Teacher Hallway Conversation

First Year Teacher: I'm not sure how to help them see this concept beyond the textbook.

Experienced Teacher: How about in this artwork they have on display in the hallway? The perspective is there and it's their own work.

FYT: Of course. Perfect. Thanks for the random math consultation.

(I love teaching in a school that can have 'random math consultations' happening in the hallway.)

From the Point of View of a 5th Grader

We spent a lot of today analyzing various artwork, considering the lines, colors, and shapes, thinking about the emotions conveyed in a painting or sculpture. The discussion was wonderful. Until the end...

Looking at this painting, Niagara Falls from the American Side, William James Bennett after John Robert Murray, published 1840, a fifth grader said, "It looks like a picture we could have taken in the 1970s or 1980s."

I had no response.

First of Many

If the class is about integrating technology and best practices, then why am I told what I will create, how I will create it, and the topic to research?

Grad school makes me crazy.

His Big Eyes said it all, but I had to make sure.

me: "Big Eyes, how was the Peer Mediation conference?"

BE: "WE HAD SODA!"

me: "Wow! What a treat! How was the conference?"

BE: "WE HAD SODA!!"

A little while later, during independent reading:

another student: "Hey, Big Eyes is back."

BE: "WE HAD SODA!!"

I should insert insightful comment here, but I am too busy thinking about the joys of soda at age 10.

Cleaning House

Things I accomplished while avoiding grade bubbling:

- Sanitized Bathroom.
- Mopped and Shined kitchen floor.
- Transformed dirty clothes to clean by going through the whole sorting and washing and drying and folding and putting away process.
- Sorted through shoes, dumped all finalists in closet.
- Moved clothes from floor to hanger.

Just WOW

My run not walk, loud or louder, back talking students won a lunch championship!

I am flabbergasted. And slightly alarmed that there might be a direct connection between their positive behavior and my multi-week sick leave.