What an end-of-the-week and weekend it has been! My plan was to post before I left school on Friday, but my blog was blocked on my school computer (how rude!). You would have thought that I would have tested getting onto my blog at school before (or at least considered the option that a blog might be blocked on county-owned computers), but it was news to me. Now after being out of town for the weekend, whipping up some lesson plans for the week, and catching up on today's football, I am finally sitting down for an update :) I love getting to add to this blog, y'all. Being able to share the excitement, frustrations, revelations, humor, and everything-in-between that happens in Room 106 is truly a joy and a stress-reliever for me!
While at JMU this weekend, my heart was exploding for many reasons (seeing old friends, going to a football game in our new stadium, hanging out at old hang-outs) but a comment that I heard from a few friends was, "I love reading your updates on your blog!" Friends that shared this with me: THANK YOU. These daily updates (or semi-daily at times . . . ) help me and unwind and think about my day and my kiddos and my teaching and my school, but to hear that others are enjoying and living my journey with me was so humbling. For you, I will try to keep my posting happening on a regular basis! Again, thank you.
Some highlights from last week before we kick off week FIVE! (Ohmygoodness--it's already the fifth week of school?!?!?)
On Thursday we were paying a game in math called "Roll and Record." This game was focused mostly on working on counting and counting-on skills, but I've learned that any time you tell a first grader that they get to play a "game," they get so excited, and completely forget that it might have any educational value. So, I get to sit back (well, not realllly sit back!) and watch them play, and chuckle to myself that they don't even realize that they are learning. Tricky, I know, but you've gotta do what you've gotta do!
Anyway, my kiddos were filling out a chart of all the numbers that they rolled; they were rolling two dice at a time. While explaining the game and showing the class the chart we were filling in, I asked at one point: "can anyone tell me why the numbers on this graph only go from two to twelve?" I showed them one of the dice and said, "I see one dot here--a "1"--but that's not an option on my graph. Hmmmm. Why does my graph start at two and not one?" One of my students' hand shot up, and she literally led the class through her reasoning of why there wasn't a one on the graph--because you can't roll just a one when there are two dice and the smallest number on both are ones. Y'all, she explained it more perfectly than I could have ever done it, in perfect first-grade-language. I was so proud--no joke, even after school, I was walking through the halls with a smile on my face. Don't underestimate what a six-year-old mind can come up with!
Another thing to giggle at: When I erase things on the SMARTBoard, I pick up the eraser, draw a big circle around everything that I want to erase, and then tap in the middle of the circle and all that I wanted to erase disappears. This is not something that I invented, it is a shortcut on any SMARTBoard, but the kiddos get such a kick out of it. I tell them I have "magic fingers," and they believe me! The other day during one of my reading groups, I had asked the students sitting around my horseshoe table to write a few of our sight words down, and after I heard them repeat all of them and trace the letters they wrote with their fingers, I asked them to please erase their boards. I looked over at one of my kiddos as he was erasing, and, low-and-behold, he took is eraser, drew a circle around the edge of his whiteboard, and then tapped the middle. When this didn't erase the words, he looked up at me and said, "gosh, Ms. W, it didn't work . . . I guess you really do have magic fingers!" Kids say the most precious things.
But, this one really tops it off! On Friday, a student was at my desk, and it was looking at a picture of my family that I have framed on my desk. My kiddos know that I have a mom, dad, and brother because I talk about them, and they've seen the picture because I shared it as part of my "me" bag on the first day of school. But this kiddos must've forgotten seeing it because he said to me, "Oh, man, Ms. W, can you believe you have a family?!? I thought all this time that you lived in a hotel!" Apparently now teachers don't live at school under their desks, but at hotels. Oh, the life of luxury . . .
Whew! I promise to be better at posting this week :) Happy October, everyone!
Love from Room 106,
Allie
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