End of a school year and a new blog name

Well. It happened.
The school year ended.
I cannot believe that 180 days could have gone by so quickly. I miss those precious 4th graders already. I bawled on the last day of school. The worst part is that I will not get to see them since I am changing schools next year.

That leads me to the name change of the blog. When I received a map of my new school, I discovered that I am going to be in a classroom with the same room number as my old class. Room 125. Hallelujah! I thought it was too amazing; I had to do something about it. Hence the name change.

Now I leave you with a picture of my sadly empty room. (I had to be out the day school was over.)

I am going to miss that classroom, but I will most definitely NOT miss its serious lack of storage. (What you see in the back is about 2/5 of the built in storage that I had.) No sink. No drinking fountain. Hopefully I will have pics of my new classroom this week.

The 1st Degree (not of glory) Part 1.

(Thank you grandpa for the title.)

Even though I have not taken a class at BYU for a year, I finally received the cover that I get to stick a piece of paper in. Wahoo!
On Thursday when I told my kiddos I was taking a half day, they were distraught. ("Why are you going to be gone?" "Is it your graduation?" "Are you going to teach us the rest of the year?") Needless to say, they got over it and when 11:22 hit, I was out of there. Before I was actually out of the school, I ran into my principal and had a conversation like this:
"Are you going somewhere?" I was lugging my bag and laptop towards the entrance of the school.
"Yeah. I'm taking a half day today."
"But you have your first day of CRT testing. I was heading down to make sure you knew how to do them." CRT testing is the testing they do at the end of the year. Unlike my generation, my lucky students get to take these on the computers.
"We took our first test last week. I moved it so that I could leave today."
"Ah. On the schedule, it still shows you doing it today."
"Yup. It's taken care of. Thanks for checking up on me though."
"....Oh yeah! You're going to graduation." I love my principal. He scared me for a second during that conversation.

Tangent.

I was wearing this rather adorable dress and girls of all grade levels kept stopping me in the hall to tell me how much they loved my dress. Well thank you, 11-year-old girls. One of my students even told me I looked like I was going to a wedding.

"Like I am going to a wedding or I am the one getting married?"
"You look like you're getting married." Hmm. It would make a cute, informal wedding dress.

End tangent.

My father picked me up and we reached campus way too early for the 3:00 arrival time for commencement. He was adorable. We meandered around campus while we thought up places to take pictures.
These places included in my father's bff's office.

Under a flag.

(Wouldn't my hair look super cute really short and straight? Kinda like how this picture looks?)

In front of other graduates taking pictures in front of Mr. Young himself.

Holding hands with a practically naked indian.

Do not fear, husby. He's my grandpa. Promise.

In front of the ASB

And...both of us in front of the ASB. Love that man.

After that, he dropped me off at my designated location, and we parted ways. I found friends. We laughed, traded teaching stories, and caught up with each other. After a very long time, the march of the graduates began.

The faculty began the march and us lower-level folk followed. I happened to walk right past my father on the way to the Marriott Center and he was standing, camera ready to take some shots.

After commencement, we ran into my favorite math professor. I was glad I was in heels that made me about 6'1". Yes. He's that tall. He is a marvelous professor and even came to my mother's funeral last year.

Thursday was tiring...Friday was much worse...

Random Acts of Kindness

This is the story of how I try to teach my students about being kind to others and how I got a student suspended. (Sound intriguing?)

Last week, I had an adorable baby blanket and two onesies that I had just finished for one of the other 4th grade teachers. She is due any day now and I cannot wait to meet her third child. Instead of just giving her these things, I used it as an integrated writing/kindness lesson. In my class, we discussed how hard it is to be pregnant. Many of my students are the oldest in their family or remember their mom pregnant. We discussed everything that this teacher does and how hard she works. We went over the idea of doing random acts of kindness or service for others. Then, we wrote her a secret admirer note. Two of my students dropped the note and presents off at her door, knocked, and ran away. When they came back, one told me that she was shaking so hard because she was nervous. The students loved being gift giving ninjas and I wondered if that lesson made any impact on them...

