First Best Present

My students are writing a persuasive letter, trying to convince someone to buy them a certain gift for Christmas. Today, I was proof-reading MB's letter when I read the phrase, "This touch screen laptop would be the second best present I got since the day I was born."

I simply asked, "Wow, well what was your FIRST best present?"

He replied, "Uh...being born." (Almost as if to say, "Duh, Ms. S.")

Um, amazing. Yes, of course that was your first best present. How underrated is being born. Today, I think we should all call our parents (if we can) to say, "Thank you for my first best present...me being born."

Kids?

Two different times I had students ask me if I had kids today. The response was totally different in each situation.

Situation 1
AL (Brazilian): Mrs. S, you don't have kids?
Me: Nope.
AL: You need to have kids.
Me: Why??
AL: Because you are so good with kids. You'd be a great mom!

* AL was referring to him & his peers when he said I was so good with "kids" & I reminded him that if I had kids, they would not be as old as he was right away. He laughed. I'm glad he got my joke.

Situation 2
* Inez is a friend of one of my students. She ate lunch in my classroom today with my student. We don't know each other very well, but she began talking about her new crush & said something about my "boyfriend..."

Me: Nope, no boyfriend here. A husband though.
IG: OH! You look young. Like early 20s.
Me: Thank you.
AA (my student): His name is John.
IG: Do you have kids?
Me & AA (same time): No.
IG: Oh good. Kids are terrible. They take up so much time & energy.
Me: Oh, I think I like them more than you do, but it's good that you don't because you're too young to care about them anyway. ;)

* Note: Not sure why AA wanted to share info about my husband & non-existent kids before I did.

The Brazilian

I have a student from Brazil. He is very inquisitive, very dramatic, & usually very tired (ie, asks to sleep in class.)

Today, the "Do Now" was to write about what you did over the weekend & how you felt about it. As he was telling me about his brand new Wii & the Pokemon game he got, he said, "I have Pokemon. I love Pokemon. Pokemon is my life. (Long pause) Wellllll, next to my family."

Then I actually read his written response from his journal & I had to take a picture of it to share with y'all. :) Please note the last 3 lines. (The "translation" is below the picture.)

When I saw the Wii in my house, I cried, I died, and came back to life in 1 second.

Birthday Poster

I'm LOVE my 4th period class. You've heard me talk about them before, they are my "newcomer" students who are beginner English speakers. I love them because they are so thoughtful & they always laugh at things I say. :) Of course I love them, right?

Well, today YS (7th grader) asked me, "¿Cuando es su cumpleaños?" I politely told her it was March 17th, even though it had NOTHING to do with our assignment. Then she asked, "¿Cual es su favorite color?" I was very proud of her for using the English words that she knew. :) So I gladly told her it was teal, which is between green & blue.

I happen to have teal construction paper in my room, so she grabbed a piece of it & used some scissors to cut a strip off. I asked what she was doing & she replied, "Ahh, surpriiiise," with a huge smile.

After 2 minutes, she held up the birthday poster I had made with all of my students birthdays on it & revealed how cute she really is... (notice the awkwardly placed teal one at the bottom)

Proficiency level: High Intermediate?

EC is one of my students who I also taught last year. He is an 8th grader this year & I must proudly say that he has progressed a lot in the time I've been working with him. He has jumped from a very low intermediate to a high intermediate proficiency level in English.

Just to put it in perspective, last semester he was reading slowly because he was not confident in his own verbal language & he did not have clear handwriting. Often times, he would "check out" in class because he didn't completely understand what was going on.

Well, yesterday was awesome for one reason & one reason only. I like to randomly teach my students fun idioms or phrases people say, but they might not understand. It's always fun when they get it & even better when they use it in every day life.

EC was trying to copy what I had written on the board onto his paper while sitting at his table. I was standing infront of the board talking about the subject (possibly blocking his view of the board) when EC said, "You make a better door than a window, Ms. S." He smiled immediately, more proud of himself for remembering that statement than anything else.

I couldn't help it, I screamed & said, "Yea!! That was so good. I'm proud of you for remembering that phrase. Good job. OK, I'll move now."

Are you calling me fat?

Just for fun one day, I pulled out a children's picture book that is written in Spanish. I began reading it infront of the class, then I asked 2 of my Spanish speakers to continue reading it to us.

