Last. Day.

I don't feel like writing too much.

Other than today was my LAST DAY of work!!! And of course we had to go out with a bang --- we took all three first grade classes to the Grand Rapids Public Museum for the day... thankfully we had lots of parent chaperones so the kids were in pairs or triples and I got to float between groups. I'm grateful to the other teachers and parents who rode the bus because this nine month pregnant lady was not about to ride the bus an hour each way with 60 screaming kids. :)

We have no school tomorrow for Good Friday and then next week off for Spring Break then my maternity leave begins! It hasn't really sunk in that I'm not going back because EVERYBODY is going on break next week. It will probably hit me next Monday morning when I'm home and everyone else is going back to work.

So here's some pictures and a BRIEF description.

The other day I went on a cooking spree. As in I started making some dinners and freezing them now so when baby gets here we'll have so ready to go options. 

One of the things I made was these egg casserole bites. I didn't follow a recipe or write anything down... so you'll have to bear with my explanation then experiment on your own.

Egg casserole bites

First, I cut up some whole wheat bread into cubes and put a few in the bottom of each muffin tin (which I generously sprayed beforehand with cooking spray). 

Next, came the bacon (cooked and chopped), a sprinkle of cheddar cheese, and some diced onion.

Then, in a separate bowl, I whisked up some eggs with a splash of milk and added spices that I like: salt, pepper, parsley, and garlic.

Finally, I poured the egg mixture over the top of the bread, bacon, cheese, & onion. It didn't take much to fill them up - don't overfill them because the puff up a bit when you cook them!

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. I let them cool and froze them. They're easy to reheat in the morning and put on a piece of toast or an English muffin. I even got the Zach stamp of taste approval for these - and he's NOT a breakfast person!

Here's the past two weeks of baby bump photos:

37 weeks

38 weeks

Easter is almost here.

Baby is almost here.

Spring break IS here.

I'm a happy camper.



Love,

Sarah

Mid-March

Somehow we made it through two WHOLE weeks of school without any snow or ice days! 

(Shocking. I know.)

And I'm exhausted! By Wednesday night I was ready to sleep for 24 hours straight --- and probably could have if I got the chance.

Only two weeks until spring break, which means only two weeks left of work! Nine school days until I'm DONE! :) At least this class of kiddos has been better behaved so it makes leaving a little sad. Kinda. Especially when they write me notes like this:

 This Saturday (tomorrow) will be my classroom work day as I try to clean up all my little messes and piles of papers everywhere and get things all mapped out for my long term sub - who still remains to be determined...

March is Reading Month and our 1st grade team choose the Froggy books by Jonathan Landon as our book of the month. After reading a few Froggy books to our classes, here's a peek at the 1st grade bulletin boards in our hallway.

Mrs. Kostecki's Frog Life Cycle

Mrs. Seaver's Frog Facts

Mrs. Cook's Frog Reading Recommendations

During the month of February, Robert Munsch was our Author of the Month. Every day I read the class a different Robert Munsch book. They are SO funny and the kids always laugh because he has a great way of taking ordinary life events and turning it into something crazy! If all you know Robert Munsch for is the cute-sy "I'll Love You Forever," then you need to head over to your nearest public library and check out a a bigger stack of his books. Also, his website has audios of him reading his books aloud! Very funny to hear him read his own stories! All you have to do is try to keep up with turning the pages as he goes.

A few kids in my class recommend "Andrew's Loose Tooth" and here's why:

"I like this book because it was funny because the tooth fairy had a motorcycle."

"I liked this book because when the dentist tried to pull Andrew's tooth with a rope and his car fell apart."

In other happenings at home, my mother-in-law threw us a great shower on Saturday. A bunch of the O'Neill and Cook women came as well as friends and family friends. The basement was all set up with cute little clothes on a clothesline and an adorable diaper cake! Topped with a pink pig of course! The tables were red & white gingham and the food was delicious. Not to mention all the lovely gifts: things from the registry like the jogging stroller & bouncy seat. Homemade things, like a cool ABC crochet quilt. And creative things, like an airplane toy from the cousin who is a pilot and a children's story Bible. I had a really great time and was so thankful for all the people who helped out, especially since Zach's mom's back was still incredibly painful (this was before her surgery this past week - which went extremely well and she is now home recovering!).

