Wednesday September 25th
Today went as well as Wednesdays can. Our science was difficult in France, and the reward of finishing it was small. I would love to design the sciences we use... I think I would be able to design something better, knowing the age of kids that do it.Australia we watched our cartoon after we did reading street, and that worked out pretty well. The are right were they should be. Denmark, we did our speech class then reading street. We are a little behind with reading street.
I started off the day for my firstgraders without chairs. I think they kind of liked it like that. It was something new and different. They are young, so the littlest things can keep their attention. When there is some little change like this, it seems to have a net positive effect on the class. It changes up the monotony. At the end of class, I gave them their desks back, so they could do the writing work.
Thirdgraders were okay. We did our write it right book, and most of the kids are pretty good with it. Once the student figures the pattern of the given words, the rest is easy. There are a few students that have a tough time with it, but they are the students that have a tough time in class as it is. I need to find a way to engage them more. I know I say that often. There are also several little cliques in the class and I don't like it. Some of it is by age, some is by gender, the others I am not sure of. I know cliques form... but I think not only the clique can have a negative impact on the students, but also, if the kids sit with their friends, they pay less attention. The biggest problem is that I am their second teacher... so I come in after the kids have already had one class and are set up. I might experiment with a seating chart...
I came home from work and took a nap. I spent the rest of the night working on report cards. Yes, I brought them home... It is a little easier to work on them at home, because it is a more relaxed environment... but there are also a lot of distractions. So, I finished 2/3rd of them, figuring I would be able to do the rest tomorrow during gym time. Report card time really sucks.
Thursday September 27th.
Gym Day. I finished most of the rest of the report cards during my first gym break. When I got France back from gym, we did our reading book, and we are doing pretty good with that. I then went to Australia class to do another page of reading street. It was good... Until Hayden cried. Why did he cry? Well, he lost his pencil... now when I say lost his pencil, I literally mean, the pencil was stuck in the pages of the book and he couldnt see it. So he cried. His neighbor opened the book, and the pencil rolled out. He is Korean 7 (I know he is US 6). After he got it, I asked him if he needed to cry about it, and he said no. During their gym time, I walked to Subway and got a footlong meatball sub. Not a 5 dollar footlong... but still, I was happy. I got back to ECC and ate on the roof. It was then Denmarks gym time, then their cartoon, and then the kindy day was over.
Before firstgrade, Karen, my Korean coteacher told me that Ronnie told her that I needed to let the kids use the desk. I love (insert sarcasm) that he told her, and not me. I explained to her why I did it, and she thought it was a great idea, and she wondered why they kids acted better yesterday. It was a creative punishment and it had a little effect. I would certainly do it again. I had to send David out of class. He was refusing to do our work and was being a distraction to the class. Once he was out, the rest of the class ran smoothly. Everything that I had been building up with him was torn apart when he left ECC for 2 months. It is very frustrating.
I took my 4/5th graders to the roof to do vocabulary. It was a beautiful day outside, and I did not want to waste it being inside. I also figured that being on the roof was enough of a change to where vocab would be a bit more interesting. It was, and we got through almost all of it. The kids liked it... a change to the routine is good. And I think just the kids getting to be outside for a little was beneficial.... fresh air and that jazz.
I stayed after school to grade test and diaries. I walked home then took a nap.
We sat outside the GS for a little while and I had a beer. It was not a crazy night, just a beautiful cool fall night.
We have a field trip tomorrow. No idea what it is, but I am going to go to bed.
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