The Hamburger, I Mean the Helpful Helpers

Okay, their official name is the “Helpful Helpers”, but after the Hamburger Helper people filmed our school on a field trip, we kinda like to use the name whenever we can.

The Helpful Helpers are the gentlemen in the orange room, grades three through six.  They help and encourage others.  The last week of school they made a little treasure hunt for all of the ladies in the orange room, and at the end, the ladies found little candy prizes. 

 
     Then, on the last day of school, the ladies in the orange room got together and filled pretty cups with candy, wrapped them up, and put a nice bow on them.  The ladies don’t have an official name yet, but I’m sure it won’t be the Hamburger Helpers. 

      A wonderful environment is created when the students are surprising and implementing nice little plans like these to be nice to each other.  God bless them, every one.

  

Yay--Our Students are Not Cool!

I love it when students are creative, funny, and just being themselves.  There is much to be said for having a “safe” environment in a school--an environment where students are not afraid of being bullied or made fun of because they are  not--please excuse my use of this horrendous word-- “cool”.  

So I had to laugh when I saw the oldest gentlemen in our school flying little planes all over our giant wall map.  

This began because one of them loves airplanes.  When my husband got out the “100 Vehicles” counting bucket for third grade math, he patiently finished the division lesson and then excitedly ran to the upper grade room, passing out little planes and trucks to all the gentlemen.  After school, as I walked to my desk to grade piles of papers, they were “flying” their planes or driving their cars across several continents on our school world map.  

They were just being funny, being themselves, and having fun together in a safe environment, knowing that no one would think they were being too silly, even though they really were--a little.  But that is okay.  It is way better than trying to be, well you know, that awful word.  

Aspiring Young Vocalists Start Cutting-Edge Ensemble

Okay, cutting-edge depends on your reference point.  But anyway. . . . 

The junior high and high school ladies at our school formed their own singing ensemble.  This was the fruit of us taking some of them to hear a youth choir sing at a neighboring church.  (In Texas a "neighboring" church means an hour and a half away.)  They were encouraged and wanted to start a little group of their own, so they did.  They invited all the ladies grades seven and up to participate.  It has four sopranos and two altos.  They asked me to sing too, and I was happy to be included.  I even get to sing tenor on one song.  Encourage your students to Dream Big!!  Then help them realize their dreams.  

Oh yes, Benjamin and Wendell, we'll be sending you some trained singers in a few years.  

A True Gentleman is a Gentle Man

I have seen enough “tough guys” in my thirty-plus years of teaching to make me ill.  You know, the ones who say things like, “If it moves in the woods on a Saturday morning I’m gunna shoot it,” and other such intelligent comments.  I’ve seen enough “cool” clothes and hairstyles to make the 80’s look mild.  I don’t have time for any of that.

But I do have time for gentlemen, and we do have several of these gentlemen-in-training at our school.  (By the way, these do include our junior high and high school-aged young men.)

One of them walked up to my desk today during lunch, the time of day when I am dropping pieces of food on the students’ papers as I grade them.  He had a beautiful, fragile butterfly resting on the tip of his finger.  He also had a big smile on his face.  He explained to me that he found the poor insect upside down in a cold puddle of rain water on this, our first real day of fall here in Texas.  Thinking it was dead, he picked it up to bring for morning science and found that it was alive. He, like a gentleman, rescued it.  He brought it to me, and I suggested that he place it on the plant on my desk.  Next I advised that he find a flower for it to drink from while it warmed up inside the school. 

The butterfly was on the rose when I left this afternoon, saved from a cold puddle of rain water by a young gentleman.  Our schools and churches need more young men like this.  

Cow Eyeballs and Hearts

The anatomy class has amazed me a few times this year.  They seem to really enjoy the class and studying the book, “Human Body” by Jay C. Wile and Marilyn Shannon.   

The cow eyeball was pretty interesting.  They learned all about the optical nerves, irises, lenses, and retinas.  The girls were intrigued too.

This is a picture of the fluid being removed from the lens.  

From left to right, the cow’s lens, iris, and tubeium.  

Boys will be boys.

Then came the cow heart-- or as they called it, “roast beef”.  Some of them decided they’d never eat roast beef again.  

They had to cut the heart open, then stick their fingers through the tubes until they touched in the middle of the heart.  They learned about relaxed and contracted ventricles, blood pressure and the fact that in just one minute, the volume of all the blood in  your body passes through the heart.

Maybe we will end up with a few missionary nurses or doctors here too, along with some teachers I hope.  

The Mid-Year Program and a Glimpse of the Future

Last week we presented our mid-year choral program.  Sprinkled in between the songs were stories about the students that had happened at school so far this year.  

In the entry way we had two tables full of great science stuff which you’ve already seen a lot of on the posts here.  On another table we had several of the interesting books we’ve read for history.  We also hung up some of the students’ art projects and a few snowflakes we’d made in the entryway.  

My favorite part of the evening wasn’t the singing, although I do love singing and the songs that we sang.  It wasn’t seeing all my friends and some family, whom I do love and was glad they were there.   My favorite part of the evening was seeing my students give me a glimpse of the future.  Here is how it happened.

After visiting with several of the parents and friends, we were over in the fellowship hall for cookies and hot chocolate.   I visited so much I never got one cookie or a cup of hot chocolate, but there were two plates full of cookies on my desk at the end of the evening. (Thanks Rose!)  I always want to know what my students are up to and I didn’t see too many of them around.  I knew they were not outside as I’d just been out there.  So I got curious and decided to walk over to the classroom.  

As I neared the door I noticed it was very quiet, except for one young lady’s voice.  Then I walked in and saw every desk filled.  Students were sitting quietly in rows, and the “teacher” at the front of the room (a fifth grader) was teaching how to diagram a sentence.  She was doing quite a good job.  She asked the students to fill in the blanks, and even took out a gerund so that they could do it correctly.  (Gerunds aren’t common protocol for elementary students.)  

It is fun to see students who could be running around eating cookies and drinking hot chocolate, or getting cold on the swings outside instead sitting in their seats practicing sentence diagramming.  

So, that was my glimpse of the future.  I hope that in the future there will be no teacher shortage around here.