The Bow Tie Teacher

Conservative Christian Southern Black Tea Party Male Public school Teacher

I just wanted to see if I could get 100 views with that heading. Help me out, won't ya! How many more labels can I add?

Honestly, I keep politics out of my blog as much as I can.  I do have an opinion, just like you. Most of the time the armpit rule applies. I do think politics is a part of our lives and sadly it becomes more a part every day. However, there is so much about life here in America that unites us all. Most of the time I'd rather focus on the great things that make us Americans than the nasty underside which is American politics. 

Alright back to your work and don't forget to VOTE!

If I string together enough little wins

Today was another W for "Super Learners Central". Taking the time on the front end to practice procedures is making me feel better about the time when we dive into the meat and potatoes of class. I also know that some of my kids aren't the strongest in every subject. I can see little signs that tell me where to work with each. But one thing is for sure they're all Super at doing these procedures so they at least have that win under their belt. 

HELP!

To many this is a Starbucks cup with pencils in it. To my students is the Cornucopia in the Hunger Games. Everyday it's a battle for pencils. You'd honestly think there was a competition to see who could use up the most pencils in a day. 

 

My Pencil policy is this:

I sharpen about 20 or so pencils in the AM. The kids are welcome to trade out one of their not sharps for one of mine. If they don't have a pencil at all (often) they can take from another cup of sharp short pencils I freely give away. Multiple times during the day I sharpen the pencils in the cup so there are sharps for the dulls the kids have. The trades happen through out the day as the kids need a pencil.

Why do it like that, Whitaker? 

• This keeps the kids from making a game out of killing my pencil sharpener. 
• The personal sharpeners are a disaster! Pencil shavings are all over and they make the floor horrid! 
• The kids don't have to fidget with the sharpener. 
• The sharpener becomes a noise distraction as well as a movement issue. Sadly my students can't take the freedom of 1 person sharpening 1-2 pencils and sitting down. I'd have so many kids "needing" the sharpest pencil all day it would be craziness. 

 

I thought this would quell the foolishness that I saw when I came into this class. But really it hasn't. Just new foolishness has arisen. 

• I have the black market personal sharpeners. Shavings everywhere!
• Kids stealing my pencils. I give them for free just don't take 8!
• Kids not even trying to bring a pencil to school. "Whitaker will take care of that for me"
• Kids bringing 10 pencils and swapping all 10 out first thing in the morning, thus depleting my stash for the other students. 

I know this seems so simple, but what do you all do to maintain Pencil sanity in the class? 

Driving this week with the brakes on

Not sure why, but this week feels like it's going in slow motion. It could be due to the fact that I'm running sans coffee/sugar, but I don't think that's it. What it could be is that it's 80 lovely degrees out and I can't get outside because of the Yellow Scourge aka pollen running amok. *I'd to be the reason some kid swells up like a balloon because they have some crazy allergic reaction to this stuff. At 9000 parts per million that's pretty intense. It wouldn't be a good idea to make them go out and do 10 burpees this week.  

Thankfully, I had a great meeting with my admin about my performance this year. Even though I don't feel as successful as I'd like it felt good to know others who know what they're looking for see that I'm doing a good job. I got a list to work on and the most important it keep assessing my kids. I need to find a better way to assess and retest, reteach on a regular basis.

One thing I did get is that my efforts to keep my students on task are not going un noticed. The kids may/may not always response like they should but it doesn't always look bad on me. *I'm really conscious of the kids making me look bad. Needless to say I don't look as crazy as I thought I did. 

We're in crunch mode getting ready for the end of the year. I'm just taking each day as it comes and thankful for everyone of them. Can't wait to get in the gym today. I have a lot of stress to burn off. 

A day in the life

So I have this huge crate with papers to sort and arrange. The Teacher of the Week, Jason said "carry this stuff home and tackle this pile." The Dad of the Year, Jason said, "my foot. This work has been here and will be here whenever I decide to tackle it. I'm going to spend time with my family this weekend" Dad of the Year wins again. 

Went in and bought my students the audio book "Nate the Great". Don't think that qualifies for teacher of the week, but certainly Teach of the Friday. The kids loved the reader and his inflections. 

Saw this on Pinterest (aka Teacher crack dealer). My kids love that I tell them to tell The Tattle Toolbox, but now it's got personality. My unique kiddo now goes to the corner and has full out right conversations with the toolbox. Not sure if I should be happy he's found someone to listen to him or worried. 

Didn't have any Starbucks today so that's either a good thing or a very bad thing. Hahahaha

Just realized that Dr. Seuss's birthday is next week. Can't wait! I really like Seuss books! 

 

End of the Semester party the award show

As of January 2012 I'll be a 2nd grade teacher. My principal felt that my skills would be better served in the lower grade. So the next couple of days I need to get my class moved and ready to roll when we get back from the break. 

We're having an End of the Year/Semester Party next Tuesday. My theme is 1st Semester Awards. I'm working on some fun awards to dole out. Thinking about some of these

• Good and Plenty: Read good and plenty of books/ideas
• Milky Way: For being a star student
• Almond Joy: Always being joyful
• Snickers: Able to make others snicker/laugh
• Whatchamacallit: known for asking more than your fair share of questions
• 3 Musketeers: Couldn't separate you from your friends
• Payday: Everyday is Payday cause you come to work every day! 
• Skor: You do a great job and make a great effort

Since someone told me it wasn't "fair" for me to ask each of my students to donate $3 towards our party I'll just foot the bill and get each a candybar. I geuss it's fair for me to dole out $23 than for each kid to bring $3 so we can have food/drinks at our party. 

I should give that person a "Sour Patch" award for trying to rain on my parade. 

Monday we're having an all day reading event. They're bringing in hot coco and the kiddies are going to read pretty much all day. I have some final educational activities for them to do while I'm packing my room, showing a video and maintaining order. Shouldn't be a disappointing day at all. 

 

Striving for Co-Worker of the Week award

Got to help my people help the children.
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