marissa

what i have experienced in my first year of teaching

2009-05-11T22:13:00.005-05:00

first day: (i keep the desks turned backwards so the kids don't put trash in them or hide the fact that they're texting) a student tipped her desk over & a pair of boxers fell out of the desk

spirit week: i was forced to wear angel's wings with the other english teachers on twin day

the kids found out that i am a guitar hero player...and gained respect for me in some ways, and probably lost respect in some ways! (maybe if they ask next year, i will lie?! jk)

the best excuse of the year for not having an assignment: he had the poster rolled up, with a rubber band around it and by the front door. then when it was time to leave, he couldn't find it anywhere. he ended up finding it on top of the dining room chandelier...???

lots of 6th grade talks about their boys & other things that they decide to include me in on haha

unfortunately the spurs didn't have a good year against the mavs. my students knew that i'm a spurs fan, so they found great joy in annoying me every time the spurs lost.

begging every week from several students to get my sister to sub for me

i taught 8 novels - and had only read one of them before finding out the list at the very end of the summer.

i learned a lot of things to do AND a lot of things not to do

i learned that even when kids are annoying, it's still easy to find something special & unique about each of them.

i realized things i should've done the first day of school

i learned a lot not only about english but also about other subjects - like relearning the Civil War for one of the novels, and about the Dust Bowl for another one

kids were allowed to sit on the floor while watching a video for one of the books we read. one was talking so i told him to go sit in his chair. he wouldn't, so i told him again. his response was, "No, thank you." ahhh it's not an option!!!

AND i became a cheerleading coach HA

i think teaching makes me talk to God a lot more :)

learning to say no...or tickets to the symphony

2008-10-02T14:49:00.003-05:00

For some reason I just cannot tell people no!
my last job:
"Will you stay at work late because I need to leave early?" OK, fine.
"Will you come in early, I can't make it on time?" Ok, sure.
New job:
"Will you be a chaperone for the 6th grade trip"...(aka spend 54 hrs with over 50 11 & 12 yr olds)? Yes, of course I will (ok, that one did get me out of teaching for a few days).
"Will you take ALL of the failing middle school kids after school for tutorials (and not get paid extra)four days a week?" Yeah, ok.
"Can I have your free teacher ticket to the fair?" Um...I'm not sure, I think I would like to go. "My wife & I want to take our grandkids. Here, I have 2 tickets to the symphony that my wife and I cannot use. You can have them and let me know about that fair ticket tomorrow." ok... dang it. What am I going to do with tickets to the symphony?! Maybe I will actually go even though it's not my kinda thing, but the fair sounds a lot more fun. I will not be manipulated anymore! After tomorrow when I'm supposed to give away my ticket to the fair.

life with 7th graders

2008-09-06T22:21:00.003-05:00

i'm guessing i might have some stories to share now that i'm around 6th & 7th graders all day. soo here's my first one. yesterday i put several magazine pictures up on the board and made them choose a picture and write 2 paragraphs about it. they also had to use 5 of our vocab words for the week somewhere in the paragraphs... which is what made them funny cause the words really had nothing to do with the pictures at all. one of my students chose the picture of a huge chocolate chip cookie. this is what he wrote...without any punctuation at all (vocab words in caps):

I love cookies I think it's a good thing they can't be BISECTED I'd rather DUPLICATE it is much better awatked(?!) by a massive MONOLITH that was when I found a house it was the biggest DUPLEX ever I walked into the House

I saw a king I said are you the MONARCH he said yes Im the monarch then I killed him and took his cookies

hahahah. i love the last paragraph...but i obviously have a long way to go with these 7th graders if they don't even know to use punctuation.

