Eighth Week of Student Teaching.

Well, I survived my first week of first grade. I am so tired. As I mentioned before, I now feel like I should seek forgiveness from my elementary school teachers, because I imagine that I was kind of a handful...

Day 36. First day in. I got about 75 hugs, which made me feel good. And kind of made up for the fact that I wasn't listened to all day. Phew, I even survived teaching my first lesson on frogs! Just barely though.
Day 37. One of the boys came into class after lunch recess in tears, and said, "One of my friends hurt my feelings." "What did he say?" "He said I wasn't good at basketball, and I've been working on my 2 pointers!!" I told him I was sorry, and he could keep working on his 2 pointers if he wanted to get even better.
Day 38. I had a breakthrough in my management technique. I think it won't last for forever, but for today it worked. I was getting frustrated with the kids not listening, and my teacher had left the room. Panic time. I was writing names on the board (the usual technique for kids who wouldn't be allowed to go out to recess), when I said out loud, "Ok, I'm just going to start writing the names of the children who ARE going to go to recess on time." I started writing names on the board, and when I turned around the children were all sitting in their desks and had their hands on their desks. And, best of all, they were SO QUIET. I couldn't hear anything. I told them, "Ok, here's the deal. I'm going to keep teaching, and when people are doing what they're supposed to then I'll keep writing names on the board. I want all the names on this list by the time recess comes! Ok?" They said, "OK! Can we put a smiley face above our names?" I said yes, so I put a smiley face up there so that they could see it. I didn't hear a peep for about 45 minutes.
Day 39. I taught for basically the entire day today. No big deal, right? Just my fourth day here! Today, a boy scraped his hand while he was running into the classroom (which he wasn't supposed to be doing). He told me his hand hurt, and I checked it out and saw that there was no bleeding. I told him I was sorry, and that it would feel better. I then continued teaching, and was interrupted constantly by his moaning and groaning. I finally stopped my lesson and said, "Hey, I'm sorry that your hand hurts, but you should either put some hand sanitizer on it and clean it or just sit there, but I need you to not be so loud so I can teach please!" He said, "You're right. I have to be strong. Be strong! Be strong!" And he kept repeating this for the rest of the day. I just ignored it after a while.
Day 40. It was Dr. Seuss Day today. The kids all dressed up, from Cindy Loo Who to Pipsqueak from the Lorax to Nick from.... whatever movie it was. After school, my teacher and I were about 15 minutes late leaving school because I was just telling her my fears and anxiety about failing the unit and student teaching. She is so nice, and will tell me things I should work on, which I appreciate. I don't think I would survive this without the redirection that I get from these teachers.

Frogs.

So my big work sample for student teaching is on frogs. I've been worried about not getting enough concepts in, and failing my unit. I've been planning my unit, and thought the best way to teach about a real frog is to bring a real frog in.

So, in preschool a girl taught a lesson on frogs, and brought in a toad for the kids to hold... umm, which by the way, is NOT a frog. I was shocked that could be allowed. So when I went to Petsmart to get a frog, I told the employee that there's no way I was going to "just get a toad instead".
I asked for tree frogs, because that's the example of a frog I could think of. They said, "No, but we do have some fire-belly toads for only $5.99. Do you want one of those instead?" No way. They said, "Well, we are out of tree frogs right now, but we do have some African Dwarf Frogs." I walked over and found these teeny tiny frogs in the fish tank. I mean, we missed them because they were swimming with the goldfish. But they were only $2.99, and are cared for like goldfish, so I took one. Meet Walter!
Unfortunately, he's so small that I need to go buy a few more. He's probably about 1/2 an inch long, maybe an inch if his legs are extended. The pet shop guy told me that they eat bloodworms, but the frogs have to eat sinking pellets and bloodworms don't sink. So I fed him by hand today, and it was kind of scary.
The best part? He doesn't need a tropical habitat. He's in a fish tank with the Cat in the Hat (it's literacy week).

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/1859_10152639230895440_937859980_n.jpg

I'm so grateful to belong to a church's whose goodwill is public and shown everywhere. 52 countries! I didn't even know problems were happening in most of them.

