I love hearing children sing...

These are from chapel one day... it was Hat, Hair, Face Day during Spirit Week, so please excuse the outfits. Haha.











The following video is an added bonus... special message to Andy from special people who watched his "break dancing" video too many times

And then it was over...

I guess you might be wondering where I went. The last post was on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday went by smoothly. Oh, and PS... Ivan wrote his German phonetically so apparently he wrote that The Duke is a good friend or something along those lines. Whatever it was, it was positive. Haha.

I don't remember anything too significant happening on Wednesday. The kids got more dots which was great because they kinda failed at the dots on Tuesday. I tried to get them to evaluate my teaching, but they were mostly funny and not very helpful. Oh well.. some of them liked how I taught them math. HAHA. Dr. Mac, if you're reading this, I have proof -- they wrote it in their goodbye cards! The only other thing was an awkward conversation with 3rd grade when they asked me if I had a boyfriend and one kid told me to Skype him when I get married (he also yelled that request across the parking lot).

Thursday was the field trip. We had a good time... I took a ton of pictures but I'm too lazy to reduce them and upload them. Haha. One of the kids brought brownies -- very yummy. :) Nobody got eaten by crocodiles, so it was a pretty uneventful trip. Haha.

After getting back, I got kicked out of the room so the kids could write farewell letters. After their 2 specials at the end of the day, we had a little party. They gave me cards, we had some brownies, and we played a funny game called "Hovering Bunnies." I'll try to post a video if I remember to reduce it sometime.

We left on Friday... I had to pry Ivan the Terrible off of me because he kept hanging on to me. He can be so cute. He didn't want me to leave. Actually, I had several "attachments" when I was trying to leave the school. Funny kids. We got back to Manila with our very overweight baggage, but we survived.

Saturday we went to Corregidor with Eunice. We had a nice sunny day.. took lots of pics... got annoyed at a couple who were always first off the bus and planted right in front of whatever we were supposed to be looking at. They took a million pictures at each spot. Weird. I doubt they heard a word of the tour... they were probably planning their next photo op.

Sunday night people came over after church. That was fun! We had a good time fellowshipping and eating food. :) Monday morning was our flight. We made it in around 8:30 last night. I slept pretty much the whole way. Also, I lost my cellphone charger. It was at Jenn's house when I left but now I don't have it so it went missing somewhere between here and the Philippines. Hmph. I guess I'll have to find a new one. My phone is useless, so if you were intending to call me, don't bother. I won't get it. Haha.

I'm at PBU right now. I spent the day running all over the place. I bought some books at the children's booksale! I got some good ones! :) Then I finished putting together my student teaching notebook and gave it to Dr. Severns. I can't believe it's all over! There was another girl going to meet Dr. S. to ask about overseas student teaching. :)

Anyway, I'm tired so I need to figure out how to keep myself awake.

Those who try to get away with using another language...

...don't realize that there are online translators.

Today, dearest Ivan the Terrible was working on his vocabulary sheet in their leveled reading groups. Let it be known that he cannot get along with the Duchess Whines Too Much and the Duke of Earl-y To Finish. Anyway, he had a question on his vocabulary sheet and handed me his paper. My eyes traveled down to the bottom where I saw two sentences:
"The Duke of Earl-y to Finish ist dum!" (except he used the duke's real name)
"The duke ist gans gut und ich mak ien."

I used Babel Fish to translate it and I couldn't figure out what the last two words were, but the second sentence said something about being a silly goose and I "mak ien." We had gone through a whole chart on what good group work looks like and sounds like and one of those had to do with kind words. I pointed to "ist dum" and asked him if those were kind words. His excuse? "Well 'ist' isn't really the same as 'is.' It means kinda dumb but not really." Of course, the easily amused one had to slap her hand across her mouth and she snickered. I mean really... I don't even speak German, but how dumb does he think I am? I need to stop laughing. I recovered quickly and told him that wasn't nice and the second paper he turned in said "The duke is cool!"

