First Christmas Letter

Dear family & friends,
Merry Christmas & happy holidays! This has been an eventful year for me! I will be graduating from BYU in the spring (April 2012) & I have been teaching fourth grade in downtown Salt Lake through a BYU internship this school year, & it has been both a challenge & a great joy in my life. I really enjoy it though, & my students teach me so much, especially about life. It has not been without serious difficulty at points, but I know I’m where I need to be.
I love my new student ward in Murray too;I have been called to serve as a ward missionary & really enjoy that calling thus far (though it also requires much of my time.)
May we all remember the true meaning of Christmas, as we consider the diligent journey of the Wise Men to find the young king, the Christ child. I have found true symbolism in their journey, as I search for the Savior & know that we all can & must seek Him in our individual lives, & give Him the only unique thing we can even offer-our will & our heart. As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it: "What you are is God's gift to you; what you do with yourself is your gift to God."
Merry Christmas & may you have a happy & prosperous new year!
With Love, (Ms.) Katie Bauserman

New Problems Arise!

My family came & visited the classroom over Thanksgiving Break! Kel, Sammy, Joey, Dad, & Mom all let my students read to them throughout the room, while I worked primarily with my Spanish group on comprehension strategies. I also had Dad teach the kids a lesson on the thankful turkey we always have hanging in our home every Thanksgiving (listing a blessing on 5 fingers traced). They loved & very much needed the visit; I fear I can never properly give them the strictly individual attention they desire.
They performed a Reader’s Theater on Thanksgiving after lunch for the kindergarten & sixth grades; I was pretty proud of them, overall! Then they got to have their root beer float party (for good behavior)--they all wanted thirds! And they were doing the strangest things, like pouring chocolate & caramel on top of the ice-cream floating in the root beer. SUGAR overload.


Many new developments arose today; I’m not sure why I thought coming back from Thanksgiving break would be relatively smooth. First there was discussing with one of my favorite troublemakers his bad decision to take another student by the collar & push him down to the ground on the way out of school Tuesday (escaping before I could properly discipline him for it.) Later on, after giving him a copy of the write-up to take home & get signed, when he should have been working on his math self-start, I found him forging his dad’s name on the form where a parent’s signature is required. I realized in that instant that he’s been forging his dad’s name on his reading logs & occasionally in his planner as well; this could develop into a pretty serious problem later on in his life, especially because he’s tried to be so deceitful about it. Yikes!
Then the assistant principal stopped in to talk to me about a boy getting bullied in my class, mainly because of his girly looks & shy nature. His mom has been in close contact with the office & wants me to be on the look-out for instances when he might be bullied; I spoke with him privately about how he needs to come to me & let me know when such instances occur. The assistant principal said the school counselors are working with Bailey to try to help build up his confidence & teach him how to be more assertive; I can’t imagine they’re going to have much success in that endeavor, however. He’s a painfully shy kid & his mom allows him to skip school every Friday because it’s been difficult for him to adjust to public school (since he has been home-schooled in years past.) The assistant principal really feels like he’s being babied by his mom overall, & I’d have to agree.
Finally there’s the situation my student who has serious behavioral disorders. He was really “on one” today & he was out of seat almost every time I turned around, distracting or bothering other students. He was also especially defiant to me, especially when I pointed out that he needed to stay in for some of his recess since he lied to me about getting “yes’s” on his behavior scorecard (a mechanism I've implemented to help him stay on-task during instructional time.)He wanted to get a green card pretty badly, I guess (primarily because the counselor will reward him with something like a Transformer toy if he gets enough positives or green cards from me, which, if you ask me, is a pretty messed up system anyway, since it's based around bribery.) He also told me he’d had enough in my class, since other students are always telling on him, & that he would be moving to the other 4th grade class promptly.
He kept saying there were things he needed to get off his chest, but then never said anything particularly enlightening as to why he was acting the way he was. That child is a mystery to me.
The principal came in & observed me today as well (for my ECAP observation.) She mentioned to me in a note she left that she saw some good things & that we’d debrief Thursday. It really wasn’t too stressful having her there during my nouns lesson (as I had supposed it might be.) The kids were pretty engaged for most of that lesson though, & that makes a big difference. I love it when they get excited about learning & it's personalized for them!

It's been a really really rough rough week.....

