Bathrooming

During my internship year my mentor allowed students to go to the bathroom during art. If they asked, one at a time was allowed to use the restroom across the hall. They rarely happened.  I felt like this was reasonable. As a child, I remember being angered when teachers did not let me go to the bathroom when I needed to. Thus, I adapted the one at a time routine. 

"Bathrooming" (as a seasoned teacher calls it) was quickly abused in the art room. If one kid asked to go, magically enough 21 students had to go! So within the first few weeks I made it clear to teachers and students that they were to use the bathroom BEFORE or AFTER art. I only see them one hour a week. I can NOT spend time keeping track of who was is gone. Were their hands clean when they left the art room? Is their project going to be complete? How will I catch them up with everyone else? How long have they been gone? At a workshop with other "specials" teachers, it was shared that they had the same policy. One teacher even said that if they have an accident, it will help them remember to go before art next time. I felt like that was harsh, but what can you do?!

After two months of having the "BEFORE or AFTER" art policy I found an untouched puddle near a table. I recalled that a first grade boy had asked to go during clean up and I told him we only had five more minutes in art and he could go when they got back to class. I was so preoccupied with clean up procedures that I could not even remember who had asked to go when I found the puddle.  None of the students told me about the puddle...I had the custodian come in between classes. Later I found out who had the accident.... 

Gross little goblins-AKA my students

Several students are sent home each day with head lice. The policy allows students to be at school with nits, only when bugs are found is when they are sent home! It makes me ITCH to think about it!!!

As October came to a close I had two "moderately impaired" first grade boys poop their pants while sitting next to each other. One had waddled to the aide in the room and said "I stinky!" You can say that again-the smell still lingered after I disinfected the chairs!  The two waddled back to class to clean up the mess with the aide.

An excited first grade girl stopped me in the hall saying "Mrs. Cox I threw up 6 times last night and I still feel sick!" It was like she was bragging. 

On a less disgusting note, I had a great start to using clay with fifth graders this week and I got three new bulletin boards at my "home" school. 

Just for fun!

Top ten things you didn't learn about teaching in college. Check out other teaching related videos at teachertube.com

Student Work Slide Show

To see the captions put your cursor near the bottom left corner of the picture to pull up the speech balloon.

Crazy Cat Lady

I was walking around the room as second grades worked on watercolor self portraits. On little girl said to me, "you seem like someone that would have 13 cats."   Unsure of what the student was getting at, I asked "what would make you say that?" She never really answered me but she did ask me "how many cats do you have, Ms. C." I told her I was allergic to cats but that my mom and dad had one cat. 

As I walked around looking at other students' art, I wondered what I did to make that student think I was that crazy cat lady!

Meet meat

This week I was talking about horizon lines with second graders. I was explaining that a horizon line is  where the sky appears to meet the ground in a landscape. One of the little boys must have been in another world. As soon as I said meet, he shouted "dinosaurs eat meat!" True statement-what else could I do but to keep going and smile? Kids say the darndest things! 

More Firsts

The night we had Meet Your Teacher Night at my "home school" proved to be quite interesting! Imagine this... teachers and support staff were sitting on the stage in the gym and the principal was introducing the evening's events as the families sat in the bleachers. He introduced a man to lead us in the Pledge and a PRAYER! Out loud, I said "is this really happening?" The spech pathologist next to me said "we didn't do this last year!" Somewhere around 15 families stopped by the art room to meet me. I was pleased with the turn out. 

The next day a well spoken parent emailed the principal about the unconstitutional prayer. He forwarded the email to teachers and told us "we will address this as a school family." Drama!

Monday, students in 5th grade started working on a portrait project. As I walked around the room, a boy told me he had a dream last night that he was making this even though he had never done it before.  What can I say? I am making dreams come true for these kids ;)

Today, I had to call home for two fourth grader girls that chose to paint on each other.  We have talked about safety and respecting materials. As I introduced the projects we talked about the proper way to use the paint and what I expected as the students worked. Nonetheless, about half way through I turned to see the girls painting on each other with black tempera. The parents were supportive and thanks me for calling. I have to admit, I was a little nervous about it. I planned out bullet points of what I wanted to says before I called. I know-what a first year thing to do!!

I also had my first picture day as a teacher. I was the first in the school to get my picture today. Super cool. 

 

Looking back on Week One

I have been to 3 of my 5 schools in the first four days. My classrooms are slowly becoming  places where I feel my teaching can flourish, with the cooperation of hundreds of students of course. I literally have around one-hundred different  kids every day of the week! Learning names is overwhelming, although important in gaining control with the students. 