Yesterday was a bad day for dots on the sticky notes. The fair Princess Talks-A-Lot, who should be re-named the Princess Dream Student, got a prize for the 3rd day in a row. She tied with one of the other boys today, though. Yesterday people got 3 dots at most. Today the two winners had 8, four had 7, and two had 5. The ones with 5 were the Duchess Whines-Too-Much and Ivan the Terrible. The Duke really improved in his ability to work in a group which gave him mega points during social studies. He worked with Prince Ants in the Pants and was very helpful, patiently waiting for him, highlighting the words on the computer that he needed. I was sooo proud of him and praised him several times. I even told him at the end of the day that even though he didn't get a prize, he was close and had earned 3 just for being such a good helper in social studies. He beamed and said, "Oh thank you!!!"

I taught math today and got observed. At the beginning of the morning, I told my class that a visitor would sit in on one of their classes. The Duchess Whines Too Much very obnoxiously said, "Why????" I said, "So she can see if you're well behaved." She got a glint in her eyes and said, "I know! It's to see how YOU teach." I said, "Yes, and to watch how you guys behave." She folded her arms and said, "How come WE have to be involved?" Wow... strike 100. Then in social studies, the kids were doing a webquest and were on a challenge section asking them to figure out how many double decker buses could be stacked together to find the height of the Great Pyramid. I didn't have a chance to play with it much before class, so I said I hadn't figured it out. The Duchess said, "So if we figure it out, we're smarter than you!" One of them did figure it out and she said, "Miss Hofmaier, he's smarter than you!!!" Wow. Obnoxious points.

I can't believe tomorrow is my last day teaching. I'm finally getting into the swing of things and I'm learning more about classroom management. However, I'm looking forward to my next placement as well.

The kids hugged or gave me a high five as they left. I found my feet a couple inches off the ground when the dear Prince Ants in the Pants left. Ivan gave me a very nice hug though. Cutie.

Sometimes I need to stop laughing....

When the teacher is laughing, there isn't much hope for order in the classroom. I laughed several times at the kids when I should probably have kept a straight face and restored order. Ivan the Terrible didn't know his verse and was "innocently" saying that we didn't have a verse this week. His eyes widened and he looked so funny trying to play dumb that I accidentally laughed and then he laughed too. Oops.

Later on, we were singing the 12 apostles song to the tune of "Jesus Loves Me" and we got to the part "Yes, Jesus called them, yes Jesus called them..." and it was too high for one of the boys. His voice squeaked and I covered my face with papers and then gave up and just started laughing. Ivan couldn't stop giggling for the longest time after that.

When we were lined up to go out to lunch, Ivan was taking forever to come back from the bathroom. We prayed without him and he made his grand entrance at the very end. Everyone else left and I kept him behind to ask him what happened (he tends to goof off in the bathroom -- he usually scares the other boys or splashes water around). He said that one of the boys was trying to throw the soap at the ceiling. I said "Well why did it take you so long?" He looked at me and announced very loudly, "Well I had to pee!!!" and I lost it. I sent him out of the room right away because I was cracking up. Maybe I just have a warped sense of humor.

Last Friday, Prince Ants in the Pants hugged me and picked me off my feet in the process. Apparently that has set a precedence for the other boys to try it. (He ran out the door and announced to Janine, "I can pick up Miss Hofmaier!") Apparently he can pick up the 2nd grade teacher too. Anyway, he tried it again today but I was ready for him but then Ivan decided he'd try it. Ivan is short and skinny and not very strong. He wrapped his arms around my waist and then couldn't do anything. The other Colombian boy tried several times because he couldn't let his fellow countryman, Prince Ants, beat him. He failed. Silly boys.

I'd just like to say that Princess Talks-A-Lot has really toned down on the unnecessary comments. She's really a sweet child and the dream child for teachers. She is so nice to everyone, works well in groups, and does what is expected of her. She's so cute.

The pros and cons of Spirit Week

Some of the teachers, particularly the 1st and 2nd grade teachers, get really into Spirit Week. They've had quite the outfits lately. The 1st grade teacher dressed up as Raggedy Ann. It's fun seeing some of the outfits that kids come up with but the problem is that the kids are all wired and classroom control is a bit of a nightmare!

I have been teaching every subject all week and it's been really good. I've been learning much more about classroom management because Janine isn't in the room much. I've had issues with kids just going crazy and we're having a hard time getting things done. However, it's been pushing me to be more firm about things.

