Favorite classroom moments

Two blogs in one day! What can be more exciting than that??

I decided that since I am a teacher, it would be fun to share some of the fun classroom stories- because no matter where you are in the world, kids will be kids :)

1- For social studies we are studying Europe and I decided to do a classroom activity on the economic reasoning of the European Union (no worries, it was simplified for fourth grade.) The activity went well, and the kids were really into trading and buying stickers. Afterwards, I started to debrief and explain what happened. After a short explanation, I asked if there were any more questions... immediately every students hand shot up

Student 1: When is it time for music?

Me: (Goodness, thats off topic) 5 more minutes

Student 2: Can we leave our desks like this?

Me: (still.. off topic) For the rest of the day we can.

Student 3: Mine question was the same as student 1.

Me: (goodness, did they hear ANYTHING I said???) oh, ok

Student 4: What did you mean by empowered when they work together?

Me: (finally, SOMEONE WAS paying attention)... and I explained...

Got to love the amount of hard work my students put into their assignments

2- I was going over a grammer quiz the students had taken and read the sentence outloud- "Can I have chocolate cake for my birthday," Jack asked. As I read the statement out loud, I realized how horrible the last part sounded, yet giggled to myself (try saying Jack asked outloud, and you will know what I mean). Anyway, since my students are so innocent, none of them noticed and I read the sentence outloud again. Then my third grade student looked up from her work.

"Miss Silberstein, when you say Jack AsKeD it sounds really bad". (She did her best to pronounce every consonant and not make the same mistake as me.)

DANG! She noticed! I acknowleged she was right, but it is really hard for me to say it any other way. We laughed and the rest of the students looked at us confused... oh, goodness!

Having fun with a science lesson

3- The other day I had an extra half hour of unplanned time for class. I am not sure why, but sometimes with a a small class we go through material so quickly that we get ahead. On the board where I write the daily schedule I wrote "??? Surpirse". Now my students are EXTREMELY observant and right away noticed the special activity. When I wrote surprise, I knew I would have all day to come up with what it would actually be, so I didnt worry too much. However, my kids do not understand the concept of surprise and ALL DAY asked me whats the surprise. Since I really didnt know, and it was a surprise, I didnt tell them. That didnt stop them from trying though.  I think my favorite line of reasoning was "Miss Silberstein, if you write surprise on the board, we know its a surprise, so then its not really a surprise, SO you should tell us" ...RIGHT...

Anyway, after a full day of eager anticipation, I decided it was a good time to bust out my friendship bracelet making supplies and we had a 20 minute activity time. Good thing I thought of SOMETHING! Because my back up was silent reading and the kids would not be so excited about that :)

Setting up for a minute to win it!

Anyway, life in the classroom is rarely boring. Kids are great, we have a lot of fun, and learning does happen every once in a while :)

Change in the air- not just with the weather

October is here! And although in the states that means leaf crunching and apple cider- in Mali that means the humidity increases and the temperature decreases. I actually put on a sweater last night because it was 78... goodness!



So besides the change in weather, lots of other things are happening in my classroom!

1. I will be getting two new students in my class starting Monday. I am excited to have more students, but it will be a fun challenge increasing our class size by 35%. They are brothers from Nigeria and are both in forth grade. Pray they adjust well, the kids welcome them, and I can teach them well.

2. My student who does not speak English will be having a translator with her 3 days a week starting Monday. I am excited to have some help with this student and pray that I can make necessary adjustments to my schedule to utilize her to the fullest.

3. My computer has decided to break- and it must be shipped back to the company to be fixed/replaced. I use my computer for everything, so this is going to be a challenge for me. Pray that the right people will be able to transport it to and from Bamako and the process will happen smoothly. In the mean time, I praise God for people around me who are willing to let me borrow their computer and for the school to have working computers as well.

Thanks friends! God continues to provide, encourage and uplift me on the hard days! Its fun to think that the first quarter of school is almost over, and how much I have grown as a teacher in this time! Lesson planning comes easier, and I am able to do more and more fun lessons with the kids! God is good!