180 Days

Wow, 3 Years and Going Strong

2010-09-08T21:13:00.000-07:00

I promised myself that I'd do this for 2 years. Then it became 3 and now, I'm starting year 4. I always said that I'm not a lifelong teacher and I'm not going to feel bad about leaving, if I do. But at this point, I have a job, enjoying it, and still get loads of vacation time to do some serious traveling and get some ME-time. Can't really beat that.

So here's to year 4. Bring it on!

Okay, so it's been brought. The first day was great and I was ready for a good year. I've got a great feeling about this group of kiddos. Then, I got a student straight from Mexico. She's 12. And it seems like she's in a real school setting for the first time. So I've got 10 months to teacher her how to be a student, help her learn English, and get her ready for middle school. I have to admit, at first, I freaked out a bit, but now, I'm trying to see this as a learning opportunity for myself. If I do stay in this job for awhile, I'm sure this won't be my first newcomer. Like I said, I'll stay in job until it stops being interesting. This year will still be interesting.

Puberty + Things No Child Should Experience = Rough Week

2010-05-31T22:55:00.000-07:00

Last week was our annual puberty workshop for our 5th graders. As part of the California state standards, 5th graders learn about body changes and growth = puberty. For the past three years, we've had a representative from Planned Parenthood come out and give the workshops. Every year, I'm grateful for their free service, and in turn, want to be a regular donor to their organization for the work they do for us as well as everyone else around the country. This year, it was a little more convincing.

For having a pretty good class, I was pretty surprised by how much some of the kids knew about puberty and sex. By the way, this was the first year the students learned about how people get pregnant and man, I wish I had a camera for the moment when one of my sweetest girls found out how babies are made. Her eyes bulged out and her mouth dropped open and I could see the thoughts of "You put WHAT in WHERE???" as the presenter explained that the penis goes in the vagina. She helped me feel a little more relieved that not everyone in my class knew EVERYTHING, just yet.

Then I had the opposite experience of trying to keep my cool as the presenters recited and answered the anonymous questions. The two that stuck with me was "Why do condoms have flavors?" and "Why would girls want to suck on a boy's penis?" It took all of my self-control to not have a reaction when those questions came out. I know many of the kids know what condoms are and look like because of the unfortunate circumstances of the used condoms frequently lying on the sidewalk by school; perhaps remnants of some of the women who try to turn tricks on the corner on the backside of school. But for the kids to know about flavored ones and fallatio??? Yikes. Too much t.v. and Internet for them. At the end of the day, I'm grateful they're asking these questions here where they'll get a straightforward real answer rather than getting misdirected by someone else.

Finally, the last bit of workshop included the presenter explicitly teaching and reiterating the fact that the only person who owns your body is yourself and you have a right to say "NO!" She made sure the kids were aware of this by having them practice saying "NO!" over and over. Well, that must've triggered something because one of my students got the courage to tell us through the secret questions that her uncle has been touching her inappropriately. That led to talks with the principal, the psychologist, the parent, and finally, Child Protective Services, since as teachers, we're mandatory reporters. The poor girl... she was so afraid to say something about it... Now it's up to the other parties to follow through with her to look out for her best interest but still, it was emotionally draining for me. I can't imagine what she had been going through.

It just makes me SO ANGRY when people use sex or sexuality as a way to exert power and control. That gets multiplied exponentially when it comes to kids. All I keep thinking of is, "WHY???" I know my students are incredibly resilient but there's a fragility in the human spirit too, when it comes to these unforeseen actions that break trust. I hope that my student will remain resilient as she gets help in working through this so she can become whole and healthy again soon.

"You Look Different..."

2010-05-26T17:59:00.001-07:00

I was going over our schedule this morning and usually, I ask the kids if they have any questions about what we're doing today. I get a couple of hands and answer. My last kid raises his hand and when I call on him, he goes, "Ms. Jung, you look different today!" I was like, huh? Then a bunch of the kids start chiming in... going "Yeah!" Then, a few of the kids, both boys and girls were like, "You're wearing eyeliner!" I was so incredibly confused and swore that I wasn't wearing any make-up today.

So during recess, I went to the bathroom and checked in the mirror. Turns out waterproof mascara lasts through 2 face washings and a shower! I had a slightly darker ring around my eyes... seriously, not even a big deal but it's amazing how they notice EVERY single detail about me! It's a little weird to be under the microscope like that! Now, if they could only focus like that on school subjects...

Take That Arizona!

2010-05-20T22:05:00.000-07:00

Why do I do this? Listen to this joke from one of the 5th graders on the playground:

"If I go to Arizona and they ask me for papers, and I give them scissors, does that mean I win?"

"All These Kids and Just One of You?"

2010-05-17T18:23:00.001-07:00

That's what I got from a lady as I was rushing to count my kids as they were getting off the bus and trying to corral them to the next bus for the transfer. Yep, 17 kids and just me... but I must've done something right this year because on the four bus rides we had to take today, they were in check.

It needs to stop raining on my parade, literally. And by parade, I mean field trips. Seriously, this year, it ONLY seems to rain on the days I have cool outdoor field trips scheduled. So today, I said to the skies - "Try and stop me! My kids have been busting their butts for the past two weeks testing and they need to spend some time outside in nature!" Despite the looming rain clouds (and yes, it did rain on us quite a bit today), we went gung-ho up to the Oakland hills to explore Lion Creek. We met up with our Eco-Oakland guides and spent a fabulous day soaking up nature. We surveyed the Bay in all its glory from the mountain top, looked for miniature frogs in the vernal ponds, examined spit bugs, hiked down to the creek to test the creek water and looked for cool insects in the water, ate wild fennel and miner's lettuce, and cleared the hiking trails of scotch brush. Lastly, we hiked down the mountain, following the creek, then ran up the hill, flailing our arms to catch the AC Transit bus back to school.

Sweaty, wet, and muddy from the rain, we rolled back to school. The kids and their teacher were Exhausted with a capital E - promises of a great night of sleep. They make it worth it when I hear kids say, "I love nature!" or "This is so much fun!" as they clear weeds with work gloves! Not so bad for a day's work. Cheaper by the Dozen's got nothing on me.

Persuasion

2010-05-16T21:31:00.000-07:00

The kids are working on their persuasive essays, which is a 5th grade standard. We spent a few days reading different kinds of persuasive essays before the kids brainstormed ideas and picked one of their own to write about. I told all of the kids that they needed to pick something that means a lot to them so they could come up with a lot of convincing arguments. The topics were pretty good - College Should Be Free, More Time for P.E., More Money for Schools, and more.

One kid chose "Why We Should Not Have Homework." I told him that he better come up with some good arguments since I'm a firm believer in giving homework and I'll be his audience. So I'm sitting here on a Sunday night, editing their work and I come across his writing and just start laughing hysterically. One of his reasons? "If kids are the ones that are going to help out our future, they should at least have time to relax." He almost got me there. =)

Get A Room!

2010-05-04T10:46:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, we took all of the 5th graders to Audubon Canyon Ranch, out near Stinson Beach. The students spent the day hiking, birdwatching, and catching newts.

Well, as we were walking on a trail, we spotted some yellow "poo," which turned out to be banana slugs. The kids were stoked to find them and picked them up to observe their bodies... which by the way, they release their feces through the sides of their bodies, kind of like sweat.

On the other side of the trail, some kids spot two banana slugs crawling on top of each other and my KK screams out: "Get a room!"

'Nuff said.

Hiatus

2010-05-04T10:34:00.001-07:00

I've been feeling disillusioned with life and work the past few months, which makes it easier for me to let this blog drop to the wayside.

This was the year that I was going to spend working on my practice. I wanted to apply for National Boards for teaching this coming fall and had planned to spend year 3 working on my curriculum and management skills, especially since I was supposed to have a "good" group of kids, both academically and behaviorally. And now it's May and I feel like I spent a large majority of the year "getting by" at work and it doesn't look like National Boards will be happening anytime soon.

Life has a tendency to force you to make space. In looking back, after all that I've been through, the universe was trying to teach me how to make space between work and life beyond the classroom. I was forced to take care of me and in order to do that, I had to leave work at work, and be ok with it.

And I do have a good group of kids... kids who made me challenged me by keeping me distracted from my personal issues for the better part of the day... kids who made me laugh... kids who made me think about how to make the world a little bit better so life won't be so hard for them after they leave my classroom.

So maybe next year will be a year of exponential professional growth. But this year, at least at work, I've learned to "let go... let flow..." and it's worked out pretty great.

Care Package

2010-01-12T23:22:00.000-08:00

So not only am I emotionally drained but I'm also dealing with some serious house issues, which has turned my life literally upside down. I'm basically squatting in my own living and dealing with a variety of parties to get the house stuff fixed. It leaves me feeling sleepy, grumpy, and just all around exhausted.

I make no pretenses about my current physical and to a lesser degree, emotional, state at work. I'm all about committing to do my job to the best of my abilities but my patience is thin and I'm frank about that with the kids. I've told them that I'm having problems that's making my life outside of school very tough but I'm working to get it fixed. I've even went as far as to tell them that my house is a disaster and I'm living in my living room because I'm having house problems.

In any case, one of my students really took my message to heart and did the sweetest thing today. She kept insisting that I don't eat lunch until she got back from the cafeteria. I was wondering why and it turns out that she brought me lunch! She said she told her mom about how I was feeling sad because I was having problems and her mom packed me a homemade lunch of Vietnamese food!

I couldn't believe it. Seriously, it was one of the nicest and most thoughtful things a student has ever done for me. It means even more to me because it was a genuine concern on her part AND the solution was FOOD, which she knows means a lot to me. Thank you. In my own personal tornado, I've forgotten what it's like to have people surprise you in happy positive ways and to have it happen from a 10 year old student who I'm supposed to take care of... Thank you thank you thank you.

Universe's Messengers

2010-01-12T23:10:00.000-08:00

Alright, I mean seriously, I don't think anyone who reads this blog doesn't already know that the guy that I was totally into broke up with me the day after winter break started. Anyways, there went two weeks of vacation of too much time to think and the only thing I could think of was wanting to go back to work so I could be distracted from the heartbreak. Nothing like twenty-two 5th graders to do that job. Lo and behold, the universe decided to send me a clear cut message... LOUD and CLEAR.

I was working with one of my reading groups, discussing themes from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. One student brought up the idea that all the kids who wanted everything and tried to get it ended up getting nothing and the one kid who went in with no expectations got everything. I thought that was insightful and without thinking, mentioned that grown-ups actually say the same thing about love and how you find it when you're not looking. Well, without skipping a beat, my two rowdiest boys become my messengers from the universe when they respond with:

KK - "Love hurts!"
Angel - "But there's other fish in the sea!"

I mean, really? My kids had NO idea about my personal life. Higher powers or spirits were trying make sure I didn't miss that message. Not to mention that in the next group, Jesus decides to check in on me and ask me how I was doing. Uh yeah, not even making this up. Moments like these make me love my job.

New Year's

2010-01-12T23:06:00.000-08:00

Last week, in celebration of New Year's, I promised my kids we would do a cooking project with food from Korea. Part of Korean culture, though usually on Lunar New Year, is to eat dumpling soup. So I got ambitious and made dumpling filling and had the kids make their own dumplings, which we then cooked in a soup in class and ate after lunch.

It was a hit! Check out our pot of boiling dumpling soup!

"That's Quite A Babysitter"

2009-12-15T22:31:00.000-08:00

The kids have been looking forward to our field trip to the MLK Shoreline since October. Of course, as luck would have it, the day we were supposed to go was the one day of the month where it was absolutely pouring rain. So it was rescheduled for today and Mother Nature was on our side, holding back the rain for another day so we could go.

Minor problem - since we weren't sure of the weather, I wasn't able to lock down any parent volunteers for the trip. I was a bit concerned since we had to walk about 13 blocks on a busy and not-so-pleasant street, then take AC Transit. Try doing that alone with 21 kids. As one man on the bus said repeatedly, "That's quite a babysitter!"

But my students were great (I didn't lose any - one of my greatest fears) and as exhausted as I am, it was totally worth it to hear the kids shouting out over and over "This is fun!"

If you want to check out photos and videos of our trip, click HERE.

Why I Don't Teach Kindergarten - Reason #845

2009-12-10T12:37:00.000-08:00

I was walking to the office to drop off some papers during my prep period when I hear SCREAMING coming from the girls' bathroom. I walk in and there are two little girls standing by the sinks giggling. I look at the stalls and I see tiny feet and legs wiggling around the floor with the stall doors ajar. Turns out there were two more girls who were screaming and army-crawling around the bathroom floor.

So I very sternly told them to get out and stop screaming. Then told them they should wash their hands and go outside. They just look at me with big blinking eyes. So I repeated, "Wash your hands and go outside." Nothing. Then, they just try to walk outside so in my best efforts to not touch them (come on - army crawling on the bathroom floor... germ central!), I used my broken Spanish to ask them to wash their hands and go outside.

