the dog days are [not] over.

I’ve taken a little hiatus from blogging.  My excuse:  my momma taught me that if I can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.  Yeah, so it’s been like that.

Nobody told me this was going to be easy.  With that said, it’s not easy.  Sixth graders…what to do with them?!  Anybody who subbed for me before I moved here has told me that they are one of the toughest groups.  That’s an understatement.  

It’s not just me, they are like this with their other teacher, too.  I have to say everything at least twice in each language.  They give me a headache.  Literally. 

There’s one student who, every time I walk into the room, says “we have class with you?”  I say yes and he responds “NOOOOO, teacher!”  Well young one, the feeling is mutual.  ;)

At least I have my fifth graders.  I’m not saying they are extremely well-behaved, because they certainly have their days, but they are just so darn cute.  I’m not really a big fan of hugs, but when they child whom I think couldn’t care less about being in class comes up at the end of the class and wraps his arms around you…now that is special.  I like those hugs.  J

My fifth grade class is all Spanish-speaking, whereas my sixth grade class is a mix of English, French, Italian, and Spanish.  A few weeks ago, my fifth graders each wrote a question on the board in Spanish (something that they would need to ask).  Then I gave them each a piece of paper and had them write this question and decorate the paper.  I then rewrote each question in English on the same paper and hung these up on the wall.  At first they would have to go up to the wall and attempt to read the question, but now they are starting to remember these essential phrases by themselves.  And their pronunciation is getting better, too.  That makes me proud!  Oh and they are getting better at raising their hands to ask permission to leave the room too, thank goodness. 

Math is my favorite subject, to teach and to learn.  Now some of my students are starting to enjoy it more too, and are actually volunteering to come up to the board because they want to solve a problem.  My little Jorge actually understands what we’re doing and he’s so proud of himself!  (I am too). 

I just realized it’s after 9pm my time!  I had a killer headache and didn’t wake up from my siesta until 6:30 pm.  Oops!  I’m heading back in the direction of my old nocturnal ways…

No promises that I will have another blog post over the weekend.  Midterms are in a few weeks and I have to submit all of my exams by Monday.   Unfortunately the teacher’s editions of the textbook were too expensive for the school to buy, so I can’t just pull an exam from those.  I’ll be writing my own exams this weekend.  L