Fast forward a day or two...

I had just changed the seats of every student. One of my boys, D, was mad at me. Extremely mad. Madder than I had ever seen him. So mad that as the class was heading out the door for lunch, he asked me, "What would happen if I kicked you?" Excuse me?
Later as I picked up my students from lunch, I watched him take a ball from another student and drop kick it as far as he could.
The vice principal had a little chat with him the next day about violence and threats and told him if anything happened in the future, he would be suspended. I thought he just needed a powerful figure to get after him. He seemed to calm down and I forgot about it. For two hours.
That same day, two hours later, I went to go pick my class up from computers. I was met with a chorus of, "Mrs. Jaeger! D punched G in the face!" Seriously? G is D's cute little cousin.
I walked my students back to class, turned on some songs for them to sing, assigned one of my girls to take over the class and marched D and G down to the office. D started to freak out.
"Don't make me go to the office! I didn't mean to punch her. I am so sorry."
G was just sobbing.
Eventually the vice principal pulled the story out of D. He was sobbing the whole time. She assigned him to in-school suspension for three days.
During lunch I am sure the rumors were circling because after lunch one of my students asked me if D would ever be in our class again. After telling my students that D would not be returning to our class on that day, but he would return, one of my students suggested that we write him a class letter to help him feel better. That touched me. Everyone saw what he did and yet they still wanted to do something kind for him. We wrote him a letter and I delivered it during a break.

After school, D gave me this letter.

Translation: "Dear Mrs. Jeager, I am sorry for all the troble I have been doing. I promiss I'll behave better. I'm so sorry I know I have been bad. I am sorry for that and I'll behave my self forever. Relly. I am so so so so so so so so sorry. From, D"

Some of my students picked up on the fact that I was not in the best mood after that happened and these three darling notes appeared on my desk

 This one is from a student that is blessed with the gift to love everyone no matter what. She gives me hugs on a daily basis and verbally tells me that she loves me all the time...even if I made her cry ten minutes ago.

This student writes me amazing notes all the time. She is a perfect student.

This student told me she drew me relaxing on a beach in Hawaii. The entire picture is done in green because what could be better than relaxing on a green beach under a green sun? Nothing.

I think they might have caught onto the random acts of kindness lesson better than I could have imagined.

Almost Famous

Sometimes my students make me feel like a celebrity. They go crazy when they see me change anything or hear of anything that I do differently.

Now...I have pretty curly hair. We're not talking about tight springs (talk to my cousin about that), but I do have ringlets. I had not straightened my hair in over a year and decided it was time to take the plunge (and 90 minutes) to add a bit of variety one day.

Here is a small sampling of how the students reacted.

And one that just warms my heart:

Today was part one of parent teacher conference. About six of the parents that came in commented that their child told them all about my haircut. I really do feel like a celebrity. (If all this came from straightening and chopping off my hair, I wonder how the public would react if I dyed it...)

The 100th Day of School

This upcoming week is a big one. We have two celebration days in a row. On Wednesday, it is a certain teacher's birthday. Her students are planning a surprise for her. They are adorable students. I cannot wait to see what they have planned.
The day after my a certain teacher's birthday, it is the 100th day of school. I am definitely excited for it. I take any excuse to make school that much more fun. One thing I am sad about is that my team is doing math rotations this week. It is the first time we are rotating in anything and it just happens to be on the 100th day of school. I had some math activities that I definitely wanted to do with them. Maybe we'll just do double math. (True story: This past week, I gave my students the option to rearrange the schedule for a day to fit in two math lessons and all except 5 voted to do that.) Here is a rundown of what we are going to do.

1-100 search (math activity)
I received an epiphany for this idea when I saw this cute Hunting for Kisses idea from this website.

Once I thought about how this activity wouldn't do very much for my 4th graders, I changed it up a bit. I still will put kisses throughout the room, but they will search for the kisses with a partner. When they find one, they mark it off on the chart and then draw two arrays for the number and list all the factor pairs.

