Homophones: 2009 Edition

My class was doing literacy work in small groups this week. One of the groups had to do work with homophones and part of their assignment was to make a list of homophone pairs.

I stopped by their table just in time to overhear one of my lower students, who had previously looked totally stumped, say "OH! I know! Like 'we' and 'wii!"



In mostly unrelated news, I finally redeemed the points I earned on my credit card and purchased a Wii. I'm all antsy waiting for it to arrive. I needed plenty of things and there were certainly much wiser ways to spend all of the points, but judging how my school year is going so far, I'm really excited about being able to punch stuff while "boxing" after school soon.


BAM

My new best friend.

I have a new friend. I love my new friend. I could not get through a day without my new friend.

My new friend is my classroom timer.

It was taking my kids forever to transition from one thing to the next. Asking them to put a book in their cubby and bring a folder back to their seat was like asking them to travel to Pluto and back. "See you next year, Ms. G!" In the morning they'd come into the classroom, walk to their cubbies to put things away and get out their materials, but then they would just stand around their cubbies and talk, yell, and push each other. I would stand by helplessly trying to herd them to their tables like sheep. Or goats. Can you herd goats?

But now--

Now I set a timer. "YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES TO PUT YOUR LITERACY FOLDER IN YOUR CUBBY AND MEET ME ON THE RUG. THE CONSEQUENCE IS DEATH BY STONING." Ok, so I'm not actually allowed to stone my students, but I do take away recess if you're not where you're supposed to be when the timer makes it's ear-piercing, incessant, beeping noise. Suddenly, my kids are zipping around the room with a purpose. The trouble-makers try to chat with my good kids, and they ignore them or tell them, "Don't talk! I don't want to miss recess!" I love it when they keep each other in line.

I'm thinking of trying out the timer trick in my own life. Could it get me to clean up my room a little faster? But what do I take away if I don't get recess?

Your faces are getting old.

I've run into a problem with my new class.

Last year, I taught the two-way language program in my school. There were two 3rd grade classes in the program, so I taught one class in English, while a Spanish teacher was teaching the same thing to the other class, but in Spanish. We stayed with each class for a week, and then swapped. I loved my kids last year. They were awesome. They were sweet. They were hardworking. They could read.

But I hadn't realized how great it was that I got a different class each week. On Friday, a couple of them could be getting on my nerves, and I loved the fact that I kicked them out the door and wouldn't need to see them in my classroom for an entire week.

Well this year is different. Not only is the bulk of my class not sweet, not hardworking, and several cannot read, but I have to keep them until June. There is no swapping classings. And frankly, I'm getting awfully sick of seeing (some of) them day, after day, after day.

It makes me a little nervous about having children of my own one day. Are you allowed to swap out with a friend for a week?