the video

Last week was the viewing of the infamous video.  (You know, the VIDEO.)  It's always one of my favorite times of the year.  Seriously.  The looks on the kids' faces when they receive their permission slips never gets old.  But as embarrassing as they think it will be, they always amaze me with how maturely they handle it when the time comes.  And of course, I have to give major props to our school nurse who runs the meeting so we don't have to.  She really is the best nurse in the whole wide world.
Anyway, in honor of the annual video, I thought I would share some of my favorite kidisms from the Q&A sessions over the years.

Nurse: "The next question someone wrote asks, 'What is a period?'  Well, I think the video already explained that, so I will move on to the next one."
Student: "Um, Mrs. B?  That was my question.  And I still don't get it."
(Nurse patiently explains the whole process again.)
Student: "Ooohhhhhhhhhhh."  (Sour face).  "Well that is just gross!"



Student to her science teacher: "I already knew most of that stuff.  But I did learn something new.  I didn't know that women laid eggs!"

yoga in the classroom

With the MCAS looming over my head this week, I have been thinking about how to ease my students' anxiety.  Every year I make an attempt at this and fail.  So this year, I decided to try something new: yoga.  I introduced it yesterday and told them to make a big space in the center of the room.  They must have been excited because they moved faster than the lunch line on taco day.  In less than a minute, they were spread out facing me, with one exception.  One boy decided to be my assistant - he informed me that he was already a yoga master since his mom did it once a week.  (I wasn't exactly sure how this made him a yoga master, but I didn't mention it).

I put on my Enya Pandora station and started with some breathing exercises.  Then we moved into some toe touches, reverse swan dives, and finally chataranga, upward dog, and downward dog.  At first, the boys were a little self-conscious and silly.  But as we continued, they began to take it seriously and their demeanors changed.  They all ended up really enjoying themselves, and we had a wonderfully productive literacy block afterward.

Today was our first day of ELA MCAS and the official start of my experiment.  We had already set up the classroom the previous afternoon, and so when the students arrived, they quickly found a spot and joined in.  I noticed that the boys who were silly yesterday were challenging themselves to hold the correct form today.  I also noticed that no one was visibly nervous; instead, they were excited about our new routine.  We continued through morning announcements (stopping to stay the pledge of course) and finished after about 20 minutes.  Then we transitioned right into MCAS.

Of course, I have no idea if our yoga session helped their test-taking abilities. I'll have to see their growth rate this summer before I can make any judgement on that.  But I did observe less anxiety and a lot of perseverance.  They worked their butts off today!  I also noticed less fidgeting after they had turned in their tests and were waiting for the rest of the class to finish.  Usually, I have kids getting up constantly, going through their desks, or asking to go to the bathroom multiple times.  But today, I had none of that.  And I don't think it was a coincidence.

If you are wondering about incorporating yoga into your classroom, it's easier than you think!  There are a lot of research articles that promote kinesthetic learning as well as websites out there.  I especially like Classroom Yoga Project.  They have a lot of videos and easy ways to start small.  They also have lessons that integrate yoga into the curriculum.  Good luck and let me know how it goes!

homemade juices

Whenever my husband, Mr. E, stays home from work, I am always interested to find out what brilliant idea he has come up with while I'm gone.  Last week, he did not disappoint me.  I came into the living room and found him researching juicers.  He took one look at my raised eyebrows and launched into the following explanation.  "I watched a documentary today, about an obese man who went on an all-juice diet.  The guy lost tons of weight, and all of his health issues disappeared as well.  Then he got another obese man to go on the all-juice diet too, and the same thing happened.  I think we should get a juicer."  I told him, "No.  We do not need a juicer. 1) We're not overweight, 2) we exercise regularly, 3) we eat healthfully; we're even vegetarians (except I can't seem to give up buffalo chicken), and 4) there is no way I'm going on a liquid diet.  We're not getting a juicer and that's final."

Later that week, a juicer arrived in the mail.  Mr. E suggested we do a "3-day cleanse" over the holiday weekend.  I reminded him that we live in a one bedroom, and more importantly, one bathroom, apartment.  The scene from Bridesmaids was swirling around in my mind.

We did not do a 3-day cleanse over the holiday weekend.  Thank God.  But we did try some juices, and they came out really good!  

Mr. E found that if you line the food catcher (container on the left) with a plastic grocery bag, it makes for easy clean up.  Tilting the container will also help to keep the bag from being sucked into the middle compartment.

So far, we have tried three juices.

1) carrot, cucumber, banana, lemon - Mr. E discovered that bananas don't have a lot of juice

2) orange, pear, blueberry, strawberry - this was an obvious success

3) orange, pineapple, strawberry, carrot - this one was the best and is shown below.

I have not included any recipes with this because we did not follow any.  The juicer did come with a small booklet of recipes, and we look at them for ideas, but mostly we just throw in any fruits or vegetables that we have lying around the kitchen.  The key is to experiment.  My next step will be to try this on my nephews...one in particular who's vegetable of choice is ketchup.  I'll keep you posted.

smoothies

I am not a fan of breakfast.  It takes too long and I don't have the time.  But recently I discovered fruit smoothies.  It started when I got engaged.  I registered for KitchenAid's super expensive blender and justified it with thoughts of "I'm going to make so many smoothies!"  I had never made a smoothie before.  Well, I got my beloved blender.  And it hung out in the huge pile of gifts until my husband had his front tooth removed.  Don't ask.  So being the good wife I am, I made him a banana smoothie.  And it was the best thing I've ever made.  Seriously.  I couldn't believe how quick and easy it was.  Bananas, milk, ice, vanilla, mix, done.  Quicker than coffee.  And I've been bringing smoothies to work ever since.

Ingredients

2              bananas

6              ice cubes

splash     cream

1/2 c       milk

1/2 t       vanilla

dash       cinnamon

Throw ingredients in blender and blend.  

Substitutions

The cream is not necessary but does make the smoothie a little thicker.  If you want a healthy alternative, add your favorite yogurt instead.  

I also like to switch it up and add in a little peanut butter or mixed berries.  I introduced these to my stepdad last week who added a spoonful of protein powder.  It was delish!