Make 100 pinwheels. I am a mega fan of pinwheels. So cute and springish. (If we need anything, it is a little spring. It was -20 a couple weeks ago when I arrived at school. Disgusting.)

If each of my students made 3, we would just about have 100.

I definitely am going to be making a sign similar to this one.

In fact, I want to get started on that one right away. Her website is full of adorable pennants and I am definitely a fan of the adorable pennant.

Last but not least, have a 100-year-old photo shoot. Remember a few years ago when mustaches on a stick were all the rage? (Okay, they are still all the rage.) Well...picture this: Your choice of a white mustache, beard, hair, and thick glasses. Choose what you like and adorn yourself as a 100-year-old for a photo shoot with your friends. I have hinted to it already and my little 4th graders were really hyped up.

There you go. A few of my 100 day ideas. (Can't Thursday come any sooner?)

A birthday cake and Valentines Day decor

Every second sunday of each month, my family gets together and celebrates whoever's birthday is in that month. Last week, we were able to celebrate one of my nephews birthday as well as my own. This called for a birthday cake.
My favorite cake recipe is ATK's flourless chocolate cake layer of their triple mousse chocolate cake. It is divine. Because it was my birthday, and one always wants the best for one's self, I went ahead and made it.

It is an intense cake. A dozen eggs. Flourless chocolaty goodness. I made the three layers of cake and Mr. Wolfgang helped with the two layers of mousse we stuck in the middle. This is the third or fourth time we've made this cake. It tastes much better if you can made it a day in advance. This time, along with the chocolate ganache, I adorned the side with a layer of toasted, slivered almonds.

Even though we had well over 16 people at this dinner, we still only finished off just over 1/2 of the cake. This baby is rich.

Yesterday I made a red ruffled topiary to help with Valentines Day decor.

I was beginning to make a second one, but I broke my sewing machine needle. I haven't done that in years. Seriously. I don't think I broke one in high school or even junior high. I couldn't find my spares so I have to do with just one adorable topiary for the present.

Even though I used 1 1/2" satin ribbon for the ruffles, they still showed some of the white foam ball under. I just took some short needles to pin down some of the white. I'm tempted to change those out in place of needles that have white spherical heads.

We also moved this lovely sign that I made about a year ago. I love it even more than when I made it. (And my husband does not even mind that I have a Beatles quote up in our place!)

We stuck it up just above our television. (We also possibly may not have taken down all of our Christmas decorations. At least the tree is down finally.)

 I also still have my adorable ruffled wreath up. With its white and red coloring, it fits in perfectly for Valentines Day decor.

The student who was there...

The last day before the break, I received a note from the lovely secretaries that I was losing a student. E had moved twice during the school year and had to walk over a mile to and from school each day. His mother, understandably, was sick of the walks. I sadly signed the papers. He left that day without a goodbye and I thought I would never see him again. The day after the break came and went. I cleaned out his desk and threw everything away. I moved on. When the following day arrived, I received word that I would receive a new student. I took the old student's desk and prepped it for a new student. As I chatted with a coworker, explaining all the arrivals and departures I have had recently, I happened to throw out, "Well, E moved so the new student will bring me back up to 32." As I said that, we walked into the office to see my student, E, sitting there. Awkward. "Uh....E! What are you doing here?" How do you explain to a nine-year-old that you tossed all their belongings and gave their desk away? Apparently his mother did not realize that they were supposed to move back in December. Okay. I can deal with this student in my class for one random day. The day came and went. He left. I hugged him goodbye and wished him well. He was back the next day. I was so confused. I finally got the vice principal to call his mother to tell her I do not run a day care for students that randomly want to show up. That darling boy approached me as the school day ended to inquire about homework due the next day. Lovely boy.

Musings of a 4th Grade Teacher

Time is flying! Is it really December? How did that happen?

Life is good. Life is wonderful.

I get my first new student tomorrow. I am excited. It brings my count back up to 33 where it was for most of the year. After Christmas break it will be back down to 32 students. I like having 32 students. 8 tables with 4 kids each. No odd one out.