Don't get me wrong, 5th graders don't always make the best choices when it comes to hygiene either (man, spring time when they haven't discovered deodorant... whew!) but at least I can talk to them and see eye-to-eye!

Bowel Movement Word Study

2009-12-08T20:56:00.000-08:00

Today, I managed to utilize the two main bowel movements to teach the /oo/ and the long /u/ sound. We had a list going with words that make the /oo/ sound - hoot, oops, etc. when I finally said, "Come on... we're missing one!" and one very eager kid goes "Poops!" Awesome. Then, for the /u/ list, "urine" came up. A complete day in the land of word study.

Starry Night

2009-12-08T20:51:00.000-08:00

I've been teaching my students about Van Gogh's "Starry Night" for years now and this year was no different. It's always fascinating to see how each student interprets the painting and replicates it. They all see different colors and swirls and stars.

Before I let the kids start, I gave them a quick background about Van Gogh... mostly that he wasn't famous until after he died, he was part of the Impressionism movement, and he cut off his own ear and ended up in an asylum, which is where he painted "Starry Night."

Well, as I was walking around the classroom, I overhear one of my girls who's arm was getting tired from making all the hatching marks with the pastels. She proclaimed, "Man! I don't know how Van Gogh did this! His painting is SO big and I'm getting tired with this small piece of paper!" A fellow tablemate responds, "Well, duh! He was in the crazy house and didn't have anything else to do with his time so he had a ton of time to finish!"

Haircut

2009-12-01T21:54:00.000-08:00

Kids are so funny. I cut my hair last week over the break, including some bangs, and wondered if the kiddos would mention it. Well, yesterday, I pinned up my bangs and nobody said anything. Well, I showered in the morning today and left my hair down to dry and within the first hour, I had a few kids ask, "Ms. Jung, did you cut your hair?" So I nonchalantly said, "Yeah, I got it cut over the break." As I'm walking away, they turn to each other and say, "So THAT'S why she had her hair like that yesterday!"

It's really funny how the analyze every bit of me, though I don't really think much about what I look like at school.

You should've seen the fervor over me wearing some eyeliner on Picture Day, even from the boys. "Ms. Jung! You painted your eyes!!!"

Thanksgiving

2009-11-22T22:53:00.000-08:00

For the past three years, I've done an art project the week before Thanksgiving where kids make their own fall thank-you cards. Most of the time, the kids write out their cards to their parents or friends. Depending on the year, sometimes I'm a recipient of their final products. Here are the comments from this year.

Dear Ms. Jung,
Thank you Ms. Jung for teaching us great things of mankind.

Dear Ms. Jung,
Ms. Jung I am thankful for you because you have taught me a lot of things that I didn't know at my old school and you're always nice with me also when I need help you always help me and that is nice of you.

Dear Ms. Jung,
I'm thankful because you teach us math and you are nice to us so I want to say that I hope you teach us art more.

Dear Ms. Jung,
I think you are a great person and teacher. Thank you for helping with questions. I like the projects we do in art and in science. I also thank you for all the cool stuff we get for prizes and tickets. Thank you for everything. Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Ms. Jung,
You are a good nice teacher for me because you're so nice sometimes. You're always taking us to PE, library, and showing us how to draw. You are a great teacher Ms. Jung.

Dear Ms. Jung,
I very love to being your class. You teach me a lot of interesting stuff and you tell me how exciting stuff. Also you teach us how to do fun art and having lunch with you and I can't wait to do fun stuff with you. Thank you. You will be my best teacher. Have a great Thanksgiving.

Several of my students asked if I was going to make thank-you cards, which I didn't have time for while supervising my students but I would like to let the universe know that I'm very grateful for my students this year. I know that some of them drive me nuts sometimes but there's gotta be some each year. Overall, they are a great group of kids and they make my job fun and interesting. They may not know it but I'm not the only teacher in the class. They are my little teachers and we're all learning together. So thank you kiddos!

Carbon Dating

2009-11-22T22:50:00.001-08:00

Every year, I've taught a story called "Circles, Squares, and Daggers: How Native Americans Watched the Skies" and one of the vocabulary words is "carbon dating." Inevitably, I get a comment about dating that's obviously not related to the scientific term. This year, one kid raises his hand and preempts his comment by saying, "Ms. Jung, it's not what you think I'm going to say" and proceeds to make a conjecture about carbon dating that's actually pretty close to the real definition.

Then, there's KK who goes "Ms. Jung, I think carbon dating means when carbon and dioxide get together because they're dating." Well, I guess he has a point.

Wicked Witch

2009-11-19T15:56:00.000-08:00

I love this class... I really do. But the last few days, I've felt like the Wicked Witch of the West. I have a trio of boys who are driving me up the wall. It started with them daring each other to ask some of the girls "out" and eventually, even paying each other... And now, they're just being really obnoxious in class. I think my patience for it is running low because I have a lot going on in life in general.

I love them but I'm looking forward to taking a week break from them... and cranking out 3 weeks until winter break. People always say that teachers have it easy with all the vacations but the way I see it is that when you're working at 110% productivity with a classroom full of 10 year olds, the only way you can continue is to have these built in breaks to revitalize yourself. Otherwise, it's a swift road to burnout.

First Rainy Day This Year

2009-10-13T21:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I was supposed to be on a field trip today but instead, I scrambled around making lesson plans to teach since it was pouring rain and the field trip was canceled. As many previous occasions, my students have surprised me yet again. They were so calm and self-directed during the recess and lunch rather than going nuts because they haven't been outside all day, like previous years. They also enjoyed playing the random checkers and board games and puzzles I had in my classroom, which have been rejected in years past.

Also, another upside was being able to wear my rain boots to work! It always makes me the "popular kid in school!" But the best part was that I had a twin in my class! We were wearing the exact same outfit, down to the scarf... AND her rain jacket totally matched my rain boots! Check it out!

Mini Machismo

2009-10-12T23:44:00.000-07:00

Two conversations... two kids... one day.

Joshua: Hey Ms. Jung! Today's my birthday!
Ms. Jung: That's fantastic Joshua! (insert high-five!) Happy birthday! How old are you today?
Joshua: Nine! I'm nine today!
Ms. Jung: So, do you feel different now that you're nine?
Joshua: Yep! I feel like a MAN!

This next one was a run-in with a younger sibling of a student I had last year. I walked past him in the hallway.

Ms. Jung: What's up little man? (high-five)
MC: I'm not a little man. I'm seven!
Ms. Jung: Oh... you want me to call you "little boy?"
MC: No... BIG MAN!

Ai-ya... so eager to be men when they should be enjoying their youth and innocence as boys.

Twins...

2009-10-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

I have this kid, who has a twin brother in the class next door. He's actually been driving me kinda nuts the past few weeks... really goofy, incessant talking, falling out of his chair... Turns out his brother is WAY more mellow and shy.

Anyways, the other morning, I was checking homework and he had two copies of the same math assignment on different colored paper. So I called him up to the desk to ask about it, knowing full well he had his brother's homework. The question who copied from who? He claimed he was doing his brother's homework for him. Hmmm... so I sent a note to his brother's teacher telling her we needed to talk during recess.

Well, come recess and the four of us are talking in the hallway (me, my student, my co-worker, and the brother). I guess my kid couldn't stand to lie anymore and confessed that he went into his brother's folder at night and took his homework so he could copy it. Meanwhile, his brother didn't know what happened to his homework when his teacher checked and told her he must've left it at home. Little did he know that his own brother snagged it from his stuff!

So I ended up calling mom during recess and in my broken Spanish, told her that her son took his brother's homework to copy it and lied to me about it. Needless to say, she didn't seem thrilled. He's not going on next week's field trip for lying to me, among other things. He also got the boot from class today for goofing off. Outlook does not look good. But I did make him shed some tears when I told him that I may have to meet with both his parents and make a plan to put him on reports (where he has to check in with me every hour to see if he's met his goals and get a signature to show his parents). Apparently, that's embarrassing for him. So at least I've got as leverage.

It's amazing how sometimes, it's just a power play. But I win. I have to win.

Similes

2009-10-01T15:35:00.000-07:00

Today, the kids were working on adding more details in their narrative pieces, specifically similes. One kid was busting them out like nobody's business. Here are a few:

"I felt as lonely as an avocado in a paper bag."

"I was as sad as a puppy getting thrown on the street."

Hahahahahahaha.

A Pleasant Surprise

2009-09-23T16:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, I was walking my kids back to class after an assembly. That's where I ran into one of the mom's from my class last year. She was at our school taking the adult English class and was taking a walk around the track for a break. In the chaos of pouring out of the cafeteria, she found me and relayed a message from her daughter, my former student. She said that her daughter wanted her to tell me "Hi!" and that she missed me. It brought a smile to my face and made me realize that there were points of light in the darkness of that year.

Then, today after school, I was working in my room when I hear, "Hi! Ms. Jung!" It was one of my parents from last year. She stopped by with her daughter, who was my student. I guess her son is volunteering at our school and they were signing him up and my former student was like "I have to go say hi to Ms. Jung!" It was great to see them and it was yet another reminder that there were many good things about last year.

Dull Pencils

2009-09-23T16:06:00.000-07:00

The things that make my day go sour may not be your average problem. My current frustrations include the school not having ink for my color printer and the EXPENSIVE pencil sharpener that's broken after just one year.

Not having a functional pencil sharpener is driving me nuts. The kids have pencil shavings all over the floor and I have a canister of dull pencils just staring at me everyday. Does anyone know how to fix a pencil sharpener??? It would make my week.

I HEART this class...

2009-09-17T21:31:00.000-07:00

This group is a god-send. I know I've said this before but really, they are pretty amazing. They make me happy about going to work, mostly because I'm curious too see what they will do to make me laugh today.

MyAlan is hilarious... today, I saw him standing up across the room during an ecology lesson with a guest speaker, with his zip-up hoodie wrapped around his waist (as in the hoodie was on but pulled down around his waist) and he was swinging the sleeves around in circles. From across the room, I mouthed that he immediately take it off. His reaction was to do some weird hand gesture to explain why and when I didn't get it, he motioned for me to come over and tells me in a whisper... "I ripped my pants..." I tried hard not to giggle as I sternly told him that he then needs to leave the sleeves alone. He immediately tied them across his waist with a big goofy grin on his face.

I mean, really, this group is so incredibly earnest and sweet and innocent. Plus, most of them have a totally different approach to school and learning than the kids I had last year. It's so incredibly refreshing to know that the time I spend teaching them is soaking in and I can see the evidence already. It's great because this is the year that I envisioned streamlining my curriculum and teaching methods and I feel like with this group of kids, it's a real possibility.

What do YOU see?

2009-09-10T23:08:00.000-07:00

What do YOU see in this picture? We started our biology science unit this week in class. One of the first activities of the unit is a picture walk, where I post a bunch of different pictures and images related to the biology topics we're studying on poster paper and the kids walk around to each one, discussing and posting their thoughts and questions. It's an investigation... and a way to generate their interest in the topic.

As the kids were walking around, I wandered from group to group, to see what they were talking about. I get to one group who happens to be looking at this picture (which is the digestive system of a squid). This student, who I'll call Alan since he reminds me so much of Alan from my first year (big, goofy, spacey, sweet), decides to comment on this picture. With a straight face, he says, "A squid doesn't have brains, it just has testicles." None of the other students in this group flinched at the word. I just stared at him and say, "Um, Alan, did you mean tentacles? Not testicles?" And he goes... "No, testicles."

At this point, I just had to walk away so I wouldn't burst out laughing. First of all, I didn't know he even knew the word, testicles. Secondly, the fact that he said the word the whole time with a straight face made me wonder if he was naive or mature. Lastly, when none of the other kids smiled, giggled, or laughed when they heard the word made it all too clear that this is a whole new world from last year.

Testicles... hahaha. You think I could do a Greek/Latin root lesson on the word? Nah... I'll just leave it for the Planned Parenthood rep who comes to do the puberty workshops.

I'm Grateful for Opposable Thumbs

2009-09-10T23:02:00.000-07:00

The first read-aloud book of the year is "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." As many of you know, there's the kids, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, and Aslan, the great lion. Well, today, I read the chapter where Peter kills off the wolf with his sword after Aslan tells him he will be King. I also read the section where Aslan told Peter to kneel as he knighted him with the sword.

KK stops me and asks, "How did Aslan hold the sword?" So I say, "What do you mean?" And he puts both thumbs up and flickers them, saying "But he doesn't have thumbs!" I tried SO hard not to laugh as I said, "Well, I'm not sure... I mean, these animals are magical..." But I mean, really, KK is right... could you imagine your dog or cat trying to hold a sword and knight someone???

Everytime I'm leaving or coming home with a bunch of stuff in my arms, I'm always grateful to have opposable thumbs so I can put my key in the door and turn the knob. I guess I'm not the only one who thinks about this in my classroom...