The past few days have seemed endless; oh look! I'm capitalizing on our suffixes lesson...is it weird that I'm walking around labeling everything I say now? Probably. Well, there are some updates & some funny & serious highlights to share. Tomorrow is our first class field trip; that should be fun! And somewhat interesting as well.
Today when I was teaching the Literacy block, I asked my students to think of an adjective the author used in the story to describe the cattle. One of my students, without thinking or raising his hand blurted out "the cows were horny?" Oh dear........I told him that while the cows have horns that does not make them...ahem, well you get the idea. At least I didn't laugh aloud when he said it, or he would probably have kept repeating that phrase the entire day!
After-school today, my favorite troublemaker's mom came to get him & to get a report on how he's doing; today wasn't such a great day to check up on all that. Furthermore, he brought his mom's personally obtained crystals to school & started trading them with other students at recess & giving them away to others in the class. She was pretty furious when she made that discovery after school. ...& I found it interesting that she said the reason he just has a bag & not a backpack with pockets is because he likes to hide things he shouldn't be bringing to school. Weird.
Last night I graded writing samples my students wrote from awhile ago. They were written based on a prompt about good memories shared with friends. Unfortunately, one of my students mentioned his brother getting arrested during his "good memory" retelling; that really broke my heart. These kids really have a tough life & I'm just so amazed that they make it to school every day.
p.s. If you've heard this phrase before, go ahead & laugh, but if not, ask me what it means....I just learned today! Corn-dogging (and I'm not talking about the food connotation....)

The Plot Thickens......

So....today I was rudely "awakened" to one of my students' misbehaviors last week (which I knew he'd gotten suspended for, but was unsure of the details.) Imagine my surprise when the principal telephoned my room, in the middle of instructional time for literacy, & informed me of my students' suspension lasting until Thursday, since she can't get a court hearing before Wednesday. The court hearing developed from the fact that, not only did this student have posession of a weapon on the playground last week (razor blades) but he actually harmed another student! What a nightmare :/
Then, one of the girls in my classroom had to move her clip 4 times (she's become quite the "talker" lately during instruction) & she started bawling when she was told to go write a letter home, as the consequences so clearly outline, & admitted she's been acting out in class & talking because she doesn't get much attention from her mom (since she's gotten engaged & is a student as well.) That was so sad for me.
And on top of all that, most of my co-workers couldn't help but come by & comment about Saturday's slaughter; the massacre of BYU by Utah (since the corner of my classroom is decked out in BYU.) *Sigh* I'm so glad tomorrow's a new day!

The Gospel on the Art of Disciplining & Teaching

As I have been considering some of my more troublesome students (3 in particular) & their behaviors in the classroom as of late, I have taken some extra measures to encourage good behaviors from them, to replace the undesirable behaviors constantly manifest instead. For some of them, I have talked to their parents & the school counselor & enacted a behavior implementation plan (which entails cooperation of the parents at home to take away privileges if the student had an unsatsifactory day at school & my discipline plan had no effect on them in the classroom), moving seats closer to the front where I can see every off-task behavior, & even using scorecards on their desks to indicate when they are displaying "yes" or "no" behaviors. I took some guidance & comfort from a General Conference address given by Elder Lynn G. Robbins this past April; his infamous "to be and to do" talk. While the talk was directed towards parents, there are many gems of truth that can be applied in the educator's realm as well. He said: "We will never have a greater opportunity to teach & show Christlike attributes to our children than in the way we discipline them. Discipline comes from the same root word as disciple & implies patience & teaching on our part. ..you might consider the more challenging child a blessing & opportunity to become more godlike yourself. Could it be possible that you need this child as much as this child needs you?"
What a concept! But it is true; in my ongoing quest to become more godlike, these students & future students & children, can assist me in that quest, by encouraging me to be more patient, diligent, & charitable in disciplining them.

Today was an interesting one; my kids were really making me laugh when they interacted with volunteers from the Church who came to do the United Day of Caring (i.e. organize activities & games with the kids & eat lunch with us). When one of the volunteers introduced himself as someone who gets to "play" on the computer all day, a software engineer, one of my students blurted out, "I'd like to take your job!" And later, when students' cultures & languages spoken were being discussed, another student said, "Well, I'm not really from Mexico, but that's where my mom got pregnant." (If you've read earlier entries, he's the same one that said he's not really Mormon, but that he goes to church so they give him stuff for free.)
Unfortunately, the afternoon didn't end too well; two of my students got in a fight during the "extra recess" provided by the school counselor, & it escalated to the point that they ended up in the principal's office talking to her about it after-school. Also, one of the students has already gotten in a fight since school started, & he claims it stems from anger management issues. :/ I don't really know how to respond to that. We all have to learn how to manage anger & frustration in our lives though.
Also, I had to talk to the school counselor after-school today, & I'm lucky I snagged him, to refer 2 students to him for counseling. One of them being the young man who is picking fights with other students continually & the other the young man with ADHD & a lot of social behavior issues. With him I decided to pull his desk up to the front of the room, hoping that proximity to me will help keep him in check, & made a small "score card" to put in front of his desk to indicate when he is behaving & on-task (which will ultimately lead to a reward) & when his behavior is unacceptable. It mostly worked like a charm, today!
We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Will I ever get this right?