changes

2007-08-30T10:56:00.000-05:00

things i miss about 2nd graders
-hugs for no reason
-excitement over pulled teeth
-telling me everything
-random stories
-comforting them when they cry
-helping them put on bandaids when they're hurt
-cute little laughs
-never-ending energy
-playing knockout and pig in the gym
-how they actually like for me to play with them
-how i can give them time out, but they still like me anyway

starting this week, i just got 5th-7th graders (to help out with my resume a little). they're great too, & i just need to get used to them, but i miss my 2nd graders.=( plus it's hard to feel as much in charge when half of them are taller than i am (one 12 yr old girl is 5'11"!). so anyway, i guess just pray for me as i get used to this new age & figure out how to relate to them & how to get them to actually do what i say.

clothes fights & horses

2007-08-10T17:42:00.000-05:00

i realize that stories about my kids at work are not as funny if you don't know the kids or hear the stories in person, but i thought i'd share anway. this little red-head is ca-razy!! he's so loud & is always getting into trouble. when he looks at me & realizes that i've seen him do something he's not supposed to do, he'll hang his head & make his way sloooowly to time out...on his own heheh. i'll ask him why he hit the other kid, etc. & instead of lying like most kids he mumbles, "i just did." other times i'll say "you need to go sit down," or give some other instructions & his response will be to point his index finger in the air, yell "NEVER!" and run away. well yesterday he walked by & was looking down at his shorts saying, "don't say that!" we were like uhhh, why are you talking to your shorts? & he explained that they were saying bad words. he went into this long story about why he had worn the shorts that he wore. just so happens that there had been a fight in his clothes drawer that morning & his shorts (which he apparently named michael) were calling "mr. jeans" bad names. so michael's punishment was that the kid would wear them & get them all sweaty & dirty. today his shorts named albert lost a fight against mr. jeans, so they were the ones to get sweaty & dirty.

alright...here's the girl (the taller one) that belongs to the quote "on the outside i'm a girl, but on the inside i'm really a horse." she is neighing, galloping, trotting, drawing horses, etc. ALL the time. i had to make a classroom rule: "no animals inside." so she definitely makes up for it when we're outside. but she's always forgetting not to neigh inside (it's really loud), so i just give her a look & she says, "i just can't help it!" *edit: i just noticed that on my very first post ever - a year ago - i have a pic of this same girl acting like a horse...didn't remember she was a horse last year too! hahah*

so anyway, i guess i kinda want these stories written down for myself cause knowing the kids that go along with the stories just makes me laugh & i don't want to forget the stories. :)

snow!

2007-01-22T00:35:00.000-06:00

for some reason i kinda forgot about mine & everyone else's blogs for awhile, but mel reminded me last night since she updated. even though i am not enjoying this never-ending miserably cold weather, i did enjoy getting snow last week! :)

would you like to know why i don't like cold weather even more now?! my brother "diagonosed" me with raynaud's disease. (not sure that is what it was, but sounds like it). it happens to some people when you get really cold and your fingers (and/or toes) get all tingly & numb-feeling because the blood is trying to get from the outer parts to the inner parts of the body. yep so that suddenly happened to me the other night & i had no idea what was going on! first one finger got tingly & i thought maybe i had hurt it & forgot how. but then 4 more of my fingers did the same thing, & they turned white then kinda blue. but then it just went away after i had been back inside for about an hour or 2. guess it's nothing to worry about though! here's a pic i found online, but mine was not this bad.

peru

2006-11-25T21:58:00.001-06:00

i'm too tired to write about the trip right now, but here are some pics! i'm sure i'll have more later.

mel and me on a train to machu picchu

ahhh!!! these next 2 pics are from a scary mountain that mel and i climbed. maybe we weren't so smart to do this...

machu picchu

a group at mel's church in el agustino

"work"

2006-10-12T15:07:00.000-05:00

i kinda had a scary situation at work today. i sub during nap time for a 2 year old class. today when i went in, the teacher started telling me about one of the kids. she told me that his parents are going through a divorce and that there is a restraining order against the mom. this was not the unusual part because i've had other kids that stay with aunts, uncles or grandparents because there are restraining orders on one or both of their parents. however, for this kid, the teacher told me that it was very possible that the mom could try to come today to get him. she had to tell me what all to do if she came, then she got to what to do if she had a weapon with her. whoa whoa whoa...a weapon? yeah that kinda scared me. the thought of waking up 7 sleeping toddlers and getting them into another classroom was a bit frightening. so anyway, i just kept sitting there watching this kid sleeping so peacefully, thinking about how little he knows about the troubles that are sure to come in his life, even at his young age. it made me very sad for the kid, and scared to think of the responsibility that i had for those kids' safety.