It just goes to show that this church, while not run by perfect people, really does practice what it preaches. It expects us to give of our time and talents, and that's what our money goes to.

Seventh Week of Student Teaching.

This week was perfectly summed up with:

This was my last week in Special Ed, and I'm sad it is done.
Day 31. President's Day! And, luckily, I did not have to go to work that day. I was able to stay home and take care of my sick husband.
Day 32. While practicing our counting in kindergarten, I had the children listen and place their candy hearts on the number I told them. One boy was not listening, so I reminded him that he should put his candy heart on the number 6. He ignored me, but after about the third time I told him to he yelled, "JUST THINK WITH YOUR BRAIN IT'S RIGHT HERE!" .......... needless to say his candy got taken away.
Day 33. In 4th grade math, we've had some issues with showing our work while doing our problems. That is coincidental, because we've also had some problems getting above a 50% on most of our assignments. One girl cranked out a 10 question assignment in about 5 minutes, and came to turn it in. I looked, and there was no work. I said, "Umm, where's your work?" "Oh, it was easy, I did it in my head." "Ok, but I'm going to grade it right now." I graded it online, and when the report printed out she got 0 out of 6 correct. She looks at it and says, "Oh, how did I get a 0?" I just about flipped my lid. I turned around to her and said, "Do not expect a good grade if you are not going to put the time or work into an assignment. You know that!" She said, "Oh, oh yeah."
(Note: She turned in the same assignment the next day to Ms. Blair without changing anything, and tried to get away with it when she got a 0 again. I almost ripped my hair out.)
Day 34. In a spelling test, the normal words are worth 10% and the challenge words are worth 5%. If you miss a challenge word, it doesn't affect your score, but it can make up for a word you miss. One of the girls missed 2 of the challenge words and got 110% on her spelling test. She burst into tears, and cried for a good 20 minutes before Mrs. Geyer noticed. She said, "Why are you crying?" "I-I-I m-m-m-misssssssssed t-t-t-t-two w-w-w-w-w-w-words on m-m-m-my test!" And the tears came flowing even more. Mrs. Geyer looked at the test, and said, "You got 110% on your test!" "Y-y-y-yeah, but I missed t-t-two words!" There was no consolation.
Day 35. So in order to understand this story, you need to know the personalities of 2 of the students:
-A girl who is so competitive that any time we compliment another student she says, "What about me?" or "I helped!" or "I thought of that too!" or... you get the idea.
-A boy who does whatever it takes to get out of doing his work. He's needed to call his mom at least once a week because he feels so sick (math is right after recess and he won't take off his sweatshirt, so I say not until he cools down). If he gets 10 problems done in 45 minutes, it's a good day.

So, on Friday this boy was asking if he could go to the bathroom. He was allowed to right at the beginning of class, but asked probably 4 more times. He also got up to blow his nose 6 or 7 times, without having any kind of cold. The last time he did, I finally said, "You know, you are the BEST at stalling doing your work! You have done 3 problems in half an hour, and have gotten up 7 times to blow your nose." He knew he was busted, but then one of the girls said, "What about me? Am I the best?" I started laughing, and said, "Umm, that's not something you want to be the best at." Clearly, she only heard "best".



This week was definitely trying, but I hope everyone realizes that these stories cracked me up, even if they don't sound like it. It's so bizarre to get into these kids' heads and try to figure out what they're saying and why they do these things. It's definitely something I expected in teaching.
Tomorrow- 1st grade!

Dallin takes the plunge.

No, he's not getting married.

HE'S TURNING IN HIS MISSION PAPERS!!!

(My response exactly.)

I can't believe it. I was definitely less emotional this time around, mainly because I was so surprised. I know I shouldn't have been, it just came on suddenly.

Dallin is who the Quorum of the 12 Apostles were thinking of when they decided to lower the mission age for men (see here). He is one of the most mature 17 year olds I have ever met; much more so than I was.