Missed Communication

2009-09-02T16:34:00.001-07:00

So the first day of school, I was talking about expectations and colleges, etc. I ended up on the topic of how I went to both UCLA and UC Berkeley. One kid just looks at me with the most confused look on his face and says, "Ms. Jung... you went to college twice???" I could totally decipher that look... it was the "Oh my god, my teacher flunked college and had to go twice! Am I going to learn anything?" So I immediately explained that it wasn't because I flunked but it was because I went to undergrad to learns lots of different things and then went again to learn to be a teacher. His facial expression changed immediately as a look of relief washed over him.

Hahahaha... kids are funny.

HSIOW!!!

2009-09-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

It's a new acronym I learned recently... Holy S*** It's Only Wednesday!!!

But let me tell you about my week. I LOVE my kids. Period. I don't know if it's because this group is special or if I've had THAT hard of a year last year or a combination of both, but this is going to be a great year!

Don't get me wrong... I have my handful of goofballs but the difference is that they're sweet and aren't doing anything with any sort of malicious intent. It's merely out of excitement and lack of impulse control... kind of like a new puppy that's so excited, he pees on you.

It's also the first time in 3 years where I actually have too much to do. I've also gotten better at setting up the classroom culture and making rules, I think. They kids are participating and I even heard one say, "This is so much fun!" during math time! One kid was jumping out of his seat because he want to come up to the board to prove the answer for 2 to the power of 4. That's right, we're doing exponents!

I had an "Alan" my first year. He was a kid who was HUGE, I mean, for a kid who's only 10, he was bigger than I was. Luckily, he had a sweet demeanor. By the end of the year, he was TOWERING over me. If he had gone aggro on me, it would've been my end because I would surely lose. Last year, I had one as well and what do you know? I have yet another. So I'm thinking that I'll actually mark his height on my wall somewhere this week and then compare it when I check his height at the end of the year. Guaranteed, he'll be towering over me in June.

177 more days to go...

In America...

2009-08-27T21:02:00.000-07:00

This year is going to be different... I can already feel it. School hasn't even started yet and I already have a hilarious encounter with one of my students.

Since I only have one day to set-up my entire classroom and prep for next week, I called a few of my incoming students to come in and help me out. Today, I had a special phone conversation with Sassy. Sassy immigrated from Vietnam last year and started off 4th grade with zero English. She's a sweet bright little girl. A year later, here is our conversation:

Ms. Jung: Hello, can I talk to Sassy please? This is Ms. Jung.
Sassy: Hi Ms. Jung! This is Sassy!
Ms. Jung: Hi Sassy... I heard you called Ms. Pool because you didn't have my number. What's up?
Sassy: Oh, yeah, Ms. Jung. I can come tomorrow.
Ms. Jung: Can? You CAN come tomorrow or you CAN'T come tomorrow?
Sassy: I can come tomorrow.
Ms. Jung: Do you mean yes, CAN, or no, you CANNOT?
Sassy: Ms. Jung! I CAN come tomorrow! Are we clear on this yet???
Ms. Jung: (LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY AFTER GETTING OWNED BY INCOMING STUDENT) Oh! Ok, Sassy... thanks! See you tomorrow!

Uh, yeah... the beauty of America. This is also the kid who jokes around with our principal by shaking her head and saying "Oh, no you didn't!"

It's going to be a great year. I can feel it!!! At least I'll laugh a lot...

The End of Summer

2009-08-24T22:46:00.000-07:00

I have one more day of complete freedom before the 180 days countdown starts again. I'm hoping that this year, it's a countup, rather than a countdown. I'm ready to take on the challenges of the classroom now that I've had a full summer to myself. Call it indulgent or selfish but after a year like last year, I needed every minute of this vacation to bring me back to a place where I feel like I can give this new group 100% of myself.

In the last few weeks, days, people have been asking how I feel about going back to work. In all honesty, I've been in denial about it... mostly a defense mechanism for self-preservation. But as the day is nearing, I sit here and think, "Well, here we go!" Looking back at the last few posts, I realize this I was venting rather than reflecting. I'm sure this year, there will be plenty of things I know I can complain about, most of which will be outside of my control so at the end of the day, I'll just have to remind myself "C'est la vie."

I'm SOOOO excited about having a split class of girls and boys. I never thought that just those numbers could make me this happy. I am looking forward to my new group of students, getting to know them and their families. Can you imagine if I had another Stabby Stabberson??? If not, at least I know if I stick around for 3 more years, there'll be Stabby Jr. I hope that as the school year starts and proceeds, my posts will be a positive reflection of my job.

Art Art Art

2009-05-15T16:57:00.000-07:00

I'm no artist but the kids love it and we finally have time for it. So I'm trying to teach them different kinds of art, while learning myself. They've done Van Gogh, Charles Demuth, Keith Haring, and this week, contemporary pop art. Next week, we're going to study Andy Warhol and do the Campbell's soup cans.

Check out my example:
If you want to see the kids' work, go to our 5th grade website: Pop Portraits

The CSTs

2009-04-26T23:03:00.000-07:00

This is the start of our 6 days of testing in 5th grade. 2 days of language arts, 2 days of math, and 2 days of science. A whole year of learning and it comes down to these 6 sessions (as far as many people are concerned). I'm really nervous because I know I've done my best, especially with math and language arts but it feels like the kids are forgetting everything!

Not my proudest moment but I had a standoff with one of my kids last week. We were reviewing the math homework and a few kids were struggling with one of the problems. Then, one of my boys (who I have a challenging relationship with) says, "Ms. Jung, you didn't teach us this!" Luckily, there were a bunch of other kids who were like "Nah-uh!!!" Within seconds of his comment, I turned to him and said "J-, I have taught you everything you need to know to pass the math CST next week with the exception of surface area, which you are learning today." Then I had to stop myself. I was just so frustrated because I know I've taught them and most of it, pretty well. And to get a comment like that was so frustrating!!! It's not on me... not this time. Social studies, maybe but that's because I have to cover US history from the Ice Age to the Civil War. Science, no I didn't do a good enough job... but math and language arts... I worked my butt off and I can't let anyone put it on me that I didn't teach the kids, even the kids themselves.

This IS the group that needs extrinsic motivation so I said that if they got Proficient (that's 70%) on the test in any subject area, I would invite them back for a HUGE pizza party in October where they can stuff themselves with pizza . They were like, "But Ms. Jung, we won't be here!" and my response was "If you get Proficient or Advanced in any of the 3 tests, I'll come and find you." So we'll see!

Powerpoint

2009-04-26T22:58:00.000-07:00

Do you enjoy making a Powerpoint presentation? I usually think they're pretty mundane but my colleague thought of having our kids create one as a way to share their information about the state they were researching. We do have mobile laptops so...

A few weeks ago, I had my students start their slides with the titles. Then they spent a few weeks looking up the information they needed for their states before returning to the computers on Friday. Well, man... I have NEVER seen them so well-behaved! They were quiet, focused, and helpful! As always, there were kids who were struggling and kids who zoomed through. It was interesting to see so many of them work together and help each other out as I roamed the room to help out individual kids. Seriously, for about 90 minutes, the kids were on point. It was amazing. By far the easiest teaching day I've had in a LONG time. And the best part was that they were LEARNING and enjoying it!

Science Fair

2009-04-26T22:57:00.000-07:00

18 out of 20 kids in my class finished their projects. They definitely went the range but I am proud of them completing the assignment.

Bribing Away from Procrastination

2009-04-20T20:23:00.000-07:00

The school's science fair is on Friday and all of the 5th graders have to submit a project. Don't feel bad, they've had about 2 months to work on it. In any case, us teachers are still worried that the kids won't turn them in on time so we've devised a plan.

If they kids brought them in by today, they would get NO homework in June. Little do they know that June's a wash anyways but we figured we would try the incentive. Well, it worked on half my class because 10 of them brought them in this morning. We'll see if the other 10 make it in by Thursday's deadline...

Spring Break

2009-04-03T18:46:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving this all behind for the next 9 days. I'm ready for Monday, April 13th. There's a VERY good reason why there are built-in breaks in this profession.

Letters to the Governors

2009-04-03T18:25:00.000-07:00

The kids are doing a state report project in the next few weeks and since writing a business letter is one of the 5th grade standards, I figured they could write a letter to the governor of the state they picked.

Most of them did a good job but then, I got a kid who decided to put as his closing statement, "Could you give me a souvenir?"

REALLY!?!?! You are writing a letter to the highest executive of a state, requesting their help for a project, and you want them to GIVE you something? I was appalled... At first, I tried to be diplomatic, saying that it's not polite and that they should reconsider writing that line. Then, when I kept seeing it in a couple other letters with the same line!!! So now there's a group of kids who thinks this is a good idea. So I stopped the workshop to lay it out there that it's just plain rude. I said that it's their writing so they can write what they want but that it's rude to ask people to give you things.

I've been frustrated about the materialistic nature of many of my students for awhile now. I mean, when they write "I love my parents because they buy me stuff," I feel like their perspectives are a bit skewed. Not, "I love them because they moved to a new country to give me the opportunity to succeed, work for hours and hours at menial jobs just to put food on the table, love me, take care of me, etc."

This goes back to character education and what my role is in it. I try but most times, I feel like this is bigger than me.

More Bodies

2009-04-03T18:23:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day the kids could turn in their life-size human body models. I told them they would get extra credit for completing the project. Out of 20 kids, 8 turned them in, which is good.

Here are some new ones I got since last week:

April Fools!!!

2009-04-01T13:45:00.001-07:00

Ahahahahaha!!! I got them!

The kids think I'm serious (and mean - probably) most of the time so they weren't suspecting that I'd pull a prank. BUT I DID!

The 5th grade students had to run the mile for their physical fitness test last week. Well, one of the other 5th grade teachers said that after lunch, she'd tell the kids that the coach lost their scores and they'd have to do it, AGAIN! After hearing that, we got all three teachers in on it and took them all down at the same time. We made them get into line and actually run a lap! Some of the kids were suspicious by this point but none refused to do it since we, teachers, all had our serious game faces on. So, they ran... imagine 64 5th graders all together running a lap! Disaster! So we stopped them and said they didn't do it correctly and then... April Fools!!!

The kids flipped out, as they should. I just looked at my class and said, "You all just got punked by your 5th grade teachers!" They were like, "Ah, Ms. Jung, I totally knew..." "You didn't punk us!" etc. so I let them say their comments as I gave them homework so they felt dignified while being "schooled" by their teacher. =) I win.

Pee in the Boys Bathroom

2009-03-27T17:34:00.001-07:00

3 good days was all I got. I didn't hold my breath.

I'm going to just put it out there so I can start my weekend. The principal had to come into my class after lunch to talk to my kids because one of them had peed on the boys bathroom floor... on purpose. Yep, that's right, on purpose. And I know exactly which student even without the principal telling me who. Turns out I was right. Too bad I didn't know for sure when we called his dad together afterschool for other reasons.

Seriously, this kid is a piece of work. The ultimate example of "but he's got so much potential!" Instead, he's trying to get kids to pay to be his friend and now, peeing on the floors AND the best part is that he totally admitted it to our intervention coach, which is how we all found out. I mean, he's CRYING out for attention. Does he think it's cool to pee on the ground? Because frankly, I think it's gross and I'm pretty sure most 5th graders, no matter how skewed their idea of cool is, would think it's disgusting too. Ai-ya. This is my life.

I'm going to yoga now. C'est la vie.

Miscellaneous Teaching

2009-03-27T17:22:00.000-07:00

With the pressure building up for the upcoming tests in April, I feel like a lot of the things I'm teaching in class are not out of choice. So every few weeks, I stop and make the time (sacrificing something "necessary" I'm sure) to teach something that I enjoy teaching and the kids enjoy learning. Last week was one of those weeks. For the past few years, I've had the kids do this art activity based on the cherry blossoms and each year, it seems to work out better and better. I guess my teaching is improving. The kids did a fabulous job. As a follow-up, they'll be writing their own haiku poems to go with the art.
Who has time for science or social studies??? So I'm trying my best to make the best of the situation while getting the kids ready for their science exam. As a review and extra credit, I gave the students an extra credit assignment to replicate the human body and label the organs. I thought it was a good way for them to draw (which we rarely have time to do) and review some materials. We may have run out of copy paper but I still have a gigantic roll of butcher paper so they're pretty life-size. These aren't due for another week but two students turned theirs in the next day. They, of course, made my heart happy. Here they are:

Lunch Bunch

2009-03-27T17:18:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to say that 3 out of the 4 kids (plus one of my co-workers) devoured my Sloppy (Garden) Joes at lunch on Wednesday! I say "garden" because I snuck in 7 different veggies (garlic, onion, carrot, zucchini, green bell pepper, mushrooms) aside from using ground turkey for the sloppy joes. Total success! And I hadn't made or had sloppy joes since I was a kid. But they LOVED it!

It was really satisfying to know that the kids like my cooking and actually choose it as their prize. For two of the kids, it was their second time!

