E-mail Visits - Best Christmas Present Ever!

The one thing I LOVE about teaching is the fact that I get to see my past students when they visit and update me about their current lives and/or reminisce about the year we had together.  It's always amazing to hear about what it is they remember.  Since I moved schools AND states, I was saddened that I wouldn't see some of my past students.  However, I did give them my personal email to stay in touch.  I have received email updates from the kids here and there, but I just got a couple of emails this week that did just the trick.  Here are just a couple of highlights:

"I really miss you! I have been thinking about fifth grade recently because I miss it. That year was so much fun. I still remember all the funny times, our jobs and economy system!  I also remember on April fools day when all the students switched seats and you only spoke in Vietnamese all day! Another time was when you pretended some one took your Elmo and you left all these clues so we could figure out who it was."

"Thank you so much for making us do those essays every week. They made me a much better writer and I benefitted a lot off of them. "

"When ever I hear Bruno Mars "Just the Way You Are" on the radio, it makes me think of you. And then I get sad. But, you're expecting a baby boy???? Congratulations! What are you going to name it? I hope you send us pictures!!! :) We miss you loads, and we can't wait to see you again. Thanks for being amazing just the way you are!!!"


I must say it has made ending the teaching week before the holidays extremely rewarding.  By the way, that last comment about the Bruno Mars song was because they kids rewrote that song to fit our class and sang it to me for teacher appreciation day.  This is why I do what I do, no matter how stressful or tiring.  It's also a good reminder for me to stay on track with my personal teaching philosophies and hold my ground when it comes to why I do certain things that kids may think are "hard."  There are always underlying life lessons (as well as academic) that can be taken from those moments.  I really do enjoy my job.  :) Happy holidays!!!

Long Term Planning

The ability to long term plan for things is a LIFE skill I feel is extremely important for students to learn. Students need to balance school, chores, play, and family... just like the adults in their lives do daily.  This is the main reason most of the homework I assign is due weekly or monthly. If paced well, it won't feel like a ton of work at all.  The pacing of the weekly assignments are not always so difficult.  It's usually the month long projects, like book reports, that really get kids procrastinating.  Look, I've done it too!  Been there, done that.  Students do learn from their consequences when they wait until the last minute, but then need guidance on how to plan long term assignments.  It's not a skill that comes easily or one that's easy to teach (since I am not reinforcing this with them at home).  As we teachers know, no matter how much you communicate with students' families, there are some who can't help certain home situations.

When any major assignment has been given, we take time out of our day to long term plan.  We basically work backwards looking at the end result, figuring out what to do each week, and then each day:

Baby Registries, Questions, & Discoveries, Oh My!!!

Registries
So my doctor recommended that if we were going to spend time reading books while pregnant that we should read what to do directly after pregnancy, when you're mostly on your own.  Here's the book she recommended.  I haven't finished it yet, but recently read the section about what to buy for baby.