The fun, the funny, and the bad

Today we filled up our behavior management marble jar and got to "make a wish." To quell wishes for motorcycles and millions of dollars, I reminded the class that everything we wished for had to be for the whole class. One of the things a student suggested was a superhero. "How would a superhero help the whole class or be fun for the whole class?" I asked. A-- raised his hand. "He could save the day," he suggested.

We voted and settled on a Halloween party. Luckily, my principal has said that we may have a Halloween party if we can write a lesson plan for it. I think it will fit in with my Social Studies objectives because we voted for the party and we can discuss the responsibilities and dangers that come with trick-or-treating:
2a: Demonstrate the voting process (e.g., by a show of hands, secret ballot, etc.).
2d: Recognize responsibilities of the individual ( e.g., respect for the rights and property of others, tolerance, honesty, compassion, self-control, participation in the democratic process, work for the common good, etc.).

*****

At the end of last week, we finished writing about all of the students in the class. So today we wrote about me and on Monday, we'll write about Mrs. B-- (my assistant teacher). The first thing we do is "cheer spell" the name. So Ms. Hayes was:

Ms. Hayes: "Gimme an M!"
Class: "You got your M, you got your M, M!"

Ms. Hayes: "Gimme an S!"
Class: "You got your S, you got your S, S!"

Ms. Hayes: "Gimme a period!"
Class: "You got your period, you got your period, period!"

Happily, I'm the only one who found this funny/embarrassing.

One of the questions that a student asked was, "How old are you?" I let them guess before I answered, "I'm old enough to be your teacher." The guesses included 20, 6, 90, 53, 43, 30, 27, 26, 24, and 22. The consensus seemed to be that I am 24. So even though everyone else in the Delta thinks I'm 14, my kids think I'm 24 (and I'm really 22).

****

In other news, my school may get taken over by the state. I'm not going to comment (if you would like comments, you may ask our school librarian/media specialist, Ms. Coleman, as she is the official voice of the school.) We were informed of that today because there's an article in the Jackson paper, the Clarion-Ledger. You can read about it here: State mulls taking over school district.