For such a tough year, I try to stop and remember these moments where I do something I love for the kids and they, in return, appreciate it. Two of them even mentioned it during our appreciations today. =)

5th Grade Physical Fitness Test

2009-03-24T22:20:00.000-07:00

Since I teach 5th grade, I get to administer the physical fitness test every year. I know it's a statewide test and I wonder if it's actually national too. In any case, the kids are tested on the following:

1-mile run
push-ups
curl-ups (sit-ups)
sit & reach
trunk lift (where you lift your chest up while looking like you're paddling on a surfboard)

The students completed their mile run yesterday with no complaints. Today, we went out to finish the other four tests. I administered the curl-ups and the sit & reach, while the coach did the push-ups and trunk lifts. I was really impressed with the perseverance the kids showed during these tests. By this time, they're on the cusp of middle school, where generally, the kids complain about anything and everything. So I was pleasantly surprised by how motivated the students were, especially about the curl-ups. Even though it was hard for many of them, they all tried their best and made it to 15, which is passing. Many went beyond. Meanwhile, the kids were supportive of each other and found games to play to keep themselves busy while we were testing the kids. I was really proud of them.

When I talked to my mentor at the end of the day, she brought light to the fact that this has been the 3rd good day in a row! I know well enough not to hold my breath for days like these everyday but I am enjoying each one as it comes.

It was a good day.

2009-03-23T21:46:00.000-07:00

I should write about days like today. Nothing was extraordinary. It was just ordinary. And for my class, that is a good day. They were so... good. They were normal students who did what they were supposed to do and at the end of the day, I felt good, they felt good, and we all went home.

The kids started their 5th grade physical fitness tests today. Remember running a real mile for the first time? They were prepared with shoes, everyone was at school (which is tough for my class), and they weren't grumpy or whiny about it. I gave them their pep talk, they stretched, and it was done. They all tried their best. They played for a bit afterwards in a very organized way and I didn't have to manage their behavior.

Once they came back into class, we jumped right into language arts and they were attentive and participated. Same thing in math and ELD and read aloud.

I am amazed. For the first time in a LONG time, I didn't leave work feeling completely exhausted and drained. It was a good day.

Happy 141st Birthday, Cal!

2009-03-22T22:47:00.000-07:00

On Friday, we took all of the 5th graders (minus a few mischief makers) on a field trip to UC Berkeley and the Hall of Health. Our itinerary was to meet up with a friend of mine from UCLA who works for the admissions office so she could talk to the kiddos about going to college. Then, we'd walk around, have lunch somewhere on campus, and head to the Hall of Health.

The kids had some interesting questions for my friend, including questions about homework. (I found an old reader from undergrad while I was cleaning today so I'm going to show the kids tomorrow and explain how much reading homework you get in college) After a great presentation, we walked over to the Campanile, where the kids went up to the top for the view. We also walked to Evans Hall (math building) since one of the other teachers was a math major at Cal and showed the kids a discussion room. We then walked through the main library reading room (the kids did an amazing job of staying quiet). Once outside, I got a text message from my friend that read: "Don't know where you guys are but free cupcakes given away in front of Sproul. Plenty 4 your students. =)" I laughed and showed the other teachers. We then decided that the kids were actually being pretty good so we'd surprise them. So we headed back to Sproul where lo and behold, the Cal yell crew, Oski, and a giant tent full of free blue and gold frosted cupcakes were being passed out!

I couldn't have planned a more perfect example of the wonderful free stuff you can get while in college. Nothing beats free food, especially Sugar Bowl Bakery cupcakes. The kids were definitely saying "I LOVE college!" while stuffing their mouths with chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. I love college too.

Sub Note

2009-03-19T22:12:00.000-07:00

I took my 2nd sick day of the year yesterday. I was determined to keep teaching, even without a voice, but I woke up at 6:30am feeling like crap. I might've tried to push through but I have a field trip scheduled for tomorrow and it was more important I make it to Friday so I took a sub day.

First thing, I logged into the sub system and put in the absence. I was skeptical about someone picking up the job but turns out with the recession, there are a lot of eager subs. So I had a warm body. Check. Next, I emailed the principal, telling her I'd be out and laid out the defensive plan for a few of my troublemakers. Then I spent the next hour writing up sub plans for the day (it's hard work trying to leave instructions for a complete stranger on how to not only deal with your 20 kids but also teach them something). After sending those off to school, I followed this year's motto of "C'est la vie" and promptly passed out 'til about 1pm.

Fast forward to this morning when I walk into my classroom (always touch&go about the state of the classroom), and found the sub note. Here is what he said: "Hi, Thanks for the clear lesson plans. I have to say, I don't think I have subbed for a more misbehaved bunch in my 3-4 years of subbing." Then he proceeds to tell me the whos, whats, whens, etc. Apparently, for all the trouble that they were, he held his own, which is no small task this year.

All I could do was laugh. Does this mean I'm some sort of martyr? Am I a superhero? Do I deserve a medal? Because really, everyone keeps telling me the same thing about my kids and nobody seems to realize that they only get small glimpses of time while I have them THE WHOLE YEAR! EVERY DAY, ALL DAY, they are my responsibility. I will own up to it. They are mine and I will do my best to get them as ready as they can for next year. But let me tell you, this is not easy, and it makes me PISSED to think about those stupid people at AIG and their entitlement issues about bonuses. The district is talking about a 5% pay cut for teachers while the millionaires at AIG are rewarding themselves for screwing up. What kind of world am I living in?

Without a Voice

2009-03-17T23:23:00.000-07:00

One of the things that makes me unique is my loud voice. I say that with acceptance and pride. It has also become one of my greatest teaching tools. And today, I was without it.

I had been fighting a cough for the last few days and yesterday morning, while I was talking to the kids, I coughed a few times and *bam* like Cinderella at midnight, it was gone. I went to bed last night hoping it would return but no luck this morning. I would have to teach without being able to talk to my kids. Should be interesting...

The last time I came down with laryngitis was almost 3 years ago when I was student teaching. It was day 2 of my 10-day solo. I was so nervous about it since I had grand plans for teaching and also knew the kids could totally take advantage of me since I wasn't their regular teacher. Lo and behold, that class was a bunch of angels. They were so sympathetic and considerate and in the end we actually got a lot done.

My class this year... not so much angels. If anything, I would shift the majority of them towards the other end of the spectrum. So I had to go in with a plan. I had my game face on and my laptop connected to the LCD projector. If I couldn't talk to them, I would write to them. So I left a message up before picking them up in line. Pretty much stated that yes, I didn't have a voice but no, we weren't going to mess around and yes, if they did feel like acting up in class, I already made arrangements with the other teachers to send them out for the day. With that said, the kids did better than I expected them to. Most of them held it together. Things definitely took a lot longer, especially the reading since I was supposed to read the story aloud but couldn't. There were also a few incidents, not really related to my loss of voice, but escalated by my much lower tolerance for their negative behavior.

I made it to the end of the day. It is exhausting trying to communicate in non-conventional ways - eye contact (or more like stare-downs) and hang gestures. Remnants of the voice is coming and going and chances are, I won't be fully recovered for a few more days which means this week will continue to be a challenge. But hey, I've taught through worse... This experience just adds to this year of ultimate challenges. I keep telling myself the two phrases "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger" and "C'est la vie."

March Madness!!!

2009-03-16T18:05:00.000-07:00

I figured, I've gotta do something to keep the teaching interesting for me. I need to steer clear of the 5th grade drama the kids are getting into and use the classroom time efficiently and make it engaging.

I actually wanted to try this last year but didn't have it together enough to pull it through. This year, I figured, anything to keep my kids engaged. I figured out a way to incorporate percents and probability into the lesson, which is good since the kids are seriously struggling with figuring out percents.

Today was the first day and I introduced the 64 teams and started the lesson by asking, "If there are 64 teams and each team gets eliminated after one loss, how many total games are played in the tournament?" They made a prediction and then we created a T-chart with 2 teams, 1 game, 4 teams, 3 games, 8 teams, 7 games... they quickly figured out that it's 1 less that the number of teams based on that pattern. Then, I also explained Mike's logic of "64 teams, each team has to lose once except for the champion so it's 63." I think that went over their heads but at least they know.

Then the kids figured out the percent of wins per team and made their own brackets. I never knew how hard it would be to figure out the brackets. I took it for granted. Several of the kids didn't quite understand the concept of choosing one out of two teams and so on and so on. It's funny which kids got it right off the bat too. I guess that's the interesting thing about teaching. They can always surprise you with what they know and don't know.

Can't wait for Thursday when I can start writing on my hand-made bracket bulletin board! I think that'll get the kids really pumped since they'll be checking their own (which I think for most of them took my style of choosing which was by name - ah, just like their teacher...).

I'm Struggling...

2009-02-27T22:11:00.000-08:00

People said, "The second year is better... easier..." Not for me. This year has been SO incredibly difficult for me. The combination of students in 5th grade and more specifically, in my class, is like the perfect storm. Everyday, there's a new fire that pops up and most of the time, it feels like I'm using a kiddie bucket to put it out. Most of these issues are not even related to school/academics. I know I'm a good teacher, but in these circumstances, the learning is out of my control, which has been a very difficult thing for me to admit being a control freak and all.

I keep telling myself, "It's not personal" or "C'est la vie" or "Let it go" over and over in my head. I'm using breathing techniques and Mindfulness and yoga and pictures of babies and baby pandas to bring myself down from the high levels of frustration and tension and sometimes even anger, that builds up inside throughout the day from various incidents.

One of my colleagues said to me yesterday, "Wow, how can you be so zen?" as one of my boys was being utterly and completely obnoxious during lunch detention. I wouldn't give him any reaction, ignored him, and just let him ride it out. I told her, "It takes every bit of my being and self-control to do it and I'm completely exhausted by the end of the day."

My job is to teach and yet, everyday, I feel like I spend at least 70% of my mental capacity and energy on trying to get the kids to a place where my teaching is actually productive and useful. I did a presentation on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs at the last parent meeting. Of course the parents who were at the meeting were mostly parents of the kids who aren't depleting me of my mojo. Here's the thing - in order to learn and be reflective and thoughtful, the kids have to have all of their other needs satisfied. Most of my kids are lacking in one level or another or several, areas where I can't help them, no matter how much I may try or want to. So what is there left for me to do?

But the one positive spin is that I have one student who is my beacon of hope. When things get really bad in class, I look at her and remind myself that I still need to be "there" for her. Despite the chaos of this year, she amazes me with her upbeat attitude, persistence, responsibility, and follow-through. I can always count on her to do the work and do it well. I talk myself down from the ledge by telling myself that I would be doing her a big disservice if I gave up.

Overall, I'm not ready to let my students go quite yet because I still have a lot of work I need to do with them before sending them off to middle school. However, I won't be sad when June 12th arrives.

5th Grade Techies...

2009-02-19T22:50:00.000-08:00

Check out our 5th grade website! One of my grade-level team teachers started a website for her own class. When I told her that I wanted to make one too because it was so cool, she offered to share hers as the 5th grade website, since we do pretty much the same things with our students. Now, the two of us are working together to keep it updated, which has been fun. She's figured out so many cool things to put on there like slideshows with photos from our field trips.

Character Education

2009-02-18T23:15:00.001-08:00

Lately, I've been struggling to find the boundaries of my responsibilities when it comes to character education. I can assume that when people think of teachers, it mostly pertains to reading, writing, math, etc. However, part of my job includes teaching kids how to become citizens of the world, even though I don't actually have the time in the day.

The world beyond the classroom is a pretty dismal place lately, with headlines each day revealing thousands of layoffs. The economic problems that have driven our society to its current state could have been averted with some more socially responsible people in charge. As I teach the next generation of citizens, I wonder, what is my role in helping the future?

At the same time, within the confines of my own classroom, I struggle this year with a group of kids who are overall good kids but also overall very egocentric right now. Their egocentrism at its current state is not harmful, though it doesn't make for a feel-good classroom environment either. We don't have a collective sense of community, despite my efforts through lessons, discussions, and class meetings. So I wonder, what are my responsibilities for impacting their worldview and at what point does it go back to the parents?

It is mentally exhausting to struggle with this, on top of worrying about test scores, reading levels, family issues, progressive hormonal changes, multiplication facts, and a plethora of other things on my "list" that invades my mind everyday. I may not have the answers to all of these things on my "list" but yoga on Friday nights definitely helps relieve a bit of the pressure off my shoulders and my heart. And people wonder why teachers need breaks...

Are Uniforms Really That Bad?

2009-02-09T19:24:00.000-08:00

Monday morning showdown... I'm walking into the main building to pick up my keys and I see one of my girls standing on the yard, wearing jeans rather than her uniform pants. Same kid who has been calling home almost every morning and lately just bringing her uniform in backpack rather than wear it. Anyways, I say, "You need call home for your uniform" as I walk by and she says, "My dad's not home; he's at the hospital." I had a feeling she was making it up so I just walked away, since I needed to rush to prep my class.

