Third Grade Humor

Q: What do you call a mini rockstar?




A: Elfis

The Many Different Ways to Spell "Sentences"

- sentnces

- sentensese

- sencets

- sentenseces

- sentencents

Substitution

So today we had a sub. This wasn't just any sub - this was Mr. P! He's the director of the aftercare center at the school. I also found out today that he's a freshman in college, and has taken Ed 101, and that's pretty much it. But then a little later in the day, I found out that he took off a few years before going back to college, and he was also a pre-K teacher. Ok, so his credibility level rose in my book. He didn't do all that much though today since I'm teaching all but two subjects right now.

It's crazy what happens when a young, attractive, outgoing guy like Mr. P gets thrown into a school of all women. I seriously think that at least half of the staff at Lake Worth Christian have crushes on him. Especially the secretary, she told him he smelled good, and mouth to me, "He's so cute!" when he wasn't looking. It was interesting......

It was really neat though to kind of be "in charge." It felt like I had my own classroom. I had to step up and do more of the disciplining and be tougher than I usually am. Without my cooperating teacher's strictness, I had to try to make up the slack. I just can't be too mean though, so the kids got a little rowdy today, but we survived.

I got to see my parents today! They're in Florida now! I think they're even going to bring me lunch at school tomorrow, which will be so great!

Side note: this morning I found a half-dead cockroach in our sink - soooo gross!

Oh, and here are some pictures from our field trip to the post office last week!

Strengths

Empathy, Belief, Adaptability, Developer, and Harmony.

My teacher bought me a book called Strengths Finder 2.0 and it gives you this code to go online and take a test and figure out your strengths. I took the test and those came up as my five top strengths. We were discussing the results and my teacher told me that she has never seen anyone with so many "teacher" strengths. She said all of those were perfect for being a teacher and I had found my calling! Hurray! Affirmation!

Correction

Mom and Dad are coming in ONE week! Time really is going so fast! So crazy!

And she flies

40 degrees?!?! I thought I came to Florida to get away from the cold! Ok, so some of you are probably rolling your eyes and thinking, "Elizabeth, it's like below zero here." Maybe my blood is thinning out or something already. I didn't even bring a coat to Florida! It is quite hilarious seeing all the little kids all bundled up in their layers of sweatshirts and coats and scarves and gloves. I don't think they realize how good they have it. One teacher the was even wearing a huge, heavy coat that went down to her knees and had fur around the hood. Wow. Floridians.

Teaching is going great! I really like my class. They're a goofy bunch of kids, with some behavior issues, but my cooperating teacher has very structured classroom management which has helped a lot with this class.

I've continued teaching spelling, and this week my "project" has been the new girl in the class. I've been trying to help her catch up with the rest of the class. She came from a public school where the kids hadn't learned much multiplication, and was placed in a classroom of third graders doing long division. So I've been plugging away with her trying to teach her all the multiplication facts. It takes awhile, but I've come up with some fun little things. My advisor would be so proud.

And life here is great! I'm meeting tons of new people, and everyone is just absolutely fantastic! This long weekend was great! We went to a coffee house and listened to some music. Also went shopping and looked at clothes that are more than I'm paying for rent each month. Mexican Train Game, Rock Band, and an attempt at picking up Euchre also made up my weekend. It was great and relaxing, and so fun to have a social life!

Mom and Dad are coming in about two weeks, which is exciting! It's hard to believe that it's almost the end of January! Time is going too fast!

Home Sweet Florida Home

So now I'm about 5 days into student teaching. It's going well. I've been teaching spelling all week and I think it's been going alright. I'm getting to know the kids better, which is great! Oh, kids are fun. There's this one girl who is freaking me out though because she looks almost exactly like my sister did when my sister was in third grade! So it's so weird to look at her because she reminds me so much of Breanna like ten years ago. I feel I have some sort of weird bond to this girl, and she's probably like freaked out by her student teacher who looks at her so strangely.

So I'm living with five other girls here in Florida, and my first couple days here were not amazing. Everything was new - the location, the house, the roommates, the schedule, student teaching, everything. I think I forgot how horribly I handle change, and I was really, really homesick the first couple days here. Now it's going great and I'm happy to be here and really liking my new roommates and everything. Here's a couple pictures of the house I'm living in.

This is the front of our house. There's a railroad right next to it with several trains going past several times a day. They're really loud and make the house shake a little bit. We also have a neighbor who likes to scream a lot and throw hammers and her boyfriend. It's a nice little neighborhood. :)

This is our porch area/reading room. It's a really nice cozy little room with a hammock. Super cute and fun, and now I actually have some time to do some reading for fun! Crazy! That probably won't last too long though....

This is the kitchen, and then that doorway leads to a little laundry room area. This is kind of the gathering area of the house because there's always a bunch of people over here. Oh, and I live with artsy girls who like photography, so that's why there's lots of pictures on the wall.

Here's the living room area. Two couches, and a dining table behind the blue couch, but isn't pictured. And don't be fooled by that TV looking thing. It actually only plays movies. So I am stuck in Florida with no TV! How am I supposed to watch my shows? And a new season of Survivor starts while I'm here! Alas!

And here is the bedroom which I share with Bethany and Erin. It's our awesome Uni-bed! Erin and Bethany share the bed on the left, and I have that queen-size air mattress on the right. It's awesome, we know - very cozy. I think three-fourths of our room is just bed.