back to school

School is back in session (not the cause of my lack of blogging however). This begins year number five at the same school and I can honestly say that I did miss the students. Things have gotten off to a really great start but if I blogged about how perfect everything was, well, that would get quite boring. Instead, I choose to tell you two stories...


...one...


It is my fifth year at the same school so one might think that I know the students really well. I do. Usually I only need to meet and learn the names of both incoming kindergarten classes as well as a handful of new students, possibly one or two per class/grade. Sixty plus kids to meet and learn...piece of cake. We also have many, many siblings at the school which also makes learning names really easy.

While teaching sixth grade, I had asked the students what they knew about Pop Art. Show off that I am, I didn't use my grade book or a list of student names to call on students to answer questions. Confidently I called on Maria. "Yes Maria..." Maria looked at me funny and said "Juan." Only about two seconds later did it register and I realized that I had called sixth grade Juan by his third grade sister's name, Maria. Yikes, how embarrassing...for both. It was an honest mistake...Maria and Juan both look very similar in the face (you can tell they are related) and for some unknown reason, they both have the same haircut. Maria's is very short for a girl and Juan's is very long for a boy :)


...two...


In fifth grade, we have started making our mixed media me books. In these books, I require students to have an acrostic poem...something they have been doing since first grade at this school. Since they have been composing acrostic poems for so long, they basically have memorized which one word answers go with each letter of their name. Boring! For art class, I put a little twist on it. One word answers aren't allowed and students actually have to tell me something about themselves instead of Awesome Nice Neat Elephants. Being the wonderful teacher that I am, I do a think aloud with the students and my name and the end result looks something like this:


Art teacher to elementary students
Neat and ALWAYS organized
Never one to let someone down
Excellent tennis player
Believes in fairy tales
Elephants are my favorite because they never forget
Literary lover and avid reader
Lucky to have such wonderful friends and family


Of course with the fifth grade boys B had to be pointed out. "Ms. Bell, what do you mean you believe in fairy tales? Aren't you a little old for that?" Me "Prince Charming is on his way...he's just not here yet." Girls in unison "awe *sigh*."