Time for a Cut

I am overdue for a good haircut and decided to wear it 'au natural' the other day, as opposed to either blow drying it straight or sporting a pony tail.

Without fail, my naturally curly hair spawned the following comments from oh-so honest primary students:

* Mrs. M.... what happened to your face?

* You look like a witch!

* Mrs. M, your hair is broken!

* Ah, what happened to your hair?

* Mrs. M, is everything ok? You look ... different.

It's time to book an appointment .... immediately!

Happy Halloween!

Boo! Yikes! Trick or Treat!

Today is what some teacher's call "The Craziest Day of the Year"! (Not to be confused with the second and third craziest days of the year....the day before Winter Break and April Fool's day.)

Yes, it's Halloween!

One (of the many things) I love about my job is that every celebration is done to. the. max. It's a fun way to get excited about holidays and celebrations as an adult. And Halloween is no exception. It is so awesome to see kids live as someone/something else for a day. And I'm finding the younger they are, the more they believe they truly ARE what their costume is.

Today was filled with princesses, dragons, superheros and many, MANY Mario's and Luigi's (I guess they've made a comeback!). It was a day filled with treats (mostly healthy ones as we are in the family of "Healthy Schools", halloween songs, games, the usual dance and Intermediate Hep B shots (that was poor planning on the school's part).

I've noticed that not very many students (and we're a school of almost 800) have homemade costumes anymore. Long gone are the days of creative costumes. There were a few exceptions to the rule though. One student was an awesome gumball machine - full of large plastic balls as gum. Another (my personal favourite) was the gold robot from the Party Rock Anthem video. (I TOTALLY wanted to be that guy this year!!!)

Many teachers dressed up for the occasion too. Usually this provides much laughter and picture taking. I decided to recycle a costume I wore a couple of years back with some of my creatively awesome friends. We went as a set of highighters! I found all of my purple pieces to the costume and wore it again today with a few other staff members sporting flouescent green and blue. (And yes, this totally supports my stationary obsession).

Some of the funniest comments I received today included:

"Mrs. M - what are you?" (My response, "Read my shirt")

"Look...a crayon!"

"Are you Barney?"

and my personal fav....

"Are you the Pope?" (pointing to my 'lid')

All in all it was a fun day and an awesome evening. We've never had so many "Trick or Treaters" at our house before.

Here's to a good day tomorrow.... full of students with sugar highs/lows and little sleep!

Happy Halloween!

Guten Morgen

When teaching a song about saying good morning in different languages to primary students today, I asked which language they thought Guten Morgen was.

The most popular answer?

Chinese!

Third Best

Today a Grade 3 student said:

Billy: "Mrs. M! Your class is my THIRD favourite class".

Me: "What are your first and second favourite?"

Billy: "Gym, then Art... but don't be sad, at least Music isn't my LAST favourite class!"

After all these years....

I received my first gift of an apple today!

Over all the years of teaching, I've never been given as an apple for a gift.

It was perfect because:

1) It was for 'no reason'.

2) The student who gave it to me wasn't trying to be a 'teacher's pet' about it.

3) It looked lovely on my desk until I ate it.

4) It was delicious!

It was a good day!! :)

The Village People are still alive!

During an activity yesterday, I hear the following song coming from a Grade 3 student, singing away while working:

(Sung to the tune of YMCA)

"Inukshuk .... why won't you marry me?
Inukshuk .... oh how happy we'd be!
Inukshuk .... why won't you marry me?
We'd. Be. So. Happy!"

A logical explanation....

Me to a Grade 1 student: "Billy, why did you kick Bobby?"

Billy: "Well, you see, I know Kung Fu, Karate and Tai Kwon Do, and Bobby only knows Karate - so I kicked him in the face!"

Obviously?!!?

An Ice Cold One....

A grade 3 class and I were playing 'hot and cold' with big notes on the musical staff that is taped onto my carpet. The class had fun shouting out 'hot', 'warm' or 'cold' as students moved the notes to the correct (or incorrect) spot.

One little guy shouted out as another neared the correct line:

"SO hot you'll need a beer!!"

These are the moments that they didn't teach you in teacher's college on how to properly react to! :)

Hide your kids, hide your wives and hide your husbands..... cause there's Grade 1's out there!