Periodically, as they read certain words I didn't recognize, I would ask, "What does that mean?"

At one point in the story, the student began reading a list of food items, to which I replied, "Oh, I know what those mean..." (& I began to say what they were in English.)

LK (South African) said rather quickly, "Of course you know THOSE words."

When I smiled & looked at him, he immediately looked up & yelled, "NO! I didn't mean...I mean, I didn't say...I just meant that..." He literally couldn't finish a thought because he was so flustered by his own comment. :)

After seeing his embarrassment, I had to simply asked, "LK, are you calling me fat?" haha

The girls laughed & LK sunk into his chair & nervously giggled through that whole situation. I love that kids have no filter. I can relate.

Run-ons

Teacher: What's important to understand about run-on sentences? Why is it important that we are learning how to recognize & fix run-ons?

Student: So we don't sound stupid.


* Teacher's initial inner thoughts: Good enough for me.

Friend vs. Homeboy

This week I learned the difference between a friend & a homeboy. Allow me to enlighten you as well.

Friend: someone you hang out with &, like, you're just friends.

Homeboy: someone that like, you just...well, you're friends, but like, you got their back.

Ohhhhh, now I get it...

???

16 de septiembre

Today is the 200th anniversary of Mexico's independence from Spain!!! You better believe we celebrated in style...

The sombrero is filled with candy & the flamenco hat is filled with beaded necklaces.

These are my angelic Mexican students who are new to the United States & are eager to learn English. We laugh a lot & we are no strangers to the Spanish/English translator dictionary. ;)

These are 2 of my 8th graders. In fact, these were the same two who were sent out of my class 2 days ago because they were cussing at each other. It's so good to see them bonding over their heritage & I'm so glad they found this obvious common ground.

Eastside Pride (Not Really)

Every day as soon as my students enter the classroom, they get started on a "Do Now" assignment. It is usually a question that they must answer in at least 4 to 5 complete sentences.

One of my best students who I usually expect more work from was not on task & it was taking him forever to get started on his assignment.

I sternly reminded the students that they MUST write in complete sentences & gave them a couple of examples on how to begin their statements.

FN: Are we on the eastside?
Me: What? (because I thought I heard him wrong)
FN: Are we on the eastside?
Me: Yes.
FN: Then we don't have to write it proper.
Me: (GASP!)

He laughed because he thought he was being cute. He's not THAT cute where he can get away with making those comments.

Are you cutting your hair?

I had my back to the class as I was writing something on the whiteboard last week & when I turned around, I saw ES with scissors in her hand...cutting her bangs.

When I gasped & said, "What are you doing ... que haces?" She smiled & shrugged & said, "No me gusta mi cabello, es largo."

What?? You think it's too long?? Then get it cut outside of my classroom, by a professional (or even your mom), but don't do it yourself without even a mirror for reference. No es bueno. ;)

(Evidence above)

Can I go to the bathroom???

ELA class (I'm an inclusion teacher). 2nd period of the day. 40 minutes left of class. My student asks if he can go to the bathroom & I say no.

Why didn't I let him go? He didn't NEED to go, that's why. ;) My 2nd reason, which is even better, is that he hadn't done any of his work in class yet.

He asked again....& again & again. Sheez!

After 10 minutes of repeatedly asking me, I began a new tactic. Ignorning the child. It worked magically, for awhile. Maybe a minute or so. He then began "psst, Ms. S"ing me from across the room. Again, ignoring him.

At one point he asked me very quietly, "Ms. S, what if I pee in my pants?" To which I replied, "That'd be unfortunate & you wouldn't have very many friends today. Also, it would show you had no self-control." And I walked away.

Finally, after 20 minutes, he clicks in & realizes that class is going on & the ELA teacher had just asked a question: "What would a man need to build a house?"

The other students are calling out answers such as, "materials, nails, tools, hammer..."

My student says, with his head down, in a subtle voice..."a bathroom."

I died laughing & he looked up, surprised that I heard him, & began laughing out loud too.

Moral of the story: Teachers will dare you to pee your pants before they will let you go to the bathroom & miss their instruction. :)

...And We're Back for 2010-2011!

