July 2007 - Posts
At the beginning of the school year, my students receive an agenda book in which they write their daily assignments. I write a letter to parents that explains why their chilren have the agenda and I tell parents that they need to initial the book each
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Since I'm on the subject of class pets, I'm reminded of a group of kids I had 7 years ago. Although all of the kids were sweet, there were some definite behavior issues, primarily with the boys. They were a group of extremely immature boys who spent a
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A few years ago, I bought my class two hermit crabs as our class pets. The kids named them Grandpa, because he was big, and Ketchup, because he had claws the color of ketchup. The kids really loved those crabs, and took turns caring for them. One day
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I got antsy today and went over to my school to take a look at my classroom. Yep, it was still there! I set my goal for the day: untangle all of the computer wires and cords that were not supposed to be unplugged. Well, they did get unplugged and were
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In the past several years I've had the opportunity to work with many student teachers. It's always a lot of fun watching them grow during their short time with me, and I get a lot of personal satisfaction in knowing that I may have helped them achieve
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Sunday, July 22, 2007 9:08:11 PM Is it just me, or do other teachers start having dreams about school around this time of the summer? I love teaching, and I love working with kids, so it's not as if I dread going back. Every year I have dreams (nightmares)
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Some of the younger kids (second graders)that I teach have the strangest reactions when they see me outside of the school setting. You 'd never think that I spend 7 1/2 hours a day with them by their behavior when we accidentally bump into one another!
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Well, it's a little more than a month and the first day of school will be here. Even after 21 years of teaching, I still want to give my kids the best "first day" I can. I am on the lookout for some cool activities that would make that day fun. It seems
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One thing I don't look forward to when school starts is our weekly staff meeting. It is always the same, with all of the emphasis being devoted to one initiative that our principal favors. Maybe once in a while it's okay to stick with the one topic, but
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This has absolutely nothing to do with teaching, but I just got turned on to a great music website called www.slacker.com . It's a free site where you can go to handpick your favorite music and create your own playlist. It's easy to do and the choices
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This year's Field Day was an experience. Lots ofstations were set up for the kids to enjoy, including hunting for gold, obstacle courses, ball bounce, music, safety instruction, popsicles, ball toss, relay races, and the tricycle race. Everything was
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Last year my district adopted a new Social Studies series. We all got our brand-new textbooks that crackled when we opened them. I am not a big fan of textbooks, and I rarely use them with my kids. However, I decided to use this new one during an activity
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