Sixth Grade Environmentalists

A day not to long ago I was subbing at one of my favorite schools. I like most schools but I love this one! I have been in the building three times and had a great experience each time. It is a school made up of all the fifth and sixth graders in the community. There are five K-4 schools that feed it. It has four or five different houses. The houses are housed in an atrium with fifth grade on one floor and sixth grade on the other. They remind me of smaller schools within a larger one. In my opinion this mix of students is great. I think it helps the students not grow up so quickly. (They already grow up so fast.)

On this particular day I was subbing for sixth grade. I have to admit I was extremely nervous. One of the reasons was not the fact that many of them are taller than me. I had done fifth grade and it was a breeze. So, why not try it? If the day doesn't go well, I don't have to go back. Besides, I like a challenge. Well, they were wonderful, fabulous, respectful students. We talked books and I got some good suggestions that I have written down somewhere. I got to teach science, math, and language arts. I enjoyed the day thoroughly.

At one point in the afternoon, an incident happened that made me nervous. I was supervising a study hall. I was mostly helping with math and watching the students interact. I even let them write on the white board and before I knew it half of the class was up there writing. As I was watching them interact, I discovered a note being passed around. I think they thought they were being so covert but it was completely obvious to me. This caused a tug of war going on in my head. Do I want to read it or not? I was wary of what it may say. After it got about half way around the room my curiosity was so strong I had to read it. So I bravely confiscated it and read it. It said: NO MORE HOMEWORK.....Save the Trees. I had to keep myself from chuckling because I was so relieved. I did not want to embarrass the author. I was curious if the which was more important: no homework or the trees.

I located the author and talked to him. It was a great opportunity to talk about how teachers enjoy hearing the opinions of their students. He also mentioned that he was thinking of starting a petition. My response was that should wait until tomorrow. He did not want me to tell his teacher about the note. I didn't. I just mentioned in the notes that I thought she had some budding environmentalists in her class and perhaps she should ask them about that.

A few things that I was reminded of this day were:
1. Being brave pays dividends.
2. Sometimes what you think may be a challenge turns out to be a wonderful and memorable experience but you won't know if you are not willing to try.
3. Believe the best. It is often not as bad as you think. Besides worrying about how bad it could be doesn't help you with dealing with the matter if it does turn out to be bad.
4. Smiling and saying, "Good Morning, I am glad you are here" will go a long way to show you care.
5. It is great fun to talk books with students in a casual manner. I just asked, "What are you reading?" The responses I got were marvelous.
6. Giving students a voice can be powerful.

How will I give my students a voice in my classroom? How will I remember always to believe the best?

HEY, Library Lady..........

Today, I enjoyed the thrill of getting to be a librarian for the day. I have had several people mention to me that I would be good at it. I do love books, which is an interesting comment for a former dyslexic child. I did not have the easiest time learning to read but when I did I read everything I could get my hands on. I loved the library as a child and I think the poor librarian probably knew me better than she wanted to. I know I could do it and do it well. But I am sure I would miss the regular classroom too much.

I had a fabulous day in the library! I got to talk books, re-shelve books, discuss an author visit, talk about the internet and get an idea of what students are reading. A day all about books is a wonderful day indeed!

Here are a few books that the students shared with me:




The only one I have read personally is A Wrinkle in Time. I loved it when I read it. I put Princess Academy and Bella at Midnight on here because they looked good. Follow My Leader was recommended by a 5th grader. He said that it was his second time reading it. Any book a student will read twice is worth reading, in my opinion. The Invention of Hugo Cabret looks interesting. I read a few reviews on Shefari about it. They mentioned that it was thick but a fairly quick and easy read. Freddy and the Ignormus was also recommended by a 5th grader. She described the books as mystery books where all the characters are animals.

I loved my day as a librarian and no one even called me the Library Lady.

Out of Body Experience?

I have wondered what it would be like to be in a place where I didn't understand much of what was being said. I know that this is an everyday reality for some students in classrooms all over the world. Today, I spent the day at a French Immersion school. It was an experience. I have taught at a Spanish Immersion school and that was nothing like this afternoon. This morning I was in a Kindergarten room, which was fine. I had a great time teaching Math and the assistant teacher taught the other lessons. Not to mention the students talked to each other in English. The afternoon was a whole different ball game. It is not that it was a bad day. We did not even have any mild disasters. It was just that from the time I walked into the room I barely understood a word that was said. Not to worry they had an assistant from France that taught them for the afternoon.

My experience is hard to describe. I sat and watched the clock for most of the time. I thoroughly studied the sub folder. (I will share more about that later because I learned some great things.) I walked around the room and tried to read all the great signs that she had posted. I looked all through the Math curriculum. It was in English. I reread an article I had in my bag. I did most of this with a headache. I spent less than 3 hours in the class and I was almost bored out of my mind. I have never had a out of body experience nor do I really believe in them. But I am almost certain that I would have experienced one had I spent a little more time in that classroom today.

I wonder what those students feel like that don't understand much of what is going on in their classrooms all day everyday. After, a few hours I was stir crazy. I probably would have started climbing the walls and wondering why classrooms don't have chandeliers. It wouldn't have been a pretty sight. Not to mention I probably wouldn't get invited back as a sub and I could cross that district off the list of hopeful future homes. (Because don't we all live at school?) Well, I can say I got a taste of it today. Now I just have to paste it into my mind and remember it when I have students who experience it on an everyday basis. I will have to ponder how not to forget. If any of you have any ideas, please enlighten me.

This makes me think of the importance of keeping students engaged......I will have to ponder on that at a later date.