My New Favorite Game

Everyday my students come to class and before class has even started they want to know what we are doing. Of course, I refuse to tell them until I have the attention of all the class because who wants to say the same thing over and over, am I right? Well today was no different. Kindergarten is coming in and one of my students asks me "what are we playing today Miss Stephens?" I won't tell him and he won't stop asking me so finally I say, "well right now we are playing the 'sit down' game and you're losing." I'm not kidding, I've never seen anyone sit down so quickly ever! Then he, of course, starts informing all the standing students that they are losing because they are not sitting down. Oops! It was pretty humorous though. I think this game could easily go hand in hand with 'the quiet game' for sure. It was very effective!

There Is No Appropriate Title For This Story...

So today I'm walking with my first graders to music class when one of the girls (the really loud one who is always in trouble for any reason whatsoever) asks me how my toe is. She says, "Miss Stephens, your toe is really starting to heal." and I said "yes it is," and she says, "I see you have a bandaid on it, I always take good care and put lots of bandaids on my boobies." HA HA! She meant boo boos ha ha!! It was so funny, I was able to hold in my laughter though! What a goofball! It probably wouldn't be so funny if she wasn't so loud when she talked!

Random Conversation Girl

All of my OC friends will appreciate this next story. I have this sweet little second grader, let's call her Sue. Sue is absolutely wonderful but she has a bit of a hard time conversing with the other students on occassion. She comes up with the most random things sometimes. Just like a person we all know and love at OC...I don't even have to say his name for you all to know who I am talking about.
Well yesterday I was sitting outside at recess with some of the teachers when Sue comes up and starts talking to us about all her animals. I zoned out several times so I'm not even sure what all she was saying but right towards the end I heard her say, "This weekend we are going to get a mutt, we can't afford a dog so we are going to get a mutt" HA! I was taking a drink of water and about spit it out all over the place. Kids just say the darndest things!

A Fifth Grader's Hypothesis

So as you know from a previous post, a high school boy injured my toe big time! Completely unrelated to that, I have a class of 19 4th and 5th grade boys...that's right me against 19 boys! Well, as you can imagine, they get a little loud and I'm often forced to turn into "evil Miss Stephens" in order to keep them in line. It's been a really great, productive week for me so I've been in a pretty good mood. Well, yesterday at the beginning of class one of my boys asks if my toe is feeling better. I said that it was and one of my students raises his hand and says, "Miss Stephens, we have a hypothesis" and I said, "what is it?" And he said, "We hypothesize that when your toe hurts, you are in a bad mood."
Ha! It's so funny that they connect these two things together when, in all reality, they have nothing to do with each other. My bad mood comes completely from teaching 19 boys suffering from Spring fever, attempting to play the recorder in my shoe box of a classroom!

A First Grader's Criteria for a Suitable Match for Miss Stephens

So one of my co-workers has the sweetest first grade boys I've ever known...let's call him Joe. Well, my fellow teacher plays on a softball team and was talking to a fellow teammate about me (everyone here in San Antonio want to help me out in the love department). Well as she was talking to him about me, Joe interjected his thoughts on the matter. He said, "Miss Stephens is really pretty and has a nice smile. She has all her teeth and they're white! But you have to treat her nice and be honest!" How sweet is that. Now you have to keep in mind that he's in first grade so most of his friends do not have all their teeth! It's nice to know my students are looking out for me!

Choir Concert Debut

I conducted my first choral concert ever last night! It was absolutely wonderful!! But getting ready for it was no so much fun. On Monday, I was setting up the risers in the auditorium and one of my high school boys was helping me carry one of the risers. At this point, I need to tell you that I am stronger than all the high school boys combined. Well, it is at this point in the story that one of my high school boys dropped the riser on my big toe! That's right! The day before the concert Miss Stephens is bleeding all over the church auditorium! It was quite the hit! It's three days later and I still can't walk correctly. How do you just stop carrying a riser? Come on!!!!!!!!!