My motto is "Do what you love....Love what you do!". It serves me well and I try to remember on the tough days that I am doing exactly that. Some days, it's tougher than others. Our job description covers a vast array of skills that we must be prepared to utilize. I love the following poem, because it sums up many of the daily duties we must perform, in addition to the all of the actual teaching we do.
I Am A Teacher
by Stacy Bonino
I am a counselor and psychologist to a problem-filled child,
I am a police officer that controls a child gone wild.
I am a travel agent scheduling our trips for the year,
I am a confidante that wipes a crying child's tear.
I am a banker collecting money for a ton of different things,
I am a librarian showing adventures that a storybook brings.
I am a custodian that has to clean certain little messes,
I am a psychic that learns to know all that everybody only guesses.
I am a photographer keeping pictures of a child's yearly growth,
When mother and father are gone for the day, I become both.
I am a doctor that detects when a child is feeling sick,
I am a politician that must know the laws and recognize a trick.
I am a party planner for holidays to celebrate with all,
I am a decorator of a room, filling every wall.
I am a news reporter updating on our nation's current events,
I am a detective solving small mysteries and ending all suspense.
I am a clown and comedian that makes the children laugh,
I am a dietician assuring they have lunch or from mine I give them half.
When we seem to stray from values, I become a preacher,
But I'm proud to have to be these people because ...
I'm proud to say, "I am a teacher."
I went out to my parents' farm today and picked a big bucket of gorgeous blueberries.
I'm going back to Valley Hill Horse Farm tomorrow and wanted to take a little something to the owners. They are so nice and the kids always have such a good time while we are there. On our last visit, we parked the hay wagon under a berry tree (boysenberry, I was told), enjoyed the shade for a few minutes and ate fresh berries from the tree. I was telling Mr. Tommy, one of the owners, that my parents grow blueberries and have started a U-Pick business in their retirement. They sell blueberries and blackberries for a fraction of the cost in the grocery store. One of these days I'm going to arrange a field trip to their farm, as well. Blueberries don't come into season until just after school lets out, and since I'm taking the summer off......well, I'm working on it!
If you enjoy blueberries, I invite to you to become a fan of the Sweetwater Creek Farm Blueberries -U Pick on Facebook and feel free to share your favorite blueberry or blackberry recipes. If you live in our area (Augusta, Ga or N. Augusta,SC), give them a call or stop on by during picking hours. They'd love to have you pick!
Last Friday, I took a group of school age children to a real working horse farm. This is a very special trip that our family of schools takes to a real working horse farm for horseback riding, a picnic and hayride. I usually accompany each group from each of our three schools (6 trips in all). It has become a beloved part of my summer and even though I am "officially" off for the summer, I am escorting the children on this trip again.
I will write a full post with lots of pictures from the farm~ the kids have such an awesome time while they are there and I can't wait to share it. I'll just share a quick anecdote for now.
During our hayride, we made a few stops and got out and saw some of the animals. One little guy (3rd or 4th grade) pointed one of the bigger chickens clucking around us and said, "Hey, you know what his name is?"
I knew none of these chickens had names, but I was game,"What is his name?" he said
"Dinner!" he said matter-of-factly and smiled real big. His little joke and big smile made my day!
Kids, you never know what they will say next! ;)
This was the post that was due yesterday~sorry! I thought I was having internet trouble yesterday, but I saw on the news today that Comcast has been having a lot of problems in our area.I'm returning to the farm tomorrow with a group of preschoolers, so I'll work on getting a post together about the first two trips.
We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo;
How about you, you, you?
You can come too, too, too.
We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo.
~Tom Paxton, Going To The Zoo
I have taken the summer off for the most part, but our school has a summer program that I am occasionally helping out with. My first summer "adventure" was a trip last week to Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, SC. We took the school-aged kids (kindergarten-5th) from our 3 schools on our annual trek up the highway.