Well, today was a pretty crazy one! All but one student were present, & I now have 28 students, total. In other words, it's a party house. haha. Anyway, the morning was a little rough seeing as I didn't thoroughly plan out my math lesson enough last night; but it was my birthday......can't someone get a little break on their bday? My facilitators don't seem to think so; needless to say, they were pretty disappointed with today's math lesson (which was mostly review anyway.)
When I went to get the kids from afternoon recess, one of my boys sneezed on the boy in front of him & that young man turned around & punched the boy who'd sneezed right in the eye. Of course, the boy who got punched retaliated, & I had to march them both to the office, meanwhile lecturing them on the fact that violence is never the answer.
One of my facilitators, Pat, left me some more notes in our "communication journal" if you will; the kids have really been taking advantage of the bathroom & drinking policy. I'm not typically a mean-spirited person, but it does get rather annoying when you allow them to drink water & go to the bathroom after recess, & then when you're sitting on the carpet to read 30 minutes later, suddenly everyone needs to go & it's an emergency. It can be a real distraction when that many people insist on going during class; Pat & I are going to address this with a new "system" tomorrow. I'll keep everyone updated on how that goes!
At the end of the day today I was talking to my CFA Joanne (don't ask me what CFA stands for, I honestly couldn't tell you!) & just saying I feel like the biggest key to my success this year will be learning patience with myself. I'm pretty patient with the kids in general, I feel. ....& even that will come more with time, I'm sure.

The First Few Days of School!

Back-to-School-Night: (Tuesday) Well,one of my facilitators had this cute idea to put up charts around the room about parents' experiences in 4th grade, or more specific questions about the students. Most of the parents that came in that night said, "Did I even read in 4th grade? If I did, I don't remember anything!" Things continued to go well when I asked one mother who her daughter was. He had really long hair, ok? (Longer than mine or Sar's!) He has a girly name too; how was I to know?

Then there was meeting a young boy's mother, who proceeded to tell me about all of the ADHD manifest behaviors I would probably be witnessing in the classroom throughout the school year (i.e. destroying erasers & pencils, throwing objects, etc.) The only consolation she really gave is that I would really be able to tell when he wasn't taking his medicine. Great!

One student came up to me and politely asked if he could just call me "Ms. B" instead of having to say "Ms. Bauserman" (which all the students have taken to now) & I assured him he could. He then proceeded to tell me that he appreciated the Jimmer poster in the class library, because he liked BYU basketball better, but Ute football better. I told him we would mostly get along then!

THE FIRST DAY:

tIt all started bright & early at 7 a.m. (worked on putting the class “mascots” above the tables; I chose an "Under-the-Sea" theme, so there are seahorses, seashells, starfish, & other types of fish.) Really fun!

&ltThe fun part began when parents who were unable to make it to Back-to-School Night started showing up minutes before (and after) the bell had run. Upon seeing me come out of the classroom to greet them, one student's mom commented on how schoolteachers keep getting younger & younger every year. I assured her I was younger than I looked, & that I was going to be 24 next week.

Then, in the midst of that craziness and running off copies for the day, I had 2 new students added to my class. One of them had a concerned mother, who wanted to discuss her child's learning disabilities at length, when I was supposed to be starting class. So, you know what that means....I was throwing together materials for them, writing out name tags & setting up their desks, lickety-split! It was already time to be discussing class rules & procedures.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->· To add to the excitement, one student got very sick to her stomach (she went pale in the face & her little body was very hot all of the sudden). So, during the math curses exercise for the morning, I had to walk her halfway down to the office & have the school counselor go in & watch my class for me. She said she couldn’t walk once we had gotten most of the way down the stairs. The school nurse’s diagnosis: 1^st day nerves. Pobrecita!

<!--[if !supportLists]-->· II was somewhat little strict for the first day; one student moved his clip 4 times for “talking” & at least 8 students had to sign their cards for talking while I was talking (but it’s a brand new school year & they just learned the rules today!!!) My facilitators had both made me feel like I had to be mean & consistent though….they said not to worry about being too friendly with the students at the beginning L Anyone who knows me know this is absolutely contrary to my nature anyway!

