A Word About Discipline

Hi friends =] So I've been teaching all day since last Monday and oh my goodness, it is exhausting. I feel like I'm juggling five chainsaws all day long. I have ACTUALLY FORGOTTEN TO EAT. If you know me, you know that is very unusual. I usually plan my day around when I get to eat- true story.

One of the biggest things I've noticed is about discipline and behavior management. It's pretty easy to keep 22 kids in line for an hour long lesson every once in awhile, but having them all day is a whole 'nother story! The "Spring Fever" they've got doesn't help matters, either.

A couple of my boys were having trouble controlling themselves and were unfocused and giggly during lessons. I love these kids and KNOW they want to behave for me, they just need help refocusing. So I talked with the student having the most difficulty and since he and I bonded very quickly over Gator football, I came up with a little idea. Since Tim Tebow is such a fantastic leader and makes constant good choices, we called good leadership or good focus moments "Tebow Moments". Whenever I catch this student doing a great job, I just walk by and softly say "Tebow Moment". He absolutely loves it!

Today, he had a really great day and was so so proud of his "Tebow Day". I'm just glad that he's using his leadership abilities for good! Thanks for the inspiration, Tim ;)

Florida Writes 2013

Oh. Baby. Today was the day we were all anxiously awaiting! Florida Writes 2013!! After warming up to the Cupid Shuffle, our fourth graders kicked butt today and wrote their little hearts out for a full hour. After we wrote, we celebrated with some homemade treats (Paula Deen's gooey butter cake, anyone?) and got to relax with some indoor recess while it continued to rain outside. We were SO happy we avoided a tornado warning during the test. Wouldn't that just be a nightmare?

In honor of being finished with FCAT Writes, I thought I'd share some of my favorite snippets from the kids' journals they've been keeping. Enjoy!

Selena Gomez is my standard of beauty, too.

It's easy to mix up "hands-on" and "hands-down". What a great new saying!
Writing is HANDS-ON my favorite subject!

"Ugh! This is not my style" Princess in the making. I feel the same way, girl.

Alluding to Jackson Pollock. These are 9 and 10 year old children.
Are you as impressed as I am??

My favorite: "...they look so beautiful it makes me feel like I'm a dirty street rat."
Where did this come from??

I just love reading everything these kids write. They have so much personality in their writing! I'm so proud of them and happy that we. are. done.


In TFA news, I received two books in the mail today: Teaching as Leadership and A Chance to Make History. These are for "onboarding" which is prep between now and Institute in June. It basically looks a whole lot like my online classes- read sections and then respond in a group of 6-8 people online. I'm also applying to more schools and preparing for some phone interviews. Very exciting stuff!

Special delivery!

I Spend My Day with Nine-Year-Olds

Ok, to be fair, some of them are ten ;) But seriously, I spend my day with nine-year-olds and they say the best things! I just wanted to take a minute and share a couple things I've heard this week (and it's only Tuesday!)

Today, one of my girls was showing me the back of her book, which was an informational book about some famous person. It was listing other books in the series and she said, "Ms. Douberly, who's N-S-Y-N-C?" and I said "NYSNC??" and she was like "Uh ya. Who's that?" I just died a little inside. Then I said "Well, do you know Justin Timberlake? It was a boy band with him when I was your age." But you guys. It was so sad. Not ONE child in the vicinity knew who NYSNC was. Like didn't even recognize the name as something. Sad day.

Sorry I let you down, fellas

Then on a sweet note, the kids were reading about inherited traits yesterday and one of my boys got really excited and said "Ms. Douberly, did you know that if you have one parent that's African-American and one that's Caucasian, you get to kinda look like both?!" Haha I just said "Yup" and he was clearly disappointed at my lack of enthusiasm because he continued "I mean, you get BOTH. You get traits of BOTH races. Isn't that cool??" It really is fun to see them learn things that most people already know and be so excited about it. You forget sometimes how little they are and then they remind you. Also, this led to a conversation on Mariah Carey. I'm reppin' 90s pop this week apparently.

He only recognized her from American Idol. *facepalm*

Finally, today we were messing with the SmartBoard after we hadn't used it in awhile. The kids came in as we were playing with some programs and were curious if we were gonna use it this week. I said we might and one of my boys goes "Well it could definitely lead to some exciting learning opportunities!" Careful, your gifted is showing ;) I love them!

Hope your week has been as fun as mine's been! Also, my Gator's are playing my mentor teacher's Wildcats tonight, so here's hoping I get bragging rights tomorrow! Go Gata!

It's the Little Things

Ever have one of those days where everything strikes you as funny?? Today was one of those days and my sweet little fourth graders and I were laughing all day! Here are some fun anecdotes to get you laughing too:

I was at recess and a student needed to go inside for something. As we were walking in, we passed a group of four girls standing in a circle. Each of them held a lizard in one hand and had their other hand up in a pledge as they said (in unison!):

"As a member of the Lizard Club, I solemnly swear to never speak of this to any living being."

After we walked by, I just said "Hmm" and my sweet student said with a completely straight face, "Well that was disturbing!" haha I love how honest they are this age! We had the giggles for a bit after that! I'm gonna keep an eye on the growing coven happening on the playground though, don't you worry.

Run lizards, run for your lives.

This week was Red Ribbon Week at our school, in celebration of being drug-free. Do you remember doing this every year in elementary school?? Well today we all wore red and one of the students on the afternoon announcements told us why:

"Everyone wore red today to remember to celebrate a life of free drugs" Wait, what?? Free drugs? THAT'S what red ribbon week is all about?? 

Or is he happy he has free drugs??

Haha I got a kick out of that one, but it went WOOSH right over the kids' heads.

So that was my funny day. Hope your day was just as fun!!