Ivan the Terrible has been having a lot of difficulties lately. He is a really emotionally needy child and my heart breaks for him. He doesn't seem to have all that much parental involvement at home and this morning he had a run-in with his older sister. I don't know what the conversation was about since it was in German but both of them didn't seem too happy with each other. Ivan tends to act out for attention. He's seems older than he really is because he hides his feelings a lot. I think he could be a really neat kid if he had more love and attention. Sometimes he says something funny and I laugh, sharing in with his little joke. He gets a surprised look on his face and then his eyes widen and he breaks out into a huge grin and laughs too. It's really cute. I really do like him, even though he's very trying. I wish there was more I can do for him, but right now it's just love, firmness, and prayer. A couple times he has wrapped his arms around me and given me a big hug at the end of the day.

Wow...

This was the first day of dressing up for Spirit Week. It was team color day. I'll upload a few pictures later. It was also one of the WORST days yet for behavior issues. The kids could not focus and they needed their hands held for every single assignment. They stopped thinking and would just wave their hand around and point to something and go "I don't get it." It was beyond frustrating. They were bothering both of us for stuff that they could do on their own if they tried. We didn't even do language arts in the morning because they were all not focusing. I decided to switch to social studies for the hour and a half before lunch and it worked REALLY well. They settled down and were very interested.

This is the first time I've attempted to do centers. I thought it would be chaos, but it wasn't so bad. I've been figuring out how to be more firm and expect more from the kids. I tell them something and I expect them to obey. I think they're beginning to realize that I mean business and they are cooperating. We studied mummies today. I started it off by calling 3 people up and telling them to tilt back their heads so I could remove their brains out through their nostrils. They were a little horrified and then laughed and then order was restored and we began.

First, we talked about death from a Biblical perspective. They said that when people die, they go to Heaven or Hell. I asked "What people go to Heaven?" Princess Talks-A-Lot said, "People who trust in Jesus to save them." I was in the middle of saying yes when Prince Ants-in-the-Pants said, "Yes, and if you do really good things." Screeching brakes. We stopped right there and discussed salvation, grace, and good works. (We were talking about grace in Bible too) He comes from a Roman Catholic background of some sorts, so it wasn't too surprising, but I thought he would have known by now. Then one of the boys said that if you disobey the 10 commandments, you lose jewels in Heaven. Theology issues. It turned into a mini-theology lesson.

I had set up 4 centers around the room. I changed up the pairs because Ivan the Terrible hasn't been working well with his current partner. I had forgotten how well Ivan works with the talkative Princess but I was so proud of them at the end of the lesson. I praised both of them and pointed out the good things they did during the lesson, because the other groups tended to be high maintenance and incapable of working together (except Prince Ants-in-the-Pants did pretty well with his partner). Anyway... that was a rabbit trail.

The first center was an audio book. They sat at my computer and listened to a book and followed along in their own book. That was nice because they didn't have to write anything and all I had to do was press play. (They used earphones.)

The second center was the chicken leg. They got to feel the chicken leg that we're now drying out with salt and then they had to wash their hands, come back, and read a book that talks about mummification. They had to sequence the steps of mummification.

The third center was another book called See-Through Mummies. They had to answer a few questions as well. (By the way, they were each given a "Passport to the Land of Mummies" with specific questions to answer as they went through all 4 centers... except the audio one).

The fourth center was on the classroom computer. They explored a website called "Clickable Mummy" and had to find out how they mummified certain parts of the body and various other things. We had a slight crisis when Prince Ants-in-the-Pants kicked the powerbox and turned the whole computer off. It took a couple restarts to get it back up and running. Thankfully I had a back-up book for them to find the answers they needed. The next pair that came to the center was able to go across the way to the computer lab (no class in there thankfully!). While they were at that center, the computer finally came up and I was able to set it up so that the next rotating group didn't have to go outside.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun. We're going to close the lesson with some discussion and clarification since some of them didn't really read well and missed some questions. Then they're going to do a think and respond about how the Egyptian idea of mummification and what God says about death.

At lunch, they played a crazy game called "Cross the River." (They play games at lunch for Spirit Week). They had to carry their entire team over the river one by one. It was pretty funny to watch. I have some pictures and videos.

After PE, they came back less wired (amazingly enough) and I was able to get through language arts. It was a very trying day, but after social studies, things improved. Whew!