I'm so proud of my brothers. I think anyone who is able and willing to put aside 2 years of their lives in order to spread the Gospel is a hero of mine. It's such a step of maturity, and for a 17 year old to be so ready that he finishes his papers before the end of high school is amazing. I'm so sad to have 2 brothers out at the same time, only because I'll miss them. But I'd rather them be gone than not go at all.
Dallin is a great younger brother, and I'm sure he is a very wonderful older brother to Bethany and Cole. His example of being so ready to go on a mission will ring in their ears for a while, the same way Austin's preparing to go on a mission stuck with them.

Speaking of heroes, there are plenty  in my family. I have 2 parents who served missions (San Jose and Houston), now 2 brothers who are on a mission/going on a mission (Montreal and ????), a brother-in-law who served (Denmark), a sister-in-law who served (Santa Rosa), a father-in-law (Japan), and of course, my sweet husband (Bolivia). In addition, I have 12 uncles who went on missions, 6 aunts, and my grandpa Murphy. And don't even get me started on the cousins (20 and counting, if I counted correctly). There are so many wonderful examples in our family for little Dane, and for other boys and girls that will be born into our family. I love the idea of Dallin being a missionary. While Austin is a powerhouse in an extroverted way, Dallin has a sweet and mellow demeanor that will draw people to him. He will never lose his temper with his companions, because I still have yet to see him get angry.

If you couldn't tell, I'm a proud sister. Dallydoooooooo!!!!!
(Don't worry, I'm already planning on making a blanket.)

Sixth Week of Student Teaching

We're almost halfway done. I can't even believe it!

Day 26. I'm not sure how I feel about working with the upper elementary grades... I'm just not as comfortable, because I don't have as much experience. One of the best examples was this conversation with a 4th grader when she tried to turn in a 30 question assignment in 5 minutes without any work (which is a daily conversation I have in the math class):
Me: Where's your work?
Girl: Umm, it was easy so I did it in my head.
Me: Ok. Well, I'm looking at it right now, and I don't see any work. Even if you think it's easy, you need to show work. We've talked about this right?
Girl: * Blank stare *
Me: And, I can see right now that not a single question will be right when I plug your answers into the computer. I need you to go back and show your work please!
Girl: * Blank stare *
Me: Ummm, ok. I need to see work.
I handed her her paper back, and about 3 minutes later she handed me the assignment with random numbers written all over it...... I give up.

Day 27. I learned about parent teacher conferences. While conferences were a few weeks ago, every week we have meetings with different parents about their children in our program. I'm just glad that I have the chance to see these professionals and how they handle parents, because sometimes I wonder what I would do. Let's just say the conferences were pretty interesting haha.
Also, a boy told me he loved me and would miss me when I left. I love this job.

Day 28. I taught a lesson about counting using conversation hearts to my kindergarten classes this whole week. To my surprise, the morning class HATED it. They didn't even want the candy! They said, "No more books! No more counting!" To make things worse, I was being observed by my supervisor. Luckily she runs a preschool, and understands that it's rough sometimes.  I told them that we GET to work with candy today, and we will be happy. I tried, at least.

Day 29. While helping the children learn about borrowing, I had the following conversation with a 2nd grader:

Me: Ok, so we can't subtract 4 from 1. What should we do?

Boy: Ding dong!

Me: Wait, what? No, we should borrow, right?

Boy: Ding dong!

Me: Noooo, we borrow.

Boy: DING DONG!

Me: Stop saying 'Ding dong'! We are supposed to borrow, I know you know that.

Boy: Yeah, borrow.

Me: Wait, are you saying 'ding dong' for borrowing?

Boy: Yeah, like going to your neighbor's house to borrow.

Me: Ooooohhhhhhhhh ok. From now on, say 'ding dong' in your head and 'borrow' out loud ok?

Day 30. One of my kindergarteners was in a bad mood because he got a red piece of paper and not a pink piece. Some of the things he said were:

"I'm read to be nice, but I won't smile until I get a pink piece of paper."

"I just can't be happy."

After he bent down under the table and bumped his side, he burst into tears and said, "I broke my spine!" I stopped him right there and said, "I'm sorry you're hurt, but did you know that if you broke your spine you wouldn't be able to walk?"

Valentine's Day 2013- Twoo wuv.

So, this is a little mushy but it's ok. 

