I'm gonna miss that little booger....

Remember my Little Stalker, DS? Oh, I'm just kidding! I think his crush is adorable. Actually, I'm afraid I may be losing some of my pull. After finishing my DIBELS, Reading 3D AND mClass math testing (WTH!? When are we supposed to do any TEACHING!?) I saw that DS scored off the charts on all 3 tests. It was really after I tested him in math that I was blown away by his abilities.

The math series that we use at the Hell-Hole (and most other CPS schools) SUCKS MAJOR DONKEY ASS, in my humble opinion. It prepares them for nothing. It basically has them playing games and singing songs all day. Now, don't get me wrong, you KNOW I'm all for singing songs. But, this particular program has no real substance, as far as I'm concerned. And, I see absolutely no correlation between what's done in Kdg. and what they need to be able to do in 1st. I knew that before I made the move to 1st.

OK, so what the hell does all this have to do with DS, you may ask. After testing him in math last week, I went to New Principal to ask about maybe moving him to 2nd grade. Sounds radical, I know, but believe me, he's just as ready as the kids who started 2nd grade this year, if not more so. His birthday just missed the cut-off, which here in Chicago is Sept. 1. His birthday is Sept. 5. Four stinkin' days!!

At first, New Principal said there was no way we could move him because of the birth date. So then I asked if he could go upstairs to the second grade class for reading. You might remember that he already did that last year, going across the hall to 1st grade for reading. Then, I figured, what the hell, let's see how far I can take this. I asked if he could also go for math. This is REALLY the area where he is light years ahead of the other children. (Just to simplify the scoring system, the children can fall into red, yellow or green, with red being the lowest, green the highest. DS is the ONLY child who scored green in all areas. As a matter of fact, only one other child scored green in ONE category out of the six that are tested. Yikes!)

Surprisingly, New Principal said yes. Great! I talked to my friend, Mrs. F. (who you may remember had a baby back in November. She just returned this week from maternity leave.) and she was more than happy to let DS come up to her class. We decided we would start this week. Monday morning, he came in with my class from the playground, but immediately asked about going upstairs. He was totally pumped for this new adventure. He went up to 2nd grade, and I never saw him again! He stayed for the whole day! As a matter of fact, Mrs. F's class has lunch at the same time that we do, so I just assumed he would come back and eat with us, but instead, he grabbed his tray and walked into the other lunchroom to eat with the 2nd graders. I gotta tell ya, I was a tiny bit hurt. Ridiculous, right?

Yesterday, I never even saw him!! The primary teachers had a morning meeting, which made us late for picking up our classes outside, so I didn't see him outside. I had to ask Mrs. F. later in the day if he was even at school! Today, I at least saw him on the playground this morning, but he went upstairs first thing, and never looked back. I think he likes it up there. Whatta you think?

I gotta tell you, the whole dynamic of my class has changed. Most of the other babies looked to him for what to do. They waited for him to answer first, read words first, say the date first, etc. And, I've lost my little secretary! He used to so many jobs for me, since it was one of the only ways to keep him busy. He collected the morning writing papers, stamping the incomplete papers with the "incomplete" stamper. He passed out supplies, set up centers, took messages, and so on. He practically took attendance for me!

I'll be curious to see which of the other babies step up and try just a little harder now that DS isn't there to do the "heavy lifting" anymore.

I miss my Little Stalker.... :(

And you thought I wasn't going to bore you with this anymore...

Yesterday's note:
My teacher is testing. Do not ! distract her or you will sit by the door or by her desk or by the corner. Do not talk.

Oh my hell! Don't you just love the placement of the exclamation point? This made me laugh, and feel like an ogre at the same time. It's probably obvious by this little love note that I started to DIBEL my babies yesterday afternoon. (More on that later.) It's so critical that they stay quiet while I test, because just like last year (kdg) this test is completely oral. I need to hear EXACTLY what the baby I'm testing is saying. I set them all up at centers, which we practiced the first 3 days of the week. We did some serious practice, because I knew they really needed to know what to do without interrupting me. Or, "distracting" me, as my not-at-all-secret admirer likes to say.

Here's today's note:

I love my teacher because she's cute and beautiful and she loves children. But, BUT, do not talk, talk, talk, talk, talk or she will send you to Ms. Edmond's classroom and she will send you to the office.

I love having him read his notes to me because I love to hear his inflections when he reads. I couldn't even write when he read, "But, BUUUTTT, do not talk, talk, talk, talk, talk...." I don't know what the hell he's talking about, though, when he says, "she will send you to Ms. E...." because I haven't sent anyone out of our room yet this year. I definitely have sent kids out in the past, lest I bust a foot off in some one's ass, but I haven't reached that point yet this year. Hell, it's only been 3 weeks that the kids have been there. So, maybe he's just remembering my M.O. from last year. tee hee!

This just may have to be a daily feature...

...at least until this one decides to stop kissing up. ;-)

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Translation: My teacher loves to teach and she is mad because they are messing her stuff up! But she's really, really, really, really, really nice. But don't distract her.

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This was, again, written during centers, and during the rotation before this, the group of babies at the word building station were making a hot mess out of the letter cards, and just weren't doing what they were supposed to at the center. I spent nearly the entire rotation time with this group, trying to get them to follow the routine, and obviously, my frustration was showing. I love that he said, "don't distract her." I'm wondering if he meant 'upset'?

