I Teach Because

The other day I started reading Teach for America blogs again.  One of them was from a kindergarten teacher who talked about the slump that she was in.  One of her students was frustrated when he couldn't draw his 3 the right way.  In her haste to help the teacher said, "It's not that you can't, you just can't YET." That's how I feel a lot of the time with my kids.  Last week one of my professors gave me some books on classroom management and a curriculum called Tribes.  It's about splitting the class into smaller groups to teach them the value of a hidden curriculum with ideas on different weekly life skills such as cooperation and responsibility.  Each day we will do a community circle with a new activity. To say I'm excited would be an understatement.  I can't wait to get back and redo my entire classroom with more kinder friendly ideas!

I titled this post for a reason so here's my recent list.

I teach because.....

these kids are lovable and capable.
these kids make everything in life seem so much better.
these kids come in barely knowing their alphabet and leave kindergarten knowing how to read.
these kids are the future of their community.

Me and some of my kids ice skating the day that I left :)

One of my kids and my favorite third grade teacher, Miss Claire, sneaking into the picture

 POTHOLDER HEADBANDS!

This is the dog that Claire and I somewhat adopted a for couple of weeks while we waited for a volunteer to take her home for Christmas.  Well, Claire kept her for most of the time and I babysat when she was otherwise occupied :)  We named her Weekend since she originally was supposed to be a weekend dog, but this puppy definitely stole our hearts along the way.

Changes at Home

The last week at home has been.....different.

Parents are going through a rough patch.  My sister is now engaged.  Yes, I'm happy for her.  But, it's not just any guy.  It's the same guy she dated for two years in high school.  It's the same guy who told my sister that I was mad at her because I "wasn't as pretty as her."  A lot happened during their relationship that caused me not to like him six years ago.  Now, he has a five year old of his own from a previous relationship.  My mom has told me that this guy has changed a lot and that I need to be nice of him.  Does she not remember six years ago when she chased him from our house?  Well, I do.  Maybe people can change.  I know that it's Christmas Eve.  While I'm grateful for a ton of stuff in my life, I'm way worried about this new change for our family.

Away from the Ridge

Blah.

I strongly dislike being away from Pine Ridge.  It feels like half of me is missing when I'm back in Indiana.  Truthfully, I miss my kids a ton.  Tomorrow I'm going into my mom's kindergarten classroom in the afternoon and talking to my dad's seventh graders in the morning.  At least I'lll be back around some students for a bit.

Picture Time!

I finally got some pictures of my students at Red Cloud :)  This one is when they each got stuffed animals.

Here they are doing some thank you notes for other donations for Christmas.

 They also each received a stuffed animal for Christmas.  Let me tell you, they have never slept that soundly during rest time :)  Precious loved her unicorn!

Cory is one of my rowdier kids, but he passed out for a solid 20 minutes that afternoon with help from his new duck.

This one is from Halloween right before we went Trick or Treating on our campus.

Potholder Headbands

One of my kids has been suspended until January.  That sums up last week.

In other news, we have only 1.5 days until we the start of Christmas Break.  I fly out on Thursday at 2.  But, that morning I'm going on the elementary fieldtrip to go ice skating with the kids.  Awesome :)  I can't wait to see my kids skating.  It will be awkward and really funny.  This whole week we're doing Christmas activities with little education value and I'm perfectly okay with that.

Lately I've been missing camp. I think it might be because I've been wearing a lot of potholder headbands.  They are slowly taking over the school.... It's time to get in my references and see what God's plans turn out to be for the summer. 

Tomorrow expect a picture of my kids in their potholder headbands.  Yes, all 20 of them are getting one.

Teachable Moments

It's now December.

Woah.

Last week flew by.  We finally had a normal week with no interruptions besides a Highway Patrol presentation on Friday.  Here is a quote that explains a lot about last week:

--This was after I had to tell the kids that I apparently had apes in my classroom instead of kindergarten students...

Student:  "Miss Abby, I know why those kids are being bad."
Me:  "Why?"
Student:  "Because they are sinners.  We are all sinners."
Apparently that's what I get for being in a Catholic school and for this student's dad being a Baptist pastor :)

My kids are hilarious.  This week I did some really random activities that turned into some awesome learning situations.  It started because I found a big bin of stuffed animals in the back room.  We used them to find lines of symmetry.  We also used these to work on our sight words by doing aerobics with the animals as we spelled out each word.  We used them to talk about finding equal shares today and sort them into matching piles.  I had no idea that you could use stuffed animals for so much. 

I love getting turning certain times into quality one on one time with the kids.  Some days we have a rest time during the afternoon.  During this half an hour span, I like to pull kids to help me do little tasks.  I usually pull out kids that are having a rough day.  Other days I pull out the kids that tend to get lost in the middle.  We stuff folders, put papers in binders, or move desks around the room.  It's fun to learn about each child even if we don't talk.  I pulled out one of my kid's, Emileigh, on Friday during rest time.  I had to put a progress reading check up in binders.  I would write the result on the check in list and then Emileigh would put them in the binder.  It was really funny because we got almost all the way through without talking and then all the sudden she let out a huge sigh.  After she sighed, Emileigh just gave me one of those, "why are you making me do this" kind of looks and finished her job.  We didn't talk at all.  I know it sounds weird but I love those kind of moments with my kids.