Weekend fun

Jenn said my blog makes it look like I never have any fun, so I decided to write a quick update about what we did yesterday. If you really want to know all the details, ask Jenn. She documents my life outside of 3rd grade. (Well, her life... but I'm in it)

Ok, so I am frustrated with the lack of being able to Google directions to places I want to go, so I'll put them up here in case anyone happens to Google "How to get to Samal Island." If you're by Marfori Heights, you can get any jeep to around Marco Polo or Aldevinco (7 pesos) and you get off and find a jeep somewhere around there that is heading to Sasa. I saw there were different signs for Sasa, but I just picked one and it worked. You can take it out to the Sasa Wharf or the ferry (which I forget the name) and that's 13 or 14 pesos (I forget). If you catch the ferry in time, which we did by 2 seconds, you can take that across and it's 10 pesos. Then you can get a motorcycle and hope they don't overcharge you. I think we might have gotten overcharged, but it worked out well because 1) the guy was a safe driver and 2) he waited for us when we stopped by the Hagimit Falls for an hour before going to Maxima. He charged us 75 pesos one way (and it was pretty far down the island from the ferry dock).

By the way, the motorcycle guy was really nice. I know that you have to be careful with the motorcycle guys, but this one wasn't young but was pretty old... around 25. JUST KIDDING! (That was for you, Peel) Anyway, he wasn't a young teenager... probably in his late 40's or possibly his early 50s but that might be pushing it. I was glad he took us, not the other young guys hanging around at the dock.

Anyway, the guy told us that Hagimit Falls was on the way, so we stopped there first. One website I looked up said the entrance fee was 5 pesos, but they upped it to 20 because they started putting in tables and chairs and stuff. Anyway, not bad. So we went down and surprise! The Farlins were there because Angela had a birthday this weekend and they were celebrating with some of her friends and a couple other people from school or SIL. Mrs. Farlin took us up the rocks so we could jump off the waterfalls into the pools below. That was fun! I had visions of Daranak Falls, aka Beka Falls (according to Joash) and broken bones resulting from floating down the rapids. Well nothing of the sort happened, thankfully.

After we left Hagimit, we went to Maxima Aqua Fun. It's owned by the same people who own Crocodile Park. Anyway, it's still fairly rustic, other than the tarp water slide and the clean bathrooms. It's not very big, not very commercialized, and pretty nice. I liked it better than Paradise (a beach resort on the same island). We were there for a little over 2 hours. We got fresh buko afterwards. Mmmm. At the same place, there was a huge hanging bridge called "The Canopy" but you had to be strapped into a safety harness and wear a helmet and I thought it looked a little silly, so we didn't do it. I don't think the helmet was all that necessary. Someone was walking across and she was creeping like a baby. Oh come on. It wasn't THAT scary.

The same motorcycle dude took us back but I asked him to take us to the bangka (small boats) because I knew the ferry was on a schedule. The bangkas go regularly. We got on one just as it began to rain. Hooray! The bangka at Babak takes you across to the Sasa Wharf. It's 13 pesos.

After getting to the Sasa Wharf, we had to weave ourselves through crowds of people at the fish market. I wish I liked fish because it looked fresh and good. I didn't know exactly how to get back, but we just figured it out. We crossed and I saw a sign for GMall and Bajadan which was perfect. That was 13 again. Then we ate dinner at Jollibee and I started going the wrong way to get the jeep. I realized after a few steps that it was the wrong way, so we turned and found the right direction (I knew Chinese Baptist was behind the mall so I just had to find that). Anyway, you then just take a jeep (Route 1, 10, or 13.. I think) that's going to RMC Gym/Mt Apo.

So yeah. Mom, you'd be proud of me. I spoke Tagalog, looked like an idiot, but managed to get around even though I had no clue where I was going. Sometimes........you just gotta wing it! :)

Sometimes you just gotta wing it....

So I didn't have anything really planned for language arts for today other than a spelling test and I thought the only period of language arts for today was the half hour between recess and art. Oops, there was another whole hour and a half after art that I forgot about. So I made something up on the spot and it was GREAT! The kids loved it.

