Kids say the darndest things :)

I have had many different experiences with children throughout my life, so naturally I know that they say silly things CONSTANTLY.  Most kids have little to no filter and say whatever pops into their little minds (which as a teacher drives me absolutely INSANE...)  Most of the time it is a question or a comment that has nothing to do with whatever we happen to be focusing on in that moment so I mostly find it ridiculous or interruptive, but there are definitely occasions where it takes a great deal of effort not to burst out laughing.
I have decided to keep a notebook page at the back of my gradebook/seating chart binder to write down some of the more hilarious and noteworthy comments.
I am well aware of the fact that I have a very confusing name, especially for younger kids.  Firslty there is the fact that I have two last names.  Secondly there is the fact that I have two last names and I am not married.  And lastly, one of my last names is somewhat hard to sound out for young kids as it is not spelled phonetically.  My last name poses many problems and therefore when I started teaching at the beginning of this year I simply told all the kids that they can call me "Ms. B-H".  I am still CONSTANTLY being called by the wrong name several months into the school year... Oh well!
On a daily basis I get "Mrs. B-H, Mrs. B-H"!!!!  For whatever reason kids don't understand the concept that you are only a "Mrs." if you are married.  I don't even correct them anymore...
Another name that I get often is "Mrs. Beach".  The two letters of my last name slurred together.  I kinda like it though.  It's a new one to me!
More often than not though, I end up just getting "Uhhhhhhhh......  Teacher?"  Many of the younger kids are still figuring out what my name is.  I cut them slack because I definitely don't have all of their names down yet, although I am MUCH closer than I thought I would be at this point in the school year.

One of my all time favorite quotes from the school year thus far came from a first grade boy.  The first grade boys have gotten in the habit of telling me that they think I am pretty every chance they get, and then they all proceed to look at each other and giggle.  I'm still trying to decide whether they actually want to pay me a compliment, or if they are just trying to earn some brownie points.
In one of my first grade classrooms I have a little girl that absolutely REFUSES to do anything.  She will not sing, she will not talk, she won't play instruments and she will not even look at me and talk to me.  It is the weirdest thing because she will talk to me in the hallways or in the lunchroom, but the minute she steps into my classroom she freezes.  It is also strange because when I am not looking directly at her she participates.  I see her singing along with the whole class out of the corner of my eye, but as soon as I look right at her she stops.  Her teacher and I have been working extensively with her to try to get her past this fear that she has of me and my classroom, with no luck.
The whole class has caught on to her fear and encourages her constantly to participate with them.  One day I asked her if she thought I was a scary person.  Of course, she refused to answer me so I posed the question to the whole class.  I said "Do you guys think I'm scary?  Am I a mean scary teacher?"  They all shook their heads and said "noooooooo!"
This is where my new all-time favorite quote took place...
One little boy looked right at me and very seriously said:

"Ms. B-H, you are about as scary as a princess!"

I LOVE IT!!!!  So cute :)

All of the rest of the little boys then proceeded to tell me that I look like a princess, which made me feel pretty good about myself for the rest of the day.

I'll keep writing down all of those cute things that kids say to me and be sure to note any future cute moments in future blogs.

Thanks for reading!

The first days as a first year teacher!

So I am jumping in and beginning my first "real" teaching job.  Just to fill you in if you don't already know, here are a few details about my new job:

I got hired at an elementary school in Belle Plaine, IA (east/central Iowa) a few weeks after the school year had already started.  The teacher that had this position before I got it decided to accept a different position just a few weeks before school started.  Rather than scramble to find a new music teacher before school started, the administration decided that it would be better to take their time finding a new teacher and just hire a sub for the first few weeks of the school year.  Soooooo, I got hired as the new music teacher a week and a half after school was already started.

While this was obviously not an ideal situation, starting school a few weeks late and having no prep time, I was excited about my new job nonetheless!   I was hired as the prep-kindergarten through 6th grade general and choral music director.  This means that I teach 8 classes every day and see each class every other day.  I counted the other day and I have a total of 326 students.  That is a lot of names to learn!  I'm scrambling to get my classroom and curriculum together, but after having been here for three weeks or so I'm starting to feel more organized.

I have quickly learned the hard way that the music teacher that was here before me was not an organized person, and was not a very "fun" music teacher.  My abbreviated general philosophy on music education at the elementary level (and other levels as well I guess) is that if the students are making music and having FUN with it then the learning will come along with the fun-having.  From what I have gathered, this was definitely not the philosophy of the teacher before me.  Within the first week that I was here I was told numerous times by the other teachers that the kids had already made more music in my classroom this school year than they had in all their previous years of music.  It's nice to know that I'm doing a good job!

I'm trying really hard to get these kids excited about music because it sounds like in the past the only thing that they have really done in music class is worksheets, videos and coloring pages.  We will see if I can revive them from their musical coma and get them making music and getting excited about it!

So far I feel like everything is off to a pretty good start (despite the not so ideal situation...)  I am finally feeling like I have started to get my office organized (which was a PIT by the way...) and get my room set up the way that I want it.  Unfortunately the teacher before just took off and left alllllllll of her junk behind.  I have recycled at least 10 large t rash cans full of CRAP that no good music teacher would ever need to use.  The classroom has finally started to look like my classroom and feel like my own classroom.  Here are a few pictures of my classroom:

As you can see, I am blessed to be working in a very nice classroom in a brand new school!  It's exciting to be in such a nice environment and to have really nice materials to use.

I'll be keeping you posted on some of the more noteworthy things that take place in my classroom!  Stay tuned!