I just HAVE to share this story from a Grade 1 colleague.

Yesterday afternoon my colleague got a phone call from one of her student's fathers. He told her that he was concerned and wanted to talk to her about it. My colleague started racking her brain. It was only the third day of school and she couldn't recall any issues with this particular student.

The dad went on to say that he found a scratch on his son's backpack. He said it looked as if one of his son's classmates KEYED his son's bag. He asked my colleague to please keep an eye on the kids to see if she can find out who did it.

KEYING a kid's backpack??? Is this guy for real? How many grade 1's does he think a) have keys b) bring keys to school c) enjoy scratching backpacks?

So apparently, when dropping off his son at school this morning, he approached my colleague to show her the bag in person. She saw it .... a tiny little scuff, no bigger than a dime's width on the bag. She asked the dad if his son could have maybe dragged his bag on the pavement after school to get the scuff mark. His father was adamant and said "My son would never drag his bag.... he loves his superhero backpack too much! It definitely looked like another Grade 1 keyed it."

Obviously, I had a good laugh in the staff room this afternoon when I heard about this one.

Watch out world, the Grade 1's are coming - and they mean business!! :)

Welcome Back (and R.I.P. Alvin)

Happy New Year!

As always, it's my favourite time of year. The air is crisp, my new pens and post-it notes smell FANTASTIC and there's a buzz of excitement in the air! Yes, it's back to school time.

The first day was a busy one. In some ways, it didn't feel like I have been off for such a lovely and long amount of time. It's truly amazing how quickly 'reality' snaps back.

I would love to share this little gem of a nugget with you....

A grade 5 "Billy" asked me today: "Mrs M! Wanna see something?"

Me: "Sure!" (wrong answer!)

Billy then proceeds to take out a chipmunk skin from his backpack. Yes, a real live (well, once live) flattened chipmunk skin, fur and all.

Me: (insert shock and awe here) "What is that?????"

Billy: "It's a chipmunk I caught and skinned this summer. Oh, no, it's missing it's tail!!" (Billy proceeds to put the once-chipmunk on my carpet and dig through his backpack for the tail). "Here it is!" (the removal of the tiny tail occurs...and it too is placed on my carpet). ****Note to self: disinfect or burn classroom carpet immediately.******

Me: (still shocked and now disgusted) "Where did it come from"?

Billy: "We found it at camp and skinned it ... and ATE IT!"

Me: *Thinking, but too afraid to ask, as I'm tasting the beginnings of vomit at the back of my throat* What the hell kind of camp is this??

Me: (asking the obvious question, after the bile subsides) "What did it taste like?"

Billy: "Chicken! Gotta go - BYE!" (throws chipmunk and tail back in his bag and leaves)

WOW! Really, there are no other words.....

How was your day at work today??? :)

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to me (and my blog)!

It was a year ago today that I started this blog journey. After checking out my 'stats' and doing some quick calculations, I figured that I'm average about 8 views a day on the blog (thanks Dad!). Thanks for those of you that are reading - I hope I've provided you with a smile or two.

As another school year commences, I'm looking forward to sharing more stories with you all!

Thanks for your support!

Mrs. M.

Christmas in June...

I thought I'd do a mid-summer check in to slowly ease my mind back into the inevitable in a few short weeks! (Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about returning to work, I know how fortunate we are as teachers to get the amazing vacation time that we do.)

I sat down last week to write thank-you cards for the gifts that I received at the end of June.

I am always surprised and overwhelmed when receiving "thank you" presents at work. As a rotary teacher I never expect anything ... I only teach some of my students once or twice a week. (For the record, I never expected gifts as a homeroom teacher in the past, however as 'tradition' has it, they were always given).

While writing the 'thank yous', I reflected on some of the gifts I have received over the years. I've decided to break the memorable ones down into the following categories:

Thoughtful:

- a homemade apron made of my favourite colours (she took a quilting class to learn how to make it....she was 12!)

- beautiful beaded necklaces made by a student (that I still get compliments on today)

- anything music related (they know what I love!)

- homemade cookies (especially ginger)

- post-it notes, pens, stickers, etc (re. Sept 2, 2010 blog entry)

- homemade jam - delish!

