Tuesday: Sick & distracted.
This was the first day that I really felt sick. My nose was running, I was coughing, and I was tired before the kids even walked into the classroom. At morning meeting, one of my girls asked me, "Umm, Miss T, do you need to blow your nose or something?" Why yes, smart 3rd grader, that groggly noise you are hearing in my voice is, in fact, indicating to all of us that I need to spend some time with a Kleenex tissue... or seven. There was a job fair on campus Tuesday night that had me all kinds of distracted. I prepped my resume the night before and wore my most professional clothing to school. Most of the schools at the fair were schools that I wouldn't nessarily want to work at, but I knew it'd be good experience to go and talk to some potential employers. I ended up talking to four different schools, I spoke with one HR person and three elementary school principals. There are some questions I'd like to polish up before I begin my "real" interviews, but for the most part, I felt satisfied with my performance. I mean really, I can talk about my kids all day long!
The rest of the day at school on Tuesday is kind of a blur now (it is 48 hours later, after all... a teacher can't be expected to remember that far back) but I do remember it being somewhat stressful. There is so much to consider when you're the only teacher in the classroom. There seems to be 90 million things you need to keep track of at once. For example, who is in the classroom, who is going to bathroom, who you promised to sit next to, who is fighting with who, who you spoke with on the phone earlier, who needs help problem solving... not to mention what materials and ideas you need to actually teach content. And assessment? Shoot. It's a busy life. Let's just say that when I have my own classroom, checklists and to-do lists will be my BFF's.
Wednesday: What did these kids eat?!
Squirrels. That is the best word that I can use to describe my day on Wednesday. My kids were all over the place- doing flips on our new rug, touching each other, sitting on each other's laps, laying on the floor, sitting on top of containers, etc. Seriously, everywhere. There were so many times on Wednesday when I just sat back and thought, "What in the world was put into these kids to make them move so much?!" If their book boxes are any indication... things were hectic!
For the record, this space looks MUCH better now. We spend a good portion of time talking about how to organize our book boxes and which materials should be kept where. Some complained while we were doing it, but for the most part, they told me they felt good after they tidied things up. I'm glad they're starting to see the light... it took me at least 21 years to do that. Back to their crazy behavior- I ended the day in our closing circle by having students give me a thumbs up, thumbs sideways, or thumbs down if their day today went better, the same, or worse than yesterday. As the teacher, it felt like we had two days of kids just hanging out and playing rather than two days of kids simultaneously working hard and having fun. Most of them said they had the same or worse, which I agreed with. We are all about honesty! I then took some student volunteers to share things they could do to make things better. They said raise their hand, no side conversations, listen to the teacher, etc. It felt as if they were regurgitating statements they'd heard over and over again, but really, those are the expectations. I'm not convinced that saying these things repeatedly changes behavior, so I want to work on the action part with them for the rest of the week. HOW can we make that happen? WHAT would that LOOK like?
Today: My kids are SO funny!
I love kids. The things that come out of their mouths at any given time never cease to amaze me. I started off the morning by having my kids create class cinquains. I wrote two templates on the board and had them fill in the words. The first one was about bananas and the second was about mini-vans. They were pretty funny! For our share at morning meeting, I had kids share something they were going to do to make today better. I said that I would make it better by asking for help from students, because many of the things that are hard for me are things that they are a part of. They came up with some nice reasons and I hoped that they'd come through.
Funny story 1: I had been on one of my kids all day long about raising his hand. He pretty much makes a comment about anything and everything whenever it pops into his head. When I was reading "Diary of a Fly" for read aloud, he started laughing really hard. All of a sudden, his face got really serious and his hand shot up in the air. I thanked him for raising his hand and then called on him. He said, "Wait, Ms. T, do we need to raise our hands to laugh?!" He was completely serious. I smiled and said that laughing is wonderful and totally fine as long as it doesn't get out of hand.
Funny story 2: We were doing rotations in math. The class was split into thirds, one playing math card games, the other doing Singapore workbooks, and the last group doing a CGI story problem with me. I was working on 2 + box = 10 with S, and he said, "I am so hungry for pizza right now. Miss T, if you were a piece of pizza, I'd eat you right up." Again, the kid was serious. They are so funny when they aren't trying!
Funny story 3: Two of my 3rd grade girls took it upon themselves to create their own math game. It's called "Chicken Dog" and essentially, you each lay two cards, add them together, and whoever has the highest number gets the cards. They'd told me about it before, but at the end of math, they rushed up to me again. "Miss T! We have a new part of our game! At the end, when you show the other person your cards, you have to say 'Show me your peacock!'" Where in the world did they come up with that?! She said it really quickly and thus, I giggled for at least 30 seconds.
Needless to say, I love my kids, and I'm excited for tomorrow! I'm sad that my lead week is coming to an end though. I like having all the power! ;)
Love,
Miss Tee
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