Take my advice (part 2)

Yesterday, I included a couple of writing samples from some of my kids about what advice they would give to second graders who will be in my class next year. Here are a few more choice examples.

This little girl shared a few of the more memorable aspects of being in my class:

I would tell them not to run in the hall or you will get in trouble if you are in Mr. Teacher's class next year you will probably have a behavior folder with codes that say bad stuff that you do and if you do not come to class with all your supplies you will get a code on Fridays if you have one code you will sit out five min. after specials in the afternoon you will do something in March that is called March Mathness that is fun you have to learn your times tables for March Mathness there is this thing that is called score a multiplication touchdown and you have to make a touchdown to get a prize that is so fun I like Mr. Teacher's class it is fun we do something called math around the world that's a fun game too.

[Not much in the way of punctuation there, but I'm glad she enjoyed the games we played.]

This next girl was one of my favorites, and she has some tough love to share with the second graders.

From second grade to third grade is hard. All you have to do is have some harder stuff than in second grade. And you might be shy but you just have to get used to it. Remember that you do not come to school to make friends you come to school to think! You come with a smile on your face! Have fun!

[I love that bit about not coming to school to make friends.]

Finally, we have some advice from one of the more behaviorally-challenged girls in my class. She focused on what she knows best.

When you're going to be in Mr. Teacher's class make sure you don't laugh or talk when you're in a table group cause if you do that he will put you where you will sit by yourself. And if you throw a fit in the classroom he will put you in another classroom. And if you be rude or doing mean things like mocking him he will put you in another classroom and call your parents. And plus you need to not talk when work time because he can hear and see you even when he's not looking.

[Excellent advice; it's truly a shame that she never took this advice herself.]

Take my advice (part 1)

One of the last writing assignments that I gave to my kids this week had the prompt, "What advice would you give to next year's third graders?"

I got some really good responses, and I'm going to space them out a little bit over the next couple of days, rather than writing one REALLY long post.

Here's one titled, "heads up second graders next year: the eight steps in third grade."

Hello this is ------- giving you a heads up because in order to earn your highest grades these are your goals, first you have to always do your homework, second pay attention in class and do your work, third make sure you try your best on any test taks test or any other work you do, fourth you have to work hard and really hard for parties that are worth it, fifth on writing samples please try your best like me, sixth and if you don't get you folder signed expect no Friday fun time, seventh and expect no recess if you didn't do your homework, eighth and if the whole class is doing something fun and you're in the corner don't expect it.

[I certainly can't argue with any of those points.]

Here's another, titled, "My Words."

If you're going to be in Mr. Teacher's class I have some tips. Never get a attitude with him. Always bring a sharp pencil. Be prepared for the TASKS and study because you never know if it's new or old mostly it's going to be new. Make sure you know how to add, subtract, carry, and borrow. Because you never know if he will pick you.

Make sure that you stay behavior perfect. Never disappoint Mr. T.

[Amen to that one, brother.]

More tomorrow! In the meantime, teachers, please continue sending me your plans for the summer!!

Advice from 3rd graders -- stay away from conspiracy plots

This week's Mr. Teacher column on education.com pretty much wrote itself. Last year, I gave my kids some creative writing prompts during the last week of school. One of them was asking for what advice they would give to next year's third graders. The column this week is a compilation of some of the best bits of advice that were gleaned.

Thankfully, none of the kids advised their successors to plot murder against me, or any other teacher for that matter. Unlike THESE third-graders, obviously. I read this and first thought that perhaps it was an April fools joke, but since it's showing up on CNN and Yahoo and other various sources, I'm going to take it at face value.

Just one more sign that our society is going to the University of North Carolina, err, I mean hell, in a hand basket. [That was for you, Chad] :)

Here's my advice to you

Today's writing prompt: What advice would you give to next year's third graders?

I REALLY enjoyed reading my kids responses today. There is definitely a lot of room for improvement, but some of these kids really can pull their thoughts together and write pretty well.

CLEARLY, Mrs. Educator and I got at least one thing through to the kids this year, as it came up in many of the passages today… Do your homework, or else you will miss your recess.

Here are a few other choice excerpts:

“You better study or you will not learn anything in science."

"Bring your homework every day, do not leave it at home and say I forgot to bring it. Do not make an excuse and say that."

"In the third grade you only use the restroom two times, that's in the morning and after recess."

"Keep up the good work and you will reach your goal and you'll become a third grader. Next you will be in third grade like me and you will find what you are looking for."
[DEEP!]

"When it comes to field trips try not to miss them because they are really cool."

“Do not try to talk while you are taking tests.”

"Third grade is not hard like they say."

“And learn to spell words that are hard like goverment, milk way, o clock, teachers, pencil, pennsilvaneya, colorodo, and crayons so that's why you have to learn to spell.”
[gud addvize!]

"Do not talk or play until you have recess or else Mister Teacher will have you stand in a corner or go to another teacher's classroom for 10 minutes or more."

"If you have bad writing practice writing a story or buy a book that helps you write neat. Because you need to have good handwriting in third grade. So your teacher can read it."

“Some more advice would be is don't play in class or talk during class because Mister Teacher will get mad and make you stand in the corner."

And this one, I have to post in its entirety, because it is just fantastic in my opinion. I think it might actually fit more into Monday's topic of “What was your favorite thing in third grade math?” but she wrote it today:

“My advice to next year's third graders is that they got to be listening to what they have been taught. Another thing I will like to say is that when it comes to algebra it is going to be so easy.
Algebra is easy because you only think that you got to do is add. For example F + 8 = 16 -- the answer is 8 which is F. Sometimes it is hard if you see a letter with a two know that you are supposed to multiply. For example P2 = 144. The 2 means square and there is 12 X 12.
Algebra has different types of things to do like in high school middle school you got to find out what a whole bunch of numbers equals to. It is kind of easy if you know how to do little types of algebra.”
[Who knew that a couple of days of the most BASIC algebra techniques would have such an impact!]


All of their responses were really great. But I'm very interested to read TOMORROW'S papers…

The prompt?

“What do you think about Mister Teacher and Mrs. Educator?”