- Christmas tree ornaments

- a wooden wall hanging, handmade and painted by a parent for my music room, with all different genres of music painted on it (LOVE IT!)

- Generally handmade ANYTHING. I have kept every homemade card or gift made by students (even the ones where they spelled my name wrong) :)

- a Snow White mug from the Disney store after being the Musical Director for "Snow White" the musical. It's still my favourite 'school mug'!


I'm Spoiled!:

- beautiful silver jewelery from a few families when I left my last school.

- a mani/pedi gift certiciate (loved it!)

- Gift Cards: movie nights out, grocery store gift cards, Tim Horton's, Starbucks (can they tell I need coffee just by looking at me?), Chapters, HMV, LCBO (double-thumbs up!), etc.

- homemade jam and cookies (see above!)

- Bath and Body Works - (nuff said!)

Interesting:

- random items that were likely found and taken from their house (brooches, pins, etc)

- a decade supply of bath salts

- many, MANY different versions of this candle contraption:

- chocolates... boxes of it! I'm not sure when the tradition of giving copious amounts of chocolate to teachers originated .... however my husband is thankful, as he eats 99% of them.

- a unwrapped candy cane (from a sweaty hand)

- a leopard USB stick (practical, yet a strange decorative pattern choice)

- an empty Starbucks gift card (that was an expensive $9.00 latte and breakfast sandwich morning!) :)

- Scary-looking figurines of Santa Clause or Frosty the Snow-Demon.

All joking aside, I am truly grateful for all of it. To know that a student or family has thought of me is very touching. Besides the gifts themselves, I cherish the cards and letters the most. I keep every single note or card. As my husband can contest, cards (and what's written in them) are truly my favourite.

So, as I wrap up this long post, (and hope that my thank you cards didn't get lost in the mail), I would like to thank all families and students over the years for their thoughtfulness!

Mrs. M.

P.S. I'd love to hear about other gifts that have either been given to teachers or received as teachers!

School's Out for the Summer!

To all my fellow educators out there... have a wonderful holiday!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA2UF1xwGP4&feature=related

And the "Coolest Mom Ever" award goes to ....

A colleague of mine (who teaches Kindergarten) and I often carpool to work together. A few weeks ago on the way home from school, he showed me a 'gift' that one of his student's mothers made for her son's birthday.

Billy's mom wrote and illustrated a children's book where her son was the main character, a pirate, and each of his classmates also had a role/character in the story. (Many of the illustrations of all of the kids actually looked like them too!!!) The story centered around Billy the pirate and his friends going on an adventure to search for treasure. Along the way they had to encounter and fight off an evil man-lizard (Billy's teacher/my colleague) and had to tackle a final challenge by answering a very difficult riddle to the biggest/baddest character (my principal).

Billy's mom surprised Billy by giving the book to his teacher to read to the class on his birthday (alongside homemade peanut free snacks that she provided!)

The kids LOVED the story, and so did Billy! To top it all off - my colleague loved it so much that he incorporated the story into a performance piece at Billy's Kindergarten graduation last week, where the entire class acted out the story as a play to all of the parents!

How cool is that???

Namaste

I was teaching a Grade 2 class the other day. I gaze over the group of children in my room and my eyes settle on Billy looking like this....

I guess I'll need to reevaluate my lessons in the future to make sure they're not as stressful.

Namaste!

Deli Meat Mix Up

To wrap up the musical year, the Grade 1's are designing and creating their own percussion instruments. To start things off we decided to brainstorm all of the different instruments we've played this year so far.

One by one, the small hands come up, sharing answers such as "the tambourine", "the guiro", "drums", "xylphones", "glockenspiels", "triangle", "claves", etc, etc.

One little guy is vividly shaking his arm, wanting to be called upon. I call his name to answer and he proudly replies.... "We played the salami this year!". The other students look at him with questioning eyes and giggles.

I repeat: "The salami?"

Billy says, "Yah, you know....we always play with the Kielbasa! It's fun!"

Me: "Ohhh, do you mean the cabasa? C-A-B-A-S-A! "

Billy: "Yah, the salami one!"

Too cute!