Let the games begin! These two signs sit right above my desk in my classroom. We will designate them as our "class motto" because they pretty much say it all. ;)

Don't worry...I have encouraging signs in my room too. One says "Every day is a gift" & it's hung just below the clock (ie, the most looked at object in the whole room). I thought this unique message would be appropriate to remind kids of as they were wondering how much longer they had to endure my class. :) I also have a giant dice with positive thinking words on it. I plan on rolling the dice in moments when the students are starting to get sassy or negative.

I am excited about this year. Today is off to a great start! The students I've seen that I had last year have gotten taller, the boys voices have gotten deeper & they seem to be excited to be back! Which is a blessing!

BEST quote from the 1st day of school: "Com'on, we're like faaamily!!"
(Outgoing 8th grader trying to convince a very shy student of why NOT to be nervous about speaking infront of the entire class of 15 students)

The Tree...

...that withstood the test of time.

Not a day passed by without the boys (from each class) running outside for their break & heading straight for their favorite tree. :)

It is not a big tree & it has some pretty weak branches. But for some reason, it held up wonderfully & seemed to love having children climb up & down, sit on branches & shake her to get the frisbees out of her leaves.

The picture below shows all my 8th grade boys (minus 1) scattered in the tree. What a great pic!

Priceless Moments

I wanted to share a few of my favorite moments here. The fun times with the kids when they were not afraid to be silly or funny.

Pic #1: Please note the leg wrap. Halarious. This photo was extremely spontaneous. They were barely near each other, but were both already doing silly things when I said, "Hurry, crazy picture. Go!" This was the outcome.

Pic #2: These two had just pulled me out of my room at lunch to "discuss something." One was having issues with the other and wanted me to mediate. I listened for awhile, asked a couple of questions, went & got my camera & said, "Let's just take a cute picture while we're here. That'll solve everything." Did it not? ;)

Pic #3: NT was trying to figure out how to climb the tree so he could join the other boys who were already at the top. This was his 2nd attempted method. He eventually got up the tree, but this was not the route.

It's good to have moments like these mixed in with days like the one I wrote about below. :) It all balances each other out and makes you want to keep going back to pour out what you have onto these kids!

It's Not Personal

Yesterday was one of "those" days.

It was a day in which I could not figure out whether it was my tired, worn out attitute OR the students' "I don't care, whatever!" attitude that made me feel like I was walking the halls of an insane asylum.

Let's just say it was both that contributed to it, shall we? ;)

I'll spare you the dramatic stories, but when I got home I talked to my husband about everything that happened & he reminded of a simple truth:

You take it too personally, Diana. You can't take it personally. These kids are
13 years old & some are just not going to be mature enough to listen &
do what you want them to do. You have to take heart knowing that you're doing all you can & just keep doing what you do.

Hmm. True. I needed that wisdom (& the words from Luke 17 that I read last night). ;)

At times, it seems like there can be such a fine line as a teacher. The line between teacher, mentor, counselor & disciplinarian. It's a fine line because you are all of those things... & because of that, it's hard to stay at a healthy emotional distance so that you don't take things personally because all you really want is the best life possible for these kids.

I made a rookie mistake, but I am learning. I am only in my first semester as a teacher, so I consider myself lucky to be learning this lesson so early in my career!! 4 more days with my little nuggets this year!! Let's make the most of it!

Always Productive Breaks

We are on Block Schedule here at Kealing, which means our classes are each 1 hour & 36 minutes long. I dare you to keep 12-14 year olds focused, obedient & productive for that amount of time. Oh, I am not saying it's "not doable," I'm just saying...

Here in the ESL class, we like to take a 10 minute break in the middle of class to stretch, get some fresh air & play. That way they don't try to make MY room the playground. ;)

Here are some examples of what takes place during our breaks.

Sunbathing (with frisbee we normally throw) & Push up contests

Handrail Walking

Now it's back to the classroom for more learning... :)

The Giving Tree

On April 19th, I bought my very own copy of Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree. Best decision I've made as a teacher.

At the beginning of this semester, I walked over to the poetry collections in our library, specifically searching for "Little Peggy Ann McKay" (ie, Where the Sidewalk Ends). I was creating an activity for my students where they'd have to draw a giant picture of Peggy Ann McKay on a posterboard showing as many of her "Sick" symptoms as they could.

I had no idea reading this poem would lead to multiple requests to read a poem from this collection at the beginning of each day. :) My pleasure!

