Classroom Comedy: Kids ARE the darndest things! :)

Well, the students are back.  And up to their usual fun and funny stuff:)  You gotta love a job that provides you with non-stop laughs.

The Background:  We are currently studying Lewis and Clark and their journey.  We have discussued important aspects of their journey.  We have used symbollism to make connections to those aspects.

I made a box that they had to pull items out of.  They couldn’t see in the box.  They had to be brave.  We talked about how that mirrored Lewis and Clark.

One of the items in the box was a fake flower.  I asked what it might represent.  They said nature, plants, newly discovered plants, the edible nuts and berries they ate to sustain them on their journey, and trees.  Big trees. 

I asked why big trees were so important to their journey.

The Laugh:  One of my students promptly yelled out “For bathrooms.”

The Background:  My students were working in partners on math.  It ended up that this one little guy who has some trouble with math (and school in general, who was purposely paired a another little guy that was good in math) had already completed part of the assignment on accident.  (Obviously, part of him not doing well in school is that he has trouble with directions.) 

Anyway, so I suggested he sit and “help” the other guy catch up (who really needed no help at all but at least they would be discussing math). 

A few problems later, the boy who is good in math asked me a question that really could have been answered by his partner.  They were sitting close and just asked it from where they sat.  I looked up and said, “Well why don’t you just ask your partner?  He can help you.”  (wanting to give the little guy with math issues some self-esteem).

The Laugh:  The little guy with the math problems looked right at me and said sure.  And then he WINKED at me.  Twice!

Had I been anywhere else, like a restaurant or Walmart, I would have thought it to be very inappropriate.  But, I was in my classroom.  And for one of the few times in my life, I was speechless.

I don’t think he meant it inappropriately.  But it sure was  . . . well, I guess I am still speechless.

The Background:  Our school recently started a newspaper.  It is being run by parents and the literacy coach at our school is the liason.  The students meet during lunch one day a week and after school one day a week.  The turn out was phenomenal.  In my class alone, 16 out of 20 students are on the “staff.”  They had over 70 children sign up, and show up!

It seems like the “in” thing to do.  Everyone is doing it.  They are reporting on things going on around the school and people in the building.

The moms that started this and help run it are mostly from my room, so I have a lot of contact with them.  One told me of this conversation that took place between her and one of the students.

The Laugh: 

The mom said, “Okay, so you are going to get your article written over the weekend and turn it to me on Monday.”

The student said, “We have to write articles?”

Today I wore dark brown tights and camel colored microsuede skirt.  When I got home and changed into something comfy, I found tiny balls of camel colored microsuede embedded in my brand new great feeling tights.

I picked them off the best I could but I was reminded of last year and the “ordeal.”

We got lice in my classroom.  They popped around.  First one child, then another.  We spent the entire fall and winter battling lice.  It spread from one classroom to another.  (Cause you know they are friends with other kids in other classes and they spend the night, etc.)

Us teachers were freaking out.  We wore buns and braids.  Our sofas were off limits and covered with sheets.  We threw out pillows and rugs.  But nothing helped.  Two of us dye our hair so we were told we were REALLY OK.  (It didn’t soothe our minds)  We itched and called each other on the phone and scratched and wrinkled our noses.  We all panicked.

The kids got their hair cut.  They bathed regularly.  From September to January once every month, each class in fourth grade had an appointment to visit the school nurse.

The first few months we were all so hopeful and then devastated when we still got reports of lice. (always nits, never live)

The relief we all felt when we all finally passed our monthly lice check was strange.  We kinda didn’t believe it.  We just knew SOMEONE had gotten through and been missed.  But, no.  It was finally over.  The months of itching and scratching were soon replaced with summer skirts and no coats. 

And while this post isn’t about a particularly funny student, it is about a peculiar and funny time of my teaching career.  My first experience with lice in the classroom.  Funny.  Now.

