moment of tears and affirmation....

Today was our first day back after Thanksgiving break (up here hunting starts on Monday, yep it's that important we get a day off...but who's complaining:) Returning from a relaxing break is always a hard thing for me to get back up to speed, especially morning routines! It always seems like I need just 10 more minutes..so as I am gathering my attendance cards and finding the lunch count menu a student comes up to me and hands me something, saying "I made this for you."  I quickly glance down at what's in my hand and see that it is a handmade card, taking a double look at the detail that this girl has put into this card ( I mean Hallmark worthy) On the front it said "Remember in grade school when you found out it was pizza day and you got all excited"....(inside) "well that's what it's like having a teacher like you everyday."  BLEW...ME...AWAY! I had to stop to gain my composure as tears came to my eyes.

To say that I have not had my doubts about my profession is an understatement, there's no rule book to teaching, no constant as to what will work and what won't from year to year, even day to day...I have often thoughts about am I even making a difference or am I totally wasting a whole year of these students lives.  Not to mention the less then favorable point of view most society members have of our profession, along with the ridiculous expectations of the state tests.

But one, just one simple act like this brings me back to why I do what I do and that what I do is good enough...I'm not sure if this girl knows how much that card truly means or how often I will view it for affirmation, but she made not only may day today, but many more to come.  These are the momenti di's I look for.

hero's journey..

During our third unit in Language Arts we work with the concept of "Hero's Now and Then" our writing is about fictional hero's and hero's in our life, and we read about real life hero's.  A new concept that is introduced in fifth grade is that of the hero's journey.  Where the main character goes out into the world, faces a challenge, resolves the challenge, and returns home changed.  Because it is new I start with a project using a picture book to detail a hero's journey.  To model I use the book "Where the Wild Things Are" this idea was given to me by our curriculum department, but do not know the resource they used.  I read the book to the students and then describe the five parts we will be working with, giving examples from the book.  Here is how I complete the Hero's Journey:

Main Character: Max

Goes Out Into the World: Max sails to the place where the wild things are

Faces Challenges:  1. The wild things roar their terrible roars, gnash their terrible teeth

                                       2.  Max starts missing home

Resolves Challenges: 1.  Max tells the wild things to "BE STILL" and becomes kings of all wild things

       2. Max sail back home

Returns Home Changed: Max realize that no matter how mad, angry, or upset he may get home is love and he is loved.

Students this year have done an amazing job with this project! A few examples below.

my day in history...

This is a social studies project that I created last year.  As with many concepts/ideas in content areas, curriculums seem to overlap from grade to grade...causing students to do many of the same projects throughout grade school.  Prime example the timeline.  My first two years teaching social studies I had students create a personal timeline of events that happened in their life, using pictures and graphics to display their events.  I thought they turned out great..so fun to see pictures of the students in events that impacted their life, until year 2 when I walked down the hallway and saw the same project next to the third grade doors.  Because timelines were in their curriculum as well and personal timelines seemed like a great project for them.  Knowing that I would be getting those students in two years I decided I needed to change up the project.  Timelines and chronology are a big part of the first unit in social studies so I didn't want to give up a project to extend the learning....and then this idea hit me. I had be in charge of producing the students news while I was the gifted support teacher and would give a day in history fact for each newscast, so I took this idea and correlated it to the chronological order study.  

Students research their birthday on the sites history.com and on-this-day.com.  I have them select four events which happened on their birthday that interest them to further research (to provide a detailed description of the event) and find a picture for that event.  As a model I created one myself and found it so interesting.  Students have to put the events in chronological order and they add their birthday as the fifth event, with a picture of them as a baby.  Still get the personal connection, still working with chronology, and now includes research skills and summarization skills.  Although, I do not always get the quality I expect, it lets me know that I need to do a little more on my part with a new rubric and some kind of graphic organizer to ensure my expectations are achieved.  This year I put their "Day's in History" in chronological order, which was neat to see who was the oldest to youngest in the class. (also helped with remembering birthdays!) 

                   

(A few examples of the more creative projects) 

microwhat....

since the fifth grade is one round I now teach ALL subjects...when I had a partner I taught social studies for my three years and she took science, and so I have entered the task teaching science.  I am finding it quite fun, but still getting used to the curriculum day by day.  The unit I am teaching now is on microscope use and care.  One of the first lessons is learning all the parts of a microscope and their functions.  I couldn't help but notice that a lot of the parts were named after human anatomy (eyepiece, body tube, arms, legs...) so while the students were studying for the microscope parts quiz I had them create characters out of a faint microscope outline, labeling the parts.  And I have to say my kids were pretty creative (the ones below are of a giraffe, school of fish, dancing turkey, anteater, and a squirrel) I love when new ideas work out better then planned!

it has expanded...

and the 'got book' graffiti wall has expanded! super cool to see that my kids have embraced it, along with reading all of these books.  down side is the new one is half way filled and the first quarter has just ended?? not sure where to do next...good problems though :)