Preparing for Diffendoofer Day - 05/13/19

The third graders are doing their state testing tomorrow, and I found out that it has become a tradition to read Dr. Suess' Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! the day before third graders start testing each year. The book is about a little school that has to take a big test to determine where their schools stands, and if they don't do well, the school will be shut down and the students will have to transfer to Flobbertown (where dogs are afraid to bark). At the end of the day, the third grade teachers gathered all the students together to talk to them about test-taking attitudes and mindsets. They reminded them to have fun, not to worry, work hard, and to just give it their very best, and that was all that mattered. I was supposed to be taking an AP Calculus exam tomorrow, but decided last-minute not to take it because I was too nervous... I probably could have used some of that third grade advice.

The third graders in Mr. Hubbard's class had a very exciting morning. A mere 10 minutes into math class, they had a special visitor come to deliver chicken eggs to their classroom. They have recently been working on an incubator to warm and hatch the chicken eggs, and the kids were bouncing out of their seats when Caleb walked in with the two cartons of eggs. Everyone had to sanitize their hands before touching the eggs, and were not even allowed to breathe on them because their breath contained bacteria. The kids held the eggs gently as possible as they took turns putting them into the incubator. Life is such a delicate and precious thing, even when it's still in the egg! We ended up spending almost an hour talking about chickens and the eggs, and about different habits of different animals in regards to their offspring. The students came out with a ton of awesome questions, and it was cool to see them answering each other's questions when they were able to. My AP Bio brain was immediately switched on and thinking of punnett squares when the kids asked about how the color of the parents feathers relates to the color of the chick's feathers. It was a very exciting, mathless math class for everyone. I am sad that this is my second to last day working in this classroom (they are testing from Tues-Thurs), but I have arranged to spend that time in Kindergarten, which I am very excited about!

Anna and I were together today working with the first graders. It was really sweet how students are starting to recognize me, say hi to me, hug me, and even the shyer ones give me a little smile when they walk past me. For some reason, a lot of the kids were asking me if they were my friend, which I of course told them that they were. It made me really happy when they beamed and said "you are my friend too." They were working more on coloring and fractions today through making "fractions pots". It was interesting to see how different students prioritize different activities. Some students spent a ridiculously long amount of time coloring the pots, some spent that time cutting shapes out, and other zipped through all of it in 10 minutes. It was really fun getting to hang out and talk to the kids as they colored. Once they were finished, they moved on to playing addition card games with each other. I was asked to become an official ref when disputes came up about whose sum was higher.

When I arrived back in third grade, students were in the middle of doing a practice LA response for their tests tomorrow. Mrs Peters just had me walk around to make sure everyone was on track and working on what they were supposed to be working on. When they were done with that, they had a little bit of time left to finish their Jack and the Beanstalk stories and drawings. I continued to just circulate during this time, checking in with different students about their stories and how they were coming along with writing and typing them out. Some were already finished so they got to spend that time reading. After that, everyone moved over to Mr. Hubbard's classroom to read the Dr Suess book and talk about their tests tomorrow.


Gymnastics was pretty good today. There are still a few students that I am struggling with getting them to listen to me, but I am getting better at being patient, controlling my emotions and not letting it upset me too much. I think I am growing and maturing as a teacher. Today I had my second crier when a student accidentally kicked another student for standing too close. I have always been terrified and kind of tried to turtle myself when I'm around kids that cry, just because I don't really know how to handle the situation. Today, when a little kindergarten boy got kicked in the arm and started crying, I picked him up and put him on my lap and had him drink some water until he calmed down. I had the little girl who had accidentally kicked him apologize and everything turned out just fine, and I was happy with how I handled the situation that initially terrified me. I am getting close with the kids and and getting better at handing them. A kindergarten girl claimed she had a headache and didn't want to play, so I just had her hangout and ref the game with me, and she said she felt much better at the end. I'm happy to see good progress in gymnastics too. I set up more organized stations for them to go through today, and having them stay busy in the circuit instead of just waiting in line helped to control the chaos that stressed me out last week. I would also just like to take a moment to appreciate how perfect that handstand in the photo on the left is. Wow.


Time: 6:42
Hours: 8
Total Hours: 106 (!!)