Fast forward 30 minutes and the kids are walking into the class so I tell my two girls (same ones I've written about before) that they'll need to go to the principal to call home or borrow uniforms from school, explicitly telling the secretary to give them the REALLY long sack-like skirt, which would MORTIFY them! Then the girls tell me they have their pants in their backpacks. UGH!!! Right then, the principal comes by and nabs the girls and takes care of the problem. Apparently they got lunch detention with the principal on top of having to change their clothes.

I mean really? Are uniforms that big of a deal? And seriously, if they really didn't want to wear them, they should just not wear them. Guess they're still kids because something's driving them to actually bring the pants, even if it means they're keeping them in their backpacks. I don't get it. It's just so annoying to have to deal with... I've got much bigger issues to deal with yet I can't let this go either because they'd totally fall of the uniform wagon. UGH!!!

80 More to Go!

2009-02-06T22:45:00.000-08:00

We spent the whole day doing math in celebration of 100th day. The highlight of my day was completely unplanned. We were supposed to get an hour of 100th day themed PE but since it rained, it was canceled, which meant I all of a sudden had an unplanned hour.

I came up with doing jumping jacks in class for 100 seconds. Then, it turned out kindergarten needed some extra help so rather than sending a few of my kids who can't keep it together in class, I took my whole class. The kinder kiddos were assembling 100th day necklaces with Fruit Loops. Turns out the kiddos needed a lot of help counting. So each of my 5th grader paired up with a kinder kiddo. You should've seen the looks on the kindergarteners' faces as our class walked in! They were SO excited!

Picture a kindergarten room with 20 teeny kids and 21 of my big kids, all counting Fruit Loops. Hilarious! What was the best was watching some of my kids trying to "help" the kindergarteners and getting so frustrated, they would try to make the necklace for them! I was thinking, "Now you get what I go through!" But overall, it was really great to see my kids work with the little ones and try to help them out. It made me think how great it would be if we had time for some buddy reading with the little kids, just to watch them work together. I think it would be a wonderful confidence booster for some of my students too! Too bad there's no time... Maybe I can figure something out.

Retraction!!!

2009-02-03T21:31:00.000-08:00

So to my students' credit and my relief, my two girls were NOT ditching class. However, they were caught by the principal in the morning yesterday and were late to class because they have not been wearing their uniforms to school. So the principal had them call home. No response. So they had to borrow school clothes, which they're probably not too thrilled about. Turns out one of them actually had her uniform in her bag.

I mean, I remember having friends in middle school who would change their clothes in the school bathroom because they were wearing things they wouldn't want their mothers to see... So I understand. But really, in 5th grade?

Ding Dong Ditch

2009-02-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

Ai-ya... so I don't know if I mentioned this but one of my girls is 13 and in 5th grade. The reason she's 13 is because she moved from Mexico and didn't start kindergarten until she was 8. She's a sweet girl but academically behind because she started school late and she's also working out her 13-year-old-ness in my class. That includes boy-craziness and now... attempts to ditch school.

This morning, I had 6 kids absent from class. I was a little suspicious and asked the kids if they saw any of the missing kids today. A couple kids said they saw two of my girls earlier. Ah-ha! I called the office and found out that they were getting tardy slips in the office so I told them that they were already at school. The office said they'll take care of it.

I don't know what the final verdict was but it seems like they were probably dropped off before school and they walked out to check out the corner store or something. I think they're still too scared to try to ditch school altogether but testing the boundaries. Ai-ya!

Sunday Morning at the California Academy of Sciences

2009-02-01T22:46:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, we had our first big raffle drawing. I had some books, trinkets (including the under $5 Target star toy thingy I won from a Christmas white elephant), and coupons I made for lunch with me or a trip to the California Academy of Sciences. I was quite thrilled that a bunch of the boys picked the lunch coupons, which I promised a homecooked meal. They decided they wanted my mac & cheese so we're doing lunch this Thursday.

As for the museum ticket, I didn't want too much time to pass so I figured I would take a few kids today. Superbowl Sunday = less people, yes? No. It turned out to be quite an ordeal. First of all, I had to pick up all of the kids from their houses, which took longer than expected. We then zipped into the city, which was fine but once I got to Golden Gate Park, all of the entrances were blocked! After circling the entire park, I found out there was a race in the park so the only place to park was in the garage, which thankfully, wasn't full yet. So finally, we parked and hurried to the museum. The kids and I got our tickets for the planetarium and the 3-D bugs show. 3 hours quickly passed as we wandered around the rainforest, the aquariums, the penguins, and the living roof (no Claude, the albino alligator - he's sick). We also saw both shows, which was a first for me.

We then forged through the traffic through the city, back across the bridge, and to East Oakland to drop off the kiddos. The kids munched on the snacks I carried around in my backpack. I now know what soccer moms feel as they shuttle around.

Overall, I'm happy because the kids seemed to have a great time. When I asked them what their favorite part was, they were like, "Everything!" However, I underestimated how worn out I would feel after it. I thought the day would be a lot shorter, maybe 9-1, which is still quite a few hours but instead, I left the house at 8:30 and didn't get home until about 3:30. It definitely felt like another day of work, on a Sunday! So I'm completely pooped but maybe this will encourage the four kids to continue to do well in school and others to want to do well in case this museum coupon comes up again (which I'm not so sure of... but maybe I'll change my mind). One thing is for sure, I'm definitely getting my money's worth from my membership!

Raffle Tickets

2009-02-01T22:37:00.001-08:00

This year's class is all about the extrinsic motivators. Tickets, points, high fives... you name it, they love it. Sometimes, I feel like a circus clown in the classroom, using all these tricks to keep their attention (and half of them still don't pay attention).

Anyways, raffle tickets are my newest way to keep them with me. First of all, I have to make sure I wear pants with pockets because aside from the numerous random scraps of paper and pens I stuff into my pants, now, I have to keep a bundle of raffle tickets so I can pass them out throughout the day as I walk around the class. They're for the kids who are essentially doing what they're supposed to be doing after I give a direction. It comes out as, "Thank you Sarah for taking out your book and turning to page 99."

Wahoo for Benchmarks!

2009-01-27T22:49:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know that we all hate tests and I definitely do NOT think that tests are the best way to assess students' knowledge. However, the reality of education, especially in large urban districts is that student and teacher performance is often times determined by test scores. In my case, I gotta pick my battles and so my students take district exams every 4 weeks or so in language arts and math.

Well, I just got my math scores and WAHOO!!! I had 14 out 21 kids score at grade level on this test, including 2 kids who got perfect scores. In addition, there was a kid who, I swear two months ago... could not divide if his life depended on it, and on this test scored an overall 88% and got ALL of the long division (with and without decimals) problems correct!!! I was SO proud of this student, I was going to burst!

In order to find some sanity in my life, I have been reminding myself that I can only be responsible for teaching to the best of my abilities, with the consideration for students' individual needs and situations. However, I have realized that I am not responsible for the learning... that is not something I can force the kids to do.

In this case, the kids definitely learned something and I'm SO proud of them. =)

Progress?

2009-01-27T22:32:00.000-08:00

I had my game face ready. My teacher voice was prepped. But as 8:45am was approaching, I kept reevaluating how I should handle the situation in my classroom. Should I just be mean and reprimand my students for their behavior? Should I let it go because really, it would just drain me out? Is there something in between?

It came down to starting the morning off with the kids doing warm-up and addressing their daily journal topic. Today's topic was: "How was your behavior in class last week? What were some of the positive behaviors and choices you made? What were some of the negative behaviors and choices you made and how can you improve/change them for next time?"

I think the kids were well aware of my sentiments based on my stern face and voice. In my head, I just wanted to let this go and move forward, which is a change in my own attitude from 3 months ago. We went ahead with the warm-up, I reviewed today's schedule, and then had them circle up for a class meeting.

I started off by telling the kids how disappointed I was in their behaviors and decisions last week. I validated this by reading off key phrases from the substitute's note: "refused to follow directions, talked constantly, were rude, disrespectful." Truthfully, the sub wrote this about 2 specific students but from the gist of the note and the students' letters, I guessed that many of my kids were acting this way so I took the liberty of applying it to the class. I explained that students from our school should not be representing our school this way, in or outside the school. "Would people want to work at our school if they think our kids are disrespectful and rude?" One major shift in my actions and thinking with the kids was that I vocalized that, yes, I understand... having a sub is different and often times, difficult. I was once a kid too and maybe four days was too long. At the same time, there may be times when I can't be at school for whatever reason, and I don't want to have to worry about people not wanting to work with my class! Also, while I was disappointed, I don't want to feel that way anymore, which is why we needed to address this and move forward.

Then, I had each student share one positive behavior or choice they made last week and one negative behavior or choice and how they could change that for next time. I emphasized that the comment should be about THEMSELVES, not what so-and-so did or didn't do, which comes up frequently in my class. I think it was pretty successful because each student shared and the rest of the day was relatively calm.

The day made me realize that while I think during most days, there are tornadoes going through my room in terms of energy and chaos, it is actually calm, relative to what could be happening. It also made me realize that my students really do need me around, which was comforting.

Ms. Jung is Missing!

2009-01-26T22:14:00.000-08:00

I've got to get my game face ready for tomorrow. Based on the substitutes' letters and the row of my students who were sitting in the office on Friday afternoon, when I got back to school from camp, it looks like things were crazy in Room 202. That is in addition to the stack of letters the subs made the kids write about how they were misbehaving. Looks like the subs got a run for their money with my students.

Most of the letters were filled with "The other kids were being bad but it wasn't me" but there were a few where they used the collective "we" and mentioned that they missed me and wanted me to come back soon. The icing on the cake of letters though was that the student who was the most disruptive actually admitted that he caused all the chaos and apologized in his letter. I don't know how genuine it was but I have to give him credit for taking responsibility.

THIS is my year. I know things were crazy last week for the kids but the camping trip with the 4th grade was SO worth it. To spend four days outdoors (in the rain and fog), hiking, singing, eating, dancing, and best of all, laughing with the kids was incredibly rejuvenating. The trip reminded me how much I really love working with kids and how hilarious they are when they are allowed to be just kids. Tomorrow and probably the rest of this week will be tough, trying to get my own students back on track, but I am looking forward to the challenge and when the going gets tough, I'll just recall the memories of watching the kiddos reenact MJ's "Thriller" dance!!!

Camping Trip

2009-01-20T00:44:00.000-08:00

I'm off to camp tomorrow for the week... with the 4th graders! I know, you're probably thinking, "Why? Don't you teach 5th grade?" Yes, that is correct.

Well, the 4th grade is going to a week-long camp to learn about the 4 Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle, rot) at a YMCA camp in Livermore. They needed extra chaperones and it was easier to take people from staff rather than parent volunteers. I volunteered because apparently, I didn't get to go to camp enough as a child. So my 5th graders will stay at school with a substitute while I'm away at camp. They got to go last year.

Besides, I'm justifying it by building relationships with my future students for next year. And, I love camp food!

Procrastination... It Doesn't Get You Anywhere...

2009-01-11T18:17:00.000-08:00

I am finally attacking the stack of constellation myths that my students wrote... oh, about 2 months ago?!?! It's one of the few pieces I type up for them and I was supposed to do them a while back. But now that Meet the Author day is Thursday, I really have to get them done.

So here I am on a Sunday evening, reading through my students' writing and typing up their stories, some of which are hilarious because I can't seem to follow their train of thought. Oh, to be a kid again.

But a lesson I should have learned years ago... procrastination doesn't get you anywhere. Boo.

Meet the Author Breakfast

2008-12-17T22:09:00.000-08:00

Speaking of writing, I wanted to put out the invitation to those of you who are local and available. Our class will be holding our annual "Meet the Author" breakfast on Thursday, January 15th. It's a chance for the kids to show their writing to friends and family. We have bagels, juice, and coffee for everyone! This year, it's actually going to be all three of the 5th grade classes, so more kids' work to see!

Let me know if you're interested in visiting and I'll send you more details. This is probably one of the best events for people to visit. It's low-key but entertaining. Hope some of you can make it!

Youth Speaks

2008-12-17T21:59:00.000-08:00

Today was a very special day for our school's 3rd-5th graders. I organized an assembly where poets from the organization, Youth Speaks, came to present to our students. The idea stemmed from the fact that our students participate in the oratorical festival every year. It's an opportunity for them to present a poem to an audience. The first year, it was cool but each consecutive year has been more challenging for me when the students don't have a teacher who be an good example of public presentation.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind speaking in front of groups of people but I will be the first person to admit that I could be better at it. So trying to teach my students about public speaking has been a challenge.