This past week I had planned to make crescent rolls as a side with the spaghetti dinner I made. Then I decided to spruce them up a bit. My first thought was to spread them with butter and garlic before I rolled them up and baked them - kind of a twist on garlic bread. But then my mind really got churning when I saw the cream cheese in the fridge... so I scooped some of the cream cheese into a bowl, tossed in some salt, pepper, garlic, onion, and parsley and stirred it all together. I spread the mixture on top of the crescent dough. Next, I sprinkled a little mozzarella cheese on top of half of them and rolled them up. On the remaining four crescents I sprinkled mozzarella cheese and bacon bits. Those were for Zach. He loves bacon bits and I can't stand the taste/smell of them; not now, not ever, will I like them...

Spruced up crescent rolls - pre-bake

Post bake - cream cheese & cheese on left -- cream cheese, cheese & bacon bits on right

They turned out delicious! I suppose a shortcut would have been to just use an onion and chive cream cheese but I was cooking and inventing on the fly.

The Little Cookie is still in there a-growing away! The top of my stomach is really starting to hurt/ache because I can feel my ab muscles pulling apart... that's going to be fun to try to put back together after she's born... 

In some ways I feel like I'm back at the beginning of my pregnancy again: the frequent bathroom trips, waking up feeling ravenously hungry even though I just ate something before bed, and the tiredness... except now my belly is 10x bigger!

Doctor appointments are now every week. This week her heart rate was 144 bpm and she still measured right on for 36 weeks. The doctor also did the Group B strep swab and checked my cervix, which to my surprise is already dilated to 1 1/2 cm. Now, I know it can be dilated like that for the next four weeks, but I had quite the reality check that she really could come at any time now! 36-40 weeks is considered full term so now they won't do anything to stop labor once it starts!

35 weeks

36 weeks - 9 months!

So much to do and so little time - like prep my classroom, clean up the nursery enough so a person can actually walk in there without tripping, falling, and dying, write thank you notes, spring clean, and oh yeah - I should probably think about packing a hospital bag! We have the outfit all picked out that she's going to come home in!

Anything you were glad you had at the hospital (for you or baby)? 

Leave a comment!

Love,

Sarah

Early December Update

Well, well, well. Another post! And so soon after the last!

Things have been moving right along around here. We finally got our first big snow of the year that stayed on the ground. We got a snow day out of it on Monday - it was debatable whether school should have been cancelled or not, but I'm not complaining!

June was hilarious in the snow for the first time! She just kept running around getting mouthfuls of snow and eating it! It didn't seem to bother her that it was cold or wet, she just wanted to eat it. But what doesn't that dog want to eat?! Then later that night when the snow was falling again, we walked her around and she kept jumping up in the air to try to catch the snowflakes in her mouth. It was quite the sight and I wish I had a picture or video of that.

June's first walk in the snow!

Trying to eat the snow 

Sunday afternoon we cut down our Christmas tree and put it up. We didn't get the chance to decorate it until Tuesday night... oh well. It's done now. I'm always so torn between wanting a pretty, matchy-match tree and wanting the nostalgia of a hodge-podge tree.

Hodge-podge.

You know. The tree covered with macaroni ornaments, clothespin reindeer, and puzzle piece wreaths with your school picture in the middle that you made in elementary school?!

Yeah, that one.

It's fun to get out each ornament and remember why you got it or who you got it from. They bring familiarity to the season. But the matching ones look so nice! Maybe next year I can talk Zach into having one of each...

Teaching has been going well. That's an understatement; teaching has been going VERY WELL compared to last year. It's amazing how different the groups of kids are each year. This class has been so much more easygoing, independent, and advanced than last year. It's been fun to do more things with this class because they can handle it and I'm not dealing with downright rude & naughty behaviors every two minutes. That's not saying this year has been an entire cupcake, easy, breezy class. I've got a few who are challenging enough to make up for the rest of the class when it comes to behavior.

The countdown to Christmas Break is on! Only 7 more school days! Our last day is Friday, December 21 and we've got a whole bunch of stuff packed in there: regular lessons, plus Christmas lessons, students making crafts for their family members, plus a fun sledding day and a Christmas party... whew! Somehow it will all get done!