Thank goodness I remain anonymous!  After writing this, I gotta go itch.

After our initial class blog, I had the children write what they thought about blogging.  Honestly, I was hoping to get something funny to put here.  Alas, my children were dead serious in all their answers.  But, I am going to post some of the answers anyway because Drew might find a use for them in his data collection.

AA – I think the blogging is fun.  I think we should do blogging again.  I think it’s productive.  I think it helps with typing and computer skills.  That’s why I think we should do it again.

CO – It was fun to talk to each other with the computer because we had silly names!  Plus, some people like to use technology like me.  You learn to type with other kids.  You can write a comment or question about what they write.  You get to answer other people’s questions that they ask you.  YEAH!!!  That is my favorite part about blogging.

AR – Although some of us didn’t stay on the topic, we still did learn.  It was a bunch of fun.  We learn how to be polite on the internet.

AN – Today when we did blogging it was fun because I got to know other people’s opinions.

WI – It was so much fun!  It will really help me with my typing.

JA – I thought that this was a fun way to talk online and learn.

CH – It was a good experience.  I like blogging.  It is fun and exciting.  You can ask questions!

EL – I think blogging is a fun way to show your feelings.  Blogging can help fins answers and that made it fun.  Blogging is also fun because you don’t know who you are chatting with.  You can learn a lot by hearing what people have to say.  You can also write back to the person and that is fun too.

Be – Blogging was great.  I loved posting my opinion.

So, there you are.  Straight from the kids – their opinions on blogging.  I noticed that they really enjoyed the fact that they could ask questions.  Don’t we all want to ask a question and not feel dumb?

The Background: Recently, one of my very smart and wonderful students was completing a paper test. The question read, “As you read this story, think about your purpose.” Meaning, of course, the purpose FOR reading the story. Or, “Why do you want to read this story?” (which is what they should have written. Duh. Although in fourth grade some might write that they DIDN’T want to read the story.)

The Laugh: My very smart and wonderful student came up to me and said, “Mrs. Anonymousflower, it says ‘As you read this story, think about your purpose.’ Do they mean in my life??”

It was so hard to stay contained because he was so serious. I said, “No honey. Just explain why you would want to read the story.”

So my last blog got me to remembering when I taught third grade, which happened awhile back so I can laugh at this one.  At that point in time, we used to study the Native American Indians.  We also studied their natural resources, so therefore we also studied bison / buffalo.

The Background:  I found the most perfect video (in the teacher video library to show to classrooms) put out by one of those fantastic nature video producers called something like “Buffalo of the Plains.”  I was so excited as many of my children really didn’t have a clue about them and I thought it would be the perfect enhancement to learning about the Plains Indians and their culture.

The Laugh: The movie was outstanding.  We stopped about halfway through though.  I explained that the buffalo were “fighting”  and in case one of them got hurt, I didn’t want the kids to have to see that.

I am sure many of the children thought it was an odd position for the bison to be fighting in.

Sometimes something so horrible happens, people view it as funny.  But not when it happens to you.  So, this is for your enjoyment, not mine.

Background 1:  Today my children had earned a special day.  They discussed and voted and we ended up with MOVIE DAY.  All subjects were done as movies, meaning for reading, we watched a movie that had been a book (Remember Patience Whipple from the Dear America Series).  For math, we watched 2 short movies on graphing (which were excellent and is exactly what we are doing in math right now).  For science, I splurged a bit and we watched a Discovery Streaming video completed unrelated to our curriculum but of historical and high scientific interest (we watched a movie about all the Apollo Missions up to the moon landing).  They were highly interested.  For writing, we watched an interview with an author, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (author of Shiloh, etc.)  It was off to an excellent start. 

Background 2:  At about 10 minutes into the Ms. Naylor movie, the principal came in quietly, as he was just “making rounds.”  When he saw who and what we were watching he exclaimed, “MY FAVORITE AUTHOR!  I LOVE THIS AUTHOR!  I HAD MY PICTURE TAKEN WITH HER.  SHE’S GREAT!”