I drew some random shapes on a piece of paper and photocopied it. This week of language arts focused on realism versus fantasy and the kids don't have much of an imagination and have a hard time making up something that is truly fantasy. They don't invent imaginary creatures, or think up stories with dragons and fairies and all the other fantastical things they could think of if they used their imaginations. So today I gave them the weird piece of paper and told them that they could add to the lines and draw more but they had to connect it together to make a fantasy creature. They had no idea where to start so Janine ran up and drew some random shapes on the board and I turned it into a horrible creature. Then I made the stipulation that the creature needed to be able to use the 5 senses -- therefore they had to have some way to hear, taste, touch, smell, and see. I told them that the creatures didn't need 2 eyes, one nose, one mouth -- they could have 10 eyes! They could have a crazy shaped nose! I said, "COME ON! Use your IMAGINATION!!!" Then they got going!

After they finished their creatures, I had them name them and introduce their new friend to their partner. Meanwhile, I wrote on the board:
My creature's name is _______. He lives in ____________. His favorite food is _________.
If I were to hang out with him for one day I would... (4 sentences or more)

Then they had to write all that information in their journal. Some got into it and had way more than 4 sentences about what they'd do with their creature. Ivan the Terrible complained that 4 was so long and he got sentenced to 6. Then we went to the carpet and shared our fantasy stories. It was really fun! The kids loved it and I loved getting them to actually use their imagination. They weren't allowed to look at each other's which was GREAT because the Duchess Whines-Too-Much has a bad habit of copying everything because she thinks it's better.

Next week is Spirit Week! The kids were divided up into teams and they're all pretty excited. Tuesday is team color day. I forget the other days, but one of them is pajama day and one of them is twin day. It should lend itself to lots of pictures! Haha.

The lovely creature above was created by Ivan the Terrible

Princess Talks-A-Lot made this one. Apparently the creature stuns the world by its cuteness...

Oh and this is out of order, but this is the starting paper with my random shapes

I think Oggy is my favorite

Pharaoh! Pharaoh!

Thanks to Jenn, we had a visiting Pharaoh all the way from Ancient Egypt. I got inspired to dress up like a Pharaoh right before my lesson today. I wanted the middle school social studies teacher to teach it but he was in a class. He had just been teaching about Ancient Civilizations in middle school and all the kids really like him, so it would have been fun. Since he wasn't available, I found Jenn and got her to dress up and carry around a hideous crook and flail that I had made 20 minutes before class started. Haha. The kids asked dumb questions like "Do Pharaohs wear glasses?" They have no imagination. Tsk tsk.

Ivan the Terrible did ALL of his homework today! Hooray!!! That means they got 25 kernels in their little jar. Once they fill the jar, they get a popcorn party. They haven't gotten kernels in a very long time since Ivan seldom turns in all his homework. Shame on the kid.

I should be writing lesson plans....

Just because I'm sure you'll appreciate another Ivan story, our dearest knight in very rusty armor swept in the door and gallantly announced, "I have done my homework! And I read!" Of course, the teacher and student teacher were heartened by this announcement... until one of them beheld his little reading log. Now, the dear knights and princesses and dukes and duchesses of this 3rd grade kingdom are required to read 15 minutes a night 5 days a week (plus reading time in class) for a whole month in order to get a pizza from Pizza Hut. Everyone except for Ivan got a pizza for August. Well, according to Ivan's reading log, he only read 10 minutes. Upon exploring his assignment notebook, it was discovered that the little master of deceit, Ivan the Terrible, had added next to the "15" a dash and the number 10 so that now his assignment notebook read "15-10 minutes." First of all, how dumb can you be? Normally, one would write 10-15, not 15-10. Secondly, it was so incredibly obvious that the page had been worn down in an attempt at erasing the 15. After confronting the impenitent little sinner, it was also discovered that he had written over Janine's purple ink with a thicker blue pen so that the pen would match the inserted "10." The time he took to trace over all the words could have been used to read an extra 5 minutes. He was sentenced into the dungeons of disgrace and assigned to write an apology letter, which he did, most ungraciously and without much thought. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child...

Sticks and stones will break my bones....

So today Senor Guapo raised his hand and said, "Ivan the Terrible called me a rambutan!" Senor Guapo had gotten a haircut over the weekend and yesterday he kept wearing his hood up because he was embarrassed. I looked over at Senor Guapo and had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. Rambutan was the perfect description. I told Ivan not to call him a rambutan and Ivan said, "But I LIKE rambutans. Can I call him a mango?" I had to walk away because I kept thinking about rambutans and how perfect of a description it was. Hahahahaha.