The Crisco Fiasco...

So today...for the first time...I had a day where I'm sure people walking past my room thought "Wow!  Look at the poor first year teacher who is in way deeper than she bargained for."  It was humbling, and I'm sure some day I'll laugh, or use it as some sort of example for other teachers or teachers in training.

The reality, I don't want to be a boring teacher.  I don't want to spend each class sitting and reading and writing.  I often feel like I do too much of this, but I justify it by saying "I"m a first year teacher, I'll dress up my curriculum in the coming years."  SOOOO when an opportunity comes along to break away from stationary routines, I try to take them.  In Science, we are studying adaptations, specifically for different climates this week.  I thought it would be great to let students experience how a layer of fat keeps artic animals cold.  The activity was in the book, but I've seen in and done it in at least 2 other places.

The basic idea is that kids stuff one fist into a baggie full of Crisco and then put both hands in ice cold water for a certain amount of time to experience how the layer of "fat" keeps one hand warmer...I know...this sounds crazy.  I knew there was potential for disaster here, so I thought it out, I took precautions so that not every student would have one handed covered in the nasty greasy stuff, I gave clear directions, walked through the lab sheets, and wrote reminders on the chalk board.  Apparantly...I forgot what major thing...I never defined what "clean up in the bathroom" means...I overestimated...I thought common sense would kick for these 10 and 11 year olds...but it didn't.

My first science class was frustrating, I had a lot of students off task even though each one had been assigned a job or role.  I sent the kids to wash up, dismissed the rest of the class, and welcomed my own class back.  About half-way through my giving them directions, my vice-principal pokes her head in the door and I can tell this isn't going to be good...apparantly the boys I sent to the bathroom made a HUGE mess and they even took the mess over to the 4th grade bathroom where they went to get more paper towels...

My class did a much better job of staying on task, but when I went into the girls bathroom about 3 minutes before the end of the day to see how "washing up" was going, I found an even bigger fiasco...crisco was spashed onto the walls, 7 girls were trying to use two sinks, the floor was shining and girls were literally sliding around as they tried to walk, the paper towel dispenser was covered in Crisco, more than half of the girls had Crisco on their clothes, and one even had it in her hair...Here's the kicker...these girls weren't even goofing off...they were just that unable to figure out how to clean up in a sensible, logical way.  At the end of the day I just stood in the bathroom and looked around.  My Vice-Principal wasn't upset with me, she said it was a great idea and it wasn't my fault the kids took advantage of it, but I know I could have made some better decisions.  I'm not sure what I'm going to say to my classes tomorrow, but I think I'm back to book reading and note taking...and next year...this will definitely be a DEMONSTRATION not a lab activity....

First Day!

Yeah!  My first day went amazing!  More amazing than I could have hoped.  For all my friends waiting to start I have two pieces of advice for you...

PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!!! (Then walk in faith and trust that your prayers are heard and answered)

PREPARE, PREPARE, PREPARE!!!  (I wrote a script, and even though I didn't follow it, I never felt paniced about what would come next.)

Wow!  I'm a real teacher!  It's wonderful to see what I believe to be my purpose and passion finally at work!

I am now the proud care taker 26 DIFFERENT Houghton-Mifflin Reading Teachers Manuals...is this real?

Wow!  Thanks everyone for your car suggestions.  I was planning to wait until I had a few weeks of teaching under my belt, but a deal came up and I realized it would be nice to have one decision completely done and overwith.  I was expecting to buy used and foreign, but I ended up with new and American because I got an AMAZING deal through a family friend.  I bought a 2007 Pontiac G6 and with all the money that came off the top it's basically like I'm paying 0% financing.  For someone as car illiterate as me, that warranty is looking REALLY nice.  I haven't taken any pictures yet (if that doesn't prove how much of a girl I am I don't know what will.)

I have taken pictures of my classroom.  I finished with all the set up yesterday afternoon, thanks to some help from my mom.  I'm really proud of what I've pulled together in just 5 short days.  I pulled out my text books today and I'm completely overwhelmed.  During student teaching all of my reading was planned using Literature, but now I'll be using mostly basals and guided reading.  There are so many options that I don't know what to choose.  I feel like my creativity is really stifled because I have to spend so much time just sorting out what I've been given rather than planning my own engaging lessons.  I'm sure I'll get used to it in time.  I'm excited about our Math and Science curriculum though, it's really just reading that's going to be a killer.

