Let's see...March...oh yes, Parent/Teacher Conferences were in March and although they were long, I did have EVERY parent show up and it went really well! I am grateful for parents that are supportive with their kids! I am having a hard time with some of my kids that are really good students, but don't get the best grades though. I don't know what to do about them! It is hard to tell a parent why they don't have good grades when that happens, because at the time I teach, it seems that they understand, but their tests and some assignments don't reflect it. ARGGG...it is so frustrating that I don't have enough time to work with these kids to figure it all out and help them! I think my dream teaching job would be no more than 15 students so I could actually teach them!!! Hahaha...what a dream! I WISH!!!
I don't know how many of you have been following the news lately, but Jordan School District was going to lay off 250 of its teachers for next year. AAAANNNDDD you have it right that seniority was how they were going to do it, which put me and many other "newbys" on the chopping block. So I was kinda sick about not having a job next year for a few weeks, but the District got their heads on straight again and said they had enough money after all to cover us. We are still going to lose a lot of our nice aides and other programs for students though. Which means no PE, computer, literacy, copy, and library people to make our jobs a little bit easier. I don't know how they expect us to give the rising generation a great, quality education with all that is happening,but I guess we all just have to "buck it up" and teach!!! Which...I am learning to do, especially this year with the class I have!!
Yes, they are still quite the stinkers, with bullying problems and what not, but I am learning to be a little bit tougher this year I think. I did end up losing one of my students last month that moved to another fourth grade class, but apparently it wasn't me, it was the kids in my class. Anyway, to make a long story short, he was one of my more difficult kids and I was RELIEVED to have one of them gone. I am so ashamed of saying that, but it cut my stress level a little bit, not to mention the work load of one less student!! I am now down to 27...oh how I envy my student teaching days of 22 students!! :0
Well, to end with, my class finally earned the 30 class points they needed since the beginning of the school year to get a class pet. They have wanted one so bad!! So, we voted on a couple of different animals to get, like a snake (I was TOTALLY against that one!) and a turtle. Well, it turns out that a parent of one of my kids told me about her son's hermit crabs and how easy they were to take care of, so YEP, you guessed it, that's what we got! I took them home last weekend, just to see what they were like, and they are the some of the strangest and captivating things ever! I could have watched them all day, every day. So meet Rocky, Stitch, and Stacy, the newest members of Miss Lloyd's 4th Grade Class!!! :)
This is their home. Even though there are only 3 of them, there are a lot of empty shells in there so they can "shell shop" if they want to. They usually do it when they molt and become bigger. You can't see any of them in this picture because they are hiding in the mulch, under the water dishes!
This one is Rocky. His shell isn't painted, so it is hard to find him sometimes! He has been by far one of the most active ones (even though it doesn't look like it here!)
The one in the red shell is Stitch. He likes to hide a lot too...but he has since moved into a yellow shell that has a race car number on it (my kind of crab!!).
This is Stacy...she was quite shy! We still are not sure she is a girl, but we think she is because she is in a shell with flowers on it!
We are having fun with them so far, but I will have to let you know how it all turns out! I seriously hope they survive to the summer with this class! LOVE IT! :)
2 comments:
Cute post! Love your little crabs! Did they survive the weekend??
Cute. Fun pictures and gross little thingie magicy. :) I am so with you about the class-size thing. We need to stop paying CEOs and start paying teachers. LOL. I'm glad you'll have a job next year too. That can be so stressful!
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