Zach's been a busy beaver. He's still working at CPS. He was one of six people from the whole division who got asked to be on a new technology team. CPS bought their salesmen iPads and Zach's really good with that techy kind of stuff so they asked him to be on this team. They have to meet and put together a presentation about new apps and the best ways to maximize the use of the iPad on the job. They have to present for their big conference this winter which I think he's a little intimidated by but he'll do a great job. Especially since it involves technology and farming and teaching others how to use it to their best benefit.

He also got asked to go a weeklong event in February out in California where they will tour a bunch of farms... and something else that I can't remember... whoops. I need to listen better and ask more questions.... All I know is that not many guys get asked to go and they asked him, so that is pretty cool! I'm super proud of him! He works really hard and puts a lot of time and effort into doing his job right, solving tech issues, dealing with unmotivated co-workers, helping the guys in the shop, keeping schedules organized, and taking care of his customers. So it's great that others have been noticing - not just me! :) Had to brag him up a little bit!

Zach's also been going through Fire Department Training since September. He has class two nights a week and then one Saturday a month (which thankfully went down to one night a week starting this week!). He carries a pager/radio thing around with him now and has gone out on a few calls: one was a garage fire and another was a single-wide trailer fire. Since he's still in training he has to wear a bright orange vest that says CADET on it over the top of his fire gear - and he can't really do a whole lot at the scene besides stand around and ask questions. But he's getting his face around the guys which is good. The class goes all winter and into the spring when they test out in April... April 13 to be exact. Which is three days after our baby is due... Here's hoping she's three days late or that he can pick a different test date!

Baby's doing good. She's moving around lots in there! Being kicked and poked and prodded from the inside is a straaaaaaaange and very unique feeling... Here's a picture from this week:

23 weeks

There's no denying there's a bump! As you can see, I need to buy more maternity shirts since the ones I have stick out at the bottom because they're not long enough. It turns out that Big Rapids doesn't have maternity clothes at ANY of the few stores we have (Meijer, Wal-Mart, Peebles, JC Penney) so I'm going to need a shopping trip to Grand Rapids very soon. Plus, as you CAN'T see from this picture, none of my pants really button anymore and are being held up by a rubber band around the buttonhole. :)

Moral of the story: none of my clothes fit. And that's okay. Because I very happy there's a baby in there that we get to see and hold in April!

Love,

Sarah

What's My Middle Name?

Toward the end of the school year, most of the kids in my class had figured out that they all have middle names. Some could tell me what it was, some could even write it down, and some could even spell it right. :) During the last week of school, I told the class that my middle name started with the letter "R."

(Now, my dad gave away my first name when he came into my classroom to visit for the first time. He walked in the door and said, "Hi, Sarah!"

And all the kids turned and stared at me and said, "Your name is SARAH?!" They seemed shocked to learn that I had a name other than "Mrs. Cook." )

After telling them the first letter, there came a barrage of names shouted at me. They kept guessing all day long and I started writing them down -mostly because a bunch of them kept asking the same name and mostly because I didn't want to forget some of their outrageous guesses!

Guess Mrs. Cook's Middle Name:

Renee
Riley
Rye
Rhonda
Rhondo
Ron
Rodney
Robin Hood -hmmmm
Romo
Read Meat - Really?!
Rock
Rose
Rosebush
Rocketship - somebody must have had outer space on the brain
Red Cardinal
Red
Rudolph - apparently my nose is a little red...
Rhona
Rommate
Reccos (because that's soccer spelled backwards)
Reese
Reginald - very handsome, don't you think?
Roger
Razor
Rex
Rosabelle
Robery
Robby
Rocko
Droid - yes, I know this one doesn't start with an R but if you knew the boy, you would understand :)


Any more guesses out there?


Love,

Sarah R.

Secret Code

I came across a stack of papers at my house from this last school year... yeah, yeah the papers were still at my house. Oh well.

As I went through some of their writing, there were some words that jumped out at me and made me laugh. Then I laughed even harder when I asked my sister to try to read them.

Here they are. Leave a comment and see if you can crack the code!!!

1. chramplen

2. kinpeootr

3. captin amracu

4. osum

5. gamekewb

6. deradid

7. crismis

8. froo

9. pedes

10. ceewt

11. meezoom

12. froup


I'll post answers next time. :) Happy reading --- or should I say deciphering.


Love,
Sarah

A Long Week

This week has been long.

Too long.

