H1N1 and all Sorts of Germs

Last fall there was an outbreak of the H1N1 virus as we all remember. At the school we were taking great precaution to keep kids healthy and if students had symtoms they were sent strait home. Each classroom was well equipped with Sam's Club sized bottles of Germ X, Clorox Wipes, and tons of Lysol spray. I even had the little hand held size of Germ X hand sanitizer and a mini lysol spray in my playground bag (equipped with rubber gloves, band aids, and all those fun supplies) to make sure I would not get sick. One morning a little girl comes up to me and says "Guess what?!" (as I said when I child comes up and says "Guess What" that's usually not a good sign of what's to come) So I replied with the usual "I don't know, What?!" She then smiles, gives me a big bear hug, and says "I was sick last night..." "That's not good" I said. "Did you throw up?!" (since that was the bug that was going around) "Yup!" She said with a huge toothy grin, and then went on to say "I just threw up too" while she pointed to a spot around the corner where 4-5 little boys were standing staring at something in the dirt. So I got on the walky-talky with the nurse and janitor and had that situation cleaned up.





A couple of days passed and I began to feel horrible with flu like symptoms. So I go to the doctor and I have the flu (they thought H1N1 but never tested me because by the time the test gets back you're already over the hump of it) and they take full precaution and send me home with a face mask until my fever passes. While I am at home, sick. I am on facebook talking to one of the other kindergarten supervisors and she goes on to tell me that the same little girl who gave me a big bear hug after she threw up tested positive for H1N1... So much for taking precaution and not getting sick. The moral of this story, get your flu shot early on.

A Hysterectomy, I Presume

As teachers (or future teachers) you always know that it is not usually a good sign when a kid comes up to you and says "Guess What!?!" So one morning after the students came into the classroom one little boy comes up to be with great excitement and says "Guess What!?!" I replied with "What!?" the little boy begins to tell me, "my mom had surgery this weekend, but you don't want to know where" so I just said "OK, I hope she's feeling better?" (not really wanting to know where his mom had surgery at/on). So I turned around to go help another student and the little boy then yells "SHE IS! AND IT WAS ON HER UTERUS!!"

Last Day of Class for the Fall '10 Semester

No story for this post, sorry. Well here I am on the last day of class for the fall semester of 2010. It feels pretty dang good to have every project turned in and only 2 exams to go next week. Whew! What a relief this semester has been!! Much better and less stressful than semesters past. I often get the question of "why do you want to be a teacher?" For those of you that know me, I spent some time as a Landscape Architecture major and a Biology/Chemistry major before switching to ECE this year. Yes, both majors were fun but they just didn't feel right. I always knew I would probably end up teaching someday, even though I tried to fight fate. But honestly, of all the family members that have some sort of job in education, it was bound to happen that I would become a teacher, especially ECE since every family member works with the elementary age students. So here I am in my 4th year of college (I will graduate 2 years from now in the Fall of '12) and absolutly in love with my major. I consider myself so lucky that I get to wake up and go to class and play with kids. How fun!? So back to the question, "why do I want to be a teacher?" I want to be a teacher for many reasons. Here are a couple of my reasons... I want to inspire students to become whatever they can imagine and I want to shape their futures and coach them in becoming doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, or whatever they want. Because someday someone may find a cure for cancer and that person was once someone's student. How proud do you think that persons kindergarten teacher will be someday. In closing I found a couple of these verses that I found to be great for educators.

"If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well." -Romans 12:7

"And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others" -2 Timothy 2:2

Cha Cha

So about a month ago I was required to give a group of kindergarteners a math lesson for my Math Methods class. I was a little nervous, to say the least, since I was being critiqued by one of my ECE (Shorthand for Early Childhood Education) Professors. I wanted the math lesson to go off without a hitch and have the students leaving with a better understanding of the content. However, as teachers, we know that this does not always happen. In the middle of the lesson I noticed a little girl with her shirt hiked up under her chin exposing her stomach and she had her leggings pulled out in front of her. I quietly told her to pull her leggings up and put her shirt down. (In the mean time my professor is watching how I handle the situation). The little girl responds to me in a very loud whisper, "But I have a really big rash on my Cha-Cha." It was all I could do not to laugh and I looked at her with wide eyes and just said "oh ok." I then looked at my supervising professor who was cracking up with laugher behind her clipboard. After the lesson, my professor met with me to evaluate my teaching. She told me that I handled the situation better than she would have, which made me feel quite relieved.

Marriage

When I began working in a Kindergarten classroom last fall the classroom teacher was telling her students that they need to address me as "Miss" rather than "Mrs." She then asked her students if they knew the difference between "Miss" and "Mrs." None of the students knew so the teacher explained that a "Miss" is someone who is not married and a "Mrs." is someone who is married. One little girl threw her hand up in the air and the teacher called on her. The little girl then quickly stated "My mom used to be a Miss and then she FINALLY married my dad this summer and now she's a Mrs. and she hates being a Mrs."

Squirrel

So I apologize for the rush of posts right now, but I want to give each story their own post since they each deserve a good laugh.... So here is the squirrel story. Last fall I worked at one of the local elementary schools as a playground supervisor/classroom assistant. One very cold morning (must have been below 0 since we were inside) right before Christmas break we were all sitting in the hallways outside of our classrooms. I was in charge of a couple of kindergarten classrooms so that kept me very busy in the morning trying to keep them calm and quiet. A little second grade girl came up to me and was tapping on my shoulder profusely while I was helping a kindergartener take off their snowpants and snowboots. I finally turned around and asked her what she needed. She said "Guess what I have in my backpack?". I told her "I don't know", while I was trying to watch two imfamous trouble making kindergarteners out of the corner of my eye. She then looked strait at me and said "A squirrel!!!" and ran down the hall to her classroom. I honestly had no idea what to think at that point, just praying that it was a stuffed squirrel. One of the 3rd grade teachers came up to me and asked "did she really say she has a squirrel in her backpack?" and all I could do was shrug and say "Let's hope not." In my mind all I could think about what that clip from the movie Christmas Vacation when the squirrel flys out of the tree at Clark and that same thing happening when she opens her backpack.

Pilot

Well here I am, finally creating a blog like my mom told me to. I have no idea what to name it so I decided "Pilot" would be good enough, just like they do for the 1st episode of a TV show, right?! As I said, my mom told be I should start a journal or blog for all the stories and experiences that I have heard/had while working in the classroom. One thing that I have learned while being an Early Childhood Education major is that kids will tell you anything and everything if you will listen to them. Sometimes the stories will make you laugh until you pee your pants, other times kids will leave you thinking "what goes on in that household?" So I decided this will be the perfect place to share my stories with all of you... Enjoy!