I Apologize

Here is the email I send in response to my safety stars.

Dear Staff,
I wanted to apologize for the safety stars my class posted through out the school. The kids asked if they could share their safety tips with the school and I thought it was a wonderful idea. However, I was notified that some people were offended by them and didn't think that they reflected our 3rd grade team very well because of some grammatical errors they contained. I currently have 21 0f the 22 stars in my possession and only one of them had a safety tip that I sis not deem as a valid safety tip. I did look over most of them before the kids went to put them up but a few did escape my glance. I sent a few students to collect them for me this afternoon but it seems that we can not locate 2 of them. If you happen to stumble across them please feel free to drop them by my room or put it in my box. Once again I apologize for this innocent mistake. I am a first year teacher so I am going to make some here and there. Please feel free to come to me with any suggestions or concerns, I will not be offended. I will, however, be offended if I have to hear your concerns from someone other than you.

Thanks again and I look forward to a great first year with you all. I am very honored to be here among some of the best teachers in Round Rock.

Jesse Sosa
3rd Grade Teacher
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world".

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star...

How I wonder what you are?I know what you are! You are a disgrace to your team and very offensive!
Is that not how the rhyme goes? Oh no that's reality. Shall I explain further?

In class yesterday my class and I read "Officer Buckle and Gloria" by Peggy Rathmann. It is a story of an officer that goes to a school to give them safety lessons. His lessons are not very responsive and leave the kids in a comatose state. The officer receives a canine partner named Gloria. Gloria attends the safety lessons with the officer and before you know it the kids are into the lessons and send the officer off in applause. The officer thinks that his lessons are finally getting the appreciation they deserve. Unbeknownced to him, however, Gloria is behind the officer entertaining the crowd. The officer finally figures out what is going on and gets his feeling hurt. The officer receives a star shaped letter from a student asking him to come back and telling him of a time when she used a safety lesson she learned from him. This letter rejuvenates the officer and he returns to teaching lessons.
After reading the story and discussing some character traits I handed out star shaped paper. I told them to write down a good safety tip that they think is important. A few minutes later the kids ask if they can share their safety tips with the school. My heart swelled with pride. I said of course they could. I set my little minions free to distribute their safety tips among the school. They came back and we talked a little bit more about the importance of public safety and then transitioned to our writing block.
The day has ended and as a few kids leave they tell me about where they put their star and why. I was so happy my kids were excited about helping others be safe. It is about 5 minutes after the kids left and my team's lead teacher approaches me. She advises me that I should take down the stars my place just distributed earlier in the day. I politely asked why and this is what she said, "I had 2 people approach me and they said that the stars offended them and the kid's grammar and spelling reflected poorly on the 3rd grade team". I said that I understood and grabbed a few of my kids from YMCA and had them round up the stars. I was feeling a little uneasy since I didn't really read all the stars. My mind was racing at the possibilities of what they could have said.
I would now like to share the safety tips my kids came up with. I have 22 students so that is 22 safety tips. I will write them exactly as my kids did.

Safety Tip #1: Don't touch electricity posts!
Safety Tip #2: Never jrink and grive.
Safety Tip #3: No pushing.
Safety Tip #4: Never pass a red light!
Safety Tip #5: Always look both ways before crossing a street.
Safety Tip #6: Never stand on a char.
Safety Tip #7: Always touch animals only if your parents say.
Safety Tip #8: Never stand on a swevel chair.
Safety Tip #9: Never lift up a chair.
Safety Tip #10: Never leve a thumb take were you might step on it.
Safety Tip #11: Always label everything because if you trip on a pencil, you know who it belongs to.
Safety Tip #12: Pay atenchen to your teacher because if they have a ruler they will hit you.
Safety Tip #13: Never lean back in a chair.
Safety Tip #14: Always push in you chair so nobody slips and falls.
Safety Tip #15: Never put a plastic chair because you will sufacet.
Safety Tip #16: Never jump of a sky scraper without a crash helmet.
Safety Tip #17: Always wear a helmet when biking or skating.
Safety Tip #18: Don't bend back in you chair.
Safety Tip #19: Never run with scissors in your HAND!
Safety Tip #20:
Safety Tip #21: Never put a plastic bag over your head.
Safety Tip #22: Always have ear muffs on while shooting a big gun so you wont be def.

After reading the stars I was shocked. Are you kidding me? You made me take these down? I was livid. I admit that 1 star was ridiculous. I will post the mass email I sent out to my school in response to this. If you notice there was 1 star we could not find. I hope it doesn't get found. It is my act of defiance against the ignorant people who made me take them down.
Viva la un estrella!

New Teacher Site

So I talked with some young hip teachers at my school today. We talked about plans for the weekend and our teacher websites. They use blogger for their teacher website!!!!! I was like, "Oh my goodness, am I out of the loop!" That can't be. After school I went straight home to get started on my new teacher website. Here it is: http://mrsosasclass.blogspot.com/
Tell me what you think.

