LICE!!! I only have to say that word and it puts an itch to the head of every elementary teacher (some of you are itching now). We had our first head check in our room, and 6 children had lice! I know that lice are a part of life here and that they are easily transmitted. I have itched all week – even though I made the nurse check my head as well. Thank you to the tea tree oil I administer each night, NO lice. Still, my head itches just saying the word. My para educator laughs each time she sees me itch my head, she keeps telling me my imaginary lice are moving. As I said, just the word makes me itch.

My children come in each day to tell me how many days until Halloween. They are so excited about the day. I am unsure what to expect here. The teachers are talking about organizing a trunk or treat in the parking lot of the school. It will be safer than children trick or treating in housing. Guess who has been put in charge! The photo this week is of our door. The spiders are constructed from chenille stems, which I called pipe cleaners. Pipes up here have a whole different connotation than what I think about! The children asked why I called the chenille stems pipe cleaners while trying to explain – they point blank told me Crack pipes don’t have something to clean. I had to Goggle on my phone a tobacco pipe for them to understand. I will never use the word pipe cleaner for this craft item again. Oh, what different lives many of them live, than I did growing up.

We are beginning to plan our Halloween Party for our room. I think we are going to dip caramel apples and then have a bar of toppings to add to your caramel; kind of our own Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. The kids have requested a scary movie. I am beginning to explore what I can show them that is not R-rated. Hope to find an old flick they may not have seen. I thought maybe Goonies, so if any of you have suggestions, send them to my email. Horror flicks are not my thing – so I have a limited view of this genre. I will have to be able to get it on DVD because BIE blocks so many sites I will not be able to show a downloaded copy.

I have downloaded the script for a readers’ theatre of Halloweener by Pikney, a children’s story about a dachshund, whose mother dresses him as a hot dog for Halloween. We will be performing it for the lower grades on Halloween. Everyone will have a part. I hope to film it – I’ll update you on the progress. It is a cute story, and I know the fifth graders will enjoy the humor.

We seem to have turned a corner now that it is October. I find myself redirecting behavior less and really being able to do some fun teaching. It was impossible before to do some things because the children just got so out of hand. We completed a science experiment with water this week; freezing different solutions. The children learned how to read a Celsius thermometer and did a full experiment with the hypothesis method, data collection, and conclusions drawn from this data. It was exciting to see them work together as a group and have science conversations about what they thought. Last week, while I was in Omaha there was a presentation on reptiles from Reptile Garden, the learning journals from the presentation also showed progress in writing as well as science learning. YEAH!!!!!

We have been editing each morning since the beginning of the year. We now can tell why we think the corrections need to be made and are beginning to edit our own writing as well as our peers! (Yes, I know this is something most 5th graders can do – however, this was not a skill present in August.) It was a rude awakening, last week when I was visiting a student teacher in second grade at Omaha Westside, and saw the teacher present the same lesson I had just done with my fifth graders. One that my students had struggled with – adverbs; seeing these second graders master this and compete by tables to write the best sentence containing adverbs with self-assured confidence brought the deficits up here to light. My students’ lack of vocabulary and exposure to standard English, really hinders them in this area. The second graders’ sentences were more complex than anything I have seen from my fifth graders. When asked to write, the first thing my students ask is, “How many sentences do we have to write?” This statement is followed by the simplest sentences that can be constructed, so the new challenge will now be to increase the clarity and expand our writing. I am thinking we may set up some pen pals so that they are writing for a purpose. We have been doing apology and thank you notes, I believe this will be our next step. Anyone have a class that needs a pen pal out there??

I have always talked to my students about hungry children not learning well. This week, I had an aha with one of my boys. I have been tracking his behavior. I suspect we may have diabetes happening or at the least low blood sugar. (He is as obstinate as my dad was when his sugars were low! Any of you who saw my dad like that will know it is not a pretty sight!!) This young man has days when he comes into school so obstinate refusing to do anything. Finally, it occurred to me to ask if he had breakfast. When I learned he was hungry and got some food into him – he was a different kid. When the commercials talk about hangry well, this was him! I am now stocking my room with easy breakfast items such as juice boxes and granola bars, graham crackers, etc… (Ups my food budget a bit) I will be bringing the small refrigerator up so I can store milk and cereal here as well. I had not done so because we do have a breakfast program here. However, if the children are late they cannot get breakfast through the program. We need to get the food backpack program up and running. That was one of my goals – however, with teaching fifth grade, I have not been able to get this accomplished. I know I have children leaving school each day and not eating again until school the next day. The Pine Ridge Reservation is one of the poorest places in this hemisphere – poorer than Haiti! Please know that the average income here for a year is less than many in Omaha make in a month. This is an epicenter of poverty and very little hope for escaping it. My training through Aha Process and reading Ruby Payne’s materials has taught me that to escape poverty you must have resources beyond just money. These recourses include financial, emotional, mental (Including mental health and education), spiritual, physical, support systems and knowledge of hidden rules, and role models. I encourage any of you who are interested in learning more about leaving poverty or assisting those who desire to do so to explore Aha Process training and materials. I use what I have learned daily in my work here.

Fall is in full swing here. Report cards go out in 2 weeks. While there was a very dry summer, we have had a wet fall. It is raining again here. Fall leaves are beautiful and the colors really pop against the horizon. It has cooled off here and we are awaiting the winter coats promised by a group from North Carolina. I know we will be needing them soon, you can feel the chill in the air in the mornings. God’s Blessings to you all. I am looking forward to a group of Nursing faculty and students from CSM arriving next week. They will be doing a health fair for the elementary, a college workshop for the high school girls, and exploring the history and culture of the Pine Ridge area.

I can use for my room:

  • Breakfast bars (No peanuts)
  • Individual packets of cheese and crackers
  • Graham cracker bears or fish crackers (individually packaged)
  • Juice boxes
  • Individual cans of fruit
  • Plastic spoons
  • Individual cereals

There is a box at Lutheran Church of the Master (114th and Center) or you can drop them off to Jeff. I will be going home to Omaha at the end of October, to celebrate 25 years of the SMART program at CSM. God’s blessing to you all. Thank you for the cards, emails, and phone calls of encouragement, they mean so much. Thank you again to all of you who have donated so many different items for me to bring up here on each trip. The children see me as rich. I tell them it is all of you. It is important for every child to feel cared for these items are beginning to help my children here feel like someone cares for them.