Are you Bleeding?

Every day, I spend one hour in each class teaching guided reading. It's something I sucked at last year, and now all of a sudden, I am rock-awesome at it.

Guided reading is where I read with a small group (4-6 students) on their reading level, while everyone else works on something else. The rule in my class is that you do not talk to the teacher during Guided Reading unless you are bleeding. If you're bleeding, I can help you. Otherwise, you need to solve your problems on your own.

I was teaching Guided Reading the other day when M walked up to the kidney table. "Mrs. Shimp?"

"Oh! Are you bleeding?" My normal response.

He paused, then said, "I just have a question about...."

"But wait, are you bleeding?"

He considered. "I have a zit...." he said, completely serious.

"Okay, go - wait, what?"

He solemnly pointed at his chin. There was a small red mark there.

"Um....M, the reason I ask if you're bleeding is because, if you're not bleeding, then....because it's a problem that.....you don't really....okay. It's okay. I think you can answer your question on your own," I said. He walked back to his desk.

I would also just like to say that I taught my kids the BEST game today at inside recess. Two people play. They sit in chairs facing each other, gripping the seat with their hands. One of them runs their feet, sitting in their chair, while the other one cheers them on. When they feel like they've run enough, they tap the other person's knee and it switches. I just did it because they never have anything to do at inside recess, and they need to get out their wiggles, but they can't run around the room....so it was perfect!

You can see there are at least 3 games going on in this picture. My girls A and S are just about to get started. L in the black hoodie is moving his chair to start up a game. And K in the orange shirt is really feeling the burn. 

Highlighter Woes

I just spent my Recess time trying to get the lid of a highlighter out of a shoe.

 

The lid had been wedged in between the pink things on the bottom of the shoe. 

How, you may wonder?

I was teaching a lesson on long vowels and short vowels. One of my girls, who is normally pretty chatty (and very happy about it) started to look a little concerned. I wondered what was wrong but didn't worry too much about it until she came up to me, looking like she was about to cry, and said:

"Miss Connor, I just broke a rule and I think you're going to have to - because I wasn't following directions, so I think I'm going to have to pull a card and you're going to have to call my mom and she's not going to be very happy because I got my lid of my highlighter stuck in my shoe because I wasn't following directions....."

"You got your highlighter stuck in your shoe?" I asked.

She nodded miserably. 

I didn't even know what to say. I mean, what would you say? The girl was about to have a panic attack and all I wanted to do was laugh! So I told her I'd help her at recess and sent her back to her desk. 

Three minutes later, I was jamming a dry erase marker in between the pink things, trying to get it under the highlighter lid justtt enough to wiggle it out of the shoe.

Two minutes after that, I was giving up and bringing the shoe to another teacher.

"That's hilarious!" she said. "How did that even happen?" 

"How did this happen, M?" I asked. 

Her golden response? "I just wanted to put my highlighter in my shoe so I could show K, because it was funny, but then it got stuck and I didn't show her because it wasn't even funny like I thought it would be."

The other teacher shook her head. "I don't know how to get it out....maybe bring it to Mike, he probably has some pliers or something. You've got to take a picture of that," she added.

"Take a picture of it and then we can show it to my mom!" my girl said on the way down the hall to find Mike. 

Please remember that this was the girl who, just minutes before, was prepared to burst into tears at the thought of having to tell her mom about the card she might have to pull. 

"I don't think your mom would like that too much," I said. 

The smile disappeared. "Oh yeah, maybe don't take a picture," she said.

Mike was driving around a cart with some complicated electrical something-or-other when we found him in the hallway and asked him to get a highlighter lid out of a shoe. 

The tools that eventually dislodged it, in order of use, include:

1. a pen

2. a pair of scissors

3. the highlighter itself

4. the highlighter AND the pen at the same time

5. a pair of biggish pliers

6. a pair of needle-nose pliers

Lessons learned: 

1. Don't stick your highlighter lid in your shoe.

2. Don't expect to get anything done during Recess.