Sixth Grade Comes to an End

Only one more 5:45 am wake up call left of student teaching! 

I am so excited to no longer have to return to our overpopulated, windowless prison cell classroom with smelly hormonal sixth graders. Yep, over the oppressively stuffy classroom.  
I am also pretty stoked to be able to stay up later than 11pm and not want to die midday.  
Oh, I'm also tired of not getting paid.  

However. 

I am going to miss the compliments from my girls first thing every morning.
I am going to miss the immature jokes that made me laugh at, if not always with, my students. 
I am going to miss the "aha" moments when a hovering light bulb almost literally turns on over their heads. 
I am going to miss the endless loose-leaf doodles "To Ms. Yelensis." 
The smiles when we start something new.
The notes on the floor.
The music performances.

I wish I could stay a little longer to watch them "Graduate" to the middle school.
I wish I could stay to join them on their sixth grade picnic.
I wish I could be there when they make the realization that the recess drama that is so momentous now is actually petty nonsense in high school.  
I wish I could see all my sixth graders grow and mature even more than they have in the past ten months.

But I guess that's my first lesson in teaching. I will get a new group of students every September without fail, and without fail I will probably fall in love with them.  And without fail they will move on in the spring.  I will have to learn to love and let go. Although I don't think I will ever forget these 22 sixth graders - the sixth graders that made up my very first class.

It's OK Thursday - a preface to Spring Break.

On this Thursday before my spring break from elementary school officially begins,  I proclaim that it is absolutely OK that I did not plan a single lesson last night.  It is OK that I came home from class, made dinner, and sat in front of the television watching American Idol with a glass of wine instead of doing anything even moderately productive.  Typically, this is not OK. However, today my students have their 3rd art class of the year for an hour this morning, followed by a half an hour of P.E., followed by another hour of  a “Sock Hop” (their quarterly school-wide book log event), finally to be followed by lunch, recess, and an Easter craft before dismissal.  Life is good in sixth grade today.

It is also OK that as a student teacher, I didn’t have spring break with the rest of the University. Initially I thought this was the opposite of OK.  I thought that I would be depressed and lonely and bored for the entirety of the seven days that the rest of campus was partying and sunning in Punta Cana.  Much to my surprise, it was peaceful and productive on campus while everyone else was off participating in college recess debauchery.  Now, I have a full ten days off before Easter and I could not be more ready for it.  E-town, New Jersey may not be as thrilling or warm as Mexico but I am excited to relax nonetheless. 

Another reason it is OK that I didn’t go on spring break yet? I had two people in the past two weeks ask me where I went for spring break because my I "look tan."  To these people I responded with pleasure that I indeed stayed in sunny College Park.  To myself, I silently thanked Mother Nature for unseasonably warm March weather during which I was able to drive with my top down and run for miles outside.  Let’s just hope the weather holds out this afternoon for a three and a half hour drive in the convertible and another opportunity at bronzing!

Additionally, it is OK that last week I discovered that my life is very heavily dependent on peanut butter.  If Skippy Natural Creamy Peanut Butter wasn’t single handedly keeping me alive in my state of poor college girl status, it would be a majorly unhealthy and border-line dangerous addiction.   

One last thing. It's questionable whether or not it was OK that during a game of "two truths and a lie," one of my students admitted, "My mom's name is Julisa, I like violence and cheese, and I hate hexagons." I'm not entirely sure which is the lie. Also, I'm debating how much concern to express.  

Coming to you from College Park, wishing I was in Savannah like this time last year, Happy Spring Break, Ya'll. 

Deuces.

Exiting the classroom for recess today, one of my students threw up his 'twos' and casually announced to the class, "deuces," as he usually does. 

"Deuces. That means goodbye in Italian."

No it doesn't. Not at all.  Thanks, though, Ms. Sixth Grader... for the Italian lesson, that is. 

I'll be sure to come to you for any further assistance I'll be needing in middle school lingo. 

- 

Word of the Day Wednesday

There are some unavoidable words that come up in the sixth grade curriculum that guarantee giggles and sly smirks.  And expectedly so.  For instance, I dreaded the lesson when students had to decipher the meaning of their vocabulary word "dictate" using prior knowledge. 

Ms. Y: "Think about where you have seen this prefix before" *underlines dict*

Ms. Thang: "You mean DIC??"

Ms. Y: (as casually as possible) Dict, as in dictionary, dictator, diction.

Class: Erupts in laughter. 

Or how about in a Shakespeare poem when the word "breast" has to be changed to "chest" to appease the awkwardness overwhelming the sixth grade atmosphere.  
(I can also hear my boyfriend laughing from here.)

One word that I never thought I would have to avoid?

Doily. 

Seriously,the word was read, and giggles ensued instantaneously. 

Diva: HAHAHA SHE JUST SAID DOILY!!!!!

Really? Is there another connotation of which I am unaware? 

Gotta love the sixth grade. 

It's OK as a Student Teacher

Welcome to another Glitz and Grammar edition of It's OK Thursday.

Go ahead and link up with Neely and Brunch with Amber if you feel so inclined to join in on the fun :)

This Thursday, I proclaim that it is absolutely OK....

... that after wearing heels for the past three days in a row, I am going to school in the comfiest teacher-appropriate outfit I can find.  Because on the fourth day, God made Sperrys.  

... that it was 9:44pm when I turned out my lights and went under the covers.

... that when I woke up after almost 8 hours of sleep, I was still hoping for a delayed opening so I could sleep more.

... that I have 3094835 things to do this weekend but I am just so excited to celebrate my roommate's birthday that I can't even imagine getting any of them accomplished.  

!!!!!

... to find students passing notes, but find them entirely too humorous to apprehend them so that they discontinue the habit. Honestly, as long as they can still pay attention while writing these nonsensical notes to each other, I don't mind.  And as long as they keep accidentally leaving them out on their desks when they are dismissed, I'll enjoy keeping up with the gossip ;)

... that while I enjoy finding notes, I am still not sure I understand them completely. Is it OK that I'm only ten years older than these kids but their conversations are alien to me?

Girly 1: "LMAOO What's up! Skool's BORING."
Girly 2: IKR! and nun cooling Hbu

Happy Thursday! 

(It's almost Friday!!)

Nouns have jobs.

It is very characteristic of my students to mix up the parts of speech of words, oral and written.  For example, did you know "foresight" is a preposition? As in, "I got some banging popcorn foresight the movie with my girls on Saturday."

Or, did you know "blonde" can be not only an adjective or noun, but also a verb? As in, "Miss Jaaaalensiis did you blonde your hair more? Like you know, add more gold paint?" 

The fact that there is so much confusion with parts of speech in every day conversation makes me apprehensive to begin this week's lesson on identifying the jobs of nouns in a sentence.  If getting my students to formulate oral sentences properly is this hard, I can only imagine getting them to diagram written sentences is going to be like pulling teeth.  Any ideas on how to sufficiently explain to an eleven year old who thought the word "vegetable" was a verb that nouns are more than just "people, places, or things," and are actually subjects, complements, and objects of prepositions? 

Suggestions welcome!  

Gotta love the Glitz and Grammar of teaching middle school, right?  ;)