Halloween

So another one has come and gone. It was a little strange getting back into the mode of celebrating Halloween in the classroom but I think the day went pretty well. The kids were pretty mellow - or maybe it's just being in second grade. It is fun to watch the kids that really get into their character. The Cinderella that suddenly moves with such grace or the Darth Vader who appears several inches taller as his posture improves. Elementary kids are so cute! The funniest part of the day was watching their faces when I passed out their homework folders. A few of them absolutely could not believe that they had homework on Halloween. But when I made a comment about how mean the second grade teachers were they said No, Miss Allen, you're a second grade teacher and you're not mean. So they can be disappointed in getting homework from me but unable to blame me personally! Funny.

Lost cause?

I have a student in my classroom that is turning out to be a real challenge for me. I have always prided myself on the fact that kids generally like being in my classroom and will do almost anything I ask. I develop strong relationships with my students and that is basically the extent of my classroom management system - no colored cards to be flipped, no names on the board, no charts... But this guy is a puzzle to be solved. He appears to have no motivation whatsoever. It has made me wonder if this is what it is like to teach in middle or high school when kids don't "care." I've seen a lot of interesting kids in my career but I've never seen anyone so young and so unengaged in the learning process. He doesn't really like school because it is just "work, work, work." I can look at him any time of day and see him just staring off into space. He doesn't seem to care about either rewards or consequences. He does respond to verbal prompts but unfortunately I can't stand my his desk 6 hours a day and remind him to get back to his work. Notes home are either not taken out of the backpack for days on end or read with no response from the parents. When I have talked to other teachers about him I get the rolled eyes and "Oh that family." The general consensus is that I won't get anywhere with the parents so why try. It has made me stop to think about comments I make about students or parents. I hope I have never communicated that any of my students wasn't worth the effort. The funny part is what happened on Friday. I gave him a note to take home and he asked what it said. I told him it said that I was worried about him and he gave me a huge hug. Maybe he just needs to be noticed and shown that someone cares about him.

Classroom Community

The balance between kids buying into the system and someone being in charge has always been a delicate one for me. Years ago I did all the classroom helpers thing with a line leader and the paper monitor and the trash collector, etc., etc.. When I realized how much time I was spending every Monday morning setting up the new jobs of the week, it had to go. There's nothing I hate more in the classroom than wasted time! It slowly morphed into the special person of the day which meant I had one person who did everything that day attendance, lunch count, you name it. I would go through the list in alphabetical order or whatever order we came up with. I swore I'd never go back to classroom helpers again. For some reason this year, I just never got things organized. I still haven't even memorized my class list in alphabetical order. (Once again the phrase "old age" is clanging in my head.) We've tried a few different systems to handle attendance and calendar and they just keep falling apart. I basically would just give the attendance to whoever looked somewhat focused. We started the year doing calendar at the beginning of math time with the advisory that it wasn't very important to me. I have since learned that Sutter 2nd graders LOVE doing calendar whether anyone else is participating or not! A couple weeks ago I succumbed to their whining and assigned a person each day to do calendar first thing in the morning while I was checking in homework and everyone else was doing their Daily Language Review. That worked until I forgot about it 3 days in a row and the incessant whining returned. Yesterday we had our first class meeting to just check in and see how everything was going. I'm still not sure how it happened but for some reason after we finished, the conversation returned once again to the calendar problem and the burning desire to have JOBS like room 8 does. They came up with some interesting systems - a different person for each day of the week for the month and then switch to a different 5 kids for the next month. Not bad. I never would have thought of that one on my own. But when it was all said and done, I pulled out the classroom helpers pieces (frogs, of course) and before I knew it the class was quietly doing their math - a bribe - and RW and I were labeling the frogs with jobs and names. They were so darn happy I couldn't believe it. Was it about finally breaking down the teacher and getting their own way or do they just think it isn't normal not to have jobs in school? After all, that's the way it was done in kindergarten and first grade. Looking back on it I still find it hard to believe the way it all happened. I'm not usually that easy. For some reason this class is teaching me to relax and let down my guard. They are just one of those groups you can have fun with and still get back on task. So, today my most vocal students had their jobs in place. I cannot even begin to tell you how happy they were and how happy everyone else was just to watch them do their job. It is amazing the power that buy-in has. Suddenly their voice has power and they can help create their own classroom community. I can stand up there and talk about teamwork until I'm blue in the face but one small victory like classroom helpers and the entire room feels different. Everyone is participating in class discussions, they're creating punctuation charts, their library books all came back, they're helping each other figure out regrouping. Would that have happened if I assigned classroom jobs on the first day of school? No way. It came as a result of fighting for something they believed in. As trivial as it may seem those jobs made all the difference between a class led by Miss Allen and one that hears every voice.

