Week 1....check!

Here is what is on my mind.

1. I like my kids.

They aren't that bad! There are 2 or 3 big talkers, but they do not seem angry, like many of my students at NKO seemed. I was also surprised to see only 21 students in front of me on Tuesday after having 28 listed on my roster. However, that number slowly crept up to 25 by Friday. I suppose it might get to 28 by week 2, but those low numbers helped me keep my sanity this past week. I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to match my students' faces with their names by day 2, so I worked hard all Labor Day Weekend at memorizing first and last names. After meeting them outside on Tuesday morning, I was able to walk inside knowing all of their names and faces. What I haven't pushed myself to master is learning what grades my students are in. Sounds horrible, right? I realized yesterday as I passed out two different math pre-tests to my 4th graders and my 5th graders that I had thought some students who were in 4th were in 5th and vice versa. I told them, "Raise your hand if you are in 5th grade," and lied when I said, "Well, I know what grade you are in, it's just that it will make it easier for me to pass these out to you." My new goal for this weekend: memorize what grade my students are in. Perhaps my goal for the following weekend will be to memorize their ages. (9 to 12...yikes!)

2. My students want to learn.

They may not like how I ask them to be quiet in the hall. They also may not like this new concept of sitting on the rug. However, they do like to learn. Just like Catherine presented in her July presentation, management is better when students are engaged. After not doing math all week for a variety of reasons (no materials and we still aren't sure if we will all do 5th grade or if we will do 4th and 5th), the second I told the students it was time for math, there were cheers and smiles; students were buzzing about how good they are at math; and last but not least, they focused the entire time on their pre-math assessment. (Thanks for Stacy and the Barton 3rd grade all-star team for that excellent idea to use the mid and end year assessments from the previous year(s).)

3. the "R" works

Do you remember my students' signal from NKO summer? If my students saw that their peer wasn't doing what they needed to do or if they were talking to them when they shouldn't' have, they would do the "shh" sign (without the noise). That gave students something to do when they wanted their peers to behave. It was that or students feeling so frustrated that their classmates were not getting quiet in the hall, that they would yell at each other to be quiet, and that was not acceptable. I wanted an age appropriate signal and came up with the American Sign Language "r," which for now stands for "reminder." Students are giving each other reminders all of the time. If someone isn't tracking the speaker...."r"! If someone is talking when they shouldn't be..."r"!


4. A 2 minute commute...

I told my friend the other day that now I have to think about what I wear, even when I go to Walgreens or Treasure Island. No more throwing something on and running errands. I might see my students! My friend thought I was a little paranoid and I just might be. Well, I saw a student today at Blackstone Library! She didn't noticed the rips in my jeans, but she also didn't seemed surprised to see me there. Most of the teachers at our school do not live in HP, so why wasn't she surprised? It was nice though. I was able to help her choose some books for next week.

5. It's time to start content....

I would love to hear about the election units that you are planning to do. I borrowed some books from the library on elections and government, but haven't been able to concentrate enough to do some serious unit planning.