Great days are amazing! When things go (for the most part) the way you want great things get accomplished. I started off our day with the lights dimmed, a inspiring quote on the board and morning work for the students. I think the quote was more for me, but it was good for all as well. Then I greeted each student at the door with a smile and a good morning. I read the directions a few times to remind them what they should be doing. Then we had Tiger time and a class meeting. Our class meeting was to congratulate them for getting a compliment in the hallway on our way to specials and one during art. I also went over the fact that yesterday was our first day back and it was a rough day because a lot of students might not have remembered all of the expectations and the routine. I then told them that we now knew what not to do and and gave them more positive feed back. I went through what was going to happen that day and told them that if we get through the 'not so fun stuff' I have fun activity planned for each subject. This seemed to get them a bit more excited, and I did have a fun activity for each things so I was pumped as well.
We had a few rough spots throughout the day, and the issue of budging in line was addressed enough times it should be ingratiated in them that "when you walk up to the line you go behind the LAST person." We also talked about why budging is not respectful.
For my math lesson I had a fun game planned and a new procedure for passing out materials. The students were in three lines on the floor and each student was to take an item for using the boards and pass it to the next person opposed to having one person pass out all the materials. For the first run-through it didn't go so bad. Our next obstacle to over come is to not write with the markers until they are told to.
For the second day back, and after a day of almost total chaos, it went great!
Daniell,
ReplyDeleteYou have such a positive attitude all of the time and I love it! It is always refreshing to read your blogs because you can vent about some of the bad things, but I always leave feeling a bit more positive about everything. I try to keep it positive all of the time, but sometimes it is very difficult. It is one of those things that I have to remind myself all sometimes--especially with the schools we are in. Students aren't bad just to spite us. They live tough lives and we have to remind ourselves that school is their safe place and we are their role models, maybe even their heroes. No matter what school we are in, there will always be something that the kids struggle with whether it be lining up, working quietly, walking in a line, certain classes, etc. That's why we are there- to struggle with them, work through issues, and learn new things together. It wouldn't be fun if we didn't have something to push us further every day, make us think harder, or try to solve certain problems.