mission-blog

Always Winter but Never Christmas

Tue, 21 Jan 2014 06:15:48 +0100

Well, the dreary drearies are here. Sniffles, chapped lips, fevers and coat wrangling seem to be the four horsemen that Old Man Winter, without the sugar plums of Christmas, has hitched up to our class right now. What to do? Read a new book, that's what! We finished our days with Wilbur before Christmas Break and we will send our own little spiders into the world this week so now is a perfect time to meet another wee little pig with the same problem Wilbur faced. Babe: The Gallant Pig is our new extended text! Aren't you crazy excited? I knew you would be thrilled! This wonderful story should help us get through the toughest nine weeks yet with Babe's can do attitude to guide us. Sooooooo put your red boots on, your red boots on and kick up the winter like the winter is gone! Wow! I don't think I have ever referred to so many different writings in one post before. One more can't hurt...

We are off to great places! Today is our day. Our mountain is waiting, So let's get on our way!.

Mrs. Hehman

A Grateful Heart

Thu, 28 Nov 2013 04:10:05 +0100

I had a hard time letting them go Friday...I always do but this time a parent witnessed my stalling. I wonder what she thought as I hemmed and hawed after the announcement for buses and car riders was made. I am ill prepared for holiday breaks because I have a vantage most parents are not lucky enough to have but most teachers know well. A view of childhood innocence that plays peekaboo with you and whispers about the passage of time. A week in second grade is like holding glitter in your hands. A child's innocence sparkles and flows in beautiful ribbons through the days but it is hard to hold. Any word exhaled or event experienced sends it on a journey, scattering the magic of childhood so that no matter how hard you try to gather it all up again, you can never get it all back. I watched them go on Friday knowing they carried that sparkle away with them as they must but it causes my breath to catch because I have become accustomed to the way they shine. I love the many different hues of it. I am always thankful for many things on Thanksgiving but I have the most grateful heart when they come back to me whole and still glimmering with the joy and hope that contains all the magic in their world.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Mrs. H

Bam!

Tue, 22 Oct 2013 16:33:41 +0100

Just like that. How did nine weeks go by already? We have been extraordinarily busy, that’s how! Here is the highlight reel:

We have investigated matter by torturing Jell-O. Oh, how can one torture Jell-o? We poked it, cut it, smelled it, mashed it, tried to shake it and dump it out of the container and much to my mortification, licked it off of our (by our, I mean they… and I tried to warn them of the dangers of licking one’s fingers in an elementary school, eeeewww) fingers. Then we froze it and tried to do all the things we did to it when it was not frozen including…sigh…licking our fingers. Then we melted it with just the heat energy in the air. The result was shocking! These little scientists made some amazing observations.

We were in the paper! Twice!

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2013/08/15/2635893/georgia-school-superintendent.html

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2013/08/16/2637428/park-elementary-school-teacher.html

We traveled the state of Georgia…in the hallway and we have broken our own personal best records time and time again!

Whew…we needed Fall Break!

Hang on tight…the pumpkins are coming!

Tinkerb…um, Mrs. Hehman

Back, Back, Back to School Again

Wed, 14 Aug 2013 01:41:22 +0100

I was so excited to meet the new crewmembers at Sneak-A-Peek last week! It's hard to believe we are already digging in to the work of our second grade standards. I can see another record breaking class in the making! I am sure your child is coming home with all kinds of things to tell you. Maybe you've heard how fast Mrs. Hehman walks...that's true. Maybe you've heard that the most important rule is "Keep Your Dear Teacher Happy"...Um, that's true too. Maybe that I keep a dragon in the janitor's closet? I may have said that. However, I never said what KIND of dragon. Imaginary dragons are still dragons...they just aren't real. SHHHH! Don't tell.

Ah, Summer

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 17:05:19 +0100

I have slept in, planted flowers, sent my children to camp and generally lazed about for the last couple of weeks. I am enjoying summer this year as a time to rest but I can't help thinking about new crew members! I think being a teacher is a lot like being a parent. Even when you are not thinking about your kids...you are thinking about your kids. I am going to a Whole Brain Teaching conference in a couple of weeks and I am so excited to use what I learn while I am there in the classroom. I began using WBT strategies in earnest for the 11-12 school year. We had a phenomenal year! Those kids made incredible gains and we were able to cover so much more content because of the five rules and scoreboard that are central to WBT. Follow directions quickly was like a challenge to them. My students anticipated what I was going to have them do next so their team could earn a tally mark. It was like magic to unlock the door after lunch and watch them speed to their desks and open their reading books to the the next story every Monday before I can put my lunchbox away. I never said anything about it after the first few weeks. I only gave tally marks to each team that had all crew members on the right story by the time I made my way to the scoreboard. They started using self made bookmarks to be able to earn that tally mark! Talk about problem solving in second grade. I never even suggested it. I taught them to use the table of contents the first weeks of school so that I never had tell them what page to open the book to but that wasn't fast enough to my students so they made bookmarks. I still marvel at how the magic of those five simple rules caused them to work together. Google Whole Brain Teaching and be amazed by the way your school year can be transformed in the first week!