Brandon has basically carried me thus far through student teaching. He has made dinner most nights, which I know is surprising to some women. In addition, he'll get up about every other day to make me a bagel and send me off at 7 A.M. Some other student teachers have made frozen dinners so their husbands can survive, but I think it's the opposite for us. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he just lived to help me out. But he's in the hardest semester of his BYUI career, and he's just that nice. I'm very grateful for his help, because otherwise I would not have survived this far.
Fast forward to this week. Poor boy has been sick for the first time since 2010. He was blessed to not get sick when he was working nights, and I know that was not a coincidence. But, he started to get sick around the 12th. And you know what his biggest concern was? Making sure I had a good Valentine's Day. I told him to not worry about it, and we could celebrate once he was feeling better.
I woke up on Valentine's Day and walked to the kitchen to find this:

He had snuck out after I went to bed the night before, so I could have this when I woke up! Of course my allergies started acting up... ahem ahem. There was also: a can of guarana (my favorite soda), a bag of s'mores Goldfish, and lots of boxes of conversation hearts. It was so sweet of him.
In addition, being at an elementary school on Valentine's Day is much more fun and less destructive than Halloween (see here for more details). This may be because the children are thinking about what they get to give, instead of what they get to receive. I got plenty of valentines from my students (and not a single one spelled Giullian right... not that I was expecting it). I brought red velvet cookies for my 4th grade math class, to keep up my end of a deal. I also had spend the last week working on this for my 1st grade class:

I was worried that after crocheting 23 hearts, I would get there and there would be 24 kids. Luckily, I counted right. And Mrs. Stanger made sure they knew how cool it was that I MADE them. Which, I appreciated so that they wouldn't say it's stupid, but it didn't take that long per heart. Just the combined 23 of them took a while. I got lots of hugs and "I love it!" from them.
While getting dressed for Valentine's Day, I realized I don't own much pink. I decided to do something about that, and used the heart pattern for a headband:

I was worried it would look stupid, but kids said they liked it.

We're still holding out on Brandon's recovery to really celebrate Valentine's Day, but it was a good day to remind me of how much I love that guy. He is so thoughtful, and gets me through everything that I think is too hard to handle. I'm very lucky to have him.

Fifth Week of Student Teaching

First of all, this is something my friend posted on Facebook. And this goes out to everyone who may think that getting an education degree was the "easy way out":

Try it. I dare you!

Day 21. I've started to read books about bullying and being nice to all of our friends to my kindergarteners, because we've had some name-calling issues. When I asked them what they should say when someone's picking on them, they usually respond with, "Bullies never win!" (the title of a book). However, 10 seconds later they start teasing and crying again. I haven't given up yet!

Day 22. We had a kindergartener who was refusing to do his homework, because he wanted to do it at home with his mommy. I was trying so many ways to get him to do his work, when finally something clicked. A boy wanted a stamp after his work was done, and I told him he and everyone else who finished their worksheet could get a stamp. This little boy's eyes filled up with tears, and he asked, "Can I just get a bad boy stamp, because I didn't do my work?" I told him no, people who didn't finish their work didn't get stamps. That got the message across. He started wailing, but it was time to bring the kids back. Ms. Blair and Mrs. Geyer stepped in to talk to him, and  I took the other kids back. I came back, and started coloring a picture of a heart. I said I got to color this picture because I finished my work. His ears perked up, and he filled out the whole worksheet in about 3 minutes flat. This had been after an HOUR of waiting, when the kids are supposed to only be there for half an hour. As he was leaving, he turned to me and said, "I thought I got to color a picture now, because I did my work!" I had a hard time controlling my innermost thoughts, but I said, "Well, if you do your work next time, then you will get to color a picture." OH MY GOSH.

Day 23. The third graders had the chance to draw a picture of a frog and write a quick story about it. Most of the stories went along the lines of: "My frog is green. My frog croaks. My frog eats flies." Then, there's one picture of a yellow frog with claws. The story says, "My frog is very big. He is a cannibal. He eats other frogs. He likes to eat snakes too. He is very big, you should run and hide from him." I was so confused... but I guess it's his frog!

Day 24. We're on a quest for the children to get 100% on the math assignments in 4th grade. I told them if they all get 100% on an assignment, then I'll go jump in the snow. 3 out of 5 children have done it, but the other 2 are still working on it. I'll keep up the incentive.

