So much for student teaching...

I was intending to keep this blog updated for ST2 but it was too stressful. Haha. The good news is...
Why not wear an academic hood on your head if it's called it a hood anyway? Bye bye, PBU days. I now have B.S. Bible and Master's in Education......and no job. Congratulations to me. Hahahaha

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!