Open House

Go figure...a blog about school. Perhaps I should change this blog website to "teacherinbrussels." I am about to embark on another one of my firsts of my career: The First Open House. The parents will be here in 45 minutes, and I will be standing up front, speaking (hopefully) and turning bright red. It will be fantastic. Here goes...

Peace Day 2007

I think it must have been when five of my students came up to me before class started this morning to give me hugs. Or when I looked out and noticed that two of my students were wearing homemade Peace Day shirts. But at some point this morning, I realized that this was going to be an amazing day. I must have declared, "I wish every day was Peace Day!" at least 6 different times today. The fact that it was sunny outside the ENTIRE day capped off what was, quite certainly, the perfect day. The kids were incredibly well behaved. All of the teachers were in superb moods (perhaps it was because we were fed breakfast in the faculty lounge this morning...my first Belgian bacon since I've arrived!) And the entire spirit of the school was at the highest I've seen since the first day of the school.

To those of you who may not have known, Peace Day was first established by a man named Jeremy Gilleve in 2001 and passed unanimously by the UN as a day of global ceasefire and nonviolence. (To learn more about the day check out its link http://www.peaceoneday.org/)

So with sun, Peace Day Commitments, Peace Day pledges, hugs, hearing the word "peace" said in multiple languages, Cat Stevens (Peace Train) and peace pinwheels, I thought for sure the day could not possibly get any better. That is, until, we had a Peace Day send off with John Lennon's Give Peace a Chance. The kids, singing along with their hands waving in the air and clapping, will forever be imprinted in my mind as the image that will always represent this day for me as a teacher.

Peace out, ya'll.

Photo time

Well it's about time, you say? Here are some photos to show what my kiddies in my first classroom get to gaze upon every day.



Here you can see our desks and one of our display boards. Our first language arts bulletin board was a creation after reading the book The Three Questions and practicing being philosophers.
I had the students bring in what is called a ME item, something from home that represents them. The items range from trophies to family photos to a pair of shoes made out of fish that come from Iceland ("The used to not have anything else to make them out of!")
Ahhh...my nook. Photos and cards and attempted neatness are what sometimes get me through those rather crazed afternoons when it's rainy and the kids are nutty.

The children had to bring in their Life Timelines to show the major events that have happened in their 11 years of life. My favorite one was my baseball-crazy Japanese student who designed his timeline to be in a baseball diamond (you can kind of see the outline of it...it's the third from the left on the bottom). He also included his family as the "line-up" on his score card. So cool.

More to come (eventually). There is so much going on in class, that I am finding myself just click-click-clicking away!

Welcome to 6LU!

Today marks the end of Day 7 of 177 of my first year as a teacher. A REAL teacher. Since the day I accepted the position last April my head has been swarming with ideas, questions, and thoughts leading to excitement and anxiety. Will I have a good first day of school? Will my students like me? Will I be prepared? What will teaching be LIKE?
Well...my questions have been answered. And the truth is, I never expected teaching to be like this. Or rather, not for me. And what I mean by that is, all I want to do is be in the classroom. All I want to do is teach. All I want to do is be with my class. I am completely attached to every single student. I am so happy to go in every day to see them. I come in and I can't wait for them to arrive. Every day I can't help but remind myself of how lucky I am. My students are so good that they come in, get their morning message journals, and sit quietly waiting for me to start. It was that way on the very first day of school, and it continues to be that way today. During transition periods when they are coming back from anther class (i. e. music, French/English, etc...) they come in, sit down, and read. Um, excuse me. Isn't it supposed to be harder than this? And this is the part that blows me away the most: when I speak, they are quiet! They don't talk! In my head and in my first day of school nightmares that preceded the first day of school I had always imagined my sixth graders to be like my first graders (squirmy, chatty, distracted) but twice the size. Turns out, they DO mature as they get older. And I know it's still early on and perhaps they may grow out of this amazing behavior. And I know there will be conflicts (they do have hormones, after all), but right now I am just reveling in the excitement and ease that is the beginning of this first year. I am so happy right now. I just have to remember this feeling when things do become more difficult and challenging, which is inevitable (but I won't waste time worrying about that yet).
And for the record, here is another cool thing about my class: my students are from everywhere! The following countries are represented somewhere within my group of 22: France, India, England, Holland, America, Portugal, Israel, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Venezuela, Turkey, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, and Korea. Only 6 of my students speak English at home. And what I love the absolute most is that I look out and there is a rainbow of skin colors ranging from the whitest of white to tan and brown. That in itself makes me so happy to just look at them. They are beautiful!
So enough gushing. I mustn't forget that unless you are a teacher it is hard to appreciate or listen to teaching stories. But like I said, I am finding it hard to think about anything else! I have had an amazing last couple of weekends that have included the Latino Festival two weeks ago and the Beer Festival last weekend. Both were full of culture and full of excitement...among other indulgences. :)
Photos to come later...
In the meantime, ciao and goodnight!