TGIF!!!

Yay! Friday is here, finally! This morning was ROUGH (I didn't even get out of bed until 10 minutes before I had to BE at school), but the day ended up ok. My mentor came in to observe me for an hour. I had loosely planned the math lesson for today, but it went much better than planned! The kids were attentive, participating, and interested in multiplying decimals by decimals... who would've thought!? We ended the lesson with a game of around-the-world with multiplication flash cards, and one girl (a 4th grader, no less!) schooled our entire class.

Highlights of the day:

-Today, Friday the 13th, inspired lots of weird (yet amusing) behavior of my children... I laughed when I realized the students were walking around in a strange manner because they were trying to avoid stepping on any cracks. They were also terrified that something awful was going to happen today. They're too funny.

-In the afternoon, I changed my Social Studies lesson on a spur-of-the-moment impulse to talk about the situation in Darfur. (I have a poster in my classroom with a photo of a burning village that reads: "Destruction by the government of Sudan and its militias is organized and systematic.") We talked about what was happening in the picture, and what is going on RIGHT NOW in the Darfur region of Sudan. This led to a long discussion of the Holocaust and WWII, which fascinated the students to no end. I had bought a book about Anne Frank last week at our school's book fair, so I was able to show pictures as I told the gruesome story of that horrible time. The kids were in disbelief that such things ever happened, and more so that they're still going on today. It was a great (albeit noisy!) discussion. At the end, we brainstormed ways WE can help... We decided as a class to write letters to President Bush in the upcoming weeks. A lot of students were also motivated to spread the word and tell their families and friends! I love it.

(As an aside, I learned that a LOT of my students/their parents do not like President Bush. I explained- with a great deal of bias, I must admit- that we are in Iraq mostly for oil, and that our troops could be helping people elsewhere. I don't mean to turn my class into bleeding-heart liberals, but I do want them to know what's going on in the world and with our country, and then take action to right the wrongs.)

-The day ended relatively well; we had a discussion about class behavior (and how it can eventually lead to situations like the ones we explored today), and ended with a recess.

Next week, we have student-led conferences. Because I didn't send letters home with my class, I have to call ALL the parents this weekend to schedule times. Whoops... Yet again, my procrastination catches up with me quickly.

It's now time to head out with the other newbies (I'm back in the first-year clique), and then we all have to be here again all day tomorrow for an in-service. Does the fun ever end?!