My class made Christmas gifts for their families all week... oh my. I don't want to see another popsicle stick, puzzle piece, or speck of glitter until next Christmas. If you're a parent of one of the kids in my class, pretend to be surprised when you open it. :) Here's a few of them:

Wreath Ornament

-Poster board cut in a circle

-Puzzle from Goodwill spray painted green & glued with Elmer's to edges of poster board (two layers of puzzle pieces)

-red sequins for berries

-red ribbon tied in a bow & glued on

-red ribbon hot glued to the back

Snowman Ornament

(this is what it was supposed to look like)

-popsicle sticks held together by a perpendicular popsicle stick hot glued down

-face painted white

-hat painted black then let try

-glue on googley eyes

-glue on carrot nose made from foam paper cut into a triangle

-painted dots for a mouth

How one of them turned out... more like a masked bird. Ha ha!

Jingle Bell Necklace

-ribbon with jingle bell

-4-5 beads per side of the bell

-tie closed to make the necklace

-good thing I waited until Friday to make these because they could make a person go crazy

Luminary

-mason jar

-mix equal parts Elmer's glue and water in a small cup; stir together with a popsicle stick to form a watery glue/paint

-students use a finger to spread paste on jar then place a tissue paper square over top

-spread more pasted over top of squares to make sure all corners are stuck down

-let dry several hours

-spray paint with gold glitter paint

-wrap around a red ribbon and glue with hot glue

-place small tea light candle inside

Puzzle Piece Snowflake

-glue together popsicle sticks with hot glue gun

-spray paint puzzles from thrift store with three different colors & let them dry

-glue on pieces with Elmer's glue (10 piece minimum, 13 is optimal)

-spray paint with gold or sliver spray paint and toss on some silver glitter

-glue on an ornament hook with ribbon

Stockings

-staple together a red and green construction paper

-use a cereal box to create a stocking template that students trace

-cut out and glue red and green stockings together

-punch holes around the edges

-thread through white yarn (oh, they needed so much help with this step)

-tie closed at the top

-write students' names with glitter paint

Reindeer

"I'm grateful for ___________"

The best part of the week was today when I got to watch my students open their presents. I got each of them a book, pencil, candies, and a small toy. They were so excited to see a bag with their name on it under the mini Christmas Tree in our room! They could hardly wait until after snack time to open them. We pushed the desks back to the edges of the room and sat on the floor. Most of them just sprawled out on their tummies waiting for their name to be called open their gift.

Monster trucks!

These glasses were a hit!

If you need a good laugh, head down to the dollar store and buy some false mustaches for your students or children to stick on and wear. It's hilarious! They wore these ALL day! Even to lunch and recess. I forced them to remove them for P.E. and the other specials.

Mr. Cool

It's days like these that I love (as crazy as they are) because it builds friendship and camaraderie with my students that doesn't happen on most days. I can be more candid and relaxed with them. While I sat in the rocking chair and the students opened gifts, one of my little girls sat on my lap giggling and playing with her little ocean animal toys.

ocean animal toys and a blue tongue from Jolly Ranchers

This weekend will fly by --- it always does but even more so when there are Christmas events planned for every day. Tonight is Zach's work party/dinner at a steakhouse in Grand Rapids.

Tomorrow, we're off to Detroit for Cook Christmas. I made Yum-Yum. It lives up to it's name. :) I'll post the recipe some other time.

Sunday is a progressive dinner with our small group.

Monday is back to school then a Christmas Coffee night with some ladies from church.

Party animal.

Well, at least it's a weekend filled with things and people I love.

Love,

Sarah

Veteran's Day

For the past few weeks, I have been teaching my class about important American symbols such as the American Flag, the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, the bald eagle, and the National Anthem. I loved telling them the story of how our flag has changed over the years into what it is today and what the colors represent.

I loved telling the story of Francis Scott Key writing the poem "Defence of Fort McHenry" (Star Spangled Banner) during the British bombardment of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 and how hopeful he was to see our flag flying above the fort in the morning. (They all cheered when I told them we ended up winning the battle!)

I loved telling the story of how we got the Statue of Liberty as a gift from France to honor our country's freedoms and how she stands as a symbol of hope and freedom for all who decided to call our country home. (And why she changed into that weird green color. :) )

I loved teaching about what the word "Veteran" meant, what yellow ribbons signify, and how our Armed Forces are definitely heroes to be honored.

Ashlyn, "Thank You, Uncle Jeremy"

You are a hero!

Jeslyn, "My dad was in the army."