In comes Youth Speaks. A group of two young men and and two young women came to our school this morning. Three of them were currently in college and two were from Oakland. They presented their own poems and raps to the kids after explaining their backgrounds, interests and inspirations. It was great to watch the kids so engaged! The best part was when one of the guys recited a portion of "Rapper's Delight" and I started rapping the words along with him. The kids at my table were staring at me with these BIG eyes. I could totally read their minds - "Ms. Jung knows rap!?!?!" Little do they know I jam to the same music they listen to on my own time. =)

I'm pretty sure this experience was entertaining and educational to most, if not all, of the kids. However, I really hope that it touched those few students who either needed a positive role model or needed an extra push to pursue their own writing and art.

Bathroom Graffiti

2008-12-15T22:38:00.000-08:00

So, Friday morning, the kids are quietly taking their one of many district exams and my principal walks in to tell me there's a big problem. I'm thinking, "Crap, something went wrong with one of my evaluations..." But no... this is good.

Apparently, she found out that there's been graffiti on the bathroom walls. Guess who it's about?!?! That's right... your's truly!!! You know you made it as a 5th grade teacher (oldest kids in the school who are pretty much mentally ready for middle school) when your name gets tagged on the boys bathroom stalls! She found out that it's an even bigger problem when the district maintenance guys came in THAT morning to repaint the stalls, which already had something written about me, only to find that there was a new message on the freshly painted stalls, AGAIN! Hahahahaha!!!!

I think my principal thought that I might get upset but the truth is, I think it's REALLY funny. One of the other 5th grade teachers made it on there too. We high-fived each other during recess... guess we're the most notorious ones. (Just to clarify - I don't condone defacing property, especially a school - I just think it's funny that a kid or many kids are that persistent in expressing their emotions about me)

After the principal talked to my class and threatened them that if it continues to happen, she would revoke bathroom privileges to all the 5th grade boys and escort them when they had an emergency (which she did last year with tagging issues not related to me), I said a few words myself. I straight up told the kids that it didn't hurt my feelings. (I wish I could tell them I thought it was kinda funny that they would waste their precious free time in school bitching about me in the bathroom...) But I did tell them that what upset me was that they were defacing property and wasting money. They waste money by having the school pay for the district to come and repaint our school when we could be using that money for field trips and supplies for cool science experiments, which they've been asking for in class. I said they weren't allowed to complain about it anymore. I think that may have driven the point home. What do THEY lose out of this situation... not what they gain from saying "F*** Ms. Jung." We'll see... I'll keep you posted if there are new updates from the stalls.

If The Readers Ask...

2008-12-15T22:29:00.000-08:00

I will comply.

One of my most dedicated followers has called me out on posting my own 5th grade photo. I'm not ashamed. I had to own up to it the day my mother decided to line the hallway with each of my school photos. I've shown this to my students before they have to take their own 5th grade photos. It's only fair, don't you think?

So, here is me at age 10... 5th grader at Capistrano Elementary School. I think I have come a LONG way... or maybe not? At the least, I've learned to open my eyes a bit more while taking the picture.

Are we there yet?

2008-12-14T23:07:00.000-08:00

One more week to go until winter break. Funny thing is that I think my mind was there on Friday and now it's Sunday night and I have to go to work for another week. Should be an interesting week with many activities and festivities.

Picture Day, Part II

2008-12-03T21:09:00.001-08:00

Did I tell you that LifeTouch finally went digital? Well, one perk is that pictures get processed and delivered at a much faster rate. I found this out yesterday, when one of my students was like, "Ms. Jung! The pictures are here!" So I asked him to pick up the set for our class.

I always forget that they give the teachers a complimentary set. This year, they decided to gift us with Package A. That's right. I have an 8X10 photo of myself. See below:
Talk about throwing me back into my childhood!

Now, if any of you have had the opportunity to visit the Jung household, you'll have the unforgettable experience of walking down the Hall of Jungs. That's right... there's a hallway in my parents' house that has all 13 school photos of both me and my brother, size... 8X10. LifeTouch knows how to mess with me.

If my roommate will let me take off the 8x10, which she insists on keeping on our fridge, it's going straight to my parents. "Merry Christmas, Mom and Dad! This is what you get from your 27 year old daughter."

I just think it's really funny that years down the line, my students are going to see this picture on their class photo. I've been immortalized looking like this...

MIA

2008-12-03T21:01:00.000-08:00

I apologize for being MIA. There are quite a few reasons.

One, I've been swamped with work stuff, both in and out of the classroom, which has been really hard on me. This week, I finished my report cards and holding parent/teacher conferences every day afterschool. I feel mentally overstimulated just having to prepare to meet the parents but I have the added layer of trying to use my broken Spanish to translate, which makes my mind go on over-drive.

Secondly, we went on Thanksgiving break last week and I refused to think about anything related to work.

Lastly, I think I'm going through a mini-life crisis about work. To be completely honest, this year has been really tough... almost harder than last year, which seems impossible since nothing's supposed to be worse than the first year. It's hard to explain so the short story is I'm struggling and doubting a lot, which turns into a downward spiral. I am asking for help and trying to life my spirits and working on this blog helps a lot because it makes me think of interesting or funny stories about work, which usually puts a smile on my face.

So thank you to those of you who read. It means a lot to me.

In My Own Movie

2008-11-20T20:37:00.000-08:00

I just realized that a large part of my job is acting. I came to this realization today in the middle of our read aloud. I'm reading Because of Winn-Dixie to the kids and I couldn't help but laugh at myself. Every time I open that book and start talking, this weird Southern accent comes out of my mouth, the whole time I'm reading the book. The funniest thing is that it doesn't even faze the kids at all. Am I the ONLY one who notices that I'm talking in a totally different way when I'm reading? Or am I imagining my voice and accent in my head?

Picture Day

2008-11-13T15:29:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to update everyone that Lifetouch (the company that does pretty much all school pictures) has gone digital!!! That means no more "one time only" shot where you have to keep your fingers crossed that you didn't close your eyes because THAT's the photo that'll be in the yearbook.

Anyways, it was cute to see the kids get all nervous about getting their photos taken. I was a bit nervous too, but I think those are remaining feelings from the fear of getting a huge 8X10 photo of me with closed eyes, since my mom always ordered the biggest package.

I promised my mom that I wouldn't cut my own bangs on the kitchen floor days before picture day, as I did in kindergarten.

School Election Results

2008-11-04T18:28:00.000-08:00

The results are in from our school-wide presidential elections.

Out of all the students who "registered," 294 votes went to Barack Obama and 29 votes went to John McCain.

Just so you know, 22 of the 29 votes for McCain were kindergarteners who voted using provisional ballots during their lunch time. And we're convinced they voted because they wanted the "I voted!" stickers. They're either a REALLY conservative class or they were uninformed.

My class is VERY left. Out of 21 students, 19 voted for Barack Obama and 2 voted for Gloria la Riva, who's the candidate for the Socialism party.

This is where our future is going...

Kumon Anyone???

2008-10-28T18:15:00.000-07:00

I never thought the day would come when I would be an advocate for Kumon or any sort of after-school tutoring or prep classes. I figured the millions of hours of my childhood I lost would be enough to say "NO!" to Kumon. But seriously... those Japanese folks knew the key to math.

Endless hours of timed drills for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Oh the pain!!! But think about it... those are the foundations of any math. Without having number fluency and automaticity (I know, teacher-terms, but you can figure them out), you're out of luck with higher level math. Or it takes you a REALLY long time.

I'm trying to teach long division with multi-digit divisors this week and seriously, I want to jump off a bridge. When kids can't multiply or estimate how many times a divisor might go into the dividend, it's a major traffic jam. Or when they "finish" the division problem and I ask them to check their answer by doing the inverse operation (multiplication) and they get a different answer... rather than go back and try to figure out where they went wrong, most just keep going. Very little self-monitoring. Try doing 78921/43 using pen and paper. See if you remember... and let me know if you think your life is impacting by knowing how to do long division.

I'm fearing the end of this week, when I have to move on to multiplying and dividing decimals. Seriously, if I can't teach them to use whole numbers, what's gonna happen when I throw in decimals?!?!?! I'll tell you... a train wreck.

And I'm open to teaching alternative ways, if there are any. But I don't know of any other way than what I learned and the math textbooks don't have any other suggestions. I can clearly see that my way of teaching this is NOT working for the class (only one kid out of 21 got it today) but I don't know what else to do. Do I keep moving forward? Do I spend an extra few days? I know that a lot of my kids need individual help but there's one hour of math a day and 21 of them and one of me. With the district math assessment date coming up, I feel the pressure to cover everything on the test in time... but then what do I do with my kids who don't get it? Leave them behind?

What do I do??? Do you think Kumon would come to my school?

P.S. The answer for the division problem is 1835 R 16.

Black Hole Sun...

2008-10-23T22:23:00.001-07:00

So we've started our new reading and science unit on astronomy and I was teaching about the solar system. During one of the pair share moments, I was talking to two of my kids when they asked about stars. I responded by telling them we'll be reading a story in a few weeks about the life cycle of stars and learning about black holes.

Just then, one of the boys was like, "Hey I know... there's a song... 'Black Hole Sun!'" It was like SCREECH! What did you say? How in the world would this kid know this song?!?!

Turns out... he heard it while playing Rock Band. Hahahaha! I'm not a huge fan of video games but I do love what Guitar Hero and Rock Band are doing for kids. Building their cultural capital. =) (and making their teacher feel really old)

Schoolyard Tagging

2008-10-20T08:25:00.000-07:00

It's just a crappy way to start a Monday morning. I walked onto my school's playground to see a fresh batch of tagging all over the building walls. Seriously??? WHAT are you proving to WHO when you jump the fence of an elementary school and tag all over the walls? Especially a school in Oakland where now, we have to make a request to the district office to have someone come out and paint over it. The new paint NEVER matches the walls so then it obviously looks like it's covering something up. And really, there are PLENTY of things the Buildings & Grounds people could be spending their time fixing rather than doing extra work of repainting the school.

I just want to be like, "WOW! You are SOOO cool! You really proved that you're a big person because you took SUCH a risk to jump a fence of a grade school and wrote all over the playground. That's gonna get you into the cool crowd."

Seriously, whoever they are need to have better things to do with their lives. Besides, the tagging isn't even artistic or interesting. Amateur work.

On the upside, our garden is still in tact as well as the pea sprouts and lettuce that one of the 3rd grade teachers are trying to grow outside her portable.

Election Excitement

2008-10-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

Since U.S. history is part of the 5th grade standards in California and I'm obsessed with the 2008 presidential elections, I've been pumped to teach about it in class with my students. I try very hard to be unbiased in the classroom, using Scholastic News for Kids magazines and other resources to give students more information about all the different candidates and the issues.

Well, on Wednesday afternoon, I thought it might be a good idea to assign my students to watch t.v. Specifically, they were assigned to watch the last presidential debate. I knew that a lot of the language and content would be difficult for the students to understand but I thought it'd be good for them to get exposed.

So, they had to watch the debates and write one important thing that Barack Obama said in their own words and one important thing John McCain said in their own words.

Here are some of their insights:
For Barack Obama:
"He said that he wants energy independence for U.S.A. Lower costs for health insurance."
"He is helping us and famailys he is also talking about a bank. Obama wants to cut taxes."
"Obama wants to lower the cost of health insurance."
"Put more atention to the students"
"That the people who earns $250,000 or less a year, he won't make the pay a lot of money on taxis."

For John McCain:
"McCain said if he becomes president he will have the best constitution."
"He said that Obama's campaign was a lie."
"John McCain disagree with Barack Obama."
"He's going to help Joe buy the bussiniss and cut tax."
"Mcain wants to give the world $5,000 dollars for health insurance."
"Spread welth around."
"He said he would help the little bussiness."

That's what some of the 5th graders of East Oakland got out of the last presidential debate. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the response to this assignment. All of my students this year are from Spanish speaking homes so most did not have parents to rely on to explain the content of the debates. Most of them watched it alone. They may not have understood all of the details but I'm really proud of the fact that they followed-through and tried the assignment. Their comments proved to me that they really watched the debates too. (PARTISAN COMMENT: I bet that's more than we can say for some of the citizens of this country.) I also have to say... there was a student in one of the other classes who responded something along the lines of "They kept talking about a corn." (Um... ACORN).

And I couldn't resist posting this image. One student drew this on the back of her assignment and I got such a good laugh out of it. I won't hide it here... I'm Obama all the way. But she was so cute with this illustration and her comment of "Our next president has to be Barack Obama" was too much for me to keep to myself. She even got his ears and the flag pin! I guess we know where she stands!

Technology Void

2008-10-13T22:38:00.000-07:00

I got four brand new Apple computers last year and all my kids did with them was play online during lunch and type (painfully and slowly) their writing. I felt like I wasn't doing enough to integrate technology but didn't know where to start.

This year, I resolved to using more technology. I'm using my LCD projector to connect with my laptop and show documents on the screen and the document camera (a digital version of the overhead projector) to do work by hand.

BUT after seeing this video called PAY ATTENTION I feel like I'm still not doing enough for my kids and not utilizing the computers enough. But I'm stuck. Any ideas?

