Sh*t Sixth Graders Say...

Girl: Ms. Y, St. Patrick is a real person?

Me: Yes, St. Patrick is a saint, we celebrate him on March 17th.

Girl: Oh I always just thought he was a Leper.

----

Girl: Is the Surgeon General Real?

Boy: No, dumby. It's a commercial.

-----

Girl: I'm tired. 

Me: Why are you so tired?

Girl: Because I had lotsa dreams last night. And when you dream you watch them and you don't sleep. It's like TV. But scarier. 

-----

Girl: He's white like Michael Jackson, except Michael Jackson Cloroxed his skin.

Boy:  I can't believe you just said that. Michael Jackson had a disease and that's why he looked like that.

-----

(During a game to review historical females for Women's History Month:)

Teacher: This woman was the first female African-American Secretary of State.

Girl: CoCo Chanel! 

----

And this is why I come home every day overly exhausted yet questionably happy. 

M.I.A

I've been slightly missing in action lately, and for that I apologize.  Sixth grade is in full gear and there's no time for slowing down. 

However, I have found some time to do some blog-worthy things, and luckily I found about 2 minutes to actually blog about them.  Without further adieu, here is a collection of my most recent happenings:

Aunt Doe gets married! My family and I were ecstatic to see the youngest of my mom's sisters get married last week.  

Mr. and Mrs. 

The Sisterhood

The Bride and her nieces :)






 I celebrated Loverboy's 22nd birthday. 

His traditional over-sized handmade card (and a present hidden back there too) 

Me and the one that I adore :)

A sixth grader made me a beautiful drawing at the end of the week.  

Boy:"Ms Y this is for you. Hatars love 'em. Peace."

Me: Oh! Well, thank you .. uh, it's beautiful!

I contributed to "raisin" test scores during a week of standardized testing at Hollywood ;)

(I can't wait for round two to be over this week!)

My week has been long, but far from boring.  I am excited for the week ahead as it brings me closer to our Public School Spring break in less than THIRTEEN DAYS!!! But who's counting?

Happy week xo 

It's that time of the year...

... State testing time.  

"MSA let's go

We'll show you what we know, 

We always do our best,

We'll show you on the test!

We're awesome, amazing,

We're great at paraphrasing!

Hollywood can't be beat we'll knock you off your feet!

HEY!"

Just a little cheer my students learned to get them "pumped" for the state wide standardized test.  Woot woot! Who's excited for 3 hours of testing a day in a windowless room?!!

Happy Test Taking. 

XO

PS:

Photo Courtesy of my female Hollywooders.

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. 

- 

Leap Year means Pollen-Free Candy

If you were curious as to why there are 29 days this month, you should probably go ask my students. (I cleared up their misconception that February 29^th is the day the world ends, so it’s probably safe to ask them.)

Mr. Knowitall marched into the classroom early this morning already giving a detailed explanation about the exact number of days (to the nearest billionth) it takes the Earth to orbit the sun. Because our calendar year is typically 365 days, he explained, we need to have 366 days in a year every four years in order to balance the gap that is created between our months and our seasons. Without February 29^th, our seasons would be all mixed up.  And that’s not good.

“For example, if Halloween was in spring, pollen would get all over our candy.” –Mr. Knowitall

And that, my friends, would be tragic.  Thank the Lord for Leap Year. 

Enjoy your February 29^th loves, for it only comes but once every four years.  :) 

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?  ;)

Last First Day

Oh.My.Gosh.

Today is my last first day of college, ever. (As an undergraduate, at least.)

I'm freaking out a little.

I'm not ready to be in school mode again. My winter break has been entirely too relaxing.

I'm also not ready for my life as an undergrad Terrapin to be over. But I'll hold off on that freak-out until May because Lord knows that will be an emotional post. 

Wanna see a dorky picture from my first day as an undergrad Terp?

That's my first college roomie ever, as well as current roomie(!), on our first day of college at our Scholar's Program's orientation. Eep. 

And here was my first desk ever, in the dorm room Katlyn and I shared freshman year. 

I don't know...I'm feeling nostalgic. 

Now the desk I use most is a "teacher" desk filled with hard candies and papers to grade.

