thankful praises

...sometimes it's nice to get recognized...

"Hello Specials Team,
I just wanted to send a huge thank-you to all of you for the great job you are doing! It was brought to my attention this morning that during teen challenge yesterday the students were asked to share a high and a low for the past week and for many of the students their high point for the past week occurred during a specials class. The students in teen challenge are struggling on a variety of fronts and it was great to hear that specials is the outlet that is meeting their needs. Keep doing what you're doing!


Kristin" (a.k.a. the boss)


"Hi Anne,



Forgot to tell you that it was great to see my kids using a rubric to evaluate their peers during art today! I don't do that with them as much as I'd like, but I think it's really important! Thanks!



Kelly" (a.k.a. awesome 1st grade teacher)  


...remember to thank or recognize the people in your life...you never know...your positive praise might make their day :)

25th hour of the day

constant busy work

diligent, active...weekend

alas, fresh breath, ah

Still waiting for that 25th hour to get it all done...

somebody's hero and other small surprises

Life continues to unfold and each and every day brings something new or renewed.


ISATs (this wonderful testing...no child left behind b.s.) started yesterday and with the start of the test, as with the start of anything one is nervous/anxious about, all of the jitters have, as they say, left the building. This week is quite nerve-racking for the kids so I did my best on Monday to be their (each and every student's) personal test-taking cheerleader. Going room to room before students left school on Monday (why to get their good nights' sleep of course) reassuring students that they already have all of the tools they need to be successful and to do their best was a difficult job!


Many of the students, even though they have taken the ISATs before, definitely felt the pressure to do well. This concept seemed a little strange to me seeing that when I was in elementary school, I recall no pressure at all. In fact, I experienced the exact opposite of that. For me, the Iowa Test of Basic Skills just happened to appear on my desk once a year as a surprise. Yes, not a very good surprise but a surprise nonetheless. Now, with No Child Left Behind and the threat to close schools and fire teachers, students pretty much know the testing dates as soon as they walk through the doors in August. So much time is spent emphasizing the importance of the test that it's of no wonder why students are stressing out.


This positive burst of excitement and enthusiasm about the tests definitely helped boost their spirits...at least I'd like to think so. After the first day of testing, I made sure to go back to each of the classrooms that I had so generously pumped up to get feedback on the tests. Most students told me that they did really well on the tests and that they weren't as bad as they had previously thought. One boy in particular who had expressed his concerns of testing on Monday let me know that he was nervous at the beginning of the test but then realized that he completely understood what was going on in the test and in turn "rocked" the test. (As a teacher those words are music to my ears :)

Walking through the halls this morning, I was stopped by one of my favorite fourth graders with a "good morning Ms. Bell!" After the casual good morning response the conversation went as such:


Me: I know you did an awesome job yesterday...are you gonna rock the test again today!?!

Students: Yeah! It was easy and I'm ready!

Me: That's awesome (insert high five)! You're a rock star...actually you're my little rock star!

Student: You're my hero.

Me: (taken aback) Wow! Thank you. That's a big job, I sure hope I can make you proud.

Student: You already do.


Usually it's the teachers and parents who are expected to pass out the positives like candy in order to boost the confidence of our youth...but after sometime contemplating...who does this for the adults?


It's rare. It's unusual. It's magical. It's worth it.

It's the tiny reminders, like the hero comment, that remind me of the why...the why am I doing all of this? the Why do I care so much? It's the reminder that I'm touching lives and making a difference.


Thanks Neyda ;)

just this sort of day

Today is the zipper down, underwear inside out, stub your toe on a corner kind of day. It's the kind of day that would get a lesser person down. But not me...not today. I wouldn't change today for anything.


Speaking of the type of day...because of the birthday of Dr. Seuss, I had the pleasure of reading Dr. Seuss books all day long. Some old favorites like The Lorax, Yertle the Turtle, and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. As well as a new favorite Fox in Socks. After pumping up the kids at this morning's ISAT assembly and reading so many Dr. Seuss books...creation struck...here is my ode to Dr. Seuss and the ISATs:


I just love getting students ready for tests!
Because getting ready for tests is just really the best.
Getting ready for tests, yes, yes sir-y-bob
Getting ready for tests, that's just part of my job.

The students are ready. Don't worry, they'll do their best.
The students are ready to rock these fine tests.

Months and years to prepare will be of big help.
All these months and these years of the best sort of help.
It's the teachers who care about all that they do.
It's wonderful, amazing teachers like you!

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*."

one...two...

three...rrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiippppppppppppppppp

The day my pants had a civil war and the right successfully split from the left.