I'm back again

It has been several weeks since I last reflected in written form on my teaching. I'd like to say that I have missed it. But writing remains a difficult thing for me. This of course is not to say that I have not been reflecting; I just have not been writing it down. So now that I'm back, I could take off on any number of topics. I left off at conference week so I could write about how I learned to conference with my "high" kids' parents as well as the ones I worry about, hence making conference week totally exhausting or I could talk about attending the Advanced Study at Ponderosa, the myriad of events at Sutter including assemblies by the Dairy Council and neighborhood firefighters, Literacy Night, Sutterfest, Red Ribbon Week, and the pumpkin patch. Yes, these things have all taken place within 3 weeks time. Is it any wonder we are all exhausted by Halloween?

No, tonight I want to think about procrastination. It is currently my greatest enemy. I am at school by 7:00 in the morning- a full 90 minutes before school starts. On most days I couldn't tell you what I get done in that time. I go to bed and wake up with a prioritized plan of what I will do the minute I walk in the classroom, the people I need to call at recess or lunch and the papers I will grade after school and be on my way home by 5. Well that just isn't happening. As a matter of fact the past 2 nights have been 6:00 departures rather than 5. So the question is what exactly am I doing? I walk in the door and I turn on the computer - first mistake. I check e-mails and answer the immediate ones (maybe that will change now that my computer at home has been rejuvenated. Thanks, Bill!) Then I turn to the day's lesson plans. More often than not the bulk of them are in my head rather than in my lesson plan book. So I solidify what will/will not work given the day's schedule. B's mom usually stops in on her way to daycare to unravel the latest quandary at home. I get books from the book room for guided reading, make copies, check in and get the stuff from my box. Then I go back to my room look at a pile of papers or notebooks that need to be checked and immediately find something more interesting to do - like move the furniture. The clock ticks away and the only reason that I am ready to teach at 8:30 is because I have done it for so many years. After school any number of things can divert my attention; checking e-mail, looking for lessons on-line, searching Amazon for the latest books I am trying to talk myself out of buying, chatting with teachers, alumni students, and moms and kids leaving day care. Then I start making deals with myself. I'll correct those papers tomorrow morning FIRST THING or I'll take them home and do them tonight. Those papers can go back and forth for 2 or 3 days before I finally have had it with myself and sit down to correct them. The sad part is that when I finally do it, it takes a matter of minutes. It would be so much easier if I would just do them a set at a time instead of 4 or 5 sets that have to be done before the Wednesday envelope goes home. Hence my 6:00 exit today! This is a issue for me and something I really need to work on. I sense it getting worse with age. Perhaps I procrastinate because I simply don't have the energy at that moment to do the task. But with the energy spent on the "deals" I make, I could have already have done the job. So my goal for the week... correct each day's work on that day. Oh wait. Tomorrow we have a 1:45 professional development meeting and I am walking at 4. I'll correct tomorrow's papers first thing Thursday morning. And so it begins.

Sabbatical

I will be on a journal sabbatical this week and possibly longer. We have conferences this week and my computer at home is fried - or at least a little crispy around the edges.
TTFN