November Student of the Month

Craig is our November Student of the Month!

I chose Craig because he is a very respectful student.

He always turns his work in on time and tries his hardest on everything we do in class. He is kind and compassionate to the other students in the class. Craig is always willing to help me with anything I ask him to do (which definitely comes in handy). From taking the trash out, to tearing papers out of booklets, to taking notes to other teachers, he is always there to help.

Craig is also a very funny kid and loves to tell jokes. This is my favorite one that he’s told me:

“What do you call pasta when it’s somewhere it isn’t supposed to be? An IM-PASTA!”

Last but not least, Craig obviously loves God. On several occasions I have heard him telling other students in the class that what they are doing isn’t Christ-like. He eagerly listens during Bible time and participates in our discussions about what we can learn from the stories we read. I love listening to Craig answer questions about how we can help others because he always brings the Lord into the conversation!

The Many Roles of a Teacher

It amazes me how many different hats I have to wear every day.

I'm a teacher (of course). I work to make sure my kids know everything they need to be able to succeed in the future. I teach them Bible, Math, Spelling, Language Arts, Science, Reading, and History. (Not to mention sharing, caring, respect, obedience, kindness, and the list goes on....and on....and on...)

I'm a nurse. At least once a week I have to break out the First Aid kit because someone has fallen and scraped their knee, hand, arm, leg, face-pretty much anything that was exposed when they fell. I deal with head aches, stomach aches, asthma, hurt elbows, hurt fingers, etc. etc. etc. It amazes me how many band-aids I go through!

I'm a referee. Sometimes I'm a referee in the sports sense because my kids love to play football and tag. This is the type of refereeing I prefer. Other times I'm a referee between students who are arguing I have to make fair judgements and make the final call on what actions should take place to keep the peace. I may not actually wear black and white stripes but sometimes I feel like I should!

I'm an entertainer. I know that not every part of school is exciting and enthralling. However, I try to make it as interesting as possible. That means I have to go above and beyond to keep my students' attention. For reading and history in particular I assign students parts so they can act out what we're learning. They love getting to be involved in the lesson! I also try to read with as much enthusiasm as possible so my students will be excited about what we're studying.   

I'm the bad guy. As much as I don't like it, sometimes I have to be mean. I have to punish students for making bad choices with the hope that it will encourage them to become more responsible. Part of my job is making sure my students feel safe in my classroom. When one student disrespects another, I have to discourage that behavior in some way. In most cases it is with actions that my students don't enjoy.  

I'm the good guy. I would much rather be this person than the bad guy! I love getting to reward students for their grades, actions, and words. I like to compliment them on the good things I see them do and give them tickets which they can trade in for prizes. I like to smile and laugh with them. It makes my job more fun! One of my favorite things to do is make little gifts for them. They are so happy to get a cookie or treat bag!

Needless to say, this doesn't even come close to covering every role a teacher has to play in the classroom. We are stretched to the limit but it is worth it to see a student get excited about learning something new! 

Shew!

Apparently we have a little friend near my classroom.

It's black
and white
and hairy
and resembles a cat...
and it stunk my classroom up!

I walked into my room this morning and was hit in the face with the smell of a skunk.
Every kid who walked in grimaced.

After a while though you got used to it.

When school was out, the kids who stay with me decided to go on a skunk hunt.

It was hilarious!

They got a flash light and shone it under my portable and ran around screaming that they saw a tail!
I told them if they got sprayed they couldn't come back in my room. That scared them off so they settled on playing Angry Birds instead.

It's never boring in my class. That's for sure!

I've Got the Power!

We had an AWESOME presentation yesterday by Duke Power on how to conserve energy and water.

Duke Power has hired actors from The National Children's Theater to perform a show about the importance of saving energy and water whenever possible.
        The actors were incredible!
            They were loud.
            They were enthusiastic.
            They were animated.
            They were enthralling.
            They even changed characters tons of times!

My students (who are very much busy bodies) were captivated the whole 45 minutes of it.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep my kids interested for 45 minutes? VERY!
Even the K4 and K5 kids sat and watched the whole program.



 Our students learned how energy efficient light bulbs work, what natural, renewable, and non-renewable resources are, and ways to reduce how much water they use.

This is an incredible program that I would highly recommend to every school out there!

Duke Power is also giving away $1,000 to the school that has the most people sign up for their free Energy Saving Kit and $5,000 to one of the people who signs up for the kit. Who doesn't want free money?!

If you're interested, go to myenergykit.org and sign up! Make sure you put Abundant Life Christian School as your school so we can be enetered into the drawing.
             

An Apple for the Teacher

Alex brought me an apple.

I didn't know kids actually did this!

It's Up to Me to be Drug Free!

Last week, hundreds of school across the country celebrated Red Ribbon Week. Abundant Life Christian School was one of them!  Red Ribbon Week is a week dedicated to making students aware of the importance of staying drug free. It was created in memory of Enrique Camarena.

Camarena was an undercover agent in Mexico who worked fervently to eliminate the use of drugs. He was an agent for four years and helped capture many major drug traffickers. In 1985, Camarena was kidnapped, tortured, and killed by the people he worked so hard to catch. His friends and family began wearing red pieces of string in memory of him. They wanted to promote the cause he gave his life for. The red string caught on and eventually became adopted nationally as the symbol for Red Ribbon Week.

During Red Ribbon Week, we had crazy dress up days, saw a drug dog and the police who works with him, learned how drugs and alcohol can affect a person’s body, and figured up how much money it would cost to smoke a pack of cigarettes every day for 10 years. It was great to see how interested my students were in learning about why drugs and alcohol are bad for you. They would have discussed the topic all day if I would have let them!

At the end of the week, we had a special time where students could choose to sign a pledge to remain drug free. All of mine signed it! They received a certificate for participating in the events of the week and every child cheered for the others as they signed the pledge and were presented their certificates. It was a wonderful week and will hopefully stay with the students if they are ever confronted with a situation where they have to choose to stay drug free or not.