Inspired, Energized, Refreshed

I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to participate in what I call a 'teaching utopia' for the past thirteen years. Elementary students from across the province are chosen and come together to participate in a week-long course that develops their leadership skills and potential. How lucky am I to work with the 'best of the best' future leaders as well as some of the most amazing and inspiring teachers from all around Ontario? I learn SO very much from them all and come back to the classroom feeling motivated, recharged and rejuvenated. Despite the lack of sleep and chaos that ensues in order to prepare to leave 'real life' at work and home for over a week, it is 1000% worth it and I hope to continue to pay forward this opportunity to future students.

If this week is any indication of our future....I wholeheartedly believe that we will be in good hands.

Honesty hurts....

Me: (To a Grade 5 class the other day): I'm going to be away in a couple of weeks and Mrs."Fill in the Blank Supply Teacher Name" will be in for me as your teacher while I'm gone."

Grade 5 Sally: (Shouting out loud with a fist and elbow pump).... "YES!! You should go away more often Mrs. M!!"

It Makes My Heart Smile....

.....when I see two grade two students SO happy to see each other in the hallway, that they full-out chest bump!

Chatty Cathy Children

On Fridays I teach a Grade Two class after recess. Each week, I meet them at their classroom and wait for them at their door before taking them to my room.

Like every Friday, I stand there smiling as they enter. I usually get "Hi Mrs. M!" as they walk past me into their classroom, however the other day many of them were quite talkative!

Here is a list of what was said to me by all different students, in the nano-seconds that they had when passing me in their doorway. (And the best part about all of this, is that NONE of them waited for or wanted a response....they just talked as they walked!)

~ "Today's my early birthday!"

~ "My dad's going to Sri Lanka in December"

~ "I was sick yesterday!"

~ "Can I go to the washroom?"

~ "My mom's in England right now going to school so that she can get a day job and make more money"

And my personal favourite...

~ Billy: "Mrs. M., Wanna hear a Joke? (he didn't wait for my response). What kinds of instruments to sheep play? Tu-baaaahs! (I actually laughed out loud at this one!) Me: "That's a good one Billy, where did you hear it from?" Billy: "I just made it up"! - Priceless!

And I thought I was having a "Good Hair Day"......

Billy: (acting silly during O Canada)

Me: "Billy, can you please come and stand beside me?"

Billy: "No, I don't want to stand beside you - you're ugly!"

The Dangers of Being My Student....

SO, I stepped on a kid today...and he cried. I obviously didn't mean to, and felt absolutely AWFUL for the whole ordeal! I apologized many times, but at the end of it all, I still stepped on a Grade 3 student's hand. I was walking backwards (first mistake) towards the c.d. player and he was all squirmy on the carpet and literally placed his hand directly in my path (says an eye-witness).

He was pretty hurt and definitely in pain. We got him some ice and I called his parents to tell them the whole story afterward. I hope he's feeling better tonight.

This 'incident' reminded me of another one that may have even topped it from a last year. I'll refer to it as "The Day I Kicked a Student in the Face". (True story).

I was wearing a Snow White costume at school for Halloween and was sitting in a chair, showing something to my Grade 1 class, who were sitting on the carpet. Part of my costume included bright red sparkly slippers. Being a chronic leg-swinger while sitting, my legs were crossed and likely moving. Without even noticing, one of the girls had crawled up really close to take a closer look at my slipper and WHACK! I totally kicked her.....right in the eye. My sentiments today were NOTHING compared to how I felt after kicking Sally in the face. She started crying (naturally) and covering her eye.

I took her to the office to get some ice (the all-healing-remedy-in-elementary-schools) and I called her mom. Her mother was awesome and told me not to worry about it and admitted that her daughter was a bit on the dramatic side. (I'm glad I got the heads up). Upon closer inspection, Sally's face and eye were A-Ok! (Thank Goodness!)

I still felt awful.... and for the rest of the week, whenever I saw Sally in the hall, she would quickly cover her eye and pretended like it still hurt! (Her mom was right - definitely an Oscar-worthy performance).

Don't you wish your child was in my class? ;)

A Future Musician said....

After presenting a group musical composition last week, a Grade 3 student asked me:

"So, do we get paid for this gig?"

I couldn't help but laugh!

Backhanded Compliment

This Morning.....

Sally***: "Mrs. M - you have such LONG eyelashes!"

Me: (Not sure how to respond) "Oh, thanks!"