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·ye Unfortunately the first day didn't go as well as I'd thought (at least according to one of my facilitators who came to observe me for the last hour.) She talked about how chaotic my classroom seemed to be & that I was doing a lot of shushing; part of that is because she kept interrupting me when I was in the middle of instructing or helping students, & then the kids would start talking to one another because they had nothing else to do. Those who look for negative will find it though! Needless to say I was pretty upset & disappointed with how things had gone, once I started talking to her. I’d thought more had gone well, but she didn’t mention it

<!--[if !supportLists]-->· My other facilitator had the cute idea to keep a diary of my experiences; I write to her & she writes to me each day she's there. The first journal entry to me (after observing me this morning): “There are always new students coming in the first few days—fun huh? Lucky you!"26 students later......

8/26/11

When I announced the United Day of Caring this morning in class, a student raised his hand as he simultaneously yelled aloud, “I’m a member of the church that’s doing that thing.” Soon other kids piped up and mentioned they were also members of the LDS church; I tried to gently steer the conversation back to the importance of school rules, while keeping a neutral position on the matter. As I was about to start the instruction on multiplication for the day, one student yelled out, “Well, I’m not really a member, but I go there so they give me stuff.” I tried to quickly change the subject after his outburst; I should think my reasoning there doesn't need an explanation.

At lunch today, I sat with my students, since Friday is the responsibility of the individual teachers to watch the students, apparently. (Remember, I'm learning as I go!) One of the cute Hispanic students in my class, allowed me to sit down next to her. I noticed her cautiously watching me out of the corner of my eye as she popped chips into her mouth. As I turned to acknowledge her, she said quickly, "I just got one question." I raised my eyebrows to acknowledge her. She said "Are you Mexican?" I stifled a laugh, but wasn't successful at hiding the smile. I said to her that I wasn't, but that I really loved the Hispanic culture & language, so I could pretend to be, sometimes. That seemed a satisfactory answer, as I heard nothing else from her during the lunch period!

Unfortunately, after lunch wasn't so pleasant; one young lady refused to sit with the class at lunch, & when I asked her if she was ok, she just shrugged me off. When we began our shared reading activity & it was her turn to read-aloud at her table, she closed her book & put it down. One of the students at her table informed me that she refused to read & that they couldn't go on until she would read that page. I knelt down beside the girl's desk, & noticed a big crocodile tear gathering in one eye; when I whispered in her ear to see if she was ok, she didn't respond. Then I asked if she'd like to come visit my desk & chat with me a moment. She shook her head. I could see she was struggling with something, & I knew somewhat about her background, which was what was probably troubling her. I cannot imagine what it would be like to come to school & try to engage in scholastic activity all day, when things aren't right at home; that is one of the biggest challenges of working in this "urban area" of Salt Lake, where there are many homeless and refugee students that attend our school. I truly feel for them & cannot imagine what that is like for them. But I want to love them, believe in them, & set high expectations for them so that they can be successful! All anyone ever needs is someone to believe in them.

I can't wait to go back tomorrow & start my first whole week! These kids are great! I love them!

The Hill Cumorah Pageant

So....even though I mainly started this blog to record my first year teacher experiences, I couldn't resist talking about the amazing experience I just had at the Hill Cumorah Pageant.
It was held in Palmyra, New York where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. Being a cast member at the pageant, I, along with about 750 other individuals, aided in depicting scenes from the Book of Mormon & the restoration of the gospel through Joseph Smith. It was an amazing experience, & even playing such a small role as a harvest worker (who celebrates the arrival of Lehi's family to the promised land) & a Nephite campfire dancer (preparing for the final war Mormon & his son Moroni engage in), I could feel the Spirit every night. And of course, my favorite scene was "the Descension scene" which depicts Christ returning to the Americas after His death in Jerusalem, as a resurrected being. One cannot help but imagine what it will be like when He comes again; it is a very emotional & spiritual experience.
If anyone has ever considered doing the Hill Cumorah Pageant, or other church pageants held during the summer, I would strongly advise that you apply to be in them! Especially because this past time at the Hill Cumorah there was an even stronger focus on missionary work than the time my family did it before (in 2007.) Elder Cook of the 70 actually came to our first Sacrament Meeting & set us apart as missionaries; we were commissioned, just as the full-time missionaries, to proselyte & invite others to come unto Christ every night before performances (and even at other points, such as our service projects & visits to the Church historical sites.)
I love this gospel with all my heart; the Book of Mormon is another testament & witness of Jesus Christ & it has changed my life as I read & apply the teachings found therein. Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God, called in his young age as he saw God the Father & his Son Jesus Christ in a grove of trees. He translated that marvelous book, the Book of Mormon, by the gift & power of God. Jesus Christ is our Savior & He lives today; I know that He loves us all & He is constant & reliable from day to day. What a blessing it is to have this truth & knowledge in my life!