The problem is that only about 1/3 of my class has computers at home. Which means it's not fair for me to assign work to be done at home. But when at school, the Internet is slow because the district server is WAY overwhelmed so the kids get frustrated.

I'm trying something new this week - assign one Internet homework assignment on Monday and have it due on Friday. That way, the kids who have computers at home can do it at home and the kids who don't can use the classroom computers or the ones in the library. We'll see what happens.

Any ideas for helping with typing?

Famished Brains

2008-10-01T17:50:00.000-07:00

I always had a inkling that my students weren't eating enough during lunch and on days when I had a few minutes to spare, I would hang out in the cafeteria and hover over my students to make sure they were eating something, anything, before they went out to play.

A few days ago, I caught one of my students trying to sneak out of the cafeteria literally moments after I walked them to the lunch line. Now, I'm a fast eater and as a fast eater, I can tell the difference between a fast eater and a fake eater. This kid did not eat ANYTHING. He claimed he drank some milk. I think "some" is a relative term. Maybe he opened it. In any case, I said he needed to eat something before he left the cafeteria and he tells me "I never eat lunch." What??? I asked if he ate breakfast, and he told me no. I was too flabbergasted to argue with him, especially because he looked like he was going to cry.

As I was walking back to my classroom to scarf down my own lunch in the few minutes I had left, I kept wondering about the connection between eating and learning. I literally cannot function in the mornings at work unless I eat breakfast. I've had jobs in the past where I could survive 'til lunch on a cereal bar or a piece of fruit. In this job, I need something substantial because I exert so much energy. Even then, lunch time can never come soon enough!

So I think, well, kids are a lot more active and rambunctious than I am AND they generally get up earlier than adults. Does that mean that they don't have ANY food in their systems ALL day while in school? No wonder they just sit there in their chairs like bumps on a log!!! They can't hear anything I'm saying because they're probably thinking about how hungry they are!!! That's what I'd be thinking about. (And I'm the person who talks about food and future meals AS I'm eating) I've been theorizing that my kids have lazy brains sometimes, but with this new revelation, it's not that their brains are lazy but deprived of the nutrients needed to actually function!!!

Aside from that, kids come up to me on a daily basis to tell me their stomachs hurt. Now, I'm sure there are legitimate reasons on some occasions because kids are germy, but it could also very well because THEIR STOMACHS ARE EMPTY! Of course it hurts, it's eating itself!

I don't know what to do. I've sent home notices talking about the importance of eating breakfast and healthy foods. We talk about it at school all the time. Most kids qualify for free breakfast and lunch. Short of sacrificing my own lunch break (which I usually work through while eating in my class) to hover over the kids to make sure they eat or becoming a vending machine of snacks with my enormous stacks of cash I have from my teacher salary, I don't know how to solve this problem.

The other part that worries me is that so, let's say they don't eat all day. It makes me assume that they go home after school and inhale tons of soda and junk food because they're starving from not eating all day.

Any ideas? Suggestions?

Have I Told You About OSITO?

2008-09-29T22:37:00.000-07:00

If I have, I apologize but I love this kid.

So last year, there was this kid who walked around school looking like... remember that big gray pitbull dog on Tom & Jerry, the one with the little pup? Well, that's him. He walked around the playgroup with his chubby cheeks and puffed up chest, tough. That's what he looked like.

BUT, every time I saw him, he reminded me of a little bear cub. One day, in the latter half of the year, I found him sitting after school in my colleagues' class because he didn't finish his homework. He had become a part of the infamous "Homework Club." Since they aren't my kids AND I thought I might have some of them the following year, I tried to be very frank with them, including this kid. While there were a few sitting there, crying their way through their homework this kid just plowed his way through. After one of my longer days, where I tend to get pretty silly after school, I straight up asked this kid if I could call him "Osito." I told him that I knew he had a name, and I could call him that, if he wanted, but I would personally like to call him "Osito" because that's what he looks like to me. He just looked at me, flashed a smile, and said "Yeah" before walking out of the classroom.

Now he's in 5th grade and I'm sad to say that he's not one of my students. But a part of me is happy that he's not in my class because I can adore him from afar and cheer him on to have a great day in class. And, I've been calling him Osito for so long that I don't even think I know his real name. Anytime I see him or he talks to me, I always address him as Osito and he doesn't flinch. That's the thing... he's so confident that he doesn't care if there's a weirdo teacher at school who insists on calling him "little bear." That's what makes him so awesome. =)

Breakdown to (minor) Breakthrough

2008-09-18T23:30:00.000-07:00

I apologize for my absence. It's been a tough few weeks. All I can say is "Thank god this isn't my first year of teaching" because I don't think I would've been able to handle the first-year teacher madness with this group of kids. They are something.

So I've got this kid, let's call him... Cheeky. He's a whole new experience for me. I have the privilege of him losing it in my classroom on a daily basis. I tried to brace myself for this when I found out he was on my class list but nothing beats the real experience. I'll spare you all of the details and fast forward to Tuesday.

Cheeky is very intelligent. He also lives up to his name. Long story short, he needed to make up 15 minutes after school with me and he flipped out by saying he was going home by himself. Unfortunately, mom told him that he had to be at school until 5 as a punishment for not listening to me. That made Cheeky angry that he stormed right out of school until the principal caught him and told him if he left school grounds, she would have to call the police! So he stood on the front steps for awhile until he was convinced to return inside. In the end, I won because he did come back to my class and made up his time.

Today, Cheeky was trying to get cheeky on me after I got on his case for not doing his homework. He knows the policy in my class. But he said he didn't care so I sent him out next door. I dismissed all of the kids, except him. At first, he flipped out, saying he didn't care about being there and he doesn't know anything (neither of which I believe). After a few moments, he finally came around, calmed down enough to read and write the answers and worked with me.

So maybe he doesn't really hate but wants to try to? Either way, he's 10 and whatever he does won't hurt my feelings. However, the fact that he sat there and worked with me one-on-one was amazing to me and the more often he's willing to do that, the less strenuous my mind would be.

10:56

2008-09-05T18:53:00.000-07:00

That is the time I've officially clocked in at school for the mile run. All of 5th graders have to take a physical fitness test in the spring. For many of my students, the mile run is so incredibly daunting that they start worrying about it now. I still remember it being a big deal when I was in 5th grade.

In any case, our Sports4Kids coach had the brilliant idea of having the teachers clock in their mile times so the students can try to beat it! I mean it's genius! It's a great way to tap into the mind of a 5th grader, especially my boys, and their desire to make everything into a competition. So I've been egging the kids on, telling them that they won't be able to beat my score. Meanwhile, it means absolutely nothing to me if they beat it. If anything, I hope they do because then it means they're exercising in order to do so.

And for the record, the 5th grade female benchmark time is under 12 minutes. I can officially pass the 5th grade with my time. =)

By The Numbers

2008-09-03T21:45:00.000-07:00

I just finished the 7th day of school
This is my 2nd year of teaching, but my 4th school year at my school.
I now have 21 students in my class.
Out of my 21 students, I have 7 younger siblings of previous students.
The 21 students break down to 14 boys and 7 girls.
A 2-to-1 ratio of boys to girls.
Out of the 14 boys, I have 3 pairs of students with the same first name.
The kids are 10 or 11 years old.
(They're still at the age when girls only want to work with girls and boys only want to work with boys... which makes it challenging with the gender breakdown.)
Meanwhile, I am responsible for teaching 9 different subjects - reading, writing, English Language Development, math, science, social studies, arts, P.E., and health.
But I only have roughly 5.5 hours a day in class with the kids.
I'm told that I must spend at least 2 hours on language arts, 1 hour on ELD, and 1 hour on math each day.
That leaves 1.5 hours to do science, social studies, arts (which includes visual art, music, dance, and theatre), P.E., and health.
And finally, there is 1 teacher in the class, me.

Only 173 school days until next summer...

Food Transcends Language

2008-08-27T16:57:00.000-07:00

I KNEW my LOVE of food and travel would come in handy someday. Well, that someday was today.

There's a little Asian girl at our school who just moved here from another country and doesn't speak any English. Since our school is predominantly Latino, she stuck out, especially after school on the first day when she was in the office waiting for her family to pick her up but couldn't call home because she didn't seem to understand that we were telling her she could call home.

Anyway, I saw her in the lunch line yesterday and tried to talk to her in passing, asking her what language she spoke. She just looked at me with these big eyes of fear, telling me "No speak English." Then, another little boy in her class said "She's Chinese" and I figured I would stop freaking her out while she's probably wondering "Who is this weird lady and what is she saying to me?" by walking away and letting her enjoy her lunch time.

Well, today was a whole different story. I was waiting for the recess bell to ring so I could pick up my class and one of the other teachers was talking to her, while she was standing by me. Then the teacher said that the girl was from Vietnam. That's when I jumped in said, "I went to Vietnam!" The little girl just looked at me like I was nuts. I tried asked her where she was from, spouting out cities I visited like Saigon, Hanoi, and Hue. No luck. Then I said that I rode on a xe om (motorbike) while gesturing a motorcycle and she smiled at me. Now, I was running out of words since the only Vietnamese I learned the two weeks I was there was "thank you" and food items. So I rubbed my belly and started listing off all the food I loved there. "Banh canh!" She goes "OH! Banh canh!" nodding her head and showing off a HUGE smile! So I kept going, "Bun bo hue, pho bo vien..." and with each item, her face lit up. I wanted to keep going, but my class full of boys waiting in line could no longer stand still so I said good-bye and picked up my kids.

When I saw passed by her later in the day, she flashed me a huge warm smile. While I had a fabulous time in Vietnam, my trip became priceless today as I realized that the experiences I had there helped melt away even just a bit of that little girl's anxiety and uncertainty about her new school and country.

I'm pooped...

2008-08-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

First day back was exhausting. On the upside, I wasn't even 1/10 frazzled about it as I was last year. There's definitely something to be said for having done this already. It almost felt like it was another day at work except with a new group of students.

My group today was interesting. I ended up with 12 boys and 7 girls today although the numbers are supposed to shift in the next few days so we'll see. There are already two boys who are testing me, which makes me think I'm not being stern enough. Tomorrow, I plan to go back in full force.

Also, the funny thing is that they seem so young... which I didn't really feel last year. Maybe it's because I was used to my kids by June after developing them for the year and I'm starting over again. Or maybe because many of them are physically smaller than my kids from before. In any case, I definitely think this year will have its own challenges.

Oh and thanks to Angela who adopted my classroom! I'm totally putting in an order for a pencil sharpener and maybe some polyvinyl alcohol to make slime with the kids. Will keep you posted on the slime experiment.

I'M BACK!!!

2008-08-24T21:15:00.001-07:00

I've made it through year one and unfortunately, the summer was NOT long enough to recoup from my first year of teaching. I want to give my kids full credit in that they were a great group of students and I really felt like we formed a community together by the end of the year. THEY made my first year of teaching, an experience that I will cherish forever.

And now I'm going back... starting tomorrow.

It feels SO different to go back into the classroom after having completed a full year. I'm going through a whole other set of emotions, mostly denial about summer actually being over. However, I no longer feel the fear and anxiety I felt last year. Overall, I'm much less stressed about this job. Don't get me wrong, I'm not perfect and I have a gigantic list of both "Things to Do" and "Things to Do BETTER/DIFFERENT Than Last Year." I'm looking forward to crossing things off that list this year by working with my colleagues, my mentor, and my own reflections from last year.

My first challenge is dealing with the uncertainties I have about having a class of 14 boys and 7 girls. The gender imbalance is a big concern for me, especially because several of the boys are known to exhibit behavior issues, at least from last year. My goal is to provide all of the students with a well-structured classroom and engaging curriculum, which I hope will curb negative behavior and bring out the positive sides in all of the students.

Staff vs. 5th Graders Whiffle Ball Game

2008-06-04T23:49:00.001-07:00

Think back to your days of being the oldest kids in the school. The first thing you probably think about is senior year of high school, right? Go back further... 8th grade? Even further... to 5th grade.

That's right. Remember walking around thinking you were the sh** because you were the biggest and oldest kid around? Well, I have the privilege of teaching that group of students this year and it has been quite an adventure.

As with any culminating year in school, there is a multitude of ceremonial events that occur to make those students feel special. Last week was the 5th grade BBQ, which took place off-campus. Tomorrow, we're going on an overnight trip to Marin Headlands. Today was the day of the infamous Staff vs. 5th graders whiffle ball game.

Our Sports 4 Kids coach organized it and let me tell you, it was AWESOME! It was bright sunny afternoon. Most of the teachers and the students rallied outside the one baseball diamond on our yard. It was so funny to see how kids cheered based on their age. Of course the 5th graders were rooting for themselves, as with the 4th graders, since they felt like they were almost there too. Then you've got the 3rd graders, who are kind of 50-50, depending on who was up at bat. But the 1st and 2nd graders... they were solidly devoted to their teachers... so as I was covering 2nd base, I could hear a million tiny voices chanting, "Teachers! Teachers! Teachers!"

