Fifth Grade

I remember being in fifth grade. My teacher was Mrs. Mayo. I don't remember much about fifth grade- it wasn't one of my favorite years. Mrs. Mayo and I didn't get along- I was a Chatty Kathy (go figure) and I was trying out my independence by not wearing barrettes in my hair as I was growing it out and she didn't try to make a relationship with me. My mom tells stories of Mrs. Mayo calling her and basically tattling on me that I was talking too much or not wearing the clips in my hair. Now, don't get me wrong- my mom would back up any teacher. She knew I was FAR from perfect and that I could be a "sassy-mo-massy". When Mrs. Mayo called, it was as if she wanted my mom to do something about it when she hadn't even talked to me about it. She didn't want to be the one to give the consequence. Like she didn't want to be the bad guy. It was kind of weird, actually. Finally my mom said to her, "Tell her to stop talking! Give her a consequence! We'll back you, but I can only do so much from my end!" I honestly can't remember Mrs. Mayo ever talking to me about it, but I sure do remember getting talked to by Mr. Pence (the other fifth grade teacher) because I had been swearing on the playground and someone told on me. I know. Swearing at 10. Not so cool.

I wish that I had the experience that I am trying to give my kids in fifth grade. I think they are the funniest, most loving, and great group of kids. All 90 of them. They work hard (well, most of them), the respect each other for the most part and I feel like I have a good relationship with the lot of them. It's a pretty big responsibility to spend the amount of time I do with someone else's children. They are in my care more than their parents' care during the school year. Plus, if you want to add all the state requirements that they have to learn for middle school... sheesh. It's kind of a big responsibility. But I love them.

Today, in my third block science class, the kids were working on their processing page that comes at the end of each lesson. The Processing page is kind of like a quiz along the way to make sure they are on track for learning the concepts as we go through the unit. I have the kids come up for me to check them individually so that I can make corrections with them right away to keep them all on track.

The second part of the page was asking about the weather that was happening right then and which of Earth's systems were interacting to make that weather. One of my sweetest girls in that class came up to share her work with me and had written that "the hydrosphere and atmosphere were interacting. The warm air rises and then cools which causes perspiration so that it makes clouds and possibly rain." I giggled when I read it and asked her if she meant condensation. "Oh, yes, she said. But, what's perspiration?" This made me giggle more. When I told her what perspiration was, she was completely grossed out and wanted to change the word immediately.

I am so looking forward to camp. I can't wait to see them in that setting. They are so excited!

It's Almost Break TIme

No- Not break dancing. Not Hammer time. Break time. Yes. That lovely week in February that we call Mid-Winter Break. It's a wonderful break after six weeks of dark, rainy, sleepy days. I'm not planning on going anywhere. The Fast One may take some time off, but it depends on whether the units get running or not. Whether or not he does get time off, I'm still going to enjoy the days. A little more sleep. A little less stress. And a few days just for me.