Update

Two things:

1. I am going to be the drum instructor for the local high school's Marching Band: JF Webb. I'm completely stoked. JTOH (my school) has a TON of marching snare drum sticks, I think because they are bigger and thus easier for little kids to grip. THUS I have a vast supply of sticks to practice with. w00t w00t. Now only if I had my practice pad. Moooom! :)

2. In order to have my children behave, I use sticker charts. The sticker chart is just a 1/4 page of paper that is all dressed up, but the important part is the 16 squares. Each child must get 16 stickers before they are allowed to go to the treasure chest. The children LOVE this. I had a 5th grader tell me: "Mr. Raeeder, (Thats what Roeder sounds like with a NC accent), 5th graders don't get enough stickers!" I was like: SCORE! But anyway, the point of this is that my Kindergartners and my Pre-Ks don't care for the chart, or really the treasure chest. What they want are the stickers! So I put little tiny stickers on their hands. They leave my class boasting "I have four stickers!!!!" while the naughty ones sulk covering their hands because their empty hands betray their poor behavior.

Today my Kindergartners lined up like PROS so I promised them all an extra sticker on the way out the door. As I got to one little boy, whose birthday it is today, he grabs my right hand and pulls it towards him, putting one of his own stickers on my hand. He looks up at me through huge coke-bottle glasses that magnify his eyes twice over and smiles with his semi-toothless grin. "Thank you for being so nice to us," is all he says, following the warming statement with one of his signature smiles. "Thank you" was all I could manage, getting emotional about this child's open act of selflessness.

Jesus talks of the love and faith of a child. I witnessed a child's love many times today: One boy ties another one's shoe. Who cares if they are different ages, heights, or colors? A 5 year old girl slips on the stairs and hits her head on a pole. Her classmates are genuinely concerned, as are the 5th graders who saw her come into the cafeteria with me to get ice. And then the little boy who gives me a sticker.

I love my job.

Tractor Pull

Yes, it sounds like something... well, deep back woods... but it was great!

One of my students couldn't believe that I've never been to a Tractor Pull... or that I had no idea what it was for that matter. He made it his mission last week to MAKE SURE that I would be going this weekend! :)

We went to Roxboro Dragway: They have a BRAND NEW tractor pull track, and so this was its maiden initiation. It was great. It was surprisingly entertaining. We forgot the camera... but next time... There will be a next time. I really enjoyed myself!

For more on Tractor Pulling check out the United Pullers of the Carolinas at www.tpull.com

Ta Ta Ti-Ti Ta

I think Kodaly had it right. My Kindergarten/First Grade Split class was SIGHTREADING 4-beat rhythms. It was kinda AMAZING. I nearly leaped for joy! I was beaming the whole time :)

I instituted a personal reward system into my class. My classes were on a class-wide point reward system, but I found it lacked in both rewarding the awesome kids and punishing the ornery ones. (BTW: Apparently everyone East of the Rockies actually says it Or-ner-ee, as opposed to us who say on-ree...weird)

I made 100 copies of a paper with.. oh... 25 clip art eighth notes. And the kids get an eighth note when they are on task, when they RAISE THEIR HAND, when they answer a question correctly... And they LOSE one when they are naughty or off task.

With the wee ones I just give stickers and I take them back when kiddos are bad. I thought a Kindergartner was going to cry today when I did that, but he straightened up like no body's business! :D

Tomorrow I go to Harry Wong Conference in Chapel Hill. And Friday. I'm nervous to leave my class...

Oh no. I just realized that I didn't leave a Sub-Lesson Plan for Friday's Kindergartners... OH NO. Gotta get on that ASAP.

Miss you all. Had AMAZING BBQ pork tonight... home-made goodness. Made breaded Cod last night. Barb had never had Cod. So weird. It was Alaskan Cod too, from Costco. Bomb.com. :)

JT=BR?

I was told today by two fifth grade boys that from the side I look like Justin Timberlake.

Is it sad that that kinda made my day?

You decide:

Finally

I HAVE INTERNET! Now we are just waiting for the router, so that we don't have to share one ethernet chord... woo hoo!

I hollered at my kids today. My 4th graders were OUT OF CONTROL. A fight almost broke out. It is tough to yell at little kids. I told them to "grow up"...

its weird though, because what I meant was to stop acting like adults, and to just have fun. They were being rude and picking fights, and not working with one another, and it was strange because the younger kids love each other and will do ANYTHING to work together, and they enjoy it. I thought today's activity would be really good... it worked for the fifth graders.

The catch of it all is that this is usually my best class... so strange.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

The weekend was phenomenal. Holding babies made my life perfect. It was amazing.

Pics up soon. God has two new children: they were Baptized this last Sunday. They rocked. They were such good babies. They didn't cry at all. :)

Lesson Planning is getting easier. I planned my units on the plane, and I planned LPs for the whole week. Just need to create worksheets and photocopy them.

I have my Music Praxis Exams (teaching content exams) this Sat. I'm totally freaked about them :(

Catching Up

School started: I got a new Mac to use.  Dream come true :)

Now I just need internet.  I'm at a Chick-Fil-A and I'm blogging.  There is a cow dancing next to me.  Oh jeez.  I shouldn't work here.  I'm not even working.  I'm blogging.  And gchatting.  I'm so starved for attention. haha

I'll be home this weekend to baptize the babies.  Dropped mom off at RDU airport this morning.  Got up at 3:30am.  My kids "played" instruments for the first time this year.  I can't believe how little they actually know about music.  My 5th graders can't recognize a quarter note.  RECOGNIZE.  Meaning match it to its name.  Crazy.

Lots of work to do.

Got my driver's License today.