We had to get a few pics of the kids before they set out to see the sights.
This big guy and I have a history. A few years ago, my niece (2 yrs.old) dropped my daughter's monkey lunchbox souvenir over the side and he got it. We had to call the zookeeper over to get it out so he wouldn't get hurt. The zookeeper gave it back with giant teethmarks in it. My niece takes it for show and tell now each year. Luckily, nothing like that happened on this trip!
We saw lots of pretty birds!
The lemurs were cool! (I've always wanted to meet Zoboomafoo!
The Silverbacks are amazing!
This guy got loose last year the day after our visit. He created a little havoc, and a few folks were hurt, but thankfully measures were taken to prevent that ~ hopefully!! He's happily back at home.
We got there in time to see the feeding. We were inside a building (pictures through the glass) and the Silverbacks were outside. The zookeepers threw the food down from the roof into the brush for the gorillas to get. They are pretty good and will reach up to catch a head of romaine lettuce with one hand!
We stopped by the giraffes to check them out.
It was so cool to have them eat right out of our hands! The kids were fascinated by their long purple tongues.
This little guy's name is Lewis. He is absolutely adorable!
We were chillin' with the elephants!
Isn't this guy too cute?
These little meercats seem so intelligent!
Hey, we found Timon! Hakuna Matata!
Riverbanks has an aviary with tropical birds that you can walk through and see them close up.
You can purchase nectar to feed the birds. Mr. S didn't realize they would just start landing on you if you had the nectar in your hands!
Soon, it was like a mini feeding frenzy!
One of the dads bought our group Icees to cool us down. Thanks, Mr.S!
We had a great time and many of the friends enjoyed a much needed nap on the long drive back to school.
I'll leave you with one of our family's favorite zoo songs. It's not preschool appropriate, but it's a classic and we love it! (This is a pretty cool montage to the song!)
As it is summer, I'm feeling the pull of the beach tugging at my heart. I spent 3 days recently enjoying the sun and the sand, but it's just not enough. I am counting the minutes until July when my entire family (parents, siblings, spouses and children) will gather together to spend one bliss filled week together under one roof on the shores of the Carolina coast.
Summer at the beach translates into many things, but a good read is right at the top. One of my favorite southern authors is Pat Conroy. His words take me right to the smells, sights and sounds of this magical place of my childhood. You may know "The Prince of Tides", his bestseller, that was made into a movie (although the book is MUCH better). He is also author to many other wonderful books. My personal favorite is "The Water is Wide" which chronicles his exploits as a fairly new teacher in the impoverished South Carolina lowcountry. With the state of teaching today, it's humbling to read his struggles and realize we teachers really don't have it so bad at all. I encourage you to check out his books. I'll leave you with a few of his words regarding teachers:
“The great teachers fill you up with hope and shower you with a thousand reasons to embrace all aspects of life,” Pat Conroy, My Losing Season
It seems every year, there's one kid who's a little more worldly, even if they don't even know it. I'll have to wait for August to see who it will be next. I love discovering all those little personalities as we get to know each other. I can't wait to see what the friends in my new class will bring to the table!
First Grade
One day the first grade teacher was reading the story of the Three Little Pigs to her class. She came to the part of the story where the first pig was trying to accumulate the building materials for his home. She read, "...And so the pig went up to the man with the wheelbarrow full of straw and said, "Pardon me sir, but may I have some of that straw to build my house?'" The teacher paused then asked the class, "And what do you think that man said?" One little boy raised his hand and said, "I think he said 'Holy %$#@! A talking pig!'" The teacher was unable to teach for the next 10 minutes.
Today I'm sharing a few tidbits of wisdom from Robert Fulghum. I have several of his quotes hanging over my desk. His words are simple, direct and always right on the mark. Here are a few of my favorites:
All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.
These are the things I learned:
* Share everything.
* Play fair.
* Don't hit people.
* Put things back where you found them.
* Clean up your own mess.
