Today was quite the eventful day. I arrived at school and was immediately asked by 4 people in the office if I knew my mentor teacher wasn't coming to school today. I answered, quite confused, that she told me the night before that she would at least try to come for half a day and I hadn't heard anything this morning. So I went down to the classroom and my teacher was in there. She said she really wasn't feeling good still (she left early Monday) but didn't want to leave me hanging this morning. I told her we would be fine since I'm basically teaching full time anyways already. An important thing to note- she came in this morning because I had an observation scheduled. So she left about 7:45 and I was on my own for the day! I quickly called my supervisor to let her know in case she wanted to reschedule the observation and the day began....
I began putting things together for the day. We made a toolbox yesterday that I will post pictures of tomorrow hopefully. It's the "tools" we need to write a letter. That's our writing focus this week. I was going to finish it this morning but couldn't find the Velcro. So that's a project to be finished tomorrow! The kids started coming in and the first they said was that one of the students had thrown up in the hallway. I was beyond caught off guard by that one. My first question was if there was a teacher with her. They said there was someone with her and I breathed a sigh of relief. I don't do body malfunctions... On that note, a child asked me to pull his tooth and the toilet backed up today. I laughed when asked to pull a tooth and said that I don't do teeth. Uggh! All of that stuff grosses me out! Thankfully we have wonderful people at school who can fix the clogged up bathroom so that I don't have too.
Academic -wise, we got everything done that I was planning on doing, for the most part. Two of my kiddos finished their sight words today! They are supposed to know 200 by the end of 1st grade and 2 finished today! I was so proud of them! I rang the bell and made a big announcement to the rest of the class. There was quite a little moment of excitement :) We attempted to begin writing a letter but there was a lot of confusion so we will be revisiting this tomorrow. I found a wonderful chart that I'm very excited to make for them tomorrow morning! Pictures will be posted tomorrow of that too! By the end of the week, they will have all written letters to 3rd graders who are taking TCAP in a few weeks. They're the most excited about being "mailmen" and delivering the letters haha. Go figure.
Behavior wise, I had one student on red by 9:00 and 3 by lunch. When 2 of them were still causing problems, I decided to get creative. The reward system we use is incentive based. If the kids stay on green for the day, they get a penny (plastic math manipulative pennies, not real ones). Since moving a card and getting sent to another class were not working, I decided that I would start taking pennies away. One boy had already lost his for today because he was on red. So I decided to make him give me a penny he had earned a previous day. Now, this is something that my teacher and I have joked about before but have not actually done. You should have seen the look on all of their faces when they realized I was serious. I made him go get his money bag out of his locker and give me a penny. If you're going to behave, I'll pay you. If you're not going to behave, then you pay me! I believe I will adopt this policy for my own classroom because it sure sent the message! They do not like having to give money back!! I was a little bit proud of myself for coming up with this :)
Needless to say, it was quite an eventful day. But it was a wonderful day! Time flies when you're on your own, that's for sure. I'll be attempting it again tomorrow since my teacher has strep and cannot return until Thursday. Please pray I don't get it too!!
Also, keep the job hunt in your prayers too please. I had an interview yesterday at the school I'm at now. I have one with Metro on Tuesday and another one in May with the ELL office (not sure what that one is about yet...). Summer plans (work and moving) also need some prayer. Things are about to begin rolling fast and April will be a big, big month!
Could "students pay to misbehave" be the initiative needed to counter the budget cuts? Run that one by Chad!!! Ha! Great thinking on your feet!
ReplyDeleteHaha I love it! It works wonderfully! I fully intend to use it no matter what grade I end up teaching. If there is one thing all kids seem to understand, it's the concept of "my money."
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! If it gets their attention, go with it. I would have been one of the kids that would have to declare bankruptcy by lunch-time! :)
ReplyDeleteDad