I've been working at school until 6pm every night pretty much by myself.  NO ONE else is there excpet sometimes a custodian whom I usually frighten because he don't expect to see anyone.  I don't know if this speaks merely to how much work a first year teacher puts in or if it's a strong message to me about what a workaholic/perfectionist I am.  Again...I suppose time will tell.

Anyway, here's some of my classroom pics. 

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Amy!  I had to post this to show you how all of our hard work for dorm decorations went to use.  Isn't it great?

The hats are attached to the heads with velcro so I can change the jobs every week.  I'm REALLY excited about this one!

Life Changes

Wow, it's crazy how everything can turn upside down so quickly.  In this case, I'm talking about a good sort of upside down.  I had an interview on Monday at 10:30.  They called me back at 2:30 and offered me the job.  It's not in the city, it's actually just in South Holland, a 10-15 minute drive from my house.  I won't be moving out of my parents house.  School starts in less than 2 weeks, there's no time to find an apartment and move and set up a classroom and plan lessons.  I'm actually ok with this.   It makes sense to save the money so I have more freedom later on.  My parents have been really great, and I'm actually switching bedrooms with my brother, so I'll move from what I call the "closet" in the middle of the house to a bigger room in our finished basement...of course...I'm still trying to figure out what to do with this rainbow trout wallpaper.  This may seem strange to those of you who know how excited I was about the city, and of course I'm a little bummed, but really I'm just so thankful that God provided job, a job teaching 5th graders at that (the perfect age in my opinion)  The city isn't going anywhere, I have lots of friends to visit there and lots of time to teach there.

Another change coming is that I have to buy a car.  I would love some advice.  Is is better to go new or used?  What difference does financing make?  Any particular make/model suggestions.  This is all new to me.  I've always driven whatever $1000 beast was put in front of me.

The other book end of an amazing semester!

I'm sitting on a train, leaving behind people I've grown to care deeply about.  As the Chicago neighborhoods fly by, I shed a few tears of wonder and prayer concerning some of my students' futures.  Fourth grade is so young, there is so much ahead of them and I can't help but ask, Will anyone care for them and about them?  Was my 3 months enough to inspire them to keep trying and realize how special they are?  I'm zooming past the buildings and parks that have become part of my life scenery, headed into a future that is more uncertain than any other time I've ever known.  All around me, people are going about their daily lives: reading the paper, trying to find a babysitter, reading bills and wondering how they'll get paid, but I'm acutely aware of how what is so familar now, wasn't so foreign just 3 short months ago. 

So, as I sit on the Brown Line run to Belmont while the conductor announces once again that "This train will not make a station stop at Addison; Addison is closed due to construction" (just as it has been since my first ride on this branch of the CTA,) I wonder at how quickly we adapt.  The frightening has quickly become the familar; the stranger has metamorphised into the life long friend.  Although this adaptation process is rapid, the change that has occured in me as a person is great.  Perhaps great change is always marked by abruptness with which it occured, that does seem to be a pattern in my college experience, if not my entire life.

It feels strange to be on the brink of referring to my "college experience" in the past tense.  Wasn't it just yesterday that I stepped onto campus sure I would find the man of my dreams and determined to never become a teacher?  Was it not just yesterday that the call to teach was voiced and accepted and the call to leave love behind was issued and fought against?  Wasn't it only a few hours ago that I watched Christmas movies in the Alumni Hall lobby, planted pennies in every earthly possession I could find that belonged to Ben and Nate, and chatted over coffee and a game of euchre with the "West Hall Possee"?

Yes, it certainly feels that way, but four years is a lot of time for abrupt changes to occur and for this reason and others, I know I leave a different person than I've entered.  I leave a little less in need of attention and a little more wary of the words "I love you."  I leave Chicago feeling like an adult for the first time, and feeling like I want to be a child more than ever.  I leave my apartment with the simple ability to cook myself a meal and no idea where my next apartment will be.  I move on to yet more changes, and strangely believe that someone at the exact same moment, I am at once more and less sure of who I am and where I'm going, that I ever have been in my entire life.