They are a great group of kids. I gave an honesty quiz the other day. You know. The type of quiz where they hand it in, you grade it (but you don't mark anything and you don't tell them it's been graded), and then you hand it back for them to grade. They all passed. Except perhaps one.

My one bully girl is now friends with the girl she used to bully.

My students have worked with lots of sand and glitter without getting any of it on the floor, chairs, or even desks.

I have successfully managed to get most my little boys to tell me who they have a crush on. I had no particular reason to do that; I just wanted to know. They all told me, no questions asked, when I inquired.

My 4th graders are the very best class at every assembly. They do not talk to each other and sit on their pockets the entirety of the presentation.

I have been wearing my shortest pair of heels (3") to school on a regular basis in hopes that my feet will get used to them and I can start to wear some of my favorite pairs that are quite a bit taller than that.

We have half an hour for music twice a week and they love it. I start by playing 5 minutes of a classical music piece with the name and composer on the board. I quickly give a short overview of the composer and where he (no she's yet) is from. Then some of them get to say what they were thinking of during the music. I played an excerpt from Jupiter by Holst the other day. Many of my lovely students thought about aliens on another planet. I think their favorite so far was the Hungarian Rhapsody by Lizst. We are starting on the recorder. Those lessons are really to help me with patience.

I love teaching. People keep asking me if it was different than I thought or if I am starting to go crazy. It just feels to natural. I am definitely going to be bummed when it is summer vacation and I will not see my sweet students.

Synonym Roll Template

One of my favorite language arts lesson to do in teaching students about synonyms. Using the idea of a "synonym roll," every year my students are extremely engaged by the lesson.

Want a terrific synonym lesson complete with the outlines for the cinnamon rolls themselves? Here is my lesson plan typed up along with 36 words with synonym examples, 3 different sizes of rolls, and a synonym brainstorming page for students.
Synonym Roll Lesson Plan
You can also head over to my TPT store and download the outlines.

This one's for you Grandma

My darling grandmother, who was a schoolmarm herself at a school that still stands in Orem, mentioned that she enjoyed reading my blog, but that I had not posted lately. I apologize. I have been meaning to take pictures of fun activities that we have done lately and how my classroom looks, but I keep forgetting.
So. Here is a quick post about what has been making me smile as of late.
In my lovely class, we do class meetings. During these meetings, we have a discussion on any problems the students would like to discuss. (We have only done problems twice. I do not know if they are just little angels or they do not quite know what the concept is.) The problems they have discussed pertained to the noise level. They want the whole class to be quiet for periods of time during the day. (Art projects, free time, science time, etc.) Another part of our class meetings is dedicated to compliments. I have compliment slips that my students can fill out, directed to another student, to be read during our class meeting. This past class meeting was the first time any student had written one to me. When it rains, it pours. Not only did I receive my first compliment paper, I received my first 4 compliments.
I would like to give Mrs. Jaeger a compliment by saying: she is a very nice teacher. She helps pepol under stand thigs and is awesome! Signed L.
I would like to give Mrs. Jager a compliment by saying: she is funny. She is nice all the time. She is the best teacher I have had so far, and she teaches really good so I can learn. Signed B.
I would like to give Mrs. Jeager a compliment by saying: she is the best teacher in the world. And she always helps me with what I have trouble with. Not only me. Everyone in my class. She is the best teacher in the world! Signed K.
I would like to give Mrs. Jeager a compliment by saying: She's the best teacher out of the whole school maybe even out of the whole world she's always willing to help she's never getting her temper out of control she loves everyone and some times I think she's an angel with a little halo and she's very very butiful your number one! Signed love M.

My other favorite quote of last week: "This is the best day of my life!"
Backstory.
As a class they decided they wanted a pajama/dance/treat day. This involved wearing pajamas, and then having a dance slash treat party for twenty minutes during the day. (It was a good prep for me to prepare for what Halloween was like.) In the middle of the dance party when my lovely fourth graders were literally stuffing their faces with treats, one of my shyer little girls ran up to tell me it was the best day of her life.