange a bit this weekend. Summer and seashells were all over the entry table and begging for a rest. Once they were tucked neatly upstairs for a few seasons, I put my mind to what I had on hand that would work well with this back-to-school season. It's still summer and over 100 degrees every day, so as much as I wanted to put out the pumpkins and fall decor, I had to hold myself off for a couple more weeks.

So for today, and until I give myself the go-ahead to put out the fall decorations...vintage toys and games. I gathered some from here and some from there (which later forced me to have to go back and fill in all the empty spots in the house).

These items were purchased at flea markets, junk stores and garage sales over the years and usually stuck in bookcases throughout the house. Roller skates, bowling pins, game pieces, Bingo cards, metal dishes...oh, how I love these toys, and I'm sure there are kids all over who hold the stories associated with each one. (The pistol holder in the antique cash drawer has a very sweet VAUGHN written in pen on the back.)

Pumpkins will fit in nicely with some of these vintage items, don't you think?

Power Claps

In my classroom we give power claps.

That's two loud, cheerleader style claps...all hands in the classroom at the same time.

You pretty much have done something super remarkable to get power claps.

Maybe you made a 100 on a test.
Or you completed your paper with the most GORGEOUS handwriting.

It could even have been that the whole class earned two power claps for something spectacular we did, like lining up quietly or receiving a compliment from another teacher or adult. In that case we give ourselves power claps, sort of like a pat on the back.

We should recognize effort and applaud it, right?

Sometimes I give myself power claps.

Two power claps for remembering to clock in this morning.
Two power claps for leaving school before 5:00 this evening.
Two power claps for the awesome way I finished that load of laundry.

You deserve some power claps today. Consider your efforts recognized and applauded, Friends.

My Junk Classroom

Hallway bulletin board! Didn't cost a dime. Letters and trim were cut from food boxes. Background: an old phone book.

Outside my classroom: names and letters made from paint chips.

Another view of the hallway outside the room.

The tree is made of yard sticks and rulers.

The polka dot dresser is our classroom store. Students are paid on the 1st and 15th.

The grater is for our cheese grater cheer...you're GRATE, you're GRATE, you're GRATE, you're GRATE, you're GRATE.

The theme for my third grade classroom is RE, by the way.

Re-think, re-purpose, re-commit, re-invent...you get the idea. It's easier to just say the classroom is all about JUNK.

If I do say so myself...it was quite genius, actually, this junk revelation I had. Why not create the classroom in the style I live?

My teacher desk follows me wherever I go. It once belonged to an educator (and mentor) so it empowers me. 

Old canisters hold our glue sticks and other school supplies. The orange caddy (everyone had one in the 70's) will be a mailbox for the writing center.

It is.

Robbed this saying from someone on Pinterest this week. Your best is enough. It's for me as much as for the students. Our best ought to be good enough, huh?

It's about rethinking the ordinary and making it extraordinary. A vintage kitchen apron becomes a valance on our classroom window. A small section of an old fence provides a bit more privacy.

My dad's old toolbox, the green thing, holds some teacher manuals where I can grab them quickly.

Chippiness surrounds me in this room and that's just how I like it. This is where the kids will come to work with me (if need be).

A pickle jar and candle stick are now a cool apothecary-style candy jar. Actually this is a motivational tool. Bribery works (and inspires).

There was no closet before Vaughn re-imagined the room. Seeing my worried face fretting over where everything would go, he built two walls and created a corner closet. I love it! It's important to keep a few secrets from the students, like special squishy balls for passing at Morning Meeting or art supplies/snacks they've not seen. An old black, perfectly chippy door we've had became a closet door.  License plate letters and old gasoline numbers junk it up just right. And the mounted drip pan (ordinary) will be a perfect place to work on words of the week (extraordinary). That first word, responsibility, is a doozie, huh? No problem: I have a song to go along with the spelling of that one.

Do you love the vintage Campbell's kids on the closet wall? Mom got those while out junkin' somewhere a long while back. 

The Oklahoma flag is proudly displayed on a hinged croquet mallet.

Me, in third grade. Permanent teeth and all.

Mrs. Johnson