It's Mr. Sosa!!!!

I was out this morning to do training for evaluating the work of English Language Learners. It was an ok training. It definitely use any good practices for teaching that we hear so much about. We ended up getting out of training early so a friend and I went to Ross to do some much needed shopping. Then after shopping up a small thunder storm we went and had lunch at the most disgusting Denny's on the face of the Earth. It had a weird funk lingering in the air. I guess it complimented the small flies that lingered in the air as well.

I arrived 5 minutes early before I had to pick the kids up from lunch recess. I headed into the teacher's lounge to grab some tea and check with my neighbor teacher about my sub. To my dismay I found out that she was 30 minutes late! Luckily the teacher next door is awesome and know my routine. She turned on the prepared overhead that contained their morning work. I was a little disappointed with the sub and proceeded out to the playground to pick my kids up.

There they were, already in line waiting. One they saw me I heard kids screaming my name and I could see them jumping and pumping their fists in the air. All the disappointment I was feeling was swept away with a euphoria that made my heart swell. I couldn't help but to smile the biggest smile the world had ever know. A few kids ran up and gave me hugs and told me how much they missed me. Tear tattoo...

The fantastic mood I was in only lasted until we got to the classroom and I read the sub notes. She said the class was good, however she didn't get around to my sub plans. She only did 1 thing in my plans. 1 out of 4 things she should have accomplished with relative ease. I was so mad at her! But I kept a brave face for the kids.

The sub did leave her glasses case behind. I will never call this lady again to sub so I just threw the case away. No need holding on to something for someone I will never see again, right?

Monkey Butt

Read aloud has ended and dismissed the kids to go get their snack and silently read before we go out to recess. I go to my back table to organize papers and grade what I can, while I can. I take a seat and motivate any off taskers to make a good choice. One small child walks towards me and sits on the floor. "Want to see what I invented?", he says with a hint of excitement. I say, "Sure". He proceeds to put his legs behind his head and starts spanking himself on the rear. He quits slapping his butt and asks me if I knew what he invented. I said no, but that it didn't look like he was making good use of his time. He says that it's called Monkey Butt because he saw 2 monkeys do it on TV last night. Two other boys start walking our way with giant Cheshire grins on their face. I point to them and say, "Don't even think about it". Their grins flip upside down and they turn around to go silently read. I told the creator of Monkey Butt to go silently read. He then asks me if I can do Monkey Butt. I said, "How about we leave Monkey Butt to the monkeys."

I just sat there in awe. Monkey Butt? Really? Did that just happen? Did I really have that conversation?

Yes I did. And I love my job!

Morning Work Just got Graphic!

Last Friday I was short an assignment for morning work and the kids were soon to arrive. I decided to have them do a journal entry. The entry asked them if they could have any super power in the world, what would it be and why? I didn't get a chance to read their entries or share them. Well I was planning this weekend for the next week and decided that I would have them illustrate their journal entry from Friday via comic book format for morning work on Monday. I have never seen the kids more excited to get to work. Some of their comics are turning out really cool. I will have to take a pictures and post them soon!

For those who don't know: Comics are basically the same as graphic novels. Comics are usually shorter and are a continuing series, where as Graphic Novel focus more on 1 complete story with a more complex story line.

Ummm... Your child wrote on my butt...

My twin is in town and we went out to dinner on Friday night. We went to a delicious restaurant called Maudie's. It is fine Mexican Cuisine, and the margaritas are huge! Anyways, while we were having margaritas we started to reminisce about the past. High school, old jobs, and funny stories growing up.

I started talking about when I was 19 and worked at a Mother's Day Out 2 days a week. I had a class of 3 year olds all to myself. I remember talking with another teacher, whom I shared a bathroom with. She was sharing a big piece of gossip that engrossed my attention. I remember a little person tugging at my pants, at least I thought he was tugging. I ignored him as the flibbertigibbet shared the riveting story. When she was done I turned around to see what the small child wanted. To my dismay the miniature Michelangelo had drawn his version of the Sistine Chapel on my posterior. It was hard not to laugh and place the child in time out.

When mom came to pick up the pocket sized virtuoso I shared the story with her on how her small child had defaced my derriere. She did not find it funny at all. She gave her child an earful and handed me a $20 bill for dry cleaning. I was a little taken back at how mad she had gotten. But not too taken back as not to accept the money.

That story sent twin and I into a laughing tizzy. I think the margaritas made it that much more funny. I did receive a call from the little maestro 2 years after the incident when I had moved to Austin to go to college at UT. His mom said he was thinking about me and wanted to call. I asked him how school was going, he was then a kindergartner, and he said it was good. I asked what his favorite thing about school was. He said art...