anyway, the pics are some that my roommate took while we were outside with our k-2nd grade kids yesterday. vincent could be a future model, don't you agree?! that's what lizzie & i think anyway.

house-sitting

2006-09-27T21:00:00.000-05:00

i'm now finished with my 9 days of house-sitting. the dog became very attached to me. he liked to sit in the bathroom and watch me put on my makeup. i had to take the picture from above cause every time i tried to bend down to take it, he would get excited & run to me so that i would pet him. he is 12 years old so he pretty much just slept the whole time. it was pretty gross at this complex though. it's an expensive one, but right outside my door there was a big pile of diarrhea, another pile of poo, a big box of beer bottles, a dirty stuffed Big Bird, and ..... a dead mouse! such sanitary living conditions. the office lady just laughed when i told her & no one did anything about it until 2 days later. it was disgusting. but by the parking lot there was this nice little pond with lots of ducks & even swans one day. guess it's not too exciting in such small pics. but the baby ones were really cute!

i have war wounds! not really, but work is becoming a little scary. i have a girl with downs syndrome in my class and her behavior is getting worse and worse. at first it was just hitting, kicking, & spitting (in the face - me and the kids). today she also added scratching, pinching, and hair pulling to the list. oh she head buts me too. i'm so worried about her hurting the other kids cause i'm the only teacher in there. i have to watch her every second...and still pay attention to the other kids too & get their snacks & everything. i've gotta try to talk to the director tomorrow, but i'm kinda afraid to cause she doesn't think it's as bad as i say. so pray that i will tell her everything that's going on & not let her ignore the situation or downplay it!

a lil bit of everything

2006-09-17T14:49:00.000-05:00

life:
i have a dog for a week! i'm housesitting & taking care of a friend's dog until next monday. kinda scary though, cause the dog has some health issues so i'm just hoping i remember to give him all of his medicine & that nothing happens! this could also be bad cause i now have reliable internet, cable, and a few pools. how am i expected to study under these conditions?!

ohh hahaha. today it had been raining really hard & the roads were kinda flooding. the rain was finally starting to slow down, but i was still driving really slow since the puddles were so big. there were these 2 guys walking on the sidewalk, & right when i got to them, i hit a huge puddle. it definitely soaked them. at first i was kinda shocked that happened & felt sooo bad...but then i looked at them in my rearview mirror & i couldn't stop laughing. i know, i'm a jerk. i don't know what my problem was. but what were they doing walking out in the rain anyway?? so i don't feel so bad.

school:
kirk cameron is speaking in chapel this week. haha it's kinda funny....but i'll be there! i grew up on growing pains. pretty sure i watched it almost every day.

work:
kids - what can i say. i now have many names: miss marissa (what they're supposed to call me), missarissa, miss riss, riss, and rissy. why would 2nd graders think they can call their teacher "rissy?" i've decided that i want to put at least one picture on every post just cause i feel like it...and maybe it will be more interesting. hopefully they'll apply to the posts, but they probably won't every time. soo here are some more kids from work. the girl on the right is obsessed with a guy that i work with. she calls him "hey, handsome!" i had to break the news to her that 26 is just too old for her, but she didn't care.

Crazy Kids

2006-09-01T22:24:00.000-05:00

These are some of my 2nd graders from work. On the last day of the summer we decided to have a pajama party. Good idea right? Too good! The other classes hardly had any kids that day cause the parents wanted them to stay home on the last day before school started. The 2nd graders, however, chose to come for the party instead of staying home! So here are some pics from the exciting day...you can see what I got to put up with all summer!

I never knew girls could be so hyper