All this fit in quite well with it being Veteran's Day on Friday. The K and 1st grades at CCA put on a Veteran's Day program last Friday it's the cutest thing you ever saw -- if you were in the audience that is... the prepwork for that program is close to a nightmare. Every day we practiced getting up and down from the risers, how to hold a microphone, memorized lines, practiced songs, oh yeah ---- and tried to keep the kids from screaming at each other, poking, picking noses, crying and/or sitting down on the risers... It was quite an adventure getting 120 kindergarten and first graders in to some semblance of order! Then with Veteran's Day on Friday, 11-11-11, it's been an Red, White, & Blue filled couple of weeks. I hope these kids don't forget the meaning of these symbols and that they grow up PROUD to be United States citizens and Americans.

Odds are, most of them will forget (they're only six years old for crying out loud) and they don't have parents or other adults who will keep reminding and teaching them about what made America great. I can only do so much with these kids while they're at school but at the end of the day, they go home with someone else. Not me. And the unfortunate thing is that most adults don't even know. We've lost touch with our history and our roots, lost touch with our founding fathers' ideas & beliefs, and lost touch with our overall patriotism. We don't care enough to study our past and have no clue about what's happening in the present and we don't care because we don't think we can do anything about it ---or we want the government to fix everything for us. WRONG. Real change in this country is going to come from the bottom up. It's going to come from freedom loving Americans who are sick of the direction our country is headed. Americans who will take the time to READ and learn about what we can DO. (Check out Oliver DeMille's website & books for info on this subject, http://oliverdemille.com/)

When the Lord decides to bless us with children, I'll be done teaching other people's children. It will be time to raise our own. There's not a stronger calling in my life than to raise God-fearing little Patriots who will grow into the future leaders our country needs.

A special thanks to both my grandfathers, Luther Thorne & Ernest Palmer for serving in the Navy during WWII and the sacrifices they made.

Love,

Sarah

New Things

I am now a 1st grade teacher at Crossroads Charter Academy in Big Rapids. My interview was Monday and the principal called me back on Tuesday afternoon to let me know that I got the job! (Yay for getting student loans paid off faster!) He doesn't know when I can start putting together a classroom because he doesn't know where they are going to put me.... one of the first grade teachers decided to go back to teaching kindergarten so they don't know if they will move her back to her old room or stay where she's at. Plus, with her moving back to Kinder, they no longer have a Kinder teacher position to fill but now have another 1st grade teaching position left to fill. On top of that, we need another classroom for the other new 1st grade teacher as well. CCA is bursting at the seams as far as enrollment goes and that's a good problem if you ask me. As soon as I can get in the building and start setting up the better. I've already decided I want to have a farm theme classroom so I'll post pictures as things start moving.

In other new things, I tried a new dessert recipe that is "no bake" and it turned out DELICIOUSLY! Thanks to the Blue-Eyed Bakers website for this recipe called "Salt River Bars." This dessert is SO EASY. Plus it's salty, chocolate-y, caramel-y, and crunchy. Here's the recipe and a picture of how mine turned out:


Salt River Bars

1 box club crackers (I used saltine crackers instead)
1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. peanut butter chips
1 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil or canola oil
coarse sea salt

Line 8x8 glass or metal baking pan with foil so that it's hanging over the edges of the pan. Lightly spray the foil with cooking spray or grease lightly with vegetable oil or butter.

Place 15 club crackers (5 rows of 3) in the bottom of the pan and sprinkle 1/3 c. of the peanut butter chips over the crackers. (Note: I used saltine crackers so they didn't fit into the pan as nicely. I laid out 9 whole crackers, 3 rows of 3 tightly packed, then cut a few crackers in half to use on the top and side gap.)


Melt the butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until melted, bubbly around edges, smooth and creamy, (about 5 minutes). Pour 1/3 of this caramel-y mixture over the crackers and peanut butter chips as evenly as possible. (NOTE: I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup to pour the caramel more evenly.) Then add another layer of crackers, peanut butter chips and caramel on top. Then another layer and then finish with a layer of crackers. **I forgot to take a picture of this step.**

Finally, melt the chocolate chips and vegetable oil in the microwave, stirring in 30 second increments utnil the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Spread the chocolate over the final cracker layer evenly.


Let cool ever so slightly then sprinkle the top with coarse sea salt.