As we have been faithfully reading through these poems & discussing Shel's imagination & humor, it dawned on me...

I had referenced one of my favorite books of all time, The Giving Tree, on a few occassions, but had yet to read it to them.

On April 21st, I remedied that. To my delight, it was a hit! I even had one of my 8th graders yell to a gregarious peer:

"¡Cállete! Nosotros no podemos oír!" (When I said, "We don't talk like that to each other," he reworded it to "Please don't talk.")

I have read it another time since then and they have begun finishing phrases such as, "And the tree was happy..." :)

I recently decided I'm going to give each of my 8th graders a copy of The Giving Tree for a graduation gift. Everyone should have their very own copy. :)

PE = Soreness?

One student was caught skipping class today. When I asked her where she was supposed to be, she said...

P.E., but I'm not goin' because they make you do exercises... & that stuff'll make you sore. So uh uh.

This, my friends, is our future. It's exciting!

Enchilada Off!

VS.

I challenged one of my students to an "Enchilada Off" this semester & the results were staggering. I have had so many AMERICANS tell me "my" enchiladas are so good that I think I let it go to my head. Tisk tisk.

(*Note: the student I challenged IS Mexican & I don't know what I was thinking)

We decided on a Friday that we would bring our enchiladas to taste on Monday. To make an embarrassing story as short as possible...I knew it was going to be a no-brainer as to who the winner was when the following series of events took place:

Diana's process of making enchiladas...

1. Cooked them Superbowl Sunday morning (I didn't want to cook them when I got home late from the game, duh).


2. Used canned diced jalapenos, canned El Paso enchilada sauce (shameful but delicious), cream cheese & pre-cut deboned chicken breasts from HEB. Also, packaged corn tortillas.
   
3. Cooked it, took it out of the oven, let it cool. Got home from game, put in fridge. Done.


4. Next morning, took my covered pyrex to school & stuck it in the fridge, again.

Student's process of making enchiladas...

1. Woke up & cooked on Monday morning at 5:30am (yep).


2. Used fresh cerranos, fresh tomatillos (which he of course baked & pureed to make the sauce), & fresh chicken that wasn't deboned for him already. Homemade corn tortillas.
   
3. Showed up at 7:30am to my classroom & handed me a HOT PAPER PLATE with foil covering it.

I simply stared at him for a moment, then screamed, "Are you serious??"

The verdict...

A few students tasted my humbled creation at lunch & repeatedly called me out on the recipe (as they continued to eat & disect the enchilada). JR even looked at me, held up a piece of the canned jalapeno he found & made the "tisk tisk" sound.

I replied with no words, I just simply looked at him, pulled a piece of chicken bone I had champed down on out of my mouth & held it up for him to see. (JE, the cook, apologized profusely)

Geez! Ruthless! At such a young age...but I'm so thankful I have these kids to keep me grounded & humble. ;)

Ladies & Gentlemen

We got a little off topic one day in my 7th grade class. My students gave me a list of characteristics that defined a "Lady" & a "Gentleman." It was very telling. Here are a few of their thoughts:

LADY:

1. Doesn't talk dirty
2. Wears clothes that cover her body
3. Uses manners
4. Smart

GENTLEMAN:

1. Opens the door
2. Is clean
3. Uses manners
4. Doesn't fight

Consequences Are Necessary...

On April 13th of this year, I went to work feeling a little under the weather. The pollen was insane & I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. That day, JE told me I looked fat. JH, in an attempt to make me feel better, followed up by saying, "Naw uh, Ms. S, you don't look fat, you look pregnant."

Consequence: vacuum my room after school.

They apologized & were good sports about all of it (as was I, don't you think?!)

D's Nuggets

Allow me to introduce myself & this blog.

I am Diana Schwarzlose, currently an ESL teacher at Kealing Middle School in Austin, TX. :) I often call people I love, "nugget" as a term of endearment. Some like it & think it's cute, others may not get it and will say, "I'm not your nugget, I'm your hamburger." Because they think I'm saying they're little. ;)

This blog is the new home for any "nugget" that is worthy of making you laugh or become teary-eyed.

From students' questions & comments to my reactions to them...it all makes a good story, so I've been told.

I hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as I have enjoyed being a witness to them!