Valentine's Day

My students are amazing! On Valentine's Day I received a few really special gifts.
What would Valentine's Day be without a snuggly bear with 2 Fruit Rollups? Or a series of "I (heart) U" chocolate bars with a Sponge Bob Squarepants theme? ;)


















Not only are her complete sentences perfect, but she made this pen for me. You can't see it well, but she enscribed "Ms. Schwarzlose" in the design. It is so cute!!





2/16/12:
And last, but certainly not least, I was given a card first thing this morning from one of my 1st year students. I love the little details about this card. The heart on the right says, "Happy one (crossed out) TWO day after Valentine day."

Would You Rather...?

Every day for the past few weeks I have created a "Would you rather...?" question for my students to answer in their journals. It has been fun to hear their responses! Yesterday & today I had the students create their own "Would you rather...?" questions & I was not disappointed with what they came up with. Here are a few examples...

1. Would you rather live inside a whale with two people you hate or live in an open forest all by yourself?


2. Would you rather cut your hair & have to eat it or cut your nails & have to eat them?


3. Would you rather live in Antarctica or the Sahara Desert for one year?


4. Would you rather live in house taken over by roaches or spiders?


5. Would you rather live with the President of the United States of America in the White House or live with your favorite movie star?


6. Would you rather eat an animal raw in the desert because you are starving or eat the lunchroom food that is soooo bad?


7. Would you rather kiss a monkey or eat dog food?


8. Would you rather be homeschooled & have a prom or go to a regular school & not have a prom?

I answered "spiders" to #4 (asked by a Japanese student) & she said, "Even though spiders can hurt you (as she was pinching her own arm)??!!" I said, "Yes, because roaches are so dirty!!"

That's when her twin brother said, "Ms. Schwarzlose, would you rather live in a house taken over by roaches or CATS?" I answered "roaches" because at least I could still breath for that year!!

A Special Meal

I assigned a writing prompt at the beginning of class:
If you were making a special meal for someone, what would you cook & why?

In my 3rd period class, all the students are Mexican, so naturally, they all start talking about their favorite Mexican food dishes.

To challenge them, I said, "What if you were to do something that wasn't Mexican?"

One student immediately responded, "OOOKAAAY, I would throw up (short pause)...because I'm not used to it."

Far From Home

My heart broke yesterday when one of my students came to me after school.

She asked me earlier in the day if I'd be here after school because she wanted to talk to me. CC is a beginner English speaker who came to the U.S. a few years ago for about a year, then returned to Mexico. She came back in August 2011 & it has been so fun to teach her & get to know her. She is somewhat quiet if she doesn't know you & has the sweetest nature about her.

She came into my room right after school & said, "Miss, I can't stay today, will you be here tomorrow?" I told her yes, but then I asked her what she needed to talk about. She hesitated & didn't want to start the conversation. I kept asking & told her just to tell me what it was about & that we would talk more about it later.

Finally, after a minute or so of fidgeting & thinking (I'm sure trying to translate the words in her head, mixed with "I don't know if I want to start this now..."), her eyes filled up with tears & she said, "I miss my mom."

I opened my arms immediately & held her, telling her I was so sorry. I didn't know what to say. It sucks. I actually have 3 girls from Mexico who live with extended family in Austin because their parents are back in Mexico.

I understand these parents are sending their kids to live here to get a good education, but it is so hard to be that far from your parents & siblings for this long. They get to see them at Christmas during the school year & that's it! By law, we must educate these children & I'm so thankful that I have this job. I know I have the best job on campus, getting to work with these incredible students. I hear them talk about their schools in Mexico & I know they are getting a good education there. So, sometimes I ask myself if sending them to the US by themselves is really "better" for them.

Stomach Talk

After lunch, my stomach was digesting (I guess) & it made a noise. I said to my two girls, "Oh, I think my stomach is talking to y'all after lunch."

Angelica (started learning English last year) quickly replied, "I think mine is responding to yours."

CSI: Kealing

I wanted to introduce a learning strategy to my students that will help them "find clues" in what they're reading to help them better answer the questions about the text. It's called the Inference Strategy. I was determined to make this strategy fun!

I set up a crime scene (with random pieces of evidence) & the kids walked in & said, "Whoa! What? What happened?" I looked at them with the same surprised face & said, "Oh no! I don't know...I guess that's YOUR job. I mean, obviously the victim's dead, but you have to figure out HOW he died, based on what you know."

They LOVED it! With journals in hand, they went & knelt down by the scene to study all the evidence & see what they could come up with. I was excited to see them get into it & the excitement transferred over when they expressed joy about being investigators while they read passages. This is the moment I've been waiting for!! To have my students excited about READING! Ha! Who knew I had to set up a fake crime scene to help that happen.

The second day I presented this was really funny. I began the class with some Intense Music for the students to listen to as they studied the crime scene. (I literally googled "Intense Music" as I that's exactly what I got.) They felt like they were in a movie. ;)