Place in the fridge for 60 minutes or until chocolate is hardened. Cut into bars. Serve and store cool.


http://www.blueeyedbakers.com/home/2011/6/16/salt-river-bars.html - Check out their website for more pictures plus a comical commentary. Those ladies crack me up!

Love,

Sarah

language

Ahhh. I got the best call this morning. NO SCHOOL! SNOW DAY! That's the only reason I have time to sit and write this. When Zach went out to scrape off his truck this morning he had to come back in and get a broom because the snow is so deep! At least 8-10 inches fell last night! Well, I plan on being productive today - cleaning, grocery shopping, christmas shopping, paper writing... we'll see how much gets done.

Most of my (Sarah's) posts have been about school. Not surprising since that is where I spend nearly all my time. My students say hilarious things on a daily basis. Two of which happened on Wednesday. The first comment happened while I was on recess duty. A girl in kindergarten likes to follow me around and hug me and talk to me because her older bother is in my class. At one point, she stopped talking and looked up at me and said, "You look like Goldilocks." It made me smile. The second comment of the day which was funnier by far came from a little boy in math class. I wore a long sweater with a belt over the top in an attempt to look trendy. The students were lining up to switch back to their own classroom and I standing at the front of the line. A little girl in the front of the line took my hand and said, "I like your anillo (ring)." The boy behind her looked at me and said, "I like your seatbelt." Seatbelt? Well, I guess I can see that. :)

Yesterday, my coordinating teacher (CT) and I had 3 initial child study meetings. Child Study meetings are used for creating intervention strategies for specific students who are struggling academically or behaviorally or both. The student's teacher, parents, principal, special education teacher, school psychologist, and the school/community relations chair. I went to 2 out of the 3 because I had to teach during one of the meetings. For the first meeting, the mom is a native English speaker and her son looks just like her. They have the same eyes, freckles, and way of speaking. Her son is REALLY struggling academically, has speech problems, among some possible mental things going on. The kid is so sweet and tries hard but his home life isn't helping. Aside from the time she laughed a few times, mom just sat there and stared at the floor. Her son missed over a month of school in kindergarten. That's too much to miss in the early years of school because they learn so much about letters and letter sounds, exactly what he struggles with. When asked why he missed so much school, mom said she overslept then just didn't bring him in to school. A teacher from his preschool also recommended that he be placed in a program for preschool impaired children to give him extra help to catch him up and give him extra attention. She didn't enroll him there. They don't really do anything at home to help him, no reading together or practicing numbers. The little books we send home each month for kids to read with their parents stay in his folder and never get read. Mom said she doesn't work so it's not a time issue. I think she's just lazy and her son is suffering from it. This kid needs support at home and school and he's not getting it at home. Maybe mom stared at the floor because she realized the impact her choices had on her son... I don't really know.

Well, of the two meetings that I sat in, there could not be different parents - well, different moms I should say because the dads didn't come. The mother of this child spoke Spanish very well. *Sidenote: I love that I can understand what the mom was saying without the need of the translator. Of course we have a translator in each meeting because not all the staff at my school speaks Spanish, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE that I can speak another language. It makes me feel more useful. My heart is dying to go to live in a Spanish speaking country so I can become verbally fluent... my comprehension is good, my speaking is bad.* Her and her husband are so involved in their son's academic life even though they speak no English. He brings home. He brings home his little books and reads to them even though they can't understand. At parent teacher conferences, they asked us to grade his homework and send it home again so he could fix his mistakes and keep improving. The topic that kept coming up at conferences and during this meeting was that this little boy is so so very timid. He rarely raises his hand and keeps all speaking to a minimum. Over Thanksgiving break, mom said they had a conversation with their son about his timidity. She asked why he doesn't raise his hand. He said he was afraid that the teacher was going to punish him and scold him if he got the wrong answer! Mom and dad then told him no! that's not the case! Teachers are there to help you learn and they will not punish you if you get the answer wrong. They told him to try raising his hand more. And what do you know? This week he raised his hand more than I had ever seen!!! I tried to call on him whenever he did because he usually never does! His mom and dad are trying their best to have him practice his numbers and letters and words at home. His mom told us that he wants to be a doctor when he grows up. I wouldn't be surprised. He is so caring and hardworking. We encouraged mom to keep this goal in mind - the world needs more bilingual doctors!

learning.

