Following Directions

Ahhhh! The math tests are corrected, and now I take a break before I tackle the English papers. In my correcting, one thing made me chuckle. Before students handed in their revised tests, I told them to make corrections in a different color of pen or pencil or to put a box around their corrections and work so that I would easily find them. Well, one student took my directions to heart. She used a very bright orange marker for her corrections and then she proceeded to write at the top of each page - "Corrections are in orange". Now that's a person who knows how to follow directions! It kind of made me laugh because even though it was obvious where her corrections were, I really appreciated that. One thing I hate to do is spend extra time searching for what should be obvious!

Spellling misteaks can be funnie!

Uhggg! Christmas correcting. I don't give the kids homework over the break, but I wish I could say the same for myself. Well, I have decided to take a break (who am I trying to fool? I haven't even started!) to share some of the funnier (is that a word) misspellings I have encountered. It's not much, but here it goes:

• idiot does not begin with an "e"
• dumb has a silent "b"
• and unless you really do have friends that live where you hang your coat, don't forget the last "s" in "closest" when describing your friends.
• one student told me in a survey that her goal was "to avoid spelling airs"

And I am sure that I will be able to add to this list later. Anyone out there have a good one to add? It's not just kids. Adults do it too, even teachers! Spell check can be a tricky thing to use, especially with names. I am so glad that I did not just click "change" in my email spell checker that suggested my principal's name really might be Mr. "Sleazier" (he is a really nice and wonderful principal - can I have my raise now?). That would not have been a good email to send. I would also like to say that I am not Mrs. "Warty". (I had all those removed years ago! ha ha ha).

I guess the lesson in all this is that you don't have to be the best speller in the world - even being an English teacher for 13 years hasn't cured me of my spelling difficulties. You just have to proofread, proofread, proofread, and use spell check - with caution.

Christmas cheer

Well, now that I've started my blog about classroom laughs, the only laughs I am encountering are those that violate my rules. Ahhh irony! But anyway, I can still find something funny in this week that is appropriate to write about. If I couldn't, I wouldn't be a good middle school teacher. Well anyway, like most schools, this was our last week before Christmas break, and I will say that the kids were pretty good all week. We also had AODA (alcohol and other drug awareness) week this week, so every day was another "dress up" day. On Wednesday it was hat day, and I wore my Santa hat that has the phrase "I believe in Santa Clause" embroidered on it. I went to the store after school, and I was feeling pretty good about myself because people were looking at me and smiling....and then I walked past a mirror. I was still wearing the hat!!! I guess it was really comfortable because I never took it off. What a dork! At least that gave me something to laugh about. By the way, after that I still kept the hat on because the hair was worse!

Today we went caroling as part of a fund raiser for our nursing home field trip program. The day was great and exhausting. We earned every penny of what we raised. Before this the kids asked people for pledges, and if people wanted to request that we sing to someone, we went to that place. Our grade raised over 600 dollars. We have about 100 kids in the grade. It was fun, but I think we scared some people. We were walking by a house where a lady was outside with her dog, and I asked her if she would like us to sing her a song, and she said, "No thank you, I already heard you when you sang down the street." Oh...It was that bad, was it? However, she was the only one who said anything remotely uncomplimentary. Most people smiled and laughed and enjoyed the caroling. I made sure to tell the kids before we went that our purpose was to bring joy to others, not to amuse ourselves by how bad we can sing or to see who can shout the loudest. I think most of them "got it." We got pretty good at "Jingle Bells" by the end of the day. And then tonight around 6 a group of carolers came to my house and sang "Jingle Bells"! I'm beginning to not like that song....

A blog is born

Hello! This is my first entry in my very first blog ever, and I have decided to use it to tell everyone just exactly what they should expect to find here and what made me do this.

First of all, I created this blog to share the funny things that happen in the classroom and for other teachers, parents, or students to do the same. Why? Because I love to laugh. I believe laughter is the cure for many evils, and I believe with the push for "wellness" programs in our district (and I'm sure in many other school districts) I feel the focus has been on physical wellness programs - exercise, diet, drink water, sleep 8 hours, etc. etc. Well, what about mental health? Who's paying attention to that? This blog is my answer. I believe in being part of the solution. I hate it when people complain and then do nothing about the issue except be unhappy! So here it goes. Please share with me things that made you laugh today or any day in your classroom, but please follow these guidelines:

- no student or school names
- no criticisms of anyone or any other department, school, town, city, state, etc.
- no cruel "butt-of-the-joke" laughs
- no gossip (the only personal information you should share is your own)
- be professional (I heard about a probationary teacher that was non-renewed because of a unprofessional, critical, inflammatory blog that she created.)