Starting of the day - This was a day for a lot of refection. Monday's seem to be one of either a lot of activity or really worn out kids. Today it was a lot of both! The morning started out rough with a lot of repeated directions for morning work and very stubborn kids who wanted to do things their way. I guess I'm starting to understand how my teachers felt. I was that stubborn child and would rather pick what I wanted to learn rather than do what I was told. Unfortunately the curriculum seems even more strict from when I was in third grade and kids don't have time to goof off. Coloring pages are frowned upon as activities for students and during 'reading time' or during math students have to be doing something that has to do with that subject otherwise the teacher is in trouble. It's hard to keep those students who are done staying on that one subject when you know they have other work to catch up on. For example you might have a student who is completely done with their reading assessment and you know that they have math to work on, but they have to stick with just reading.
Mid -day occurrence - Our class had a lot of problems today. It seems that a few students had problems and then that rubbed off on to a lot of the other students. One student in particular had a rough day. She's our new student and has many problems before. Today was one of the worst for her :(. She was sent to the office multiple times for not listening, talking when not supposed to, disrupting other students, screeching and pulling on the teachers clothes/lanyard. A big learning moment came for me when the Student Support came into the room to remove our student. As soon as he came in she knew she was going to the office and began roaming the opposite direction around the room, stepping over other students, went around our large table and as he came in she started to put herself behind a chair. Our student is a bigger girl and was very upset. My reaction was to get between her and the students without causing her to feel trapped, but I was worried that she would either run towards the students had hurt them, or would pick up the chair and throw it. She hadn't acted very violent before, but not knowing her history I was unsure. I instinctively walked towards the area she was in and was a few feet behind her and in between her and the other students. After I felt that I shouldn't have done this because it was like I was over stepping my boundaries. This was why our faculty had stepped in and was there to do his job. It's funny how we react though when our instincts take over. After school I caught him in the hallway and apologized for what had happened. He seemed to really appreciate my sincerity and it lead into a really good discussion about the student and a talk about the difficulties of not knowing students and not having an IEP.
Unfortunately the three things I had planned to teach the class (read aloud w/ activity, word of the day, and cursive t) got over rode by classroom management. Our students even lost lunch recess (only recess - which I remember having 2-3 when I was their age) and had to each state what they did that was a hindrance to the classes progress and what can they do to help the class in the future. Then when they were getting in trouble by my ct they were in line laughing about it. It seems that we have pulled out all the tricks in the book as far as positive reinforcement. We have the PBIS, they each have charts for stickers, homework chart for a homework bingo game and a prize box. Then I find that this also seems slightly unfair. The students that are always getting rewarded are the students that are always in the classroom. This also means a lot of our students that are constantly causing problems. Stickers are often given out for those at their desks, or those that are paying attention during lecture. Unfortunately a few of our most well behaved students are often being pulled out for help don't receive as much opportunity to be rewarded or have as much time to complete their homework. One of my goals this week will be to try and reward these students more often when they are in the class and let them know that their hard work is being noticed.
After having a rough day with our class I received a wonderful compliment. I was told I was a natural :). Along with this my CT told me that the principal also gave me a compliment by saying that if I could handle this class I could do well almost anywhere. I hate to brag but it just felt so rewarding and a good reassurance that I was doing a good job in my room. Sometimes I think we all need a bit of a pick me up when the clouds start to form overhead. This was a bright ending to my somewhat cloudy day :)
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