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I had him reread what he actually wrote, and he immediately realized that the words are out of order in that first sentence (My love to teacher....) At first, I thought maybe he was writing a poem or something to me. ;-)

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Oh, and I asked him how he knew how to spell 'because' and much to my delight, he said, "I looked on the word wall." Woo hoo!! That's EXACTLY what you're supposed to do!! This year I'm using the word wall that was left by the other teacher (because I left mine for the new kdg teacher, who promptly fucking tore it down, and threw it the fuck away!!!! Oops, next time, I'll try not to hold back so much on what I'm thinking...) and I LOVE that the other teacher put magnetic tape on the back of all her words, because the word wall is so interactive now. The babies can walk right up to it, take off the word they want to write, take it to their seat, write it, then put back. So cool!

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On that note, I'm off to Office Depot in search of magnetic tape and some other goodies, that only nerdy teachers would be excited about. I plan to do a TON of laminating tonight for a project that I've been furiously working on this week. Maybe I'll share later....

My new favorite author strikes again...

Mrs. L is so sweet and good and fun and she gets activites. She has spelling words and she loooves the Kids at Hope.

As I was writing down what he told me this said, I said to him, with a laugh, "Wow, there's kind of a lot of Os there in love, huh?" I know for a fact he knows how to spell it correctly. He said to me, "THAT'S because you looooove the Kids at Hope!" This kid just cracks me up!

(Kids at Hope was a program we had at the Hell-Hole during Big Cheese's last year there. We still say the Kids at Hope Pledge every morning, though - I am a Kid at Hope. I am talented, smart, and capable of success. I have dreams for the future, and I will climb to reach those goals and dreams every day.)

Hey, whatta ya know? A post about school!

The other day, some of the babies were working with white boards during centers, and one of my super stars brought this over to me. Of course, being the bitch that I am, the first thing I did was chastise him for interrupting my group. (Rule #1 of center time - DO NOT interrupt my group!)But, a few minutes later, when we were ready to switch, I told him to bring it over so I could see it.
Translation: My teacher is sweet and good, and mad, but good. She gives us new stuff, problems, math stuff. My teacher really loves to sing, sing, sing.

How smart is this kid?! The last line made me laugh out loud. Funny cuz it's true!!

I discovered a few new teacher blogs this weekend. There were a couple of 1st Grade blogs that I found particularly interesting. Mrs. Larremore over at Chalk Talk posted about these Word Helpers that she found over at Sarah Cooley's blog, First Grader...at last! I immediately set to work, making a set of my own.

I also put together a power point slide show, that I plan to show the babies tomorrow. From that, I printed out a page with all the slides, that I plan to copy for them to keep in their homework folders. This color copy will stay at my group table. I plan to make a few more to keep in some of my centers.

Look what I bought at Sam's Club!! This is the first time I decided to do something completely frivolous with my $100 supply allowance. This laminator was $99.98. It's something I've always wanted, and after the past few months of HELL, I decided it was time to treat myself to something nice. (Yes, only a nerdy teacher would think THIS is a treat. What about it?!) It came with 50 different laminating pouches; 10 ID badge pouches (complete with clips!), 10 5"x7" pouches, 10 'menu size' pouches, and 20 letter size pouches. For another $20.68, I picked up a pack of 200 additional letter size pouches.

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I quickly laminated the 6 posters I made with my Word Helpers, although I've decided to call them Reading Buddies. I can't wait to hang these up near my small group table tomorrow, and introduce them to the babies. Thanks, Sarah!

One of the "projects" I plan to make with my new laminator (woo hoo!) is dry erase "boards" for the kids to keep in their desks. This laminating film can be written on with dry erase markers, so I'm going to put a piece of cardstock in the pouch and laminate it. Oo, wait! I can put lines on one side for them to write on, and leave the other side plain for them to draw or whatever. Now I'm excited!

Oh, AND I'm even more excited about this....Pissed Off posted about these amazing Dry Erase Crayons from Crayola the other day. Hallelujah! What the hell took so long for someone to come up with these!! Do you have any idea how many markers I've had to throw away because the babies either pushed the tips in from writing too hard, or they didn't cap them correctly and they dried out? These things aren't cheap. Sure, I've bought the cheap ones from the dollar store, but they don't last.

This year, for the first time, I put dry erase markers on my supply list for parents. I decided to go with a very nontraditional list this year (you know, to go with the nontraditional grade!) and asked for dry erase markers, sanitizing wipes, index cards and hand sanitizer. The only 'supplies' I asked that the babies have are 3-5 sharpened pencils and crayons. That's it. I have scissors and glue, and I don't allow the babies to have markers. (Occasionally, we use markers for projects, but if they have them in their desks, they try to do EVERYTHING in marker, which means my desks, chairs and students also get covered in marker!) I told parents that they should have scissors and glue available at home for homework and projects, but please don't send any to school. The more they have, the more they play with. I know, I'm mean. Eh, I'm over it!

Anyway, I think if each of them had a personal dry erase board and crayon in their desk, there would be a whole lot of writing going on, not to mention the number of trees we'd be saving! (That one's for you, Suz!) I'm a little too excited about this now. I will be bringing card stock to school with me tomorrow to put in the copy machine to put the lines on one side. I'll probably bore you with the finished project later. You've been warned!