Happy First Day back to all my fellow future Terp Teachers! 

And Happy Tuesday to everyone else :)

Wish me lots of luck and energy...I'll be needing it this week.

Rock N Roll @ Hollywood

Of all the unexpected things that could happen within the limits of a PG County School Day with 40 hormonal sixth graders, a 5.9 level earthquake was probably one of the least expected.  

Among some of the other unexpected events at Hollywood Elementary today:

- I discovered the inner-Jersey Boy in one of my little guys. He admitted his favorite song was "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi. When asked why, he stated "Because when I'm down it cheers me up." =] 

I also caught him fist pumping during an ice breaker yesterday:

 "You know who I am Ms Y? ....The Solution."

I think you mean The Situation, bud. 

"Yeah. Whatever, you know. But this is how he dances."

As unexpected as it was to find a Jersey Boy in PG County, I do not hate it. 

- A student confessed her favorite color to be purple because it is "mysterious and vicious."

(Remind me to stay away from you, girlfriend.)

- Desk throwing a la Jersey Housewives over an allegedly stolen sticker. 

- A wall in the main hallway is now cracked as a result of the afternoon's earthquake.  And we were in "evacuation mode." Oh, lawdy.

Hollywood's school-wide theme this year is "Rock 'n Roll." I'm beginning to think this school takes their themes a little bit too seriously. And that was Day 2. Can't wait to see what Day 3 of Student Teaching has to offer. 

Hollywood Glitz n Grammar

Today marked my first day of a year-long internship, Student Teaching in a 6th grade classroom at Hollywood Elementary School.  

Right now it is close to 6:00 PM and I am ready for bed.

I was up before the Sun this morning, and remembered during my half-asleep shower (I nearly drowned) that I didn't iron the dress I wanted to wear for my first day of school.  I had two options: take the time to iron the dress or choose another outfit. I loathe ironing. If I could eliminate one chore from the rest of my life, ironing would be it. The dress I planned to wear was purchased in Barcelona with this precise day in mind; it was a short sleeved, two toned dress - white from the waist up, khaki from the waist down - with a pencil skirt form that hit at just the right spot above my knees. Decently conservative, yet highly fashionable. The perfect dress for a Student Teacher.  


Obviously, I couldn't choose another outfit. I bit the bullet and plugged in our cheap no-name iron and unfolded the miniature ironing board kept in the depths of our laundry cove. 15 minutes and a mildly sweaty brow later, I came close to a victory and ironed out most of the wrinkles. 

Completely dressed, although only partially blow-dried (unforeseen ironing took precious time away from hair-doing), I got in my car to drive the 7 minutes to school. And then I spilled my coffee onto my freshly pressed skirt. 

I remained surprisingly calm and walked into the school with poise and coffee-stained confidence.

Soon enough I was making introductions to 40, that's right, FORTY, sixth graders, half of whom were taller than me. Quite a shift from my small summer class of 18 six-year-olds. 

I'm going to need a Mega-Phone for the other side of the room to hear me. 

Despite my stressful morning, and despite the initial terror that ran through my veins at first sight of the 5'10" eleven-year-old approaching me at 7:35 AM, I was very impressed and pleased with my first day. 

My Desk! Along with the cute teachery gifts my mentor gave me! 

The students were surprisingly well-behaved for sitting in the same seat for 5 out of the 6 and a half hours of the school day while their teacher preached to them rules and expectations and they organized their desks. 

I think my favorite part about 6th grade is going to be the English curriculum (duh). I am so excited for the novels we get to read, and a grammar lesson is required by the county each and every day. Woooo! 

Ms. D (my mentor): "These are your grammar journals. Who can remind me what grammar is?"

Lil' Diva: "It's when you make corrections because you make lotsa mistakes."

Big Guy: "You know like periods and commas and question marks and stuff."

Boyyyy I can't wait to get my hands on these grammar books.  

All in all, it was a great first day. My head may still be aching a little too loudly, my feet may be blistered, and my eyes may be ready to shut, but I am still excited to see what Day 2 of Student Teaching has to bring. I know I'm going to fall in love with these kids.

Bring on the Glitz & Grammar, Hollywood ES!