At that exact moment, we had to stop the movie and most of the kids left for violin class, all wondering why that was his favorite author.  He left and brought down a file folder.  (I knew why it was his favorite author)  Inside the folder, which I shared with the children the minute they returned from violin, were his pictures with her, a large brochure, and various newspaper clippings. 

Our prinicipal had actually BEEN IN THE MOVIE, as an extra.  (This isn’t a widely known fact because his “extra” part was a gruff, unshaved man standing at the local tavern, so I don’t think he wants that message portrayed widely )

So, the kids were all excited and interested and we continued to watch the interview.  Ms. Naylor told three stories from when she was a child, and then read a few pages from the Shiloh book that actually showed how she had woven her real life experiences into the Shiloh story.  Which is exactly what we are working on in writing workshop!

It couldn’t have been more perfect.

We continued to watch the interview.  She began talking about an “Alice” series that I had never heard of.  She explained how the next book (yes this is an old video) was going to be about Alice and her friend and their most embarrassing moments and secrets. 

The hackles went up on the back of my neck.  I thought “Hmm, I’m going to grab the remote, just in case.” 

The Laugh:  She proceeded to tell the interviewer (and my fourth graders) that the friend character’s most embarrassing secret was that her parents were getting a divorce.  At this point in time, I breathed a sigh of relief.  Some of my kids can relate to that – it’s okay.  But, I was too quick.  The next sentence she started talking about how Alice’s big embarassing secret was that she had never seen a boy naked. 

I just about died and clicked off the video and said, “Okay, we are done with this video,” as I walked to the front of the room.  But I didn’t want to send the wrong message to the children so I tried to cover and explain that authors write about things so they can connect with kids and help them feel like they aren’t alone or weird. 

At this point, none of my girls will even look at me and the boys are all red-faced and I just knew they were thinking, “Girls want to see naked boys??” 

I just wanted to die.  I’m freaking out, the kids are freaking out, and my sweetest most wonderful (boy)child in the room says, “I don’t think she should have been embarrassed by that.”  And I basically ignored him, wanting to be done and move on to some animal movie where my children will be distracted.

Laugh 2: All this catastrophe from the author that my principal had just been RAVING about!

So, just in case there were any parent phone calls, I told him about it at the end of the day.  The first words out of his mouth were, “Why didn’t you preview it??”

Laugh 3:  I said, “This is in the teacher video library to show to classes.  It is from 1986.  Surely somebody has seen/watched it in 22 years and could have had it removed or at least left a note!”

Oy vey!  What a mess.  So on my way home, I call my teammate (who was out sick today) to tell her.  She is rolling on the floor laughing, because she knows how much I hate the fact that fourth grade is the year we show the puberty video and I always get all uptight and freaked out about.  I mentioned that they were probably all thinking about the video and she said, “No, that won’t come till later on this evening as they sit and wonder, hmm” as she is laughing hysterically.

Seems like the pubery video came 4 months early this year.  UGH.

Well folks.  Pleasant surprise and big smiles.  My student came today (see yesterday’s blog).  He read the blog comments, printed them out and stuck them in his backpack last night, and came to school today.

His mom emailed me and said how excited he was while reading the comments and they talked about all the people who really DO like him, rather than focusing on the negative aspects.  She said SHE really enjoyed reading the comments too.  She said it was the blog that got him to come.

Those who are in my class should have a direct link to my students’ blog from Drew, if you care to read it.

So while this isn’t a funny blog, it is an extremely joyous one.  Ah, the power of technology!

http://amyboehman.edublogs.org/

I nominate the above blog for the Best Resource Blog.  Her great finds have been put to use in my classroom in so many ways!  Thanks!

http://edublogawards.com/2008/2008-nominations-contact-form/

I hope I did this right