Teaching is a lot of Calories

No, I didn't mean that teaching burns a lot of calories, I mean that there is a lot of calorie intake! Especially in the lower grades I think. Parents think it is imperative to bring in lots of sweets for birthdays and the like or else the kids will be disappointed. Case in point: yesterday a parent brought in twenty those individual clown ice cream cones from Baskin Robbins. They were delicious. Last week we had these scrumptious cupcakes with LOTS of icing. On top of the birthdays in OUR classroom, whenever a student in the school brings in sweets for their birthday, they bring one for every teacher too! I don't even want to think about it.

Today we're making upsidedown cake for the letter U. It's endless. But hey, I guess I'll take one for the team. ;P

xxOOxx

Caution: Hard Hat Area

I don't think that non-teachers truly realize the hazards of the teaching profession. No, I'm not talking about crazy parents or insane students bringing guns to school. Yes, these are very real but I was talking more about the daily risks that we take.

You're laughing. I know you're thinking... "What do teachers do that is so hazardous? Get glue in their hair?" Well, YES! and glitter under my nails! Haha. Okay, but seriously, I almost broke my neck today tripping over a five year old! They have this way of getting underfoot and seriously causing accidents. One of my colleagues almost had her nose broken when a little boy bashed his head into it. Another shattered her ankle after falling off a chair while trying to hang up artwork. I've had a couple of serious stapling incidents and a few massive bruises from tricycles. Maybe we should wear shinguards...Okay, so it's not THE MOST dangerous job in the world, but I'm tired of people laughing when I tell them I got injured at work ;P

xxOOxx

HaaHa!

“Successful teachers are effective in spite of the psychological theories they suffer under”

U is for Umpire

So, it's baseball season and I am uber excited to see my Dodgers play once again. I think the only reason I like the off season (and I do mean the ONLY) is because I can get excited when the season begins again! The first home game is tomorrow and I think I have baseball on the brain so it's no surprise that this excitement followed me into the classroom.


This week in school we are studying the letter "Uu." Can you imagine how many words start with u? Let me tell you, not many. Can you imagine my excitement when one of the word cards was "umpire"? Let me tell you, it was great. So, that spurred a fifteen minute conversation with four and five year olds about baseball, their favorite teams, the purpose of an umpire, and their experiences with sports. One little one said, "Ms. D., I loobe the Dodgers too! My favorite player is Manny. He's so dreeamy." Ahh... Life is good.

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Ok, Just Rub it In...

So I was job hunting...again... and I was so lost as to where else I could look for a job. So, as in all situations where I don't know what to do, I googled it. I typed teaching in California (Nice right) into the search engine. Well, I didn't get any new sites for job hunting but I did find this article on the CA Dept. of Education website: http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr10/yr10rel34.asp

It was dated April 7, 2010 and is all about me! Haha. Not really but almost. It's about budget cuts and the impending shortage of teachers. The Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jack O'Connell basically restates everything that I am living right now. He said that the budget cuts are pushing the dedicated and true teachers away from the profession and are discouraging new, brilliant, and fantastic teachers from even wanting to enroll in a credentialing program.

O'Connell said that we have to come up with a better strategy to deal with our issues:
"To get out of this recession and for California's economy to thrive we must have an education system that helps all students gain the critical skills necessary to compete in the global economy, to reach this goal, we must find a stable, long-term solution that will encourage the best and the brightest to become teachers and to keep them in the classroom."

Although it seems like O'Connell was restating the obvious, maybe someone will listen for a change. Hey! A girl can dream can't she?!

xxOOxx

It's an art

Teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theatre.

-Gail Goodwin

Toothless smiles :)

It seems like everytime I see this one little girl, she's missing another tooth! Now, she has a beautiful smile with three gaps. It's gorgeous! she always gives me the biggest grin when she sees me so that I can see her missing teeth. She thinks it's funny that I make a big fuss over it.

I can remember when I lost my baby teeth. It's such a weird right of passage, isn't it? Pieces of your body falling out. Weird but oddly amazing. Feeling a little wiggle, then it wiggles more, and even more until it feels like it's hanging on by a thread. When that stubborn tooth FINALLY falls out (or is pulled out in many cases) it's such a relief! Then, you get to feel that gap in your mouth where a new tooth is timidly poking out. I had completely forgotten about the mystery of this experience until I started working with the little ones.

xxOOxx