Sally: "My mom tells me that the longer the eyelashes people have, the lazier they are!"

Me: (At a loss for words)

*** This is the SAME Grade 4 "Sally" who tells me when my hair goes from 'curly to flat' as mentioned in previous posts. She's a real self-esteem booster! :)

What are you doing for the March Break?

The other day I wrapped up the end of a lesson in a Grade 3 class a few minutes early. I decided to ask the students what their 'March Break' plans were, before sending them on their way.

Responses included, "Going to Cuba", "Playing video games", "Going to the movies", "Sleeping In", etc.

One student raised her hand and asked what I was doing over the March Break.

Before I could even respond, a boy shouted out "DRINKING BEEEEEER???".

All I could say in that moment was "No, no, never, no!"

Gotta love Grade 3's!

Where Would you Go?

Today was PJ Day/Literacy Day at school. I had the opportunity to choose a favourite picture book of mine to read to a class that I don't normally teach in Grade 1.

Snuggled up in my bathrobe and slippers I read 'Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day". In it, Alexander repeatedly says because his day is so bad, he'd like to move to Australia.

After reading, I asked where the students would like to go if they were having a bad day, and why.

Here are some of their responses:

Sally: I'd go to China if I was having a bad day because a lot of toys are made in China and toys make me happy. (My personal fav - I had to suppress a laugh with this one!)

Billy: I'd go on a Disney Cruise.

Sally: I'd go to Edmonton (no reason why given....).

Billy: I'd stay home.

Sally: I'd go to Scotland to see 'stuff'.

Billy: I'd go on The Bat at Canada's Wonderland.

Billy: I'd go to a hockey game - to see Sidney Crosby (poor kid would be disappointed with that wish these days)

Sally: I'd tell Alexander to stop wanting to go to Australia.

Billy: I'd go to New York, because they have better desserts than we do!

Very cute!

Flash back to September

In response to wearing my hair down and 'curly' today, I received the following first thing today....

"Mrs. M.....you look shaggy today". (Billy, Grade 3)

Note: this is the first time I've worn my hair like this since the last similar hair 'episode' in September! They don't miss A THING (and it wasn't even the same kid).

I guess it's going to be ponytails from now on!

What's Up With That?

.... saw a JK student (4 years old) walking down the hall today watching a movie on his I-PAD!!!

???????!!!!!???????

Points for Creativity

A Grade 3 student got very creative with a sweet treat today.

In the middle of class, I notice that Billy attached a Blow-Pop (candy ring) to his recorder using string and an elastic band. In between playing notes, he was taking a nice big lick of his sucker.

This was definitely a teaching first for me... and although internally laughing, I did ask him to take it off, and gave him a ziploc bag for storage.

Where do they come up with this stuff???

Smooching....

Picture it: Grade 1 Class, Friday, 2:55p.m.

In the middle of a lesson, I see Billy (who's sitting on the carpet) raise the leg of his pants and kiss his leg. He then covers up his leg again and refocuses his attention. Nobody else in the class has noticed, and he isn't distracting, so I carry on.

He proceeds to do this three more times over the next few minutes. Only my co-op student and I are seeing him do this, and are trying suppress our giggles. Eventually he stopped, leaving us uber-curious to why he was puckering up.

At the end of class my co-op student went to talk to him and found out that he was smooching his leg as he 'hurt it at recess and wanted to kiss it better'.

How cute is that???

Pulling the Wool over our Eyes!

Happy New Year everyone!

Well - we're back to the grind and the generally all of the 'Billy's' and 'Sally's' have been quite tired this week......except for one Grade 3 in particular.

Believe it or not, this student attempted to skip my class! (He's 8 years old!) One of his teachers dismissed him from a resource-support class to join his homeroom classmates before coming down to see me. He never made it back to his homeroom....therefore his homeroom teacher thought he was still getting help.....the resource teacher thought he had gone back to class....and I just assumed he was absent that day as he didn't come down with his peers.

But no....the little smarty pants HID in between the rotary class change and then v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y packed his bags and put on his snowsuit, ready to go. It wasn't until his teacher was walking back to her room from a meeting 25 minutes later that she saw him and accompanied him to my room.

Skipping - The nerve!

Let's recap the score ...

Three Adult Teachers - 0,
Billy - 1