The Beauty of Spring

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 23:20:44 +0100

I know you think I am going to talk about the mild weather, flowers, and the trills of birds but you'd be wrong, my friend. I am talking about a classroom that runs like a military operation. Kids that play so hard during recess that they can barely run when they hear the whistle to line up. These days, I think I could take a vow of silence and you'd never know it in the classroom. No more where do I put this or what time is it or when do we go to lunch. No more reminders, timers or fussing about the way the classroom library looks. They know what to do, when, and how it should be done. I can finally bask in the glory of the hard work I put in at the beginning of the year. I absolutely relish it! Yet it is bittersweet. I know summer vacation is two weeks away and I should be looking forward to it but can I tell you a secret....I am going to miss these boys and girls and here is another secret...I hate the last day of school. I cry too much and they cry too much. We all walk sniveling and unhappy to the bus ramp. I say out loud to my wonderful second graders that I will see them next year but in my heart I know they won't be the same kids I put on the bus that last day of school. They. grow. up. just. a. little.

Happy New Year

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 04:50:58 +0100

A New Year Kind Of…

The last of Christmas is heading to the attic for a nice long nap. Looking back at Christmas, it is so much like a tidal wave that I feel a little shaky now that I’ve been put back on level ground. Will I remember the reflection of the lights in my children’s eyes? Did I decorate enough cookies with them? Drink enough hot chocolate? Will they remember why we decorate our tree with white lights, silver, gold and scarlet red? Did we forget anything? Will they remember being loved so much more than any other gift under any tree? Did we make enough memories to sustain us when we need those memories for comfort? Those boys are growing up so fast that these days and these memories seem like sand that I am trying to hold in my hand during a hurricane. No one says, “I hold you?” anymore. They don’t want to grow up and marry me anymore. They remember that I caught the oven on fire last year and they don’t let me live it down. They don’t want matching Christmas pjs anymore. I find myself in the position of pushing them out of the nest but all the while swooping down and dragging them back, not because they are afraid to grow up but because I am afraid of them growing up. More than that, I am afraid of what growing up will do to the sweet boys that captured my heart with the first beat of theirs.

A blessing of being a second grade teacher is that one gets to hold onto the magic of childhood and see it sparkle year after year. Nevertheless, we do see a year differently than anyone else, and that makes it hard when you are a parent and a teacher. See, as a teacher, yesterday it was Christmas and tomorrow it will be spring break and then summer, next week. January becomes April before you know it and their chubby cheeks are gone. I hope that during this year, you will resolve to slow down enough to appreciate and share the magic with your children while they still think you have magic too.

Holy Work Around Batman!

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 04:44:20 +0100

HA! I wrote a post to let everyone know ( brag about my genius) that I created a wiki and invited my students to it so they could "blog." It worked. I got this technology business. Steve Jobs would high five me and even offer a fist bump. It totally worked! and then....the post which was amazing, funny but significant, and real n.e.v.e.r. showed up. I wrote it in November and yeah, I realized it TODAY. I am choosing to blame Murphy's Law. It's not the first time, mind you. It's the fourth time. My Christmas post would have been forwarded by all of America's corporate ladies had it actually shown up after I clicked the OK button. So I wised up...you know," Sting me once, it's the bee's fault. Sting me four times and it's time to start writing a word document and save it then copy and paste on the blog. I know you are doubtful that the brilliance of yours truly even exists but can I just say that I am a product of the ATARI generation. There was no problem solving in Centipede. Um, I am still fighting the good fight though and I want to encourage you to do the same.

Here come the pumpkins...

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 13:26:20 +0100

   The first nine weeks is over and sure signs of the holiday season have been spotted during the couple of weeks. Did you know that a teacher can tell how close Halloween is without looking at a calendar? They can feel the excitement build everyday until it is nearly a frenzy. It's true. The whole school hums. My first year, I panicked. I could feel a gradual loss of control to the candy induced mania. I racked my brain trying find a way to survive it. I think it came to me in a vision while I was eating my way through the first pumpkin pie of the season. I have a serious problem with pumpkin pie but that is another story. Here is how it all began...
   My husband and I have rules we try to stick to while raising our boys. The children don't know it but we base alot of our discipline decisions on these rules. I will tell you but you have to promise not tell my children. Rule # 1. Win. Rule # 2. If you can't win, then stack the deck to make it look like you win. Why? Well, truthfully....we are outnumbered and kids don't play fair in the growing up game. Soooo, we have no choice but to cheat.
   I am a law abiding, christian woman and it pains me to say that I have resorted to using these rules in the classroom. Why? I am outnumbered there too! All joking aside. I cannot fight the excitement of Halloween all day long in a room full of costumed second graders. I can't beat them...sooo I am putting on my Tinkerbell costume and joining them. I am throwing the third annual Pumpkin Patch Invaders of the Math Kind. We spend the day learning math through all things fallish. We eat pumpkin pie, popcorn, and candy all in the name of math. Every lesson is aligned to common core and parents get to teach them!!!!! It is a blast for all but the coolest part is that they don't know they are learning!!!! I win...I win...I win
I mean...you know...I had a plan all along.

How do you spell aggravating? District. Internet. Filters.

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 23:02:20 +0100

Oh yeah...I am aware of what an innocent search on the web can produce. I hold my breath and keep one eye closed whenever I click on the magnifying glass. So, I'm trying to set up blogging (kind of) and everything was going according to plan. Student had nicknames, laptops and I created a way they could make comments on our class webpage without having the password to the page. Yippie! I tried it out at home. It worked!!!! Do you here the breaks screeching? Yeah, totally blocked at school. Now what? Well, I am headed to the blogs to find out. I'll let you know what I find out.