Ready or Not Here I Come!

It is Saturday morning.  I am beginning to feel refreshed and am looking forward to teaching new content in my classes.  I am excited to go back to school.  The Mommy in me dreads leaving her baby in the care of someone else, but the teacher is ready to get back to her students.  Oh well, my sweet baby Briar is ready to go back to pre-school and his friends, too.

Thanksgiving

I am so thankful for such a great group of kids.  We went ice skating and had a pizza party/scavanger hunt this week without any major conflicts or injuries.  We just had lots of fun.

I am so happy to be able to spend time with my family.  I miss them.

Thanksgiving Lessons

I have had a wonderful week of sharing with my students.  We have talked about symbols and history of Thanksgiving.  They were so excited about the lessons.  I had some students that this was a cultural lesson for them as they do not celebrate the holiday. It was not about religion but nationality.  This really showed my students that we have varying cultures in our classroom.  We attempted to celebrate our differences.

Field Trips

I am looking forward to our first field trips together.  We will be traveling to the capital of our state and ice skating.  I know this will be a rare opportunity for many of our students.  I hope & pray that we have a safe injury free trip.  I hope to have pictures to post after Monday. 

SAR Trip Countdown

Monday is the day.  I am looking forward to having a fun outing with my students.  We are going ice skating.  I am not looking forward to the skating, but they are.  I really am not all that coordinated. They are such an adventurous bunch.  I know they will have a blast. 
Tuesday my students are being rewarded with a pizza party for their performance on their TLI's.  They did extremely well in Math and Literacy.  As far as Science, they performed better than the other grades in our school.  We are so proud. 

AHGH!

There are days that I really feel like Charlie Browns teacher.  Enough said.
I think we are all ready for Thanksgiving. 
I love them, but I need a break.  Teaching school, going to school, and being a good mommy is hard work and a challenge. 
I feel like the longer the semester goes the more frazzeled I feel.  Observations, lessons, tests, and grading seems to keep me so busy I have trouble keeping up. 

Feeling Frazzled

I have been so, so busy.  I feel like I am running out of time to complete my assignments.  It seems like I go from one meeting to another.  As far as teaching, things seem to be going well.  I am ready for Thanksgiving break but only because I need to recharge.

Parent Teacher Conferences

P/T Conferences are now over and things went pretty well.  It was a very long day. We are starting new chapters in both subjects today.  I am so excited.  It seems like it takes a very long time to teach some things. I hope the students are ready for our new adventure in learning today.

Wow! What a week!

This week has been a mess.  Can you say stress?
Grades have to be complete, faculty meetings, PD meetings, tests, school on Saturday and sick children have all contributed to my activity and stress levels.  It seems like every week that I have to go to UAM on Saturday, things seem to fall apart.  Oh well, this too shall pass.
Things have just been very hectic.  Hope things slow down next week after PT Conferences on Monday.  I love teaching and being with the students.  Too bad, all the other stuff seems to distract from the important stuff. 

A Little Football & Cheering

I almost forgot.  I went to see my students play and cheer this past weekend.  They were great!  They did not win, but never gave up.  They were disappointed in losing, but was happy to see me and my co-worker. 

9 Weeks Done

9 Weeks is over. 
These first 9 weeks really have seemed to fly by for me.
So much I have experienced, yet so much still to come.  I have had an interesting time, learned quite a bit, and hope my students have as well. 
I am working on getting all missing work together and into Pinnacle by Wednesday.  This process is a little frustrating.  I am hoping that my students and myself can do better next 9 weeks with this.  There is no reason for some of them having so much not done.  I have decided that they will lose their wheel times to work on this problem.  I have requested to have them until they are finished.  Maybe, if they see they are going to have to do the work eventually, then they will decide they will complete the assignments as they come. 
This is not just a problem in my class its all the 5th grade.  We have been calling and meeting with parents over this very issue. 
I wish this few students cared as much as the rest.

The New Me (Apparently)

I got a new hair cut on Thursday this past week.  Friday, all my students were talking and asking about my new do.  They were all very complementary, but there is always one who actually says what he is thinking in every group.  "Boy, Mrs. Carlson, you sure do look better!"  To this I smiled and responded, "Well, thanks, I think..." 
You just gotta love'em all.
I used a new method for checking bell work this week.  I liked it, though I am not so sure my students liked it.  I created a quiz.  They simply had to use their bell work to give me my question or their answer for various dates.  This activity taught them more than all the modeling and preaching I have been doing.  I asked them how they did.  They indicated not to well and that as we start the new week they were going to start labeling and ordering their work because it would make the quizzes a lot easier for them.  Lesson learned. (AT LEAST I HOPE)

OOOPPS!

I can't believe that I forgot to blog last week.  It's not like anything was happening--just everything.  I gave my first test.  My students performed really well.  I'm so proud of them.  They work so hard for me.  I hope they realize how much I appreciate their efforts.

Happy Birthday to me!!!

My fourth week of teaching has ended with a song. 
My kid's were so excited it was my birthday.  (I'm glad someone was--It was a big one.)  They sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 
Overall, it has been a pretty good week.  We've been really studying mean, median, mode, and range.  I think they have it and am so glad that we will be doing something new on Monday. 
I need to go and rest. I have school tomorrow.  Hope you all have had a good week. 

Mrs. Carlson??!!

Week 3 is now complete.  I can't tell you how many times a day I hear my name called. 
Things seem to be a little better.  I am so hoping that things continue to improve as we learn what we can about one another.  There are still those times that I what I am doing wrong and why will they not just follow directions???  Then there are other times I can see that things seem to be going great.  We have just completed working on a series of lessons that cover the scientific method.  My students wrote a rap on the subject.  They are excited about publishing their Scientific Method Rap in the school news letter.  They have really pulled together and done a great job.  They are not quite finished but are hoping to finish it Monday. 

The Second Complete Week

I have two full weeks under my belt. 
I have decided that sometimes we model, and still, we must model just a little more.  So, Tuesday, we are going to start again.  I don't know if it's that my instruction delivering skills are lacking, or my students are just choosing not to follow directions.  I know they are listening because everytime I said something about what we were doing Monday they were quick to let me know school would be out Monday for Labor Day.

It's a little frustrating because I know that they are capable of so much.  I've just got to guide them to delivering what they know in the appropriate form. 
 

Adventures in Teaching

Wow!  What a week and two days!
I have ran the whole range of emotions from excited to frustrated to exhausted. 
On the first day, my husband text me and asked how things were going.  I told him it was wonderful.  To start the day, I was so nervous it was making me sick.  As the day wore on, I found that I did need more to do than basic training supplied, which by the way was exhausting.  So, this week I have over planned and have lessons left that will carry over until next week. 

Regardless, I'm loving teaching and everything about it!