Ummm... A *Good* Day??

So today was, um, good overall! The morning was fast: bellwork (I looooove this time of day, and my assistant did, too), reading buddies with the 1st grade (I could actually go use the bathroom, since there were 2 other adults in the room!), then a reading review (that went relatively well), then they had P.E., then we did a quick math/reading review, then lunch.

During lunch, one of my little bilingual darlings came in to talk about multiplication. She's the sweetest thing ever AND a hard worker AND super sweet, but she can't multiply for the life of her. She asked me today, "Ms. Anderson, I don't want to fail, but will I?" I looked at her and said, "No! I can't fail you because you don't yet know something we're doing. That's not fair, is it?" She shook her head, "No." So I went on, "Well, I won't fail you; we'll just work on it together until you get it!" So now I may tutor her (and hopefully 2 or 3 others) to get her/them caught up! Better yet, if I talk to my principal about it, I may even get paid ($20/hr, baby, yeah)!

After lunch was chaotic, as usual. We had a quick review, then class meeting... bleh. I'm really not good at conducting class meetings. The kids, after our "concern" session, seem more stressed than they did initially. However, it is a good time for the kids to call each other on their... well, you know. The "compliment" portion is an upper for everyone. Today, I made sure that every student got a compliment (I had to supply a few rather creative ones). Later, we did a "Jeopardy" math review. I did this type of review before math tests with the 5th graders I student taught, and they loved it. My kids liked it, too, but it was very hectic. I had to keep disqualifying teams every round because of the talking. Eventually they got it, though.

During the last 10 minutes of our "Jeopardy" game, a parent came in to see how her son was doing. Instead of coming back, she watched the last 10 minutes of the day, the worst possible time to see. I was constantly quieting them, taking away earned free time, AND taking down names for warnings and lunch detentions . I used my whole bag of negative discipline tactics, and it was still hectic. Oh, well. I eventually got them out the door quietly, and all was well.

After school, the mothers of 2 different boys came in to talk. We looked over their sons' work and decided that one is doing just fine (and is even a bit "bored" at the moment) and that the other has great potential, but just talks too much!

Also, my assistant and I have decided to move ALL the kids up to 5th grade texts next week for ALL the subjects. I think this will be much better for everyone, and my assistant agrees.

Anwyay, it's now almost 7pm, and I must go for my every-other-nightly run! Peace.