Day 25. I've been working on making valentines for my 1st grade class (to win them over when I go there in 2 1/2 weeks), and have been crocheting little hearts. I'll take a picture of them when I'm done. But I've been doing that in my spare time in the classroom, when students aren't there of course.

So, fast forward to today. I'm sitting there grading papers while my students are getting ready to go to lunch, and a 3rd grader comes up to me. She says, "Umm, my mom wants you to make me one of those hearts. She knows how to do that stuff and wants you to make me one." I didn't even know what to do, so I just sat there. Luckily Mrs. Geyer stepped in and said, "Mrs. Giullian is working on something with those hearts." I said I could get her the pattern, but she never asked for it. Many of her stories are of... questionable integrity... so I have no idea if her mom actually crochets. But I was pretty shocked by the boldness to ask for one. They crack me up.

More Elder Murphy Sightings

This week, my mom forwarded the mission newsletter to us. She said that there was a picture we wanted to see... sure enough, we found this!

Austin said he loves his blanket, and so does his mission president. I said I'd make one for him at a discount, but there's no way I'm making that for free again haha. Nice to know it's being appreciated!

Also, last night (Wednesday) my mom told me to check my email. I did, and there was a video taken by a member of our favorite elder and his companion. It was very sweet to see, as we haven't seen that mug in 8 months. If you think you can see it, you'll be sorely disappointed. That's just for us!

Fourth Week of Student Teaching

Day 16. Snow Day! And good thing, because the world outside looked like this:

So I made sure to run errands while I had the chance, and get caught up on everything. Like this blog. Also, it was Taylor's birthday so we brought him cupcakes.
Day 17. Cutest quote of the day: In kindergarten, we were working on coloring certain numbers, to work on listening skills and counting. I realized that we didn't have enough purple colored pencils for one of the numbers. I said, "Uh oh! I have to go find some more purple colored pencils there aren't enough!" And one of my little boys said in his pure 5 year old voice, "Mrs. Giullian, we can just SHARE the colored pencils!" I just about died. And let them share (which they were surprisingly good at).
Day 18. While talking about the different meanings of the word "Jam", we discussed being in an elevator that is so full that it's not very fun to be there. That means we are "jam packed" into an elevator. One of the boys raised his hand and said, "One time, I was in an elevator that was so full that I was on top of everyone, and I was hanging upside down by my knees. Then, everyone left, and my mom and dad left, and I fell down and cracked my head open." We just stared at him for a minute, and Ms. Blair finally said, "Well, then you would be in a jam packed elevator, wouldn't you?"
Day 19. This week I've been so tired, and luckily it hasn't just been me. Maybe a snow day isn't that great for teachers... the kids are all wound up now. However, I tried to make things interesting. In my 4th grade math class, we've been having an issue with kids not showing their work, and rushing through assignments. As a result, the assignments (which are graded by computer) are getting really low scores. So I made it interesting. I told them that if next week, all 5 of them can turn in at least one assignment with work done and have 100% correct (which they can... these assignments on the computer are remedial and cover things they've already learned), then I will go jump in the snow. I made the bet because it was a safe bet, so if it does happen then I will gladly go jump in the snow.
Later that night we went to see our friends Tyler and Jessica. Brandon and Tyler lived together for 3 semesters, so we've known each other for a while. They just had a little baby girl, and I was so excited to get to make something for a girl that I brought her over a headband as my peace offering. Kendall loved it.

She's such a cutie.
Day 20. I realized that when I am talking with my kindergarteners, and the well behaved first graders that I don't have to chase down the hall, that I talk a lot like Sesame Street. When we went to go pick up the kindergarteners, one girl was crying. Ms. Blair stayed there to talk to her, and I took the kids back to the Learning Center with me. One girl asked, "Why is she crying?" I said, "She's crying because she's sad. But we all get sad sometimes, and that's OK." I stopped and thought about what I just said. But I guess it eliminated the issue of the kids asking "Why, why, why, why, why, whywhywhywhywhy" (which also happens a lot).

All in a day's work.