Background: Friday...beautiful outside...playing around with kindergarteners before class...wearing old comfortable pants that couldn't bear to take the strain of one more squat...

Favorite kindergartener this year, Milton, jumped into my arms as soon as I walked in the door to kindergarten. Javier, refused to get up from nap...so the only logical thing to do was to fake drop Milton onto Javier...one...two...three...rrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiipppppppppppp.

After quickly backing into the kindergarten girls bathroom, Ms. Rodriguez my hero came back with a pair of kid pants that happened to be too wide and too short. Thank goodness I was able to roll the top twice then keep the pants up with a scarf that had been draped as decoration around my neck. Some might say that I looked like I was ready for a walk down the beach. Sometimes you have to roll with the punches...laugh at yourself...then share the laughter with everyone you know!

one last hurrah

what would the last day before spring break be if...


high school students didn't come back to play basketball in the gym for the last hour until school lets out for the day


7th grade behaves themselves for once and actually get involved in their art projects


exhaustion and overeating overcome everyone at lunch


and Edgar in first grade telling the class that dad has hair on his butt?


Take time to enjoy the moment. Take time to enjoy the second, the minute, the hour, the day, the night. Just take the time.

a picture

Journaling yesterday in sixth grade, students were asked:


Explain why you do or do not agree with this quotation: "A picture is worth a thousand words."


Personally, I completely agree or so I thought for potentially no other reason than the scrabble word game in which you rearrange letters of a word to see how many other words you can make. With all of the words/phrases that a picture inspires you to think or say aloud it is almost impossible for those words/phrases not to spark another set of words/phrases therefore technically allowing one picture to be worth a googolplex words. However, when you take all of those words and begin to create new words from those, the words eventually reduce to two...I and a...so then is a picture only worth two words?


On another thought wave, when I see a picture with let's say a lemon, the word lemon doesn't come to mind but rather pictorial references to other lemons I have encountered. The same thing happens when I see the color yellow...instead of clearly viewing the word yellow I tend to reference other things that are yellow. If this is the case with most everyone else, shouldn't the phrase become:


A picture is worth a thousand images?

...thoughts...

Why is it that our students can spell masturbation correctly but not dided died?

the wiz

On Friday morning I was handed a note...the kind of note that kids pass to each other in the halls...from a former student's younger sibling.

The note stated that quite a few former WB students were performing in the musical The Wiz at their high school...great heads up. Thank goodness I leave most Friday nights free. After hearing about the performance, another teacher was more than happy to attend the $5.00 performance with me.

Amazed. Rewarded. Proud.

Watching these students sing and dance in front of a room full of people maybe around 150 was amazing. Some of the students even had primary roles. Needless to say, I am incredibly proud of all of them...even the students that weren't on stage but who helped paint the set and make the props and costumes. There were times in which I had taught more than half of the performers.

After the show, I made my appearance known to the girls. One response...since the note was only from one student and the rest had no idea I would come or have even thought of me since they left was

Um, hi...You look really familiar...confused look lasting about .2 seconds...Oh my God!...Ms. Bell!?! Followed with the world's strongest hug, screeches, and more hugs competing for a title...then pictures.

It's always nice to know that you have made a difference in someone's life...no matter how insignificant...and even if it is only a few years after they've left that they remember you.

Also, a BIG thank you to the teacher who braved a long drive, off-key and sometimes non-existent lyrics to go along with kid choreographed dances, and for assisting me to an utterly rewarding experience.

another free day!?!

It's amazing how behavior instantly improves when rewarding students with a movie after 10 classes of good behavior. Not that I am upset at these behavioral improvements...it is just that I am bored...hence the blogging. While watching Wall-E for the umpteenth time, it is in my best interest to journal then record my findings. Here they are...


smack that-or-not quite christmas


I was reminded while listening to a light music station the other day about a kid story from my first year at the WB.


Kindergarten student, Justin, called me over and motioned for me to lean in so that he could whisper his favorite Christmas song to me. Silly of me to expect something like Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer or I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas, even something a little more on the serious side of things like Silent Night, etc. Nope. All expectations flew out the window when I heard Justin whisper


smack that, all on the floor
smack that, give me some more
smack that, 'til you get sore
smack that, oh ooh


A little disturbed that a kindergartener just whispered these lyrics into my ear, I quickly explained that this was definitely not a Christmas song. Justin replied with but Ms. Bell, it's on the radio all the time and it's Christmas. Makes sense...I guess.


bc and ad for 2nd grade


Wednesday classes are my days to teach art history to 2nd, 4th, and 6th grades. Yesterday in 2nd grade, I read aloud an artist biography of Pablo Picasso in preparation of making our Picasso people. While discussing the important and interesting information about Picasso, one student asked about the difference between BC and AD. Since I have been teaching cave art to 1st graders, I have a pretty politically correct way to explain the difference and felt comfortable doing so. For the life of me, I cannot recall how this topic even got brought up.


