Etch 'n Sketch Reflections

When I think back to my years in 3rd grade, one occasional writing activity we would do was to write acrostic poems. Seeing as how this is Thanksgiving, the day dedicated to paying extra attention to what we are thankful for, I thought I would write an acrostic poem. The Office--I just finished the series today, and I am thankful for the hours of laughter! Holidays--having these days to surround myself with family and relaxation. Awesome colleagues--they have really helped my transition to 5th grade. New podcast episodes--they help to keep my before and after school commute enjoyable. Kindness--it goes such a long way. Friends--especially on dart night! Unbelievable students--they keep me on my toes! Love from my family--on the hard days, I know they are there for me! New school years--they are always full of excitement and new opportunities. Every student (yes, even the challenging ones)--they offer me the chance to get better at what I do. School--I love my job! Saturday...

I am feeling like this was the theme for this week, and I am defining as "teacher exhaustion due to student-friendship stress disorder." Common symptoms of student-friendship stress disorder are uncontrollable crying, irrational jumping to conclusions, and sudden unwillingness to talk to a friend about what is bothering you. Student-friendship stress disorder typically occurs due to a lack of empathy between friends, a reliance on a signal friend for all of your attention, or jealousy when a friend's circle of friendship begins to grow. Case Study 1: Student A is crying in class. Student B rushes over to console student A and to ask what is wrong. Student A does not respond. The case study manager, CSM, (also known as "teacher") intervenes and offers student A the opportunity to take a break for a moment to discuss the matter. Student A does not wish to discuss the matter but takes a break to remove attention from herself. After a short while, the CSM finds an ...

Wrapping up the first quarter also meant wrapping up the first unit on ecosystems. Our unit for the second quarter deals with the Earth's 4 spheres: the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. The geosphere relates to the earth (soil, rocks, minerals, etc.), the biosphere is made up of all living things, hydrosphere is all the water, and the atmosphere is all things air. We are learning about how all 4 spheres work together in order to make Earth the wonderful place that it is, and we are investigating the different ways that the spheres interact. It will be nice because our first unit on ecosystems will provide the students with a lot of background knowledge for the biosphere studies of the unit. I've got a great set of short, engaging YouTube videos from the Crash Course Kids series that really help provide the students with a solid base of the concepts, and then we will be working on some projects related to each sphere. Throw in some occasional Kahoots and Quizle...

Just like that, the first quarter of school is done. It also brought about the end of our ecosystem unit. On top of it all, it was a very long week! I have been fighting a cold all week, so that is going to lead me to a rather abbreviated blog post for this week. Here goes! Monday: Students created and played review games to study for the ecosystem test! Students also began to take home the eco-columns. Tuesday: As a class, we completed a study guide, and students played review games with new groups (to test out the different games :-) Wednesday: Another round with the study guide to close up any misunderstandings/answer questions from the students and another round of review games; grades posted in the grade book for quarter reports. Today: TEST DAY! I haven't graded them yet, but from just working my way around the classroom during the test it looks like they did well. FUN TIP! If you type up your own tests, insert the students' names into the test, such as "________...