LET'S EAT GRANDMA!

This year I am teaching Langugage Arts to 3rd Grade students. Ideally, this would be my dream job since I love writing, I love teaching and I especially love not being responsible for a TAKS (now STAAR) test.

It has been an educational eye opener to teach language. With math, the information is so concrete - you either get it or you don't... and if you don't, perhaps you will understand this method, which brings you to the same answer anyhow. With Language Arts, it's much more strict. Commas go where they are supposed to, and ending punctuation is very important.

Recently on Pinterest I saw an image that said LET'S EAT GRANDMA! Then directly underneath this, it said LET'S EAT, GRANDMA! Boy, what a difference one comma can make :) Sharing a meal with Grandma versus sharing Grandma as a meal.

As I have not been the most diligent blogger, mainly because I am not ever sure what I want to talk about... I decided I can at least entertain the masses with some of the hysterics that happen in 3rd Grade, Room 8.

Last week we were working on an assignment involving characterization. I did this with my high school sophomores during student teaching, but I decided I would adapt it to fit the needs of 3rd Grade writing. Anyhow, the assignment specifically stated that students needed to write out a plot that included a climax and and ending involving a fictional character.

One of my precious 3rd Graders brings her paper to me. This particular student is an excellent writer over all, but occasionally she gets in a hurry. She had completed the assignment with success, but when I read the ending, I was a bit alarmed... It said: "So the boy's step-dad died in a car wreck and his mom got a disease and also died. The boy had to go live with his Grandma and they got married."

I asked her, "Wait a second, he married his GRANDMA?"

Instantly, I thought of LET'S EAT GRANDMA!! I nearly laughed hysterically, because I just happened to know this student's Grandma, and I knew that she must've been thinking of someone else and just wrote it down. Definitely a lesson in proofreading learned there.

The Joys of 3rd Grade :)

To clean or not to clean - that really is NOT the question!

This summer I've really been working on getting things cleaned up and organized. I am wanting a smooth teaching year, so I am working on lesson plans and getting materials ready - etc. Well, a lot of my friends are giving me a hard time because I am spending a lot of my summer break in my classroom... HOWEVER, I am so horribly un-functional with clutter. In fact, here is an example of what my classroom desk usually looks like:

Definitely not the poster for classroom perfection. In fact, I prefer to run like a well-oiled machine... and when my desk is like this I tend to run more like a jalopy that backfires. ha! I do prefer to have a much more clean desk - but without well-planned lessons it doesn't seem to work out that way. Here's my class when it is clean and ready to go :)

So, I don't get too offended when everyone gives me a hard time about where I'm spending some of my summer days... Because I figure I need the preparation to keep receiving messages like this - where "Mrs. Magers Rox" (: haha!

Room 8

Forgive me as I jump right up on my soapbox for a moment... I was feeling a bit "teachery" today as I had a ton of things I was wanting to get done.

So I made my way to Room #8 to work on a few things. I was just going to stay a couple hours... well a couple hours turned into 6 hours - and I just got to thinking -- Isn't this my summer?

Then that got me to thinking how annoying it is when some ignorantly assume that all teachers leave work at 3:30 every day, have weekends and summers off. Ummmmmm, I don't think so! I work most nights until well after dinner, if not late into the night... And so far during the summer - I have spent a ton of time preparing for the next year. So for those that comment "What are you complaining about - you get the summer off?" hahaha! I smirk and laugh at you.