Upon hearing the BC and AD terms, more students became interested in what each meant and with 5 minutes left in class...we discussed. Ms. Bell is a real person...right? Ok, now some people might believe that Ms. Bell has magical powers while some people don't. Either way, Ms. Bell is still a person. Ok now some of us may have heard of this guy called Jesus Christ. Whether you believe in his stories or not, he was still a real person. He is actually a person that our calendar years are based upon...

After that riveting discussion we began to do math to figure out how old Picasso would be if he were still alive today 128. We also did the math to figure out how many years Picasso died before Ms. Bell was born 8. Anytime a year was mentioned, Carl would shout out either BC or AD with his newfound knowledge. When he saw how old Picasso would be if he were still living, he exclaimed Wow! He has got to be dead! then he looked at me and said You're not dead...I can tell.


Just another day at the WB.

thank god for office mates

Here's a shout-out to my favorite office mates of all time...Team MAGIC (Music, Art, Gym, Informational sciences and Computers), the FAT (Fine Arts Team) or shall I just say the specials teachers at the WB...mainly speaking about gym and music...not that library isn't included but I do share my office with the former.


Even though I am not happy about being displaced from my fabulous art room this year, I am happy that I have been relocated to the gym office...the back of the gym where three of us are squished a little bit like sardines. While I might not sound so grateful, in all honesty, I truly am. Grateful that everyday I come to work...good or bad...I get to be myself, laugh out loud, speak my mind, speak the truth, ask for guidance, etc...and my office mates think no less (or more) of me for it. In truth, I consider them to be great friends...especially since they know some of my secrets;) God knows that office holds its fair share of them.


I thank Matt for his fake surly attitude, your mom jokes, and for his ability to tune me out when necessary.


I thank Molly for her encouragement, inspiration and guidance/advice.


I couldn't imagine this year without the two of them. As for the WB...I don't think they will be trimming the FAT anytime soon. We are all too knowledgeable about our subjects and too good at what we do :)

insight from a sixth grade perspective

The past couple of weeks have been a time for me to look at relationships in a whole new way.

What makes them work? What makes them strong? How do you make them last if only one person is committed to making it work? How could a relationship even work if one of the people involved thinks of nothing but themself all the time?

Well, I'm sure by this point you can sense my frustrations. Don't worry, I have more but will save you the pain of reading them...(pain like is she really recording these thoughts, not pain like ouch.)

This morning two things happened:

1) I finished Breaking Dawn, the last in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer and
2) I confiscated an art journal that was being used to pass notes

In regards to #1, I loved this series and if there is an Edward out there for me (someone who cares about me/loves me so unconditionally) I can't wait to meet/realize/find him. Wow! What a passionate love story....however, one for fiction :( Finishing this book and therefore the series has blinded me a little and confused my positive thoughts about relationships in general. Confused because as much as I would love to have an Edward (or Jacob) of my own they are completely fictional and therefore do not exist...does that mean that my Prince Charming (as the Disney movies promised) does not exist? "Some day my prince will come. Some day I'll find my love. Though he's far away, I'll find my love someday. Some day when my dreams come true."

In regards to #2, the sixth grade girls have interesting take on things...like sixth grade boys
(written by 6th grade girls...complete with their punctuation, spelling, grammar, etc)

*how they are?*

-When they say sorry they don't mean it.
-they treat you like garbage when they are with their friends.
-they never think aboute you & you are thinking of them all day.
-they don't listen to you
-they hang around with the girl you hate the most
-they make your relashionship not work
-they want you to do what they say but they don't want to do what you say
-they are the reason is over
-they make you sad

*how to 4get aboute someone (asap)*

intro-when you like someone and they don't like you you try your best to stop thinking aboute them

I know that things will always work out for the best. Everything happens for a reason. Blah, blah, blah. Yes, these are phrases that I have hear before and in light of certain recent events have heard about a thousand more times than necessary. Thank you all for the kind words...however, please note that I am a very impatient person and want to know...NOW!!!...what the future holds for me.

to alaska without a jacket

While picking my club kids up from the cafeteria Monday afternoon, Neyda, a girl whos quirky spirit makes her quite awkward, preceeded to tell me her solution to the attack on 9-11.

I think that we should send all the guys who took down the World Trade Center to Alaska...yeah...with no jackets.

Interesting solution however, I'm not quite sure how Palin would handle that (probably send them to Russia)...