Tales from a fourth grade teacher

Moments it is worth begin a teacher...

• Sometimes at the end of the day as they kids line up we play "guess my animal". Well I was calling on students to guess and I called on a fairly quiet students who doesn't raise his hand too often. Out of his mouth, with total serious tone, he said " Is it a chupacabra?". Now if you do not know what a chupacabra is you will have to wikipedia it. Basically it is kind of like the Big-Foot of Latin America, but it is more like a alien lizard thing (see pic below). Well my family used to always joke about the chupacabras, especially after Paydan watched a scooby-doo episode with it in. Well, anyway, it caught me totally off gaurd and made me giggle. The other kids had no clue what he said and a few asked him what it was, but it is moments like this that make it worth being a teacher.
  

• a fairly "straight-laced" mother of one of my sweet, shy, brainiac Asian students emailed me about what she could to do help her daughters writing. Anyway, at the end of one of her emails, totally out of the blue she said " By the way _________ (name withheld) is having the best year ever she has had at Ben Rush Elementary." WOW! Coming from this parent, it totally blew me away. Here I thought I was probably not challenging her daughter enough to her liking but instead she gives me a comment that makes it worth being a teacher.

• Last week we had a PTA sponsored assembly where they brought in this guy called the Reptile Man. Basically this guy has a ton of reptiles and is an expert so he brings them in and shows them to the students. Well, the funny thing is that this guy has been around so long that I say him when I WAS IN FOURTH GRADE. Funny story with it too. When I was that age I was a "bit" of a tom-boy and I actually really liked snakes. Well after coming to my school he also did a night "assembly" for the families. I wanted to go so bad becuase you could pay a small sum to get your picture taken with an albino like 8 foot python. Well, usually my parents were totally game for things like that and were rarely busy, but for some reason that night they had to go some where resulting in me having to stay home. I cried and cried! Well, I told this story to my students after the assembly and they all were like "Mrs. Jones... you HAVE to come tonight so you can FINALLY get your picture with the snake!!!" Thieu concern for me was so genuine, it melted my heart. Those moments make it worth being a teacher! (ps.) unfortunately I had prior arrangements and still could not go and fulfill my dream!ha!!)
• 

• Seeing many of my kids get to that "pre-teen" stage where the girls whisper in each others ears and the boys start to want to brag about their feats on the football fields to "impress" the ladies, just makes me smile. It brings back so many memories. I even have a few girls in my class that out of the blue are now OBSESSED with Twilight. One of them even showed up to school with a HUGE Edward tee-shirt. Man, to live vicariously through the students makes it worth being a teacher!
  
• 

Top 10 Recap

Ok so I have been absent from the blogging world and I ask for your forgiveness. I was going to post this like a week ago and my computer started acting FUNKY...and then well, I got sick and did not have the energy to do it over and post it... but here it is!

Here are the top 10 things that have happened in our lives in no particular order...
(Can you tell from the list that we have been pretty busy to have really much "fun")

1. The elections, and more importantly the election coverage is over... no more annoying politicians bashing each other endlessly through commercials and no more of the elections taking over all news coverage.

2. Sunday dinners over at the Bussey's (my parents). Let me tell you how nice it is not to have to cook on Sundays!

3. Finishing the 3rd book in the Fablehaven series. If you like Harry Potter and are looking for a fun, quick read pick up this series!

4. Getting a new nephew, Coleman Wesley Jones!

5. Teaching... it is moments like this that make me love teaching: Getting an email from a parent who was so impressed by how much their child learned about elections from my lessons. And it is moments like this that make me not like it so much: the stress of preparing for report cards and parent/teacher conferences.

6. Visiting the temple two weeks in a row!

7. Our uneventful Halloween, which consisted of Chris and I scaring my mom at their front door and then eating all my brother's leftover candy.

8. 30 Rock! Ok, if you do not watch this show... you are missing out on funniest 30 minutes of the week. Let's just say that Tina Fey is a Genius. You know a show is good when even OPRAH will make a guest appearance!

9. Chris and I getting called and teaching our rambunctious class of CTR 8's in Primary. ( Let's just say there is a lot of energy in one room with six 8-yr.-old boys and 2 girls!)

10. Listening to like 10 books on tape the past months during my commute. Let me tell you I highly recommend this!

The "zoo"

Ok after some requests here are some pictures of my classroom.

I personally feel it is a bit hard to fully portray in the pictures. Also, I was a bit reluctant to share them because the school is SUPER old (older than me) and it is still a work in progress... but to appease the masses who have sent requests... here you go.

I'm alive!

So yes... I am still here.

Thanks to my wonderful husband for filling you all in on our lives. I actually just acted busy, so that he would be forced into writing on the blog, I think he is a much more talented writer, so FINALLY I got him to do a post.

Anyway, I have been pretty busy lately teaching a whole bunch (and I mean a whole bunch...like 30) 9 and 10 year olds. I won't lie... it's a lot of work, but it is all worth it. Teaching brings me so much joy. Here are some of the highlights thus far:

• I have a diverse class, with 4 students who speak Hebrew, about 4 that speak Spanish, a German and Russian speaker and some Asian languages too!
• My Autistic student and Down syndrome students keep me pretty busy, but it is really cool to see 10 year olds be such wonderful friends and helpers to these two students.
• one student told his parents "Mrs. Jones is so nice, she has never gotten mad!"...but maybe he just hasn't seen that side of me yet...ha.
  
• I survived the dreaded Curriculum Night, where I had to stand and address a room full of silent parents.
  
• There is nothing better than hearing one of the students say, "wow this is SO cool!" while doing some lesson.
  

The first year of teaching is definatly tough and very time consuming (my poor husband) but it is also VERY rewarding and worth it! Hopefully the year just keeps going well!