And nobody can pay me enough money to give up the image of the tiny 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders attempting to do the wave along 1st base line. Priceless.

It was an amazing day. And... the teachers won. =)

The End Is Near...

2008-06-04T23:47:00.000-07:00

It's the end of the year. 6 more days of school left and the last 6 weeks were CRAZY with testing and other madness. I can't believe it's almost over! There's been so much that's happened in my classroom that I wanted to share but I didn't seem to have enough time to breathe, let alone write. I apologize to the 3 consistent readers of this blog. =)

There are definitely stories...

They're Actually Listening!!!

2008-04-18T22:57:00.000-07:00

Friday's are kind of crazy because at any given point in the day, several of my students are pulled out for music lessons. So every Friday afternoon, 5 of my boys go off to drums and I end up with 13 kids, or 11 in today's case since 2 were absent.

Well, the show must go on... We are starting a new unit called "Going West," which is about the Western expansion of the US, starting with Lewis and Clark. As a way to open the unit, our grade team uses an observation walk, which is where we take different photos and images related to the unit and put them on chart paper. Then, the kids walk around to the different stations, look at the images, and respond to them with either statements, thoughts, or questions. It's a way to introduce the content where the kids can participate in a comfortable manner.

As I was walking around during the activity, I was listening to what the kids were talking and writing about on the posters. One of my students looked at a drawing of Native Americans trekking in the snow (think... "Trail of Tears"). He looks at it and ding! lightbulb goes off in his head. He exclaims, "I know this! I've heard this story before. This is about the Indians who had to move from their land because the soldiers said move or you will be killed! And so the old people and the babies died on the walk." I was so excited! I further prompted him by asking him where he heard the story and he said, "From Ms. Jung (me!) when you were doing the pictorial."

This is true. Back in January, I did a pictorial about the different Native American tribes. Well, when you do a pictorial, you are drawing on a poster so in order to keep the kids' attention, you have to keep talking as you're drawing. I was on the Cherokees and had run out of facts to say so I pulled from my own knowledge and gave them my rendition of the Trail of Tears. Apparently, this student remembered it, which is funny because whenever I do a pictorial or talk in front of class, it seems like he's not listening... It was a good surprise. There was a split second where I almost shed a tear of happiness... no joke. I had to make sure I hold it back so I wouldn't freak him out.

UC Berkeley Visit

2008-04-18T22:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I went on my first field trip with a school bus all year! All of the other trips, I've had to do using AC Transit. Think about all the joys of taking public transportation and multiply that by 20 and you can start to understand my day...

Anyways, the school bus was heaven! All of the 5th grade students went to UC Berkeley and the Hall of Health. The first thing we did when we got to Cal was meet with my friend, Maritza, who is an admissions officer. She talked to our students about going to college and things you can do while you're there. Another really important thing she mentioned to the kids was to never let money stop you from going to college. I think that many of the kids took that message home. They also took home some great goodies from Maritza and Cal.

Afterwards, we all went up to the top of the Campanile and saw a great view of the campus and the Bay. It was a beautiful day! We stayed there for the 11 o'clock bells. The kids had lunch near Doe Library, which we walked inside to see the big study hall. One of the other teachers is a math alumnae so we visited a section room in Evans Hall, where many of the kids were amazed by the sliding chalkboards and the announcement of Steve Wozniak's visit. Lastly, we walked through the Life Sciences building to see the t-rex skeleton.

Being on the campus made me so happy, which is ironic since so many of my days as a grad student there was quite the opposite. I think what made me feel so good was the hope that my students will go there or any other university and experience the college life someday. That and the fact that even as we were walking around Cal, talking about how great it is, when I asked one of my kids where he wanted to go to college, he immediately said, "UCLA." =)

Spring Fever, Part II

2008-04-18T22:42:00.000-07:00

So, yesterday, I took the kids on a field trip to UC Berkeley (which I'll go into in more detail in another post). There was a moment where we had some extra time while the kids had a chance to eat their ice cream under the trees by Strawberry Creek. Well, there's a pathway that many people walk up and down.

At one point, I saw a few of my girls hanging out together, giggling by the pathway so I walked over to check it out. I jokingly said, "Are you harassing the pedestrians?" and one of my girls replied, "Whoo! College boys!" as another said, "Take it off!"

I could not believe them!!! I was too shocked to say anything... then could not stop myself from laughing at them. Seriously, they are only 10 or 11 years old. It seems like kids are growing up much faster nowadays, and the boy-crazy phase seems to start earlier too! Yikes!

Spring Fever Pitch

2008-04-02T19:29:00.001-07:00

Spring is definitely here. The weather is warmer. The kids are playing baseball at school. And, the hormones are floating around. Other 5th grade teachers have warned me about this time of year and I've been bracing myself.

Well, yesterday was hilarious. The kids were out in the afternoon for PE with our coach. It was baseball day and he split the class up into two co-ed teams. The boys were really good about letting the girls play and giving them real base positions rather than hogging them up. At one point, one of my sweetest and shyest girls went up to bat. She swung and missed. Strike. Again, swung and missed. Finally, she swung and made a short hit and started running for 1st base. Well, the pitcher got the ball and threw to the kid on 1st base (one of the boys that has it together but also really sweet - very appealing to the girls in my class). Next thing you know, he's trying to cover the base and tag her out and she's running to get to the base and BAM! Full on collision where he falls backwards and she falls on top of him. Seriously, it was less that a split second and the ball got knocked out of his hand. The rest of us were yelling for her to keep running because she was safe but she was SO embarrassed about falling on top of him that she just silently shook her head and walked back towards her team behind the home base fence.

I know it's not funny but I couldn't help but chuckle and remember how it felt like to be that age as a girl. I mean, I'm a grown woman and I still can't figure out guys... I definitely couldn't figure them out then. A smile quickly spread on my face as I thought about the innocent "collisions" that occurs at that age as they try to figure out gender dynamics. Oh boy... do they have a long road ahead...

Classroom Politics

2008-04-02T19:12:00.000-07:00

My students never fail to make me laugh. So yesterday, a few of my boys were in the classroom during lunch to play games on the computers (it was girls' only soccer day at lunch). A few minutes later, I hear the words "Hillary" and "Obama" floating around their conversations as I was eating lunch and preparing for the afternoon's lessons. So I walk over to the computers to find that the kids are playing a cartoon game where Hillary and Obama are punching each other in front of the White House, one of those silly online games.

Well, normally, I wouldn't care, but as their teacher, I felt obligated to restrict their access to those websites at school. So I told them that they needed to find a more appropriate site to view and one of my boys goes, "But Ms. Jung, why? This is school-related... it's about the elections!" I couldn't help but laugh at their efforts but in the end, I won (as I usually do) and they shut the site down.

Spring BREAK-IN

2008-04-02T18:43:00.000-07:00

I returned from an awesome trip to Puerto Rico to find out that our school had a break-in during the vacation. The vandals targeted our upper grade building (4th/5th grade classrooms) and took a bunch of electronic equipment. They busted through the thick glass above our fortified doors and then proceeded to bust through the small glass windows on the doors of each classroom.

They took our LCD projectors, document cameras, DVD/VCR players, laptops, and even guitars and violins that the teachers and kids used during music! Out of spite, they ruffled through our emergency packs and spread out its contents throughout the hallways, amidst the shards of glass and wood. In my classroom, there was blood splattered on my floor, probably from breaking the glass. The first thing I thought of was "I hope my new rug is safe." I would've seriously kicked some butt if anything happened to that thing.

Apparently, this happens frequently in East Oakland and I shouldn't be surprised. At the same time, I have no desire to hide my anger, disappointment, and confusion about it. Seriously, why would anyone want to steal from a public school... one that's part of a district that is so bankrupt that it is run by the state??? Who in good conscience can steal from children? And what the hell would they want with a LCD projector??? Do they even know how to use it? I'm sure they'll sell it but really... UGH!!!

But in the midst of all this chaos and drama, I was so amazed to find out that one of the lower grade teachers emailed the K-3 staff and they showed up early yesterday morning to help clean up our building without the 4-5 teachers' knowledge. By the time I got to work, most of the mess had been cleaned up. I am impressed by the closeness of our staff and their constant unwavering stream of support.

All I can say is that I'm truly hoping and wishing that karma comes back to them in FULL FORCE. As for this, it is what it is. These things are just things and the kids are safe. I'll be over it soon. There are bigger things to worry about. Thanks for reading.

An Inspiring Success Story

2008-03-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

A Science Prodigy in an Unlikely Place - NYTimes 3/9/08

You don't have to read the whole article (I just read the first page) but you get the general idea...

It made me really think about why I'm teaching where I'm teaching. This is the kind of success story I want to see happen to my students one day. My biggest wish for my students is for all of them to graduate from high school as the class of 2015. However, having them attend college (preferably UCLA although Stanford may try to steal them with a free ride) comes as a very close second.

I find myself literally drowning in everything I need to teach on a daily basis and feel frustrated that there's never enough time to do it. At the same time, I also try really hard to keep my eyes open for the kids (like Eric Delgado from the article) who have something special and not let them slip by without telling them that they are special and encouraging them to push forward, despite the challenges they have outside of school. I wish there was more I can do but often times, I feel like I would forget to breathe if it wasn't just something my body does automatically.

Thoughts? Ideas?

History Repeats Itself

2008-02-26T22:40:00.001-08:00

Amerigo Vespucci, John Cabot, Ferdinand Magellan, Vasco Balboa... remember these names? Well, I sure have to. The upside (and sometimes down, when not prepared) of teaching is the fact that I'm learning (or shall we say, RE-learning) things ALL the time!

Today, I had to teach my kids about the early explorers who discovered the New World and how they ended up there. Unfortunately, this week has been one of those "show up to school Monday morning and open my planner to empty pages" weeks. So I feel like I've been scrambling left and right to plan, prep, and teach. Luckily for me, I like history so when I was standing up in front of the class this afternoon with the giant world map behind me, I had plenty of stories to share with the kids as I drew out the explorers' routes. They seemed pretty into the facts I was telling them. Part teacher, part improv actor... oh and part-amateur solo singer (I had to sing an explorers chant in front of my kids by myself... they are SO forgiving of my terrible voice).

Classroom Library

2008-02-26T22:32:00.000-08:00

So, I finally attempted to organize my classroom library today. It's only been 6 months since school started... My BTSA mentor and I were sorting through the books and then she left me to help another colleague. As I was putting the books back onto the shelves in their new categories, I couldn't help but laugh as I looked at my 3 shelves (out of 8) that were filled with history books. It made me realize that the books I picked out were skewed towards my own personal interests. Luckily, I've been given a budget to actually purchase new books, so I'm trying to diversify my collection. Hopefully, the new collection will be more interesting to my kids. They do like the Franny K. Stein books though... I need to more up with the contemporary titles. Beverly Clearly and Judy Bloom ain't cutting it for my kiddos.

Home Visits

2008-02-14T23:10:00.001-08:00

I just finished my 5th home visit tonight. I started doing them about 2 weeks ago and they have been such interesting experiences. Each one has been SO different from the other but they all have given me new information about the students, things I would not have known without having visited them at home.

It's hard to generalize what I gained from each visit but overall, they have been incredibly insightful. The families have been very gracious to invite me into their private spaces and the kids have been very warm and open to having their teacher come by. I love how excited the kids get about showing me their rooms and sharing their photo albums. Some families have gone as far as to feed me tasty food such as tamales and pupusas, which is way beyond the 1/2 hour I ask them to spend with me. It's also no secret in my class about how much I love food.

So I still have six more I have to do in the coming weeks. I have to admit that while it has been totally worthwhile for me to make these visits, they are exhausting because they take up a lot of time. We allocate 30 minutes for the visits but they frequently run over, sometimes lasting several hours, depending on the students and their families. But I really think these visits are adding to the relationships I am building with my students and their parents. One thing I hope to do is start these visits earlier next year so I can connect with them earlier.

Happy Super Bowl Day!

2008-02-03T17:53:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here trying to get some work done for tomorrow as I'm watching the Super Bowl game. The game isn't very exciting. Neither are the commercials. The work isn't progressing as quickly as I would like either. But I have to stay in the KNOW so I can talk about it with the kids tomorrow.

On the flip side, I am definitely much happier in my job right now. The kids are freakin' hilarious. On Friday afternoon, during our class meeting, one of my kids called me a "viejita," which means "old lady" because I raised my hand to say something and forgot. Normally, I would've regulated but at the same time, I couldn't help but laugh. I don't really take too many things personally and in this case, I took it as the kids are comfortable enough in my class to joke around with me.

I'm still working hard, putting in a lot of hours, but I'm enjoying it a lot more and also trying to maintain a life of my own outside of school. Hopefully, this upside of teaching will last for awhile.