This week has been all about learning. Surprise, surprise I know seeing as how I'm a student-teacher and all. Last Friday, I learned how to handle conflict with students and send them to the office and converse with the principal. Monday I attended the student teacher Fire Up! Conference held at Aquinas College and learned all kinds of useful information in sessions such as: Can I Take my Christian Faith into a Public School?, Special Education and the General Education Teacher, Reducing Teacher Talk (which was hilarious), Supporting English Language Learners, and Parent Communication Dos and Don'ts. I got to practice the Parent Communication tips on Wednesday when I had to sent a certain student back to the office... this time, his mom came in and wanted an explanation from me why her son keeps getting sent to the office. So, I sat in the principal's office with the principal, the student, and the student's mother -- talk about slightly intimidating for a student teacher who has barely gotten her feet wet! This little "meeting" went well. The mother has unrealistic expectations for what she wants to happen with her son (example, she wants him in special ed. even though he's really smart) and she is in denial that he needs testing for ADHD. She's one of those parents who you have to take by the hand and lead towards every step in a process because she is not proactive. She expects everyone to come to her and cater to her so she doesn't have to lift a finger.

I guess I could rant and rave about ridiculous parents all day, but for me the highlight of this little experience (yes, there is a highlight in all this mess!), was that the whole thing took place in 95% Spanish conversation. The principal, mom, student, switched in and out of English and Spanish and I knew exactly what was going on the whole time. Knowing another language is SO COOL! I loved sitting there listening to a conversation about one of my students while the parent and principal spoke in Spanish. I could even tell that the principal is from Puerto Rico because of the way she speaks her Spanish (I later confirmed it with another teacher). It's amazing to think that the human brain can learn a whole new set of vocabulary, phrases, sentence structures, and sounds and actually communicate in that new language. It's amazing. What's more amazing is that there are students who come to our schools from various countries in Africa who can speak 5 or 6 languages!!! LANGUAGES!!! This boggles my mind. I'm convinced that learning to speak multiple languages is its own intelligence.

What's hard at Burton Elementary, and probably every school with 2nd or 3rd generation Spanish-speakers, is that the students begin to lose their Spanish by middle school. They are so pushed so hard to learn English (which is a great skill, especially if you live in the United States) that they forget their Spanish. They can no longer communicate with parents and grandparents and it's really sad. It creates a generational breakage, a language barrier, that separates families. I compliment them whenever I can that speaking two languages is a great skill to have and not to forget their Spanish.

Here's a couple of my little intelligent students.

Drama in the 1st grade.

Friday was a rough day at school. To start off the day, there was a substitute teacher and two of my students reacted very negatively. To make a long story short, I dealt with them all day and exhausted all my options and then had to send them to the office to chat with the principal. One student exploded in anger, yelled at me, then ran away down the hallway. Eventually I found her and she stomped down to the office. In all that mess I got called, "mean," "tattletale teacher" and accused of "not caring," --- all by a 6-year-old. More like an old soul trapped in a 6-year-old's body as the principal described her. And it's true. That little girl has gone through more crap than I want to know. Her home life is a wreck. All of her siblings have different dads; there have been multiple step-dads in the picture; and now mom lives with a boyfriend. This 6-year-old is dealing with the effects. She's emotionally distraught, cries all the time, and can't even verbalize what is the matter when she is upset. Behaviorally, she refuses to participate with the class. She gets out of her seat and wanders around often, doesn't do her work, and runs away when she gets overwhelmed or feels singled out. Academically, she's low. Very low. Writing her name is still a struggle; her fine motor skills are weak; and reading is almost impossible because she doesn't know what sound each letter makes. And the little boy? His attention span is shorter than that of a goldfish because all he does is play GameCube and nintendoDS all day - he plays it so much in the morning that he is late for school! This kid is falling behind because his mom doesn't have the guts to step up and be his parent. There is no filter between his brain and his mouth so he just shouts out in the middle of class. He swears and calls other kids gay. He's always in his own little world and his mom punishes him by keeping him home from school. Now I could care less about being called mean or a tattletale teacher. It stung for sure, but what upset me the most was the environment her mom is raising her in. If only parents had to come to school and deal with the child they raised... do they not see the tangled mess of a child they created?! Let them try and teach her something. Teaching. If only it were that easy to just teach. Learning and teaching is on the back burner when I as a teacher am forced to be a psychologist, parent, and counselor. Teachers are INCREDIBLY underpaid.