One teacher left me butter cookies in my mailbox this week with a little welcome note! Several teachers have stopped in my room at the end of the day to see how things are going for me. 

Fridays, I will am in a small school hidden in the "hills and hallars" of the country side, with one section of each grade. The building is new-this is the second year in it. The art room is really nice with tons of storage and vaulted ceilings!  Friday classes tend to be more chaotic and louder and that proved to be true this past week! There is a different dynamic to the country school that I am sure will prove to be interesting as the year chugs on!

Day Two

I had my 5th graders & 2nd graders today. Fun groups! 

Quote of the day:

As I was going over procedures and differences in the art room, a 2nd grade boy blurted out, "I can tell, you're popular. Aren't you?" 

I asked, "what would make you say that?"

 Boy, "I can just tell. I know you are popular. You sound popular!" 

I said, "maybe I sound different because I lived in Michigan for 10 years."  He assured me that was not why.  Throughout the rest of the day he told me several more times that he could tell that I was popular. 

What does this say about my teacher voice?

Day One

The first day was exciting for me and the kids! They were thrilled to see a new art teacher. 

After a brief introduction, we talked about procedures and made name plates for portfolio envelopes (which will be used all year.) 

I had three sections of 1st graders and 2 sections of 4th graders today.  I had a class of first graders bow to me to show their gratitude. One little boy told be his papaw died and at the end of the day a little girl was crying before she even saw me because she didn't want to go to art. Perhaps, It was her nap time. The last group seemed ...well silly! They were just not conditioned to making it through the full day in school!! They had a blast-lots of laughers in that class! I had to think quickly to keep their attention. They WILL have a seating chart net week. The "cryer" only cried 3 times in the hour! This will be an interesting group to watch grow!

179 days left.

Quote of the day:

1st grade teacher says to class, "Lets see what tricks Ms. Cox has up her sleeve today!" 

1st grade boy stands and looks at me. Then he says "not much, her sleeves are too short!"

Teacher in Service

The day before the students start, us teachers started the day with building wide meetings. It was nice to meet everyone at my Tues, Weds, & .5 Thursday school (my "home" school.) However, I was unable to attend meetings at the other four schools. I got loads of informative papers; emergency plans, schedules, class lists, etc. After the meeting, I mingled with other staff members and worked in my room before going to lunch with six other teachers. When we got back I went to a district wide art teacher meeting. It was nice to finally be with all the art teachers, eight total for elementary and middle school! Our art advisor had all sorts of goods for us to bring back into our classrooms, including digital visuals and huge portfolios for storage purposes! I wrapped up my first official day as a professional by going to my Monday afternoon classroom with the teacher I share the space with and I finally, went back to my "home" school to wrap up loose ends before the students come tomorrow!  

Getting ready!

Getting familiar and organized in 5 different schools has been quite the challenge! 

Six days after I got back from the U.K., I started with a new teacher orientation meeting.  Seven total new teacher, the superintendent and the assistant superintendent had a day off meetings and a lunch buffet at the Golden Coral. 

Then I starting working on getting all the little things  like my staff email and building and classroom keys. Next I started going to all the buildings and introducing myself to principals, secretaries, custodial staff and teachers. I am the only art teacher at two buildings so I spent most of my times organizing and familiarizing in those rooms. Some of the art materials I have discovered from the deep dark cabinets of my art rooms are unbelievable-I swear some of the powder paints are older than my parents! Maybe they would be worth something on ebay or better yet, the Antiques Road Show! 

A specials thank you to my wonderful helpers-Ashley, Katie and Mom!!  

Why do I have a blog about my teaching?

I spent 3 weeks this summer in Plymouth, England in a study abroad program called Learning, Technology & Culture. You may be thinking, "What does that mean?" and "so what?" Well, the experience was amazing!  My eyes were opened to many new ways of teaching with technology.  I was also able to compare many cultural differences between the Brits and Americans. Specifically, the differences in the British schools and what I have experienced and observed of public schools in the U.S. was quite interesting! The study abroad program required that we blog about our experiences while in the United Kingdom. 

I want to use this blog as a tool to share information with my colleagues, friends & family. I would love to have comments & suggestions from all of you throughout my blog!! With your help, this can be an additional form of professional development for me as I start off my teaching career traveling among 5 different schools! Although it sound overwhelming, I think this year ahead of me has the potential to be a fabulous learning and growing experience for me!