Hope Springs

With all the tragedy that seems to be surrounding us lately I decided to make a freebie to share some hope.

Without hope we truly have nothing.
Without faith we have nothing.

You can grab it by clicking on it.  The link will take you to Honey Bunch Blog Design where you can find the freebie on the sidebar.

Kickin' the Stinky Sharpeners to the Curb

Hello?
Anyone out there reading this??

Look at that perfect point!  LOVE!

I know everyone's heard of these amazing sharpeners...so I am preaching to the choir.  I've read a gazillion posts raving about them...watched the videos...drooled some more.

However, I haven't been able to bring myself to purchase one with my own hard-earned cash.  It's not that I'm cheap mind you.  I spend more than a person in their right mind should spend on their classroom...again preaching to the choir, I know.  But our school buys us sharpeners so why should I?

But let's face it -- the sharpeners they buy for us S.T.I.N.K!

They jam at least once a day.  Sharpen a pencil crooked...if that is possible.

The best sharpener I have in my room is one I picked up at the Rescue Mission Bargain shop that is industrial strength and probably 50+ years old.  It's true...they don't make 'em like they used to.  If this bad boy wasn't attached to the wall I could probably seriously maim an intruder with it.

Oh, and did I happen to mention that we can't sharpen colored pencils in our cheesy sharpeners because they gum them up so much that they just refuse to work?  So I bought little sharpeners for the kids to use for those at the Dollar Store.

(smiles) Problem solved!

(shakes head) Uh huh, no!

Yep, those are breaking, being used as weapons (they do have a mini-razor inside ya know), and still don't sharpen a pencil perfectly.  That and some kids will twist and sharpen, twist and sharpen, twist and sharpen, twist and sharpen, twist and sharpen...twist.and.sharpen.until.there.is.nothing.left!

Then I had to requisition more paper clips because we had used them all to poke out the tips of the colored pencils that got broken off and stuck in the junky Dollar Store sharpeners.  And later those same paper clips were used as weapons too.

GRRRR!

So I'm hoping to put myself out of my pencil misery and either win one of these PERFECT sharpeners or I'm biting the bullet and buying one.

So there!  Take that stinky sharpeners around the world!
You are officially going to be kicked to the curb!

Booking Across the USA ~ Montana

I'm hooking up with a group of amazing bloggers to take you on a virtual trip around the USA ~ book by book.  The project is the brainchild of Jodie at Growing Book by Book.

Where is Montana?  (Seems like a silly question, but I've been asked what it's like living in Canada while visiting other states.)

Did you know that Montana is the only state with a triple divide allowing water to flow into the Pacific, Atlantic, and Hudson Bay?  You can learn this and other Fast Facts and Trivia about Montana by clicking here.

You can also visit Montana Kids and learn facts, play games, follow the dino trail, learn about Montana plants and animals, and read cool Montana ghost stories among other things!

As usual, it was hard for me to choose one book...so I didn't!

My first book is an oldie but a goodie called M is for Montana.

I first came across this book when I was a beginning teacher and have loved it ever since.  The illustrations are truly works of art and the book will appeal to children of all ages.

After reading this book, I have my students write acrostic poems with illustrations to match.  Although their poems don't usually have any historical or factual information like the book, they are very personal and creative.  Use watercolor for our illustrations, which is what I believe is used in the book.

I also like to use this book as a springboard before we create chalk mountain art work.  Here is a simple video that explains it much better than I could.

The second book I chose is B is for Big Sky Country.

This is another beautiful book with rich illustrations.  This book has a kind of "double" format.  For smaller kids you could just read the small rhyming portion (as highlighted below in yellow) and for bigger kids (and adults) you could read the larger more in-depth portion.

Here is a link for an idea book I have not used but it looks worth checking out.

I was amazed at how many other books related to Montana came up on Amazon.  (You gotta love the section "Customers Who Bought This Also Bought"...it gets me everytime!)

Third is a class favorite called Who Pooped in the Park? which is about identifying animal scat and tracks in Glacier National Park.

This fun book has kids hooked as soon as they see or hear the title!  I have made photocopies of illustrations in the book and "hidden" them around the room.  Then the kids play detective to try and identify them.  Some even decide they have to use magnifying lenses to look closer at the details.  It's a blast!  I use the song "Scit Scat Diddily Doo" by Foster Brown with this lesson.  It's a hit too.  You can find it on this CD.

I hope you have fun visiting Montana through one or all of these books.  And better yet, that you get a chance to visit in real life sometime in the future!

Click on the button below to go to a post showing all the contributing blogs.

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

I Survived...Barely!

Seriously, the person who schedules parent-teacher conferences on Halloween week obviously is NOT a primary teacher.  In fact, they probably aren't even in a classroom with children of any age for that matter.

I won't go into the unmentionable things that the teachers in my building would like to do to this person or persons.  But I recall hearing something about slowly pulling out fingernails and toenails.  And that was one of the kinder unmentionables.

It was a rough week, let me tell you.

Monday the kids were wild!

Tuesday the kids were even more wild!!

By Wednesday, I don't even think the kids in my class were human.  They were more like the Dementors from Harry Potter sucking the very life out of me.

Image this is me . . .

If I'd been able to scream you would have heard it no matter where you live.  But I couldn't.  I didn't have enough energy for that even.

To top it off, my birthday is on Halloween.  Yeah, I know.  When I signed up for the teaching program in college someone should have said, "Oh, I see your birthday is on a holiday.  You are not allowed into the teaching profession for your own sake.  Sorry.  Next!"

I may have mentioned before that having a Halloween birthday was great as a kid.  Not so as a teacher.  My birthday wish has never come true.  Calm kids.  I know you aren't supposed to tell your birthday wish but since it has never come true yet I think I'm safe.

Every year, EVERY year, the darlings ask me what I'm going to be for Halloween.  The answer is always the same . . . a tired, grouchy teacher.  Then they ask what I'm going to wear.  I point to myself from head to toe and say "You're lookin' at it!"

Don't get me wrong.  I love Halloween.  It's fun.  It's frivolous.  It involves imagination.  And I don't plan on being a tired, grouchy teacher for it.  It just happens slowly, day by day, minute by minute.  And having conferences the day after doesn't help.

Halloween should be on the last Saturday of October so that everyone can have fun and not worry about getting enough sleep or eating too much candy, etc.  Parents would appreciate it, kids would appreciate it, neighbors would appreciate it, and trust me so would teachers.

Valentine's Day should probably be on a Saturday too.

That way we could have our little celebrations on Friday afternoons and go home to sleep it off for a few days.  I know it sounds like a hangover but, trust me, it's worse!

But that's just my opinion.  What's yours?