* Don't take things that aren't yours.
* Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
* Wash your hands before you eat.
* Flush.
* Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
* Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
* Take a nap every afternoon.
* When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
* Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
* Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
* And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.
Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.
And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
And this one is SO important!
Sticks and stones will break our bones, but words will break our hearts.
Remember, you can say you're sorry, but you can't take ugly words back.
My class has adjourned for the summer. Today is officially my first day of Summer break. Hope everyone has a great week!
I apologize for the lack of posts lately. We've had some internet difficulties and with a very hectic time at school, it's made it nearly impossible to get online and visit the blogs and post as I usually do.
For today's "Witticism" post, I thought I would share a cute story that happened yesterday. We're finishing our last week of school with the "tale" end of our fairytale unit. Today's story was "Jack and the Beanstalk". I usually try to find literature to share that is relatively free of violence and "bad words". I started to read the story and realized it was a particularly gory version, so I swapped it for another. The second version was pretty accurate with original violence, but I continued. As I was reading the part about Jack cutting down the beanstalk and the giant falls to his death, I was praying that the friends wouldn't focus on the violence. (You know there's always one who will do just what you hope no one will! ) Just as I finished, one of my most enthusiastic friends jumped up and yelled, "MAN, HE GOT SERVED!"
I stifled my laughter and said with an almost straight face, "Ben, what does that mean, 'he got served'? "
He looked up at me with a big smile (proud of his newly expanded vocabulary), "I don't know, but that giant sure got it!"
Kids, you gotta love them! Only 3 more school days left, .....I'm really gonna miss these moments!
In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, I'm posting this poem for all the wonderful teachers out there in Blogland. You inspire me daily. Thanks for your words, ideas and inspiration!
I found this a few years ago and read it now and then as a reminder to myself. Just remember...... you never know!
You Never Know author unknown
You never know when someone
might catch a dream from you.
You never know when a little word
or something that you might do,
May open up a window
of a mind that seeks the light.
The way you teach may not matter at all,
but you never know, it might.
And just in case it could be
that another's life through you
might change for the better
with a broader, brighter view.
It seems it might be worth a try
to do what you know is right.
The way you teach may not matter at all,
but you never know, it might.
First Grade Proverbs A 1st grade school teacher had twenty-six students in her class. She presented each child in her classroom the 1st half of a well-known proverb and asked them to come up with the remainder of the proverb. It's hard to believe these were actually done by first graders. Their insight may surprise you. While reading, keep in mind that these are first-graders, 6-year-olds, because the last one is a classic!
1.
Don't change horses
until they stop running.
2.
Strike while the
bug is close.
3.
It's always darkest before
Daylight Saving Time.
4.
Never underestimate the power of
termites.
5.
You can lead a horse to water but
How?
6.
Don't bite the hand that
looks dirty.
7.
No news is
impossible
8.
A miss is as good as a
Mr.
9.
You can't teach an old dog new
Math
10.
If you lie down with dogs, you'll
stink in the morning.
11.
Love all, trust
Me.
12.
The pen is mightier than the
pigs.
13.
An idle mind is
the best way to relax .
14.
Where there's smoke there's
pollution.
15.
Happy the bride who
gets all the presents.
16.
A penny saved is
not much.
17.
Two's company, three's
the Musketeers.
18.
Don't put off till tomorrow what
you put on to go to bed.
19.
Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and
You have to blow your nose.
20.
There are none so blind as
Stevie Wonder.
21.
Children should be seen and not
spanked or grounded.
22.
If at first you don't succeed
get new batteries.
23.
You get out of something only what you
See in the picture on the box
24.
When the blind lead the blind
get out of the way.
25.
A bird in the hand
is going to poop on you.
And the WINNER and last one!
26.
Better late than
Pregnant
After receiving this via email several times over a couple of years, I started doing something similar with my Pre-K kids. I love the responses they come up with. Happy Wednesday!
